บท 265: Tatababasco
"How are we going to reach Sugar with that snot guy guarding her?" Usopp asked, looking at Robin and Leo, the leader of the tontatta warriors, to see if they had any ideas.
"It's not just him, that snow woman is also lurking around here." Robin pointed out.
"Should we draw Trebol away somehow?" Leo suggested. "My warriors can cause some trouble on the docks?"
"Mm, and I can make use of my surprise to lure him away. Then Leo and Usopp can figure out how to get the tatababasco sauce ball into Sugar's grapes." Robin said.
It was as solid a plan as they could come up with on such short notice.
*CRASH!!!* *CRUMBLE!*
The ground beneath their feet quaked as a deafening blast was heard from nearby.
Seeing Trebol start to move towards the door, they tucked themselves away out of sight as he passed.
"What the hell was that?!" Usopp whispered.
"Cherry." Robin said, after taking a look outside with her bloomed eyes. "She just demolished the factory."
"What?!" Leo exclaimed, just a touch too loudly. He covered his mouth quickly and observed Sugar to see if she had heard him. She hadn't. "Our comrades are in the factory."
"Looks like they're all outside with her, though they're a bit hard to notice with their small stature." Robin reported, allowing Leo to heave a sigh of relief.
"In any case, this is great for us!" Usopp whispered excitedly. "The factory is destroyed, the tontatta rescued, and Trebol is distracted. All that's left to do is take down Sugar!"
They nodded in the affirmative. Leo took up the tatababasco sauce ball and prepared himself for a quick, but stealthy charge across what was pretty much a large empty room. No small task with two pairs of eyes that may spot him.
*Zip!*
Leo sped across the floor with unnatural speed, the fastest of his people. When he took things from the big folk, they never once noticed he had done so until he was already long gone!
Sugar was turned away from him, making one of the toys she had made not long before Trebol left dance like an idiot, unable to resist her commands. She snickered maliciously, popping grapes into her mouth as she enjoyed the show.
In an alcove near the ceiling, the eyes of a green haired woman flashed as she spotted a blur headed straight towards her little sister. She raised her wings to take flight and prepared to conjure a dense wall of snow around Sugar to block the perpetrator from reaching her.
Instead, several strong arms grappled her limbs and covered her mouth. She burst apart into snow, escaping the clutches of the arms that vanished in a puff of flower petals.
"Sugar!" Monet called out to her sister in alarm.
Sugar turned to look at her, a metaphorical question mark hanging over her head. The blur had vanished, but no harm seemed to have come to Sugar.
"Be careful, I saw a tontatta sneaking around down there! Nico Robin is also somewhere nearby, she just tried to grab me as I was coming down there!" Monet explained briefly.
Monet flew down and remained on guard next to Sugar. The situation was strange, what had been the intruder's goal? They kept their sharp gazes out for anything out of the ordinary. Well, out of the ordinary for a facility that turns people into toys, anyways.
"You, go look for the intruders! If you find someone, scream and return here!" Sugar commanded the still dancing toy.
Seeing the toy step out of the room, they could at least be certain no one was hiding right outside the door.
Sugar lowered her guard a tiny bit and reached for a grape. She didn't see the finger in her basket subtly shift one particular grape into her grasp.
*nom*
"?!?!!?!?!!?!??!?!?!" Sugar made an incomprehensible sound of panic.
Monet turned towards her sister in worry. Sugar also turned to Monet, but she did so in a desperate bid to cool down her mouth and throat that was rapidly heating up with the woman's snow powers.
When Sugar opened her mouth to communicate her painful predicament, the fresh oxygen that rushed in sparked some kind of reaction. Thus what came from her mouth was not a plea for help, but a blood curdling scream and a gout of flames!
"Ahhhhh!" Monet screamed as well as the flames licked her face. Her snow devil fruit made her particularly vulnerable to heat and flames, amplifying the pain.
Monet's protective instincts for her sister were strong, however, and she didn't hesitate to shoot snow in Sugar's direction. Sugar had been on the verge of unconsciousness when the blast of cold on her skin and into her mouth jolted her fully awake. She shoveled the piling snow into her mouth like a man stranded in the desert gulped water from an oasis.
"It didn't work! Get her!" Leo dried out, he and his warrior not hesitating to charge into the fray with the intent of following plan B. Whack Sugar on the head really hard.
