Holy Land Mariejois.
The twenty kings who established the World Government created their own realm on the Red Line, the continent that divides the first half and second half of the Grand Line.
In the city atop the continent, paved streets and marble buildings stretched on endlessly, and along the roadsides were flower beds filled with trees and multi-colored blossoms, while golden statues stood scattered throughout the city.
At the heart of this sanctuary, the colossal Pangaea Castle soared so high that its spires seemed to pierce the clouds. This heavenly fortress and the very existence of Mariejois itself appeared to proclaim that the Celestial Dragons were gods incarnate.
"Move faster!"
"Y-Yes, I apologize!"
However, the reality for those living there was far from the heavenly paradise one might imagine.
Beside the Celestial Dragons, who wore layered white robes, stood butlers to serve them, armored soldiers to protect them, and slaves who existed only to wait on the Celestial Dragons.
Slaves, forced to wear explosive collars around their necks, were pressed into backbreaking labor at the commands of the Celestial Dragons, or forced to crawl on the ground with a Dragon perched on their backs.
Whenever a Dragon disapproved of a slave struggling with their work, it was common for nearby soldiers to lash the slave with whips.
Bang!
In one such garden of Mariejois, a gunshot rang out.
A portly Celestial Dragon, so fat that his belly strained against his robes, sat in a chair holding a pistol in one hand, and before him lay the body of a woman, her private parts barely covered.
"How dare you walk on my shadow!"
"Ugh... ughh!"
Beside him stood Hancock, the explosive collar still clamped around her neck. Terrified, she stared at the corpse with a hole in its temple.
"Startled, Hancock?"
"N-No, Lord Glutos."
"But didn't I tell you... whenever you look at me, you must always be smiling?"
"I-I'm sorry, it was me...!"
"Hit her!"
The soldiers, as if it were everyday work, lashed their whips at Thunder Sonia and Marigold, who were fanning themselves with hand fans.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"Mari!"
"See that, Hancock? Defy me again, and Sonia and Mari will be punished just like this!"
Hancock knelt beside Glutos, pressing her hands together as she looked up at him and spoke.
"I was wrong, Lord Glutos. I'll do better, so please spare my sisters...!"
"I told you to smile, didn't I?"
"...I'm sorry, Lord Glutos."
And so she smiled.
Hancock, who had been begging with tears in her eyes, forced her mouth into a smile and spoke once more.
"Stop."
Glutos, observing this twisted version of Hancock, addressed the soldiers.
Once the whipping was done, bloody Sonia and Mari lay collapsed on the ground, silently weeping through clenched teeth. Yet Glutos's gaze returned to Hancock.
Trembling tears still glistened at the corners of Hancock's eyes. As he looked down at her, Glutos let out a chilling smile.
"You're beautiful, Hancock."
In the original timeline, adult Boa Hancock was famed as the most beautiful woman in the world, and even now, at just twelve years old, her beauty already stood out in startling fashion.
Despite her youth, young Hancock possessed a beauty that could not be explained by mere carnal appeal alone, yet the filthy desire in Glutos's eyes clearly encompassed that as well.
'She's a bit young for my taste, but... not yet. I'll wait a little longer.'
'Fruit is sweetest when it's fresh and fully ripe.'
With that, Glutos reached out and stroked Hancock's hair as he spoke.
"I know how to value something precious, so I have no wish to hurt you."
"Do you understand what I mean?"
As he caressed her, Hancock's eyes flicked towards the dead woman's body and her fallen sisters.
At that moment, she realized that she was the lifeline upon which her sisters depended.
As Glutos withdrew his hand, Hancock wiped away her tears, forced her lips into a smile once more, and spoke.
"Understood, Lord Glutos."
"Yes, that's it."
Hancock answered with a vacant smile in her lifeless eyes.
From that day on, Hancock wore her smile like a mask, and Glutos was satisfied with her puppet-like demeanor.
One day, when a slave dared to escape and was recaptured, he died as soldiers whipped him with barbed whips until his flesh was torn from his bones.
Another day, a boy about Hancock's age who cried was shot dead for making noise.
On occasion, Sonia and Mari were whipped for absurd reasons, and each time, Glutos would glance at Hancock.
'What a good girl you are.'
'Thank you, Lord Glutos.'
Soon, even in Glutos's absence, Hancock kept smiling at all times.
Her doll-like smile, which hid her true emotions behind a mask, eventually became flawless.
Under the azure sky of Mariejois, the heavens were as clear and still as if untouched by blood or tears.
But beneath that sky, the ground was stained with screams and blood.
Under Mariejois's skies, she had become a doll that could not die.
*****
"F-Fire!"
"The slaves are running away!"
About a year after the three Boa sisters had become the Celestial Dragons' slaves, fires broke out across Mariejois.
At the same moment, slaves had slipped off their explosive collars and fled in their thousands.
"What are you all standing around for?! Hurry up and recapture the slaves!"
"There are too many escaped slaves!"
"It's too dangerous with the flames! You need to retreat!"
Shouts of terror from the Celestial Dragons and cries of liberation from the freed slaves echoed throughout Mariejois.
It would later be revealed that the mastermind behind today's raid on Mariejois was a man named Fisher Tiger, a Fish-Man who had climbed the Red Line bare-handed and infiltrated the Holy Land.
He freed over a thousand slaves of all races, and to the government he became a wanted criminal, but to the people he was hailed as a hero.
To the slaves who escaped, he was a savior, and that chance at salvation was also offered to the three Boa sisters.
"You insolent fools thought you could run off without me?!"
"Krgh... ghhaaaek!"
Hancock sat collapsed in the corridor of the castle where Glutos lived.
She watched as, some ten meters ahead, Thunder Sonia, having also removed her collar, was crushed beneath Glutos's weight as he strangled her.
"Hancock...!" she gasped, her body twisted as Glutos strangled her.
With veins bulging in her eyes, she looked at her sister and pointed at something with her hand.
Where she pointed lay Glutos's golden pistol on the floor.
Realizing Sonia's intent, Hancock rose from the floor.
'I have to move... Why... won't my body...!'
But at that moment, her body creaked as if jointed by unseen hinges and refused to step forward.
Like a doll with misaligned joints, she could not move at her own will.
'St-Stay still...'
And saying that, Hancock smiled—that was her greatest talent.
Yet unlike her usual composure, her trembling eyes and quivering lips made her look much like the frightened girl she had been a year ago.
As Sonia's vision began to blur, she saw Hancock's body creak and a face that was neither crying nor laughing.
Although Hancock had become a doll to survive and protect her sisters, ironically, that very doll-like state prevented her from raising a blade against her master.
Sonia, her face suddenly pale, watched her sister's condition and let a single tear fall.
Thud!
Seeing that sight of her sister was the last thing she ever saw alive.
"Sis...?"
After Sonia, still struggling, finally closed her eyes, Glutos slumped exhaustedly beside her corpse.
As he lay on the ground, drawing a deep breath, Hancock crawled forward on her knees.
"S-Sis..."
Her pupils trembled, and cracks began to form in her mask.
The forced smile faded, and her eyebrows furrowed inward.
"Sis!!!"
Tears streaming down her face, Hancock shook Sonia's corpse with both hands.
All that remained on the shattered mask was a pitiful wail. Though she had reclaimed her true face, the cost had been far too great.
"No... no..."
"Hah... hah... this is exactly what you get for unfastening your collar and trying to run away... Hancock!"
Hancock looked up with a face torn between grief and rage.
Standing before her was Glutos, who had picked up his pistol from the floor at some point.
"What's with that face?! Why aren't you smiling?!"
"Smile! I said, smile! You dare defy me as well... huh?!"
Whack!
As he spoke and turned, the bludgeon struck his face.
Marigold, appearing out of nowhere, had swung the flail, sending Glutos's body flying backward.
"Y-You... you little—how dare you...!"
"Diieeee!!!"
Marigold continued hammering the flail down onto Glutos's prone face.
Glutos flailed his limbs in vain as each blow rained down until his body went limp.
"Mari... sis."
"Hancock..."
"I... when sister went to hand the collar keys to the others... the eldest sister told me we should wait together..."
"Why did you just stand there?"
"I... I..."
"Why did you just stand there while sister was dying?!!!"
Her words cut into Hancock's chest like a dagger, and her tear ducts opened wider than ever.
"Sis, sob... I was trying to move too, but my body...!"
Marigold was consumed by rage, but seeing Hancock in tears, she realized that her sister had reclaimed her true face.
And the crushing realization that the first thing her sister did after regaining her true self was cry out of regret for being unable to save their dying eldest sister weighed heavily on Marigold's heart.
But there was no time for sorrow alone, so Marigold grabbed Hancock's hand and spoke.
"We have to go."
"B-But eldest sister...!"
"We have to get out of here!"
She yanked Hancock forward and ran.
Though three had set out for escape, only the two of them were still running.
As Hancock ran and glanced back, she saw Thunder Sonia lying still on the cold ground, and beside her lay Glutos's crushed face.
Thus, the two regained their freedom—save for one.
*****
"So you tried to kill me?"
"Yes."
Remembering the past, Hancock lowered herself to her knees and stared at the ground as she answered Luffy, who stood before her.
Furious, Luffy loomed over her, his fists enveloped in golden Haki.