章節 146: Encounter in the Hotel
*Tap Tap Tap*
A soft knocking at the door of the penthouse suite drew the attention of both ladies and rather annoyingly dampened the good mood they had been building up.
Cherry unwillingly extracted herself from Robin's arms and marched herself over to the door and flung it open, surprising the already quite flustered hotelier who was about to knock again.
"What do you want?" Cherry interrogated curtly with a scowl.
The well dressed man with a waxed handlebar mustache almost let out a girlish squeal from the hostility that Cherry was radiating in his direction, but managed to compose himself thanks to his years of practice dealing with high profile individuals.
"Y-yes, madam. Would it be possible to ask you to downgrade to one of our standard luxury suites? Your stay with us will be complimentary and you would be doing us a huge favor!" The man spoke with haste.
Cherry glanced at the several maids waiting nervously behind the man with cleaning supplies and fresh linens. She then directed her attention to her Life Sense, quickly picking up two devil fruit users on the ground floor, one of whom had a rather powerful life force.
It was easy to understand what was going on and Cherry felt that she could forgive the man for his interruption since he was polite about the matter. She was still annoyed, however, and decided to redirect her frustration to the individuals who apparently thought they could bully her around.
"Very well, we'll move rooms." Cherry said, which caused the man to heave a giant sigh of relief before piecing together his mask of professionalism once more.
"I am MOST appreciative and do hope that you enjoy your stay in our hotel! Feel free to help yourself to room service and the minibar free of charge as well!" The man gave her a bow before directing the small army of maids to clean the room and replace the linens on the beds.
Robin and Cherry were led by the hotelier to their new room which was already prepared for them. With one last string of thank yous and bows of gratitude he left them alone.
"Do you think one of the Four Emperors showed up?" Robin asked with mild amusement, wondering who could possibly make the hotel ask Cherry to leave her room.
"Pfft, no. It might be one of their subordinates, though. I'll go check them out. If they're some of Whitebeard's or Shanks' people, I'll kick their asses." Cherry said, dropping off the balcony of their new room.
She circled around to the main lobby where the two devil fruit users were still waiting. She could already hear the shrill voice of a woman loudly complaining about how long it was taking.
"How long could it possibly take to vacate one room?! Are you trying to make us angry?! Huh?!" The woman spoke with a tone that grated on one's nerves.
Cherry peaked through the glass doors of the front entrance at the two people while using her full effort to hide her presence and removed any hostility she felt towards them in her heart.
She saw the woman who looked to be about three and half meters tall, rail thin, with grayish skin, purple hair, and a long red nose.
The man standing next to her was a bit over five meters tall with short red hair and a furry scarf around his neck and lower face. He was clearly the more powerful of the two.
The man turned his head to look behind himself in Cherry's direction.
'This guy's observation haki is monstrous…' Cherry admired silently. The one thing she hated about haki was that it was hard to get a good gauge of how good another person was at it.
Seeing she was found out anyways, she didn't bother to hide anymore and confidently strolled into the main lobby through the front entrance.
The hotelier from before had only just now arrived to tell them that the penthouse was ready for them when he saw Cherry walking towards them. He briefly imagined his hotel exploding in a massive explosion and tried to think of ways to avoid that terrible future, before realizing it was useless to resist and accepted his fate.
"Finally, it's about time, isn't it Onii-chan?" The woman said, before noticing he was looking back toward the entrance.
"I don't believe that we're acquainted; I am Harpin D. Cherry. I'm still new to the pirate game, but perhaps you've heard of my meager accomplishments?" Cherry opened with some false humility.
"I know who you are." The man spoke curtly, but his eyes betrayed a mild interest.
"Are you here for the auction as well? Perhaps we're here for the same thing, wouldn't that be fun?" Cherry said with a smile, ignoring the man's rudeness from not introducing himself. 'He probably thinks I already know who he is. I really should look through the big bounties so I don't end up in awkward situations like this one.'
The man had his own thoughts. 'Mama said she wanted to try and recruit her, but I didn't expect to meet her here. I should wait until after the auction to speak with her in case I need to use force.'
"Perhaps we can talk after the auction then. Good luck." The man cut off the conversation, turning to the hotelier who took the hint and began leading them to the penthouse.
The woman looked rather annoyed with the brief encounter, but didn't seem intent on making a scene or going against the man's words.
