One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 428: Big News!

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Cherry ended up spending a bit more time at Shimotsuki village than she had originally intended.

Koushiro was an interesting fellow to talk to, and he wasn't above showing Cherry a few things about swordsmanship that he had figured out over the years. Cherry knew perfectly well how to swing a sword to lop off a head or two, but she was sorely lacking in the more subtle aspects of the art that more dedicated practitioners were capable of.

In turn, Cherry left the man with a few pieces of enigmatic wisdom she had received or found in her own time. Most of it didn't make much sense to her, but Koushiro's eyes were sparkling just like his cute little students' eyes had earlier, so she assumed there must be something more to it.

Needless to say, there were no Big Mom pirates lurking around, so it was finally time to return to the Thousand Sunny.

Cherry bid Koushiro and the students goodbye, made her way to the nearest den den mushi, then she was off to dreamland.

It was a couple of hours after she left that she found her way back. The sun was just coming up in this part of the world and the crew was currently relaxing in their own way after a hectic couple of days.

Which meant they were arguing over something stupid.

"I will NOT use that thing!" Sanji shouted just as Cherry popped out of the den den mushi. "Cherry-chan! Welcome back! I said NO!"

"Come on! I wanna see you shoot a beam!" Luffy begged, grabbing Sanji's pant legs.

"I don't need to shoot beams to get stronger! I'll become the strongest without the power of science!" Sanji huffed, waving around a black canister with a number 3 printed on the side.

"You don't need to worry that much, Sanji. Even if the worst should happen, and the Raid suit awakens your genetic modifications including the emotional suppressant, you can still count on Cherry over there to do something about it like she did for me," Reiju said as she played checkers against Pudding. The latter was close to pulling her hair out as she tried to work out how to win without moving her pieces away from the safety of the sides of the board.

Sanji huffed. Truthfully, that was the primary reason he didn't want anything to do with the Raid suit. "I want to get stronger the old fashioned way. With grit and sweat and blood!"

"I can oblige you there, Sanji," Cherry said, and he felt a shiver down his spine. "I would like to say, though, that unless you chuck that canister into the sea right now, we both know you'll use it the very instant a beautiful woman is in danger and your regular strength is insufficient."

Sanji frowned and made to throw the canister into the sea immediately.

""Noooooo!!!"" Luffy and Chopper whined.

Sanji couldn't do it, though. Even the very idea that he might fail to protect a woman because his strength was lacking prevented him from tossing away this power. It didn't help that he couldn't bring himself to doubt Cherry's ability to poke around in his head until she fixed him.

"Haaah..." Sanji lowered his arm with a deep sigh.

""Woohoo!!!"" Luffy and Chopper hooted in victory.

"Hey guys! The newspaper is here!" Carrot called out from the crow's nest. She hopped down with a particularly thick issue of the World Economy Newspaper.

Cherry perked up. She wondered if Morgans kept his end of the deal, but she didn't think there was much of a chance that the man didn't feature an attempt on the life of an emperor of the

sea.

She took one look at the front page and laughed. "That old bird didn't even mention Bege! That's hilarious! Hmm, seems like he has a talent for photography. He got the money shot I practically handed him on a silver platter with perfect timing."

"Why in the world did you take your helmet off for a stupid photo!" Nami wrapped her hands around Cherry's neck and throttled her even as she laughed.

"They have to see my face, don't they? Otherwise, it could be anyone in the armor," Cherry argued.

The image of Cherry hitting Big Mom so hard the skin exploded off of half of her face, all while smiling like a deranged lunatic unconcerned about her left arm flying away with the shockwave, covered almost half of the front page. Fortunately, the main headline simply stated-

"STRAW HATS DEFEAT BIG MOM!"

-so Cherry wouldn't be stealing all of the attention. If anything, people around the world will be wondering what kind of monster Luffy is to keep someone like Cherry under control.

"They included new bounty posters too!" Carrot chimed.

Looking through them, they found that Sanji's had actually increased to just above Zoro's bounty at 330 million beri, leaving him extremely smug.

Luffy's bounty shot up to 2 billion beri, much to their captain's delight.

Cherry's bounty went up to a disappointing 2.5 billion.

"This is bullshit! Who and where is the bastard that decides the bounties?! I'll kick his ass!" Cherry erupted.

"I thought you didn't really care about bounties, Cherry?" Nami looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't!" Cherry shouted. "-But I kicked Big Mom's ass! Twice! I should at least have a bounty higher than that old, hungry bitch!"

"And she got right back up again, while you lost an arm," Reiju said, smiling with squinted eyes when Cherry glared at her.

"Damn it..." Cherry slumped. "I knew I should have just finished her off..."

"They would have minimized it anyways. That's just how the World Government does things. At a certain point, the bounties don't really matter that much and the government only cares about propaganda. That's why Katakuri' bounty is only a bit more than a billion beri," Pudding said, sounding confident. It made sense that she would know a bit more about how bounties go, coming from a family of criminals with high bounties. "If anything, you should take pride that they're being so stingy. It means they actually see you as a threat." "What?" Nami muttered. "Are they going to be sending admirals after us now?!"

Pudding paused. "That... isn't outside of the realm of possibilities. They wouldn't want you to keep growing or they'll have more emperor level threats to worry about... What have I gotten myself into..."

While Pudding and Nami were having a nervous breakdown (even Reiju was having second thoughts), Luffy was giggling to himself and said, "If we beat some admirals, I bet they'd have to give us even higher bounties!"

"With the Snail Network, marine headquarters is only a hop, skip, and jump away!" Cherry

smiled.

"Do NOT go picking a fight with admirals!" Nami warned them.

Luffy and Cherry stared at her, then their eyes quickly darted to the den den mushi and back

again.

Nami dashed towards the den den mushi so quickly one might think he had spontaneously developed Soru. Luffy and Cherry were hot on her heels, though, and soon all three were wrestling on the lawn, trying to snatch away the den den mushi from one another.

Reiju and Pudding watched them with a warm sort of feeling in their chests, thinking that maybe they hadn't made such a bad choice after all.

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