Unfortunately, his shout did not go unheard by his enemies and Monet acted instantly. She swirled around in a circle, enclosing both herself and Sugar into an igloo-like dome.
"Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano!" Robin crossed her arms and bloomed two giant sized legs.
The legs stomped down with unearthly quickness onto the igloo; not completely destroying it, but causing enough damage that the tontatta could slip inside the resulting cracks.
The tontatta did just that, letting out little, adorable war cries as they did so.
The igloo reformed at the same time that Robin was winding her giant legs back up for another strike.
"Damn! Hit it again, Robin, they weren't quick enough to get inside! Hang back, Leo, I'm going to shoot inside!" Usopp said, oblivious to the fact that some of the tontatta HAD made it inside despite having just watched it happen.
Robin stomped once again, the igloo taking the blow a little better. Fortunately, there was still enough space for Usopp to get a shot inside.
"Green Star: Skull-Blast Grass!" Usopp called out, firing one of his pop greens.
A hand poked out of the igloo and produced a wall of snow between them. "I can hear you, you know?"
"Run for cover!" Usopp shouted, already moving to do so himself.
The tontatta were quick to dodge, always eager to listen and heed the advice of a great hero like Uso-land! Robin could tell by the name of the attack that he'd shouted that she ought to do as he said as well.
*BOOM*
An explosion rocked the building, producing an ominous skull shaped cloud in its wake. The officers' tower lost some of its load bearing walls and was liable to collapse on top of them, but the igloo didn't hold up either.
Monet, holding onto Sugar with her bird feet, flew out of the ruined igloo and then out of the officers' tower as well, now that it had a big hole in the side of it. Though they were confident in dealing with their enemies, there was just too much at risk for them to stick around. Better to meet back up with Trebol and bulldoze them with overwhelming power whilst keeping Sugar at a safe distance from danger.
Leo ran over to Usopp. "Uso-land! Shoot me!"
"What?!" Usopp was very confused, until Leo clambered up into his Black Kabuto slingshot and he understood.
"Tontatta Star!" Usopp gave a random name to this as well as if he'd ever do it again.
*Sprong*
Leo flew through the air like an arrow, making himself as aerodynamic as possible by pure instinct.
Monet noticed just before he landed on her and dodged.
Leo despaired as he started to fall out of reach… Then he was caught by a hand! Robi-land's hand, blooming from Monet's leg!
บท 266: Beating the snot out of Trebol
Leo didn't hesitate or waste the opportunity he was given. He raced up Robi-land's arm, then started to snitch up Monet's body with his devil fruit.
Monet was quickly losing the ability to maintain her flight as her feathers were stitched down. She transformed into snow to try to freeze the life out of the tontatta.
This proved to be very effective, as Leo's tiny body could not retain its heat as well as a full sized human body could. He fell from Monet's back, stiff like a frozen statue.
Robin tried to catch him with another bloomed arm, but Sugar was waiting for exactly that moment. Sugar whipped her hand and slapped Robin's arm.
To Robin's horror, Sugar's ability took hold even though she hadn't touched her real arm. In a poof, a stuffed doll was left in the place Robin had been standing.
…
Over by the ruined S.M.I.L.E. factory.
"You better not get your snot on me. I'll fuse your nose and mouth shut." Cherry spoke disdainfully.
"Behehehe! I'd like to see you try!" Trebol declared, flinging his mucus about with wild abandon.
Cherry drew Sakura Tengoku and slashed at him from a distance. She didn't even want to touch the disgusting man with her weapons.
Trebol was an experienced fighter, though, and thus moved out of the way of the slashes with high precision. In fact, he was very accustomed to fighting people he didn't want to physically touch him, so he had a lot of skill in medium distance battles.
Still, Trebol was no fool. He had his den den mushi listening in to everything and sending that audio to his young master. This would enable him to warn of the threat he was facing without letting the enemy know about it.
Sadly, he was unaware that his young master was beaten up and deprived of his personal den den mushi not long ago, which was then left lying in the street beside the colosseum.
…
Somebody WAS there to hear what came through, however. A young man with blond hair, curly eyebrows, and a cigarette in his mouth.
"How dare this pervert subject Cherry-swan~ to that vulgar laughter! You better pray that I don't get my feet on you or you're dead meat!" Sanji threatened seriously, but not loud enough for his voice to be heard through the den den mushi on the other end of the call.
