章 322: Mighty Beast
Cherry landed on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. She immediately took note of the fact that her sunflower seems to have spread its celestial energy to the lawn, Nami's tangerine trees, and Usopp's garden.
'Its spreading a lot faster than I anticipated. Even in the myriad realms, most plants didn't take to celestial energy this easily. The plants of this world must be built different, just like the people…' Cherry mused.
"Cherry! Carina tricked us! Shishishi!" Luffy told her, as if it were just a funny joke he heard.
"Carina tricked you, you mean. I knew what she was up to the moment that fake countdown appeared. Why would that asshole give such ample time to escape before blowing up everything he owns? Or even let you know it was going to happen at all?" Cherry said.
A few of them blushed at the realization and others chuckled at how they all got caught up in the panic of the situation.
"Wait… did you…?" Nami asked with growing anticipation.
"Spend the last ten minutes collecting our share of the loot?" Cherry smirked at her. "I might have taken a bit more than that, but Carina broke the deal first, hehe."
"Oh, I could kiss you, you devil~!" Nami grabbed her in a bear hug and twirled around with her. She then let go and took a quick step back and clarified, "I won't, but I could."
"Wait, where are you keeping it all?" Law spoke up.
"Pockets." Cherry patted her jean pockets as if that explained everything, much to Law's confusion.
Seeing the rest nod like they understood what was going on, he felt a bit helpless.
"Oh right. I finished your armor " Cherry said, a pink set of full plate manifesting around her body. She started to pull more sets of armor out of pockets that should be much too small to hold such things.
Law understood now.
"Hey, Luffy!" Sabo's voice called out from a passing ship. After a brief exchange (they didn't have too much to say since they only just parted ways a couple days ago), Sabo gave his thanks to Cherry for helping get Raise Max out of trouble, as did the man himself.
They used a Coup de Burst to easily escape from the few pursuing marine ships. Cherry honestly wondered if they were missing all their cannon shots on purpose, or if they really were that incompetent.
The Big Mom pirates, who had been waiting nearby all night for the Straw Hats to leave, cursed at the missed chance to intercept them. That only left Pekoms with one choice to deliver Sanji's wedding invitation; Zou.
…
"Hmm, it should be pretty close." Cherry said, holding the Zou vivre card.
It had only been a couple of hours since they left the Gran Tesoro and they were already quite close to their original goal before they had been side tracked by the floating casino.
That was largely due to the help of Takako in pulling the ship along at a much faster pace that could also ignore the whims of the Grand Line's erratic winds and currents. Nami's skills were hardly useless, though, as only she could predict the more dangerous weather phenomenon, allowing them to avoid most of them entirely.
The fog came first, similar to but also different from the fog that permeated the Florian Triangle. Not as dark and overbearing, but equally unnatural.
After that, Cherry felt it. The deep thrumming of an ancient heart, pushing and pulling a veritable ocean of dense vital energy.
When Cherry had first regained her wits in this world, she had compared her new body to that of a dragon. She was mostly being metaphorical then, but with this creature they were swiftly approaching? It was truly comparable to a dragon.
'It's thick with impurities, though.' Cherry concluded.
The heavens were always fair. Humans fought bitterly to elevate themselves just to reach the starting point of creatures like this, but these creatures had to spend an enormous amount of effort and time to purify their massive energy stores and reach their full potential.
As for the island sized elephant that slowly came into view, it clearly hadn't refined its vital energy at all; making it slow and stubborn like tar, if the elephant even knew how to use it. Cherry doubted that it did.
"Woahohohoho~! Look how big it is!" Luffy exclaimed.
"The Grand Line always finds a way to surprise, doesn't it?" Robin giggled.
"I heard about it from Bepo, but even then it's remarkable to see with my own eyes." Law remarked. "If all went as planned, my crew should be here already."
Even Caesar seemed to be fascinated by the sight. Although his mutterings about poisons suggested his interest in the beast was far from innocent.
"I've heard this place is home to a race who hate humans." Kanjuro mentioned.
"The Minks, yes. They've kept humans away from their home for over a thousand years." Law added.
"""A thousand years?!""" Their awe was renewed and intensified by that fact.
"I've seen bigger AND older." Cherry said, unimpressed.
"Yeah, right! I know an outlandish lie when I hear one. I'm a master, after all." Usopp seemed smug about that for some reason.
The ship sidled up to one of the hind legs of the gargantuan elephant and they tied the ship to it. The slow pace of the great beast wouldn't cause any harm to the Thousand Sunny as it was dragged along in its wake.
"How do we get up there?" Chopper wondered aloud.
"Leave that to me!" Kanjuro declared confidently.
Kanjuro whipped out his large brush and painted on the deck. When he finished, a "dragon" that looked more like a pig sprung to life from two to three dimensions. The way it trembled was so pathetically adorable that Robin could barely contain herself.
"Climb on, he's quite dependable," Kanjuro claimed.
Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Robin, and the three samurai clambered on, but there was no more room for anyone else and frankly the dragon was already struggling.
"We'll make a return trip for the rest-" Kanjuro paused as he looked over.
Everyone else was standing on the deck of a ship with black wings; Cabernet.
"We'll see you at the top then. You sure you don't want to come with us, Robin?" Cherry asked, looking amused.
Robin shook her head vigorously; as if she'd give up this opportunity!
"Okay, see you later~" Cherry waved at them as Cabernet quickly lifted into the sky, reaching the elephant's back in less than half a minute. Cabernet quickly vanished over the top, leaving the group on the 'dragon' alone.
"""...""" Most of them felt like they'd been tricked somehow, despite the fact that they had known that Cabernet is a flying ship and that they were the ones who had impatiently alighted the 'dragon's' back.
Two of them felt differently. Luffy was literally bouncing in excitement and Robin, while less animated than Luffy, shared in his delight.
"Let us be off! Onwards, Ryunosuke!" Kanjuro pointed towards the top heroically.
Ryunosuke let a puff of poorly drawn smoke out from his snout and started his mighty charge up the elephant's leg, which would undoubtedly go down in history as the greatest feat of climbing the world has ever seen!
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