Chapter 435: Ignite
Baha was firmly tied up after Law tended to the cuts on his palms and fingers from grabbing the sword. He had to be held down for that, as the blow to the gut that Cabernet had given him hadn't actually knocked him out, just knocked the wind out of him.
"MmmMmMMMmmMmmM?!" Baha had also been gagged when he wouldn't stop shouting about the whale and how they were clearly in league with it.
"What if the whale doesn't come back?" Usopp asked in whispers, so that Zoro wouldn't overhear. The man in question was watching the sonar screen like an addict waiting for his next fix. "Franky's laser beam scared it off. No matter how smart it may be, it's still an animal. If anything, being smarter is more likely to make it stay away from us..."
"That's true. I am a certified badass," Franky agreed.
"Where'd you get certification from?" Usopp asked in a tone that made it clear he was being sarcastic.
"Baldimore," Franky answered seriously, pulling out an official looking certificate.
"Huh? Wait, this says that you're a 'certified public nuisance'," Usopp read.
"Same thing," Franky put the certificate away with a shrug.
"Worst case scenario, the whale doesn't come and we get Cherry to fix him, like you suggested Robin-ya," Law said. "Though, from a certain point of view that is actually the best case
scenario, considering we still might get sunk."
*blip* *whoosh!*
A single, small beep from the sonar and Zoro was charging for the top deck before anyone could stop him.
"Damn, we have to stop him!" Usopp said and made to follow, but Law stopped him.
"There's no need; that isn't the whale," Law said. "Zoro-ya doesn't understand how the sonar works. This blip is too small to be the whale. It's probably just a shark or something."
*blip blip blip*
*blipblipblipblipblipblipblipblip*
*blibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblip*
"Make that a whole bunch of sharks..." Law said, his eyes squinting at the hundreds of blips converging on their location.
"Are you sure it's a whole lot of sharks and not something larger hiding inside of a school of smaller sea critters? I had some trouble fine tuning the sonar of my mini-submarine on the Sunny," Franky asked.
Law blinked at him. "Surely not..."
He spoke too soon, however, as a massive figure emerged from within the swarm just as it was getting close. Simultaneously, a new blip, the smallest yet, appeared right next to the Polar Tang and started moving towards the first blips.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Look what you got us into, Zoro! Whale guts! I don't want to be whale poop!" Cabernet
bemoaned.
"Let me out so I can kill it, then," Zoro replied with a somewhat muffled voice from
Cabernet's chest.
"The air smells funny in here, and that lake makes my skin all tingly. In a bad way, I think," Cabernet said. "You might just die if I let you out right now."
"I survived being swallowed by Laboon just fine," Zoro replied.
"Law says you're sick in the head, though. How do I know that's even true? Brook says that Laboon is a nice whale, why would he eat you?" Cabernet said.
Zoro was growing frustrated, but whilst the whale induced madness in his mind was a
powerful driving force, he wasn't so weak willed that he would be driven to harming his friends just to get his way. So the only choice was sitting inside her Chest cavity until he convinced her to let him out.
"I can't see a thing in here, either. Oh, let me try-!" Cabernet lit her shoulder flames.
...
Franky bashed the whale across the snout, or what he thinks is a snout anyways, with a strong right hook. Sadly it didn't seem to do much to the monstrous whale given its size, but it did
prevent himself from getting swallowed at least.
The whale circled back for another pass at him, but before it could do so-
*BOOM!*
Franky felt a powerful shockwave create a single, massive THUMP in the water and he
watched the whale writhe in agony. A figure was spat out of its mouth like a torpedo, so Franky swam to and grabbed them before racing back to the Polar Tang.
Franky surface and chucked Cabernet onto the deck as he clambered aboard as well.
"What happened?" Robin asked.
"I don't know. I think there was an explosion," Franky said.
Everyone turned to look at Cabernet. More specifically, at the flames that danced along her
shoulders.
"Pffft!" Usopp could help but burst into laughter. The rest followed in turn, even the usually grumpy Law couldn't help but to crack a smile.