…
Back in the underground, the officers' tower exploded with a skull shaped cloud of smoke.
"Nyeh?! Sugar!" Trebol exclaimed. He had become so distracted with Cherry, he hadn't even entertained the possibility that Sugar would be attacked on another front during his absence from her side.
He knew that he had to get back to her quickly to protect her, lest all of Doffy's work over the last ten years would be all for nought!
*ZAP*
"Gyeh?!" Trebol shouted in pain as electricity surged down his spine.
"Hehehe, I'll have to thank Usopp later for the assist." Cherry chuckled.
Cherry got as close as she was comfortable getting to him and sent a palm thrust his way. Trebol seemed to be hit by it without it touching his body and went flying back towards the crumbling officers' tower. Cherry followed after him by kicking off the air and pummeled him again and again with her haki palm strikes, pushing him faster and faster through the air.
Each slap would rain down big globs of mucus down below onto unsuspecting pirates and toys that were distracted by the officers' tower exploding.
…
On the docks near the officers' tower.
The tontatta warriors threw themselves at Monet as she ripped out of Leo's stitching and caught herself before hitting the ground. Sadly they were no match for Monet's and Sugar's combined powers, either being frozen or turned into toys.
Watching this happen, Usopp was having a small existential crisis. 'Why the hell did I come here alone?! Sure the tontatta are here, but they don't stand a chance against them! Why in the world did I think that I'd make up the difference?!'
Monet and Sugar started to lay waste to the tontatta's wave attacks and Usopp's confidence continued to sink lower and lower.
Usopp turned around, allowing his instinctive urge to flee to take over when he stopped cold as something landed in front of him.
*Crash!*
When the dust cloud cleared, he saw a severely beaten Trebol lying in a small crater. He was much thinner and in his underwear for some reason as well, but Usopp didn't have the time to consider this when he heard a shout behind him.
"Uso-land! We need your help! Only a true, legendary hero can defeat these villains!" Leo's voice was clearly heard over the din of the fight.
Usopp's heart trembled. His natural cowardice struggled against his dream, his greatest desire to be a great warrior of the sea!
Cherry landed between him and Trebol. Usopp looked into her eyes, and he could never have prepared himself for what he saw in them.
Mild disappointment.
That hurt his pride more than anything else ever could. Like he was an interestingly shaped stone she picked up off the side of the road, only to find it wasn't that interesting after all.
Then he got angry. The anger he felt teamed up with his dream and curb stomped his cowardice. Spinning around, Usopp launched a flurry of attacks at the duo of sisters with a speed and fury he had never accomplished before. His fingers started to burn from the strain of it, but he didn't slow in the slightest. He fully intended to launch his entire arsenal if he had to to win.
Unbeknownst to him, Cherry smiled. She thought that his back looked very manly right now, not at all like it did when he ran away with his tail between his legs.
She turned her attention to a stuffed doll that was looking at her instead of the fight like the rest of the toys around the area. Cherry squinted and rubbed her chin in thought.
"You're oddly sexy for a toy." Cherry said.
The doll planted its face in its palm in exasperation.
Cherry felt this was a strange reaction to have toward her heartfelt compliment. After half a moment, she pulled out her vivre card book and nearly stormed over to the sisters in rage from what she discovered.
"I don't care that she looks like a little girl! I'm gonna flay that bitch, heal her up, then flay her again for good measure!" Cherry seethed.
Cherry marched over to the doll with a purpose. The doll didn't shy away from the enraged demon woman, nor even take a single step back.
Cherry thrust her palm at the doll, and when it tapped the head of the doll something strange occurred. The doll felt a jolt, no, a surge of vital energy flood into her, then…
*Pop!*
Robin was standing in the place the doll had been, looking a little confused but relieved at the same time.
"You were able to do that the entire time?" Robin glared at Cherry accusingly.
"Yes." Cherry said, without an ounce of shame. "I couldn't let them know I could undo it, could I? Who knows what they'd do?"
Robin huffed, but couldn't argue with that reasoning. They might have started to dispose of the toys to prevent the secret from getting out. After all, Cherry needed physical contact to do whatever it was she just did.
"So, you wanna make out or…?" Cherry proposition, only for Robin to turn and walk away from her.
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