บท 103: Pacifista
Cabernet went to the ship to pick up Camie, as it would be safer to leave her in someone else's care. Serene and Merry stayed on the Thousand Sunny.
"'Shakky's Rip-off Bar', how delightful." Cherry liked the blunt honesty of it.
They went inside and got settled down from all the excitement. An Admiral would be arriving on the archipelago soon given the distance between this place and Marine Headquarters, so they wouldn't be sticking around for too long.
"I'm back Shakky!" Rayleigh called out.
"Oh my, what happened to Hacchan?!" A thin woman with a black bob haircut, presumably 'Shakky', asked.
Shakky closed down the bar, not that there were any customers around.
"I'll introduce myself properly. I'm Silvers Rayleigh, former right hand of Gol D. Roger." Rayleigh said nonchalantly.
"EHHHH?! You were on the pirate king's ship?!" Luffy became an instant fan boy.
"You didn't realize that?" Robin asked, whilst everyone else felt silly for not putting two and two together before now.
"Ah! That's where I recognized you from!" Cherry pointed at him. "Old Man Chinjao complained about you all the time!"
"Oh, you know Chinjao? I heard a while back that his head was restored and he re-entered the Grand Line. Caused quite the stir." Rayleigh said.
"Oh, I'm the one who fixed his head. In exchange I got to learn Hasshoken, pretty sweet deal right?" Cherry spoke proudly.
"Haha, it is quite the deal. Although Chinjao was never taken seriously by those at the top, he's not weak by any means."
They chatted about how Hachi had saved Rayleigh's life after being shipwrecked long ago and about how Gold D. Roger hadn't been captured, but rather turned himself in as he had a terminal disease. In doing so he was able to set off the next age of piracy with his dying words. They talked about Crocus, the lighthouse keeper at the entrance to the Grand Line and how he had been the doctor of Roger's ship.
"One of the people in the plaza that day was Shanks, you're familiar with him right? You have his straw hat after all." Rayleigh observed.
"You know Shanks?" Luffy asked, stuffing his face with meat.
"He and another man named Buggy, who should be a pirate in East Blue, were cabin boys on our ship." Rayleigh said.
"Shanks was on the Pirate King's ship?!" Luffy exclaimed.
They finished up their meal and drinks, then Rayleigh stood up.
"Well, I should be getting started on coating your ship. I won't charge since you're Hachi's friends." Rayleigh offered generously.
"Rayleigh, I have a question..." Robin stopped him. "Just what is the 'Will of D'? I saw the words Roger left behind in Skypeia carved in the ancient language. Do you know what happened during the void century?!"
Robin was getting uncharacteristically excited and tense.
"Yeah, we found out what happened during the void century. However, I think you should slow down and take your time. Travel the world. Maybe we, and Ohara too, were going too fast. Even if I tell you what I learned, there's nothing you can do about it as you are. Who knows, perhaps you'll come to a different conclusion than we did. Still, I'll tell you if you really want to know." Rayleigh said.
Robin sighed. "No, that won't be necessary."
Rayleigh smiled. "You'll get there someday. What happened at Ohara sickens me. We were just pirates, not scholars, we didn't really understand those words. We just heard... the voice of all things, that was all..."
"Wait, Rayleigh! Is the One Piece real?! Is it really on the last-" Usopp asked on the edge of his seat.
"USOPP! I don't want to know where it is, or even if it's real!" Luffy said angrily. "If I find out now, I'll quit being a pirate! I don't want to go on a boring adventure!"
Usopp stumbled over an apology, understanding Luffy's meaning.
"Well, it's probably that the real One Piece is the friends you made along the way." Cherry said with a smirk.
"Don't say that, you'll jinx it!" Luffy redirected his anger towards Cherry whilst she laughed at his antics.
"Can you do it? You can't imagine what the Grand Line has in store for you. The enemies will be stronger than you could ever dream of. Can you control that wild sea?"
"I don't want to control it! The Pirate King is just the freest man on the sea!" Luffy replied, earning a smile from Rayleigh and Shakky.
"I guess you're not just going to say it outright, are you old man?" Cherry said, drawing everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Nami asked.
"He's been dropping hints this whole time, but he won't say it directly because he doesn't want to influence your 'adventure'. The New World is too much for you guys right now, so you should take it slow and get stronger first." Cherry stated bluntly. She was honestly of the same opinion.
