One Piece: Dream of Immortality-Chapter 553: Undercover

Foxy recovered quickly from his bout of depression, as one must when you're constantly being reminded what a huge loser you are.

"If you won't join my crew, then I'll just have to switch to more hostile negotiation tactics! Fe fe fe!" Foxy said. "Get her-! OOF?!"

Foxy's weirdly shaped head was slammed into the ground as one of his old nemeses suddenly stood upon it.

"You invited me by name and even rolled out this lumpy carpet for my arrival. How kind," Cherry said.

Porche and Hamburg took one look at her before turning tail and booking it off the stage. They may be loyal to Foxy, but they knew where their limits were. The woman who beat Big Mom was not someone they could afford to offend. Even begging for their captain's life might just annoy her and get them all killed!

"Ah?!" Uta pointed at her.

Cherry pointed at herself with a smile.

"This is impossible! How can you be in two places at once?!" Uta grabbed her hair loops and tugged on them.

A murmur of confusion spread through the crowd. Pirates storming the stage had been unexpected, but they could at least understand that. What was all this about being in two places at once?

A new group of pirates jumped onto the stage.

"That's a relief! I thought somebody else beat us to the punch, but they were just cowards!" one of the newcomers who might have been their leader said.

It didn't matter who was the leader, though, because a river of rainbow musical notes washed over the lot of them and strung them up onto an equally colorful sheet music staff.

"Stop interrupting me!" Uta complained to the pirates who struggled futilely against their bonds.

Uta turned back and rounded on Cherry. "You! What's wrong with you?!"

"I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much," Cherry said.

"As if!" Uta threw her hand up in frustration. "How am I supposed to save you?!"

"Save me?" Cherry tilted her and dug her heel into Foxy's head when he started to twitch.

Uta went silent after that. Clearly something odd was going on here, beyond the fact that she had liekly dragged all these people into a spirit world.

Or did she? Cherry supposed that she didn't know if all these people were actually real. She could tell that Foxy was real, at least, but only because she was touching him.

"Gross," Cherry stepped off of Foxy's head. "You got my soles all dirty."

Uta flinched at the word 'soles' and Cherry knew she must be the responsible party for certain.

"Hey, weren't you supposed to be putting on a show or something?" Cherry asked.

"Huh?" Uta blurted. "Oh, right!"

Uta pranced towards her band, then paused and stage whispered at Cherry, "This isn't over, yet!"

Cherry agreed with the sentiment.

...

"How could this be possible," Uta circled Drunk Cherry in the real world. "This hasn't ever happened before..."

"How do you know?" Drunk Cherry asked, chugging a bottle from a pack of beer she found whilst Uta confronted Sober Cherry.

"How do I...?" Uta shot her a funny look, then spoke to herself, "I guess I don't know if this has happened before. Most people who watched my concerts before were all over the world, beyond where I can see them."

"And is that a problem?" Drunk Cherry questioned. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

"Of course it is! I don't know what will happen to them when I-!" Uta stopped talking and rubbed her eyes. "When I..."

Uta dug around in the handbag she had on her hip and pulled out a strange looking pink and yellow mushroom that resembled a mouse. She popped it in her mouth, but didn't seem to really enjoy the flavor.

"Can I have one?" Drunk Cherry reached-

"No!" Uta slapped her hand away. "These are all for me!"

"Stingy," Drunk Cherry decried.

Uta squatted and put both hands atop her head and sighed. "What am I going to do? This wasn't how things were supposed to go..."

"How are things supposed to go?" Drunk Cherry queried.

Uta whipped her head up in a glare. "You sure do ask a lot of questions!"

"Should I answer some of yours, then?" Drunk Cherry took another swig.

"Why doesn't my devil fruit work on you?!" Uta demanded to know.

"My physical and spiritual bodies are in the process of fusing into one. What are you planning with all these guys?" Drunk Cherry gestured vaguely at the audience.

"Your what are what?" Uta could tell if the drunkard was lying or not, but that would be such an odd thing to say if she were lying.

"No, no, you've gotta answer my question before I answer another one of yours," Drunk Cherry shook her head and formed an X with her arms.

Uta harrumphed and actually walked away! The audacity!

"Fine, be that way!" Drunk Cherry gave her own exaggerated harrumph. "I've got plenty of booze to steal from these fine people, anyways!"

...

Cherry was a bit surprised that nobody seemed to have recognized her yet, what with her making the front page of the World Economy News Paper for kicking Big Mom's ass a little while ago.

Was it because she wasn't wearing her armor? Yes, that's probably it.

"..." Should she put on the armor, then?

If all these people panicked and ran for their lives, she might learn something new from that. They probably can't be killed by being trampled in this world, either.

They were all having such a good time though. It'd be a shame to spoil their fun so early on.

Cherry eyes stopped on a particular person she hadn't noticed in the crowd. It's not surprising that she hadn't, since he was neither a devil fruit user nor someone she knew very well.

Cherry zipped on over, startling several audience members when she landed amongst the stands.

"Hey, don't I know you?" Cherry asked, already knowing the answer.

"I don't think so?" the pink haired young man said, tugging a scarf up to hide his face better. He changed his inflection a bit when he added, "No, I don't think we've ever met before, miss."

"Really?" Cherry rubbed her chin and leaned in close. "Because I think I recognize you for the same reason you recognize me."

"I'd appreciate it if you gave my friend some space, partner," a blond man with a cowboy hat interposed himself between the two of them. "We're all just trying to enjoy the concert!"

The blond, Helmeppo she remembered, seemed to have come a long way since she last saw him. He was still within the realm of a normal marine, but the way he held himself spoke to her about his confidence in his skill.

The pink-ette, however, was a different matter. Somehow he was giving her the impression that he was both very strong and a huge wimp.

Granted, she could be misreading them. She had only met them both briefly the one time that Garp came to scold herself and Luffy for becoming pirates after the whole Enies Lobby incident.

Cherry snatched Helmeppo's sunglasses from his face and put them on. "You two are Luffy's pals, right?"

Helmeppo stammered and blustered, but it was clear that he knew exactly who was dealing with and knew better than to escalate in the middle of a crowd... or at all.

"Kind of. It's... complicated, you know," Koby scratched the back of his head awkwardly, looking relieved that she hadn't immediately outed their identities.

Which was interesting, because that meant the marines knew or at least suspected what was going on here.

Cherry smiled. "So what brings you here?"