'He's not much of a talker, huh?' Cherry thought, both glad and disappointed that he didn't just start a fight with her. She had even been tempted to probe him with Conqueror's Haki, but thought better of it.
"I don't like it." The woman, Charlotte Brulee, complained with a pout. "Why not just capture her? It'll be easy for you, Onii-chan."
"She may not be strong enough to beat me, but she has decent chances of escaping. Besides, the lunarian woman wasn't with her and we can't let her slip away either. Mama wants them both and preferably with their consent." The man, Charlotte Katakuri, patiently explained to his sister.
"She's just some rookie. I don't think she even knew who we were!" Brulee dismissed.
"We'll try to convince her to meet with Mama, perhaps at her next tea party. If she refuses, then we'll find an opportunity to entrap her and the lunarian woman." Katakuri said, this time with a tone of authority.
Brulee grumbled a bit more, but made no complaints as she trusted her beloved older brother's judgment.
Meanwhile, Cherry had returned to the new room and explained the encounter to Robin along with the descriptions of the two individuals.
"I think they're Big Mom's children. The man should be Charlotte Katakuri, her most powerful 'Sweet Commander'. It was wise that you didn't pick a fight like I thought you would." Robin said, giving her a look that said "stop causing trouble".
"I wonder why he wanted to speak to me then?" Cherry asked.
"Because Big Mom is a collector, and both you and Cabernet are rarities, especially Cabernet. You need to be cautious, Cherry." Robin was quite serious about that.
"Okay, okay! I won't antagonize them and I'll avoid them if I can." Cherry tried to placate her, rubbing her shoulders.
'Unless they win the bid for the devil fruit, then I'm gonna do what pirates do best!' Cherry thought with a mischievous smile.
章節 147: Beginning of the Auction
The first thing Cherry did after Robin warned her about the Charlotte siblings was to pass on the warning to Cabernet. If Charlotte Katakuri learned that both of his quarries were within arms' reach, he might just decide to cast away all civility and attack them immediately.
Cherry reckoned she could beat him with some difficulty, but she would trouble many people with the resulting collateral damage, both to property and to people.
"Okay~ I wasn't planning to return tonight anyways~" Cabernet responded over the link. Her voice sounded a bit unusual, but not in a bad way.
Two way communication wasn't normally possible with Blood Bound Weapons, nor was it normally thought to be necessary at all. However, given that Cabernet was sapient and often separated from Cherry by long distances, she saw fit to work something out to resolve that little issue.
It turned out to be a rather difficult problem in reality and she had been almost completely stumped on how to go about it. Blood Bound Weaponry was already a very sophisticated technique and thus didn't have much room for modification without forcing you to just start from scratch on a completely new technique.
Fortunately, inspiration had come to her within the cutest of packaging. Den den mushi. Cherry had unconsciously categorized the adorable snails as the same sort of naturally telepathic creatures as she was accustomed to in her previous life.
This was incorrect, as she discovered whilst "playing" with them one day at Baltigo. Den den mushi actually generated their telepathic abilities with a very complex and delicate vital energy construct inside their brains. Thankfully, despite the complexity it still didn't compare to devil fruit inscriptions, so she was able to work out how it functioned with a bit of study.
The end result was a supplemental ability with which she could strengthen the mental connection between herself and Cabernet, allowing two way communication. A side benefit was that she could directly call den den mushi as well, provided they were within the range of the technique. Long range den den mushi still needed more study before she could replicate that, and she's been busy with other things.
"Alright then, have fun with Perona. Try not to break her." Cherry said.
"Mm~ No promises~" Cabernet responded.
"Who could have guessed that Perona would be the submissive one?" Cherry muttered to herself.
She turned back to Robin who was waiting for her to finish, sitting on the edge of their bed. Robin patted her lap and gave her a seductive smile.
Cherry approached and sat down on her lap while facing her, whilst Robin wrapped her arms around Cherry's waist and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
...
The time until the auction passed by peacefully and without incident. The Charlotte siblings made no moves to leave the penthouse suite at the hotel, having the hotel staff or their subordinates bring them whatever they needed. It made Cherry wonder if they really wanted to catch her and Cabernet after all.
Finally the day of the auction was upon them.
Cherry headed for the location early, preferring not to bump into the Charlotte siblings if at all possible.
"Welcome Ms. Harpin. The V.I.P. box is awaiting you right this way." A familiar woman greeted them as they entered the auction house.
