Capítulo 453: Know when to fold'em
"So this is what the S.M.I.L.E. fruit users end up looking like, huh?" Cherry asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"Y-yes, ma'am!" Gazelleman answered with a nervous stutter. "The successes like myself become Gifters, while the failures become Pleasures, and those who haven't had one yet are Waiters…"
"How utterly uninspired," Cherry commented. "Are the Gifter abilities even worth the curse?"
"I think so! I was never this fast before!" Gazelleman said, almost eagerly.
"Can you turn the legs off, though?" Cherry quirked an eyebrow at him.
"No, but… I think they're rather nice?" Gazelleman ran his hands over his fish-netted gazelle legs.
"Gross," Cherry pierced his heart with a verbal barb. "Why are the failures called 'Pleasures', then?"
"Because they can only smile and laugh, even if they're sad or in pain…" Gazelleman said.
"That's… horrific. You actually took a nine in ten risk of /that for a one in ten chance of permanent animal bits or worse, a lion in your stomach?" Cherry was honestly shocked at the desperation of such an act.
"Hey, it isn't all bad for the Pleasures! Only the best of us get chosen to receive a S.M.I.L.E. fruit, so they're still above the Waiters and the rank comes with its own benefits!" Gazelleman defended his foolish life choices.
"Wait, that's where the S.M.I.L.E. fruit gets its name, isn't it?" Cherry asked rhetorically. LEave it to Caesar to name something after what happens when it fails.
"Well, that's all I need from you," Cherry said.
"So now you'll let me go-?" Gazelleman started before Cherry knocked him out. She briefly considered sealing his devil fruit, but ultimately decided that revealing that was possible to Kaido's crew wasn't ideal.
So instead, she spent a few minutes meticulously ripping apart his most recent memories. All traces of herself or her crew were scrubbed from his brain, leaving a fragmented mess of the last few hours behind. These memories were still quite fresh and floating at the surface of his mind, so it was quite easy to find and alter them.
Cherry still wasn't all that practiced at it, but it wasn't like she cared if this loser suffered from her mistakes. Moreover, she may very well need all the practice that she can get, depending on how Kuma's memories were removed and how difficult it will be to put them back where they belong eventually. Hopefully.
Cherry picked up a rather raucous commotion happening elsewhere in Bakura town. She reckoned that was probably her people, and a quick sweep of the town with Life Sense revealed that this was indeed the case as she found Zoro being chased by a crowd. Luffy and Tama were… riding on the back of one of the 'Gifters'?
"How did that happen?" Cherry wondered aloud. "Maybe Luffy put on his most charming smile and they defected? Hmmm…"
It wasn't just that, however. She also noted that both Law and Hawkins were in town, too, and having themselves a little standoff. Conveniently, those two were directly in the path of Luffy and Zoro.
"I shouldn't go near Hawkins right now or my luck will get even worse, so I guess I'll leave them to it for now," Cherry decided. Hawkins was tough, but up against Luffy, Zoro, and Law he didn't stand even the slightest chance with or without his fancy cards.
Instead, Cherry turned her attention to Holdem, who had lost Luffy and Tama at some point and was now trying very hard to find them.
Holdem was likely well respected amongst the Beast pirates, seeing as he was their leader in this particular town. That meant that he could call for reinforcement or otherwise just inform the true executives of the Beast pirates of their presence here. Simply killing him would still draw attention to Bakura town, so that wasn't the best option here.
No, what she needed to do was humiliate him. Prideful men hated to admit to mistakes and failure, and who could be more prideful than a guy with an actual lion in his stomach?
News would inevitably spread regardless, but the embarrassment would slow it down at least.
Cherry sprang into action, but as she did so, she spotted a bulletin board. One which had an assortment of bounty posters; but rather than the kind spread by the world government, these were local to Wano and had sketches instead of photographs.
One bounty poster in particular caught her attention; Ushimitsu Kozu. The sketch was of a figure silhouetted against a full moon and described him as wearing yellow clothes and a yellow scarf around his face to conceal his identity. It also said that he mostly operated in the Flower Capital, so it was a little weird that Holdem thought they might be working with him, compared to the local brigands that made more sense.
"This'll do nicely, though," Cherry smiled.
…
Holdem was furious.
He wasn't sure exactly how it happened, but he had lost track of literally all of his quarries. The young sumo wrestler, the girl, and the lion-dog had simply turned into a narrow alleyway that he knew was a dead end then he slowed down slightly to make a dramatic entrance, as you do.
Only to find the alley completely empty.
So now he was running around like a headless chicken to find something, then he received a report from a Waiter.
"Holdem-sama! The treasure barge has been stolen!" the Waiter cried.
"WHAT?!" Holdem had never been so angry in his life. He was seriously this close to calling Jack-sama for reinforcements to teach these fools a lesson, even if he'd be punished and possibly demoted as a result.
The treasure barge was big and easy to spot, though, so first he'd try his luck at apprehending the thieves again.
A figure landed in front of him just as he turned to leave. A figure in yellow, with a scarf obscuring his face.
"You!" Holdem snarled as did his lion, then he laughed. "This is perfect! I'll capture you, then I'll get a promotion!"
Holdem lunged. His S.M.I.L.E. fruit worked best in wrestling range, allowing Kamijiro to rip into his opponent whilst he held them down with his strong arms. It was as brutal as it was effective.
Ushimitsu Kozo sprang up at the last second, stepping off of Kamijiro's face and lashing out at Holdem's own face.
Naturally Holdem feared the worst and awkwardly jerked his face back, but his momentum carried him straight into the blade-
*swipswipswipswipswipswip*
Blade? Why was the blade so soft… and wet?"
Ushimitsu Kozo leapt away from him and mimed a snicker at his expense. Holdem saw that the object in his hand wasn't a blade, but a brush. A brush with fresh ink.
"Pfft-!" stifled laughter from one of the nearby gawkers. Holdem glared and they retreated into a building, but soon others were starting to laugh as well.
Holdem caught his reflection in a storefront with a rare glass window. What he saw was a remarkable attempt at making his face look like a housecat, as well as the word "PUSSY" scrawled in thick letters across his chest.
The last of Holdem's short fuses blew out and he fell backwards, knocked unconscious by his own rage.
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