One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 418: Stocking up on Booze



"Straw Hat Pirates! You'll regret coming to my Liqueur Island!" A squat man, with a neck as thick as his barrel shaped body and mutton chops connected to his mustache, shouted as he waved a katana about (in a way that might have been threatening if it didn't look so silly) from the docks of Gin Town.

*conk*

Charlotte Zuccotto, Totto Land's minister of alcohol, was knocked out by a single hand chop from Cherry. Not even his oversized topknot could save him.

Cherry scanned the businesses that lined the mainstreet of Gin Town. There were many shops that catered to alcoholics of all kinds, but she was able to quickly discern which ones would have the finest drinks.

*Boom*

Cherry exploded into motion, landing before a large display window of the most ostentatious of the bunch. With a flourish, she traced her finger along the glass in a big circle. With a light push, the circle of glass tipped over and shattered on the floor and Cherry stepped inside, crunching glass beneath her boots.

Den den mushi started to howl in alarm, a loud and clear indication that a burglary was taking place.

Little more than half a minute later, Cherry stepped back outside having not left a single drop of liquid in the whole building. She even clogged the sinks with fusion for good measure.

Her next mark was a massive warehouse that seemed to deal in large quantities rather than individual customers. It had barrels and barrels and barrels of wine, beer, sake, whiskey, and all manner of spirits that you could imagine.

Five minutes later, nobody would ever guess that said warehouse did millions of beri worth of business everyday if they were to look at it now.

'I should have done this back on the Gran Tesoro. Oh well, I'm sure Totto Land has better stuff anyways,' Cherry thought.

The next place she went to was a run down little shop that was off on a side street, but still somewhat close to the main street.

She did less breaking and more entering this time, as she could see the carpenter's care in the craftsmanship of the building, choosing instead to unlock the door the old fashioned way; by turning her hand intangible and fiddling with the inside of the lock until it unlocked.

The door swung open without a peep from the well oiled hinges.

*BLAM!*

A little old man, trembling like the last leaf on a tree before winter, pulled the trigger on the blunderbuss held in his frail arms. The gun was almost as big as he was; and likely even older judging by the way the barrel ripped itself apart from the force of the blast.

Cherry was surprised by this. She already expected to be shot at, of course, but she hadn't anticipated that the one doing the shooting would be the one in grave danger.

Her perception of time slowed to a crawl as she danced forward. Her hands darted out and picked bits of the shrapnel out the air like she was plucking dandelions in a field. Some of which was fired from the blunderbuss, and some of which was the blunderbuss itself.

After making sure that there was no more flying metal to worry about, she gently placed her hands on the little old man like one would with a dance partner during a waltz. She spun him around to bleed off the momentum of the blunderbuss' recoil that had sent the man careening towards the counter behind him.

"Oh my, I didn't expect to be dancing so early in the morning. If I had, I would have worn the appropriate attire~!" Cherry joked.

"It's not early; I've been up for three hours!" the little old man replied loudly. He checked over his blunderbuss with confusion etched across his wrinkled face, eyes squinted. "Did this thing misfire?"

The blunderbuss had very little of its barrel left, leaving the stock and a few short strips of steel curled outward. It hardly looks like a firearm at all at this point

"Did what misfire?" Cherry asked. "Nevermind. Are you open yet? I'll be heading out to sea soon and I need some high quality booze to keep me out of trouble with my shipmates." "Huh? Er... weren't you tryin' to rob me?" the little old man asked skeptically.

"Rob you? Who, me? Why would I do that?" Cherry blinked a few times, like she couldn't fathom such a thing.

"I saw you set off the alarm over at Roberto's!" he accused. "I couldn't care less about that snob's store, but you won't rob ME!"

"Wasn't me," Cherry said with a blank look.

"I may be old, but my eyes work just fine! It was definitely you!" he shouted.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Nuh-uh," Cherry shook her head lightly.

The old man blinked at her. Cherry blinked back.

"Show me that you've got cash first!" he said after a moment of silence.

Cherry dumped a pile of gold onto his counter. "I'll take everything you've got."

"... Do you need help delivering it to your ship?" he asked.

Cherry left the little old man's shop rather pleased with her acquisition. She had had a little taste of his craft and she had to say that the old man really knew what he was doing. He had given her an earful about 'Roberto' and how he only used the finest ingredients to make mediocre liquor. Cherry would have to find out for herself later, though she suspected it would turn out to be true.

She decided to head back to the ship now, as that last store had taken longer than she anticipated. The old man had to give instructions on how best to drink each of his creations, and refused to sell them if she didn't.

She got back to the ship roughly forty five minutes after she had left. Sanji had yet to return, which made sense as he was always picky about his foodstuffs. Probably wanted to make sure they weren't poisoned by the locals since Reiju wasn't on the ship either.

Cherry looked at Pudding and approached her. "Savoring your last few moments of freedom before running home to Mama?"

Pudding actually flinched. She hadn't noticed Cherry at all, what with how distracted she was staring longingly into the town. "What?"

"This is the last stop, you know. After this we're leaving Totto Land, so this is your last chance to disembark or you'll have to swim. That wouldn't go well for you, I expect," Cherry said,

looking disinterested.

"W-well... Maybe I don't want to be under Mama's- er, Big Mom's thumb anymore... I could just hop off on the next island with civilization..." Pudding mumbled indecisively.

"Hm? Did you ask Luffy to come along already? My bad," Cherry said.

"Eh?" Pudding widened her three eyes. "Ask...?"

"There's no way you'd just hang around expecting us to feed you and what not without even asking the ship's captain for permission to be here. That'd be silly," Cherry walked away,

smirking to herself. "Good thing you got permission early. Gave yourself plenty of time to convince him in case he said no, not that you needed it."

Pudding crouched down, yanked her own pigtails, and screamed internally.