Chapter 95: Infiltration
"We need to save Nami!" Luffy shouted.
"Yes, of course we do, but we also need information." Cherry said. "All we know about his strength is that he 'awakened' his devil fruit, which at the very least greatly expands the influence of his power. We know nothing about his base's defenses or his subordinates strength."
"And we don't even know where to go." Usopp added.
"Actually I've got this booklet of vivre cards I made to track all of you." Cherry said, pulling it out.
"That's kind of creepy." Zoro said.
"Shut up, Moss-Head! She obviously did it out of concern for me- for everyone!" Sanji shouted.
"In any case, we can locate Nami whenever we like. We should do some spying and perhaps infiltrate them to learn more." Robin suggested.
"I'll get to work checking on the ship and doing any necessary repairs." Franky said, knowing sneaky stuff wasn't his strong suit.
*ROAR!*
A distant roar of some giant beast was heard within the jungle.
"W-what was that? I've never heard an animal like that before." Usopp whispered.
"I guess we should leave some people with the ship, just in case." Cherry said. "I'll go with Robin, Serene, and Cabernet to check out their base."
"I wanna go too!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Don't worry, Luffy. You'll get your piece of the action. Shiki won't hurt Nami because he wants her navigation skills, and Nami won't do anything stupid to warrant hurting her." Cherry said.
"We should leave at night to avoid being spotted." Robin said.
"Right." Cherry agreed.
Several giant scorpions came out of the tree line.
"In the mean time, let's get some lunch." Cherry smiled.
After they swiftly dispatched the big beasties, Cherry found them to be quite strange in her investigation of their bodies.
"Something altered these scorpions to their present state. Do you think you could isolate any foreign substances inside their bodies, Chopper?" Cherry asked.
"Maybe, we shouldn't eat them until we can be sure it's safe to do so. I'll perform some tests." Chopper said, taking blood and tissue samples from each back to his medical room of the ship.
His findings showed the presence of some unknown chemical substance, although only in trace amounts.
'I hope whatever it is, it's on these islands. This might be another reagent I can use for cultivation pills, and a strong one at that.' Cherry thought.
Day turned to night, so Cherry went with Robin, Serene, and Cabernet set out to find their base, or at least where Nami was being kept.
Cherry jumped out the window and used Geppo to hop through the air back toward the island the ship was located. The others had already escaped with another person, so they likely already retrieved Nami.
'Now we just need to do something about Shiki. He'll be able to overtake us whenever he wants, so running away isn't a likely option. Guess I'll have to go all out.' Cherry thought.
Cherry frowned.
The duck was following her even though she told it not to. It had seemed intelligent enough, so it knew what it was doing. The question was whether it was an enemy.
Cherry decided that if it followed her all the way back, she'd let the others do something about it. If it stopped following her, she'd assume it was a spy and kill it.
The large duck was blissfully unaware that his murder was being plotted, thinking it was quite clever to follow behind silently. Fortunately, he planned to follow her until the end and averted that untimely demise.
Why was he following her? Well, he didn't like the clown and Cherry used lightning, so she must be the same as himself right? Being an artificial mutant meant he was alone in the
world.
Cherry made it all the way back to the ship without the duck changing course, so she let him
live for now.
"What's all that stuff, Cherry?" Chopper asked.
"I found the substance that mutated the animals on these islands, as well as some research materials that might interest you." Cherry said handing over the book and a portion of the IQ
plants for him to play with.
"It's good to see that you're fine, Nami." Cherry said.
"Mm, thank you for the prompt rescue. Now we need to get out of here." Nami replied.
"I don't wanna!" Luffy said.
"Don't be stupid, Luffy! We shouldn't fight if we don't have to!" Usopp pleaded.
"No, he's right. We won't be able to escape from Shiki easily. We'll have to fight him." Nami
said.
"According to these research records, a tree called Daft Green keeps the mutated animals away. They used them to form a defensive barrier to keep them out." Chopper explained with
his nose in a book.
"There's something else you haven't considered." Robin said, getting everyone's attention.
"Amongst the ruins of the destroyed towns in East Blue, giant boulders were found. Who do
you know can lift giant boulders into the air and drop them again?"
Dawning realization appeared on their faces, whilst Cherry nodded. Now everyone was on the same page. Shiki had to go down.