"I have to go, but I'll come back to you. I promise!" Perona said, giving Cabernet a hug.
She had been with them for some time now, so she understood that Cabernet and Cherry's relationship was very close and that Cabernet would never leave Cherry's side. Not even for herself, as much as it pained her to admit.
She couldn't just abandon Moria for the sake of love, either. She's a pirate! What kind of pirate would let love get in the way of their dreams?!
There was the possibility of just riding along with the Straw Hats, but she dismissed that pretty quickly now that she thought about it. The other Straw Hats might not be as welcoming to her for one, and they're goal wasn't to search for Moria. However, the main reason was the presence of that long-nosed freak. There was no way in hell she'd ride on the same ship as him!
Perona gave Cabernet a long smooch, which Zoro took as his cue to leave the room. Robin followed him out, as she intended to observe Cherry squirm from a distance.
…
Meanwhile, Cherry and Hawkeye were walking side by side through the dismal castle.
Both had been silent since they left the dining room, which suited Cherry just fine. She hoped it would stay that way until they left the island.
"So…" Hawkeye said, causing Cherry's frown to deepen. "How have you been these last two years?"
"Fine." Cherry spoke curtly.
"I see… that's good." Hawkeye spoke awkwardly.
Some more time passed in silence.
"How has Zoro been doing with your training?" Cherry asked.
Hawkeye didn't miss that she was basically saying that she didn't care how HE was doing since they last met by asking about Zoro first.
"Only time will tell if he can surpass me, but there is a chance I suppose. If he doesn't die in the New World, that is." Hawkeye answered.
More silence.
"You know, it was hard growing up without a mother. I had Grandma, but it's not quite the same." Cherry said. "Perhaps it would have been easier if I had had a father…"
Hawkeye was struck with a pang of guilt in his heart. He didn't know about her, of course, but that was just an excuse and he knew it. Just how much did his absence in her life hurt her, he wondered?
The answer was not at all, because Cherry was just fucking with him.
'If I have to be uncomfortable then you will be too, old man!' Cherry viciously thought.
"I'm… sorry. For whatever that's worth…" Hawkeye said.
"It isn't worth anything at all. It's too late for that." Cherry said.
She turned her head away from him, but not before he could catch sight of the tears brimming in her eyes that she was trying to hide from him.
Hawkeye had never felt such heartache before. He had always been a man with a cold exterior that kept people away, so he was accustomed to being alone. He never imagined he'd be the one who wanted to reach out and comfort someone before.
"How was your grandmother the last time you saw her? I suspect she was doing well, she was quite strong for a swordswoman when I last met her." Hawkeye desperately tried to change the subject.
"'For a swordswoman' huh?" Cherry repeated in a cold voice.
Hawkeye realized instantly that he had struck a landmine as he tried to dig himself out of his hole.
"Um, well, as unfortunate as it is, swordswomen don't make it as far in the way of the sword because of their generally weaker physiques, thus wasting whatever talent they may have possessed. Your grandmother is an exception, though, being an Amazon." Hawkeye tried to explain without sounding like a jerk.
"An Amazon? Grandma?" Cherry asked, successfully diverted from her main goal of emotionally crushing Hawkeye.
"You didn't know? I suppose you wouldn't have known unless she told you. I myself only discovered this after the fact after several encounters with the Amazons." Hawkeye explained.
'That explains a lot actually. It's no wonder my body is so well suited to body cultivation, in addition to the good stock on the male side.' Cherry pondered.
Some more time passed in silence.
"Would you like some tips in the way of the sword?" Hawkeye offered.
"You know it isn't just Zoro who is after you? I fully intend to beat your ass into the ground in the future too. Unlike Zoro, though, I'll only come when I'm certain I can completely humiliate you, not just eke out a win." Cherry said.
Hawkeye wasn't totally surprised by that. He didn't believe that she could beat him so easily, but he did have a feeling she would surpass him. His pride could allow for the possibility of his own child beating him one day.
"It doesn't matter. How about a sparring match?" Hawkeye suggested.
"Alright." Cherry answered.
As they had made their way outside during their walk, Cherry walked over to a tree. She reached into the trunk, effortlessly piercing through the bark and wood with her hands, and pulled out two wooden swords. The tree collapsed into a heap of bark and branches.
