Chapter 193: Sinking Beneath the Waves

Chapter 193: Sinking Beneath the Waves



Cherry took a few minutes to catch up to Luffy. She needed to deal with the marines that had separated from their main attack force to search for the real Straw Hats. Cherry thought it was rather amusing that they actually believed those frauds were the real deal right up until she talked to Sentomaru on the den den mushi.

"Luffy!" Cherry called out.

"Huh? Cherry?!" Luffy turned to see her casually catch up to him.

"I'd tell you that the fake mustache was stupid and would never work, but I'd be wrong it seems. The marines have gotten dumber somehow during these two years." Cherry sighed.

"Shishishi I think it looks cool~" Luffy chuckled.

"Let's get back to the ship quickly-" Cherry started.

"CHEEERRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY-CHWAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!1!!!" A wild Sanji appeared. """Targets located,""" Several pacifistas were heard in the distance.

"You stupid cook, you've given us away." Zoro came up behind Sanji.

"What the hell did you say?!" Sanji shouted.

The two of them looked to be on the verge of coming to blows. A common sight between the two before their separation, but terribly annoying and inconvenient in this exact moment.

Cherry drew Sakura Tengoku from its sheath and threw it up into the air. There it turned into a streak of lightning and pierced through the heads of each of the charging pacifistas in the distance, frying their circuitries and returning to Cherry's hand.

"Hurry up or we're leaving you behind," Cherry said, though she was mostly kidding.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Swooping wings were heard from above when a giant, colorful bird landed nearby. Riding atop it was Chopper and Rayleigh.

"I can tell you've gotten stronger Luffy," Rayleigh spoke with pride.

"Thanks to you! Thanks for everything these past two years!" Luffy thanked.

"No need for that-" Rayleigh tried to deny, it was just the whim of an old man after all.

"I'm gonna do it, Rayleigh! I'll become king of the pirates!" Luffy exclaimed with a smile.

Tears welled up and almost fell from his eyes at the sight of that smile that reminded him so much of his old friend.

Cherry didn't speak but instead approached the wall of the bubble. She shoved her hand through, making sure to use enough strength and speed to breach it instead of just stretching

it.

*Wooooosh*

The Sunny was pushed sideways as monstrously huge tentacles erupted from Cherry's dainty arm, revealing itself to be an octopus of incredible size, even by sea king standards.

There was still plenty of light from the surface this far down, so they could all see the dark blue kraken, Takako, in all her glory.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Chopper and Usopp screamed.

"Cool! How did you do that?!" Luffy was fascinated.

"This is Takako, the very best kraken in the whole world!" Cherry introduced with pride, Takako curled her tentacles and flexed the muscles like a bodybuilder showing off.

"How did she fit?" Brook asked innocently.

Takako glared at him menacingly.

"Takako is at a perfectly healthy weight, don't call her fat. That's just rude, Brook." Cherry admonished, as if it was obvious.

"Ah, I see. My apologies, then." Brook just went with the flow and Takako decided to forgive

him this time.

"Right. Takako should be able to handle any external threats easily enough, so don't go messing around with the bubble, okay?" Nami asked them not to doom them all to a watery grave, hoping they would behave.

Sanji woke up from his brief visit to dreamland and stood up. "I would like to apologize, ladies. I haven't been around any beautiful women these past two years, so I got over excited. Please forgive me for my uncouth behavior."

Many of them were stunned speechless. Cherry even went so far as to rescan him with Life Sense a few times to make sure he was the real Sanji.

"Wow, Sanji actually apologized for being a pervert?" Usopp spoke incredulously.

"The blood loss must have turned him into an even bigger idiot." Zoro insulted. "SHUT UP MOSSHEAD!" Sanji cleared his throat. "Ahem! I've come to realize that even if you ladies tolerated my behavior, that didn't make it okay. I intend to be more mindful of my words and actions towards you in the future so as to not make you uncomfortable." "Ivankov really set you straight huh? Though setting you 'straight' probably wasn't his intention..." Cherry commented.

Memories flashed through Sanji's head and sent a chill down his spine. He couldn't be happier to be away from that place, no matter how strong he became because of it.