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8.59% One Piece: Dream of Immortality / Chapter 44: Spa Day

Chapter 44: Spa Day

Miss Spa Day was not having a good time. Not. At. All.

This was supposed to be a simple mission. Go into the rebels' headquarters, kill the rebel leader Koza, use her devil fruit power to make the surrounding people hallucinate him being killed by an assassin from the royal faction. Easy.

Then it all started to go down hill when that woman got involved.

At first she was elated when she spotted her. She had been given a mission to find the former Miss Halloween several months ago, but had no luck and couldn't complete it. So if she could capture her now, it would be a nice little gift for Mr. 0 to help him forget that little failure.

She used her devil fruit and released her hallucinogenic perfume to incapacitate the group. However, Miss Halloween and the other woman seemed to realize something was wrong only a moment after contact and leapt into action. The other woman transformed into some kind of wooden construct and flew away with with her target, while Miss Halloween had stopped her breath to slow the foreign influence from taking hold.

Even when she was eventually completely caught in the hallucinogenic world, her mind did not seem to be muddled at all.

Miss Spa Day wasn't a one trick pony, though. She still had her Massage Arts, a martial art form that forces the opponent's body to relax. This came very much in handy when she got her throat caught in Miss Halloween's death grip. If she was even a moment or two late to act she might have had her throat torn out by that brutish woman!

She wasted no time using her Massage Arts to relax her into a deep slumber, but the moment she got started on one of her legs that monster managed to slash her across the face. She had been prepared to dodge any random blind swings, but not such a deliberate strike. If she had been too careless, that swing may have cut clean through her head.

'My adorable face?! It's ruined, disfigured, I'm going to be hideous!' She lamented, more upset at the thought of a terrible scar than at the two near death experiences she just had.

She angrily returned to her work after cursing, this time treating Cherry like a fully aware opponent, which seemed to be enough. She knew she'd won when she saw Miss Halloween's sword vanish and she started to breath again.

She manipulated the hallucinations of the rebels present to witness a scene of the two women revealing their true colors and kidnapping Koza in order to execute him for treason in Alubarna.

That wasn't the original plan, but it was the best she could do on short notice, even if it was a bit of a gamble. If she made it out that he died, then if he returned later they would know for sure they were tricked.

She grabbed Miss Halloween, who was a lot heavier than anticipated, and dragged her to the carriage waiting for her with camels bred for their strength, stamina, and speed. She needed to be in Alubarna for the next stage of the plan.

...

Cherry had already woken up and regained most of the use of her limbs by the time Miss Spa Day finished meddling with the rebels minds, which wasn't very long at all. She gave no outward indication of this, however.

'She intends to take me alive, is that it? Well that's fine by me. Bring me to your owner, little kitten, so I can take care of this mess in one fell swoop.' Cherry thought calmly.

First she put together the information she had obtained about the devil fruit ability.

'It seems to influence others through the medium of a gas or scent that must be breathed in. It allows the user to control the physical senses of the target and even muddle the minds of weaker willed individuals. A devastating ability for the unprepared, but easily countered by holding the breath beforehand.' She thought.

'As for it blocking my Life Sense, that's not a big surprise. Life Sense has no spirit component, so it is still a physical sense in a way like the 5 senses. Since devil fruit utilizes vital energy as well, it likely blocks it even though the user herself should be ignorant of it.' She concluded.

But if her physical senses were under control, how could she tell when and where Miss Spa Day was attacking her? Naturally this was a consequence of partial success in the Spirit Root Realm. Most of her motor neurons were directly connected with her soul at this point, thus she could tell when her muscles weren't responding properly. If she had completed the Spirit Root Realm, she would not have lost her sense of touch either.

It was almost funny, since if Miss Spa Day had attacked her normally, she could not have located her as she had attacked.

Cherry considered what solutions she could employ, aside from hoping Miss Spa Day made a stupid mistake like letting her out of the hallucination.

'I won't be able to make any progress in cultivation in a short period, so that's not an option.' Cherry discarded. 'Hmm, should I try to awaken Observation Haki? Being cut off from the outside world like this is probably the perfect time to do so.'

Cherry began to meditate, emptying her mind of erroneous thoughts and doubts. She first focused inwards, as she knew her own body better than anything else and tried to sense it with her will.

She felt her heart beat, but it was a bad fake at best. She focused further, deeper within her. The world outside of her was no longer within her perception and time lost all meaning to her.

She felt an inkling of something, like a soft sound from the other side of a thick, stone wall.

'Just a little more, almost there.'

...

Hours after Cabernet flew out of Katorea she could see Nanohana on the horizon.

