Vinsmoke Judge's plan was simple.
His sons didn't need to beat Harpin D. Cherry, in fact he didn't expect that they could win. What he did expect was that his boys could spill some of her blood.
With her blood, he could analyze and extract her lineage factor and find out the secret to her monstrous physical capabilities; possibly even how she was able to transfer her own life force into Whitebeard at the Marineford war.
For a genius like himself, this was a trivially easy thing to accomplish.
They entered the training room and Judge grew excited. Cherry would underestimate his sons because she easily took down Niji, but she'll be taken by surprise after they put on their RAID suits. They hadn't been wearing them at the table, after all.
Even if it doesn't work, there is always plan b. Not that he'll have to use it, but it paid off to always have a backup plan.
"Which one of us goes first?" Yonji asked nonchalantly.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Ichiji suggested.
"What are you boys talking about? You're all going to face me at once. It won't even be any fun otherwise." Cherry interjected.
The three brothers smiled maliciously and Judge almost could suppress his own grin. This was just too perfect.
Individually, with their RAID suits, they were a force to be reckoned with. Being able to fight together, they were unstoppable.
Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji each struck a ridiculous pose, all three holding a numbered can in their hands. An elaborate transformation took place and ended with them wearing the costumes that Cherry had seen them in before.
"So this is what you use all this tech for? Showmanship?" Cherry asked disdainfully.
"I wouldn't expect a peasant girl to understand the value of appearances," Niji sneered. "Prepare yourself for a pummeling!"
Even though brother number two was the one mouthing off, it was brother number four who rushed forwards first.
Cherry waited for him, but was slightly surprised to find his hand shooting away from his arm attached by an extending cable towards her at great speed.
She caught the hand before the fist hit her then felt a tug as the cable rapidly retracted, pulling Yonji towards her even faster with a drop kick.
Cherry sidestepped the kick directly into the path of an elbow strike from Niji. She hopped over him only to be met once more by Ichiji's flying knee attack.
'They have remarkable teamwork for such arrogant assholes. No doubt it has been beaten into their thick skulls for years.' Cherry quietly surmised.
She flowed around Ichiji like a leaf on the wind, using the force he himself created to dodge his strike. Then Yonji came for her once again.
Cherry dodged the next dozen or so attacks in quick succession. Each failed attack was faster than the last and she could tell they were gauging her for weaknesses and openings.
She was genuinely impressed by their methodical nature and thought that it really didn't match their brutish personalities at all.
Unfortunately for the three brothers, all their efforts to pick apart her fighting style was for nought. Her raw strength and speed combined with Rokushiki were more than enough for just this much.
Regrettably, she wasn't here to play around, but to teach a valuable life lesson to some naughty brats. Their going to regret having such big heads about themselves when she shoves them up their metaphorical asses.
Cherry showed an opening, the tiniest window of opportunity that most would miss, but skilled and sadistic fighters like these three would hone in on immediately.
"""Black Bug!!!""" they shouted in unison, arranging themselves in a practise and efficient manner to strike her simultaneously.
Judge subconsciously leaned forward in his seat, filled with anticipation. Sanji and Reiju both watched nervously, though for different reasons.
The change in Cherry's demeanor was swift and violent. She went from graceful dancer to immovable mountain in a fraction of a second, allowing all three attacks to slam into her without even trying to avoid them.
Cherry neither budged nor flinched. Instead, Yonji and Ichiji's fists crumpled against either side of her head like tin foil pickaxes against a boulder. Niji's kneecap shattered like a sugar glass bottle in a bar fight scene from a Ballywood movie.
A delicate hand gripped the collar of Yonji's RAID suit an instant before Cherry's foot was driven so far into his gut that he was literally folded in half, his chest pressed against his pelvis.
Cherry's head swiveled towards Ichiji and he was quick to respond with a laser blast from his good hand, with no regard for Yonji's safety if she were to dodge.
Cherry did not dodge, however. She reached straight through the light beam and grabbed him by his red hair. A beat later, her elbow was driven through his teeth, leaving his mouth a mess of blood and gums.
