Chapter 228: Law's Proposal
"Hehehehehe!" Cherry laughed.
"Stop it! Why don't you think of a way to fix us instead of mocking us!" Chopper (Nami) shouted at her.
"Hehehe! I must say that Law's devil fruit is very mysterious. To think he could swap your consciousnesses…" Cherry said. "As for putting you all back in the right bodies, I'm not really sure to even start. Some devil fruit powers will cease to function when the user is knocked unconscious or killed, but I don't think the odds are high that Law's devil fruit is that type."
"It's worth a try. Go kick his ass, Cherry!" Chopper (Nami) demanded.
"No need to hurry. We'll run into him eventually." Cherry dismissed.
"Chopper, where are those rumble ball things that turn you into a monster? I need them to teach Cherry a lesson." Chopper (Nami) said to Jinbe (Chopper).
"Oiiii!" A distant shout called their attention and saved Chopper's body from getting beat up, much to Jinbe's (Chopper's) relief.
The rest of the crew, minus Cabernet and Merry, came wandering over atop an alligator centaur who didn't seem very happy to be a mode of transportation.
"Shishishi, you guys are here too!" Luffy chuckled.
"My legs?!" The samurai's head cried out at the sight of his lower half stuck to Luffy's back.
After a brief altercation in which Luffy didn't want to surrender the legs, losing his own centaur status in the process, the samurai cried tears of relief and joy at being made at least partially whole once again.
"I'll never take my legs for granted ever again! I swear it on my life!" the samurai cried.
Momonosuke seemed to be trying to take something from this lesson as well, looking down at his own legs with a serious expression.
"Where are we going to go now? All these kids won't fit comfortably on the Sunny, and we definitely won't be able to feed them all." Nami (Franky) said in a rare moment of seriousness that was ruined by the fact that the winter coat the samurai made for him was wide open as he posed with his arms in the air.
"Franky, I told you to stop making my body do weird things, damn it!" Chopper (Nami) shouted at him.
"Franky?" Luffy asked, looking at Nami's body in confusion.
After a brief explanation, Luffy was laughing on the ground at the fate of half his crew. Robin tried to cheer up Nami by saying that at least she didn't wind up in Franky's body, which seemed to help a fair bit as Nami felt a shiver down her spine and nodded. Sanji on the other hand was currently swearing vengeance against Franky who dared to get swapped into Nami's body.
'Why couldn't I have been the one in Nami's body?!' Sanji cursed in his heart, although he knew it was probably for the best that he wasn't. Who knew what he'd get up to if that happened? He'd definitely lose all his hard fought progress on the path to become a true gentleman and revert to being a well dressed pervert.
Robin walked over to Cherry and gave her a chaste kiss.
"Cabernet wandered off with Merry somewhere. I wasn't paying enough attention to them, it seems." Robin said with some guilt in her tone, though the amused smile on her face spoke louder than her words.
"Will they be okay?" Franky (Usopp) asked worriedly. He was very protective of Merry given they were from the same hometown. He looked forward to the day he could introduce Merry to everyone back home, especially eager to see the look on her namesake's face when he found out his old ship was alive now.
"They'll be fine. A couple of giants can't be a match for Cabernet, and Merry's a zoan type so she's tough too." Cherry said, waving away his concerns.
Usopp's concerns weren't waved away at all though. "Giants?!"
"Don't think that all giants are as strong as Brogy and Dory, Usopp. Those two are monsters even amongst giant kind. Maybe… I can count the number of giants I've met on two hands after all and I wasn't counting Oars and zombie Oars with Luffy's shadow in it." Cherry said, once again not helping assuage Usopp's worries at all.
"Or perhaps they're in a stew at this very moment, being seasoned to perfection before they get swallowed in one gulp." Robin piled wood onto the fire.
Sanji started reciting various tidbits of information to keep in mind when cooking a mutton stew. That was the last straw as Usopp took off running into the snowy wasteland in search of Merry, shouting "I'll save you, Merry!"
"I didn't know Franky cared so much about Merry." Luffy commented.
"That's Usopp, remember?" Zoro corrected.
"Oh, right! Hahaha!" Luffy laughed.
"So what's your story, gater-legs? We've got some time to kill, so tell me how you came to be a henchman on Punk Hazard." Cherry said to Brownbeard.
Too delighted to be treated as a fellow human being rather than a vehicle to realize that Cherry might be fishing for information, Brownbeard happily told his life story. He thankfully didn't linger too long on his childhood and promptly got to the part where he and his crew got wiped out by rookie pirates of the Worst Generation. Afterwards they found themselves on this island where Caesar Clown saved them and later Law gave them new legs.
Cherry was only half listening before the part about his master, Caesar Clown. She asked "This Caesar Clown is a scientist who worked with Vegapunk? Is that true?"
"Of course it's true, but don't misunderstand! Vegapunk cannot compare to our wonderful master! He's a genius who will soon be known to the world as the best scientist instead of that fiend Vegapunk!" Brownbeard spewed out the propaganda he'd been fed.
Something occurred to Cherry at that moment. A nugget of truth hidden amongst the lies. "Was your master the one who said he'd soon be recognised as the world's greatest scientist soon?"
"Yes, of course! I don't know a thing about science, so naturally I'd listen to my betters on the subject." Brownbeard spoke with pride.
His words painted an image of arrogance in the minds of those who bothered to listen, but Cherry's mind was connecting bits and pieces of information. She suddenly stood up with a jolt.
"We have to get off this island." Cherry said. "As soon as possible."
"Why do we have to do that?" Jinbe (Chopper) asked, fluttering his eyelashes innocently.
'Since when were my eyelashes so long?' Usopp (Jinbe) wondered.
"There's a high chance Punk Hazard is going to have a second disaster, and soon. This one is likely much worse than the one that destroyed all life on the island four years ago." Cherry said darkly.
"You think Vegapunk is coming back to stop my master from usurping his title?!" Brownbeard asked with shock.
"No, idiot. Your master was the one who ruined the island the first time. I mean, the guy literally gave you fools poison gas weapons and you never stopped to think maybe he was the one who made the massive poison weapon four years ago?" Cherry looked at him scornfully, scarcely believing somebody could be so stupid.
"T-that can't be… can it…?" Brownbeard found it hard to be confident, but his loyalty to the man who saved him and his crew wasn't easily shaken either.
"That's all the more reason we should act quickly. If you're willing to make an alliance with me, Straw Hat Luffy." Trafalgar Law said, appearing from around a corner.
"Hm? What for?" Luffy asked.
"To take down one of the Four Emperors." Law said, eyes blazing with determination.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone