Chapter 61: Cabernet's Bounty Makes the Rounds
Chapter 61: Cabernet's Bounty Makes the Rounds
In a certain room located inside Mary Geoise.
"We scoured every inch of Alabasta and searched every ship leaving the kingdom. The Lunarian woman, Cabernet, is not anywhere to be found there. We don't know where she went." A member of Cipher Pol reported.
"You're certain she wasn't aboard the Straw Hat ship?" One of the old men asked.
"The agent that searched the Straw Hat ship reported that she was not aboard their ship. The agent we have stationed at Jaya also reported that the Lunarian woman was not present with them there." He responded almost robotically.
"Damn it. First we lose that Alber, or King as he arrogantly refers to himself, escapes our grasp with Kaido, then we find a Lunarian female who vanishes without a trace. If those two ever meet up, they might make more headaches for us in the future..." Another of the five elders spoke.
"That's why I said we shouldn't have put out the poster. Now that brat is going to know there's another one out there." A third old man said.
"It doesn't matter, he would have found out about her eventually anyways. This way there is at least a higher chance of capture." The first old man spoke again.
...
The land of Wano.
A fat man with a blond mustache and ponytail approached a man covered head to toe with black leather and large black wings, as well as a flame burning upon his upper back.
"Hey, check out this new super rookie, King! She looks like quite the bad ass with that explosion behind her! HAHAHA!" The fat man said.
The fat man, Queen, was only putting on an act however. He knew that King was also a Lunarian like the woman in the bounty poster, even if he covered every inch of himself with leather. Well it wasn't that hard to figure out, Lunarians were the only race with large black wings and flames on their backs after all. It certainly didn't come from his Devil Fruit.
"Why should I care about some rookie, you fat diva-" King's words stopped when he saw the picture on the poster. He snatched the poster from Queen's hands and took a closer look.
'Am I not the only one left? She doesn't look that old, are there more Lunarians out there as well?' King was lost in his thoughts and paid no more attention to Queen, who slipped away silently.
...
The Sakura Kingdom on Drum Island.
"EHHHH?!" The newly crowned King Dalton cried out upon seeing how many zeros were on Cabernet's wanted poster.
"Heeheeheehee!" Doctor Kureha cackled. "I knew that girl would go and get herself into trouble!"
"Why does she have such a high bounty? And why is she only wanted alive?" Dalton couldn't make sense of it.
"Well, I can tell you, but are you sure you want to know? It might cause you to lose some faith in the world government, you know?" Doctor Kureha asked.
Dalton hesitated for a moment, but nodded his head. As the king of his country, he needed to expand his knowledge of the world and its many truths, no matter how unsavory those truths may be.
...
On a dark and spooky island whose kingdom no longer exists.
A sharp eyed figure drinks wine while looking through the recent bounty posters. He notes the new posters for Luffy and Zoro, nodding his head. "You're worth at least that much, I suppose."
Shifting through to the next one he pauses. "250,000,000 Beri and only alive? How absurd, why not just tell the whole world there's something more than meets the eye?"
Hawkeye studied Cabernet's demonic expression. "Hmm, she's got good eyes..."
Naturally, he never could have imagined Cabernet got her eyes from his very own daughter.
...
West Blue, Boulder Island.
Grandma Angela sipped her morning tea while reading the newspaper. She hated giving money to this rag, but it was the only way to get news from the world abroad. She hadn't bothered with it until after Cherry left for the Grand Line.
She wasn't entirely sure whether or not she wanted to see Cherry in the news, as she was certain that little trouble maker wouldn't be in it for good reasons.
She stopped on a certain wanted poster and became nostalgic. The woman on the poster, Cabernet, looked a great deal like both her precious granddaughter, as well as her late husband Mortis.
The woman looked so much like them (excluding the wings, darker skin tone, and silver hair), that she could pass as a sister to Cherry.
'Stop being so sentimental, Angela. You're even seeing familiar faces in strangers now.' She shook herself out of the strange mood.
Grandma Angela went to do her daily cultivation as Cherry had bade her to do.
She had made a great deal of progress. She was already near the peak of the second realm of body cultivation. Granted that was largely due to her lifetime of physical training and the less resource intensive method given to her by Cherry.
Although she still looked like a old woman, her body was full of youthful vigor and power. She felt like she was back in her prime.
...
On a ship that strangely looked like a raft of logs.
"Zehahaha! It's a shame those Straw Hats got away! Oh well, maybe we'll find this Cabernet lady instead. Delivering a Lunarian to the world government would get me a position as a Shichibukai easily!" The pirate known as Blackbeard stated.
"She's a lucky one to have escaped the world government..." A sickly man on a sickly horse
said.
"Yes, she is. Perhaps she flew up to the sky island too, Zehahahaha!" Blackbeard laughed.
...
"By the way, guys. Strictly speaking all this gold belongs to the Shandians who are direct descendants of the people of Shandora, the city of gold. I don't know if they know the city is buried under all that island cloud or not, but it's bets they don't find out we took a bunch of
it." Cherry said.
Naturally the Straw Hats were perfectly aware of their act of thievery and had no moral qualms with it.
"Oh! Zoro and I got new bounty posters! Now I'm a 100 million Beri man! Zoro has a 60 million Beri bounty." Luffy said, giggling to himself at the thought.
"Wow! I guess all the men of worth on your crew have bounties now, huh?" Cherry exclaimed
loudly.
Usopp couldn't decide whether to accept the insult or not, as he was somewhat scared of
Cherry.
Sanji fell into a deep depression instantaneously. "She thinks I'm worthless..."
"She thinks I'm worthless? Yes, I'm a worthless dog. Please train me, huhuhuhu-ACK!" Only
a moment later he descended into deviancy again and got a nose bleed.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Nami punched him in the head. "Cut that out!"
"I'm sorry, Nami-swaaaan!" He apologized, though not very convincingly.
The group flew on Cabernet, who also stored the gold beneath her deck, back down to Angel
Island.
They elected to remain in the sky sea for a few days before setting back out to the blue sea.
Gan Fall was not longer the mad man he had been and oversaw the process of the Shandians moving back into Upper Yard peacefully.
Gan Fall was able to ease relations with the Shandians by creating a milky road up to the golden belfry for them. They were quite happy to be reunited with their ancestor's greatest treasure and the object of their duty.
Gan Fall decided to thank Cherry by offering quite the number of dials of various purposes, which she shunted over to the Straw Hats as she had little use for them.
Apparently the way down to the blue sea was attaching an octopus that inflates into a giant balloon onto the Going Merry.
So the group parted ways with the sky. Off to new adventures along the Grand Line.