Cherry had been practicing with her Fusion Fruit for the past two years and was able to manipulate it quite smoothly. She had pulled all the wood in the tree into these two wooden swords.
Hawkeye had planned to use real blades, but he supposed this WAS more appropriate for a sparring match. He took the wooden sword that Cherry handed him and was surprised at the weight of it. Even his Yoru wasn't this heavy.
'This is more like a wooden club than a sword at this point isn't it? Does she want to bludgeon me to death?' Hawkeye wondered.
Hawkeye didn't notice that he had already fallen for one of Cherry's tricks. She had only used about a tenth of the tree's wood in his wooden sword, while her wooden sword contained the other ninety percent.
In the distance, Robin felt a bit sorry towards the world's greatest swordsman. She didn't know exactly what Cherry was going to do or had already done to him, but she knew that Cherry didn't fight fair. She wouldn't stop it though. In a way this was a father daughter bonding activity too, for them it was anyways.
Zoro was sitting next to Robin too, after having raided the wine cellar of the castle for more booze.
"Who do you think is going to win, Mr Swordsman?" Robin asked him.
"Hawkeye." Zoro answered without hesitation.
"Want to bet on it?" Robin suggested.
"You're on!" Zoro exclaimed, thinking it was an easy bet.
While those two were sorting out the details of their bet, Cherry and Hawkeye were standing about ten meters away from each other, wooden swords in hand.
"What are the terms of this bout?" Cherry asked.
"The winner is decided when the loser admits defeat, is disarmed, or is unable to continue." Hawkeye stated, taking his stance.
Cherry smiled in a way that unnerved Hawkeye just a little bit. He wasn't as affected by her sinister face as he was quite used to his own sinister reflection.
"What will be the signal for the start?" Cherry asked.
"When this handkerchief touches the ground." Hawkeye said, pulling out his handkerchief.
Cherry nodded in understanding.
Hawkeye tossed it in a way so that it would land equidistant from them in the middle.
It seemed to fall in slow motion before finally touching the ground.
Hawkeye made no movements when the match officially started as the handkerchief hit the ground. It was his confidence and pride in his skill that assured he wouldn't make the first move against an opponent he didn't see as his equal in strength.
He was somewhat surprised to find that Cherry did not approach him immediately, either. He thought with her speed she would be eager to explode into motion at the very instant the match began.
Hawkeye wondered what she was plotting up until she started to pick at her teeth with the tip of her wooden sword. His confusion quickly turned into exasperation as he understood that she wasn't taking this seriously at all.
Still he simply watched and waited patiently without comment. He had a feeling that if he lapsed in his concentration for even a moment that she would exploit it. It wouldn't matter if she did, he figured, but it would tarnish his image somewhat.
Cherry stopped picking at her teeth when she was satisfied that she had successfully extracted whatever it was that was so important to deal with right at this moment from between her teeth.
Cherry took a stance and Hawkeye's muscles increased their tension in preparation. Then she dropped the stance and looked perplexed at her wooden sword,a s if something was wrong with it.
She took a few practice swings with it and scratched her head in confusion.
Hawkeye's patience was wearing a bit thin now. "Do you want to switch-"
*Thwap Thwap Thwap!*
Hawkeye expertly deflected three projectiles that launched from Cherry's 'practice swings', which he quickly identified as paper thin wooden blades. There was no Haki coating on them so there was no actual danger to himself even if they had gotten past his guard. However, a normal man without his own Haki would have been cut clean in half by them.
Cherry followed the three flying blades with a powerful overhead strike. Hawkeye could have exploited the opening had he not been momentarily busy with the flying blades.
Instead Hawkeye received the overhead strike with the intention to parry. His intentions meant nothing as the unexpected weight of Cherry's weapon pushed him back a step instead.
"Cheap tricks as always," Hawkeye admonished. He didn't much like this bad habit of his daughter.
Cherry didn't answer with words but with a flurry of much faster, but lighter attacks. Hawkeye received them in stride, having easily adjusted to the new information about the differences between their swords.
"It looks like Hawkeye is on the defensive," Robin commented.
"He's just toying with her," Zoro responded.
Zoro was right of course. Hawkeye hadn't gotten the least bit serious, but then again this wasn't a duel. Zoro had been on the receiving end of Hawkeye's training for two years, so this scene was very familiar to him.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye was analyzing Cherry's style in swordsmanship. He couldn't quite pick out any particular patterns in her attacks, like she was switching between many different styles each moment. If he had to give his opinion, he thought that Cherry was someone who understood the sword very well, but that she was far from being a swordswoman at her core.
"I was under the impression you were the talkative type in battle, what's wrong?" Hawkeye asked, as if he was just making small talk.
Cherry didn't answer, but only grinned.
'Something is off…' Hawkeye thought, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Cherry managed to push his sword aside and sliced at his throat. Hawkeye leaned back just far enough to make it miss, but was forced to throw himself off balance when the sword extended in length.
Cherry capitalised on the opening with a stab towards his stomach. Hawkeye became a bit serious and deflected the attack at the last moment. He recovered his stance quickly and decided it was time to put her in her place.
Cherry backed off as she sensed his change of tactics and took a defensive stance.
Hawkeye approached her swiftly, but carefully. His instincts were telling him that something was very wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. He shifted a bit of his attention to their surroundings and still found no trace of what was causing this feeling of… 'wrongness'.
Hawkeye pressed forward, he would end the match before whatever was happening could come to fruition.
Cherry blocked his first attack, allowing it to push inward until her own sword was almost touching her chest.
'A mistake?' Hawkeye didn't understand. In a fight between swordsmen of their caliber, one would almost never employ a pure block without a counter-attack swiftly following after.
Cherry reached out quicker than he could react and grasped his sword arm in a vice-like grip. Then she opened her mouth wide in a smile not even a demon could love.
Everything clicked into place when Hawkeye saw the scorching bright light at the back of her throat. He recalled the blast of scorching energy she fired at Marineford.
'That's what was wrong. She has only been breathing in this whole time, not out.' Hawkeye realized why Cherry hadn't spoken a word since the fight started.
And here he was, with his face in point blank range.
*GODZILLA ATOMIC BREATH SOUNDS*
Thus came the untimely end of the world's greatest swordsman. Or it would have had he not twisted around the blast of fusion plasma, only burning away the feather of his fancy hat.
Hawkeye went all out in that last move, placing his sword at Cherry's neck.
"That's my win," Hawkeye said in a calm, unbothered voice.
On the inside though, Hawkeye was berating himself for letting it get that close. Cherry had been using her Fusion fruit from the very beginning and he still didn't anticipate her using 'Solar Flare' as a breath attack.
Thankfully he had managed to maintain some of his dignity as a swordsman and as a father.
Cherry didn't look upset at all about the result. Rather she was very satisfied at having cornered Hawkeye enough for him to go all out without having done so herself, even if only for a moment.
"Tsk…" Zoro clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Neither he nor Robin had bet on Cherry's victory. Both were quite confident that the chances of that were very low.
Instead, Robin had bet that Cherry Would destroy the feather on Hawkeye's hat. Zoro had thought it would be an easy win for himself, but Robin knew something that he didn't. Whenever the topic of Hawkeye came up in the past, Cherry would often mention offhandedly how pretentious she found Hawkeye's choice of headwear to be. Thus she was at least 80% sure that Cherry would destroy or damage the hat during the bout.
"It would seem that I've won, Mr. Swordsman," Robin said with a smile. "Do be sure not to damage any goods or wander off while carrying my shopping bags in the future."
Zoro stood up and stormed away, grumbling under his breath. "An easy ten million Beri, she said. How could I fall for that…"
"This was supposed to be a sword fight, you know?" Hawkeye asked rhetorically.
"Plenty of swordsmen in the world use their devil fruit in their fighting style. I just did the same." Cherry made a shameless excuse.
"That's why I didn't say anything about the first few times you used it, because you integrated it into your swordsmanship. That last attack did not," Hawkeye retorted.
"You should just count yourself lucky that that's all I did. That was like, the bare minimum of tomfoolery I can restrict myself to," Cherry said.
Hawkeye heaved a sigh of resignation. There was no way that he could see to correct her path, so he decisively gave up on the idea altogether.
He gave Cherry a rundown of the areas he felt she could improve upon that he'd seen in the fight. Cherry had to admit that the man was a genius. It was truly a shame he hadn't been born into a cultivation world. Cherry imagined he would have become the strongest sword immortal in the myriad worlds in less than a hundred years if he had.
'What he doesn't know won't hurt him,' Cherry thought.
She had no intention to set him on the path of cultivation. She didn't need the competition.