Bab 394: Obligatory Bath Time
The group arrived in front of a castle built into a cliffside around the back of the Whole Cake Chateau.
Luffy ultimately decided to team up with Bege, which was all according to Cherry's plan.
"Hey! You're thinking this is all according to your plan, aren't you?!" Nami accused baselessly. "You are NOT fighting Big Mom!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cherry denied innocently.
As they approached the entrance, a long tongued man walked out to greet them.
"Well, well, well. Lelolook who came craaawwwling back!" Vito drawled, crossing his arms smugly as he glared at Cherry.
"Get over it, Vito. You only got a bit wet," Cherry waved him off.
"I still have grape soda in my nose! I can still smell it! I've had three nasal irrigations done! Three!" Vito jabbed an accusing finger in Cherry's direction.
"That's because I upped the sugar content and made it extra sticky~" Cherry snickered.
"Why you…!" Vito went to reach for his pistol, but was unable to find it. He awkwardly patted his clothes until he stopped and looked at Cherry, twirling his gun around her finger with a knowing smile. "When did you even…?"
"Pshhh, I took it when I left your ship. I'm honestly shocked you didn't notice it was gone until now," Cherry smirked.
Vito scowled and his cheeks pinked in embarrassment.
"I'm here to talk to Bege!" Luffy cut in.
Vito was grateful for the change in subject. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get you guys cleaned up, the godfather isn't going to meet with some unwashed hobos."
They all followed Vito into the Fire Tanks' fortress.
"Hey, I was curious, do you just use shampoo for your whole body or what?" Nami asked Carrot.
"What's shampoo?" Carrot asked back.
"You're about to experience a whole new world of grooming, girl," Nami said.
"Where are you going, Cherry? Don't you need a bath, too?" Carrot asked as Cherry started to split off from the group.
"I can take care of impurities just fine without a bath. Since the chateau's blueprints didn't include this tasteless addition, I was going to scope it out." Cherry said.
"Oh no, you don't!" Nami spoke in a motherly tone. "I promised Robin that I wouldn't let you skimp out on baths, and more importantly I'm not letting you out of my sight until Big Mom is FAR behind us!"
"Blueprints?" Vito asked.
"Oh yeah, found them stowed away in a secret crawl space between the walls. They've got all the little secret passageways in the chateau and everything," Cherry latched onto his curiosity for dear life.
"The godfather would like to see those," Vito said, putting aside his personal issues with the woman in favor of business.
"I'm sure that he would, but for now Cherry is coming with us!" Nami snagged Cherry by the ear and dragged her away kicking and screaming. Mostly figuratively speaking.
"Wait, where are you taking me?!" Brulee demanded.
"If I'm going down, I'm not going down alone," Cherry said.
"What? It's just a bath, why are you making such a big deal about it?" Brulee asked in confusion.
"If you could use your internal energies to clean yourself, you'd never want to take another bath again either!" Cherry defended herself. "Besides… I don't like how water makes me feel all weak and stuff."
"THAT'S the reason you don't like baths???" Nami asked, dumbfounded. "You're like the only devil fruit user in the world who can swim!"
"Nuh-uh. I taught Robin how to do it, too," Cherry excused. "And that isn't the point. That's more like puppeting your own body like a marionette and it's annoying on top of making me anxious!"
"Can you teach me how to do that?" Brulee asked.
"Yeah, sure," Cherry agreed easily.
"Cherry, she's the enemy! Don't teach her your secret techniques and stuff to her!" Chopper complained.
"She's my buddy," Cherry shrugged.
"No I'm not," Brulee denied.
"We might as well be. I'm going to be engaged with Katakuri anyways, so we'll be sisters-in-law soon enough," Cherry said.
"I don't believe you. You're just saying that to mess with me," Brulee said reasonably.
"Oh, I did hear about that, but we figured that you would have ratted us out if you were really doing it," Vito chipped in.
"If Big Mom dies, then I'm the uncontested strongest and the whole crew belongs to me. That's the thing about ruling through fear; it becomes easy for someone else to take over where you left off." Cherry nodded sagely.
"What?!?!?!" Brulee exclaimed in shock.
"Look on the bright side. There's basically no chance that I eat any of you," Cherry said.
Brulee opened her mouth, then shut it again. She couldn't really deny the appeal of that, but she felt like she was falling into Cherry's trap somehow.
