104 Scattered to the Winds

"The reports about your sturdy body weren't exaggerated I see. Although it was only a probing strike, your skull wasn't damaged in the slightest." Borsalino said in his slow cadence whislt looking down at Cherry.

"Cherry!" Robin shouted. Her first instinct was to restrain Borsalino or to move Cherry away from him, but her logical mind knew it to be pointless to try against Borsalino's speed. She could only watch in abject horror.

Cherry twisted her body around and swung her arm in a strange manner. Borsalino watched it happen curiously. It was too slow and the trajectory of her arm wouldn't even reach him from that position, so he wondered if perhaps he'd put her in a state of confusion due to brain trauma.

Suddenly his eyes widened as his haki warned him. He quickly leaned backward as a haki coated spear pierced the air where his head just was. If he'd been a moment slower, he would be very dead right now. Of course, a moment for Borsalino might as well be a millenia.

*CRASH*

Cherry was kicked in the ribs and smashed into the trunk of a nearby mangrove tree, breaking it in half. No one even knew what had happened before the sound reached their ears.

"Oh my, that was dangerous. You almost got me there... sort of. Does your Fusion Fruit let you store weapons inside your body?" Borsalino asked, not expecting an answer.

Borsalino raised his arm and an enormous collection of light appeared in his palm, ready to fire directly at Cherry's position. The others could do nothing to help her, they were preoccupied with their own battle and lacked the speed.

*PEW-BOOM*

However, the laser didn't hit Cherry. It was deflected at the last second as Borsalino's arm was kicked off target by Rayleigh.

"Oh, you're making an appearance? Dark King Rayleigh." Borsalino said, unfazed at being stopped.

"You shouldn't be plucking young sprouts, their time is only just beginning." Rayleigh said with a menacing smile.

While Borsalino and Rayleigh had their little chat, Cherry dug herself out of the pile of broken tree trunk pieces. Her ribs were broken on the right side, but she was otherwise okay due to her split second application of armament haki.

"Everyone! Scatter, only think about getting away!" Luffy made the wise decision to retreat with all haste.

Cherry called her sword back to herself from the twitching pacifista on the ground. Another pacifista landed nearby, causing Cherry to wonder just how many of them they had made.

Chopper took his Super Rumble Ball and grappled with the new pacifista in his semi-awakened form.

Cherry wasn't interested in the pacifistas though, she was interested in the original who showed up soon afterwards. Bartholomew Kuma landed in front of Cabernet, Zoro, Sanji, Brook, and Usopp. He took off his glove and slammed his palm towards Zoro.

Cabernet tried to grab Zoro and yank him out of the way, but she was a bit too slow. Both of the vanished into thin air. They couldn't believe their eyes, Zoro and Cabernet were just... gone.

Cherry knew he'd just sent them flying away, so she wasn't panicking. She sent a quick command to Cabernet before she left communication range to not come looking for her. That Cherry would come to pick her up later.

'This is for the best. This big teddy bear is going to make the decision for you, Luffy. You're not ready yet.' Cherry thought. She also knew exactly where she wanted Kuma to send herself as well.

Kuma started picking them off one at a time, much to their horror. They didn't know what was happening to their vanishing friends after all.

Kuma stopped next to Rayleigh and whisper something to him. Cherry heard it clear enough with her enhanced sense of hearing. "I'm with the revolutionary army. Because of our connection, I want to save this group of people."

Rayleigh expressed his doubt over those words, but Kuma didn't care. Rayleigh seemed to decide to trust him. Poor Borsalino was left out of the loop, much to his mild annoyance.

Kuma resumed his rampage, Franky charged him in a futile attempt to stop him whilst Nami tried to stop Franky. Both were vanished just the same.

Kuma appeared before Robin, but Chopper got in the way. "LEAVE ROBIN ALONE!!!"

Chopper was vanished.

Robin looked towards Cherry, wondering why she wasn't doing anything to stop this madness. Cherry had a gentle smile and mouthed the words 'See you soon.' before she too disappeared. Though at the last moment her expression of fear was replaced with confusion.

Next was Luffy, who was filled with shame for his own weakness and inability to help his friends. Luffy didn't even put up a fight.

"We will not meet again. Farewell." Kumma said, before Luffy disappeared under his palm.

Lastly, Kuma came to Cherry.

"Are they going to make you like those mindless puppets too?" She asked. Kuma was given pause by her words. Once again Cherry was able to cut straight to the truth.

"I'll give you a parting gift then." Cherry said, soft enough that only Kuma could hear her.

"Send me to a man who can keep me warm at night." She winked provocatively.

This perplexed him for a moment, as he had gotten the impression that she and Nico Robin were together. He quickly understood her meaning, however. He whispered to her. "As you wish, good luck."

Finally, Cherry too was sent flying away to a faraway place.

As she soared through the skies, gazing up at the clouds as she quickly passed them by, she brought her hands up to her cover her face and she screamed full of fury towards the World Government.

"IT WAS SUCH A GOOD SWORD, DAMN IT!"

...

Bartholomew Kuma stood there silently, lost within his thoughts. He wasn't ready to die, and that was the fate he expected to receive soon. It left him with complicated emotions. He was proud of his actions and didn't regret them at all, but the dread of willingly walking to his doom was not lost on him.

Suddenly he felt a tiny buzzing sensation shoot up his leg, then his back, then into his head. Before he could react in any way, the sensation had already vanished.

'What was that?' He thought to himself, almost grateful for the distraction from his existential crisis.

His thoughts turned back to Harpin D. Cherry's words, that she would give him a 'parting gift'. She certainly hadn't handed anything to him, what that strange feeling what she meant?

He could only hope she wasn't being sarcastic and plotted to kill him after he sent her away. He still needed his body intact to protect the Straw Hats' ship until they returned for it, as per the deal with Vegapunk.

...

On a gloomy island where a country was destroyed by war.

Perona sat on the balcony of a large castle, lamenting the fact that she had no one to serve her, tending to her every need and whim. Her eyes filled with tears as she wished she could go back to Thriller Bark and her captain Moria.

The sound of something crashing into the ground was heard in the distance. Perona instantly recognised it as someone else being sent here by Kuma and became excited at the prospect of getting a new servant.

She flew over in her ghost form for safety's sake. What she discovered shocked her to the core.

"Roronoa Zoro?! And... Um... Hello again..." Perona was annoyed to see the green haired swordsman as he definitely wouldn't agree to be her servant. Then she changed her tune really quick when she noticed Cabernet was with him as well.

"Oh, it's the cute pink girl!" Cabernet gave a bright smile.

"Kya! T-that's not fair! You're cheating by smiling like that, damn it!" Perona squealed, then took a force gruff tone to hide her embarrassment.

"Why are you screaming like that? Shut up will you?" Zoro said, waking up from his nap. "OUCH!"

Cabernet wacked him on the head and pouted. "Don't be rude to Perona."

"What? She's our enemy though- OUCH!" Zoro started to complain before getting walloped again. 'Damn it, who said that women weren't as strong as men...'

Perona led them back to the castle, forgetting all about getting new servants now that she had Cabernet all to herself.

"We need to go out to sea immediately!" Zoro complained, seeing Cabernet following Perona.

Cabernet turned to look at him. "I'm no genius, but I know we aren't going to get back there any time soon. Staying one night won't hurt."

Zoro wanted to argue more, but what she said was true. His best shot at going back was with Cabernet anyhow, so he could only play along.