288 Blast from the Past

Terror.

That was the only appropriate word to describe the emotional states of the Neo Marines in this moment.

The ship heaved and swayed and jerked about, not allowing even the most experienced sailors to have steady footing; the blood coating the deck only made staying on one's feet that much more difficult.

However, the kraken's jostling of their vessel was the least of their worries. The young girl whom they meant to subdue with numbers now that she was weakened by her reduced age wasn't affected by the poor foothold at all. That made it that much easier for her to rip into their ranks like a rabid tiger.

That wasn't an exaggeration, either. They didn't just have to watch out for her deadly sword and spear, but her teeth as well. She'd bitten off Jenkin's ear barely half a minute into the melee without any hesitation. The terrible look on her face with her teeth coated in Jenkin's blood made more than a few of them piss themselves in fright.

Despite the stab wound in her chest, Ain regretted letting Cherry go the first time she "returned" her. Now she couldn't get a hold of her and anytime she saw an opportunity to hit Cherry with her devil fruit, one of her comrades would inexplicably fall into the attack instead.

"AHHHH!" a Neo Marine had his eye gouged out.

*CRACK*

Another had his spine crushed just above the waist.

*Schlop*

A severed hand hit the deck.

It was clear to everyone that before she had her age reduced, Cherry had just been playing with them.

'How is this happening?! Nobody has ever stayed this strong after being returned to childhood!' Ain couldn't fathom why this was happening.

Worst still, Ain was pretty sure that Cherry was slowly aging back up. She seemed to be a few centimeters taller than when she was first returned.

That was an accurate assumption as whilst Cherry could not unravel the effects of the devil fruit instantly due to her missing cultivation, she could still use her remaining vast stores to wear away at the effect with brute force over time.

"DIE!!!" a shout came from below the deck as it exploded upwards in an eruption of lava.

Cherry was forced onto her back foot for the first time since being aged down, desperately dodging out of the way of the former admiral's attack. Akainu might be in bad condition, but he was a world above Cherry without her cultivation.

"Ahhhh!" Ain cried out, throwing herself forward at Cherry; hand glowing pink.

Cherry thrust her spear at Ain, but the blue haired woman only dodged enough to avoid a lethal hit and carried onwards. Her hand swiped against Cherry shoulder, undoing all the work she'd done to remove the devil fruit's effects and then some.

Cherry stood before them roughly at the age of nine or ten years old. They both knew that one more hit from Ain in the short term would end the fight for certain, and not with Cherry's victory.

Akainu climbed out of the hole in the deck. It wasn't certain if the liquid flowing from her mouth was molten rock or boiling blood, perhaps both.

"Time to choose your end, pirate! Will you burn or will you choose oblivion?" Akainu spoke domineeringly.

Those words confirmed Cherry's guess as to what would happen if she had no more age to be taken away. She suspected it wasn't quite so simple, though. Likely, this was a devil fruit whose effects ended when the user was knocked unconscious or killed.

In this case, even if one were to be de-aged to nonexistence, they would come back when the effect was forcibly ended. Of course, popping back into existence in the middle of the Grandline without a ship was as good as a death sentence for most people, but Cherry isn't most people. Not to mention that she was only a little ways off shore from Dressrosa.

Worst case scenario, Cherry would pop back into the world several decades from now, Ain having died of old age. Not a great outcome, but better than being torched by Akainu with her mortal body. So given the choice, she'd choose Ain's way out.

Robin would probably still be around then, too, as she was a cultivator. So not all would be lost.

Not that Cherry was planning to lose.

Binz rained shuriken down onto her. All the potted plants he could use were already shredded beforehand, leaving him with just his weapons skills. At least that's what Cherry expected until seaweed started to crawl up onto the deck towards her ankles where she had landed after dodging.

*Thunder!*

Binz toppled over in the middle of his dance as a bolt of lightning struck him in the face.

