Bab 353: Impromptu Make-over
'That's some crazy observation haki he has.' Cherry idly thought as she looked up at the towering figure that was Charlotte Katakuri.
She had only gotten down to 5 with her 10 second countdown when he predicted what she was planning. Granted she wasn't trying to hide her intentions that much, but that kind of foresight was still insane.
"I'm not hungry," Katakuri answered her invitation to have dinner.
"You don't want to have a nice meal with your dear sister?" Cherry goaded.
Katakuri's eyes flicked to Brulee for an instant before saying, "No."
Brulee's eyes flashed with something. Some sadness perhaps, but mostly a resigned understanding and perhaps even… sympathy.
'I see, so Brulee isn't the only one with insecurities. Something to do with food, so his mouth?' Cherry pondered.
Though she hadn't seen it directly, his atypical mouth shape was clear to see with her Life Sense; like a three dimensional silhouette. The fact that Katakuri covered it up with a scarf was further proof of her guess being the truth.
"Are all of Big Mom's children really this insecure?" Cherry spole her thoughts aloud. She wasn't mocking them… this time; she was genuinely confused about how these supposed big shots could be so concerned with the opinions of others.
"We're not insecure about anything!" Brulee reacted angrily. "I know! You're just projecting because YOU are insecure about your flat chest!"
"Maybe a little bit, but you don't see me stuffing my bra do you?" Cherry raised an eyebrow at her, crossing her arms defiantly.
Brulee paused. "Are you even wearing a bra?"
"Nope~" Cherry answered without shame.
"I have work to do." Katakuri tried to excuse himself.
"Okay, cool. We can eat in your office or whatever." Cherry made to follow him.
Katakuri turned a squinted glare at her. "Don't follow me."
"I'm an honored guest, you should be more accommodating to me." Cherry countered.
"You're just an ordinary guest, you should find your own accommodations." Katakuri wasn't having it.
"But you'll make an exception since you like me so much~" Cherry added.
"No, I won't," Katakuri denied flatly.
"Ah, yes, of course you won't. You aren't allowed to show favoritism, right?" Cherry sent an obnoxiously coy wink his way.
"Onii-chan doesn't have time to deal with you!" Brulee snapped at her.
"Don't be jealous, we'll be sisters soon~" Cherry chimed.
Katakuri stopped on a dime and his head whipped around to stare at her.
"Your mama is all about political marriages, isn't she?" Cherry smiled mischievously.
"Huh? Wait, WAIT!" Brulee panicked upon realizing that was a very real possibility.
"You can have Cracker." Katakuri retorted, resuming his marching pace.
Brulee relaxed somewhat, but still wasn't keen on the idea.
"Hm, he's the one wearing that weird suit with the 'manly' face, right?" Cherry seemed to think it over genuinely.
Katakuri didn't show his shock that she was so knowledgeable about his family. There were even some of their siblings that didn't know Cracker's true face.
"How did you know that?! Do you have an informant, a traitor?!" Brulee failed to hide her own shock.
"I'm getting really annoyed with that thing you're doing with your body." Cherry said out of nowhere, ignoring the question.
Brulee scrunched her brow, confused. "What thing-?"
"This thing." Cherry slapped her hand down onto her ribs.
Brulee yelped and her body started to contort. Katakuri acted immediately, slamming a fist into Cherry and sending her flying into a still damaged building which promptly collapsed on top of her after losing what little support it still had.
"Brulee?! Are you… okay…?" Katakuri didn't know what to do, but he soon realized there might not be anything he needed to do.
Brulee's body finished its odd twisting, or rather its UN-twisting. Because Brulee looked far less like a witch now and could even be said to look somewhat elegant.
Her height had reduced a tiny bit, and her long gangly limbs were considerably less so. Her terrible gray complexion looked much healthier, though still with some gray undertones. Her nose was still long and reddish, but at most half the length as before. Even her hair was a bit more tamed. The only thing that remained the same was the scar across her face.
"What did she do… to me?" Brulee paused at the sound of her voice. It was still her voice, but the scratchy, piercing quality had gone away, leaving a sound that was easy on the ears.
"Brulee?" Katakuri was similarly stunned at this development.
*crunch* *clatter*
Cherry climbed out of the rubble and brushed herself off. "Rude."
Katakuri was looking at her strangely as Brulee examined herself in a mirror she created, expression filled with disbelief.
