356 Spreading Rumors

It was a small miracle that no one had come out to see what the racket was, considering that Cherry made no attempts to be quiet in her pursuit of Big Mom's second eldest son.

Then again, perhaps they HAD been noticed, but those who had were deliberately avoiding them? If their observation haki was good enough, they should be able to tell that Katakuri was involved at least.

It was when they were about halfway through the fifth floor that that changed.

A door a little ways down the hallways they were racing through opened up and a tiny little girl walked out, dragging a stitched up stuffed animal behind her. That combined with her pink hair reminded Cherry of Perona, but her sad, droopy eyes were very different from Perona's unusually round ones.

"Why are you being so loud?! I'll gut you!" The little girl cried out.

"Anana, go to bed." Katakuri spoke, his voice deep and brooking no argument.

"No!" Anana stamped her little foot.

Katakuri ignored her tantrum and swooshed past her, ignoring the stuffed animal being tossed at him with no chance of actually hitting him.

"Homies, make sure Anana makes it to bed." Katakuri commanded as he kept running.

Several objects became animate and started to corral the little girl back into what was presumably in her bedroom. Anana had a fit, shouting at the 'homies' to release her even though they hadn't actually touched her yet.

"Yoink!" Cherry scooped the little girl up onto her shoulder.

"Huh?" Anana was surprised, but not terribly shocked by the turn of events. "Who are you?"

"A brave knight! I have rescued the princess from her captors, and now she owes me a favor!" Cherry called out.

"A favor?" Anana asked, seeming to think it over. "Don't wanna."

"Alas, those are the rules of chivalry! A favor is owed whether you like it or not!" Cherry spewed nonsense.

"What do you think you're doing?" Katakuri stopped to ask.

Cherry similarly skidded to a stop, just before the end of the rug Katakuri was standing on. With one smooth movement, she yanked the rug upwards and back HARD, actually causing Katakuri to stumble but not quite fall.

"It's not nice to stab people, princess! Especially not a knight that you owe a favor to!" Cherry said, plucking a pen knife out of her neck and tossing it aside.

"You attacked my big brother! Die!" Anana started yanking on Cherry's hair.

"No, we're playing a game. A game you're going to help me win, in exchange for saving you." Cherry said, entirely unbothered by the child's attacks on her person.

Cherry leapt forward towards Katakuri who had recovered and was currently trying to figure out what she was up to. Cherry didn't give him the time to think things over though, clawing her hands at him. Anana remained perfectly balanced on her shoulder with minimal jostling, though she was now holding Cherry's hair to keep herself upright rather than to inflict pain.

Katakuri flowed around the grasping hand with greater ease than he had before. "You've only handicapped yourself by picking her up."

"I'm not a burden! Get him, kidnapper lady!" Anana harrumphed.

Katakuri's eye twitched and Cherry chuckled. Anana might be a little psychopath, but she was awfully cute.

"Catch!" Cherry shouted, lifting Anana up from her shoulder by the scruff.

Katakuri's eyes flashed with foresight and widened with disbelief. He moved to catch the child who would momentarily be thrown at literal breakneck speeds to give Cherry an opening to win their game. He had no choice, Anana would be hurt or even killed otherwise, according to his vision.

*BOOM*

The chateau quaked from the sheer force of the throw. Except that it wasn't Anana that Cherry threw, but herself; and Katakuri was in the prime position to catch her, like he had planned to do for Anana who was instead plopped down onto the floor just before.

It was too late to dodge. Even though he could see how this was going to end, he simply lacked the ability to change it because of his own over commitment to his positioning.

"Too soft, Katakuri~! Hehehehehe~!" Cherry slammed into him and sent them both tumbling into the wall behind him.

"Serves you right." Anana said softly, before skipping back to her room.

Two yelps of surprise occurred simultaneously as they smashed through the wall. A woman dressed as a maid and a man as a chef. Both were half-clothed in a large supply closet, presumably working very hard before being rudely interrupted by the unscheduled construction work.

The dust cleared and both the servants paled in realization. Cherry was sat upright on Katakuri's chest as he lay defeated on the ground. Images of their own deaths formed into their minds as Katakuri would undoubtedly silence them for the moment his reputation was ruined.

The dust cleared a little more, revealing that Katakuri was in fact NOT lying on the ground, but somehow held himself up on his own two feet limbo style, perfectly parallel about 30 centimeters off the ground. The two servants heaved sighs of relief and quickly scurried away, bowing and apologizing for 'intruding'.

"Are you allergic to lying down or something?" Cherry asked, perplexed why he would do this. "Or maybe you're trying to show off to me? Trying to save your image with your core muscles after I beat you?"

"You certainly live up to your moniker." Katakuri said. He didn't deny that he lost or try to quibble about her 'cheating' by using his sister against him.

"Ahem…" A long necked woman cleared her throat. The two of them looked at her.

"Amande." Katakuri acknowledged.

"Hello." Cherry turned back to Katakuri. "So, round two?"

Given the 'compromised' position the two of them were in, that was one hell of a misleading thing to say in front of the man's sister. Amande took it at face value and walked away. She had always been a quiet one though, so Katakuri hoped she stayed that way.

"Do you really have to cause so many misunderstandings?" Katakuri asked bluntly.

"It's not MY fault if your own siblings would sooner believe you're gallivanting with a woman rather than that woman defeating you." Cherry declared, very amused with the situation.

"Round two it is, then." Katakuri stood up straight, prying off Cherry as she tried to hang off his shoulders. "And this time, I'm not pulling my punches."

"So you'd hit a lady-?" *BAM* Cherry crashed through the other side of the supply closet from an unceremonious sucker punch. "RUDE!"

Cherry had to admit that she was a bit skeptical about him pulling his punches before, but after THAT she could believe it.

'I think he broke my neck with that one.' Cherry thought, using her hand to twist her head back into the correct orientation so it can heal more easily.

He hadn't even hit her that hard when she had reversed Brulee's twisted form, but then he had probably been underestimating her at the time. Katakuri was a man who likely very rarely met his match.

"Nothing for it then~" Cherry said, shooting off after Katakuri, who had already gained himself a decent lead. "A dirty trick won't do this time. This is training after all~"