Koza and the other two men started coming out of their stupors. Seeing they were dangling quite a ways up in the air, their faces paled.

"What's going on?!" Koza shouted, but didn't dare to struggle.

"We're escaping." The large wooden figure carrying them said in a deep voice.

Cabernet carried them down to the ground and let them stand on solid ground, much to their relief, then she turned back into her human form. Koza recognized her now.

"What happened? Why did we escape?" Koza asked, looking at the sun that had moved well beyond the time he thought it was. "How long have I been out?

"An enemy that Cherry could not protect you from appeared, so she ordered me to take you away. It should be sometime in the afternoon." There was a hint of bitterness and sadness in her voice.

"Then I need to go back! I can't leave our men in Katorea at the whims of an unknown enemy!" Koza shouted.

He ran towards Nanohana in the distance, intending to acquire a camel from the rebels stationed there to return to Katorea as fast as possible. Farafra and Erik followed close behind him.

He didn't ask Cabernet to bring him back because he still didn't trust her. For all he knew, this Baroque Works was a work of fiction meant to distract him.

Cabernet was conflicted. She wanted to return to Cherry right away, her order had been fulfilled after all. At the same time, she knew this man was important to her friend Vivi and even Cherry thought he needed protecting.

She slapped herself on the cheeks. 'This is no time for personal feelings! Lives are on the line, right?!'

She followed after Koza.

As they got closer to Nanohana, they could see smoke rising from it. Then they saw a massive ship crash into the city.

Upon arriving Koza asked what was going on and found out the King had appeared and set the city on fire with the intent to kill everyone. He only ran away when the massive ship had crashed into the port.

"Just what the hell is going on today?!" Koza was confused. What should he believe? That the King had truly gone completely mad, or that the secret organization he was warned about was real?

He looked at his trusted comrades, then at Cabernet. "Tell me everything you know, without any theatrics or riddles."

Cabernet didn't really know why Cherry wanted to act so mysteriously in the first place, so she told Koza everything she knew about Vivi and what she discovered about Baroque Works.

The three men were shocked to the core by what they heard. The whole thing was madness, but it didn't seem so crazy compared to the chaos that had happened today.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?!" Koza shouted exasperatedly.

"I'm sure Cherry was getting to the point, before she was interrupted..." Cabernet muttered with some guilt.

The townspeople had reached a boiling point. The ship that had crashed was full of weapons and they were arming themselves, getting ready to cross the desert to storm Alubarna.

"Koza watched them feeling helpless. "I have to stop this, but would they even listen to me at this point?"

"Maybe they won't. Are you just going to give up though? Because I know Vivi wouldn't." Cabernet smiled encouragingly.

Koza's spirit was roused. "Right. I can't do anything by doing nothing. Let's do this."


Chapter 45: Jail Cell

The acting captain of the royal guard of Alabasta, Chaka, and the kingdoms strongest warrior, Pell, had been greatly confused by the King's choice to step down from the throne.

Even more confusing was the choice of the Shichibukai, Crocodile, to act as Regent. Regardless of the man's reputation amongst the people, he was still a pirate.

The King had insisted on being undisturbed in his chambers after the proclamation. They didn't realize he was no longer in the palace until they received word that Nanohana was set ablaze and that the King was apparently responsible.

Everything made more sense after Princess Vivi's pet super spot-billed duck, Karoo, arrived at the palace with a letter explaining that Crocodile was behind the kingdom's turmoil. They realized the King's strange behavior must also be related to his schemes.

However, there was now a rebel force enroute to Alubarna. More than twice the size and much better armed, according to reports.

They were only soldiers, they could not take charge of the kingdom. They could only remain here and defend the capital against the rebels.

Pell decided to go face Crocodile directly. His absence would not change the course of the war, so it was better that he thwart Crocodile.

...

*Badum... badum... badum...*

'There you are. Where were you hiding, my little heart? How I've missed you...' Cherry held back a smile.

While she had been trying to awaken her Observation Haki, she had been forced to sleep a few times, interrupting her. Apparently Miss Spa Day was quite cautious in making sure she wasn't conscious. Not cautious enough, though, as she always woke quickly.

Now that Cherry could feel her own heartbeat with her rudimentary Observation Haki, she expanded it and was able to feel her own vital energy once again.

From there she found the foreign vital energy from Miss Spa Day's devil fruit and began testing ways to remove it.

Ultimately she was able to dispel the hallucinogenic effects with a combination of her own devil fruit ability and vital energy through a brute force method. This was a game changing discovery for Cherry. Though it took a fair amount of time, she thought she'd be able to eventually refine the process and become effectively immune to direct influence by devil fruit users.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in a jail cell of some kind, with only a bit of light from some candles. She could hear Miss Spa Day's muffled voice ordering around some other Baroque Works goons upstairs somewhere.

