35 Anticlimactic

Cabernet launched herself towards the giant candle, laughing maniacally like a villain.

At this point Luffy figured out he could use Mr. 3's candle lock technique against him, breaking through his defenses.

However, he got caught off guard when Miss Golden Week laid a trap for him with her strange hypnotic paints, causing him to lose interest in saving his friends.

"Color Trap: Betrayal Black." She stated lazily.

Cabernet landed on the candle platform from above next to the long nosed man, Usopp.

Usopp screamed in terror. "It's a demon, save meeeeee!"

Cabernet grabbed him by his shoulder straps and lifted him out of the wax she melted with her feet.

"What's a demon? Is it cool?" She asked with a sparkle in her eyes. Though it would seem more like sarcasm with a murderous glint in her eyes to an observer that wasn't used to her.

Usopp fainted from fear while Cabernet tilted her head in confusion. She put him down gently and moved onto the green haired swordsman, Zoro.

"Why do you have three swords? Do you hold one with your mouth?" She asked him, pulling him out of the melting wax by his shoulders.

Cherry overhead this as she reached Vivi's side and muttered. "There's no way that's true. They probably have unique properties and he switches between them based on the circumstances."

"Yeah. I use the three sword style." Zoro said as he drew the swords, placing the white sword in his teeth.

"What have I gotten myself into..." Cherry groaned.

Mr. 3 noticed Cabernet's interference after Usopp screamed, but when he was about to intervene, he paused. He was sure this woman was familiar somehow, but he couldn't remember from where. If she had a bounty he would have remembered her from her unique appearance easily.

He pushed that thought aside for now and called out to Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine to assist him, knowing that Cabernet's fire ability was a very bad match up for him.

Not receiving a response, he turned to see Cherry standing over the unconscious forms of Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine. She was scratching her head with some embarrassment.

"I thought they'd be a little tougher than this with their ranking in Baroque Works..." Cherry sighed.

At this point, Mr. 3 knew his plan was in shambles. So he did what any real man would do when the going gets tough. Run away!

"Miss Golden Week, we're leaving!" He said, but noticed belatedly that she was already gone.

Clicking his tongue, he ran off into the jungle as well.

Zoro attempted to chase after him. Luffy, who was still standing on the "Betrayal Black" mark, stretched his arms out to grab Zoro, allowing Mr. 3 to disappear into the trees.

"What the hell are you doing, Luffy! He's getting away, let me go!" Zoro shouted.

"No." Luffy said bluntly.

While the two bickered with each other like idiots, Cabernet finished melting the wax trapping the red head woman and the giants, then destroyed the spinning candle.

"Go catch the paint girl and the candle man, Cabernet." Cherry knew that she was itching to fight and wouldn't stop her.

"Yippee!" The flames on Cabernet's back vanished and she dashed into the jungle at breakneck speed.

It was only a few minutes later that she returned, dragging Mr. 3 and Miss Golden Week behind her, their heads covered in painful looking lumps.

Dorry and Brogy woke up from their wounds, which fortunately weren't too deep due to their weakened state when they slashed each other. Nami messed up the Color Trap Luffy was standing on, allowing him to come to his senses.

At this point, the last remaining member of Luffy's crew emerged from the jungle. "Nami-swan! Vivi-chwan!"

He stopped when he saw Cherry and Cabernet and seemed to be inflicted with some kind of inner turmoil.

"Ladies, my name is Sanji. May I ask for your names?" He inquired. Cherry introduce them to him.

"I see! Such beautiful names for such beautiful ladies! Please step on me- OOF!" He was interrupted when Nami bashed the top of his head with her fist. "Stop it!"

Usopp recovered from his fear induced fainting spell, took one look at Cabernet, and started screaming for help again.

While Cabernet and Luffy were laughing at the antics of the others, Cherry wondered if they were really pirates at all. She felt they were more like a traveling performance group.

'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stick around these guys a little longer... wait.' Cherry caught herself and immediately turned her attention inwards to her soul.

There she found a massive thread of fate had wrapped around her. Compared to the previous thread, this was like a rope one would attach to a ship's anchor.

"Hey, do you wanna come with us?" Luffy asked, smiling widely at Cherry and Cabernet.

Cherry fell to her hands and knees, hanging her head in despair.

"Eh? Is something wrong? Eh?" Luffy asked, confused.

Mr. 3 started to slink away during the commotion, he had only pretended to be unconscious.

Cherry raised her face towards him. "Where are you going?"

She was furious. She couldn't take out her frustration on Luffy as it wasn't really his fault, so she decided to relieve her stress on this idiot. She stood up, her sword appeared in her hand, and she slowly walked towards Mr. 3.

Her bloodlust was almost palpable in the air. Mr. 3 froze in horror, like he was a little rabbit cornered by a tiger.

"Wait wait wait wait wait! Don't kill me, I surrender! I'll tell you anything you want, I'm really good with information you see!" He begged.

Luffy stepped into her path. "You don't have to kill him, he's given up." He said.

Cherry was about to chastise his naivete, but she saw something else in his eyes. It wasn't that he believed in some nonsensical philosophy about the good in people. No, he knew the risks and he chose not to kill anyways.

Cherry rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop a grin from forming. "Fine."

She turned a cold gaze onto Mr. 3. "But if he acts up again, I'll kill him before he has the chance to give up."

Shishishi, okay." Luffy smiled and Mr. 3 trembled.

"Alright, then. Tell me everything I want to know. You probably won't say anything about Baroque Works since you're a coward who fears death, so I'll ask you different things." Cherry left no room to refuse.

"You've been sneaking peeks at Cabernet for a while now. Do you know something? Her race seems like it's rare, perhaps you know that?" Cherry interrogated.

When Cherry said the word 'race', something clicked into place in Mr. 3's mind.

"Seems you thought of something, spit it out." Cherry commanded. The others listened with some interest as well.

"Ah, well, I recall there being a 100,000,000 Beri reward for information regarding a race known as Lunarians..." He described what he remembered about the information bounty from the world government, including the racial characteristics of Lunarians.

Hearing this, Luffy and Usopp (who had gotten over his fear once everything was explained to him) started to gush over Cabernet and asking her to demonstrate her flying and flames, which she happily obliged.

Cherry was in a much more somber mood. Although Cabernet was only a Lunarian by way of a devil fruit, she didn't think the world government would care about the difference. Unless Cherry kept Cabernet stored within her body all the time, she would be no different than a wanted criminal.

She just didn't have the heart to keep such a sweet girl cooped up like that.

Sanji spoke up at this point. "Oh, right! I forgot to tell you..." He relayed how he had come across Mr. 3's makeshift base and spoken to Mr. 0 on the den den mushi, tricking him into believing they were dead.

Usopp lamented that even though they threw off Baroque Works' pursuers, they were still stuck on Little Garden for a whole year. Then, Sanji revealed the eternal log pose to Alabasta he found, earning cheers from the others.

Vivi turned to Cherry. "Um, you didn't answer Luffy before, do you want to come with us? I know I asked you for help before, but the situation in my country is much more dire than I thought."

Cherry looked into Vivi's puppy dog eyes. "Ugh, fine." She relented.

""""Hooray!"""" They shouted, including Cabernet.

'Damn it. The thread of fate has become too thick, I can't just sever it now. Even if I could, there would be terrible consequences for doing so. I'll have to try and resolve this fate naturally...' Cherry sighed.