บท 159: East Blue Marine Headquarters
Belo Betty sat bound to a chair with sea stone chains across from an old marine in silence for quite a while before deciding to speak up.
"This won't work, you know." Betty declared.
Another moment passed in silence.
"No, I think it will." The old marine stated with full confidence.
"They won't come for me. It's obvious that this is a trap." Betty said.
"They will come." The old marine responded.
Silence again.
"Aren't you supposed to be retired?" Betty asked.
"Yes, but you revolutionaries are a problem that I left behind. So I don't mind getting involved in something like this." The old marine said.
"Shouldn't you go patrol or something?" Betty asked.
"No, I think I'll stay right here. I know exactly how sneaky you revolutionaries are." The old marine denied.
Betty huffed, annoyed by this old coot who should have been living it up on some beach somewhere instead of meddling in marine affairs during his retirement.
…
High above the East Blue marine headquarters.
Cabernet hid amongst the clouds in the black night sky, nearly impossible to spot and those they were capable of doing so would rarely think to look straight up.
"So, the plan is that I will go in first. I'll find the admiral and draw them away from Betty, then I'll signal Cabernet so that you three can extract her with greater ease." Cherry said.
""Right."" Perona and Robin said, sounding confident. Though Perona's legs were trembling.
"Great. See you guys later!" Cherry said, tipping herself over the edge of Cabernet's deck into a free fall towards the marine base.
Cherry reduced her presence and opened up all of her senses to collect as much information about the defensive forces in the marine base as possible before she reached it.
As she came into range of her Life Sense, she made note of the strongest individuals and searched for Betty's location.
When she found where Betty was being held, she scowled with annoyance.
She found Betty alright, but who she found her next to made all of this more complicated.
'At least it isn't Borsolino, but… damn it.' Cherry thought to herself.
Cherry slowed her descent at the last second and landed on a rooftop.
Betty was being held beneath the ground floor and likewise that was where her target happened to be.
Cherry found a female marine and instantly dragged her away to a hiding place. She stripped her marine uniform off of her and put it on after tying up the woman quite well and firmly gagging her.
She didn't knock her out in case someone with a particularly sensitive Observation Haki was paying attention to the regular marines. If so, they would immediately sense when she had lost consciousness.
Cherry utilized Seimei Kikan that she had learned from CP9 to alter the appearance of her face to something that would not be recognised as herself as well as making her voice deeper and huskier. She finished the look with a pair of sunglasses to hide her piercing eyes.
Cherry walked through the hallways of the base, finding her way to the basement level. As she went along, several of the marines gave her confused looks before going about their duties.
"Where are you going off to, seaman?" A marine stopped her.
She quickly glanced at the insignia of his rank.
"I need to take a dump, Lieutenant!" Cherry answers in a voice reminiscent of a young man whilst saluting in the most serious manner she could manage.
"Ugh, fine. No need for so much detail, seaman. Hurry up then return to your duties quickly." The lieutenant allowed her to pass.
Thankfully the toilets were actually in this direction, otherwise she might have put the man on guard immediately.
Cherry found a set of stairs that went down to the basement level and proceeded to sneak her way down them. They would likely become suspicious of her if she was caught wandering around down here.
Dodging the patrols proved to be easy enough, but she supposed that was normal as they would be most confident about their last line of defense.
"I can't believe I get to meet him! This is so exciting! I never thought I'd be in such a good mood to deliver food to a superior!" A low ranking marine muttered to himself whilst carrying a tray with two dinners on it. One was simple whilst the other looked quite good.
Cherry dropped down behind the boy from the ceiling and clenched her hand tightly over her mouth and dragged him into a nearby closet. After gagging him and wrapping him in the metal from one of the storage shelves, she took the tray of food and headed towards her destination in the open.
A couple of burly looking marines guarded the door to the holding cell.
"I-I h-have f-food h-here f-for…" Cherry stuttered.
The guards got the hint and let her go inside with the tray, snickering derisively at the stuttering young lad.
Once inside, she was presented with the sight of the familiar figures of her rescue target, Belo Betty, and of the former Fleet Admiral, Sengoku the Buddha.
"Hm? Oh, our dinner is here." Sengoku said nonchalantly.
"Y-yes, sir! It's an honor to m-meet you, sir!" Cherry salutes, looking nervous and fighting a goofy smile that was trying to form.
"Bring it here then. Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors and at night, son?" Sengoku asked casually, thinking this young man was rather odd. He figured the boy might have a bright future ahead of him, seeing as most who reach the top ranks had their quirks.
"It's because I can't alter the appearance of my eyes, sir!" Cherry answered.
It took a brief moment for Sengoku to register the strangeness of those words as his dinner was sent flying into the air behind the young marine. The young man's hand had pulled off the sunglasses as a devilish smile spread across "his" face.
Sengoku barely managed to transform into his golden buddha form as powerful fist slammed into his big belly.
*GONG!!!*
*CRASH*
Sengoku crashed into the wall behind him as the sound of Cherry's fist hitting his golden belly reverberated throughout the entire marine base and for several kilometers out to sea.
He wasn't expecting this level of power from the girl he last saw at the Summit War of Marineford. Thankfully, he wasn't the sort to underestimate his enemies.
"Hoowee! You're one tough old coot, aren't ya? Hehehehehe!" Cherry giggled.
That punch was close to the strongest she could dish out right now. She could tell it had rattled him quite fiercely, but even then he stood up like it was no big deal.
"That's a zoan type for you, I guess." Cherry concluded.
"Don't think us old folks are weak just because Garp went easy on you, young lady. I'm certainly not going to." Sengoku spoke angrily.
His anger wasn't directed solely at Cherry, but also at himself for falling for such a trick. Perhaps retirement had made him relax too much.
"That's good. I've gotten stronger since then and I really needed to test myself against somebody." Cherry said. "Now, would you like to move this elsewhere or shall we drag all your marines into our fight?"
Sengoku scowled. He knew what she was plotting. She must have allies waiting to take Belo Betty away after they leave. However, he didn't want to sacrifice loyal marines as collateral damage either.
He glanced at Belo Betty, considering just killing her now to ensure she didn't escape. However, at that moment he felt an intense bloodlust from Cherry. Her way of telling him that Betty's death would result in a massacre of the marines, likely leaving him and the stronger officers as the only survivors.
He didn't know if her threat was real or not. In the end, he decided that he could only trust in the marines here to safeguard their prisoner. At the very least, he would capture this young pirate before she grows even further.
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