Chapter 285: Aboard the Moby Dick

Chapter 285: Aboard the Moby Dick



*whistle* "Look at him go. How far do you reckon he'll fly?" Ace walked over, rubbing his ears to get rid of the ringing in them.

"He'll probably land in the ocean, but I'm sure he'll manage to survive somehow, like a cockroach. That felt like punching a mountain of steel." Cherry shook her right hand to get the point across, though most of the pain was caused by the punch itself rather than the target.

"I'll bet it was. It's a wonder how Aokiji managed to beat him." Ace said.

Their gazes turned to the lingering Neo Marines, which snapped them out of their shocked daze.

"Strategic retreat!" the first officer shouted an order, which they all began to follow in rapid succession.

The 'strategic retreat' was surprisingly well organized despite their turbulent emotional states; Cherry had to give them credit for that.

Everyone started to gather around the area. First was Luffy, Kyros, and Law, followed shortly after by the rest over the next ten to twenty minutes.

Except for Zoro, who inexplicably wouldn't turn up for another two hours, though nobody knew that yet.

"Shishishishi! We did it, Tra-guy!" Luffy chuckled.

Law heaved a sigh. "I suppose we did..."

It was a strange feeling, it all being over now. Perhaps because he hadn't originally intended to survive, before allying himself with the Straw Hats. For that favor, he supposed, he would have to stay true to his word not to stab them in the back; not that he had planned to do so.

Kyros went about offering his most heartfelt gratitude to just about everyone, as did the other royals when they arrived.

Chinjao and his two boys arrived as well. Cherry was gobsmacked to see the weapon woman, Baby 5, clinging to Sai's arm whilst he blushed furiously with a stern expression. She supposed that was fine. Not like she had any particular grievances with the woman.

Speaking of people she had grievances with.

"I- I thought I was going to die..." Sugar muttered, looking very pale from fright.

"Don't be a baby. Akainu only tried to hit you on purpose a few times." Cherry admonished.

Sugar went ghostly white. She hadn't even noticed when that had happened.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Robin sauntered over to Cherry. "You looked quite dashing out there."

After several pats on the back and some teasing, he came before the old man himself. "So you were alright after all, my son."

"I had everything under control." Ace lied shamelessly.

"He got turned into a sock monkey." Cherry spoke, climbing up onto the deck as well.

"""""" silence.

"""Bwahahahahaha!!!""" They all erupted into laughter at Ace's expense.

"What kind of crazy devil fruit did they get you with, huh Ace?" Marco wiped tears from his eyes as his laughter subsided.

Ace sent a glare at Cherry, but she wasn't cowed by it at all and sent a wink his way.

"Let me guess, your kid brother showed up and saved your ass, didn't he?" Jozu guessed.

Ace made to retort, but Marco slapped a hand on his shoulder and interrupted. "How are we meant to make you into the next Pirate King if you're getting shown up by your little brother,

Ace?"

"You at least took down Doflamingo, didn't ya?" Whitey Bay asked.

Ace opened his mouth to answer, then shut it and pouted whilst looking away from her. """Bwahahahahahaha!!!""" they laughed at him again.

Cherry found that tidbit from Marco interesting. 'They want to make Ace the next Pirate King,

not Whitebeard?'

Her gaze met with the old man's and saw the epitome of contentedness in his eyes and understood. This was a man who never cared to be king of the pirates, even when he was

young.

"Hey, isn't that Akainu's steam ship?" a random crewman pointed out to the strip of water between green bit and Dressrosa's mainland.

Attentions were turned to look and sure enough it was. A moment later, many deep blue tentacles rose out of the water around the steel ship, wrapped around it, then crushed it with unnerving ease before dragging the vessel into the murky depths.

Many of Whitebeard's men watched with slack jaws and eyes filled with horror.

'Good girl, come on back now.' Cherry commanded Takako through their connection. She then smiled mischievously. 'Make sure they know you're coming too. Hehehe.'