"You're acting like you don't know what you look like without the influence of your devil fruit." Cherry was incredulous.
"I did that?" Brulee asked.
"Insecurity is a real bitch, huh." Cherry rubbed her chin. She hadn't thought that it went quite THAT deep though.
"I thought… I thought that was just how I looked. I look so much younger, so much healthier…" Brulee was caught in a kind of shocked trance.
"Let's go get something to eat, Brulee." Katakuri snapped her out of it with his words. He looked at Cherry and said, "You as well, I suppose."
"Sweet!" Cherry might be rich, but free food was free food!
…
"..." Pekoms still sat in his chair at the fish restaurant, quietly trying to remind himself not to kill his peoples' savior the next time he had the opportunity.
Slowly the restaurant started to fill back in with employees and soon after customers, keen on finishing their shifts and food respectively.
"My my my, if it isn't my vieux camarade Pekoms." Tamago stepped inside, instantly recognising the bound and gagged lion mink.
He removed the gag so that Pekoms could speak and asked, "What are you doing here, Pekoms? Last I heard, you let a personal matter get in the way of your professionnalisme?"
Pekoms almost started blabbing about Bege planning an assassination attempt against Big Mom, but stopped himself for three reasons. First, Cherry had asked him to keep his mouth shut. Second, as Cherry had said, Bege was almost certainly going to fail and that failure could create an opportunity for the Straw Hats to get away with Sanji. Lastly, Tamago had little reason to trust his word over Bege's, who was happily married into the family and hadn't outwardly shown any inclinations to mutiny.
"Why so quiet, soir? You have nothing at all to say in your defense?" Tamago sighed.
"I did what I had to do, gao." Pekoms said.
"You know that I will have to bring you to Mama, don't you?" Tamago asked. "You don't seem to be in any position to resist, in any case. You did arrive with one of our guests, however, so perhaps Mama will be lenient if you can help convince to come to our side."
Tamago signaled some odd creatures to pick him up and they carried Pekoms out of the restaurant, following after Tamago towards the meritable fortress made of cake on the edge of the city.
Bab 354: Cat and Mouse
The Whole Cake Chateau, as it was called, was quite the opulent building in Cherry's opinion. She would call it more fanciful than fancy, what with it being styled after an actual cake both inside and out.
Cherry was easily distracted from the almost absurd decoration of the place due to the nearby presence of a monster not so far away within the very same building. Big Mom's vital energy was almost detectable even without using Life Sense, a vague pressure that Cherry could feel as she got closer to where Big Mom was.
Katakuri regarded the woman skipping down the hallways to keep up with his long strides. He frankly wasn't sure what to think of her now. She was responsible for perhaps his only professional failure since he had started working for the family proper over twenty years prior, but now she had done a service for his most precious little sister, completely unprompted no less.
Brulee couldn't keep her eyes off of her own reflection. She had always claimed that the scar didn't bother her at all, but it was undoubtedly the greatest source of the mockery leveled towards her throughout her life. It certainly didn't help her love life, either.
It occurred to him that Harpin D. Cherry could potentially rid her off the scar as well. She had done unbelievable work on Chinjao's head, surely some scar tissue wouldn't be a challenge?
Katakuri couldn't be the one to ask though, no matter how well intentioned. Not at the risk of hurting Brulee's feelings. She had gained that scar because his bullies were too afraid to fight him and targeted her instead. He might as well slap her directly if he was going to ask Cherry to "fix" his sister's face.
Katakuri noticed Cherry was staring at him.
"What is it?" Katakuri asked sternly, but the edge he addressed her with before was mostly gone.
"I'm growing on you, aren't I?" Cherry smiled delightedly.
"Like a fungal infection, perhaps." Katakuri retorted.
"That's too bad for you. No medicine or poison can get rid of me." Cherry snickered.
"I'm not opposed to hacking off a limb if I have to." Katakuri said.
"Huh? Why are you going to hack off a limb, Onii-chan?" Brulee asked.
Katakuri frowned and shook his leg vigorously. Brulee looked down to find Cherry wrapped around his calf.
"Let go." Katakuri commanded.
"But Daaaad, I'm tired~!" Cherry cried out.
"..." Perospero rounded a corner and paused at the strange sights and sounds before him.
""..."" Katakuri and Brulee looked back at him, unable to say anything.
