章 454: Dealt A Bad Hand
Cherry paused is her faux revelry. 'Did he really just pass out?'
It was almost laughably absurd. Even more so since the lion was still awake, slowly dragging Holdem's unconscious form towards her. The implications of that were strange, to say the least.
Holdem knocking himself out wasn't part of the plan, though. "Hmmm…"
Cherry pranced over to a food stall and snatched a knife from the hands of its proprietor. Cherry saluted the man, then made her way over to Holdem.
The lion growled at her, but she paid no heed to the half-beast and got to work on… shaving it bald.
It put up one hell of a fight, but it could not match Cherry for strength, nor could its non-haki enhanced claws or fangs do any harm to her.
She took a step back and admired her work. She'd feel bad about this if the lion hadn't been attached to this loser; but as it stood, it was just very funny. Something that the townsfolk seemed to agree with, even as they quickly fled the area to not get roped into trouble.
After leaving the final touch, planting a big flag proclaiming Ushimitsu Kozo's flawless victory and depriving Holdem of his silver, she left the area and ditched her yellow disguise. She didn't reckon the man, whoever he was, would mind her using his identity for this.
Or if he did, she didn't really care. It would only matter if he got caught, and he was probably bound to be executed for his actual crimes anyways.
Checking around the town again, she frowned. "You gotta be kidding me."
Luffy, Zoro, and Law were all heading away from Bakura town with Okiku, Tama, and their new beast pirate ally(?). What surprised her was that Hawkins seemed to be perfectly fine, not lying in a ditch covered in his own blood.
Luffy's habit of not killing his enemies after kicking their asses was fine, the practice had certainly gained him some unlikely allies in the past.
Not fighting them at all when he was in the middle of hostile territory and he had them dead to rights was another thing altogether. What if Hawkins grouped up with more, stronger enemies later and used his odd abilities to turn the tides against him?
"Foolish," Cherry said.
It wasn't ideal, but fortunately Cherry was here to rectify the issue.
*splat*
Cherry wiped the bird poop from her face with a scowl. This was going to get way more annoying before it got better.
When Cherry arrived at the place where Hawkins had been shortly before, she saw several beast pirates that were lying on the ground as well as several of those straw dolls that Hawkins used to save his own ass. The dolls were in a small pile and looked as battered as the men, painting a picture of how they all popped out in quick succession.
"He must have run out of extra lives and decided to flee instead of following them, huh?" Cherry noted.
It was as prudent as it was cowardly.
Cherry began tracking the man down quite quickly as she ran along the rooftops; he didn't have the benefit of that stupid card this time. She wouldn't give him the chance to draw another either.
"Hm?" Cherry paused and dropped to the street below her where she picked something familiar up off the ground.
"HA!" Cherry barked a laugh. In her hand she held Hawkins' deck of cards, proof that her meddling in fate wasn't without worth. She pocketed the cards and continued the chase.
She just so happened to run into him when he turned back to find his lost belongings. No doubt the cards were very important to him now that he only had himself and no men to take his hits for him.
*slip* Blam!*
A roof tile popped loose as she trod on it, sending her tumbling to the street below and tackling Hawkins' off his mount in the process.
"Wha-?!" Hawkins exclaimed, before Cherry clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Looking for these? Hehehehe~" Cherry taunted him with his deck of cards, watching his eyes widen in realization. "What are you going to do now, I wonder? All out of dolls. All out of cards. All out of luck."
"MmMmMmMmm…" Hawkins mumbled, lifting his hands as if to surrender.
"What's that? You'll never give up and fight to the death?" Cherry asked with a devilish smirk.
Hawkins tried to shake his head in denial, only for Cherry to push down harder and prevent any movement.
"You're one stubborn guy, Hawkins. Who knew you were so loyal?" Cherry snickered as his eyes darted about in search of anything or anyone that might save him from this crazy woman. He found none.
"Good night~" Cherry torched the cards and slammed her fist into his head hard enough to pulp a lesser man, but Hawkins' desperate attempt at armament haki saved his life. "Still awake? Try another!"
*BAM!*
This time Cherry hit him hard enough to plant his skull into the cobblestone road beneath it. She had to give him credit where it was due, he was still breathing if very much unconscious. He wasn't counted amongst the worst generation for nothing.
