章 354: Cat and Mouse
The Whole Cake Chateau, as it was called, was quite the opulent building in Cherry's opinion. She would call it more fanciful than fancy, what with it being styled after an actual cake both inside and out.
Cherry was easily distracted from the almost absurd decoration of the place due to the nearby presence of a monster not so far away within the very same building. Big Mom's vital energy was almost detectable even without using Life Sense, a vague pressure that Cherry could feel as she got closer to where Big Mom was.
Katakuri regarded the woman skipping down the hallways to keep up with his long strides. He frankly wasn't sure what to think of her now. She was responsible for perhaps his only professional failure since he had started working for the family proper over twenty years prior, but now she had done a service for his most precious little sister, completely unprompted no less.
Brulee couldn't keep her eyes off of her own reflection. She had always claimed that the scar didn't bother her at all, but it was undoubtedly the greatest source of the mockery leveled towards her throughout her life. It certainly didn't help her love life, either.
It occurred to him that Harpin D. Cherry could potentially rid her off the scar as well. She had done unbelievable work on Chinjao's head, surely some scar tissue wouldn't be a challenge?
Katakuri couldn't be the one to ask though, no matter how well intentioned. Not at the risk of hurting Brulee's feelings. She had gained that scar because his bullies were too afraid to fight him and targeted her instead. He might as well slap her directly if he was going to ask Cherry to "fix" his sister's face.
Katakuri noticed Cherry was staring at him.
"What is it?" Katakuri asked sternly, but the edge he addressed her with before was mostly gone.
"I'm growing on you, aren't I?" Cherry smiled delightedly.
"Like a fungal infection, perhaps." Katakuri retorted.
"That's too bad for you. No medicine or poison can get rid of me." Cherry snickered.
"I'm not opposed to hacking off a limb if I have to." Katakuri said.
"Huh? Why are you going to hack off a limb, Onii-chan?" Brulee asked.
Katakuri frowned and shook his leg vigorously. Brulee looked down to find Cherry wrapped around his calf.
"Let go." Katakuri commanded.
"But Daaaad, I'm tired~!" Cherry cried out.
"..." Perospero rounded a corner and paused at the strange sights and sounds before him.
""..."" Katakuri and Brulee looked back at him, unable to say anything.
"Oh, hey Uncle Tongue dude!" Cherry waved at him.
"I… wasn't aware you had a child, Katakuri…" Perospero was very confused.
"I don't." "HE DOES~!" Katakuri spoke and Cherry shouted over him.
"Kukuku," Perospero chuckled as he recognised the gremlin clinging to his younger brother's leg. "I see you're being quite tolerant in your efforts to recruit Miss Harpin, brother, but I don't think you need to be THAT tolerant. I do wonder why you've taken this duty upon yourself, though? I understand that Mama had asked Smoothie to be her point of contact with the family?"
Katakuri chopped off his leg, leaving Cherry to fall with it to the floor and get covered with gooey, uncooked mochi. "Geck, gross!"
"I hadn't intended to, but she is unfortunately very nosey. As such, I have determined it to be prudent that I keep an eye on her so that she doesn't cause any trouble." Katakuri said, which was largely the truth.
"He's just being shy. He loves me." Cherry insisted.
"Mhm," Perospero didn't sound convinced. He looked at Brulee and now that he wasn't distracted he took in the changes her appearance had undergone. "Why-?"
"Obviously I changed my looks with my devil fruit, to accentuate my theme. You can hardly judge, can you Nii-san?" Brulee interrupted him, feeling remarkably confident.
"No, I suppose I can't. I'm surprised that you've kept it up for so long, though. Even I have to take a break from the candy theme every now and then." Perospero said.
"My girl Brulee is built different." Cherry said, shaking off the last of the raw mochi from her clothes.
"If you'll excuse us. Our… guest interrupted Brulee's dinner, so we were just going to place an order with the kitchens." Katakuri interjected.
"Of course. Have a nice night, and keep a close eye on our… guest." Perospero bid them goodbye before walking away.
"The way you're saying 'guest' makes me think you're luring me into a trap." Cherry spoke aloud, causing Perospero to stumble slightly. She added, "You shouldn't wear those heels if you can't walk with them. You'll sprain your ankle."
"Good luck, brother." Perospero spoke with as much dignity as he could muster, before disappearing around another corner.
"Piggyback?" Cherry held up her arms.
Katakuri darted down the hall. "I'll meet you in my room, Brulee!"
"Oh, he wants to race does he? Hehehehe~" Cherry exploded into motion, hot on Katakuri's heels.
Cherry knew what this really was. Katakuri wanted to know how fast she was, and so was playing to her own playful nature. All so that he could be perfectly prepared to capture her, when the time came. How devious!
'I need to get away from her before she frays my last nerve.' Katakuri wasn't thinking about that at all.
"Alright, Onii-chan!" Brulee called out to him as he vanished around a corner, Cherry barely a split second behind him.
A teenage girl with a black ponytail and light brown eyes was hidden around a different corner watching it all happen.
"Who is that slut?! Stay away from my Katakuri-nii-san!" The girl chewed her nails in frustration, floating above the floor with an odd, polka dot, balloon dress. "Hmph! I'll deal with you, just wait and see!"
The girl floated away to come up with some nefarious plot against Cherry. A plan that was sure not to have any dire consequences for her.
Cherry reached out to grab Katakuri, but he was already slipping out of her grasp before she could grasp him. She wasn't moving at her full speed, no need to give away valuable information about herself for a game of cat and mouse, so Katakuri was proving to be difficult prey.
Multiple times she tried to grab him, but it was made abundantly clear that he knew what she was going to do before she did it. Stupid precognitive observation haki.
So Cherry did the only thing she could do, given the unspoken rules she had set for herself. Train her observation haki until she could predict and also fool him.
*shwing*
Cherry latched onto a chandelier, ripping it from the ceiling it hung from and threw it at Katakuri. Not enough to actually harm him, but would definitely slow him for an instant if he got hit. Katakuri dodged by changing directions into another pathway rather than lose any speed.
Cherry was there to meet him, leaping towards his chest with her arms outstretched.
*Shloop*
Katakuri parted his mochi body in a perfect shape to allow Cherry to pass straight through him, even adjusting the shape as Cherry flailed to catch a grip on him.
Cherry laughed, "That's so damned cool!"
'If I don't catch him before he gets to those kitchens, then I'm training all night!' Cherry resolved herself. Though, it would be Katakuri who suffers as her unwilling training partner.
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