"Oh, hey Uncle Tongue dude!" Cherry waved at him.
"I… wasn't aware you had a child, Katakuri…" Perospero was very confused.
"I don't." "HE DOES~!" Katakuri spoke and Cherry shouted over him.
"Kukuku," Perospero chuckled as he recognised the gremlin clinging to his younger brother's leg. "I see you're being quite tolerant in your efforts to recruit Miss Harpin, brother, but I don't think you need to be THAT tolerant. I do wonder why you've taken this duty upon yourself, though? I understand that Mama had asked Smoothie to be her point of contact with the family?"
Katakuri chopped off his leg, leaving Cherry to fall with it to the floor and get covered with gooey, uncooked mochi. "Geck, gross!"
"I hadn't intended to, but she is unfortunately very nosey. As such, I have determined it to be prudent that I keep an eye on her so that she doesn't cause any trouble." Katakuri said, which was largely the truth.
"He's just being shy. He loves me." Cherry insisted.
"Mhm," Perospero didn't sound convinced. He looked at Brulee and now that he wasn't distracted he took in the changes her appearance had undergone. "Why-?"
"Obviously I changed my looks with my devil fruit, to accentuate my theme. You can hardly judge, can you Nii-san?" Brulee interrupted him, feeling remarkably confident.
"No, I suppose I can't. I'm surprised that you've kept it up for so long, though. Even I have to take a break from the candy theme every now and then." Perospero said.
"My girl Brulee is built different." Cherry said, shaking off the last of the raw mochi from her clothes.
"If you'll excuse us. Our… guest interrupted Brulee's dinner, so we were just going to place an order with the kitchens." Katakuri interjected.
"Of course. Have a nice night, and keep a close eye on our… guest." Perospero bid them goodbye before walking away.
"The way you're saying 'guest' makes me think you're luring me into a trap." Cherry spoke aloud, causing Perospero to stumble slightly. She added, "You shouldn't wear those heels if you can't walk with them. You'll sprain your ankle."
"Good luck, brother." Perospero spoke with as much dignity as he could muster, before disappearing around another corner.
"Piggyback?" Cherry held up her arms.
Katakuri darted down the hall. "I'll meet you in my room, Brulee!"
"Oh, he wants to race does he? Hehehehe~" Cherry exploded into motion, hot on Katakuri's heels.
Cherry knew what this really was. Katakuri wanted to know how fast she was, and so was playing to her own playful nature. All so that he could be perfectly prepared to capture her, when the time came. How devious!
'I need to get away from her before she frays my last nerve.' Katakuri wasn't thinking about that at all.
"Alright, Onii-chan!" Brulee called out to him as he vanished around a corner, Cherry barely a split second behind him.
A teenage girl with a black ponytail and light brown eyes was hidden around a different corner watching it all happen.
"Who is that slut?! Stay away from my Katakuri-nii-san!" The girl chewed her nails in frustration, floating above the floor with an odd, polka dot, balloon dress. "Hmph! I'll deal with you, just wait and see!"
The girl floated away to come up with some nefarious plot against Cherry. A plan that was sure not to have any dire consequences for her.
Cherry reached out to grab Katakuri, but he was already slipping out of her grasp before she could grasp him. She wasn't moving at her full speed, no need to give away valuable information about herself for a game of cat and mouse, so Katakuri was proving to be difficult prey.
Multiple times she tried to grab him, but it was made abundantly clear that he knew what she was going to do before she did it. Stupid precognitive observation haki.
So Cherry did the only thing she could do, given the unspoken rules she had set for herself. Train her observation haki until she could predict and also fool him.
*shwing*
Cherry latched onto a chandelier, ripping it from the ceiling it hung from and threw it at Katakuri. Not enough to actually harm him, but would definitely slow him for an instant if he got hit. Katakuri dodged by changing directions into another pathway rather than lose any speed.
Cherry was there to meet him, leaping towards his chest with her arms outstretched.
*Shloop*
Katakuri parted his mochi body in a perfect shape to allow Cherry to pass straight through him, even adjusting the shape as Cherry flailed to catch a grip on him.
Cherry laughed, "That's so damned cool!"
'If I don't catch him before he gets to those kitchens, then I'm training all night!' Cherry resolved herself. Though, it would be Katakuri who suffers as her unwilling training partner.
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