Akainu didn't care one bit about preserving the ship and haphazardly threw globs of lava at Cherry. Ain was accustomed to fighting in such an environment after Akainu's insistence that she trained with him to be able to do so.

Cherry was able to dodge around the lava and avoid Ain's energy shots, but it left little room for counter attacks. There also weren't any opportunities to flee as they ensured there was no path overboard.

The ship lurched upwards into the air as Takako picked it up with the intent of flipping it and sending all of them into the water where the two devil fruit users would be helpless.

Zed abandoned his efforts against the Kraken and charged Cherry in a three pronged flanking maneuver with Akainu and Ain firing with his devil fruit from a distance.

'Well, shit…' Cherry thought to herself.

At this point she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She could probably kill one of them admirals, but the other one would definitely kill her right after. Dodging Ain's energy shot would leave her open for the admirals to hit her as well.

'I'm sure Luffy and the others can do something about this before too long.' Cherry thought, leaning back directly into Ain's devil fruit shot.

Cherry was hit by the pink blast, to the surprise of all three who hadn't expected that unusual choice. She shrank down to nothing in but a moment, leaving only her clothes behind.

…

The End.

Or not..

'This feels weird.' Cherry thought to herself.

Though, feeling anything when you shouldn't exist was strange in and of itself, she had to admit. It wasn't a physical sensation, she was certain of that much; nor was it any of her five senses.

In addition she felt as if she were behind some kind of thin veil, or barrier. Such a fragile thing, she thought, but she wasn't in any position to burst through, right?

For a while, she couldn't quite place the feeling. It was oddly familiar, something nostalgic. Then she remembered in a moment of epiphany.

…

A calm came over the remains of the Neo Marine fleet. The kraken fled into deeper seas, allowing them to take stock of their situation. Their losses were bad and they would almost certainly have to flee themselves, lest Whitebeard come finish them off.

Akainu only basked in his victory for a short moment before realizing that they'd lost so much and only killed one damned pirate. Zed was similarly quite downcast for their losses this time with so little to show for it.

Ain was tending to her long term friend and comrade in arms, Binz, who was fortunately still alive, though still unconscious.

Akainu picked up the spear that lay where the wretched woman once stood. A powerful weapon, if he could work out how to use it. Maybe he could force Vegapunk to figure it out for him, though that would be quite the task if the man's defenses were as strong as he expected.

"Ah, I understand. How unexpected." a voice reverberated over the sea. Every man, woman, and child amongst the two fleets and Dressrosa heard it plain and clear, as if it were right next to them.

Space itself fractured over the Neo Marine fleet. An unfamiliar woman stepped through the crack, and along with her came a "breeze" for lack of a better term for it.

Her skin was like pristine porcelain and her hair and eyes glittered like gold. A pure white kimono formed around her body as she stood in the air like it was solid ground, then took a deep breath with a smile.

As the breeze swept over all who were present, they felt like it was the first time in their lives that they had ever taken a breath of fresh air, like they'd been breathing smoke and poison up until now in comparison.

"HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!" the woman's laugh carried with it a powerful presence that crushed the will to stand before her into dust.

Even Whitebeard nearly buckled beneath the pressure, though his pride that refused to bend to anyone bolstered his will enough to resist. His crew was not so lucky as they hit the deck and gasped for air.

Akainu and Zed were much closer to the woman and received the full brunt of it. They didn't even have the leisure to breathe heavily and feared they might literally suffocate from the woman's presence alone. 

The Neo Marines that were still conscious weren't any longer, unable to even maintain simple thoughts in the face of this woman. Strangely, Ain was the only one completely unaffected. At least it was strange until the woman spoke.

"I haven't felt like this in a long while. Thanks for giving me a taste of my old strength, girl. Don't think I'll forgive you that easily, though. I'll just keep you awake long enough to crush some pests. Maybe I should pay a visit to Mary Geoise while I'm at it?" the woman said with a dangerous glint in her eye.

'That's Harpin D. Cherry?!' Zed, Akainu, and Ain screamed in their thoughts.