章節 66: Admiral Aokiji
"""An Admiral?!""" They were shocked.
"Chill out, I'm not here on marine business. I'm just out for a walk and decided to check up on you guys. I'm pretty surprised to find both Nico Robin and Cabernet with you though. It seems somebody has some explaining to do..." Aokiji spoke slowly, not concerned in the slightest.
"Y-you're lying! You're definitely here to arrest us, huh?!" Usopp shouted whilst his knees trembled in fear.
"I overheard about your plight, old man. Do you need help getting back to your people?" Aokiji ignored Usopp.
"You can't trust him, old man! He's a marine!" Luffy shouted.
"Why not?" Old man Tonjit asked.
"Oh, right. I suppose you can, usually the marines are the good guys, shishishi!" Luffy realized.
Aokiji helped Tonjit pack up his things onto a sled, then froze over the ocean, creating a path to the island Tonjit's people should be on at the moment.
Aokiji was sitting cross legged and looked somewhat uncertain. "You know, you're really similar to your grandfather, Monkey D. Luffy."
Luffy became nervous and seemed to want to change the subject.
"Although I only came here to have a look at you, maybe you're too dangerous to leave alone? You've risen up in the world as a crew quite quickly, it's a given you'll be a big player later on. Perhaps at that time fighting other pirates won't be enough for you?" The air around Aokiji grew colder, in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
"Especially you Nico Robin. You joining the Straw Hats has increased their threat level by a great deal. Every group you've joined has ended up being annihilated, I wonder how long until you do the same to these fools?" Aokiji said.
Robin was becoming increasingly agitated the more the Admiral spoke. However, before she could speak out in her defense, laughter rang out behind her. Everyone glanced at the source.
"Hehehehe. I can see how you became an Admiral friend. Not just strong, but quite the manipulator as well." Cherry said.
Aokiji furrowed his brow. Robin managed to calm herself down enough that she could see what Aokiji was doing to her. Hadn't she spent most of her life manipulating others herself? She had let her past trauma blind her to it.
"Who are you?" Aokiji asked curtly.
"I'm Hawkeye's daughter." Cherry said, giving a sly smile.
'Damn it, I can definitely see the resemblance. The afro prevented me from seeing it earlier. Maybe she's just lying? That shouldn't be it, who would dare to involve the world's strongest swordsman in their fraud, that'd be a death sentence.' Aokiji's brows furrowed further, he was beginning to feel a headache coming on.
Meanwhile the Straw Hats were flabbergasted. Hawkeye's daughter? They could obviously see that her eyes were similar, but they had thought it was just coincidence.
"It doesn't matter if you are or aren't. I can just take you alive, kill the rest, and figure out what to do about you later after contacting Hawkeye." Aokiji said.
"You'll find that to be a tad difficult, Admiral. I have no illusions that I could defeat you, but I've got some confidence in killing us both." Cherry spoke tonelessly.
Aokiji thought she was being excessively arrogant and even the others thought it was a bit too much even for a bluff.
Cherry was speaking the whole truth though. At her level of body cultivation, she could take an enormous amount of punishment. If she abandoned defense and focused entirely on killing Aokiji, there really was a fair probability she could do it.
She didn't really need to do that though. It would be enough just to stall him until the others got away or he gave up.
Aokiji ripped up some grass and tossed it, freezing it in midair forming an ice sword.
The other prepared for a fight, but before they could do anything Cherry had already appeared in front of Aokiji, swinging her sword.
Aokiji sensed Armament Haki coating the blade and realized she wasn't all talk, even if it wasn't at his level. He coated his ice blade in his own Armament Haki to block her sword.
Contrary to his expectations, the swords did not clash. Instead, Cherry's face twisted into a battle hungry smile and her sword transformed into lightning, burying itself into his body and wreaking havoc.
"AHHH!" Aokiji screamed in pain.
"You guys had better run along now while I entertain the Admiral!" Cherry said. They looked unwilling, but complied. Except for Cabernet, who also launched herself towards Aokiji.
The lightning returned to Cherry's hand and became a sword again. Aokiji glared at her.
"What is that? How are you controlling a devil fruit object that isn't a Zoan?" Aokiji was confused. Vegapunk had never even come close to creating such a thing. The object would always remain inert since only Zoan devil fruit would grant a will to the object.
He was also much more serious now. Normal lightning wouldn't have that great of an effect on him, meaning Cherry could also apply her Armament Haki to the lightning.
"Why would I tell you that? Now, are you ready to go about your day and leave us be?" Cherry asked, though she looked as if she wanted the answer to be no.
Aokiji hesitated. He was confident in winning of course, but he wasn't so sure he could do so without killing or at least grievously wounding her. He didn't know how Hawkeye would react to that. This wasn't a decision he could make by himself since it might alienate their strongest Shichibukai.