"Ah, yes, the bath. Get lost, Vito, before I give you a reason to take a bath, too," Cherry mimed shooting him. He got the picture and skedaddled.
When Vito was gone around a corner, Jinbe spoke up. "Is there a reason you're so antagonistic with that man, Cherry?"
"Listen, Jinbe. Sometimes a girl just needs a punching bag, and Vito has such a punchable face. If he didn't want to be bullied, then he should earn my respect or whatever," Cherry explained.
"Oh… really?" Jinbe looked to Nami, Carrot, and even Brulee for confirmation and didn't get anything from them.
'Women are frightening…' Jinbe thought as he went into the male side of the bath.
Cherry saw a familiar face as she dragged her feet into the bathroom. "Oh hey, Chiffon. How's the kid?"
"Spending some quality time with his father. Did you come here with your captain?" Chiffon asked, drying her hair.
"Yeah, I guess Luffy wants to maybe team up or something," Cherry confirmed.
"That's good. It should be easier to kill Mama if we have some back up," Chiffon said casually, like she wasn't talking about a plot to murder her own mother.
Naturally, Brulee took offense to this. "Chiffon, how could you be a part of this?! Have you no loyalty?! No sense of filial piety?!"
"I stopped considering that monster my mother the day she decided that Lola should die over a broken engagement, let alone when she tried to sell ME off in my sister's place. It's YOU who should be reconsidering your loyalties, not me," Chiffon spoke coldly.
"Lola?" Nami caught the name.
Whilst Nami started chatting about the time they met Chiffon's sister, Cherry took the chance to hurry up and finish bathing so she could snoop around Bege's hideout, maybe steal something or plant something.
"Why are you rushing, food friend?" Carrot asked her. "Isn't this a pretty nice place? Back on Zou we have to use rainwater in wooden tubs!"
Seeing the sparkling look in the girl's eyes, Cherry knew that struggling was useless. Carrot had entered a sort of sworn friendship with her with that clothes swapping thing and now it was like having another baby sister that she couldn't say no to, but with rabbit ears instead of wings.
"I suppose that it's a pretty nice bath. Best that I've seen in a little while, in fact. Only the royal bath in Alabasta beats it really," Cherry said. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to stay a bit longer…"
Bab 395: Meeting with the Mob
"What the hell is this?" Cherry asked with a scowl.
"My hubby would prefer to meet you all in formal wear," Chiffon explained.
"A cocktail dress is not formal wear," Cherry pointed out.
"It is for gangsters," Chiffon shrugged. "It's too late to tailor something else for you anyways."
"Why did you get this for me and not Carrot then?" Cherry complained childishly.
"Nami said this was what you wanted," Chiffon said.
Cherry turned a glare and a pout at Nami, who turned her head away and whistled innocently.
"Ugh, whatever. I'll just wear my armor; that's formal enough, right?" Cherry said.
"We're going to negotiate an alliance, wearing armor makes it look like we're going to war. You can't wear it," Nami denied.
"Bege already knows I can tear him and his whole crew apart with my bare hands; my armor won't make any difference," Cherry argued.
"I'll tattle to Robin," Nami threatened.
Cherry narrowed her eyes. "You're bluffing. I've got all that money in my pockets, so maybe I should misplace it?"
"Fine, wear the armor, but it wouldn't kill you to wear something nice every now and then," Nami huffed and crossed her arms in exaggerated disappointment.
"I wish I could wear armor, it looks so cool!" Carrot gushed.
"..." Cherry paused, then sighed.
…
Nami and Cherry walked out of the dressing room wearing cocktail dresses, the former looking smug and the latter looking supremely uncomfortable.
Carrot marched out with a pep in her step, also with a fair amount of clanking metal plates and clinking metal rings. "This is so COOL! Thanks for letting me borrow it, Cherry!"
"Yeah yeah, anything for you, food buddy," Cherry smiled in spite of herself. "It looks great on you, I'll make a set especially for you sometime."
Carrot bounced in excitement, giving a garchu to Cherry in thanks.
"I don't know what you were so worried about. You look great in that dress," Chiffon complimented.
"That's what she hates most about wearing dresses," Nami said. "I think it's because she hates being seen as a beautiful woman before a powerful warrior."
"No I don't. I hate how breezy they are and the way men gawk at me when I wear them," Cherry admitted. "And first the first thing people should see me as is a world infamous criminal who might kick them in the ba-"
Cherry was interrupted by a hard rap on her noggin by Nami. "Don't be so crude!"
