One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 481: Property Damage



When Cherry's feet touched down onto the pavement, she could almost feel Garling's smug look boring into her back. No doubt he thought he would have an advantage after forcing her to the ground.

She wished that she could see his face as she exploded into motion a split second afterwards. An even shorter time after that, she vanished around the back of one of the many celestial dragons' manors, many of which were currently on fire and creating a lot of vision blocking smoke to hide herself with.

She could sense his grip tighten around the handle of his sword as he moved to continue the chase. At the same time, he seemed to have swallowed his pride and started calling for reinforcements with his den den mushi. Cherry wondered if he'd choke on it and die.

It wasn't good news for her. There was at least one, possibly two marine admirals present in Mary Geoise, both of whom were already on high alert due to the revolutionaries' attack.

One of them was Fujitora, whom she was already familiar with. The second that she wasn't totally sure about was some kind of plant logia devil fruit user.

The former would be tricky to deal with, mostly because she kind of liked the guy. He had a good heart and from what she'd witnessed today, he was not so subtly helping the revolutionaries free the slaves.

As for the latter, she didn't know how well he matched up against the big leagues in general, but he was a terrible match up against her in particular. She had two lungs full of boiling plasma with his name on them brewing right this very moment.

Who would it be? Fujitora, the plant guy, both at once? Less than half a minute later, she had her answer.

"Ah shit, that's cheating!" Cherry leapt high over the top of a flaming manor just in time for it-

*BADABOOM!!!*

-to explode in a massive concussive blast.

"You got no right having so much energy, old man!" Cherry shouted.

"Yeah, well, Saint Figarland gave me the go ahead to cause as much property damage as I want on account of the fires. Who am I to say no?" Garp flicked some wax he dug out of his ear off his finger, a big shit eating grin on his face. "Have you taken up king-napping as a hobby now? I hope Luffy didn't put you up to this."

"Yup, I'm starting a collection- One down, several dozen more to go. I reckon this one'll look real nice stuffed on my mantle," Cherry said. "Who the fuck is Figarland?"

"Keep my name out of your dog mouth," Garling appeared, attempting to cleave Cobra in twain.

*ZaAaP*

Garling aborted his attack at the last second, moving his blade to block the bolt of lightning surging in his direction.

*Clang!*

Sakura Tengoku briefly re-materialized with the collision, only hitting Garling with a fraction of its full potency before flying back to Cherry, who was already on the move again.

"You let her get away, fool!" Garling chastised Garp.

Garp shrugged. "I did my best. She's a tough cookie."

Garling scoffed and split off from Garp to try and corner Cherry again. If Garp wasn't such a useful pawn, he'd have killed the old coot on the spot. Sadly, such high value assets could only be disposed of by the Five Elders' order. Why they tolerated such disrespect, he may never know.

He didn't need Garp, anyway. Admiral Aramaki would do a much better job of blocking that- *FWOOSH*

A second sun briefly lit up the horizon of burning mansions before dying down. Garling grimaced.

Cherry scampered away from the freshly fried plant admiral. She knew he wasn't dead, judging from his still abundant life force, but he definitely wouldn't be chasing her any more today. Fujitora was moving about as fast as a sea slug, probably on purpose, so she didn't worry about him.

"I'm surprised Garp is actually getting involved in this. How the hell did he hide from me before he attacked, though?" Cherry wondered aloud.

She found it rather disturbing that such an overt fellow like Garp could actually sneak around so well, even hiding himself from her Life Sense somehow.

It was lucky he was clearly more interested in smashing up celestial pigsties than catching her, because that punch of his was maybe a quarter the strength of a fully charged King Punch from Elizabello, and it didn't look like he was really even trying.

"Seems like that Figarland guy didn't tell them he wanted to kill you, Cobra. They want to keep this nasty affair on the down low," Cherry commented. Cobra grunted in agreement... or perhaps it was just pain.

'Snail, snail, snail, where are the snails-'Cherry searched for the tiny creatures across the city. 'Oh!'

Whilst doing that, Cherry actually caught wind of Vivi! She was moving away from Pangaea Castle with... Wapol of all people. How strange. It didn't look like they were being followed, so Cherry left them be for now, keeping her focus on getting Cobra far away from here.

'Aha!' Cherry found something that would suit her purposes nicely. A giant projection den den mushi that was thankfully unattended. "Looks like I found us a way out of here, my friend." Another grunt from Cobra and Cherry unceremoniously stuffed him into a pocket. Transforming into her ethereal state, she phased through the walls of the building and directly into the den den mushi on the inside, not a single soul bearing witness to her escape.

Garling arrived only moments after, finding that Cherry's trail ended abruptly right here. "Where did she go?"

He scoured the area, but frustratingly found not a single trace of her, not even a drop of Cobra's blood. It was as if the two of them had vanished into thin air-

*CRACK*

The pavement below Garling's feet shattered as his face twisted in rage! "That CPO agent withn/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

the door fruit! He did this!"

With that, he was off and after a new target.

...

"We have to go back for my father!" Vivi struggled against Wapol's teeth fruitlessly.

"No can do!" Wapol spoke with surprising clarity. "Harpin D. Cherry was there too, so I'm sure he's fine! She's your friend, isn't she?"

"Cherry was?" Vivi paused her wriggling. "What in the world is happening, Wapol? You said

my father was attacked..."

"The Five Elders tried to murder him!" Wapol hissed.

Vivi's eyes went wide with shock and horror. She so desperately wished to go right back to the castle, to make absolutely sure that her father wasn't still in mortal peril. She knew better, though. There was nothing she could do that Cherry couldn't in this situation, and surely Cherry didn't leave her father to die. Unless...

"She wouldn't leave my father behind to search for me, would she?!" Vivi's anxiety shot through the roof. "If my father told her to, she would in a heartbeat, wouldn't she?"

Her mind spun in circles, accomplishing little except for conjuring up new and more terrible

possibilities.

"Have hope, princess!" Wapol declared.

"... I cannot get over how much you've changed..." Vivi said, but Wapol's nonsensical

optimism did help to snap her out of her doom spiral.