บท 389: Reiju's Mind
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Reiju declined. "On account of the augments being quite thoroughly embedded in my psyche."
"I don't see the issue; if anything, that only makes it easier. I'd need Chopper's help if we had to do brain surgery to remove something physical." Cherry said.
Reiju glanced at Sanji as if to ask "What is she on about?", to which Sanji shrugged his shoulders. She turned her attention back to Cherry, "What do you mean remove them? Are you saying you could do that?"
"I'm not making any promises, aside from promising not to mess with something if I don't understand it. A friendly acquaintance of mine is under similar circumstances and I wasn't able to help him immediately, but he's in a far worse position than you are I'd bet." Cherry sounded confident.
She did, however, neglect to mention that this would be the first time she was poking her nose into someone's else's mind since reaching the transcendent realm. Provided that you excluded the den den mushi collective mindscape of course.
"You wouldn't be able to look at my memories would you?" Reiju asked, still feeling skeptical; but she did just have a devil fruit user replace her memories, so this wasn't THAT outrageous.
"Well… I could, but that wouldn't be necessary unless the control is tied to a particular memory, which I suspect it isn't. Judge doesn't seem like the subtle manipulation type." Cherry admitted.
Reiju was having trouble making a decision. On the one hand, having a stranger peer into your head made her uncomfortable, no matter how cute that stranger was. On the other, she really, REALLY wanted to be out from underneath Judge's thumb.
"Whatever, just do it quickly," Reiju assented with a huff, deciding it was best to just rip the bandage off and deal with the consequences afterwards. "And don't you dare go peeping at my memories! I've had enough of that for one day, thank you."
Cherry naturally respected this wish. If the positions were reversed, she wasn't sure if she could accept someone messing around in her own head, so she admired Reiju for her bravery despite her clear discomfort.
Cherry stood and moved around to Reiju's bedside where she was sitting upright.
"So, what do I need to do-?" Reiju asked, before Cherry placed a hand on her head unceremoniously.
A moment passed in awkward silence, and just as Reiju was beginning to suspect that Cherry was just messing with her, just felt her vision go hazy. When everything cleared, she was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere familiar, the central castle of Germa.
However, the castle hadn't had decor like this since…
"Nope, not here," a voice startled Reiju. It was Cherry, but she was much taller than she ought to be.
No, Reiju was shorter. Younger.
"You were an adorable kid, it's like looking at a living, breathing baby picture." Cherry snickered.
"What is this?" Reiju asked, a bit peeved about being subjected to teasing whilst she was so confused.
"This is your mindscape. It's pretty well developed compared to the average person, which should make things easier so long as you help things along. Where do you reckon your 'obedience augments' are?" Cherry asked.
"My-?" Reiju cut herself off; she could ask those questions later. "I don't know where they are, how would I?"
"It's your head, give it some thought." Cherry said, and spoke no more.
Reiju started to think about where she might find the augments, and before she realized it she was already walking somewhere with Cherry following closely behind.
They passed a thick, reinforced door and heard a scream from deep within. Reiju flinched and looked at it worriedly.
"We're not here for your memories; whatever that is, it's in the past." Cherry reminded her.
Reiju nodded and tore her eyes away from the door. Sanji wasn't down there anymore. She had released him, let him run away years ago.
This castle was a labyrinth, not at all like it was in real life, so it was fortunate that Reiju's feet seemed to know where they were going even when she didn't. She expected to ultimately find her way to the laboratory where her mother was subjected to the augmentation process whilst pregnant with her, but it wasn't much of a surprise that she wandered into her father's throne room instead.
The throne itself was a twisted mockery of the throne that Judge planted his butt in outside, and the hulking form of Judge himself was even moreso. Just looking at him made her feel dizzy and nauseous, it was… wrong, for that THING to be here. She knew it the very moment she saw it.
"Yep, that doesn't belong here," Cherry seemed to agree with Reiju's inner assessment. "It's so poorly integrated that I can probably just pluck it right out. Seriously, what a shitty job. Judge should stick to physical alterations."
Hearing someone mock her father's life work tickled her in a way that she couldn't help but giggle at. How many people had the nerve to insult her father's capabilities, and also not seem like a jealous idiot barking like a dog? She didn't think she'd ever met someone with those qualifications before.
"I'd like to see you say that to Father's face." Reiju spoke honestly, feeling that the childish tone of her voice was both foreign and familiar.
Cherry stepped forward. About halfway towards the throne, Not-Judge became agitated and was possibly about to attack. Cherry raised one hand, grasped the air, and Not-Judge screeched in agony as it was crushed and dragged forwards until it fit within Cherry's palm. One last squeeze silenced the now feeble cries and the wrong-ness of the throne room seemed to vanish.
Cherry nodded with satisfaction. "That should do it. Are there any more? Backups, perhaps?"
Reiju thought about it, then shook her head. "I don't think so."
Reiju paused. Her voice was back to normal and now that she had noticed, she was back to her normal height as well.
"Looks like it. It's easier to keep a child in line. Of course this is all mostly symbolic imagery, the way our minds make sense of the complexities of mental constructs." Cherry explained briefly. "Anyways, I'll see you when you wake up."
Reiju woke up immediately to find Sanji and Cherry chatting about some inane topic. "Were you chatting with Sanji while doing psychic brain surgery on me?"
"No, I finished up about 5 minutes ago. You might feel like it was just a second or two, but that's just how unconsciousness affects your sense of time," Cherry said. "It's just like hitting the snooze on a den den mushi alarm clock in the morning, only for it to immediately go off again."
"Right," Reiju sat up.
When she did so, she felt so… light, for some reason. Not light headed, but rather like a weight had been lifted from her entire body, a weight that only previously went away when she received a direct order from her father.
"Is it really done? Just like that?" Reiju had a hard time believing that this wasn't all just an elaborate and particularly cruel joke. She had spent her whole life bound to her father's will, her own choices being secondary to his.
"Only one way to find out," Cherry said, getting up to leave. "Best make some choices for your life pretty quickly, because this place is going to be a mess soon."
With that final piece of advice, she left.
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