One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 486: Where is a Cobra to go?



Kin'emon's war camp at the ruins of Oden's Castle.

"Do you have any ideas about where you want to go, Cobra?" Cherry asked as she cleaned up Toko's face when the girl finished eating her breakfast.

"Where do I want to go?" Cobra asked. "I haven't put much thought into it. I didn't know I was going to be in this position..."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Well, I'm sure you know better than to go back to Alabasta. You'd only be bringing death back to your home. Since I 'kidnapped' you, your people will at least have plausible deniability on their side and shouldn't suffer at all. I don't doubt they have Cipher Pol already keeping an eye out for your return," Cherry said.

Cobra nodded, a solemn expression crossing his face briefly before becoming determined. "As much as it pains me, my people must once again weather the storm of my incompetence. If Vivi were not so young, I would have abdicated the throne to her already."

Cobra sat in silence for a few minutes, lost in thought. "I have friends among the other royal families who might harbor me, but I do not wish to place such a burden upon their shoulders. Perhaps... Perhaps I might stay here. Wano is very disconnected from the outside world, after all."

"That is only for now!" Kin'emon piped up, pausing in the act of stuffing his face. "When Momonosuke-sama is in his rightful position as Shogun, he intends to follow his father's wishes of opening Wano up to the world!"

"I see," Cobra slumped, looking a little lost.

"Momonosuke is eight years old, Kin'emon. Not to mention that it will take time for things to settle down before you can start making major changes like that," Cherry pointed her chopsticks at him.

"Eight years old? And you're putting him in charge of the country right after a civil war?" Cobra looked at Kin'emon oddly. After all, if his own country hadn't just come out of a civil conflict, then there wouldn't have been any major reasons not to give Vivi the throne right away. This Momonosuke was less than/half of her age!

"There isn't anyone else with a strong enough claim to unify Wano after removing Orochi from power!" Kin'emon defended.

"What about Hitetsu?" Cherry offered.

"Hitetsu...?" Kin'emon paused to think about the name as it sounded familiar. "Was that... the old man who takes care of that Tama girl? Why in the world would he even be an option?"

Kin'emon was genuinely baffled by the idea. Hitetsu was just some random old man, one who isn't even connected to the Kouzuki clan as far as he was aware.

"He should be a close relation to Momo. I suppose it's possible that he's related to Momo on his mother's side of the family," Cherry said.

"No, that isn't possible. Toki-sama was from the distant past and used her devil fruit to travel to our time, much in the same way she sent us twenty years into the future," Kin'emon denied.

Cherry shrugged. "He must be related to the Kouzuki clan in some way, then."

"Did /he tell you this?" Kin'emon was worried that the old man was trying to steal Momonosuke's birthright, now.

"No, I worked it out myself. Youknow, you /can just ask him; he doesn't live too far away from here," Cherry said. "I'm sure he has his own reasons for hiding his face. A relation to the Kouzuki clan is reason enough in Wano."

Kin'emon scratched his head. Did Oden-sama have a secret brother? No, he was much too old for that. Then again, Shinobu apparently had contact with the man; her devil fruit could explain the age difference. Or perhaps he was Oden's uncle?

There was no point thinking about it without more information, though, so Kin'emon decided to leave it at that.

It was Cobra who broke the silence. "If I were to stay here, and since Wano is looking to open its borders in the future, I could perhaps offer my advice in regards to world politics."

"Hm?" Kin'emon perked up. "I hadn't thought about that... and I suppose Oden-sama hadn't really either. Wano was strong back then, but now... having first hand, recent information into global politics would be very useful."

Kin'emon cast his gaze towards Cherry. "Is this man trustworthy, Cherry-dono? He called himself 'incompetent' earlier..."

"Hehehe!" Cherry giggled as Cobra's posture went stiff. "He is a good man, and a good king as far as I have seen. I know very little about his skill in foreign policy, but one could surmise from the fact that his country was not attacked at its weakest that he is at least a decent politician."

Cobra snorted. "Bunch of vultures. I had to spend so much time dissuading other kingdoms from declaring war on mine that I had hardly any time to work on fixing internal issues..."

"Robin told me about that. Crocodile pulled some favors and used some blackmail to make some kings send false signals of impending war," Cherry said. "The guy may have been way overconfident, but he was pretty devious."

"Really? That bastard..." Cobra growled. "He wasn't that overconfident, though. He almost had us, if it weren't for you guys. And here you are, doing the same thing again on the other side of the world."

"Dressrosa too," Cherry said. "In fact, Doflamingo's plot to take over Dressrosa is so similar to what Crocodile planned, that I can't help but wonder if Crocodile figured it all out and modified it for himself since it worked so well."

Cobra grumbled in irritation. The more he thought about Crocodile, the more his mood turned sour. He changed the subject a bit, "Nico Robin, huh? Vivi was a bit surprised to find out she was traveling with your crew. You knew her before meeting in Alabasta, right?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, you were there for that," Cherry said.

'How could you forget I was there? She kidnapped me!' Cobra decided not to say out loud.

"Yeah, we go way back. The ocean swept her and her little dinghy onto the shore of my home island. She stuck around for a while, until the marines showed up looking for her," Cherry looked off into the distance, as if she were searching for that faraway land on the horizon. "Even after helping Crocodile, I can't help but pity her for her childhood," Cobra sighed. Knowing what little he knows about the history of the world, he always held doubts about that particular bounty.

"She's put that behind her, looking to the future and all that. I can tell you that it's a bright one, especially since it's got /me in it!" Cherry winked. "If you catch my meaning?"

"Do you mean that you're sleeping with her?" Toko blurted out.

Cherry looked shocked at her words before bursting into laughter. "I forgot that you were a, what was it called again? A kamuro."

Toko suddenly looked downcast, losing that smile that almost never left her face even after her affliction was dealt with. "I miss Komurasaki-sama..."

"Don't worry, you'll see her again. Sometime soon, I'm sure," Cherry assured her with a pat on the shoulder.