The wasteland that Cherry had crossed between the bamboo forest on the coast and the towns at the foot of the mountain was an annoying place.
The reason for that was Life Sense. The barren landscape just didn't have anything to cling to and bounce off of. It was Alabasta all over again, albeit on a fortunately smaller scale.
Still, her Life Sense had a longer range than it did in Alabasta just on account of the fact that her cultivation realm was higher.
As a result, she was zig zagging back towards the bamboo forest as she searched for Tama. Hopefully Kaido's drunken state meant that she wasn't too injured, though Speed had been left in pretty bad shape.
A trip that took hours on the back of Komachiyo going in a relatively straight line took only a handful of minutes for Cherry in a jagged line.
She felt a familiar ping in her senses before beelining towards it. She came to a skidding stop on the dead soil and locked eyes with the tall form of Duke Dogstorm.
"You have a friend of mine there," Cherry spoke before he had the chance.
She placed her hand on Tama's forehead as she lay unconscious on Dogstorm's arms. The girl breathed in soft ragged breaths, but thankfully her condition wasn't dangerous. With proper care, she would recover in time with no long term complications.
Cherry guided her vital energy through Tama, giving extra care to each wound to ensure that it was healed perfectly. Dogstorm marveled at the sight, having not had the chance to see it personally when Cherry worked on himself and his people.
"That'll do. It's good that she wasn't in too bad of shape," Cherry sighed.
"Not too bad of shape?! She had several large lacerations, severe bruising, probably a concussion, and who knows what else!" Dogstorm shouted.
"Right, not too bad," Cherry nodded. "You should have seen the state I found Pedro in back in Totto Land. There were bits and pieces of him all over the place!"
Several gasps of horror came from the musketeers who were with Dogstorm. Dogstorm himself had his mood visibly darken. He dared to ask, "Is… is he alright?"
"Do you really think I'd inform you of his death so flippantly? Of course he's all right," Cherry said. "His left side on the other hand…"
Dogstorm sucked in a cold breath.
"I'm just messing with you! I made sure to fix him up, good as new!" Cherry laughed at him. "He has been having nightmares about the treatment, though; but I didn't tell him to blow himself up with dynamite, so he can just deal with it."
"Ahem," Dogstorm cleared his throat and decided to change the subject. "So, you know this pup?"
"Mm," Cherry hummed in agreement. "She's a cute little rascal. Just don't eat any dango that she gives you. In fact, it's probably best if none of your minks eat any dango at all while here in Wano; just in case."
"???" Dogstorm tilted his head in confusion. "If you say so…"
Cherry kind of wanted to know if Tama's dango worked on minks, but if mentally enslaving her enemies already gave her pause, then doing so to her allies was definitely out of the question.
"Did you just arrive at Wano? Luffy and our group got here this morning," Cherry asked.
"We've been here since a few days ago after making a stop to gather supplies for our forces. According to Kin'emon, it would be difficult to procure such things here because of Kaido's men," Dogstorm explained.
Cherry nodded. "Well, I have to go make sure that Luffy doesn't get killed by Kaido. Make sure Tama gets home safe for me, will ya?"
"What? Oh, of course, but what was that about Kaido- and she's gone…" Dogstorm only blinked and Cherry was already halfway to the horizon, disappearing entirely half a moment later.
"Eep!" a tiny voice sounded from his arms.
Dogstorm looked down and saw that the pup, Tama, had woken up and was now staring at him with shining stars in her eyes, physically holding her own mouth shut to stop what might have been a squeal of joy.
That was only natural, Dogstorm concluded, because he was very cute. Definitely cuter than that damned Cat Viper, that was for sure!
"Hello, little pup-" Dogstorm said, hearing another constrained squeal from the pup. "I'm one of Cherry's allies, so I'll make sure you make it home, alright? Not even Kaido himself could harm you under my careful watch!"
Tama nodded excitedly, having heard the tail end of the conversation between him and Cherry and thus knowing that he was being honest. Even without that, though, she likely would have trusted the words of this perfect hybrid of manly gentleman and adorable doggo anyways. If you couldn't trust a cute dog, then who could you trust?!
…
Cherry arrived back at the towns of Okobore and Bakura much faster than the time it took her to conduct her search. As a result, she still had the chance to see Luffy battle against Kaido.
"All things considered, he's doing better than I thought he would…" Cherry rubbed her chin.
Luffy sported a massive bruise on the side of his ribs, as well as a busted lip and black eye, but he was still standing and that wasn't nothing. Kaido, on the other hand, was only a bit scuffed up without a single real injury to show for the battle.
"Is this all that the 'future king of the pirates' amounts to? Weak," Kaido mocked openly.
Kaido's lumbering movements might seem slow at a glance, but they were far from it. It was strange the way they made you think you could dodge in time, only for you to get ruthlessly crushed without a chance of resistance.
Luffy rolled out of the way the very instant that Kaido started moving. A fool would think that he did so far too early, only to be proven wrong as Kaido's cudgel shattered the ground in the very next instant.
It was in this way that the game of cat and mouse, or perhaps dragon and monkey, continued. Over and over Luffy dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged; all the while his stamina slowly drained away.
Of the few counter attacks that Luffy managed to make, Kaido neither evaded or blocked. They did no harm to him, only slowed him down for the briefest period as Kaido sneered.
The people brave enough not to run for the hills watched on in wonder and trepidation. For most of them, they had never seen anyone challenge Kaido and survive for so long.
"HRRRAAAH!" Kaido roared.
Luffy stumbled and was hit directly. He crashed into the ground with enough force to create a Luffy shaped hole in the ground.
"Are you going to get up again, fool?" Kaido rumbled. "No? Good. Take him to the prison mine in Udon. A tough little guy like him will make for a good subordinate… Once he breaks, that is."
Cherry was pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. It was honestly perfect, and she had zero intention of stopping it from happening. Worst case scenario, she has to bust him out, but she had a feeling that she wouldn't need to.