Chapter 183: Hamster or Rooster

Chapter 183: Hamster or Rooster



Bartolomeo was faced with a dilemma the likes of which no man has ever faced before in the history of the world, both known and unknown. At least it felt like that to him.

He was invited to join the greatest pirate crew in the world!

Only, his own crew who he had come all this way with were now in the hands of bounty hunters.

Could he abandon them to make his dream come true?

'What would Luffy-senpai do?' Bartolomeo asked himself.

That was a stupid question and he knew it. Luffy had declared war on the world government for a single member of his crew. He had charged into Impel Down, renowned as an inescapable prison, to rescue his brother. He then followed his brother in Marineford where he fought against the strongest powerhouses of the marines.

"I can't. I need to save my crew!" Bartolomeo choked out his refusal, feeling as if the words burned his mouth and throat as they came out.

Robin's smile widened as she won the second bet she made with Cherry.

Cherry grumbled under her breath. She had lost not just one, but two "Do anything I say" type favors from those two bets. With Robin, it was impossible to know whether she'd enjoy those favors or not.

Cherry noticed that Bartolomeo had tears streaming down his determined face.

"Ugh, stop crying. I was testing you, stupid. Congratulations on passing." Cherry said.

"Huh? You were testing me? And I passed?" Bartolomeo was shocked, then excited. "I see! If I abandoned my comrades I wouldn't deserve to be first mate of the Straw Hat pirates!"

"Oh, we're not inviting you to join for real. That's Luffy's prerogative. I guess if it ever comes up in the future I can put in a good word, though." Cherry said.

"Yes, of course! I was getting ahead of myself!" Bartolomeo accepted easily. "Um, can you take off these sea stone cuffs so that I can save my crew?"

They hadn't taken the sea stone cuffs off of him just in case he was dangerous. After seeing how tough his barriers were, Cherry was wary of him as she wasn't sure she could break them either.

She came to that conclusion from her experiments with Popeye's Punch Punch Fruit.

The devil fruit seemed to make his punching attacks into a pseudo unstoppable force. Even though the punches weren't that strong by Cherry's standards they just kept plowing straight through whatever they hit, including an all out attack.

From that she discerned that Bartolomeo's barriers were like an immovable object, and of superior quality to the Punch Punch Fruit's unstoppable force.

thoughtfully.

"I suppose Rooster-kun just wanted someone to crow at." Robin said.

"Rooster-kun? You've given him a nickname?" Cherry asked.

"Well he looks like one and crows like one." Robin defended.

"I guess so, but if you give him a nickname you might get attached. We've got plenty of idiots

to put up with as it is." Cherry said.

Once outside the building, Bartolomeo formed another spherical barrier around himself and his crew. They rolled themselves quickly down the street towards the docks where their ship

was.

They had already been on the island long enough to set their logpose, so they didn't need to wait any longer and could directly sail away.

The townsfolk realized what they were doing and tried to reach the docks first to stop them. They would have burned the ship, but they could reuse it for themselves as a fishing settlement. Plus the Barto Club could simply steal another ship so they didn't consider it a

good idea to destroy it.

The townsfolk who reached the pirate ship before the pirates found themselves getting struck by lightning. Cherry didn't think it very sporting to steal someone's ship during a race.

Bartolomeo took it as a sign that his Cherry Nee-san approved of his performance and

shouted at his crew to push faster.

Ultimately they managed to board their ship and set sail. Bartolomeo eagerly waved goodbye to the flying ship behind his barrier as it was struck by a hail of gunfire.

"I guess we should get going too. Perona's hollows already showed us where all the money

and treasure in town were and we even got a log pose ready to go for the next island." Cherry

said.

"I wonder if we'll see Rooster-kun again. Perhaps in the New World?" Robin wondered. Robin found Bartolomeo was much more pleasing to the eye after he helped her win two unrestricted favors off of Cherry.