"What?! But we're so much stronger than we were when we first entered the Grand Line!" Usopp insisted.
"You guys can go right now if you really want to, but I won't follow you in. Even with all my strength, I'm not that arrogant to think I belong in that sea just yet." Cherry said resolutely. "I know exactly what sorts of monsters dwell beyond that giant red wall. Facing them head on without the strength or the backing of someone with the strength is tantamount to suicide."
This sudden proclamation caught them off guard and they had no choice but the consider her words seriously.
Even the usually headstrong Luffy had to stop and think about her words. If Cherry was anyone else perhaps he would have dismissed them as overly cautious, but he knew Cherry was just about reckless and crazy as he was. He glanced at Rayleigh, but the old man had quite the poker face and surrendered no opinion on the matter.
"Well, it'll take 3 days at least to finish the coating, so you have some time to think. First thing's first, you have survive the admiral that going to be here soon." Rayleigh said.
"The admiral that is already here." Cherry corrected, causing the others to snap out of their stupor.
"We should split up and meet back here in three days." Zoro suggested, this was accepted by the group, though Sanji didn't miss the chance to mock his poor directional awareness.
Rayleigh split up a sheet of vivre card material so they could find him when the time came. Camie and Hachi thanked them for their help once again, then they set off to figure out what to do with themselves for three days.
Cherry could hear the sounds of battle around the archipelago. The admiral in particular was making quite the cacophony, and he was fast. Faster than Cherry ever imagined the people in this world could move, even lightning didn't compare.
A heavy figure landed on the ground in front of them.
"Kuma?!" Zoro shouted, drawing his swords.
"That's not Kuma." Cherry said.
"What do you mean?! He looks like Kuma to me?!" Franky asked.
The fake Kuma took off his gloves and fired a beam of intense light at them. Luffy jumped out of the way and the area behind him exploded.
Cherry released her sword which snaked into the fake Kuma's body and wreaked havoc on its robot components, which made up most of its body. It jerked around trying and failing to maintain control of itself as smoke started to spill out from it. Eventually it collapsed after a couple tens of seconds, proving to be remarkably resilient to electric based attacks.
"Did you kill him?" Nami asked.
"IT is still alive, if you can call it that. All I did was fry to robotic parts." Cherry said. "I can't imagine who would even bother making a cyborg in this way when it doesn't possess a will of its own."
Cherry had sensed the faint vital energy within, but her observation haki sensed nothing from it, suggesting it lacked free will.
"There might be more than one of these things. With armament haki you should be able to damage them, but you haven't all awakened that." Cherry said.
"Should we hide the body before we leave?" Sanji suggested.
"That'll take time we don't have. That guy is pretty fast after all, I think the fake Kuma must have alerted him." Cherry said.
"Who-" Chopper could finish before a man dress like a sumo wrestler with a giant, double sided battleaxe landed nearby with another fake Kuma.
"You guys did a real number on PX-4, huh. These Pacifista cost as much as a battleship to build, too. It'll be a pain to write a report for Vegapunk about this." The sumo man said.
Cherry looked at the axe the man was holding with scorn. The craftmanship was familiar to her of course.
"Where did you get that axe, friend?" Cherry voice had a sinister and cold undertone.
"I won't be answering any of your questions. I have the best guard in the world, no secrets can escape my well guarded mouth." He said.
"What's you name?" Chopper asked.
"I already told you! I'm the one with the best guarded mouth in the world, Sentomaru!" Sentomaru stated. "That was an accident, I wasn't answering your question."
"Begin, PX-1." Sentomaru commanded, and the pacifista beside him attacked immediately.
Cherry's sword flashed into its body and once more wreaked havoc. Sentomaru clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"I don't bear any grudges against you, but don't think I'll let you get away that easily!" Sentomaru said.
He blocked that attacks from Luffy and the others seemingly with ease. Still he was alone against all of them, so they had some confident at breaking through.
Cherry didn't consider Sentomaru a real threat. His haki was more refined that her own, but Hasshoken was designed to penetrate defenses no matter how strong.
Cherry sensed someone appear almost instantly behind her and a kick slammed into her head before she could react.
"It's too late for you now." Admiral Borsalino said with a lazy tone.
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