"Damn it. Have it your way today, girl. Don't blame me for being rude the next time we meet though." Aokiji stormed off in a foul mood. This outing of his was meant to release stress, not to create it.
"Hehehehe!" Cherry couldn't help but laugh. She had funny feeling that Aokiji wasn't such a bad guy.
She returned to the Going Merry, which had already set sail, while keeping track of Aokiji. Thankfully he didn't change his mind and left.
Cabernet flew them over and landed on the deck, meeting with the worried Straw hats.
"Thank goodness you're okay Cherry. How did you get away?" Nami asked.
"Well, when you name drop a Shichibukai like I did, he didn't have much choice in the matter, hehe." Cherry explained.
"What's that about anyways? Why didn't you say that Hawkeye is your dad?" Usopp pointed at her accusingly.
"Why are you making a fuss about it? You're the son of a founding member of the Red Hair pirates under Shank, an Emperor of the seas. Luffy is the grandson of Monky D. Garp, hero of the marines. As well as likely being the son of Monkey D. Dragon, leader of the Revolutionary Army. So it isn't like I'm the only one not mentioning familial relations." Cherry said plainly.
"Eh, how did you know?!" Luffy asked.
"Please, Aokiji just mentioned your grandfather. It's not hard to see that you share the surname and middle initials of both Garp and Dragon. And you just confirmed it yourself by not denying it." Cherry said.
"You tricked me!" Luffy pouted.
"Well, does anyone else want to share about a secret famous family member?" Cherry asked, looking around with a joking smile. She did notice Sanji twitch at the words, but he said nothing.
"I hope we don't run into any more Admirals..." Chopper said.
""Agreed."" Nami and Usopp stated.
The other went about their business on the ship. Cherry approached Robin who was sitting off to the side silently.
"Are you alright?" Cherry asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Robin touched the hand on her shoulder. "Mhm, I'm fine. Aokiji allowed me to escape Ohara during the buster call. I'm not really sure how to feel about him. I cannot forgive him, but at the same time a small part of me is grateful towards him..."
Cherry sat with her and kept her company for a while.
...
Meanwhile on the Foxy Pirates' ship.
"Run away!"
"Abandon ship!"
"It's an Admiral, we're all doomed! AHHH!"
Aokiji wasn't about to return empty handed. These small time pirates weren't worthy of his personal intervention, but he needed an easy win to make himself feel better.
Foxy could only despair. He even wished he'd been chosen by the Straw Hats during the Davy Back Fight.
章節 67: Going Merry
The Going Merry set about on its way. Pepperjack the shipwright went about doing an inspection of the damage, clicking his tongue with annoyance often and complained. "You guys are almost as rough on your ship as Foxy is on his..."
Old man Wacko began singing a song.
"When the course is laid and the anchor's weighed
A sailor's blood begins racing
With our hearts unbound and our flag unfurled
We're on our way and off to see the world!" He sang.
"I've never heard this one before, have any of you?" Usopp asked. The others shook their heads.
A little while later, Pepperjack came up from below deck with a complicated look.
"I have some bad news, Captain." He said.
The others could tell this wasn't a minor problem from his face and tone.
"What's wrong?" Luffy asked.
"The keel of the Going Merry has sustained heavy damage. I can do a patch job that will get us to Water 7, but it's inevitable that she's going to sink." Pepperjack explained grimly.
"T-that's not true, you're lying to us! I bet you're still loyal to Foxy, aren't you?!" Usopp shouted enraged.
"We've been traveling with the Going Merry all this time, we're going to fix her no matter what!" Luffy was adamant.
"You don't have to believe me. Water 7 has the best shipwrights in the world, so if anyone could fix a broken keel, it's them. Still I doubt even they can do it." Pepperjack stately plainly.
"Ah! Cherry, you could repair the Merry's keel with your devil fruit, couldn't you? Like you did with the barrel boat?" Nami asked.
Cherry looked at the other Straw Hats silently for a moment, seeing the desperation in their eyes. "I'm sure that I can."
Sighs of relief came from them all.
"However, you're all missing the big picture." Cherry stamped out their hope.
"What do you mean?" Usopp asked, clearly offended.
"The Going Merry is an old ship, and she was built for sailing the East Blue, the tamest of all the oceans. She just isn't cut out for sailing the Grand Line. If you insist on doing so, it will only be a matter of time before you send her to a watery grave." Cherry explained.
Cherry's words stabbed directly at their hearts. Even Usopp who was almost steaming with anger at the notion of leaving the Going Merry behind, could not refute her. After all, hadn't the Going Merry almost sunk after only coming this far? The journey would only get more treacherous the further they went.
"Merry doesn't want to hold you back. Or worse, drag you down to the bottom of the ocean alongside her." Cabernet said, running her hand along a railing.