"Now what?" Cherry wondered, rubbing her chin. "He's got that weird scarecrow thing, so breaking bones won't do much good as keeping him out of battle…"
She didn't really want to kill the guy, to be honest. Sure, he tried to take Tama hostage, but without further information she couldn't know if he'd actually have hurt a child. She couldn't just assume the worst because he was a pirate since, well… she was a pirate too, wasn't she?
'He's definitely a chicken who got forcibly recruited, too, so I can't just assume he was awful by association with Kaido…' Cherry was quickly cornering herself by overthinking things.
"Right, I'll just do that!" Cherry nodded, picking Hawkins' up by the collar and taking him somewhere less open.
Instead of sealing his devil fruit, which would alarm the Beast pirates greatly, she would just put a little something extra in there to muddy the waters. The next time he fought somebody, who was most likely to be one of her own allies, then he would be in for a nasty surprise!
"Hehehehehe, I should have thought of this earlier~! This is so much funnier than just sealing them!" Cherry muttered to herself. The best part was that it wasn't even as complicated as the seal was, so she finished it even faster.
Cherry hoped she'd get to see what happened when he did try to use it next. She had no idea herself, only that it would be messy and probably wouldn't kill him. This was mostly due to the nature of paramecia fruit, with their wildly different effects compared to logia and zoan types.
She finally started back to meet up with Luffy and Zoro, racing over land and arriving back in Okobore where an impromptu feast was taking place, courtesy of Luffy and his stolen treasure barge covered in food.
"See, I told you she'd be fine, Zoro!" Luffy said when he saw her.
"I didn't doubt she would be fine. I just didn't know whether to trust that woman's words or not!" Zoro pointed at Okiku semi-accusingly.
"Surely your companion has communicated with hand signs before, no?" Okiku defended herself.
"Hand signs? What hand signs?" Cherry tilted her head in apparent confusion.
"Eh?" Okiku yelped.
章 455: Identity Theft
"Who is this, then?" Cherry asked, pointedly looking in the direction of a woman with the lower half of a horse.
"I am Speed, an officer of the Beast pirates!" Speed declared.
"And, uh, is she on our side?" Cherry asked, understandably confused.
"Yeah! Tama fed her one of her dango!" Luffy supplied the answer.
"... Okay," Cherry accepted. "The implications of that are horrifying, but… okay."
As horrifying as a child casually mind controlling people was, Cherry had to admit that it raised some interesting questions.
Like, does it work on normal animal type Zoan devil fruit users or is it just S.M.I.L.E. fruit users? If it does work on normal zoan types, does it only work when they're transformed? Does it work on every S.M.I.L.E. fruit user or just some of them? Does it also work on the failures?
"Should we use this to turn Kaido's army against him?" Cherry wondered aloud.
"You turned your opinion around awfully quickly, Sakuranbo-san…" Okiku said.
"It would be a better fate than many of them deserve," Cherry spoke bluntly. "Although, I'm not keen on using a child as a weapon against my enemies."
"I agree with the sentiment," Okiku said.
"As much as I enjoy listening to you working out the ethics of mind control, we really should be going soon," Law said.
"Oh? Where to?" Cherry asked.
"The ruins of Oden Castle," Law answered.
Cherry noted that Okiku flinched almost imperceptibly and that she became rather tense, in the way that a warrior did before battle.
"You'll get to meet the ghosts of Wano," Law added ominously.
"Ghosts?" Luffy asked.
"It was really shocking, finding out the truth…" Zoro said.
"Stop being so melodramatic. Ghosts aren't that scary," Cherry said.
"Ghosts are super scary!" Tama piped up.
"Only if you're a little baby," Cherry teased.
"Ghosts aren't a big deal…" Tama changed her tune shamelessly.
Soon the impromptu feast was over and after thanking Luffy, Zoro, and Law profusely a few more times, the people of Okobore went back to their own business.
"Are you sure you don't need my help?" Tama asked, looking like she'd really like to come along.
"We'll be fine on our own. Thanks for everything, Tama!" Luffy refused.
"Well… at least take Komachiyo with you! He's strong and fast, so you can ride him wherever you need to go!" Tama insisted.
"Okay," Luffy agreed instantly. "Take good care of Tama, Horse-face!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" Speed snapped at him. "It's only natural for a servant to take good care of her master! Hmph!"
"Be sure to make that stubborn old man eat his fill, Tama," Cherry waved goodbye to her as Speed raced away with Tama on her back.
