Cherry really didn't give two hoots about some losers pretending to be the Straw Hat pirates, but their presence here was sure to attract the marines and that would be annoying to deal with.
Unfortunately, Life Sense wasn't any good at finding weaklings in a sea full of weaklings, that was like finding a needle in a needle stack. Well, she could probably find HER weaklings, that being Usopp, Nami, and Franky, if she were to focus hard enough. Franky was technically in that group, too, having so little of his meaty bits left over and Cherry considered the robot parts to be a hollow kind of strength even if she'd never say it out loud.
Not that she needed to look for them in that manner with her custom Vivre cards.
Anyways, Cherry left the investigation to Robin as that was one of her best skills anyways. When she found information on where to locate them all in one place, Cherry would humiliate- no, "educate" them about the consequences of identity fraud.
'I wonder if they've got a fake "Cherry" too. She better be real sexy or they're going to have a doctorate in the science of 'Don't piss off Harpin D. Cherry'-ology by the time I'm done with them.' Cherry idly thought to herself.
Cherry went shopping for "education" supplies and found a blacksmith so that she could make some custom "lesson" materials for her eager "students".
Robin came back to the ship in the morning of the next day to give the rundown of what she learned.
"It seems they plan to have a big get together in a few days for their recruiting efforts. That'll be the best time to find them all together probably," Robin said.
"Perfect! That means there'll be an audience!" Cherry said joyfully, fiddling with her blacksmithing project from the day before.
Robin widened her eyes once she got a good look at it. "Is that- ?"
"Yes, it's exactly what it looks like," Cherry said, filled with a menacing chuckle.
"I'm glad I'm in your bed and not on your list of grudges…" Robin sighed, leaving Cherry to her sadistic hobbies.
…
Cherry just so happened to be drinking heavily overpriced liquor in Shakky's Rip-Off Bar when Nami arrived to check in.
"Would you look at what the cat dragged in! She dragged herself in, I suppose?" Cherry exclaimed, raising a bottle of rum in a toast before draining it.
"It's good to see you too, Cherry." Nami rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Why are you dressed like that? Are you trying to give Sanji a heart attack? Not that I'm complaining…" Cherry observed.
She was referring to Nami's current choice of outfit, being a pair of tight blue jeans and a bikini top that was just a bit too small for her now much more ample bosom.
"He'll just have to learn to deal with it. I'll dress however I like," Nami said, choosing to ignore the last remark.
"You say that now, but knowing Sanji he might actually have some adverse health effects, hehehe! He wouldn't die of blood loss from his nose like a massive tool, would he?" Cherry found the notion to be amusing, absurd, and highly unlikely.
"You're the sixth to arrive, Nami. Rayleigh has already gotten started with the Thousand Sunny's coating for the journey. It'll be done by tomorrow afternoon at the latest." Shakky interjected to give the ship's navigator a status update.
"That's great! Please give Rayleigh my thanks if you see him before I do. I'll be going out shopping for supplies, I definitely can't trust anyone else to get everything we'll need." Nami said.
"What about me?" Cherry asked with false hurt feelings.
"You're worse than the idiots are." Nami stated bluntly.
"Hmph! Are you trying to say we need more than booze, meat, and sugary treats?!" Cherry shouted in 'outrage'.
Nami rolled her eyes. "I'd be inclined to trust Robin, but a certain someone might distract her. No, better to make sure the job gets done myself."
Nami pointed at Cherry. "And you're going to carry it all. That way I can save a few Beri from the luggage bubbles."
She was referring to the soap bubbles that the locals sold for a nominal fee to help with carrying things.
"But I'm just a weak and pitiful woman! Look at my noodly arms!" Cherry complained.
Nami grabbed her by the ear and dragged Cherry out of the bar. Cherry grabbed her last bottle of rum off of the counter before it was out of reach, muttering complaints between swallows.
Cherry was relieved to find that shopping for supplies didn't feel nearly as troublesome as shopping for clothes was.
She supposed that was the case because Nami wasn't wasting time deciding which shade of blue she liked better or some nonsense. The haggling might have been a bit easier with Cherry scowling at merchants who didn't give up quickly enough for her liking.
Cherry carried several crates and barrels all strapped together with rope on her back, the mass of them enough to crush twenty men. People tended to give way at the sight of it, making their pace increase a bit rather than slow down from the burden.
"This is much easier than normal. I can't trust the idiots to carry that much without dropping it or running off, even if they could handle the weight just fine." Nami said.
Nami didn't hear a response so she turned around to see Cherry peering through a showroom window. Walking back over she saw a large, shiny harpoon gun. Looking at the price tag, she winced.
"No, we can't afford it." Nami said.
That wasn't true, it was more that she's a penny pincher who hated fun. At least that was Cherry's impression of her at that moment.
Cherry could just buy it with her own money, but why on earth would she do that when she can spend someone else's money?!
"You know, there's a lot of Sea Kings at the bottom of the ocean…" Cherry spoke darkly.
Nami froze in her tracks and turned to look at Cherry with a hint of fear on her face that she was trying to hide.
"T-that won't matter. You and the boys can take care of Sea Kings easily!" Nami said, trying to convince herself more than anyone.
"Hm, that may be the case, but do you think the bubble will be able to take it? This harpoon gun here is specifically designed to minimize its impact with the ship coating bubble," Cherry said, reading the placard beneath the price tag.
Nami was shaken by her reasoning, but she couldn't give in! "Aha! What about Takako?! Surely your pet Kraken can handle the Sea Kings!"
"That's true. It's a shame that there's no way in hell that Luffy won't care about that at all. On the other hand, Luffy will probably be happy to play with a brand new harpoon gun, won't he?" Cherry countered.
Nami squinted her eyes and ground her teeth. Cherry gave her the smile of a devil that already knew that she'd suckered some poor soul into a deal.
…
Cherry and Nami made it back to the Sunny in the evening. Cherry had a small hill of various necessities and miscellaneous goods.
Among them was a large crate inside of which was not just one, but TWO brand new harpoon guns and a healthy sum of harpoons that Cherry had personally inspected for their quality.
Nami was in disbelief that she had somehow been convinced to buy two of them, despite how expensive they were.
The argument Cherry had used was that they needed one to distract Luffy AND one for Usopp to use since Luffy had terrible aim.
"Hey there, Miss Navigator. Did Cherry give you a hard time?" Robin greeted.
"Yes…" Nami answered truthfully, giving Robin a hug.
"There there, it's all over now." Robin comforted her as if she'd been through some harrowing experience.
"Hey Franky! Check out these sweet harpoon guns! How hard do you think it'd be to modify them to reload automatically?" Cherry said, pretending not to notice the bemused, but judgmental glare Robin was directing at the back of her head.
"That's a SUPER idea! It'll be SUPER easy with the help of your devil fruit I think!" Franky answered, actually oblivious to the 'drama' between the ladies.