66 Admiral Aokiji

"""An Admiral?!""" They were shocked.

"Chill out, I'm not here on marine business. I'm just out for a walk and decided to check up on you guys. I'm pretty surprised to find both Nico Robin and Cabernet with you though. It seems somebody has some explaining to do..." Aokiji spoke slowly, not concerned in the slightest.

"Y-you're lying! You're definitely here to arrest us, huh?!" Usopp shouted whilst his knees trembled in fear.

"I overheard about your plight, old man. Do you need help getting back to your people?" Aokiji ignored Usopp.

"You can't trust him, old man! He's a marine!" Luffy shouted.

"Why not?" Old man Tonjit asked.

"Oh, right. I suppose you can, usually the marines are the good guys, shishishi!" Luffy realized.

Aokiji helped Tonjit pack up his things onto a sled, then froze over the ocean, creating a path to the island Tonjit's people should be on at the moment.

Aokiji was sitting cross legged and looked somewhat uncertain. "You know, you're really similar to your grandfather, Monkey D. Luffy."

Luffy became nervous and seemed to want to change the subject.

"Although I only came here to have a look at you, maybe you're too dangerous to leave alone? You've risen up in the world as a crew quite quickly, it's a given you'll be a big player later on. Perhaps at that time fighting other pirates won't be enough for you?" The air around Aokiji grew colder, in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

"Especially you Nico Robin. You joining the Straw Hats has increased their threat level by a great deal. Every group you've joined has ended up being annihilated, I wonder how long until you do the same to these fools?" Aokiji said.

Robin was becoming increasingly agitated the more the Admiral spoke. However, before she could speak out in her defense, laughter rang out behind her. Everyone glanced at the source.

"Hehehehe. I can see how you became an Admiral friend. Not just strong, but quite the manipulator as well." Cherry said.

Aokiji furrowed his brow. Robin managed to calm herself down enough that she could see what Aokiji was doing to her. Hadn't she spent most of her life manipulating others herself? She had let her past trauma blind her to it.

"Who are you?" Aokiji asked curtly.

"I'm Hawkeye's daughter." Cherry said, giving a sly smile.

'Damn it, I can definitely see the resemblance. The afro prevented me from seeing it earlier. Maybe she's just lying? That shouldn't be it, who would dare to involve the world's strongest swordsman in their fraud, that'd be a death sentence.' Aokiji's brows furrowed further, he was beginning to feel a headache coming on.

Meanwhile the Straw Hats were flabbergasted. Hawkeye's daughter? They could obviously see that her eyes were similar, but they had thought it was just coincidence.

"It doesn't matter if you are or aren't. I can just take you alive, kill the rest, and figure out what to do about you later after contacting Hawkeye." Aokiji said.

"You'll find that to be a tad difficult, Admiral. I have no illusions that I could defeat you, but I've got some confidence in killing us both." Cherry spoke tonelessly.

Aokiji thought she was being excessively arrogant and even the others thought it was a bit too much even for a bluff.

Cherry was speaking the whole truth though. At her level of body cultivation, she could take an enormous amount of punishment. If she abandoned defense and focused entirely on killing Aokiji, there really was a fair probability she could do it.

She didn't really need to do that though. It would be enough just to stall him until the others got away or he gave up.

Aokiji ripped up some grass and tossed it, freezing it in midair forming an ice sword.

The other prepared for a fight, but before they could do anything Cherry had already appeared in front of Aokiji, swinging her sword.

Aokiji sensed Armament Haki coating the blade and realized she wasn't all talk, even if it wasn't at his level. He coated his ice blade in his own Armament Haki to block her sword.

Contrary to his expectations, the swords did not clash. Instead, Cherry's face twisted into a battle hungry smile and her sword transformed into lightning, burying itself into his body and wreaking havoc.

"AHHH!" Aokiji screamed in pain.

"You guys had better run along now while I entertain the Admiral!" Cherry said. They looked unwilling, but complied. Except for Cabernet, who also launched herself towards Aokiji.

The lightning returned to Cherry's hand and became a sword again. Aokiji glared at her.

"What is that? How are you controlling a devil fruit object that isn't a Zoan?" Aokiji was confused. Vegapunk had never even come close to creating such a thing. The object would always remain inert since only Zoan devil fruit would grant a will to the object.

He was also much more serious now. Normal lightning wouldn't have that great of an effect on him, meaning Cherry could also apply her Armament Haki to the lightning.

"Why would I tell you that? Now, are you ready to go about your day and leave us be?" Cherry asked, though she looked as if she wanted the answer to be no.

Aokiji hesitated. He was confident in winning of course, but he wasn't so sure he could do so without killing or at least grievously wounding her. He didn't know how Hawkeye would react to that. This wasn't a decision he could make by himself since it might alienate their strongest Shichibukai.

"Damn it. Have it your way today, girl. Don't blame me for being rude the next time we meet though." Aokiji stormed off in a foul mood. This outing of his was meant to release stress, not to create it.

"Hehehehe!" Cherry couldn't help but laugh. She had funny feeling that Aokiji wasn't such a bad guy.

She returned to the Going Merry, which had already set sail, while keeping track of Aokiji. Thankfully he didn't change his mind and left.

Cabernet flew them over and landed on the deck, meeting with the worried Straw hats.

"Thank goodness you're okay Cherry. How did you get away?" Nami asked.

"Well, when you name drop a Shichibukai like I did, he didn't have much choice in the matter, hehe." Cherry explained.

"What's that about anyways? Why didn't you say that Hawkeye is your dad?" Usopp pointed at her accusingly.

"Why are you making a fuss about it? You're the son of a founding member of the Red Hair pirates under Shank, an Emperor of the seas. Luffy is the grandson of Monky D. Garp, hero of the marines. As well as likely being the son of Monkey D. Dragon, leader of the Revolutionary Army. So it isn't like I'm the only one not mentioning familial relations." Cherry said plainly.

"Eh, how did you know?!" Luffy asked.

"Please, Aokiji just mentioned your grandfather. It's not hard to see that you share the surname and middle initials of both Garp and Dragon. And you just confirmed it yourself by not denying it." Cherry said.

"You tricked me!" Luffy pouted.

"Well, does anyone else want to share about a secret famous family member?" Cherry asked, looking around with a joking smile. She did notice Sanji twitch at the words, but he said nothing.

"I hope we don't run into any more Admirals..." Chopper said.

""Agreed."" Nami and Usopp stated.

The other went about their business on the ship. Cherry approached Robin who was sitting off to the side silently.

"Are you alright?" Cherry asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Robin touched the hand on her shoulder. "Mhm, I'm fine. Aokiji allowed me to escape Ohara during the buster call. I'm not really sure how to feel about him. I cannot forgive him, but at the same time a small part of me is grateful towards him..."

Cherry sat with her and kept her company for a while.

...

Meanwhile on the Foxy Pirates' ship.

"Run away!"

"Abandon ship!"

"It's an Admiral, we're all doomed! AHHH!"

Aokiji wasn't about to return empty handed. These small time pirates weren't worthy of his personal intervention, but he needed an easy win to make himself feel better.

Foxy could only despair. He even wished he'd been chosen by the Straw Hats during the Davy Back Fight.