章 273: Clima-Tact
Three dozen kilometers away from Dressrosa on the sea.
"Are we being chased, Brook?" Nami called up to the crow's nest, some trepidation in her tone.
"I do not spy with my little eye any enemy ships following behind! Of course, I don't have any eyes to spy with! Yohohohoho!" Brook joked.
Brook's usual nonsense did a lot to lift the mood of the ship; such was the job of the crew's resident entertainer.
Nami let out a sigh of relief. They had used the Coup de Burst three times in a row to ensure they got a good lead in case Akainu's steam ship followed them.
However, Franky had mentioned that they couldn't just keep using it over and over. For one, it took time for Cherry's Fizzy Pop revolver to refill the barrels. More importantly, no matter how tough the Thousand Sunny was, there was only so much strain from the Coup de Burst that the ship could take before it started falling apart.
Without Franky and Cherry on board to find and fix any damage, that was a genuine concern they had to keep in mind.
Now that Brook had confirmed that they weren't being chased after, he went ahead and had a good look around the horizon for any other anomalies.
"Ah, I see a ship off the portside bow!" Brook called out.
The ship in question, he quickly realized, was enormous in size. A Man-o-War, in fact, was exceptionally rare to see in the Grand Line. That was mainly due to the chaotic weather patterns; such a large ship had limited maneuverability to dodge cyclones, maelstroms, and the like.
The reason these people dared to sail such a massive ship on these dangerous waters became quickly apparent. It turned to face them with unnatural speed, making it clear that they had spotted the Thousand Sunny as well.
At the front of the Man-o-War, the figurehead was a big goofy face wearing a crown. Though Brook could not hear it, the face moved its mouth in a way that gave Brook the impression that it was singing a song.
The body of the ship was styled to look like cake and candy, and upon the main sails of the ship was a jolly roger wearing lipstick and large letters reading "BIG MOM".
"BIG MOM?!" Brook shouted in alarm.
"""BIG MOM?!?!?!""" The others parroted in shock.
"Well that isn't good." Jinbe said, already turning the ship to starboard.
"What are we going to do?! We can't fight Big Mom!" Nami screamed.
"It isn't very likely Big Mom herself is aboard that ship, if that makes you feel better," Jinbe said. "Big Mom has an infamous appetite; one that can't be as easily sated while out at sea. She only leaves her territory when she has to."
That did make Nami, Chopper, and Momonosuke feel better, but only a little bit. It was still Big Mom's crew that was chasing them after all.
At this point the ship came into view for those on the main deck as well. Cresting over the horizon was a behemoth of sweets, the happy go lucky figurehead's smile seemed much more menacing than it was with the massive ship as a backdrop.
"Oh, that's the flagship." Jinbe said. "The chances that Big Mom is aboard are a bit higher then."
"Stop it, Jinbe! You're gonna jinx it!" Chopper pleaded.
"In my experience, talking about jinxing makes the jinx more likely. That's what happened to my old crew, Yohohoho!" Brook spoke cheerfully, but with an unusually serious undertone.
Chopper quickly bit his tongue.
"Bahhh." Merry commented.
"What do you mean 'We can take them!'?! Look at the size of that ship!" Chopper replied.
"Bahhhh Baaah!" Merry countered.
"It doesn't matter how bloated it is, we're outgunned!" Chopper insisted.
Nami looked out to the seemingly empty ocean before them contemplatively. "Jinbe, turn another 15 degrees starboard."
"Aye." Jinbe assented immediately. He hadn't had much of a chance to see her navigational skills for himself, but the others had practically gushed over her expertise in that particular area. As such, he trusted her judgment without question.
"We hardly changed directions at all. How will this help, O-Nami?" Momonosuke asked, curious and hopeful.
"There's a cold front coming in from this direction." Nami spoke mysteriously, gripping her Clima-Tact till her knuckles went white.
Caesar, who had been quiet till now, spoke up with widening eyes. "You aren't going to… That isn't possible, it won't work."
"It'll work." Nami smiled, both confident and nervous.
A few minutes later, the Big Mom Man-o-War was steadily gaining on them. The crew aboard the monstrous ship shouted and jeered at them. The occasional warning shot was fired in their direction, but they were still outside the range of their cannons.
"Hand over Caesar, Bon! If you do this, we'll even let you go on your way!" The voice of someone was projected to them from Big Mom's ship. Cherry would recognise the voice as Tamago if she were here.
