One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 525 - Sneaky Photographer

There were a few reasons why Cherry decided to rope in a few extra dummies to fight Big Mom.

The biggest one was haste. Big Mom was a tough old bitch, so it would simply take up too much time beating her down again. She had to make sure Luffy didn't die, after all.

Another was, naturally, so that Robin wouldn't make her sleep on the metaphorical couch again. This one was only a little less important to her than Luffy not dying.

The last reason was that she simply found fighting dirty to be really, really funny. Just look at Big Mom's face! It was practically screaming 'Why are you ganging up on me when you already beat me one on one?!'

"Because I'm just that kind of bitch," Cherry answered the unspoken question.

"I didn't ask you anything!" Big Mom shouted. "Prometheus, Napoleon, Hera!"

"Why are you boys just standing around? Get her!" Cherry shoved Law and Kid forward.

Ace, to his credit, was already moving. He didn't need Cherry to push him along as he was already firmly on board with the plan. He wasn't going to let a little thing like Cherry not telling him that there was a plan get in the way of kicking some ass.

Law and Kid didn't lag too far behind. The former because he could foresaw how quickly this fight could go sideways if it went on too long, and the latter because he didn't want to be known to the whole world as the chump who sat on the sidelines while other people fought an Emperor.

"Third time's the charm. I hope Katakuri is ready to be the man of the house," Cherry snickered.

Big Mom knew she was in a tough spot, so she didn't hold back anything. Her three special homies merged into one; an ethereal woman with a body of lightning and a mane of flame, larger than even Big Mom herself by several fold.

Even seeing this, the three men did not falter in their charge.

"Uh oh, she didn't use that when I fought her last time..." Cherry said.

"""Eh?!""" Ace, Law, and Kid skidded to a halt.

"MASER SABER!" Big Mom bellowed.

The three of them leapt in the air, narrowly dodging a horizontal slash that they all could tell would have bisected them nearly without resistance.

Cherry did not dodge, instead meeting the attack with a lightning slash of her own, backed by the power of her ever increasingly thunderous heart.

It was no surprise that Big Mom's attack ultimately came out on top to Cherry, though what remained of it was easily avoided.

After it passed her by, it carried on across the island and bisected a mountain on the other coast.

Ace, Law, and Kid paled a bit at the sight. To think it still had that oomph left to cause such destruction.

They steeled themselves once more, however. They all knew there was no room for fear when facing Big Mom.

Cherry couldn't let one of those hit the fortress by accident, though. She clad herself in her armor and her heart picked up the pace, the pure force building up in her body without any escape. This move was self destructive, but she wouldn't need it for long.

"KING ENGINE!" Cherry cried out, amusing herself through the announcement.

*click*

"Oh good heavens- Get out of here, you pesky reporter! How'd you even get here?!" Cherry shouted at the form of a man scurrying off with his camera.

Morgans' guys were sneaky as hell. She only barely heard the camera click with her enhanced hearing. How he got into Wano and why were a mystery. Maybe the guy was a local who got recruited? She could see that.

Cherry's three recruits set upon Big Mom like a pack of wolves. They didn't intend on letting her get another one of those attacks off and they were emboldened by the presence of Cherry.

The resulting fight wasn't actually much of a fight at all. Individually, they could not defeat her, but they could hurt her. Together, they tore her apart at the seams.

Cherry had to yank them out of the way a few times (mostly just Kid), but all in all they were practically unharmed by the end of it.

"Hah... haaah..." Big Mom heaved great breaths as her body trembled and her strength betrayed her. "I won't... hah hah... lose to the likes... haah hah... of you...!"

The three boys were out of breath as well. In some sense, Cherry was too with the self destructive nature of the King Engine; it was a real workout.

"Any last words?" Ace asked.

"Tell Whitebeard that I'll see him in hell, M-mama MAma!" Big Mom spat blood at his feet.

"There's no need to be rude, especially in front of the children. Think of what kind of example you're setting," Cherry said.

"Ch- *cough* Children...?" Big Mom furrowed her brows.

As if summoned by her words, some two dozen Charlotte siblings approached from their hiding places nearby.

"What?" Big Mom couldn't comprehend what she was seeing.

"You were never going to live forever, Mama. We were always going to have to stand on our own eventually," Smoothie spoke up for the group, not looking half as ashamed as her brothers and sisters, and they didn't look all too ashamed either. "You dragged us into enemy territory to fight this monster? No, your time is over."

Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin, looked upon her gathered children in shock. The expected outburst of rage at their betrayal didn't come. In fact, no words were spoken by Big Mom ever again, as her final breath left her at that very moment.

Smoothie turned on her heels. "We're going back to Tottoland!"

The Charlotte siblings took one last look at their mother before following suit with bowed heads. Only the eldest of the group lingered longer, perhaps remembering a time when their mother had actually been a mother, before she had lost all of her humanity. They too turned to leave without a fuss, in time.

Cherry did not try to stop them, nor did she say anything to them. As she said to her opponent, there was no need to be rude.

"I can hardly believe it..." Ace muttered. He didn't doubt that they'd win with this line up, but seeing it with his own eyes was another matter altogether.

"I can't believe she died so... quietly," Kid spoke wistfully, as if he'd expected that she would die in some last ditch effort to kill one of them.

"It's probably because of the poison," Law said.

Cherry, Ace, and Kid looked at him.

"Sanji's sister is scary," Law said. "But since she offered it... why not?"

Big Mom's eyes shot wide open, nearly giving the three men heart attacks.

*SLICE*

Cherry carved off her head before she got back up again. "Nope. We're not doing that again."

Fortunately she was so worn down that it was as easy as cutting a wedding cake.

Ace, Law, and Kid collapsed. That roller coaster was way too much for them to handle.

"You boys need to toughen up," Cherry chuckled.