"What would you know?!" Usopp lashed out.
"Just as Chopper can talk to animals, because at his core he is also an animal. Cabernet too, can talk to other ships, because she is also a ship at her core." Cherry said in a cold tone that told Usopp he should back off.
"I- I need to be alone for a while..." Usopp stalked off, not knowing what to do with the emotions he was feeling.
The other Straw Hats were silently somber, taking in this new revelation.
"I'll go with Pepperjack to do the repairs. This might be the end of Merry's adventure alongside you, but it won't be the end of her own travels." Cherry said, going with the burly middle aged man below deck.
As the Straw Hats went about their business in silence, old man Wacko did the only thing he knew to do. He got out his banjo.
"Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?" He sang.
...
The next few days seemed to stretch into forever due to the sullen mood of the crew.
Ultimately, however, these people just didn't have it in them to stay depressed and were back to their boisterous nature.
Old man Wacko knew a wide variety of songs they had never heard before and strangely enough couldn't do any of the popular sea shanties.
Another few days passed by and they had come to terms with the fact that it was time to buy a new ship, even Usopp who had held out the longest had accepted it.
They ended up chasing a strange frog with hair doing a freestyle stroke towards a small island with a lighthouse atop it.
Cherry was the first to hear the machine moving swiftly towards the island, but did not realize the danger until it was too late to stop.
Instead the barreled forward, hitting something in the water and leaving the path of the passing sea train. The frog stopped on the track and was hit directly by the train.
"Damn it, we just fixed her up!" Pepperjack was annoyed and went below deck grumbling to himself.
"Granny, it's terrible! There are pirates!" A little girl in pigtails shouted towards a stumbling old woman.
"Oh no! Really, Chimney?!" The old woman shouted. "Er, what were you yelling about again?" *burp*
Sanji got some sobering food for the old woman who was obviously far too drunk. Though she insisted on drinking more while eating it.
"I'm Chimney, this is my cat Gonbe (actually a rabbit), and this is my Granny Kokoro!" Chimney introduced excitedly.
"What was that steam powered boat, Chimney?" Nami asked.
"That was the Puffing Tom, the world's first sea train! It runs along the rails their between islands!" She explained.
They talked about the sea train some more, it's destinations, as well as how the frog Yokojina was constantly damaging the train with his foolhardiness.
They told Granny Kokoro they were going to Water 7 for a new ship and hopefully a more permanent shipwright to join their crew. Pepperjack had expressed that he'd like to retire from his sailing days, after all, and where better to do it than the home of the Galley La Company?
"By the way, Kokoro, I have a question that might be a bit rude." Cherry said.
"Go ahead and ask, I'm as thick skinned as they come, N-gagaga!" Kokoro laughed.
"What's up with your body?" Cherry rubbed her chin with scholarly interest.
"What the hell, Cherry?! That's more than a 'bit' rude!" Nami said.
"No, not like that." Cherry assured she wasn't judging her. "I mean to say that you're clearly not a devil fruit user, but it seems like your body can transform in some manner?"
"So that's what you mean! You're quite the perceptive one aren't-cha?! N-gagaga!" Kokoro said. "You're right, I'm a mermaid you see. I can change my legs into my tail and vice versa."
Sanji had one of his dreams shattered into little pieces instantly.
"I see! You're the first mermaid I've met! I didn't know they could change their tails into legs." Cherry nodded with a friendly smile, quite satisfied with the rare find.
"Well, only older mermaids are able to do so. The younger mermaids have just their tails." Kokoro said, guzzling more rum.
"Since you're going to Water 7, and as thanks for the food and good company, I'll give you this map of Water 7 and my written recommendation. Just give the recommendation to Iceberg, he's an old drinking buddy of mine, so he'll get you sorted out! N-gagaga!" She handed over some papers.
"""Thanks for the help!""" The Straw Hats thanked her.
"Sure thing, let's go drinking some time! N-gagaga!" Kokoro and Chimney waved goodbye.
"Yeah, there's no way I'm going drinking with her. I get into enough trouble by myself when I'm drunk." Chery joked as they sailed away.
"Really? I didn't have you figured as a bad drunk." Robin said.
"Hehe, well the last time I got wasted, I woke up in a princess' bed and had spent every Beri to my name to have Cabernet built. So I guess it isn't all bad." Cherry said.
For some reason Robin felt that she couldn't let Cherry get drunk no matter what, though she couldn't quite pinpoint why.
Sanji recovered from his despair somewhat after hearing that. "...Nice..."
"We'll reach Water 7 soon, so I'll have a look at this map... Hm, I see. IT'S USELESS!" Nami shouted, throwing the crudely drawn map on the ground.
"You'll find your way well enough, Miss Navigator. It's your specialty." Robin assured her.
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