"Don't do it! I'm the world's greatest scientist! I'm worth keeping for yourselves!. Just don't give me to that woman!" Caesar pleaded when he realized he was the target.
"Don't pay any attention to them. Just keep going." Nami said.
"Thank you!" Caesar said, almost half genuinely.
"I'm not doing it for you!" Nami snapped at him. "Now be quiet, I need to focus!"
Nami wielded her Clima-Tact and began to launch heat balls to the right, left, and behind the ship. Streaks of plasma were left in the wake of the heat balls as they landed in the water, releasing vast amounts of boiling steam in the air.
On the Queen Mama Chanter, Pekoms and Tamago watched Nami's actions closely. They wouldn't dismiss her actions out of hand just because she wasn't one of the strong members of the crew.
"It seems that they're getting desperate. She's creating fog to cover their escape, Bon." Tamago surmised.
"Gao! I'd agree with you, but for some reason my instincts are tickling the back of my mind. In any case, we should be careful of that weapon. It can probably set the ship aflame with just a touch." Pekoms said.
Nami was soaked in sweat. No matter how short a time she was close to each heat ball, she had still thrown a couple hundred of them so the temperature was getting to her.
"Come on, come on! Just a little more… THERE! Prepare to Coup de Burst immediately!" Nami screamed at them.
Hearing the urgency in her voice, they moved quickly. Fortunately, the most time consuming part of the process, replacing the cola barrel, wasn't necessary. Fizzy Pop had refilled the barrels by now.
The familiar warbling could be heard by the Big Mom pirates, but they could not see what was going on. They prepared for battle, in case the Thousand Sunny came out of the fog to fire some manner of weapons at them.
Pekoms shot out of his chair. "Get us out of here, RIGHT NOW GAAAOOORRR!!!"
The Big Mom pirates were momentarily stunned by his sudden outburst, but quickly went to follow orders.
"What is wrong, Pekoms? Bon." Tamago asked with trepidation.
Pekoms didn't need to answer his question, as it soon became very apparent.
The sky grew darker.
A tinge of green filled the atmosphere.
The fog cover started to swirl.
Everyone on both ships, with the exception of Nami, shouted in unison…
"CYCLONE?!"
章 274: Doflamingo's Gambit
*BOOM*
"Where's the factory?! Let me at it, I'll tear that SUPER sucker to the ground!" Franky gave a great warcry after blowing up the entrance to one of the toy houses.
"""...""" He was met with the silence of a crowd of gladiators, soldiers, and pirates.
"The factory is already taken care of. Made of poor materials and even poorer workmanship, can you believe it?" Cherry informed.
"People don't have the patience to do the job right anymore, hmph." Franky said, with a bit of disappointment that he didn't get to smash it himself.
"Commander Ace!" a pirate shouted and several others rushed forward to meet the young man beside Franky.
"I'm glad you're all alright." Ace greeted them with a somewhat guilty smile. "What do you say we show Doflamingo who he's messing with?"
His crew cheered in response and many others in the crowd also joined in. The sentiment was a common one amongst the former toys.
They all stepped outside into the open air. Some of them with tears in their eyes as they hadn't seen the sky in years.
*Bzzzt*
A large screen nearby buzzed to life and speakers all over the country hummed to life. On the screen, Doflamingo appeared in fresh clothes that weren't stained with his own blood and looked as healthy as he'd ever been. Certainly not like he'd just received the nasty, well deserved beating he had experienced no so long ago, earlier in the day
Doflamingo wore his trademark smile, but there seemed to be less sadistic mirth within it than usual. "Citizens of Dressrosa. I'm afraid to say that the jig is up."
The many people around the kingdom watched and listened with various emotions swirling in their hearts, but mostly hatred towards this pink devil who was responsible for their ten years of horror. Nonetheless, they paid the utmost attention to what he had to say.
"Saboteurs have nearly completely destroyed all my hard work over the last decade to turn the kingdom of Dressrosa into a manufacturing powerhouse. Since the secret of my labor force has been revealed, there is only one path to salvation for all you worthless trash," Doflamingo said, pausing to make sure his insult was properly understood. "Bring me the heads of the fools who dared to trouble me. Only in this way will you save your own lives, so hurry up because I haven't got all day. Or rather, YOU don't have all day. Hehehehehe!"
