Capítulo 145: Sparring Match With Sai
The sparring match between Cherry and Sai continued.
Sai was having a difficult time adapting to the rapidly oscillating motion imposed onto his weapon by Cherry's strike. It was made even more erratic as each strike applied the motion in different directions making it nearly impossible to predict the direction the weapon would be pulled in next.
This in turn made Sai start to get rather frustrated, especially when Cherry started to snicker at his misfortune.
Unfortunately for him, this frustration only made him lose focus and create an opening for Cherry to whack him upside the head with the back end of her spear.
Even more unfortunately, the same oscillating force was applied to that strike as well, causing him to feel his head pulled to and fro from shoulder to shoulder. Flexing his thick neck muscles to hold his head still only seemed to make it worse as an intense dizziness befell him immediately after doing so. This was because his brain did not stop moving just because his head did.
Thankfully, he was able to quickly counter the oscillating force with an application of his Hasshoken with more ease than he was able to do so for his polearm.
"Hehehehehe!" Cherry's mocking laughter was easily heard for all who were watching, and many of them were finding it difficult to stifle their own laughter.
Who could blame them, seeing the typically stalwart and serious grandson of their leader stumble about like a child who had spun themselves in too many circles?
Sai wanted to throw himself into a rage, but he didn't. He knew that he needed to calm down if he was to have any hope of salvaging this match or at least his bruised reputation.
Chinjao watched Sai proudly when he saw him take a deep breath and adjust his stance. He knew that he himself has always been a hothead ready to explode at the slightest provocation, so he was glad to see his grandson, who was slated to replace him as the leader of the Happo Navy, was better than him in this aspect already.
Cherry also stopped giggling at the man seeing him calm down already. She was slightly disappointed as she had hoped to toy with him a while longer, but mostly just happy to see him grow.
Then her expression hardened and she rushed him with far greater speed than she had used in this match previously. Now she intended to put a wholly different kind of pressure onto his shoulders, one of an opponent he could not hope to defeat.
*BOOM*
The attack was as straightforward as it could possibly be, but when Sai clashed against it with his polearm, he was sent flying backward and bounced several times before stopping.
Cherry had limited herself up until now by only using Hasshoken in the conventional fashion. However, now she was using it with the full body and vital energy control that she possessed as a cultivator.
Sai quickly got to his feet and coughed up some blood, as is the stereotypical reaction to taking a powerful attack head on.
'Did she break the rules of the match?' Sai asked himself silently. Thinking back to the clash he could find no traces of other martial arts or advanced haki usage.
He examined his polearm that now bore several cracks in the handle and a deep chip in the blade. Turning his attention to Cherry's spear, no such damage was apparent.
Of course, even if their places had been reversed, Cherry's spear would not have been damaged. In its current state, the spear was at the level of the highest quality Meito at the Great Grade. Such a weapon was not so easily sundered.
Meanwhile, Chinjao was utterly flabbergasted.
'Why did such a prodigy appear outside of my family?! Why didn't that foolish son of mine have any beautiful daughters to rope in such a genius?!' Chinjao cursed inwardly, while his son could only roll in his grave at the injustice of the accusation.
"I wonder how much more you can take, Sai? You can always give up now if you're scared?" Cherry gave him a mocking smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Sai wouldn't back down though. He wouldn't die, whatever the outcome was, so how could he possibly tuck his tail between his legs and run away?
The ending of the fight was not a pretty sight for those in the audience. It could not even be called a fight any longer, it was just a one sided beat down on their young vice leader.
Each time Sai was blown away by one of Cherry's strikes, the only thought the Happo Navy men could think was that they would have died had they taken it. However, Sai kept standing back up despite the clear disadvantage he had and his piling injuries.
Their respect for Sai reached new heights, seeing his gallant figure that refused to give up or stay down, many of them even cried manly tears over it.
Eventually, Sai couldn't take any more, though. He stood up one last time, but promptly fell on his face unconscious.
Cherry walked over to him and crouched down next to him. She poked him with a single finger in a fashion reminiscent of a child poking a dead animal out of curiosity.
In reality she was giving him a little dose of vital energy to ensure that he wouldn't be too banged up by the time he awoke.
Chinjao, Boo, and the other three ladies approached at a leisurely pace. Boo looked rather anxious at the sight of his beaten brother, but Chinjao had assured him that Sai was tough enough that he would be fine.
Boo picked up Sai's unconscious form and hefted him over his shoulder to move him somewhere more comfortable than the dirt in the training grounds.
Chinjao chatted with Cherry for a little while before excusing himself to take care of some Happo Navy business, telling her that she could enter the auction at her leisure in a few days and that he would have the invitation for her friend ready by tomorrow.
He had tried to use various methods to rope her in, such as inviting her to take a leadership position in the Happo Navy for an exorbitant sum, or even adopting her into his family. Cherry had naturally politely refused his "generous" offers.
…
Seeing as they had some time to kill before the auction would begin, Cherry and Robin split up with Cabernet and Perona, deciding to go on some proper dates as they rarely had the opportunity to do so.
This city that was full of pirates and other unsavory types was perhaps not the best location in the world, but it did have its fair share of upscale restaurants, stores, and a wide selection of entertainment to choose from.
Cherry and Robin first went to see a romantic play that proclaimed itself to be a true story set in a historical time period. Robin had a lot of fun pointing out all the historical inaccuracies, the biggest of which was that the male lead's character, who was based on an actual prince of the Bollywood kingdom, is credibly believed to have had far more interest in his butler than in the female lead's character, a princess of the Kano kingdom and his fiance.
The theater director ended up throwing them out about halfway through when they couldn't contain their laughter even after being warned.
After that they went to a traveling circus set up in the outskirts of the city to capitalize on the busy nature as of late.
Cherry dominated in the various games, despite them being very rigged, winning a multitude of stuffed toys and other prizes that she presented to Robin. They were just a bunch of cheap junk, but it was the thought that counted.
The rides were pretty dull compared to the thrilling adventures they experienced previously, but the main show was amusing at least.
Cherry was reminded of Buggy as she watched the clowns clowning around with their big, goofy noses.
To cap off the evening, they went to find some dinner. It was a small shop and nothing fancy, far from it in fact, but the food was better than anything Cherry had eaten from the upscale restaurant Morgans had brought them to earlier in the day.
Robin had recommended it as she had eaten there years ago and had never forgotten it. Rightly so, as Cherry couldn't eat enough of it. Robin was a bit exasperated at her gluttony, but at least the owner was happy.
They booked the penthouse suite of one of the hotels in the city and watched the stars from the balcony quietly, keeping the chill of the night away by holding each other in their arms.
Capítulo 146: Encounter in the Hotel
*Tap Tap Tap*
A soft knocking at the door of the penthouse suite drew the attention of both ladies and rather annoyingly dampened the good mood they had been building up.
Cherry unwillingly extracted herself from Robin's arms and marched herself over to the door and flung it open, surprising the already quite flustered hotelier who was about to knock again.
"What do you want?" Cherry interrogated curtly with a scowl.
The well dressed man with a waxed handlebar mustache almost let out a girlish squeal from the hostility that Cherry was radiating in his direction, but managed to compose himself thanks to his years of practice dealing with high profile individuals.
"Y-yes, madam. Would it be possible to ask you to downgrade to one of our standard luxury suites? Your stay with us will be complimentary and you would be doing us a huge favor!" The man spoke with haste.
Cherry glanced at the several maids waiting nervously behind the man with cleaning supplies and fresh linens. She then directed her attention to her Life Sense, quickly picking up two devil fruit users on the ground floor, one of whom had a rather powerful life force.
It was easy to understand what was going on and Cherry felt that she could forgive the man for his interruption since he was polite about the matter. She was still annoyed, however, and decided to redirect her frustration to the individuals who apparently thought they could bully her around.
"Very well, we'll move rooms." Cherry said, which caused the man to heave a giant sigh of relief before piecing together his mask of professionalism once more.
"I am MOST appreciative and do hope that you enjoy your stay in our hotel! Feel free to help yourself to room service and the minibar free of charge as well!" The man gave her a bow before directing the small army of maids to clean the room and replace the linens on the beds.
Robin and Cherry were led by the hotelier to their new room which was already prepared for them. With one last string of thank yous and bows of gratitude he left them alone.
"Do you think one of the Four Emperors showed up?" Robin asked with mild amusement, wondering who could possibly make the hotel ask Cherry to leave her room.
"Pfft, no. It might be one of their subordinates, though. I'll go check them out. If they're some of Whitebeard's or Shanks' people, I'll kick their asses." Cherry said, dropping off the balcony of their new room.
She circled around to the main lobby where the two devil fruit users were still waiting. She could already hear the shrill voice of a woman loudly complaining about how long it was taking.
"How long could it possibly take to vacate one room?! Are you trying to make us angry?! Huh?!" The woman spoke with a tone that grated on one's nerves.
Cherry peaked through the glass doors of the front entrance at the two people while using her full effort to hide her presence and removed any hostility she felt towards them in her heart.
She saw the woman who looked to be about three and half meters tall, rail thin, with grayish skin, purple hair, and a long red nose.
The man standing next to her was a bit over five meters tall with short red hair and a furry scarf around his neck and lower face. He was clearly the more powerful of the two.
The man turned his head to look behind himself in Cherry's direction.
'This guy's observation haki is monstrous…' Cherry admired silently. The one thing she hated about haki was that it was hard to get a good gauge of how good another person was at it.
Seeing she was found out anyways, she didn't bother to hide anymore and confidently strolled into the main lobby through the front entrance.
The hotelier from before had only just now arrived to tell them that the penthouse was ready for them when he saw Cherry walking towards them. He briefly imagined his hotel exploding in a massive explosion and tried to think of ways to avoid that terrible future, before realizing it was useless to resist and accepted his fate.
"Finally, it's about time, isn't it Onii-chan?" The woman said, before noticing he was looking back toward the entrance.
"I don't believe that we're acquainted; I am Harpin D. Cherry. I'm still new to the pirate game, but perhaps you've heard of my meager accomplishments?" Cherry opened with some false humility.
"I know who you are." The man spoke curtly, but his eyes betrayed a mild interest.
"Are you here for the auction as well? Perhaps we're here for the same thing, wouldn't that be fun?" Cherry said with a smile, ignoring the man's rudeness from not introducing himself. 'He probably thinks I already know who he is. I really should look through the big bounties so I don't end up in awkward situations like this one.'
The man had his own thoughts. 'Mama said she wanted to try and recruit her, but I didn't expect to meet her here. I should wait until after the auction to speak with her in case I need to use force.'
"Perhaps we can talk after the auction then. Good luck." The man cut off the conversation, turning to the hotelier who took the hint and began leading them to the penthouse.
The woman looked rather annoyed with the brief encounter, but didn't seem intent on making a scene or going against the man's words.
'He's not much of a talker, huh?' Cherry thought, both glad and disappointed that he didn't just start a fight with her. She had even been tempted to probe him with Conqueror's Haki, but thought better of it.
"I don't like it." The woman, Charlotte Brulee, complained with a pout. "Why not just capture her? It'll be easy for you, Onii-chan."
"She may not be strong enough to beat me, but she has decent chances of escaping. Besides, the lunarian woman wasn't with her and we can't let her slip away either. Mama wants them both and preferably with their consent." The man, Charlotte Katakuri, patiently explained to his sister.
"She's just some rookie. I don't think she even knew who we were!" Brulee dismissed.
"We'll try to convince her to meet with Mama, perhaps at her next tea party. If she refuses, then we'll find an opportunity to entrap her and the lunarian woman." Katakuri said, this time with a tone of authority.
Brulee grumbled a bit more, but made no complaints as she trusted her beloved older brother's judgment.
Meanwhile, Cherry had returned to the new room and explained the encounter to Robin along with the descriptions of the two individuals.
"I think they're Big Mom's children. The man should be Charlotte Katakuri, her most powerful 'Sweet Commander'. It was wise that you didn't pick a fight like I thought you would." Robin said, giving her a look that said "stop causing trouble".
"I wonder why he wanted to speak to me then?" Cherry asked.
"Because Big Mom is a collector, and both you and Cabernet are rarities, especially Cabernet. You need to be cautious, Cherry." Robin was quite serious about that.
"Okay, okay! I won't antagonize them and I'll avoid them if I can." Cherry tried to placate her, rubbing her shoulders.
'Unless they win the bid for the devil fruit, then I'm gonna do what pirates do best!' Cherry thought with a mischievous smile.
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