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25.83% One Piece: Dream of Immortality / Chapter 132: Black Drum Kingdom

章節 132: Black Drum Kingdom

'It was good that I didn't give up and came here.' Cherry thought as she finished looking through the contents of the safe.

Overall this trip had been fruitful even though none of the martial arts had been particularly profound. What they did give her was a solid grasp on how the residents of this world utilized their vital energy through their martial art forms.

With so many samples to parse through, she had greatly shortened the time it would take to accomplish one of her goals. That is, creating a new martial art that suited her. Combined with the few forms she knew from her previous life, she would be able to make something mightier than the sum of its parts.

Well, she needed something to occupy her time. She couldn't just spend every second of her life cultivating could she? Otherwise, what would be the point of living forever?

Cherry tossed the documents to the floor without a care, then poked the assassin trainer on the forehead, causing him to pass out.

'Hm, I promised not to cripple all his men, but it can't be helped if they attack me, can it?' Cherry thought shamelessly, already breaking her word.

Cherry unfused the door and slammed it open, garnering the attention of everyone within earshot. Assassins came to find out what happened, only to discover an intruder. Naturally, they attacked said intruder and were swiftly made to regret their hasty actions.

'Really, they ought to know better. They're all coming at me from the front even after I made it clear I'm not afraid of them. Not just that, they can clearly see from their previously crippled comrades on the ground that they're no match. How foolish.' Cherry chastised them in her mind.

Once outside, Cherry vanished into the night. The following morning there was quite the commotion, as every single martial art school found they had been burgled. Moreover, the thief left notes at each crime scene daring the strongest martial artists from each school to face him at a particular location at noon.

Martial artists weren't the most cunning or cautious of people, so while many of them suspected some sort of trap or trick they still showed up. Along with the marines, of course.

A large crowd of martial artists and many marines were waiting at the agreed upon spot by the time noon came.

"Where the hell is that coward! I'll rearrange his face with my fists!" The master of the boxing dojo announced, to many shouts of agreement.

"I'm here." A voice sounded out, startling them all. The voice came from a somewhat short young "man" who was dressed like a ninja. To add insult to injury, he was standing right in the middle of the crowd!

The master of the strongest dojo on the island, the karate school, was standing right next to the supposed thief. He wasted no time in attacking the young man with the intent to subdue him and handing him over to the marines.

*Bam bam bam!*

The karate master was hit by several sharp, vicious blows that certainly wouldn't be taught by any upstanding martial art school. This was proof enough for the other masters to attack immediately. Unfortunately the karate master was already quite injured, and though still willing to fight he was not able to push through the other masters in his current state.

What occurred afterwards would become a local legend of Karate Island. The day that a thief faced every so-called martial arts master on the island head on and won the fight without a scratch to show for it, and all at once at that.

The marines naturally didn't stand any chance at defeating Cherry either, as they were all standard marines stationed in South Blue, not the Grand Line. Moreover, their presence on the island was mostly a formality as the martial arts schools handled things well enough on their own usually.

Having seen the various martial arts up close and personal, Cherry pretty much understood all their martial arts perfectly.

So now it was time to leave.

There was no one left standing to pursue her, so she wasn't in any rush. The other three were already waiting for her to leave for their next destination when she arrived at their meeting point.

Cabernet lifted off, leaving Karate Island far behind them soon after.

Cherry spent the journey assembling her new martial art. She still needed to steal- borrow more styles in regards to weapon martial arts, but she had enough for a solid base in unarmed combat and the application of vital energy.

Soon, they saw the Black Drum Kingdom in the distance. The doom and gloom of the place could be felt even miles away.

"Even though it fits my aesthetic, even I can't like this place…" Perona commented.

"That's because the incompetence of its ruler ruins the flavor." Cherry said.

"Ah, you're right. That's what it is." Perona agreed.

"We'll gather information first and foremost." Robin suggested, garnering nods from the others.

"What do I do?" Cabernet asked, not wanting to be left out of the "fun".

"Just help people and talk to them. Just don't start any trouble." Cherry said. Cabernet nodded with some eagerness.

Robin went to find an information broker, Perona sent out her ghosts to poke around risk free, Cabernet went to find people in need of assistance, and Cherry made her way to Wapol's castle.