The screen displayed the faces of the Straw Hats, Ace and the members of his crew that had bounties, Trafalgar Law, and the former one legged toy soldier Kyros, the former royal family, and a slew of other allies such as Bartolomeo. Each had a certain number of stars next to them, indicating the priority that they should be hunted down.
Capturing or killing a one star bounty would allow one person to survive. Two star bounties allowed up to ten to survive. The three or more starred bounties were reserved for those who must ALL be delivered, or else everyone dies with the exception of those who collected a one or two star bounty.
Among the three plus star bounties were Luffy, Ace, Law, and Ex-King Riku with three. Then there was Cabernet with a whopping five stars, showing how annoyed Doflamingo had been with her. Finally there was Cherry, with an enormous ten stars.
"In addition to survival, you'll also gain a generous monetary reward. 100,000,000 Beri for each star collected, aren't I generous? Hehehehe!" Doflamingo laughed until the screen shut off.
A strange sound began to come from the edges of the island. The string cage had started to shift towards the center slowly but surely, slicing through everything in its path.
This naturally instilled a sense of panic in the people of Dressrosa, especially when those with weapons tried and failed to cut through the strings. It became apparent that the strings would continue to converge until the entire country was shredded.
"Why does that bastard look like he's been all healed up? Do they have someone who can do that? Or maybe a body double?" Cherry complained aloud, seemingly unphased by the slowly encroaching, stringy doom or the bounty placed on her head.
"It must be Princess Mansherry! She has the powers of the Heal Heal Fruit!" Leo announced.
Some of the pirates in the crowd were looking at Cherry with conflicted gazes filled with both greed and fear.
Noticing this, Cherry said "Do you idiots really think Doflamingo will spare your lives, let alone pay you the bounties? The only reason he's doing that is because he's terrified of us. He knows he can't win, so he's trying to pit us against each other then he'll kill off the weakened winners."
That immediately dumped a bucket of cold water on the mood of those who were foolishly thinking of going after the bounties. They then recalled the moment Cherry had smashed the sea stone factory walls with one blow.
A collective gulp was heard as many received a reality check and steeled themselves for the battle to come.
Not everyone possessed the ability to think rationally though, especially not in this high stress situation. One such individual was more bold than others because he was a pirate who once had a bounty of 170 million Beri from the marines. Something he earned with brawn and very little brain.
"We outnumber her! Let's kill her together and collect the bounty!" He shouted, charging her with his sword drawn.
'This guy is familiar. Oh, I remember, I saw his wanted poster back when I was a bounty hunter. 'Line Ender' Gaston, wanted for the indiscriminate slaughter of multiple villages, leaving no survivors.' Cherry thought.
Gaston arrived at her seemingly undefended side and swung down with his sword, the ecstasy of victory alight in his eyes.
Cherry waved her hand at him as it to slap him.
*Splat*
Then he wasn't there anymore. His sword clattered to the ground alongside a few bits of fabric. A red smear of blood coated the ground several meters behind where he had just been standing.
"He thought he could face me without haki?" Cherry wondered aloud. "Whatever."
Although she acted like it was a casual attack, that was the full force of her Hasshoken and Internal Destruction Haki. Normally she wouldn't bother with that much against such a weakling, but in this case it would serve as a useful deterrent. Even then, she hadn't anticipated that the idiot wouldn't or couldn't use armament haki.
The man deserved worse for his crimes, so he should count himself lucky for such a quick and merciful end.
The demonstration was a resounding success, as even the most bull-headed fool among them abandoned any thoughts of going against Cherry.
Usopp's eyes were almost bulging out of his head at the sight, then shifted to look at Cherry.
"Don't look at me like that. There are probably a few dozen people in the world who can do the same, so work hard and awaken your armament haki." Cherry said. Usopp nodded quickly, afraid that any hesitance might make his future training worse.
"Did you have to liquify the guy, though?" Ace asked, scratching his head with a disgusted look at the puddle.
Cherry shrugged and Robin rolled her eyes at her from the side. Robin had noted that Cherry had slowly become more willing to kill on occasion during their separation from the rest of the crew. She hoped that now they were together again, that they would have a positive influence against her more murderous tendencies. She preferred the soft and cuddly Cherry over the cold and blood thirsty Cherry.
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