264 Last Disrespects

Cherry shook the mummy dust off of her face and clothes and shivered in disgust. She hadn't thought the effect would be clean necessarily, but she hadn't expected him to pop like a balloon either.

Once she was clean and had gotten over her disgust, she lamented the fact that she didn't get to study the reap fruit. Like Brook's revive fruit, the reap fruit could hide from her Life Sense, so she was restricted to direct physical contact to detect it. Something she had had very little opportunity for, as any blows she landed on Wilson had passed by in an instant.

The pile of dust that was once Wilson Alexander, grandmaster of Rokushiki and master assassin, quivered slightly before a transparent orb floated out of it.

When she saw it try to ascend to the heavens, she mustered her soul power and snatched it out of the air before it could escape. The spiritual energy of the soul was something she very rarely had any use for in this world, but at times like this it came in handy.

"Where do you think you're going, hm? You didn't think my revenge was satisfied after you went and got killed by that freak did you?" Cherry chuckled darkly as the little soul of her former master trembled pathetically.

"I'll tell you what, though. If you don't resist when I rip all the information I want out of you, then I'll let you go free to face your karma in one piece. Agreed?" Cherry propositioned.

The feeble soul tried to send a strand of spiritual energy to reply in the affirmative, only for the strand to be shredded before it reached Cherry.

Cherry gave the soul a twisted smile. "Can't decide? I haven't got all day you know? Hehehehehe!"

The soul quaked in fear and desperately formed a much more robust strand of spiritual energy. When did that sweet orphan girl he picked up in the mortal world all those years ago become so sadistic? Why did he have to be such a greedy jackass and ruin a perfectly fine master / disciple relationship?!

His second answer was ripped to shreds even more brutal than the last, even causing a minor backlash against his soul.

"What was that~? Did you say something~?" Cherry sing-songed, clearly enjoying her willful ignorance.

He understood then. She was trying to make him use up all his spiritual energy, so that he could neither resist or self-destruct.

He could do that. He could use what little spiritual energy he had left to consign himself to oblivion. At least then he could rob her of anything she might get out of his memories, one last act of defiance against.

He wouldn't, and she knew that he wouldn't. Because he was many things, but the thing he was above all else was a coward. He feared annihilation more than anything.

The soul didn't form another strand, instead he released it all into the air without purpose. He hoped that this display would be enough to spare his little soul.

Cherry immediately raided his memories, painfully ripping out every scrap of knowledge that he possessed. Then came the moment of truth, the choice of whether to spare him or not to spare him.

Moments in time stretched into infinity as Cherry deliberated, the soul metaphorically holding his breath.

At least that's how it would have gone, if Cherry didn't shatter the soul in her fist the very instant she was finished with him.

"Dumb ass." Cherry muttered a final insult to add to the ultimate injury, then proceeded to cast all thoughts of her old master aside forevermore.

Cherry looked around at the mess the fight had created in the warehouse. Crushed and diced S.M.I.L.E. fruit littered the floor, some of which had become unrecognizable paste.

To many, this would be a horrific sight of wasted wealth and/or power. To Cherry, though, it mattered not what state the fruit were in. She intended to pulverize and mix them into cultivation pills after unraveling the vital energy inscriptions anyways.

After swiftly fusing her loot into a more compact form, she located the drill fruit tucked away in the corner of the room and smiled in satisfaction.

"There you are~! I hope that you're worth all the hype, but I guess even if you're mediocre that's okay too. You'll still strengthen my spear, and that's enough." Cherry said.

She left the emptied warehouse only to find a crowd of crying tontatta lamenting that their princess wasn't in the room they were told that she was in.

"Scary lady! Our princess isn't here! What should we do?!" one of them cried out after spotting her.

"Why are you blubbering about it? Either go look for her elsewhere or follow me to fight the Donquixote family. One way or another, you'll probably find her." Cherry said nonchalantly, before marching away.

The tontatta took that cavalier attitude as a sign of profound confidence, which inspired a great resolution to act within their hearts. "Follow the scary lady and save the princess!!!"

"Why are you punching your arms like that, scary lady?" an particularly adorable tontatta asked innocently.

"Stop calling me 'scary lady', I'm cuter than all of you combined! Anyways, you'll see what I'm doing in a minute… hehehe." Cherry chuckled.

By the time they were exiting the factory, Cherry's heart pounded like an ominous drum and seemed to echo throughout the entire underground complex. This naturally drew the attention of many towards the factory. The guards at the factory's door were so flabbergasted by the sight of her and the tontatta, they failed to act immediately.

"Take care of them for me, if you please." Cherry spoke, and the tontatta swarmed the hapless guards, immediately knocking them out cold.

"When do we get to see-" the same cute tontatta as before started to ask before they were interrupted.

Cherry spun around and threw a punch that was so fast the air ignited from rapid compression.

The tontatta saw the factory, whose walls were made with seastone, buckled and collapsed on itself before the sound of the act even reached them.

*CRASH!!!!!!*

A shockwave forced the tontatta back away from the crumbling factory, lifting them off the ground momentarily, and leaving a loud ringing to linger in their ears.

"Damn, I love this technique. Not the most energy efficient, but it sure does get the job done. I suppose the main downside is that once the energy is built up, it has to be released no matter what." Cherry nodded in satisfaction.

Turning around, she found the tontatta gathered around her with sparkling eyes. """A hero!"""

Before Cherry could refute that particular title, she saw something swinging in their direction from the center of the dockyard. An ugly man in a teal coat and covered in snot. He didn't look very pleased, but then again he was laughing so maybe he was actually pleased?

Either way, Cherry wanted nothing to do with the disgusting freak and seriously considered blasting him out of the air on principle alone. Alas, it would be wrong of her to judge someone on outward appearances. What if he was actually a saint, a very nasty saint?

"You…?! You destroyed the factory?! Behehehe! You'll pay for that! You should have saved some of those explosives you used, they might have saved your life!" Trebol arrogantly threatened.

"Oh good, he's the same on the inside as he is on the outside." Cherry was thankful.