บท 350: Hostage Extraction
"When are you going to get off of my ship?" Bege asked bluntly, clearly annoyed.
Cherry had been hanging around his ship, pulling "harmless" pranks on his crew, and otherwise just being a general nuisance. Now here she was, sitting at his dining table, casually eating his luxury cuts of steak by the pound instead of by the ounce.
Bege's right hand man glared at her from across the table, even less pleased with the woman's presence than Bege himself. That may or may not have anything to do with the fact that Cherry had turned the tattoos on his face and hands upside down because they "look nicer this way~".
"I'll get off when we get to Whole Cake Island of course." Cherry spoke with half a mouth full of filet mignon. "You don't expect me to swim to shore do you? I am a devil fruit user, you know."
"Then how did you get on my ship to begin with?" Bege asked 'politely'.
"I boarded when you kidnapped my pet lion-turtle, of course. When else would I have done so?" Cherry explained.
"I'm not your pet, Gao!" Pekoms rejected vehemently.
"I don't know, shortly before you took my wife hostage? Why would you wait to make a move if you had boarded sooner?" Bege countered her 'answer with a question' with one of his own, ignoring Pekoms.
"To mess with you." Cherry answered simply, chugging a large mug of apple cider.
"Don't talk about such things over dinner, dear." Chiffon lightly chided Bege, making him grumble in dissatisfaction before cutting into his own steak.
Vito similarly decided not to bother with Cherry any longer, especially since Chiffon would not be as forgiving towards him as she was towards her beloved husband.
"So what's it like living in Totto Land? You get sick of everything being made of sweets yet?" Cherry asked no one in particular.
"I was born here so it doesn't bother me any, but those who have moved here like my darling have said you get used to it after a while. Though there are a lot of poor diet related health problems that the people have to deal with. Dentists in particular make quite a lot of money here." Chiffon answered conversationally, feeding a bottle to little Pez that was stylized like a cigar. Cute.
"Dental health has been a strong focus of Chopper's since he joined up with us. I should let him know to look into it while he's here." Cherry said, using a spoon to catapult peas at Vito.
"Speaking of dentists, what's Katakuri been up to for the last year or so?" Cherry asked.
"What do dentists have to do with Katakuri?" Bege asked, confused.
"Nothing, I suppose~" Cherry said, unconvincingly.
"Ever since he returned from an auction empty handed a little more than a year ago, he's been pushing himself quite hard with his training. Harder than usual, I mean, which is honestly terrifying. He's the most dangerous variable in trying to kill Big Mom, by far." Bege sipped some wine. His eyes flicked up to meet Cherry's lazy gaze. "Why? Are you planning to take him out? Boost your name and notoriety into the big leagues?"
Cherry giggled mirthfully. "He's that serious huh? I can't wait to see him again. I wonder if he'll attack me on sight~?"
"???" They were confused at first, then they understood. Chiffon asked tentatively, "Were you the one that took the soda soda fruit…?"
Cherry didn't answer, instead bringing out a strange revolver modeled after a soda bottle from out of seemingly nowhere. She leveled it at Vito and pulled the trigger before anyone could react.
*PSSSHHH!!!*
Vito was hit and knocked out of his seat by a fire hose worth of grape soda, soaking his entire body in wet sugar and staining his clothes purple.
Pez laughed and clapped his little hands at the sight, filling Cherry with a strange sense of pride.
"Damn it, that's it!" Vito shot to his feet leveling his own pistol at Cherry.
"No guns at the dinner table!" Chiffon scolded.
"But- but she- !" Vito looked between her and Cherry, feeling wronged and very sticky.
"Pez can't handle indoor gun shots with his widdle ears!" Chiffon said, accepting no argument from the man.
Vito was thus defeated. He sat his chair back upright and plopped himself down in it. His meal had been in the splash zone of the grape soda, so he started poking at it with his fork without eating.
"Serves you right, gao." Pekoms said. It was Vito who had taken him by surprise and kidnapped him. Otherwise there was no way he'd lose to Bege, no matter how many men he brought!
"Tell me about Big Mom. What's her whole deal, hm? What kind of powers does she have?" Cherry asked, tucking away Fizzy Pop.
"You came here without even knowing that? Are you stupid?" Bege asked.
"You stole my kitty cat without even knowing I could kick a thousand of your asses at once?" Cherry shot back.
"Could not." Bege denied.
"Could too!" Cherry shouted.
"I'm not your pet, GAO!" Pekoms chimed in.
"Could you not act like children?" Chiffon huffed.
"I'm a grown ass woman, I'll act like a child if I want to!" Cherry declared. She flipped the entire table, which coincidentally had it land on top of Vito. Definitely not what she was aiming for.
Pez clapped and laughed.
"Sweet mother of pearl, please send someone else to save me. Anyone." Pekoms sighed.
*Knock Knock*
A firm knock on the door was soon followed by it opening for one of Bege's men.
"Don! Whole Cake Island is on the horizon, we'll be there within the hour!" the goon reported with a salute, then saw himself out of the room respectfully.
"About damn time." Bege muttered. "I believe we still have to resolve the issue that is Pekoms."
"There is no issue. I'll take Pekoms with me, he'll keep his mouth shut about your plotting, and you get to go on your merry way without me making things difficult for you." Cherry stated firmly.
"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it, then?" Bege sneered.
"You don't trust me?" Cherry smirked.
"Absolutely not." Bege spoke unhesitantly.
"That sounds like a 'you' problem." Cherry said, half amused.
The walls of the room opened up suddenly. Dozens of Bege's men had various hand held firearms trained on Cherry, and even had a few cannons doing the same. Chiffon took Pez with her out of the room, sending a slightly sorry look Cherry's way as she did so. Cherry made no moves to stop her; Chiffon had been nothing but pleasant towards her after all.
"Now you've got a choice to make, Cheapshot. Leave Pekoms to his fate, or share it with him." Bege smiled.
"Yeah, okay. You got me." Cherry said, Bege's smile deepened. "Just let me get one last cuddle with my putty tat~"
Cherry wrapped her arms around Pekoms who was too focused on the armaments aimed at them to resist.
*CRASH*
The space where Pekoms was sitting whilst Cherry held him was now empty. Only the hole through the ceiling showing the open sky giving any indication that they hadn't just vanished into thin air.
"Well, shit." Bege lit a cigar and took a deep puff off of it to calm his nerves. He really hoped that Cherry didn't just rat them out for shits and giggles. Probably not, he could tell that she liked Chiffon and Pez at least. "No risk, no glory."
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