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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