"I'll keep borrowing the sword for a little longer!" Luffy called out as well. "Alright, let's go!"
"Excuse me, I'd like to go as well," Okiku quickly raised her hands when multiple sets of eyes landed on her. "I've just always wanted to see the ruins of the castle…"
"Sure thing!" Luffy agreed.
"Wha-?" Law stopped his complaints partway and just grumbled instead, knowing by this point that there was no dissuading Luffy.
"Kiku's cool, and strong too!" Luffy said.
"She's sneakier than she seems, though," Cherry said, not taking any care to avoid being overheard by the person in question.
Okiku didn't know whether to refute that or not, or if doing so would only make her seem more suspicious.
In time, the group managed to reach a large ruin with decades of plant growth over the walls, with a rotting wooden structure atop its solid stone foundation.
At the sight, Okiku seemed to become distraught and hopped off of Komachiyo's back and vanished into the trees. Before anyone might have followed after her, Law called Luffy over to look at something. Cherry was curious as well, so she just kept track of Okiku with Life Sense and followed Luffy.
"Graves?" Luffy tilted his head and squinted his eyes at the faded names carved in the stones. "Huh?!"
Cherry was just as surprised as he was. The graves bore the names of the samurai they had met since entering the New World, but they were as old as the ruins themselves by the look of them.
"Are they dead?!" Luffy asked Law hurriedly. "Is that why we couldn't contact them?!"
"Kin'emon and Momo are hiding in those ruins, though?" Cherry blurted out.
"Really? That's great!" Luffy cheered and bounded over to said ruins.
"Kikunojo…" Cherry narrowed her eyes at the grave bearing that name. "A coincidence, or something more?"
"It'd be best if Kin'emon explained it to you," Law said.
In that moment, Kin'emon hobbled out of the ruins just in time for Luffy to crash into him.
"Kin'emon!" Luffy shouted.
"Luffy-dono?" Kin'emon spoke feebly.
"Kin'emon-sama!" Okiku raced out of the trees, hand grasping the handle of her sword but not yet drawing it.
"Kiku?!" Kin'emon answered, right as she barreled into the pile as well.
"Hm? Do you know each other?" Luffy asked.
"Of course they know each other. They're both pretending to be those dead folks back there, after all," Cherry sauntered over.
"""Eh?""" Luffy, Kin'emon, and Kiku spoke at once.
Law planted his face firmly into one of his palms.
"It's the obvious conclusion. Momo isn't old enough to have faked his death with a grave that worn by time," Cherry said. "It's a good plan. Take the place of a dead, legitimate heir and save the country from its current tyrant so that no one will call you out. Incredible."
"That's not it at all!" "Momonosuke-sama is not a fraud!" Kin'emon and Kiku jumped to their own defense.
"You don't have to play coy with me~ We're still going to help you," Cherry winked with a smile. She joked, "Or what, are you going to tell me you all got thrown forward in time?"
"Yes!" Kin'emon nodded firmly, dead serious.
"Oh," Cherry scratched her head. "Neat."
"Luffy!" Momo appeared from within.
"Momo!" Luffy immediately latched onto the diversion from the complicated conspiracy talk.
"Look, I've been practicing!" Momo started to show off super basic practice swings with a bamboo sword.
"Momonosuke-sama! You're here too!" Kiku forgot all about Cherry in her excitement.
"Oh, Kiku! I'm glad to see you again!" Momo said. "Wait, Luffytaro, did you just say 'Momo'? That's very rude!"
"It's fine, Kiku," Momo persuaded her.
"""Luffy, Cherry, Zoro!""" New shouts came from the forest revealing Sanji, Chopper, Brook, Nami, Jinbe, Carrot, and Pedro.
"You all made it!" Luffy laughed and went to greet them.
"We went looking for you everywhere except the sea!" Sanji half complained. "We knew that Cherry wouldn't let you drown, after all."
"Yeah, you guys just missed us in the bamboo forest," Cherry said.
"Why didn't you come straight to us?!" Nami accused.
"I was just following our captain's lead. Don't blame me," Cherry looked away.
"As if! You were just hoping he would drag you into some trouble, weren't you?!" Nami shouted.
"No comment," Cherry answered.
"Now, now. The important thing is that we're all back together again," Jinbe mediated.
Nami sighed and nodded. Cherry smiled victoriously.
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