Chapter 235: Sock
"Are you sure you want to leave Vergo and Monet there for Doflamingo to find? He'll just bring them back and they'll bolster his forces, right? At the least you should have taken their hearts with you as insurance." Robin said to Law.
"No, Doflamingo wouldn't accept his subordinates being at my mercy and might just kill them himself to remove the risk of betrayal, however slim that chance may be. This also shows him that even his officers mean nothing to us and it projects our strength, thus increasing the pressure of the threat we pose." Law explained.
"We'll have to take your word for it, since you seem to know Doflamingo better than any of us do, by which I mean not at all." Franky remarked.
"I've interacted with him on a few occasions, but I must say he wears his mask of arrogance well enough that I could not gauge anything about him." Jinbe said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Nevermind all that serious business!" Cherry said. "Who wants to eat this devil fruit?"
Cherry held aloft a dark blue-violet apple with swirl patterns on its surface. "It's a zoan fruit, specifically the Sala Sala Fruit, Model: Axolotl. They're aquatic animals, so even if you fall into the ocean you won't drown if you're transformed. Its most notable characteristic is its extreme regenerative ability which can regrow limbs, or repair spinal, organ, and even brain damage to an extent. Other than that, though, it isn't a particularly powerful fruit by Zoan standards."
Jinbe dismissed the idea of eating it immediately, which was understandable given his primary fighting technique was fishman karate. Rather, even if that wasn't the case he wouldn't give up swimming for any devil fruit.
That left only Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Nami remaining as the only non devil fruit users.
"We're already mostly devil fruit users already. If the shitty cook or I ate it, that'd be one less person to save any of your hammers from sinking, and we can't count on Usopp or Nami to do it with their weak muscles." Zoro commented reasonably.
""What did you say, you bastard?!"" Usopp and Sanji shouted at him in unison. Usopp to defend his physique and Sanji to defend Nami's honor from insult no matter how well founded the observation was.
Although she was tempted by the regenerative capability, Nami didn't really like the idea of becoming a slimy frog-lizard. Usopp on the other hand, thought back to the times he got his ass kicked and found the idea of healing more quickly very appealing. Although a devil fruit that aided his sniping would be the ideal if he was to take on the curse, how likely was it that he'd run into such a thing?
"You don't have to decide right this instant, Usopp." Cherry said, seeing his indecision. "And nobody has to eat it at all if none of us want it, since we could sell it for a pretty penny. Lot's a big, fat piggy banks would cough up a hell of a lot of cash for the chance to restore their bodies to their whole state."
Nami's eyes flashed with Beri Signs and she leapt towards the fruit in Cherry's hand, only for it to be moved away from her grasping greedy hands before they could snatch it.
"We need the money, Cherry, so give it over! There'll be other devil fruit in the future, but they won't all be worth a billion, no, TEN billion Beri!" Nami said, almost drooling just thinking about it.
"You can't buy happiness, Nami." Cherry said.
"I don't need to buy happiness! Money makes me happy just having it!" Nami countered, swinging for the fruit again.
Cherry put her other palm on Nami's forehead, leaving her looking like a child flailing her arms desperately. "Do we need to have an intervention? I think Nami might be an addict?"
Chopper looked genuinely concerned, which prompted Nami to snap out of her slightly maddened state and blushed in embarrassment. 'What am I doing?! I'm a thief, damn it, not a purse snatcher! I'll take it when she isn't paying attention!'
"Why don't you put it in your spear? Then we'll have a new friend!" Luffy suggested. Nami looked at him angrily like he had betrayed her.
Chopper, Cabernet, and Merry looked like they liked that idea, but Cherry shut it down immediately. "No, I neither want nor need another Zoan in my arsenal. Not to mention it wouldn't be nearly as smart as Cabernet or Merry are, as they had their own spirits to start with. I'd only consider it if I got my hands on a Mythical Zoan, like a dragon or something."
Cherry turned her gaze back to Nami. "By the way, I've got enough information to vastly improve your Clima-Tact. When I'm done with it, even the ordinary heat, cold, and static balls will be formidable weapons. Naturally this means you'll be able to create bigger, better weather effects, and much faster as well."
Nami's eyes lit up, completely forgetting about 'her' devil fruit. "How so? I've got it pretty fine tuned already, I'm not sure how you'll improve it further, let alone by a large extent."
"It'll be similar to being an artificial devil fruit, only I'll skip the medium of a fruit and just put the effect directly into the staff." Cherry explained briefly.
"Okay, but you need to make it adjustable if it's going to be much stronger. Control is more important than power." Nami said, already doing calculations for what she could accomplish with a stronger Clima-Tact.
This would be Cherry's first attempt to create a finished product with Vital Energy Inscriptions. She'd been practicing with throw away pieces for a few months and she had a decent grasp on it now. In the case of the Clima-Tact, she'd be using what she learn from her very in depth study of the Rumble Rumble Fruit inside of Sakura Tengoku, as well as her understanding of heat and cold from Ace's Flame Flame Fruit, Akainu's Magma Magma Fruit, Aokiji's Ice Ice Fruit, and finally Monet's Snow Snow Fruit.
With this abundance of information as her disposal, the Clima-Tact was the perfect choice to create a unique and complex inscription with multiple effects. She would practice on some disposable items first, though, of course. Perhaps even make some ammunition for Usopp to launch at people?
Cherry came out of her thoughts and lightly slapped Nami's thieving hand that was reaching for the fruit. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you something, Luffy."
"Hm? What do you want to ask?" Luffy asked, lying on the ground and picking his nose.
"Whose vivre card do you have in your hat? The one sewn into the red strap." Cherry asked.
Luffy took off his hat and found what she was referring to. He scratched his head in confusion and said "I don't know, but it feels like it's important for some reason?"
…
"Huff… Huff… Huff…" Rock'em Sock'em the sock monkey breathed heavily as he hid behind a barrel in an alley. In the street, a few of the Doflamingo pirates ran past the alley shouting in consternation for having lost their prey.
Rock'em Sock'em heaved a sigh of relief as their voices disappeared in the distance. He looked down at his hand that was soaked in dry blood. He didn't feel good about stabbing the green haired girl in the throat, but he was desperate and she wasn't as young as she appeared anyway.
"Psst." A whispered voice came from further in the alley. Rock'em Sock'em turned to see a tin soldier toy peeking around the corner at him.
"Come with me if you want to live." The tin soldier whispered to him and disappeared behind the corner.
Rock'em Sock'em didn't know if he could trust the tin soldier. The other toys were slaves to Doflamingo, but the tin soldier could have simply ratted him out. He'd take his chances and see what the tin soldier wanted. If he was an enemy, then he'd crush him like a tin can, or he'd try at least. He wasn't sure he could do much with these pitifully weak sock arms.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone