章 88: The Cutest in the World
Cherry and company made their way towards where the others were. It was pretty easy to locate them as most of the island's residents were zombies and having three familiar devil fruit users amongst them.
Cherry also noticed one of the devil fruit users heading toward the Thousand Sunny, but she wasn't particularly concerned about them. Cabernet was guarding the ship and should be able to handle it by herself. Even if she couldn't, she was so tough that there would be plenty of time for Cherry to return before she was defeated.
"Should we split up? Finding the others will be easy enough and we can use the time to whittle away at the zombies before having a showdown with Moria." Cherry suggested.
The others thought that was an amenable suggestion and paired off. Cherry with Robin (taking the unconscious invisible man with them), Luffy with Sanji, and Zoro with Franky.
"Don't get your shadows stolen or I'll show you what real hellish training looks like." Cherry threatened. Then she looked at Franky. "As for you, instead I'll mix strange things into your cola so you'll be acting funny until our next stop."
"H-how can you be so cruel?! That's not SUPER at all!" Franky complained.
Cherry and Robin went after the others as they likely needed rescuing, whilst the other two pairs went around fighting zombies and exorcising them.
It didn't take long to reach their destination; a garden full of animal type zombies. Only four of them were present however, Serene being the missing person.
"Cherry! Robin!" Chopper shouted, so happy to see them he was crying.
"Absalom?! What did you do to my husband?!" A hippo zombie in a wedding dress cried in alarm. She charged towards them without another word in a rage.
Cherry drew her revolver and fired it at her. She didn't bother to dodge, believing that she wouldn't be harmed as a zombie. She was wrong.
Cherry had created some special salt ammunition during the walk, so when the hippo bride zombie was hit, she slumped over as her shadow escaped her.
"She shot Lola and it worked?! She's a general zombie, what chance do we have?!" A panda zombie exclaimed in fear.
"S-she won't have endless ammunition! She can't shoot all of us!" A dog zombie replied.
The zombies decided to fight for their un-lives. A foolish decision that ended with all of them being exorcised in short order by Cherry and Robin.
"So where did they take Serene?" Robin asked the others.
"She said she would join them in exchange for not harming us." Usopp said, feeling ashamed of his weakness.
They caught Cherry and Robin up on everything that had happened to them.
"I see. I won't hold it against her, I guess." Cherry said.
"What's that glow on the horizon?" Nami asked.
"That should be Cabernet. It seems she's going all out." Cherry said, noting that the devil fruit user that went to the ship had already fled.
...
On the Thousand Sunny with Cabernet.
"Who are you? Cabernet asked curiously, gazing upon the pinked haired young woman with a small army of zombies behind her.
"Horohorohoro! I'm one of the Mysterious Four, Perona, and I'm your worst nightmare, 'Blood Wine' Cabernet!" Perona spoke confidently.
"Wow, you're so cute!" Cabernet gushed.
"Shut up, I don't need you to tell me that! I know I'm the cutest in the whole world, unlike you who isn't cute at all!" Perona insulted.
Cabernet looked genuinely hurt by those words, looking much like an injured puppy.
"E-eh?" Perona stuttered in shock. 'How can this demonic gangster woman have such an adorable look on that face?!'
"A-attack! Steal the treasure and capture the woman!" Perona ordered, not losing sight of her goal in coming here.
*Fwoosh*
A wave of flames descended on the zombies causing them to stagger back in fear.
Cabernet's hurt look was gone, replaced with a cold rage. Perona felt like she'd lost something precious in that moment.
Cabernet said nothing more and threw herself amongst the zombies. Her flames were so intense that any zombies that came too close ignited and started to turn to ash in seconds.
Perona sent her ghosts towards her and found purchase with them.
Cabernet's adorably sad look returned. "I'm so stupid. I should have known I couldn't be friends with such a cute girl with a horrible face like mine."
Despite the ghosts having a clear effect on Cabernet's mental state, her actions seemed to suggest the opposite was true, as she continued to brutalize the panicking zombies. This was because Cherry had told her to guard the ship, as such she wasn't acting on her own will.
The zombies were trying to flee into the forest, but their actions only prolonged their terror as none would escape Cabernet in the end.
Perona slipped away quickly and quietly. 'I need to get away from here! I wasn't prepared to deal with such an adorable- I mean terrifying woman! What is wrong with me?!'
...
"H-huh? Where am I, what was I doing?" Absalom started to wake up. He opened his eyes and saw the form of Lola lying next to him. "Lola?! Did you knock me out and tie me up?! Release me immediately!"
However Lola did not stir even an inch and remained silent.
"Lola?" Absalom looked around and saw Cherry smirking at him, then he remembered what had happened to him.
"I'd like you to answer some questions for me." Cherry said slowly and approached him.
"There's no way I'll answer your questions!" Absalom spoke with false bravery as he struggled against his bindings.
He stopped when Cherry placed her sword between his legs. "You'll talk, because perverts like you value their manhood more than anything."
"W-who are you calling a pervert, I'm a respectable gentleman!" Absalom roared, but inside he was terrified.
"Oh please. You're a man with the a devil fruit ability to become invisible. Of course you're a pervert." Cherry accused, making the sword hum with a dangerous energy.
"Okay I'll talk, just don't cut it off, pleeaaase!" Absalom started to cry pathetically.
"Where do you keep the treasure?" Cherry started her questions, much to the approval of Nami.
Absalom answered the questions without resistance, though he did try to lie a few times. He couldn't hide from Cherry though, as he wasn't a particularly good liar.
Speaking of liars, Cherry rather admired Usopp's ability to lie. He was often caught by the absurd and outlandish nature of his lies, but he did it so naturally that he didn't show the usual physical signs that one was lying.
Cherry got all the information she wanted from the stitched together freak, and promptly knock him out.
"Okay then, we can go steal all the treasure, then we can change the course of the Thriller Bark to make up for some lost time. If Luffy still hasn't beaten Moria by then, I'll deal with him myself. Sound like a plan?" Cherry asked, getting the assent from the others.
They entered the main building of Thriller Bark in search of the treasury, exorcising zombies as they go.
Along the way, they ran into a pink haired woman with singed clothing, alongside a strange looking bear zombie.
"Oh? How did you like my sweet Cabernet? Isn't she just the cutest?" Cherry asked, knowing she was the one who tried to board the Thousand Sunny.
"Yes- I mean NO! I'm the cutest one, damn it!" Persona angrily shot several of her ghosts towards them.
They passed through the lot of them, causing them to fall into a deep depression.
"We never would have gotten into this mess if I'd been a better navigator. I'm just the worst." Nami said.
"That bastard Hogback doesn't give a hoot about his patients, but even he is a better doctor than I am. I should just die." Chopper said.
"Baah baaaah bah baaah...." Merry lamented being such a terrible ship that she couldn't carry her beloved crew to the end of their journey.
"I've got the nerve to say I'll discover the true history even though I'm too cowardly to-" Robin said, before a hand bloomed from her back and covered her mouth.
Except for Cherry and Usopp who were both unaffected for some reason.
"Wow, Usopp. I didn't expect you to possess such strength of will." Cherry praised.
"O-of course, I'm going to be a brave warrior of the sea. So that's only natural!" Usopp lied through his teeth.
Cherry herself wasn't affected because existential dread wasn't anything new for a cultivator. Cultivators faced that feeling every single day, so she was quite accustomed to it. Why else would someone pursue eternity if not to avoid 'the end'?
"Why aren't you two affected at all?! Even that cutie- DEMON could only half resist, and that's strange enough as it is!" Perona felt wronged that so many people could resist her power.
"Since you aren't affected by it either, why don't you fight her, Usopp? She doesn't seem too strong, so you should be able to handle her." Cherry suggested. "And you better hurry up, she's getting away."
"Huh?" Usopp looked over and saw the woman running away with her bear zombie, then he pursued her. 'Cherry's right! I can't just be a tag along, I need to pull my own weight!"
The other 4 started coming out of their depression about this time.
"Let's go, Usopp will catch up later. He's a tough fellow, he'll be okay." Cherry said, and they moved on.
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