Cherry let out an impressed whistle. "That's one big danger noodle…"
She got a few exasperated looks for that. Nami even said, "Would it kill you to be serious? Just sometimes?"
"It might?" Cherry replied. "If I was being serious right now, then I'd already be over there trying to hack Kaido's head off."
"Absolutely not!" Kin'emon chimed in. "If you are going to get yourself killed pointlessly, at least do so the day before the raid so that any wounds you deal to him will be fresh and weaken him!"
"Hey now, I wasn't the one suggesting I go fight Kaido. That was Nami," Cherry deflected.
"I was NOT!" Nami half shouted through gritted teeth, as if afraid that Kaido would overhear her.
"Was too," Cherry said. "Anyways, I wasn't planning on fighting Kaido. Like, at all."
"What?" Kin'emon's eyes widened, much to Cherry's amusement.
"I'm not going to hold my captain's hand all the way to the end of the world. He picked this fight, so he can fight it himself," Cherry explained casually.
Cherry was only a little surprised to see Jinbe nod immediately in understanding. "The future king of the pirates cannot be cowed by a mere emperor."
"You can't be serious!" Nami objected.
"Oh, so I have to be serious, but Jinbe isn't allowed to be? So unfair," Cherry muttered.
"I'm sure that Luffy can beat him," Brook said.
"I don't doubt that he can beat him!" Nami threw her hands up in exasperation. "But we're pirates! Pirates don't have to fight fair and honorably! We should gang up on the overgrown lizard and be done with it!"
"I agree with Cherry and Jinbe," Sanji said, startling Nami. "This is about reputation as much as freeing Wano. No one will respect Luffy if he wins like that."
"W-well…" Nami found it difficult to argue with that. She turned to the person in question in some vain hope that he wouldn't do something so reckless, except… "Luffy…? Luffy? Luffy?!"
Luffy was not where he had been standing, but charging down the mountain towards the town.
"Luffy-dono!" Kin'emon called after him, but it was too late.
"Damn it, I'll go after him! Everyone else stay out of sight!" Law said before giving chase.
"Haaah, there he goes…" Cherry sighed. "This probably won't end well…"
"Well, then why don't you go stop him?!" Nami demanded.
"Luffy isn't stupid; at least, not that stupid. He can learn from his mistakes," Cherry said. "I guess I'll stick around awhile to make sure he doesn't die, though…"
"Kin'emon, Tsuru-chan is in that town…" Kiku suddenly remembered.
Without a word, Kin'emon was running down the mountain as well, with Kiku hot on his heels.
"That was a man whose lover is in danger if I ever saw one," Sanji said.
…
Hawkins awoke with a start, as he always did when he sensed that he was in danger. He got to his feet quickly and looked about, almost flinching when he caught sight of Kaido a little ways away.
"I'm not dead…" Hawkins was a bit surprised by that.
His odds of death had been unusually high when he checked this morning, which he had initially attributed to running into Straw Hat. When that woman caught him and had him at his mercy, he thought for sure that his end was imminent.
Fortunately, that was not the case. However, judging from the way Kaido was swaying about, he could only presume that the giant oaf was drunk again, so Hawkins' had not yet put the possibility of death behind him.
"My head hurts…" Hawkins mumbled, annoyed that he'd have to clean up this mess.
"Where are they?! Bring them to me, those brats!" Kaido thundered.
"That again, huh?" Hawkins said, stumbling his way over to Kaido. "I really hope he doesn't just blast me away…"
Soon he was close enough to be within earshot of the drunken dragon. "Kaido-sama!"
The shout made his head ache more, but he ignored it.
"Hah?" Kaido grumbled as he turned one enormous eye onto Hawkins' "Hawkins, what do you want? I'm busy~ Hiccup!"
"They're… hiding in the ruins of Oden's castle!" Hawkins shouted. He thought, 'Perfect, he'll blast the mountain and leave believing he killed Straw Hat and Law. If they're actually there, then great! If not, I can just give an excuse that they must have escaped his wrath.'
Most importantly, Hawkins and his own men would be spared from Kaido's destructive habits.
Kaido predictably turned his eyes onto the mountain, then with a bit of build up, he blasted the top clean off of it.
Hawkins thought that he saw… something in the midst of the blast, but it was probably just his head injury making his vision go fuzzy.
Now, he just needed to find his mount, then he could go get himself some rest-
*BLAM*
Kaido crashed into the ground, sending Hawkins' flying away in the shockwave. Buildings collapsed all around him as they were crushed beneath Kaido's mass.
Kaido was already getting back up by the time Hawkins regained his senses. His blurry vision only barely caught the sight of Straw Hat fleeing the scene before he disappeared around a corner.
"Alright, I'm out of here…" Hawkins murmured, getting back to his unsteady feet and rushing off to find some men. At this point, he didn't care what happened; he just wanted to go home and sleep.
…
"What the hell, man?!" Cherry complained. "I go through all the trouble of not fighting Kaido, and the bastard blasts us all for shits and giggles!"
Cherry meandered over to a hole in the ground where she sensed her friends hiding. "You all alright down there?"
"Just peachy," Pedro replied.
"I saw my life flash before my eyes!" Brook exclaimed. "Or I would have-"
"If you had any eyes. Yeah yeah, we get it," Nami said, clearly in a bad mood.
"Oh, that's funny!" Shinobu said. "It might have been funnier if the delivery was better, though."
Brook glared at Nami. Or he would… if he had any eyes.
"More importantly, are you alright dear? You stepped away before I made the hole!" Shinobu called up.
"No big deal. I was going to block it completely if you hadn't dug in the way you did, but fortunately I didn't need to draw attention to myself," Cherry replied.
"Ah, okay…" Shinobu said, wondering just how strong this younger woman was to casually claim she could block a blast that blew the top off a mountain. "As long as you're fine."
Cherry turned to look at the town again just in time to see Luffy's elephant gun smash into Kaido's head. "Luffy just punched Kaido."
"Nooooo…!" Nami held the sides of her head in her hands. "Why is he so reckless!"
"How is it looking?" Jinbe asked.
"Well, Kaido's getting back up like nothing happened, so… bad?" Cherry scratched her chin. "Luffy's running back here, the fool. We're either fine or all dead, so pay attention to the fight you started!"
'Hm? Is that the horse lady?' Cherry squinted her eyes at the scene. "I gotta go, guys! That Speed chick got taken out somehow, so I need to make sure Tama is okay!"
Cherry was off, no longer to be seen at the top of the hole.
"Who's Speed and Tama?" Chopper asked.