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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章 449: Fortunes

"Do you have any idea who controls this country from the shadows?" Hawkins asked in an almost bored tone.

"Don't know," Zoro answered.

"It's me, obviously," Cherry said.

"It's Kaido! I'm here to kick his ass!" Luffy shouted.

"We're not supposed to know that, Luffy. Kin'emon told us to lay low," Zoro corrected.

"I'm just kidding, I don't know!" Luffy shouted.

"The cards say that your probability of being alive one month from now is…" Hawkins blinked a few times. "Eighty seven percent???"

Hawkins was baffled by that. These fools were standing against Kaido! How were their odds of survival so high?

"Ah, I see." Hawkins had an epiphany. "It seems that you're all talk, Straw Hat. As soon as the going gets tough, you'll bow your head before an emperor even faster than anyone."

That was the only sensible conclusion that one could come to when it involved an emperor of the sea. Unfortunately for Hawkins, he only read the newspaper for the horoscopes.

*Donk!*

Hawkins got hit on the forehead by a flying scabbard, thrown by Luffy. "Don't underestimate me! I'll be king of the pirates!"

"Don't throw the scabbard!" Zoro yelled at his captain.

The Beast pirates didn't take kindly to someone attacking their boss and promptly charged.

Tama let out a little yelp of fear and hid behind her lion-dog-thing where she found the woman that Zoro saved already hiding. "It's a nice day today, isn't it Tama?"

Luffy proceeded to start punching low level pirates with his sword hand, much to Zoro's consternation. Cherry just thought it was funny, but also interesting that no matter how wildly Luffy swung the sword about, he never accidentally slashed anyone.

"So much for a cursed sword," Cherry snorted. "Maybe it's cursed to never cut anyone?"

"Um, are you going to help?" Tama asked tentatively.

"Against those losers? The boys can handle them easily," Cherry dismissed the notion. "That's why I'm standing next to the potential hostages, so they can fight in peace."

"Tactically sound, if a bit cowardly…" the woman muttered.

"I don't see you out there, lady," Cherry said with a raised eyebrow. "Besides, it isn't cowardly. It's cheap!"

"Cheap…?" the woman didn't get it.

After one of Zoro's flying slashes should have killed Hawkins and one of Hawkins' men fell over with the same wound he should have received instead, Cherry started to pay more attention to the battle.

These sorts of weird and wacky paramecia fruit were Cherry's favorite to observe. They gave her far more interesting data points than most Zoans and Logias did, which helped her to map out the inscription language and patterns.

A little straw doll popped out of Hawkins arms as he remarked that the attack was impressive. It wasn't actually all that impressive when using Zoro as the standard, so Cherry reckoned that Hawkins was way too used to being 'invincible'. Just like many Logia users who meet their first haki user, Hawkins was in for a rude awakening.

Though he should have already received one, courtesy of Kaido or his men, so Cherry reckoned he must either be pretty stupid or he folded immediately without a fight.

A beast pirate chose that moment to attack Cherry from behind after 'successfully' sneaking around. Cherry grabbed him, slammed him into the ground. The man screamed as he slowly started to sink beneath the earth, before being muffled and finally silenced.

The woman and Tama watched the process of the live burial in both fascination and horror. The fact that the ground was not disturbed at all made them doubt that they even witnessed it at all.

"What?" Cherry asked. "Does he deserve a warrior's death after trying to stab me in the back?"

"I… suppose not…" The woman admitted.

*Puff!*

An arm burst from the ground and waggled about desperately, clawing at the ground in an attempt to dig himself out. Cherry didn't bother to stop him. If he managed to get out and still attacked her, then she'd give him the death that he was begging for.

Tama and the woman stepped away from the arm warily.

A large straw figure was produced from Hawkins' straw sword. An ominous aura radiated around the figure and had the appearance of something evil and unnamable.

"Let us play a game of cards," Hawkins announced.

Cherry saw the fighting slow to a halt and wondered why in the world Luffy and Zoro were stopping too. Letting a strange opponent use his strange techniques was always a bad idea, however entertaining it may turn out to be.

Hawkins drew a card from a Tarot deck. "Strength."

Suddenly all the Beast pirates swelled up, muscles bulging beneath their skin. They surged forth with their newfound power. They were still no match for the likes of Luffy and Zoro, but they weren't going down as easily as before now.

"What the heck?! Why are the weaklings not so weak anymore?!" Luffy grumbled. "It's that weird guy's doing! I'll kick your ass!"

Cherry's brow furrowed. The fates shifted ever so slightly just then, at the very instant that Hawkins drew the card.

Hawkins drew a second card. "The Moon."

There it was again, Cherry noted. She wondered what the effect would be this time-

*Stab*

Cherry turned her head to see the man she had buried, now very much unburied, sticking his sword into her back with a shit eating grin plastered over his face. He opened his mouth to speak, probably to say something wildly arrogant, but Cherry grabbed his jaw and clenched on it painfully before he could.

"If you explain how you snuck up on me, then I promise not to cut out your tongue and pull out your teeth one by one," Cherry said.

She shattered the sword to drive home the point that he didn't have any other choices to make.

When Cherry slackened her grip slightly, he quickly began to spill his boss' secrets.

"It's the cards! He must'a drawn the moon card, I think! It lets some of us pull off impossible sneak attacks!" the beast explained as best as he could.

Cherry nodded, then stuck him back in the ground. Deeper this time.

"This is very strange," Cherry remarked out loud. "It's a good thing Hawkins is so pathetic, otherwise he'd be a very dangerous man."

Cherry's Life Sense had never stopped since the battle started, nor did she even lose sight of the beast pirate that she buried. It was as if she simply stopped paying attention to him until the instant that he was stabbing her. Fortunately, it seemed like she was the only one affected this time, as neither Zoro or Luffy had received such sneak attacks.

'Okay, just one more, then I'll step into the mix since neither Luffy or Zoro has decided to get serious yet.' Cherry decided quietly.

Hawkins didn't disappoint, drawing another card. "Wheel of Fortune, reversed."

Cherry blinked. She was standing behind the Beast pirates with the Lion-dog-thing, and Hawkins on his mount was now standing next to the mystery woman and Tama.

Both were snatched up off the ground before they even realized what just happened and now rested in the hands and at the mercy of the straw man.

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