Sanji ended up being the odd man out in getting Pudding's cupcakes. He actually managed to grab two of them, but he gave one to Nami and one to Carrot. When he turned back to get his own, the rest had already been snatched by the others. Jinbe and Pedro, who had been the least eager to get any and were last as a result, at least had the decency to look guilty.
"Sorry, Sanji. I thought you had already gotten one…" Jinbe apologized, before stuffing the entire cupcake in his hand into his mouth.
Sanji could only really blame himself, so he lit a cigarette to look like he didn't care. The tears streaming down his face and his quivering bottom lip gave it all away, though.
"I-I'll make another one just for you! A sp-special one…" Pudding said hurriedly, poking her fingers together and looking away when she said that last part.
"That's okay, Pudding. I'm not the sort of man who tells a woman to slave away in the kitchen for him," Sanji said.
"That'd sound really cool if there wasn't any snot dripping down your face," Brook sent a merciless verbal jab his way.
'So cool~' Pudding thought regardless.
"So, who's this guy?" Cherry asked, pointing at the odd octopus on the deck.
"What the hell?!" Nami shouted. "When did that octopus get here?!"
"He's been there since I got back, at least," Cherry said, licking the chocolate icing from her fingertips.
"He's been there for about ten minutes," Reiju added helpfully.
"Why didn't you say anything?! It could be dangerous!" Nami complained.
"IYOOOoooOOO~!" *POMPOM* The octopus gave an odd yell and bonked its own head like a drum.
"He says that he just wants a ride to the top," Jinbe offered helpfully.
"The top of what?" Luffy asked, stuffing his whole hand into his gob to 'clean' it.
"That, I presume," Pedro pointed out a massive cliff face with a waterfall streaming down into the sea.
Giant koi fish began to bound up and down in the water next to the Sunny. So naturally, Luffy jumped onto one of their backs without any concern for his own safety. "I got one Sanji! Can we eat it?!"
As Sanji started listing out ways one might prepare a giant koi fish whilst Nami and Jinbe got to work steering the ship in the right direction.
Although Nami wasn't aware of the specifics on how to enter Wano, she could guess it had something to do with that water fall. A lesser navigator might not think that way, but Nami had ridden a knock up stream into a sea of clouds so this wasn't all that strange to her.
As it turned out, Luffy immediately grabbing onto a giant koi fish wasn't the worst idea in the world. The fish were headed straight for the waterfall themselves and had started to swim up the current to the top of the cliff. Luffy held onto two of the fish in the fashion that one might tie a pair of horses to a cart, then up they went.
After reaching the top, the koi fish continued to drag them upstream until the body of water opened up into a large lake.
"There's a whirlpool! Turn! Turn!" Nami shouted in alarm.
They weren't going to be able to turn in time, however.
The ship jerked and sent Pedro, Chopper, and Brook overboard. Jinbe dove in after them.
Sanji grabbed Pudding and Nami whilst Reiju picked up Carrot, then both bounded over towards a nearby rocky peninsula.
That left Luffy and Cherry on the ship. The former was currently wrestling the octopus, who was terrified for some reason that made little sense to Cherry, but she didn't care all that much about it. She just needed to make sure that the Thousand Sunny wasn't crushed along some rocks or something. Baby sitting Luffy to make sure he didn't drown in the process was a simple matter.
The whirlpool started to drag the ship under, so Cherry shouted, "Take a deep breath Luffy!"
Luffy obediently sucked in as much air as he lungs would hold, which was quite a lot of air, then firmly clamped his hands over his mouth and nose.
Mere seconds later, the Thousand Sunny plunged beneath the water, caught by the terrible current of the whirlpool. Giant tentacles emerged from Cherry's body and started to wrap themselves around the ship like a protective cocoon.
They banged up against a few rocks along the way, but they were eventually deposited onto a sandy beach some distance away from where they started.
Luffy lost his battle to hold his breath against the weakness of the devil fruit curse near the end and Cherry caught him by the ankle before the blast of air pouring out of his lungs sent him flying off to who knows where.
Takako slunk back into Cherry's vital energy sea once everything stopped moving so fast and Cherry gave Luffy a good wringing to get the water out.
*cough cough cough*
Luffy spat some water up as he started to regain his wits. "That… was fun. Let's do it again!"
Cherry flicked his nose. "Stop it. We've been separated from the others."
"They'll be fine," Luffy spoke with confidence, hopping to his feet.
"I'm sure they will be, but fine is a relative term. We're in enemy territory now," Cherry said. "Speaking of which, have you given any thought to how you're going to beat Kaido?"
"I'll walk up to him and kick his ass!" Luffy declared.
"He isn't going to be as easy as Katakuri was, you know?" Cherry warned.
"Katakuri wasn't easy to beat at all, though?" Luffy retorted.
"Exactly, dufus," Cherry said. "Kaido is rumored to be even tougher than Big Mom is, and I'd have had an easier time carving a sea route through the red line than I did punching through her thick hide."
Luffy crossed his arms and tilted his head. "Hmmm…"
It was good enough that he was actually thinking about it first for once, so Cherry thought about leaving the topic there for now. Then a thought occurred to her, so she voiced it.
"How far were you planning to take your devil fruit ability, Luffy?" Cherry asked.
"What do you mean?" Luffy asked.
"I mean, are you planning to train it to a higher level, like Doflamingo did?" Cherry clarified. "Or do you want to go the Roger route and become a master of haki?"
"... Both!" Luffy decided, as if it were that simple. Perhaps, for him, it was that simple.
"Well, haki is something you'll figure out in time, but your devil fruit is another story. I won't claim to be an expert, but the next level, awakening, is something easier said than done. I only managed it when most of my body got vaporized on fishman island. My entire being was focused on the act of fusion in order to contain the energy of the dyna stone that would have destroyed the whole place. I think your will has to synchronize with that of your devil fruit to achieve it," Cherry explained.
"How do I do that?" Luffy asked.
"No clue!" Cherry shrugged in exaggerated fashion. "You devil fruit is still mostly an enigma to me, other than it seems to be a Human Human fruit model. You'd know better than me on this."
"So I'm not thinking rubber-y enough. Got it!" Luffy nodded. "Do I have to almost die, too?"
"I doubt it," Cherry shook her head. She wasn't exactly sure on that point, but the last thing she needed was for her captain to go seeking death.