章 448: Wasteland
Hitetsu made Luffy get dressed in some local clothes; a yukata with a rather ugly patch job, though the needle work was well done, so the issue was more with a lack of materials than a lack of skill on the maker's part.
As for Cherry, she was pretty much already wearing something that fit in with the locals. She might draw some attention due to the quality, but she would fit right in at the Flower Capital according to Hitetsu.
"I'm going to borrow this sword, old man. I'll look like a proper samurai!" Luffy declared, stepping out of the house.
"Oh, that's a good one," Cherry commented.
"No, you can't take that one! It is a great grade Meito created by my ancestor; Nidai Kitetsu!" Hitetsu shouted. "Even touching it without reverence will bring its curse down upon you!"
Naturally. Hitetsu was more concerned about Tama than about Luffy. He did not want any of the misfortune that Luffy brought upon himself to affect her by proximity.
Cherry scoffed. Certainly the Meito could be temperamental at times, but none that she had encountered thus far were truly cursed. Not by her definition of the term, anyways. The worst she had seen was that knife that the sheriff on that mushroom island had. Even that only brought out the man's innate bloodthirst, not something that came from the blade itself.
Cherry drew the sword from the sheath that Luffy was holding, causing Hitetsu to gasp in shock. She ran her fingers along the deadly edge as she eyed the blade up close.
"Are you insane?!" Hitetsu charged over and tugged Cherry's hand away from the sword edge forcefully and carefully.
He sucked in a cold breath at what he saw; not even a scratch on the woman's deceptively delicate fingers.
"Relax, old man. Nothing less than a black blade could harm me without the wielder's haki flowing through it," Cherry pulled her hand free from his grasp.
She wasn't angry at him for being rude, since she had deliberately done that to spook him. She actually felt a little bad seeing how concerned he was, even if she believed it was more out of a sense of responsibility for the sword than care for someone he just met.
"Is it even sharp- OW?!" Luffy asked as he touched the tip of the sword with a finger and drew blood instantly.
"Of course it's sharp; it's a sword," Cherry stated whilst giving him a dry look.
Cherry jabbed Nidai Kitetsu at the sheath that Luffy was holding. Hitetsu nearly had a heart attack as he witnessed the most egregious disregard for proper sheathing form he had ever seen. He could only call it a miracle that the cursed blade perfectly slid into place instead of skewering Luffy.
Cherry snickered at the gobsmacked look on Hitetsu's masked face before saying, "Let's get going. This is no time to waste time."
"Onwards!" Luffy recklessly drew Nidai Kitetsu and pointed it inland.
"I can't trust a fool like you with that sword!" Hitetsu shouted, but Luffy was already surging forth, too fast for the old man to keep up with. "Come back here!"
Tama jumped onto the lion-dog-thing's back and raced after Luffy, whilst Cherry kept pace with her captain with light steps.
As Hitetsu's complaints faded into the background far behind them, Luffy would slash at the occasional bamboo stalk that wasn't really in his way at all.
"Are you sure it's okay to let him play with it like that? Master never even let me into the same room as that sword…" Tama spoke in quiet tones, as if afraid that Luffy might overhear and take offense.
"It's fine; let him have his fun," Cherry dismissed her worries with a wave of her hand. "If he lops his own leg off or something, I'll just stick it back on him."
No sooner had Cherry's words left her mouth that they heard a yelp and a thump.
Cherry sighed and Tama screamed at the sight of Luffy on the ground, one leg cut off above the knee. If that wasn't enough, he also managed to accidentally impale himself through the stomach when he fell after losing his balance.
A minute later, they were once again underway. Luffy had decided, for reasons unrelated to his inadvertent amputation, that he was done playing with the sword for the moment.
"My leg feels all tingly, shishishishishi!" Luffy wiggled his toes as he marched along.
"That's because your nerves haven't realized they're reattached yet. Give it a few hours," Cherry advised, receiving a nod from Luffy.
Tama was looking a bit pale and reconsidering her choices in life.
Soon, they found their way out of the bamboo forest and into a vast wasteland. Nearby, they saw a group of beasts chasing one another in a line, but Tama warned against Luffy eating them as they drank from the contaminated water.
"Is that the factory making the meat bad?" Luffy pointed at the horizon where a towering structure spewing smoke could just be seen.
"That's it. They have a mine and a weapons factory there, both heavily guarded by Kaido's forces. We should stay away from them," Tama warned.
"What do they eat and drink if the river and the animals are poisoned?" Luffy complained.
"They have their own farms with fresh water, secreted away where us commoners can't reach it," Tama shook her head.
"If we get desperate, I can just purify the food and water, Luffy. Stop worrying so much about your next meal," Cherry said.
That seemed to satisfy him, so they began their trek across the barren land.
"Hm, looks like Zoro is pretty close. I'd wonder why he's in a place like this, but I think that's obvious," Cherry said as she checked her vivre card book.
"Oh, because he got lost!" Luffy laughed.
Changing directions slightly, they soon saw a cloud of dust being kicked up by a group of riders. Cherry clearly heard the riders jeering at a woman that they were chasing.
'Is my every encounter with the Beast pirates going to have them acting like common bandits?' Cherry wondered with a frown.
Before she could act, however, a lone figure on foot came up quickly behind the group of riders and decimated them in seconds.
"Ah, that's Zoro," Cherry said.
"ZOOOOORRRRROOOOO!!!" Luffy shouted and ran towards the carnage.
"Huh?" Zoro turned as he sheathed his swords amidst the fallen Beast Pirates. The way that his eye lit up and he smiled when he called back "Luffy!" was very cute in Cherry's humble opinion.
Luffy jumped and slammed into Zoro, who managed to keep himself upright.
"It feels like forever since we split up!" Luffy said.
"It's nothing like those two years, though," Zoro acutely pointed out.
"Where's everyone else?" Luffy asked.
"We got separated, but I'm sure they're fine," Zoro answered.
"Do you mean 'we' as in everyone, or 'we' as in just you?" Cherry asked as she caught up with Tama in tow.
"Shut up! Cabernet was the first one to vanish!" Zoro spoke as if that was some grand accomplishment for him.
"Really?" Cherry knew that her little wine barrel was too curious for her own good, but she thought after Alabasta that she had had her fill of wandering off on her own.
"Meat!" Luffy sniffed around a bag at Zoro's waist.
"You can have it. There's plenty of animals running around here to eat," Zoro said.
"You can't eat them! They're poisoned!" Tama shouted.
"Oh, yes, Tama here is quite correct," spoke the woman who had been there the whole time.
Before anyone could ascertain the woman's identity, however, someone else made an appearance.
"The wanted Ronin, Zorojuro, and… Straw Hat? I see, you must be responsible for my missing men?" Basil Hawkins, one of the worst generation, strode up whilst flanked by two dozen Beast pirates.
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