Niji was saved for last so he would know what was coming, not that he had to wait very long since it all happened so fast.
Cherry half-dropped to the ground and came back up with Niji's legs held in each hand. In a strange maneuver that no one watching really understood, Cherry had Niji's open jaw nestled over his groin.
"I did warn you~" Cherry said, almost sounding sorry.
A powerful palm struck against Niji's head, using his own teeth to sever his family jewels despite the protection of the RAID suit he was wearing.
For the first time in their lives, Ichiji and Yonji felt a trickle of something that might be fear as they listened to Niji's mournful wail of agony.
Judge looked upon her with no small amount of frustration. Cherry had just taken his sons' strongest combo move head on and didn't have the smallest scratch to show for it. Not a single drop of blood was lost. He felt no sympathy for the brothers; they had failed in their mission, so it was only natural that they would experience some pain.
Reiju saw Cherry in a brand new light. Mostly a big helping of respect, a healthy dose of fear, and a tiny bit of something else that she didn't care to admit to. As for her brothers, well, she did feel a bit bad for them, but she also felt that they deserved to get kicked down a notch every now and then to keep them humble.
Sanji wanted to delight in his brothers' misery, but as a man he couldn't look at Niji with anything except pity, even though he felt that it was completely deserved.
"Don't you think that you went a bit too far?" Judge spoke up, searching for another angle with which he could get what he wanted.
"It's fine, right? They're still kicking, so you can use that fancy tech of yours to fix them right up!" Cherry said cheerfully, clearly in a better mood. She looked at Niji again and said, "I hope they don't change my nickname, eventually. I rather like the one that I have, so I don't want to be "Line-Ender" Cherry or something."
*snort* Reiju couldn't help herself and let out some stifled laughter.
The three Vinsmoke brothers were carted off to the medical wing of the castle where they would make a full recovery in record time, such was the nature of their enhanced bodies. Even Niji's unfortunate situation was something that could be handled in less than an hour.
"You're very skilled. I've never even seen Cipher Pol agents with as much proficiency in Rokushiki as you," Reiju complimented genuinely. "You made fighting those three look downright easy."
"The result would have been different if it had been a real fight, I'm sure." Cherry neglected to mention that said result would have been skewed even further in her favor.
"You know, before I am a warrior and a king, I am a scientist. In particular, I am specialized in the analysis and manipulation of lineage factors, that is the very blueprints of life. If you were interested, we could have a look at yours. Perhaps we'll find something interesting?" Judge spoke politely.
Cherry absolutely knew this creep was up to something, but she couldn't help but to be intrigued by the offer. She hadn't ever heard about this 'lineage factor' thing he spoke of, and knowing about it could be very useful information.
She looked at Sanji in search of some clue about the man's true motives, but he looked just as lost as she was in regards to the new term Judge had casually thrown out. Reiju didn't look confused like her younger brother did, but that was because she had schooled her expression into a well practiced smile. That in itself gave Cherry some information, though, even if it wasn't that much.
"I've never heard of 'lineage factors' before. Tell me about them." Cherry decided to probe for information.
"Primarily it will show your racial ancestry," Judge said. "I believe that yours is sure to show an interesting past of mixed relations."
That wasn't necessarily a lie, of course; it certainly did do those things. What he didn't mention was how he could utilize that information in the creation of clones, or the fact that devil fruits altered the lineage factor of a person. Though in the latter case, he was sorely ignorant despite his best efforts. Vegapunk had already cracked it with that stupidly huge head of his, much to his chagrin.
"I'm sure it would, with my father being Dracule Mihawk and my grandmother being from the Kuja tribe." Cherry said.
Naturally Judge knew about her father, but having Kuja blood was new information to him! Perhaps the two powerful bloodlines intermingled in a way to create this monster in front of him, or maybe there was something more lurking beneath her skin. He HAD to know.
"How about it then?" Judge pressed gently, keeping his excitement from showing anything beyond academic interest. "I only need a small sample of blood."
