Sunset on the same day the Going Luffy set sail from Dressrosa.
"Are we there yet?" Luffy asked.
"No." Usopp replied.
An excruciatingly long moment passed (it was to Luffy, anyways).
"Are we there yet?" Luffy asked again.
"NO." Usopp spoke a little louder, thinking maybe he wasn't heard the first time.
""...""
"Are we there yet?" Luffy asked after a much shorter pause.
"NO! We aren't there yet!" Usopp shouted.
A split second after Usopp finished speaking, Luffy asked "Are we there yet?"
"... Yes." Usopp answered.
"Really?!" Luffy shot up and scanned the horizon for the Thousand Sunny.
"No." Usopp corrected. "Why don't you go bother Cherry? She can supposedly tell how far the owner of a vivre card is, so ask her how long it'll be until we get there."
Usopp went back to tending the potted sunflower that Cherry handed over to him, fully intending on ignoring Luffy for the time being. Cherry had foisted it onto him to take care of since "One more won't make a difference to him."
He didn't really mind, rather he looked forward to having some roasted sunflower seeds with a healthy helping of salt.
Luffy approached a table where Cherry, Robin, Law, Bartolomeo and his first mate Gambia were playing poker.
Cherry's eyes widened slightly and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards after Robin placed the fifth and final card on the table. Ace of hearts, ten of hearts, 2 of clubs, jack of hearts, and finally queen of hearts.
"All in." Cherry shoved her chips forward.
The pot was already quite sizable before that point, but the other four had caught her reaction to the final card.
"I fold." "I fold." "I fold."
Gambia, Law, and Robin gave up. Cherry had been surprisingly easy to read throughout the entire game. It was quite unusual for such a normally tricksy person to be so bad at poker.
It all came down to Bartolomeo, who was smiling like a fool at the opportunity to play a game with some of his favorite people in the world.
"Call~!" Bartolomeo shoved his pile of chips into the center as well.
"What the hell are you doing, captain! She has to have the royal flush! You can't just throw the game away because you're a big fan of hers! That's disrespectful!" Gambia shook Bartolomeo by the shoulders whilst berating him.
"I didn't throw the game. See, look at my hand!" Bartolomeo flipped his cards.
A two of diamonds, making a pair of twos. The second worst hand in the game.
Gambia was flabbergasted and sent a glare at his captain. "You-!"
"Tsk," the sound of Cherry clicking her tongue drew everyone's attention.
She looked incredibly annoyed for some reason, and that reason became apparent when she flipped her own cards.
A six of spades and an eight of diamonds. She had nothing; it was a bluff.
"Hehahaha, you shouldn't underestimate your biggest fan, Cherry-senpai. I knew you were playing a long con from the very first hand!" Bartolomeo chuckled.
Gambia, Law, and Robin groaned. Cherry had them completely fooled. Robin especially should have known better; rather, she should have just assumed that Cherry was up to something, even without any evidence to suggest that she was scheming something.
"Damn it, I had a flush. I should have trusted the hearts…" Law bemoaned the Beri he just lost.
Cherry stood up, opened Cabernet's chest like a cabinet, then pulled out a small sack of gold coins. She tossed it at the still chuckling Bartolomeo. "There, 50 million Beri."
"Cherry! When are we going to catch up with the Sunny?" Luffy asked.
"Hmm." Cherry pulled out her vivre card book. "I'd say we're about 20 kilometers behind them, so 7 or 8 minutes give or take."
"Ohhh~!" Luffy was excited.
He hadn't actually expected it to be so soon, he was just bored.
Just as she said, a familiar ship appeared on the horizon soon after.
…
Aboard the Thousand Sunny.
Chopper held up a spyglass to get a look at the ship that was approaching them quite swiftly.
At first they had feared it was Akainu's steam ship due to its speed, but the lack of a plume of steam assuaged those worries.
"It's… Luffy?" Chopper said, confused.
"What? How could you make out a person from this distance? I didn't know reindeer eyes were that good." Brook commented.
Chopper handed him the spyglass and he looked through it and said "Ah! It is Luffy!"
Nami snatched the spyglass from the two idiots and looked for herself. "Who in the world designed their ship's figurehead to look like Luffy? Barto Club?"
"Hm, that's the name of Bartolomeo the Cannibal's crew." Jinbe informed them.
"A cannibal?! Oh no, did he stretch Luffy's skin over his figurehead after eating him?!" Chopper shouted in morbid alarm.
"I hope they don't suck the supple marrow from my bones~! Yohoho!" Brook added.
"T-they won't eat me if I'm a dragon, right?" Momonosuke said, having transformed due to his fright.
"Baaah!" Merry chimed in.
"What do you mean we should take them head on?! They're cannibals!" Chopper replied to her.
"Relax, Chopper. It's a pun from an East Blue dialect that means he mocks people." Nami explained calmly.
"Really?" Chopper heaved a sigh of relief.
"Probably…" Nami said, not sounding so sure this time. "We're about to find out in any case. Be prepared to fight."
Nami felt a lot more confident in her battle capabilities ever since she practically single handedly fought off Big Mom's flagship. If she was fighting on the ocean with her Clima-tact, then she was sure to win. That was doubly so with Jinbe by her side.
"Oiiiiii!" a familiar voice rang out over the water and set them all at ease.
Luffy could be seen standing on top of his own head and waving at them with a huge smile.
Soon enough the Going Luffy lined up beside the Thousand Sunny and allowed them to board the latter.
"You got away from Doflamingo? Is everyone alright?" Nami fussed over them.
"We didn't get away! We kicked their asses!" Luffy declared.
"Right. I should have known it'd turn out that way." Nami sighed, but then gave a gentle smile.
"Nami-swaaan~! Were you worried about me~?!" Sanji twirled over. "I'm sure your famished after being forced to eat whatever slop these guys could cook~!"
"Actually, I made the meals." Nami gave him a look.
"And I'm sure they were magnificent~! Those lazy bastards don't deserve your cooking~!" Sanji recovered expertly.
Before he could dig himself into another hole that he may not be able to get himself back out of, Sanji pranced away to the kitchen to whip up a nice dinner for everyone.
Franky immediately went into inspection mode (nobody was certain whether that was a state of mind or something to do with his cybernetics) and Usopp went to tend to his pop greens, bringing along Cherry's sunflower.
Chopper fussed over them, making sure that nobody was pretending not to be hurt "to look cool". He spent a particularly long time poking and prodding at Zoro as he was apparently the most problematic of the bunch, in Chopper's professional opinion in that regard.
"Momonosuke! You're okay! Look, I found Kanjuro safe and sound." Kin'emon reported to his son.
"I'm glad you're unharmed, Kanjuro." Momonosuke spoke with relief.
"I'm glad that I'm unharmed too." Kanjuro said, provoking a chuckle from the father and son pair.
On the other side of the deck, Cherry was subtly giving Kanjuro a suspicious look. She really didn't like the guy; something she and drunk Cherry could agree wholeheartedly on.
"You know, you're being unreasonable." Robin said gently.
"I know I am. He'll either grow on me, or my brain will work out whatever it is my gut already knows. I'll just be civil in the meantime; and try not to drink so much while he's here." Cherry said.
This matter really perplexed her. She tried comparing him to other people she despised to see if similarities to someone else was the cause, but that didn't turn up anything either.
Robin was satisfied that Cherry would give up drinking for a while and let the matter go. Cherry wasn't so brash to attack someone just because she doesn't like them. Well… not seriously anyways.