One Piece: Dream of Immortality-Chapter 517: Blind Shot

Cherry had the strangest feeling that this wasn't the first time she'd been to Onigashima.

That made a certain amount of sense, of course. She didn't get that spider devil fruit from thin air, after all. What was surprising was that there was still an Onigashima here after Drunk Cherry passed through.

"You know," Cherry broke the slightly tense silence. "This place is kind of cool. Not really what I'd do for a long term home, but I could see myself vacationing here."

"It certainly has a dour aesthetic that makes you feel at home, even when it's filled with enemies," Robin agreed.

"I bet Perona would absolutely adore it, though. Maybe we can sell it to her," Cherry suggested.

"I'm not certain that we'll get to keep it afterwards," Brook doubted Cherry's real estate acumen.

"I'm not certain it'll still be standing afterwards," Zoro made a much more acceptable point.

"Even just the land will be worth a fortune," Nami's mental gears were turning. "We weren't doing this with much expectation of reward, aside from whatever treasures we can grab from Kaido, but I'm sure we can negotiate with Momo for a tiny island."

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"You mean extort- Ouch!" Usopp rubbed his side where Nami pinched him.

"I'm not so shameless as to extort a child," Nami defended herself.

"Yeah, Usopp! Nami is going to manipulate him- Ouch!" Luffy rubbed his own ribs.

The ship went quiet again as it approached an inlet where they were to disembark.

Cherry sidled up to Usopp and whispered, "If you take out the guards before you can see them, I'll help you with your gadgets for a full day."

Usopp's eyes sparkled. Cherry often found his inventions and creative ammunition amusing, but she rarely bothered to help him with them. He had so many ideas that would only be practical with her fusion fruit's help! And he wouldn't even have to beg!

Even with this powerful motivator, though, Usopp had doubts. He knew what she was after; she wanted him to use observation haki to pick the guards off before they entered his normal senses. That was easier said than done.

'I'll just have to guess!' Usopp decided with a firm nod.

"But if you miss, I'll have to give you extra training," Cherry whispered again. This time her voice sounded like a viper ready to fill his tender neck with venom.

Usopp gulped and Cherry smiled at him. It didn't reach her eyes, which instead carried a dangerous light that dared him to chicken out the challenge.

Usopp pulled his bandana down over his eyes and readied his kabuto. Cherry chuckled and clapped him on the back, a sincere source of encouragement that made him feel more confident even if he paradoxically also felt like he couldn't possibly snipe someone without looking.

The crew gathered to watch him curiously. Luffy took a moment to realize what was happening, but was bursting with anticipation when he did. There was no better hype man on the Straw Hat crew than their captain.

Usopp took a deep breath, drew his Kabuto to its full length armed with some manner of pop green that he uses nowadays, and then he waited. And waited. And waited.

"When-" Luffy barely got the word out before the telltale snap of the Kabuto rang out.

Usopp pulled off his makeshift eye coverings and struck a cool pose.

"You're that sure you did it, huh?" Cherry smirked.

"Nope!" Usopp declared. "But if I did, then I'll look super cool!"

"Hehe, then I won't spoil the surprise. Let's find out whether or not you've damned yourself together." Cherry liked his attitude.

The port came into view. The very distant sounds of a big party could be heard from deeper in Onigashima, but out here it was calm and still.

Usopp kept his eyes trained on the spot where he knew he was aiming, even if he hadn't actually seen it until now.

Several individuals in Beat pirate garb lay on the ground, snoozing without a care in the world.

"I- I did it!" Usopp could barely believe his eyes. Why should he, they were liars just as much as he was. "I'm so lucky!"

The others cheered and whooped and congratulated.

"Luck? Don't doubt yourself, Usopp," Cherry said. "If that was really only luck, I would not have spared you from the extra training regardless. Remember how that felt, when you fired. Your mind was telling you something, even if you didn't quite consciously pick it up."

"Really?" Usopp perked up. If Cherry said so, then it must be true, right?

'Damn, I can't believe he got lucky,' Cherry thought.

Even if that was the case, though, she clearly succeeded in further motivating his growth in a direction that will help him actually be impactful in the future. His wacky slingshot was effective enough against middle of the pack pirates, but not much else. He needed haki and the crew needed a solid long ranged combatant.

Well, that was just her opinion. There wasn't anything wrong about being on the weaker end of the crew. It's just that Usopp wanted to be a great warrior of the sea, didn't he? Cherry was only happy to help him get there, and the parts of that she could help him most with were the tedious and the difficult.

Usopp was lapping up the attention like a dog dying of thirst when they got close enough to make landfall. The other ships in the makeshift fleet were not far behind.

Samurai disembarked in droves and Kin'emon appeared to be setting something up over a bridge they'd have to cross to enter the fortress.

Cherry's attention got stolen away by something, or rather someone. She wandered over to where Eustass Kid and his men had landed.

"Huh? What do you want? I'm not taking recruits right now, so go back to your loser crew," Kid warned.

"I was just curious about your resident clown over there," Cherry said, abandoning all tact in the face of the one armed man's abrasiveness.

Naturally, this didn't go over well. If they weren't technically allies, in fact, she was pretty sure that Kid would have attacked her on the spot. He seemed to be the tiny dog type of guy, the kind that lashed out against those he really couldn't afford to fight.

"You gotta reason for coming over here and insulting my boys?" Kid squared up.

"I was going to offer you the cure to that laughing affliction on account of being temporary allies, actually. Now I'm in a more antagonistic mood, though. I wonder how that happened," Cherry smiled.

"Fufufufufu!" the 'clown' in question let out a laugh that almost sounded like a coughing fit for all it seemed to pain the man. "What do you mean? Er, please…"

Cherry raised her opinion of… Killer, was it(?), up a notch. He at least understood what his captain did wrong and he wasn't afraid of contradicting his captain in public either.

"You're not the first one I've seen with your symptoms. I've devised a cure, of sorts. You'd get control of your face back, and you could even swim again if you wanted. The only downside is that you'd still never get to eat another devil fruit without exploding," Cherry explained. "It's because the S.M.I.L.E. fruits aren't real devil fruits, you see, so a little finagling with my fusion fruit and you'd be right as rain."

Kid looked like she'd taken the wind right out of his sails. "What's the price?"

Cherry smiled.