Cherry seemed to mull it over for several moments. She squinted her eyes at Judge as if she was trying to see through whatever deception he was trying to pull over her eyes.
"Sure why not," Cherry finally agreed. It wasn't that big of a deal and she was interested in what it would tell her about her body.
Even though she had agreed, that didn't mean she would leave her blood with the man to do with as he pleased. There are far too many techniques available to cultivators that could make use of blood for her to risk allowing him to keep it. At her stage of cultivation, it was a trivial matter to remotely destroy her own blood, especially in the Soul Fusion realm where the soul permeates every cell in the body.
Reiju had an inscrutable expression as stood silently by the side. Sanji had a vague idea of what Judge was up to since all of his children were bioengineered, but he trusted Cherry to be able to handle whatever came her way. Plus, he has bombs strapped to his wrists and didn't feel like testing his father's temper even if Cherry didn't seem that concerned about them.
…
Two Jinbe's clashed together as Luffy clashed with a large, six-armed man wearing armor made of biscuits.
"Your fishman karate is certainly strong, but mimicry can only take you so far." Jinbe-One spoke resolutely.
Jinbe-Two answered, "This is the real deal, I'm afraid. It's you who is going down today, imposter."
"Which one is which?!" Nami fretted on the sidelines of the chaotic fight.
The self introduced Sweet General Cracker was matching Luffy's blows easily and Jinbe was facing an imposter so he couldn't help. Nami watched them both closely whilst keeping an eye on Luffy's fight in the hopes of rooting out the imposter.
As soon as she could work out who the fake was, a super charged lightning tempo would quickly turn the tides, if not outright put the imposter out for the count. She didn't have any hopes that a high level member of Big Mom's crew would just die from one of her attacks no matter how much stronger they were.
Unfortunately, any attempts made by either one to intervene with Luffy's fight get stopped by the other before they can show their true allegiance.
That was, until now.
Cracker parried Luffy's elephant gun with three shield bearing arms, leaving an opening for him to stab at Luffy.
Jinbe-Two thrust his fist out not at Jinbe-One, but towards Cracker! A force slammed into Cracker's side, sending him stumbling over and ruining his counterattack against Luffy. In turn, Jinbe-Two took a hard blow against his defensibly raised arm from Jinbe-One.
"There!" Nami knew immediately then who the real Jinbe was!
*Rumble Rumble Rumble!*
Thunder clouds formed ominously overhead as Nami spun her staff. With one final downwards strike Nami called out, "Lightning Tempo!"
*ZAP!!!*
Jinbe-Two was struck instantly and Jinbe-One capitalized on his suddenly stunned state with brutal efficiency!
"Why…?" Jinbe-Two lay defeated on the ground and didn't understand why Nami had done this to him!
"Hmph! As if the real Jinbe would interfere with Luffy's fight without being asked! It's one of those stupid 'manly' things!" Nami explained her reasoning.
"Kukuku! Wrong choice!" Jinbe-One laughed ominously.
"Eh?!" Nami raised her staff defensively, positively shocked.
"Just kidding," Jinbe-One said with a goofy smile as he scratched his chest awkwardly. "Maybe it's a bad time for a joke, though?"
Nami's eye twitched, "You think? Go help Luffy!"
"Hm? But you understand, right? He didn't ask for my help, so it wouldn't be right to butt in…" Jinbe said.
"I don't give a fuck about what's manly! If you don't want a lightning bolt too, then get moving!" Nami threatened.
"Ah, sorry Luffy. Nami is too scary…" Jinbe reluctantly joined the fight.
From the way the fake Jinbe was still twitching on the ground, he felt it was best not to test how serious Nami is with that staff of hers.
Cracker frowned deeply. "You can't even hold off one fishman on land, Brulee?"
Naturally he didn't even count Nami as an opponent. She was more like a giant hornet in his eyes; she had a nasty sting, but was easily squashed.
Due to Brulee's incapacitation, he would have to up the ante somewhat. He wasn't foolish enough to believe he could take a super rookie and Jinbe at once without putting in the effort.