Chapter 83: Cherry's First Bounty
Bollywood Kingdom.
"Princess Sandwich, please have a look at this." The head maid of the Ham family, Darleen said, handing over a newspaper with a stack of bounty posters.
Princess Ham Sandwich took the newspaper and read the headline story.
"Pfft, hahahahaha!" Her laughter echoed in the halls of the palace. "Do you have my list, Darleen?"
"Naturally, Princess." Darleen took out a small book and handed it to her.
Princess Sandwich opened it and found an entry labeled "Infamous Pirate" between "Mermaid" and "Admiral", and put a check in the empty box next to it. She snapped it shut and handed it back to Darleen, who tucked it into her coat pocket.
...
Red Delta.
Hina had been in the area of her hometown so she stopped by to visit.
Whilst she had lunch with her family, the newspaper arrived.
Hina's sister Marlene started to go pale (paler than she usually is anyhow) as she read the headline story.
Hina had a bad feeling and took the newspaper from her and read it aloud for her parents to hear as well. As she went on she started to grip the newspaper and eventually ripped it apart without even finishing the story.
The bounty posters flew out of it and landed scatter on the table, the top of which belonged to Cherry.
"Hina is infuriated!" She shouted.
"Calm down, sweetie. Maybe it's not so bad, you know how they like to exaggerate in the news." Maximillian tried to calm her down.
Hina did calmed down, but only from boiling to simmering. She was taking this too personally, she should just do her duty and that's all.
But she couldn't help feeling a bit betrayed.
...
Gloom Island.
Hawkeye looked into the eyes staring back at him from the bounty poster that seemed to peer directly into his soul and judge all his sins.
When Red Hair had told him he had a daughter during their duel, he had ignored it as a poor attempt to disrupt his focus.
When Aokiji called him to tell him a young woman had claimed to be his daughter by the name of Harpin D. Cherry, he couldn't so easily dismiss it.
It could still have been a lie, a fraud. The events that occurred on that island when he had his duel with West Blue's strongest swordsman, Harpin D. Mortis, were not exactly a secret.
However, now that he was looking at her photograph he could not deny it. He could see both himself and that woman in her face.
He sighed. That woman had been the closest he ever came to giving up his ambitions, and by a long shot. Ultimately, he never would have abandoned his path in life, even if he'd known about this daughter of his.
He furrowed his brows further than usual. While he couldn't deny his blood connection, he also didn't want to accept something else.
"Why is your epithet 'Cheapshot'?! What kind of nickname is that for a swordsman?!" He stood up and uncharacteristically roared.
He knew it wasn't unwarranted either, since Aokiji had told him that all 5 Vice Admirals that went to Enies Lobby were laid up in the hospital with "injured groins".
He debated whether or not to go set her straight, but decided against it. It wasn't his right to 'parent' her.
He wouldn't go to her. They would only meet if she came to him.
...
Boulder Island.
"I'm going right now! She's going to wish it was the marines who got a hold of her when I catch her!" Grandma Angela raged.
It was Commander Frowe who had delivered the news to her personally. He had somewhat anticipated this situation and brought a large number of marines with him to attempt to prevent her from rashly setting sail.
"Now now, calm down Angela. The Grand Line is a dangerous place, a woman at your age shouldn't- OOF!" Commander Frowe clutched his now aching gut. The marines tried to dogpile the old woman, but to no avail as she flung them around like dolls.
"Slenk, Borke, you're coming with me!" Grandma Angela called out to the hiding men who could only curse their luck.
They went down to the harbor and purchased a ship, setting sail for the Grand Line as soon as they were able.
...
The Red Hair Pirates' Flagship Red Force.
Soon they would be breaking through a marine blockade to meet with Whitebeard in regards to Blackbeard and Ace.
The newspaper and the attached bounty posters arrived via news coo (the sea birds that deliver the newspapers).
"Check it out captain! My boy got a bounty! Also it seems like both Usopp and Cherry are in Luffy's crew! How crazy is that!" Yasopp laughed with delight.
"It's strange how small the world can be at times. I never thought that tattle-tale little girl would become a pirate herself! Dahaha!" Shanks said with a smile. "It's good that Luffy has a strong crew. Maybe we'll see him sooner than expected."
...
Water 7.
The Franky Family just finished pleading with the Straw Hats to bring Franky with them, even if they had to use force. They brought the new bounty posters with them to show Franky's bounty to them as their reasoning.
With the exception of Serene, who had hidden her face in anticipation of the notoriety that would be inflicted upon them, they all had new bounties.
Harpin D. "Cheapshot" Cherry - 350 Million Beri
"Blood Wine" Cabernet - 275 Million Beri
Cherry thought her own bounty was pretty low, but figured it must be because it was her first one.
Robin's bounty perplexed her as it only went up by a measly one million Beri. What was even the point of that?
"Pfft, why didn't they just take of a picture of you while they were here, Sanji? This sketch is terrible. Did you beat of the photographer or something to make them hate you this much? Hehehehe!" Cherry teased him mercilessly.
Sanji wasn't the only one who was upset. Nami wasn't fond of having a bounty on her head now, whilst Chopper was upset that his bounty was a measly 50 Beri.
Luffy, on the other hand, was conflicted. He was satisfied with his new bounty of 300 Million, but that was still less than Cherry's bounty. As the captain he naturally wanted to have the biggest bounty.
"You'll just have to try harder, Luffy. The future king of the pirates can't lag behind his crew can he?" Cherry said, which caused him to get fired up.
They went down to check out the new ship and were pretty amazed with the results. Even Cherry was somewhat impressed with its luxury.
Eventually Franky was lured back to the ship from his hideout, unclothed. After a brief back and forth, Franky eventually gave up and accepted the invitation.
They soon set sail for their next destination, the route to which passed through the infamous Florian Triangle that Kokoro warned them about.
Before that, though, it seemed Garp was scolded by the Fleet Admiral and sent back to catch them.
He started hurling cannon balls at their ship whilst Franky started charging some sort of escape mechanism up.
"Start handing me cannon balls, Usopp. This looks like fun." Cherry said.
She reared back with the first and launched it towards the marine ship, slamming right into the bow. "Two can play at that game, you old coot! Hehehe!"
Garp's ship ended up being the only one that took damage as the Thousand Sunny had a higher quality crew. Then they flew into the air a whole kilometer away.
"This consumes three whole barrels of cola, but it's great in a pinch!" Franky explained proudly.
"Cola?" Cherry asked, perplexed.
"Right! Both the Thousand Sunny and myself are powered by cola!" Franky said.
Cherry could only stare at his slack jawed. It was an absurd thing to claim. But sure enough, there were bottles of cola in his chest cavity. Cherry thought nonsense like this would be confined to the work of a devil fruit, but apparently the whole world was just insane.
They enjoyed the sunlight while they could. There would be none where they were headed.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone