Chapter 182: Biggest Fan
Popeye crushed a can of spinach, squeezing the contents into his open mouth.
"Popeye is pulling out his patented 'Spinach Rush' move! As you know, Popeye ate the Punch Punch fruit and became a punching man! What a treat for us, ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer cried out.
*BOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBONG!!!*
Popeye hammered away at the barrier with wild abandon, each punch stronger than the last.
Bartolomeo paid no attention to the ruckus going on behind him and he didn't really need to as the barrier was holding strong.
"R-R-R-R-R- Robin Nee-can?! And c-c-c-c-c- Cabernet Nee-san too?!" Bartolomeo was freaking out.
His eyes landed on Perona. She perked up a little bit waiting for his star struck reaction.
"Who?" Bartolomeo didn't remember this one.
"Screw you!" Perona roared in outrage.
Bartolomeo scanned the crowd in search of the other member of the greatest pirate crew in the whole world.
Whilst he frantically searched for his heroes, he felt something clamp down on his ankle.
"Hm?" Bartolomeo hummed.
The little old lady who had rung the start bell too early had put what looked like some sort of shackle on his leg. He was sure he had seen this exact shackle design from somewhere.
He understood when the weakness came. He toppled over, unable to bear his body weight on his own legs. Worse still, his barrier faded away, giving his three opponents free access to his now helpless self. It was a pair of standard issue marine sea stone cuffs.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
*Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam!!!*
Bartolomeo was pummeled into the floor of the boxing ring before his crew could even move a muscle.
"Save the captain!" One of his crew shouted from the audience.
Then the other audience members around them pulled out hidden weapons and they found themselves surrounded. In addition, the three Sweethaven champions turned their eyes away from the unconscious Bartolomeo to them.
"Scatter!" The pirate changed his tune quickly and wisely decided they should flee first and save their captain later.
The audience member sitting in front of Cherry suddenly stood and whipped around holding a bazooka. He fired it within point blank range seemingly without any sense of self
preservation.
However, it wasn't an explosive projectile that flew from its muzzle, but an expanding sea
stone net.
Cherry made no moves to resist and allowed the net to fall onto her.
"Haunted House Party!" Perona shouted as hollows erupted from her body and sent all the nearby audience members into deep depressions.
"Grab that foul mouthed fool and escape while I hold off those three." Cherry said.
Robin bloomed hands to grab Bartolomeo, careful not to touch the sea stone cuffs, and threw him into the air. Cabernet swooped over the heads of the audience and caught him before flying straight up through the glass skylight.
Perona cleared a path through the audience with her hollows that she and Robin used to escape.
she ran away, easily evading the nets.
Bluto had decided not to intervene with Cherry and Popeye's fight and caught as many of members of the Barto Club crew that he could.
...
"Wake up, Bartolomeo-kun." A sweet voice like an angel spoke.
"What? Who's there?" Bartolomeo muttered and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
He realized his head was on Robin's lap like a pillow.
"Hey there, sleep head." She spoke gently and giggled.
"R-R-R-R-R- Robin Nee-san?!" Bartolomeo looked around and found Cherry Nee-san and
Cabernet Nee-san too.
"Not just us, Bartolomeo-kun. The whole crew is here. Luffy has something important to ask you." Cherry Nee-san whispered in his ear.
Luffy-senpai walked into sight with the rest of the legendary crew following closely behind. His figure was the perfect blend of manliness and gentleness, with sparkling anime eyes.
"Bartolomeo-kun, I want you to be my first mate. No! I need you to be my first mate!" Luffy- senpai said, holding Bartolomeo's hands in his.
"W-what about Zoro-senpai?!" Bartolomeo asked, not wanting to step on any toes.
"Don't worry, Bartolomeo-kun. We all decided unanimously that you were the best for the job!" Zoro-senpai gave him a wink and a thumbs up.
*SLAP*
"What the hell are you muttering about?" Cherry asked, desperately fighting off the smile trying to appear on her face with a stern frown.
"Huh?!" Bartolomeo woke up from the same dream he had almost every night in confusion.
Looking around he noticed he was in a cave of some sort.
"Since we saved your life you're going to give us all your treasure, yeah?" Cherry extorted
shamelessly.
"Sure! I-I'm your biggest fan!" Bartolomeo answered instantly and eagerly, though it did
hurt his heart a bit to lose all his money.
"Fufufu. It seems that I win, Cherry." Robin said.
"Tsk." Cherry clicked her tongue.
Cherry and Robin had made a bet on whether Bartolomeo would willingly hand over his
treasure. Cherry lost that one, but maybe she could win the second bet.
"Your crew was caught by the locals." Cherry said grimly.
Bartolomeo's face sank, the news spoiling his delight of being in the presence of his heroes.
"You could go save them, or... you could come with us?" Cherry tempted him.