One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 483: Cobra's Story



Nefertari Cobra blinked as he opened his bleary eyes, trying to hasten their adjustment to the light of a morning sun.

The first thing he thought was that the clouds were unfamiliar. Someone from the four blues might think that a strange thought, but not so for someone who has traveled the Grand Line. Every island had its own unique climate, even among those that shared the same year-long season. Clouds were rare in Alabasta and the people who live there always paid attention to them, even if only with passing interest.

For Cobra, clouds were a reminder of one of the darkest times in his kingdom's history. As his life drew to a close, though, he had begun to see the beauty in them again.

'Where am I again?' was the second thought to cross his mind.

Cobra was suddenly very awake. He lurched up out of bed, only to belatedly realize it wasn't a bed but some sort of hammock. His world spun around for a brief moment which ended with a rather abrupt thunk.

"Ow..." Cobra mumbled into the dirt.

"You good?" asked a familiar voice.

Cobra gathered up whatever kingly dignity he had left and pushed himself up out of the dirt. Whatever irks and grievances he had from the face planting vanished like smoke on a windy day when he saw Cherry looking simultaneously amused and concerned at him.

"Cherry?" Cobra asked, hardly believing his own eyes.

"That's me~!" Cherry answered, her smile widening as she watched him gather his wits.

Cobra pulled himself onto his feet. He felt better than he had since before he got sick. No, he felt better than he had since before Baroque Works started tearing his homeland apart.

"Ah..." Cobra came to a realization. "How did you die, then?"

"Pffft-HA!" Cherry broke into cackles. "I guess it makes sense that you'd come to that conclusion, but you aren't dead yet, Cobra."

"... Oh," Cobra was mildly embarrassed, albeit relieved. Then he shouted, "My daughter?!"

"Is safe and sound. Morgans helped her leave Mary Geoise unnoticed, willingly or otherwise," Cherry assured him.

"Morgans... hmm..." Cobra fell into thought. After a few moments, he ran his fingers through his hair in clear frustration. "How did things go so wrong...? Where is this place, even?"

"This is Wano," Cherry told him.

"Wano?" Cobra had to stop and search his memory. "Wano is nearly a quarter of the world away from Mary Geoise. Just how long was I unconscious?"

"Like, eight hours?" Cherry informed. "The perfect night's sleep!"

Cobra blinked at her. "That... can't be right, can it?"

"Well with the time difference, it's just about right," Cherry said.

"No, no, Wano is thousands of kilometers from Mary Geoise! You're telling me you traveled such a distance in only eight hours?!" Cobra was trying to wrap his head around that. "You'd have to have been moving at three times the speed of sound! And that's assuming you could move in a straight direction on the Grand Line!"

"Don't let anyone tell you I skip leg day," Cherry said, patting his shoulder.

"..." Cobra couldn't tell if she was serious.

"So why do the celestial dragons want you dead?" Cherry asked, blatantly changing the subject.

"... Right," Cobra gathered his thoughts. There was no harm in airing the World Government's dirty laundry at this point was there? "It all started when I started to see some disturbing signs in the World Government's movement around Alabasta. My suspicions deepened when I fell ill soon after-"

"Yeah, I don't really care about the politics. Get to the good stuff, please!" Cherry interrupted him.

"Right, pirate." Cobra began to summarize. "I confronted the Five Elders in search of answers. I knew it was dangerous, but I didn't know quite how dangerous."

"Five Elders... there were six in there with you, though?" Cherry asked.

"Indeed. When the sixth entered the room and sat upon the throne that no one was supposed to sit upon, that was the moment my fate was sealed. The Five Elders seemed shocked that the sixth made an appearance at all, let alone that they would casually reveal that the structure of the World Government was not what it appeared to be on the outside. That information would shock the world, should it be revealed," Cobra said.

"Why?" Cherry asked.

"It's the very foundation-" Cobra started to explain, but Cherry held up a hand to stop him. "Not that. Why would it shock the world? So what if there's one standing above the rest of those scum? The world would still be ruled by scum."

Cobra opened his mouth, but couldn't think of an answer that would be truly satisfactory. Instead he answered, "Perhaps for the common citizen not much would change, but the kings and queens-"

"Are replaceable bureaucrats whose job it is to deliver taxes to the celestial dragons and nothing more," Cherry interrupted again.

"They might rebel..." Cobra spoke softly.

"And there's never been a large-scale rebellion against them before? Doubtful," Cherry dismissed. "They may be incompetent and lazy, but they clearly have something to keep the rest of the world in line. Probably something so terrible that they have to erase it from history every time they use it. Like deleting an entire kingdom with an ancient super weapon or something."

Cobra gaped at her. "You think-"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I don't think anything. I know," Cherry insisted. "I've never seen it, I don't know where they're keeping it, but it's really the only explanation that makes sense. That or mind control,

maybe."

"Mind control... that's an ominous thought," Cobra shivered.

"Well, don't worry about that. If they start blowing up the world while I'm in it, then I'll build me my very own Pluton and blow them up right back! Hehehehe~!" Cherry giggled in a way

that unnerved Cobra.

"How would you even go about doing that?" Cobra asked.

"Franky had the blueprints to build it back when we met him," Cherry dropped a bomb.

"What?!" Cobra was shocked.

"Yup, and I memorized them before torching them! Heh," Cherry waggled her eyebrows.

"Please don't build such a terrible thing. The world doesn't need that kind of power lying around..." Cobra rubbed his forehead.

"Well, If I don't build it, I guess I can go find the one hidden right here in Wano. Might need some work done on it, though, being almost a thousand years old now," Cherry said. Cobra's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Wait... Alabasta's poneglyph... it points here?"

"Yup," Cherry smirked at him. "Weird how that worked out, isn't it? I wonder how long ago it was that Alabastan royalty last set foot in Wano?"

Cobra sat himself down on the hammock he woke up in. "Nefertari D. Lili, perhaps. She was the queen of Alabasta at the time of the World Government's founding, and was the only one of the twenty founding members that refused to become a celestial dragon. I had hoped to learn why she didn't, and why she never returned to Alabasta."

"She has a D in her name, too? That's the first I've heard of a royal with it," Cherry commented. "Anyways, I'll bet you're hungry. Come have some breakfast, just don't expect too much, your highness~"