"Look at her, trying to mother me like one of the boys," Cherry half whispered to Chiffon. "They grow up so fast, I swear. Be sure to cherish the early years with little Pez."
Cherry smirked as she saw Nami squint her eyes and purse her lips dangerously at her.
"WHAT?! No fair!" Luffy appeared from the men's side of the bath and pointed an accusing finger at Carrot.
Carrot smiled knowingly at him and struck a knightly pose, which only further stoked the fires of Luffy's jealousy.
"Cherry! Did you finish my armor yet?!" Luffy demanded.
"Sorry, Luffy. I was busy arming the minks and didn't have the time to make the armor sets that you guys designed," Cherry betrayed his expectations. "Can't exactly do a proper forging session on a wooden ship, after all. Unless all you want is something whipped up to look like armor. I can do that with my fusion fruit easily; it just wouldn't be authentic, a costume essentially."
"Hmmmmmmm…" Luffy looked truly conflicted at that moment. He carefully weighed the options before disappointedly saying, "I want the authentic armor…"
"I thought you might," Cherry nodded. "I did finish Chopper's armor, though."
"You did?!" "No fair!" Chopper and Luffy exclaimed at once.
Soon Chopper was wearing his very own set of shining armor and Luffy was pouting with the most outrageously puffed up cheeks anyone has ever seen.
They all marched into a lounge where Bege was lighting up a cigar and waiting for them. "It's about time. You kept me waiting."
The serious atmosphere shattered as Pez squealed in delight at the sight of his mother and Bege similarly gushed over his wife. Once Chiffon had Pez in her hands, Bege returned to his 'serious business' persona.
Everyone settled into the circle of fancy leather arm chairs and couches.
"Now, why don't you tell me why I should bother to ally with you instead of just silencing you on here and now?" Bege not so vaguely threatened.
"Cut the 'I'm the big boy in the big boy britches here' crap, Bege. You can't kill Sanji because it's his wedding tomorrow that you're planning to use for your little assassination attempt, you can't kill Luffy because he's stronger than you, and you can't kill me because I'll make sure that little Pez doesn't ever have any siblings if you try it," Cherry laid out.
Bege looked like someone shat in his corn flakes and his men looked downright murderous. Fortunately for the goons in the room, they had enough restraint and sense not to immediately attack Cherry for her rude words.
"Ahem, your point about Blackleg is certainly true," Bege acceded.
"We didn't come here to fight or taunt Bege, Cherry. Be diplomatic," Jinbe said in exasperation.
"You're right of course, Jinbe," Cherry said.
Jinbe thought that that was far too easy, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Unbeknownst to him, Bege was building an image of a Cherry in his head that could be reined in by her comrades, exactly according to Cherry's plan.
"There's no need to make this complicated. We're going to kill Big Mom at the wedding tomorrow, are you in or not?" Bege asked bluntly.
"And we're saving Germa at the same time," Sanji added.
"Does he speak for you, Straw Hat?" Bege asked, without even looking at Sanji.
"Yeah," Luffy answered seriously and wearing an equally serious expression. He was still a bit miffed about not having his armor yet, after all.
"Fine, we have an accord," Bege put his hand out.
Luffy grasped it and after a brief hand crushing contest they were satisfied.
"How exactly do you intend to kill Big Mom, anyways. I haven't been her for long, but even I know that her skin is nigh impenetrable. Guns and cannons aren't going to cut it, and that seems to be your whole schtick," Sanji expressed his doubts.
"We've come up with a way to pierce her thick hide; but even then it's as you say, guns and cannons aren't going to cut it," Bege explained. "We have these."
Bege motioned to his men who put down a briefcase onto the coffee table between them and opened it revealing three colorful bazookas with oversized hypodermic needles on the ends.
"It would have been better to have Caesar's help," Bege shot them a dirty look. "But the poison cocktail we've created ought to do the job or if not, then at least greatly weaken Big Mom."
"Poison, you're going to use poison? Heavens above…" Cherry rubbed her temples as if she had come down with a mean headache.
"You got a better idea? Big Mom is still only human and we've got enough poison in each one of those bazookas to kill a giant," Bege defended.
Cherry opened her mouth, then Nami shot her a look so she closed it and sat back with her arms crossed.
"I thought not," Bege smiled victoriously.
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