บท 375: Popping In
Cherry approached the feasting snail king and dove into its open mouth. She emerged in the supply closet within the Whole Cake Chateau just as she expected.
'No problem traveling via den den mushi without a direct connection, then.' Cherry concluded her second experiment. 'No problems navigating between den den mushi with their collection mindscape for short distances either.'
Next was long distance travel, but this had greater risks involved, particularly in the risk of getting lost. She had found nearby den den mushi that she was familiar with easily enough, but had no idea if she could do so, say, from here to wherever Law's den den mushi was at the moment.
'It might be better to do that after we've settled things here though…' Cherry thought.
She checked on the situation outside and found the Vinsmoke family along with Sanji moving away from Luffy, Nami, and Jinbe who were standing still a little ways away from the Whole Cake Chateau.
'Did they meet already? I guess that Sanji hasn't been convinced to give up on this nonsense yet, huh?' Cherry observed.
She supposed that she could have tried to convince him, but had thought it best that Luffy did so. Their history was longer than hers with him, and he was the captain of the crew to boot.
'There isn't going to be a wedding anyways. Big Mom sealed her fate when she threatened my grandma and my two idiots back home.' Cherry thought coldly.
Not that she thought any goons that Big Mom sent to keep an eye on them would stand a chance against Grandma Angela. That woman was a force of nature even before she gave her a cultivation method. That's the Kuja blood in her.
'I won't give them the chance, either.' Cherry decided.
She turned back to the snail who was still sound asleep and plunged back into the snail-scape.
"Now then," Cherry looked around the kingly chamber.
She didn't want to go randomly charging through the snail-scape blindly, so with a thought she fashioned a string of sorts out of spiritual energy with some effort and tied it firmly around the heavy wooden table that the snail king was feasting at.
"Let's begin!" Cherry declared.
She pushed off with her fleet and suddenly she was flying, then falling through the vast open sky. In the distance she saw a vast, majestic bird soaring over the faraway lands below. Of course, it had a snail for a head.
"Hmmm…" Cherry checked her tether and found it was still attached, though now the other end was suspended in mid air where she had appeared above her current position.
She couldn't tell what direction she had gone, so she did the natural thing and willed herself towards the giant bird-snail.
With a faint *fwoosh* she appeared once more in the material world.
"How did you get in here?!" a gangster fellow exclaimed, fumbling for his gun. The man hadn't expected an intruder in this place of all places.
"Where is 'in here'?" Cherry asked, grabbing the man by the tie and half choking him with it.
"You're trespassing inside Don Bege's inner sanctum! Where else would you be?!" the gangster shouted, hoping someone would hear him. He didn't see the need to lie since it shouldn't be possible for her to be here without knowing that.
"Interesting." Cherry knocked the man out and jumped back into the den den mushi.
"Not nearly far enough." Cherry spoke, clearly dissatisfied.
Bege was ON Whole Cake Island right now, so she hadn't gone very far at all with that leap. If that was all that she could manage, then she could forget about leaving Totto Land, let alone moving from one Blue to another.
Cherry focused her will, but did her best to keep from immediately moving away this time. She allowed it to build until the psychic manifestation of air began to tremble around her, then released it!
Cherry felt herself whisked away much in the same way that she had when she traveled via the two-end call, only faster and far less smooth. She felt herself being buffeted from all sides as she passed through dozens upon dozens of dreams in quick succession.
Finally, she stopped inside of a large library where a snail-headed man wearing a purple robe was quietly reading a book whilst sipping tea.
Cherry made sure her tether was fine one again before descending on the unsuspecting den den mushi.
*fwoosh*
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH?!?!?!?!" The first thing Cherry heard was a high pitched scream of distress from right next to her.
"Oh, hey Buggy. How are things going for you?" Cherry asked genuinely.
"Y-y-y-y-y-you?!" Buggy stuttered out. "How did you do that?!"
Seeing his eyes dart to the den den mushi and back to her, she understood that he had seen what she just did completely, unlike Bege's gangster.
"It's complicated. The real question is, are you going to keep this to yourself and stop your subordinates from coming in here, or are you going to do something stupid and make me silence all the witnesses." Cherry spoke with a dark smile.
Buggy gulped. At first his arrogance had flared up, but he quickly suppressed it. This woman wasn't one of those fools who bought into his illusion of power. Not to mention that she was an unkillable fiend who could easily cut a bloody swathe through his Cross Guild. Worst of all, his Buggy Balls wouldn't be safe if he crossed her.
Buggy went to the door of his room with haste.
"Captain! We heard you scream, was there an assassin?!" Cabaji, one of his long time and most loyal men asked, concerned.
"Everything is fine!" Buggy managed to keep a panicked squeak out of his tone. He then whispered, "I… saw a spider."
"Ah, I see. Do you need me to take care of it?" Cabaji asked without a hint of ridicule that a Shichibukai screamed at the sight of a spider.
"No need, I was only surprised and took care of it." Buggy waved him off. "Make sure no one disturbs me, especially not Crocodile."
"Of course, Captain…" Cabaji felt this was a little strange. His captain hadn't asked for any 'alone time' since their time in East Blue. He had loads of women practically begging to be in his bed these days.
Buggy thought there was a misunderstanding occurring, but left it alone. A misunderstanding was better than the truth. He shut the door and found Cherry going through his stuff.
"I see you've done well for yourself after escaping Impel Down. Good for you. A shame that I never got the chance to train you, though. You have good potential, even if you're an utter failure at reaching it. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time." Cherry said, putting a solid gold statuette of Buggy down where she found it.
"Why would I accept being trained by you!" Buggy shout-whispered indignantly. Then he realized he was being rude and amended, "Ahem, I meant that I'm not worth your time…"
"You should be more confident, Buggy. Real confidence, not the false confidence that you project to all your little minions." Cherry encouraged honestly. "Now, down to business."
Buggy looked very nervous and wondered whether he shouldn't have called for Crocodile after all.
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