She was the same woman that Cherry had dealt with before. Seeing how she was genuinely happy to see Cherry, one could presume she was rewarded handsomely for the part she played in introducing her to Chinjao, even if it was small.
The V.I.P. box was very extravagant and rested on a balcony at the highest point overlooking the main auction room. They were given complimentary snacks and beverages, which were actually gourmet dishes in snack sized portions along with a selection of very rare wines and teas.
"No." Robin said without explanation.
"Yes?" Cherry replied, pretending not to notice the way Robin was glaring at the bottle of wine in her hand.
"You'll get drunk and make a huge mess!" Robin reprimanded.
"No I won't~" Cherry said reassuringly with amusement. "I can only get drunk if I deliberately stop my vital energy circulation."
Robin didn't look as amused as she was. "And are you going to deliberately get drunk?"
Cherry looked away from her piercing eyes, but somehow that only made it feel worse.
"No." Robin said, snatching the bottle from her hand. Then she turned to the attendant assigned to their room. "We'll be having tea."
"Spoilsport." Cherry muttered with a pout. Robin pinched her cheeks in a playful warning.
"You can't be impaired when you're dealing with the Big Mom pirates. Isn't it people like them that made you hesitate to go to the New World immediately?" Robin asked.
"I'm not afraid of them. Big Mom herself would be too much for me right now, but she isn't here. Maybe that Katakuri can put up a decent fight, but he's the only one worth worrying about. The rest can be cleaned up by you and the flirting couple over there." Cherry explained confidently, pointing at Cabernet and Perona sharing a colorful cocktail in a big glass.
"Just be careful. I've lost enough people in my life…" Robin sighed.
Cherry felt a bit bad for worrying her and wrapped her arm around Robin's shoulders comfortingly.
"Alright." Cherry said in a rare moment of seriousness.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The auctioneer spoke, voice amplified by den den mushi. "The auction will begin in just a moment!"
Cherry wasn't paying too much attention to the auctioneer's ramblings and sweeped the crowd with her Life Sense.
The Charlotte siblings were present of course, as was Morgans. She was somewhat surprised to find the axe guy, Sentomaru, here as well.
'This isn't the sort of place I expected to find that guy. Are the marines planning to do a raid on the auction or something?' Cherry wondered.
However, there was no sign of suspicious movements around the auction house. It also didn't seem very likely that such a man would attempt to rob the auction as he didn't seem like a stealthy sort.
"The first lot we have for you is a shipment of firearms and ammunition…" The auctioneer announced. In one of the seats below, a disguised Sabo didn't even let him finish and immediately bid on the lot.
The auction continued with various "boring" lots that Cherry had no interest in.
One lot was even for a box of candies made by a world renowned confectioner. Charlotte Brulee bid on this item relentlessly, not even giving the auctioneer enough time to repeat the bids that opposed her.
"Does she like candy that much? And why would anyone pay 40 million Beri for one box of candy?" Cherry wondered aloud.
"Big Mom is infamous for her love of sweets. As for the candy, it's only worth what others are willing to pay for it. I have heard great things about this particular candy though. Apparently the confectioner makes each box unique and never makes an identical one again." Robin explained.
"Hmmm?" Cherry hummed. "50 million!"
"I hear 50 million Beri from the V.I.P. box!" The auctioneer repeated.
The only reason Charlotte Brulee didn't immediately up the bid against it was that the auctioneer had almost finished counting down her own bid and so she was caught off guard. In addition, the voice was familiar to her as one of her targets.
Brulee glared at Cherry, who was peeking over the balcony at her with a mocking smirk.
"55 million!" Brulee shouted with her number raised.
"60 million~" Cherry called in a singsong voice.
"70 MILLION!!!" Brulee almost screamed through her gritted teeth.
Most of the other people present were terrified at this display of blatant disrespect toward one of Big Mom's children.
Strangely enough, Katakuri was perfectly calm, not even bothering to look in Cherry's direction.
Cherry gave up on trying to get a rise out of the man after the bid reached 100 million, allowing Brulee to take it.
"Wiwwiwwiwwi! Too rich for your blood, eh?! I won!" Brulee celebrated. "I did well, didn't I Onii-chan?"
"I suppose it's fine since Mama won't complain about receiving candy." Katakuri said.
Brulee went a bit pink at the cheeks in embarrassment as she realized that Cherry had tricked her into spending more than she needed to.
The auction continued as Brulee grumbled quietly to herself.
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