Chapter 278: "Safe" House

Chapter 278: "Safe" House



Both Cherry and Burgess looked upon the distant, unmoving stone Pika in surprise; though they had different emotions towards the result.

Cherry was appreciative of her spear's raw power and was practically giddy thinking about training with it some more.

Burgess was coming to terms his what he was only now realizing to be a very close brush with death. He didn't even care about his missing ear at this moment, just thankful it hadn't flown a little more to the left. Once the adrenaline started to calm down, a different emotion started to take hold. Greed.

Burgess shot off in the direction of the spear with all his might, moving even faster than he did before. So long as he could claim that spear for himself, it wouldn't matter that he missed his chance to eat the devil fruit. Hell, now he could eat a different devil fruit or get one from his captain; then he would have TWO devil fruits! He would be a truly undefeatable champion! Cherry chuckled at his naivety as he raced towards the direction the spear flew. That spear was blood bound to her, part of her very being. As such it was already heading back towards her after she willed it to do so. She had it burrow beneath the ground to make sure it didn't cause any additional unintentional deaths.

"What's happening?" Sugar asked, as if she was somehow owed an answer.

She couldn't see anything from her current very inconvenient vantage point.

Cherry was feeling generous in her improved mood, however, so she answered the arrogant girl. "Nothing much. I just accidentally killed Pika, is all."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Her first instinct had been to deny it immediately. Maybe this evil woman was strong enough to defeat Pika, but definitely not by accident, damn it! Pika was one of their strongest combatants, and definitely the one with the highest durability on their crew. Not even Doflamingo himself matched Pika in pure defensive power.

But when Cherry turned around so she could gaze upon Pika's ruin with her own eyes, she despaired. She went silent then, unsure of what her future held.

There was nothing she could do to save herself. She had tried to use her devil fruit multiple times by now to no avail. It was like trying to move your arm after sleeping on it in a weird way. You instinctively knew how to do it, but the arm remained unresponsive.

Cherry paid no more mind to her and pulled the string apart to reenter the birdcage.

"What now? Should I go play with Akainu? He's been pretty quiet, probably wants to swoop in after the dust settles to kill the victor." Cherry thought out loud.

That woke Sugar up from her stupor instantly. "Noooo! I don't want to die! Don't bring me to that freak!"

Cherry chuckled. She was thoroughly enjoying her torment of Sugar. All well deserved, as far as she was concerned.

Tears dripped from Mansherry's eyes onto Diamante's arm stub. Of course, the arm was lost and would not be restored, but at least the wound itself closed up. Some of the color returned to Diamante's face at the same time as the healing properties of Mansherry's tears even recuperated some of his lost blood.

"What happened?" Doflamingo asked.

"Roronoa Zoro happened. He's stronger than we gave him credit for. I underestimated him even after watching his fight in the tournament." Diamante explained. He didn't need to save face in front of his young master because he lived to fulfill his dream, so he told the whole truth without pathetic excuses.

"You weren't followed were you?" Doflamingo studied him.

"Absolutely not. I'd sooner die than lead these monsters to you, young master." Diamante spoke with deep conviction.

Doflamingo didn't doubt that, but he did doubt Diamante's perceptive abilities whilst he was half dead.

"Alright. While you were out there, did you notice what was going on with Pika?" Doflamingo asked, dreading the answer.

"I'm... not sure. There was a streak of light from the edge of the birdcage I think. I'm pretty sure it hit Pika's stone form, but I didn't have a clear view of it." Diamante said.

"Damn it." Doflamingo cursed.

He really, really, REALLY hoped that the streak of light wasn't Admiral Kizaru. His odds of getting out of this alive, let alone unscathed, were already slim. He definitely didn't need another admiral level threat added on top of the pile.

...

Somewhere else.

"Mm! This is really good ice cream!" Kizaru said, standing at a food stand.

"It's frozen yogurt." the food stand owner corrected.

"Frozen yogurt flavored ice cream, delicious." Kizaru said.