She sat up and looked around and expanded her Life Sense. She found someone else in a cell across from her.

"Psst, hey! So, what are you in for?" She whispered across the hall.

The figure stirred and approached the bars of their cell. He was a middle aged man with shoulder length black hair pulled back and a goatee on his chin.

Cherry recognized him from Mr.2 aka Bon Clay's devil fruit performance.

"I suppose I'm 'in for' failing to find out who the enemy of my people was." King Nefertari Cobra answered. He was a bit roughed up and likely hadn't been properly fed for a few days.

"Ah, so you're Vivi's father. Nice to meet you, I'm her girlfriend Cherry." She said, shocking Cobra to the core.

"Vivi?! Girlfriend?! What the hell do you mean?! No, ahem, has Vivi truly returned to Alabasta?" Cobra shout-whispered then regained his composure.

Cherry snickered and told him the truth.

"I see, I never should have placed any trust in that pirate, Crocodile. He should have been my prime suspect, even." He lamented his foolishness. "And now that I know the truth, I am in position to help my people."

"Oh, well I can get us out whenever. Miss Spa Day has left the building so only some weak goons are left to guard us." Cherry said nonchalantly.

"How are you going to do that? We're locked in these cages-" Cobra stopped talking when Cherry simply pressed her hand against the lock of her cell and pushed the door open.

...

Koza tried his best to convince people to stand down, and he succeeded for some. However, most were pushed too far already, they did not believe his words that the King had been an imposter and that a third party had plotted against the kingdom.

Many thought he had turned into a coward or that he had gone soft on them.

Those that listened to him tried to spread the word as well, but the people who decided not to march on Alubarna were in the minority.

Now Koza was racing ahead of the rebels to Alubarna. He and a few others were being carried by Cabernet who was more than willing to go that direction, seeing as that was the same direction Cherry was in.

He hoped to stop the main rebel force by cutting them off and standing in their way.

They cut it quite close as they only just passed them by over their heads when the city of Alubarna was within sight.

You can imagine his surprise when he saw two figures standing before the south gate seemingly awaiting the rebel army as well. As they got closer, Koza and Cabernet recognized them as Princess Vivi and Karoo.

The sound of a cannon firing was heard from the wall. It landed in front of Vivi and obscured the sight of her.

"Vivi?!" Koza shouted, and Cabernet swooped down.

Cabernet entered the cloud of dust and sand kicked up by the cannon ball and found Karoo and Vivi, scooping them up and bringing them out of the cloud.

A shout issued from the walls. "Let them into the city! Surrender! Do not fight each other!"

The source of the shout was none other than King Cobra of Alabasta. His loud, commanding voice left no room for objection or doubt.

Vivi was overwhelmed, seeing the faces of her father and Koza at the same time. Cabernet set them all down and Koza prepared to face the rebels himself. Vivi tried to tell him everything.

"I already know, Vivi. I'm sorry for being such a fool. Let me do what I can to stop this." Koza said, cutting her off.

Koza ran towards the approaching rebels, who fortunately stopped for him as those in the front were his comrades. He entreated with them to stop, at least for a time. That there was more than meets the eye.

Several Cannon shots rang out and landed amongst the rebel forces, as well as gunfire.

"STOP! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" King Cobra and acting captain Chaka yelled.

But the soldiers did not listen. Rather, they couldn't hear them as they were currently hallucinating a fierce battle and fighting for their lives, as far as they knew. One of them hit Koza, knocking him to the ground.

The rebels charged once more and streamed into the city, they could not be stopped anymore.

The King commanded his soldiers, or those that retained their full faculties at least, to retreat into the city.

After the rebel force entered the city, Usopp came riding over on a horse. He told her to leave the man who was shot as they needed to hurry.

This was suspicious, so she told him to prove he was really Usopp. He showed her the bandage on his arm, but that was not the mark they decided on. It was the X underneath the bandage that was the true mark.

Mr. 2 revealed himself since the jig was up.

Cabernet stepped forth to face him.

"You're going to fight me wooden girl? Don't you know that your friend Cherry has been captured by us? If you want to see her alive, you should give up!" He smiled goofily, or perhaps he just looked goofy.

"I'll take care of the goose man, Vivi. You go do what you need to do." Cabernet spoke. She was worried about Cherry, but she feel through their blood bond that Cherry was moving quickly through the city.

Vivi nodded and helped Koza onto Karoo's back and rode into the city with the two other rebels following behind.

"I'm not a goose!" Shouted Mr. 2 with indignation, as he prepared to fight. He knew this wouldn't be an easy opponent.


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