One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 522 - Serial Kinappee

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Usopp had his hand clasped over his mouth as his face went a greenish hue.

Chopper rubbed circles on Usopp's back and gave him some anti-nausea meds to settle his stomach. Nobody in there wanted to be covered in vomit.

"Hahahaha! Do you guys always get to have this much fun?" Reiju, meanwhile, was having the time of her life.

Franky's Brachio Tank was moving with a grace and nimbleness that the man himself never imagined that it would or even could. If he was here to see it in action, he might have even cried tears of joy.

The tank's weight shifted as one of the legs for its General Franky transformation popped out and nudged the ground, tilting the entire vehicle onto just one of its treads. This happened just in time to cause Big Mom's diagonal slash to miss by mere centimeters.

"How are you even doing this? This is the first time you've driven the Brachio Tank!" Usopp asked, no small amount of bitterness in his tone.

"I've always liked these sorts of auto-motive land vehicles. Germa just never had much interest in developing them. The only ones I ever got to drive before were the big, clunky trucks for our supply lines, and one of those turtle cars at the Gran Tesoro once." Reiju said, speaking calmly despite having the tank do a pirouette out of the way of a gout of flame.

"The turtle cars were pretty cool, minus the turtle torture, but they weren't nearly as complicated as this piece of machinery!" Usopp countered.

"It's all pretty intuitive, though?" Reiju said.

"This is Franky

"Maybe Chopper should check your brain then, 'cause it sounds like you've got a bad case of stupid~" Reiju teased.

Despite his terror, Chopper snorted at that.

"She's been with us for less than a month and she's already bantering. This bodes well for the future, I'm sure," Usopp said with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh oh," Reiju said.

Suddenly Usopp and Chopper were keenly reminded of their dire straits and started screaming again, despite not knowing exactly what it was they were meant to be screaming about.

They found out soon enough when a tree came to life, its branches and roots stretching out to grab them. The Brachio Tank fired with a honk, blasting away some of them, but they were stalled long enough for Big Mom to take advantage.

"I've got you, you little pests! Mama MAma!" Big mom laughed.

Her other hand let go of her sword, Napoleon, and reached up to grasp the barrel of the tank's cannon.

"You won't pull the same trick twice!" Big Mom declared, certain that her victory was assured.

Usopp and Chopper hugged each other and shook as they awaited their doom. Reiju frantically flipped through the user manual she found in the glove compartment beneath several pairs of gloves.

The metal chassis started to groan and creak as it threatened to be ripped apart at any moment. The only reason it was taking so long was their value as hostages, so Big Mom didn't want to just squish them by accident.

"We're gonna die! She's gonna eat us and make us watch!" Chopper blubbered.

"Aha!" Reiju tossed the user manual aside, twisted two knobs counter clockwise 180 degrees, one knob clockwise 270 degrees, then punched the big red button that was revealed through the protective glass cover.

*SPSSSSH*

"EEEYAAAAH?!?!?!" Big Mom released them and reeled back in pain as her face got a point blank spray of oil and capsaicin.

Big Mom might be nigh indestructible, but even she isn't immune to violent irritants delivered straight to the eyes.

"It's no deadly poison, but it'll do," Reiju giggled whilst the two boys sighed with relief.

...

"Fascinating," Cherry nodded, stroking her chin in thought.

"That's all I know about my devil fruit, honest!" Apoo insisted, waving his hands in the air.

"I suppose I believe you. You strike me as the type that knows which way the wind is blowing, so you wouldn't lie to me... too much," Cherry narrowed her gaze at him with those last words, making him gulp.

"It's all the information that's useful to me, anyhow. I couldn't care less if you've left out a special secret move or two," Cherry patted the grown man on the head, making a small cymbal crashing sound each time she did. "So I guess it's enough for me to let you run away with your tail between your legs. Try not to get caught, hm?"

Apoo nodded eagerly and took off running the fastest that his legs would carry him. For once in his life, he wished he'd had the long legs of the long legged tribe rather than his long, double jointed arms, if only to carry him away from here that much quicker.

The musical devil fruit certainly was fascinating.

It was also so terribly frustrating.

She felt like she only gained more questions regarding the workings of devil fruit than she did answers. There was something she was missing and she certain that it was right under her stupid nose, but even knowing that the answer must be so close she was unable to grasp it.

"I'll just have to think on this later..." Cherry sighed. She didn't have the time to mull this over the way she wanted to. Plus she had a feeling that she'd just end up thinking in circles anyways.

A quick scan with Life Sense and she could see that their forces were almost moved into position. She couldn't pick the samurai army apart from the Beast pirates, but she could feel the Red Scabbards and her own crew at least.

Since that was the case, she got a move on herself. Her only real job was making sure the big shots among the enemy didn't go around killing their weaker combatants.

Big Mom was the most important one. Whilst Kaido could hypothetically destroy his entire fortress and kill most of them, he would also get his own crew doing that so it wasn't very likely. Big Mom, however, could pick and choose whose life forces she ripped away in a crowd without destroying the building at all.

The worst kind of weapon of mass destruction; a selective one.

"Why did that big bitch have to come here?" Cherry grumbled. "I beat your ass twice and you were lucky to get away alive. Can't you just take a hint and mind your own business? Better yet, retire like any rich old lady ought to at your age!"

Cherry ignored the fact that she was older than Big Mom by several centuries, and richer than her by a factor in the thousands at the least.

Cherry turned a corner and-

"..." "..." "..."

-came face to face with X Drake who had Nefertari Cobra under his arm.

"That's where you went, Cobra. I've been looking for you," Cherry lied. "What have you been up to?"

"I've been kidnapped far too many times in these last few weeks, but I wouldn't object to it happening one more time," Cobra answered.

Drake tensed. 'Why do you want to be kidnapped?! I'm trying to rescue you!'

Of course, neither Cobra nor Cherry knew that Drake was an undercover member of SWORD, who were marines in all but name. Even if they had, it wouldn't have changed anything, though.