The guards of the castle were just as lazy and incompetent as their king, so it was child's play to infiltrate it, at least by Cherry's standards.

"Ptooey ptooey ptooey! You call this slop food worthy of my majesty?! CONSIDER YOURSELF FIRED!" The familiar voice of Wapol was heard shouting from inside what appeared to be an overly extravagant dining room.

His guards dragged away a kicking and screaming chef. From his reaction it seems that being "fired" by Wapol was a bit more severe than just losing one's job.

Cherry followed the guards that dragged the man away and sure enough, she found them stuffing the poor man into a cannon aimed away from the castle into a lake. The average person of this world might be sturdy, but not "fired out of a cannon and survive" sturdy.

Cherry swooped down and jostled the brains of the guards with a couple of "light" palm strikes, rendering them unconscious. She then pulled the chef out of the cannon, then removed his bindings and his gag.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" He thanked desperately whilst crying his eyes out.

"Don't worry about it." Cherry replied.

Cherry started to take off one of the guard's uniforms and told the chef to quickly undress as well. Fortunately, the man seemed to guess what she was up to and quickly complied, then he put on the guard's uniform whilst Cherry put his chef's outfit onto the guard and stuffed him into the cannon.

"Why don't you answer a few questions for me." Cherry said, lighting the fuse on the cannon so that no one would know anything was wrong, at least not right away. She wasn't exactly worried about the guard's wellbeing, as he had been about to fire an innocent man out of the very same cannon, but she figured he'd most likely survive.

"Whatever you want, ask me anything at all!" The chef nodded furiously.

"Tell me everything you know about Wapol's government, and if possible his company as well." Cherry said.

The chef started a long rant, only pausing to flinch when the cannon fired. It seemed like he had a lot to get off his chest, which was good for Cherry. Though she did have to get him back on track a few times.

"Hmm, I see. You seem to know quite a lot, this will be helpful to me. Let's get you out of here then, as far as anyone knows you were fired out of the cannon." Cherry said, picking the man up and holding him under one arm as she leapt out the window and dashed through the air, hugging closely to the wall to avoid being spotted.


章節 133: Setting the Stage

Cherry dropped the now former chef off near the city and instructed him that it would be wise to lay low until it was safe.

"How will I know when it is safe?" The man asked, trying to cling onto the one who saved him from a gruesome fate.

"You'll know, it'll be fairly obvious." Cherry spoke cryptically and left him there.

Cherry returned to the castle and poked around to fill in some holes in her information, before rendezvousing with the other three at the agreed upon time.

Compiling all the information they had gathered gave a pretty clear picture of the kingdom's current state.

"Well, kidnapping Wapol will be pretty easy. He's constantly breaking his itinerary making it nearly impossible to properly guard him even within the castle." Cherry said.

"It's a miracle he hasn't already been kidnapped, really." Robin concurred.

"It would be prudent to acquire this brother of his as well, Musshuru. He's just as cruel and though this particular line of royalty has only just started with Wapol, his brother may technically be able to take the throne should Wapol go missing." Cherry said.

They discussed some ideas on how to undermine the authority of the royal regime before splitting up once again.

This time, Perona came along with Cherry to the castle where Cherry prepared a sealed off hiding place for her to safely project a spectral version of herself from.

"Alright, follow me and give me one of your ghosts when I tell you to." Cherry instructed.

"Hmph!" Perona harrumphed, but complied nonetheless.

Night has fallen on the Black Drum Kingdom, making it that much simpler to navigate the castle unseen.

King Wapol was always early to bed and late to wake, so he was found within his bed chambers. Naturally his wife and queen, Kinderella, was on the other side of the castle in her own bed chambers and thus not present.

Cherry sneaked into Wapol's bed chambers where he loudly snored and casually chewed on any furniture within reach in his sleep.

Cherry motioned for Perona to produce a ghost, which Cherry then grabbed with a haki coated hand. She brought it over to the sleeping form of Wapol and jammed the ghost into his body, promptly activating her devil fruit power in an attempt to fuse the ghost inside him.

Wapol awoke, but he did not notice Cherry or the apparition of Perona as he was immediately filled with an enormous sense of dread. All his undeserved confidence and bravado drained away and for the first time in his life he felt worthless.

"I… I…" Wapol stuttered. "I'm slightly less than perfect!"

