One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 526 - Full Moon

"I should use the power of friendship more often," Cherry said. "That shit was way too easy."

"I ain't your friend," Kid huffed from where he lay on his back on the ground.

"I wasn't talking about you. If you weren't here, it would have taken only half a long to beat her," Cherry shot back.

"What'd you say to me?!" Kid snarled, trying to sit up.

"It's a real shame that you died in the fight, though. I'm sure that Killer fellow will be really sad about it," Cherry smiled at him.

"Sorry, Ma'am," Kid slumped back down.

"Tsk, I'm gonna miss putting uppity brats in their place." Cherry shook her head in exasperation.

"Trust me, there's always going to be people picking fights with you. You can't imagine how often it happens to Pops." Ace managed to get to his feet and brush himself off a little. "He's going to be all wistful and nostalgic for a while after today. Big Mom and Kaido aren't exactly old friends of his, but they were crewmates once."

"Ace, look out! A giant cheese monster snuck up behind you!" Cherry pointed, looking deadly serious.

Ace, being very tired after a fight with an Emperor, spun around to defend himself. "Wait, cheese...?"

*gacha*

A flash of a camera captured his stupid expression, and would likely be immortalized in the World Economic News Paper in short order.

"Geh?! No!" Ace realized what happened and ran off after the photographer. He hated when they used a bad photo of him on the bounty posters, damn it! He wasn't vain, he just didn't want to look stupid in front of the whole damned world!

...

The cloudy sky began to clear in a fashion too swift to be natural. The full moon shone high in the sky down upon Onigashima, and silhouetted against it was the enormous form of Kaido.

An army of minks transformed beneath its light, their fur becoming as white as the surface of the lunar surface. Whilst the Red Scabbards chased after Kaido, the minks avenged the wrong done to their homeland by his subordinate, Jack!

"Sulong doesn't last forever, and there are few who can outlast me in a battle of attrition!" Jack bellowed from his mammoth-sized mouth. "You're outmatched!"

Duke Dogstorm's musketeers and Cat Viper's Guardians faced off against him without their leaders' assistance. This made Jack and the Beast pirates he brought with him overconfident.

"They don't even have their kings here and they think they can win?! Hahahaha!" one mocked and more laughed.

"You're all gonna die!" "Ps ps ps, here kitty, kitty!" "Don't you have some grass to chew?!" "I wonder what you taste like, kekeke!" "Don't worry, we'll play with the pretty ones before we kill ya!"

The open mockery failed to garner any outward reaction. Perhaps if they had never encountered Cherry, they would have become enraged. However, with the weapons that she forged for them in hand, they could only see dead men before their eyes; and the dead could not offend them.

The minks moved.

The Beast pirates screamed.

Jack's eyes widened as he barely comprehended the sight they showed him. Bit and pieces of chopped up pirates lay strewn across the rooftop when only seconds before they were jeering and threatening their foe.

He had barely a fraction of a second to coat his furry hide with armament haki before the blades descended on him too!

And so they did.

Despite his superior haki, lightning coated blades carved into his skin. His natural toughness was the only thing keeping them digging deep into his flesh. He lashed out, putting all his might into smashing individuals, whittling away at their numbers to make things more even.

They were too fast. He couldn't touch a single hair on their heads and each passing second brought more pain.

"It's this

"Pathetic," Shishilian tutted. "But I suppose we already knew you were, since you had to poison us the first time we fought."

"Kaido's third hand... you were always just a spare in case King or Queen died unexpectedly, huh?" Wanda sneered.

Jack flew into a rage. He had already been enraged, but now he was extra raging! He was also already an idiot, and getting so angry only made him dumber.

The musketeers and guardians would have liked to draw this out the same way that he had drawn out their own suffering, but they had allies who were still fighting below. Jack's death was quick and painful.

...

"Why the heck isn't Luffy up there fighting Kaido?" Cherry grumbled.

For some reason, her goofball for a captain was running around inside the castle.

Kaido had basically busted his way all through the floors and roof without any concern for the damage he caused. Why didn't Luffy follow through the holes left behind with his stretchy powers?

'Is he giving the samurai a shot at him?' Cherry didn't think that made much sense. More likely, Luffy was just being stupid again.

She supposed that she couldn't blame him too much. There were times when she did things the hard way when using her own devil fruit would simplify things immensely, just because it happened to slip her mind that she could.

Luffy was a dummy, so forgetting that he can rubber his way out of problems sometimes wasn't beyond the pale.

In any case, that wasn't her concern. The Red Scabbards were doing a decent job of holding off Kaido in the meantime, so she'd leave it be. If one of them died, well, then maybe Luffy would learn a harsh lesson about goofing around when the chips are down.

At least he was being escorted by other members of their crew. They'd handle the chaff so he could climb the stairs.

"I'm gonna have to kick Sanji's ass," Cherry said.

"Huh? Why?" Law ran alongside her back to the castle.

"He's one of the only members of our crew besides me who could have carried Luffy up top. Instead he's just showing off and kicking people," Cherry said.

"Ah," Law said. "What about Cabernet?"

"She's got her hands full," Cherry said.

...

Cabernet had her hands full.

Specifically, she had her hands full of Nami and Usopp.

"Faster, faster!" Usopp urged.

"He's gaining on us!" Nami whined.

King was in hot pursuit of them. Cabernet had been the one to carry Nami up top to clear the cloud cover, and the Lunarian didn't take kindly to that. Minks were capable fighters even without Sulong.

As for Usopp, he was just there for ranged support. Unfortunately, the vast majority of his ammunition was either explosive or flammable. All but useless against this particular enemy.

"I'm trying! He knows his way around this place better than me!" Cabernet grumbled.

*FWOOSH*

A roaring slash of flame roared past them as they jerked around a corner.

"Why is he even after us?! There's stronger people in here than us!" Usopp complained.

"Er..." Cabernet would have scratched her head if her hands weren't occupied. "He might be after me..."

Nami and Usopp blinked at her. Any second they would demand she put them down at the earliest convenience, and of course that was already the plan. She just hoped they wouldn't be too angry at her for roping them into this mess-

"Nami," Usopp said.

"Yeah," Nami nodded.

""That asshole's going down,"" They said in unison.

This time, it was Cabernet who blinked at them.