"Oh no! I forgot I was only going to take a nap break from looking for them and slept through the night!" Chopper exclaimed.
"You what?! I thought you had taken care of them when you came back!" Nami shouted.
Usopp ran over to the three samurai and started pushing against Kin'emon. "Hurry and get back to the ship!"
Usopp was of the same opinion as Nami that keeping the samurai away from the minks was the wisest course of action.
Kin'emon didn't seem to care about Usopp's concerns though. He'd spent the whole night following Zoro around in circles at the insistence of his comrade, Kanjuro, so he was very much wanting to get his business over with already.
"Good people of Zou! I am Kin'emon, servant of the Kozuki Clan and samurai of Wano! I have come in search of my compatriot, Raizo! Has he come to your land?!" Kin'emon boomed.
"Noooo…!" A few of the Straw Hats collapsed to their knees in despair. They were having such a good time and now they'd have to run for their lives!
Cat vIper, Duke Dogstorm, and all the minks in the vicinity went to their hands and knees in a formal bow to the three samurai.
With tears running down his face Duke Dogstorm said, "We've been waiting for your arrival!"
"""Huh?!""" The Straw Hats were dumbfounded, except Cherry who looked smug.
"Raizo is safe and sound!" Cat Viper added.
"""HUH?!?!?!""" even more confusion.
"That is good news!" Kin'emon nodded.
"Wait a minute! There IS a samurai here?! And ALL of you kept it secret?! Even on the verge of death?!" Usopp was incredulous even as he too was starting to tear up.
"Sorry to have misled you," Cat Viper said, all smiles. "We'd only just met you, we couldn't take a risk with the life of a precious comrade to tell you even though you saved us. It is only natural we would put our lives on the line to protect him; no mink would ever sell a comrade to the enemy!"
"I knew it from the start." Cherry spoke.
"Like hell you did! You're just trying to look smart!" Usopp accused her.
"I wouldn't have gone all out with that arm and leg for a stranger if I hadn't~" Cherry looked even more smug somehow. Usopp couldn't refute that point.
Cat Viper and Dogstorm seemed to accept that as well, but they were still curious. Cat Viper asked, "How did you work it out, then?"
"I suppose I couldn't be perfectly certain that this Raizo was here and that you were protecting him. However, both Kin'emon and that Jack fellow were under the impression that he was, with the latter refusing to accept that he wasn't even when you answered that he wasn't under great distress. This alone means there are multiple sources of information to suggest Raizo was here." Cherry explained, seeing nods all around. "That wasn't all though. There was the fact that not a single person in this country submitted under torture and told Jack that there IS a samurai here!"
"Ah," Robin nodded as she understood. "Under such circumstances, it would all too easy to lie and say there is a samurai if there wasn't one, since they would only stand to gain some relief from the torture and would lose nothing. The fact that no one broke and insisted on the same story means that they all had a strong motivation to stick to the one answer."
"Jack may have also thought of that," Cherry nodded. "Or he might just be a stubborn jackass."
"In any case, I am most pleased to see the both of you alive! I feared the worst when we saw the state of your home!" Kin'emon said.
"It was certainly a close call. We couldn't flee since we needed to keep the pact that we made all those years ago." Dogstorm said.
"I knew that we would meet again!" Cat Viper interjected.
"Oi, don't jump in the middle of my conversation with Kin'emon, you monstrous cat!" Dogstorm rebuked with a growl.
"I reckoned he'd gotten sick of talking to you already, so I chimed in!" Cat Viper hissed back.
Suddenly the two of them were up on their feet again, ready to brandish their weapons at one another and perhaps fight to the death based on the menacing glares they leveled at one another.
"Stop! We've only just reunited with the Kozuki Clan! Please!" Wanda tried to reason with them.
"Cat Viper, Dogstorm! Why are you fighting?!" Momonosuke spoke up, of all people. "You used to be such good friends, how did you come to the point of such bitterness?!"
'Strange,' Cherry thought. 'He sounds as if he had known them in the past from the way he speaks, but this feud of theirs has to be older than he is…'
Cherry knew a thing or two about long held grudges. It was a favorite pastime of cultivators after all, so she was quite certain that Dogstorm and Cat Viper had been at each other's throats for at least a decade or two. She could tell in the same way a very experienced drinker could guess how long an alcohol had been aged.
"If what happened to my father is the cause, then he would be very sad to see you act this way!" Momonosuke dropped a bombshell.
Cat Viper and Dogstorm looked thoughtful and ashamed. ""Oden-sama…""
"But… Kin'emon is right there?" Usopp was confused.
"He must be a ghost." Robin said.
"Don't say that!" Usopp complained.
"Forgive us, Momonosuke-sama!" "I am ashamed of myself!" Cat VIper and Dogstorm bowed in dogeza towards the boy.
Murmuring started in the crowd of minks.
"Well said, Momonosuke-sama! I am sorry for deceiving you, but Momonosuke and I are not father and son!" Kin'emon said, catching the Straw Hat crew off guard. Even Cherry hadn't expected a twist like that, the two of them were both so similar.
"Momonosuke-sama is the heir of the late, great Kozuki Oden, Daimyo of Kuri in the land of Wano!" Kin'emon declared.
The minks were astounded at this revelation.
"So Momo is some kind of big shot?" Franky asked.
"With such powerful vassals, he must be quite the important lord." Robin surmised.
"I'm sorry for lying to you. I am a very important person!" Momonosuke said.
"An impish pervert? Brook misheard.
"IMPORTANT PERSON!" Momo corrected.
"Ah, my bad. My ears don't work so well anymore… because I don't have any, yohohoho!" Brook laughed.
"Big whoop." Luffy disregarded.
"You can't speak to me so disrespectfully, Luffy! You're supposed to grovel!" Momo was annoyed.
Luffy grabbed his face and scrunched it up. "Why should I change the way I act?"
"Release me you brazen rogue!" Momo swung his little fists at him.
"Don't act so high and mighty when you're afraid of heights, you little wimp!" Luffy wrestled him to the ground.
Kin'emon and Kanjuro were muttering about pirates not having any manners, and Nami smelled treasure and started to appeal to the little pervert more, much to Kin'emon's ire and envy.
In the background, Cat Viper and Dogstorm awkwardly made their peace with one another.
Cherry sat there silently, poking at the eggs on her new plate of food. She supposed she should have expected that the samurai weren't ordinary by any means. Ordinary people would not be attracted to the side of a child of destiny. There was just one thing that didn't sit well with her…
"Politics. Blegh!" Cherry shoved her breakfast away from her, having lost her appetite.