Wapol began to weep as the realization of his own inadequacy.

Meanwhile Cherry and Perona were dumbfounded.

"Just how arrogant is he?" Perona muttered. It was strange enough to meet someone who was too negative to be affected by her ghosts like Usopp, but for someone to have such an enormously overinflated opinion of themselves that they only feel "slightly less than perfect"?

At the very least, the depression aspect seemed to be working normally, which was a relief.

"Well it worked out in any case." Cherry shrugged and placed her hands on Wapol's back and began sealing his devil fruit powers. She had worked on the technique a bit since she used it on Serene, so she had cut down the time it takes to about half an hour.

Now that Wapol was dealt with, they moved to go meet with his brother Musshuru, leaving Wapol in his bed chambers for the time being. He wasn't going anywhere in that pseudo-permanent depressed state.

"Mushushushushu!" Menacing laughter was heard from the bed chambers of Musshuru.

It was good that he was awake, though they didn't know why he was cackling like a madman alone in his room.

Cherry simply waltzed in and made herself known to him.

"Who goes there?!" Musshuru spun around to see an individual whose appearance would suggest a potential assassin.

"Why hello!" Cherry said in her disguised voice. "It is an honor to meet the most illustrious brother of the king, Musshuru!"

Musshuru was on his guard, but seeing he was not yet attacked decided to see what this was about.

"You didn't answer my question. Name yourself or perish!" Musshuru demanded loudly.

"I am a friend of course. One who doesn't wish to see your eminence waste away while your less than ideal brother sits on the throne. I would like to provide an opportunity for you to rise in your station, if you're interested." Cherry offered.

"Deal!" Musshuru answered instantly. In his mind it was a win-win situation.

Either this mysterious figure succeeded in what they insinuated and he became king. Or they failed and he denied all involvement. The best part is that he didn't have to lift a finger for it.

"I see that I was correct in my view of you, KING Musshuru. All you need to do is take over when the morning comes, I trust you'll know what to do." Cherry said, feeding his ego.

Musshuru was pleased to hear it. He was the one who ought to have been king from the start, not his younger brother. It was his right as the eldest to be heir to the throne. Just look at how his brother completely lost control over the Drum Kingdom. If not for his dumb luck with his devil fruit, he would still be eating trash out of a gutter somewhere.

"Off you go then! As far as anyone knows I have no connection to you!" Musshuru shooed the figure away.

Musshuru started to giggle to himself once again as he imagined taking his brother's beautiful wife for himself as well.

Now that the stage was set, Cherry would let the fool ruin himself.

As for what Robin and Cabernet were up to at this time?

They were spreading rumors to the people. Rumors that the king's brother Musshuru was planning a coup d'etat. Rumors that Musshuru would be a hundred times crueler than Wapol ever was.

They implanted the idea that Musshuru's regime would be illegitimate in the World Government's eyes, and as such the World Government would not intervene if the people rose up against Musshuru's regime.

This was actually true, as the kingdom had only recently been granted to Wapol directly by the world nobles. Stealing the crown from him, especially so soon after it was given to Wapol, was essentially a slap in the face to the world nobles.

Robin had a certain way with words that enabled her to manipulate the emotions of her listeners, a talent she picked up over her many years on the run.

Cabernet simply went to the people she had been helping as they trusted her somewhat. While not necessarily convinced by the words of a stranger, it was enough to keep her words in mind.

The fears of the people of Black Drum Kingdom were confirmed the following morning.

The king's brother Musshuru announced that his brother had become too ill to rule properly and as such Musshuru would be taking over his duties as the monarch.

Those who witnessed the announcement noted the disgusted look on the face of Wapol's wife as she stood to Musshuru's side. This in and of itself suggested some sort of foul play behind the scenes, as she had not previously been known to be on bad terms with Musshuru.

A new proclamation was sent down by Musshuru, that he was to be provided with a citizen every day. This stirred the imaginations of the people, and with the rumors of Musshuru's cruelty making the rounds they had a stark vision of their futures.

Thus, the flames of rebellion quickly grew from within the populace.

Over the next few days, as the people who were brought to the castle were not heard from again, the rage of the people grew that much fiercer.

Emboldened by the rumors that there would be no World Government crackdown, soon there would be revolution.


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