One Piece: Dream of Immortality-Chapter 551: Somehow... Drunk Cherry Returned

Robin had become so hyper focused on her inebriated lover and whatever trouble she would cause because of said intoxication, that she had failed to realize that the trouble had already been set in motion.

"Well, okay!" Luffy cheered.

With a few pounds on his chest his heart was set to racing and beat to the rhythm of a drum. It was music that made you want to leap to your feet and dance all your worries away, made you feel like the only thing stopping you from flying was your own lack of trying!

And then the banquet hall went all wIbBlY WoBbLy!

What remained of the feast was sent crashing off the tables and most of the people in the room went crashing into the mess soon after.

Robin winced as she saw Nami flop into a big puddle of miso soup, utterly ruining the very fancy new kimono she had gotten just earlier today. She knew the younger woman had been planning to keep that one for her wardrobe on the ship.

If that wasn't bad enough, Luffy started bouncing off the walls, laughing all the while. Cherry joined him shortly after with her own cackle that sounded much less innocent than Luffy's, but just as carefree. Of course, Usopp and Chopper weren't ones to miss out on the fun and soon half the guests were using the banquet hall as some sort of trampoline room.

Sanji and Nami waited patiently for things to calm down, stewing in their frustration all the while. Robin did not envy the poor fools who would be on the receiving end of their ire.

"Wait," Robin shot to her feet and glanced about hurriedly.

"What is it?" Jinbe asked, the very image of serenity as he nursed a cup of sake despite the chaos happening around him.

"Cherry disappeared..." Robin voiced her haunting conclusion.

"Oh dear..." Jinbe said. "She can't have gone too far, though."

As soon as he said the words, he realized they were wrong. With that den den mushi thing she does, she could literally be anywhere in the world by now.

"I took my eyes off of her for just a second!" Robin bemoaned. "She... she planned this, didn't she? That little scheming drunkard..."

Robin's proficiency with Life Sense was not nearly as good as Cherry's. Not only did she lack the power to push it to great distances because of her comparatively low cultivation, she also just didn't have the hundreds of years of experience using similar techniques.

Even though that was the case, she could typically pick Cherry out of a crowd. That did not help her any as she could find no sign of Cherry in the surrounding area.

"Good heavens..." Robin sighed and slumped back into her seat.

...

Cherry blinked a few times as she looked around.

She was on a completely different island as far as she could tell. A thick fog obscured even her keen eyesight beyond a certain distance, but this did not seem to be a problem for the people surrounding her.

"Huh," Cherry said. "That's... odd."

"Hey, hey, girlie!" a scruffy man grabbed her shoulder. "I don't know where you popped out from, but you can't cut in line!"

"Line?" Cherry saw that the people around her were indeed not a random crowd, but several lines leading to a rather large building. "What are we lining up for?"

"Huh? What kind of joke is that?" The man looked at her like she was stupid, then his expression softened slightly. "Hey, girlie, are you feeling alright? Did somebody bring you here without you knowing?"

"I'm not sure yet," Cherry said honestly. She hadn't a clue of how she got here, nor why she was suddenly stone cold sober. Drunk Cherry probably thought it'd be funny to mess with her.

The not-so-rude man looked genuinely apologetic as he said, "Hey, sorry I got so rough with ya. I've just been waiting a long time to see Uta-chan live. If you need any help, I'm sure we can find one of the staff together."

"Uta?" Cherry rubbed her chin. "That name sounds vaguely familiar. Is she some kind of... performer?"

"Some kind of performer?! Uta-chan is just the world's biggest pop star! The only one who even comes close to her is Soul King, and he retired to be a pirate!" Scruffy-guy got really excited.

"Don't compare Uta-chan to that scum!" a young woman shouted at Scruffy-guy from the next line over.

"Shut up! Separate the art from the artist!" Scruffy-guy shouted back at her. "Anyways, you get it now, right?"

"Not really. I hadn't gotten into music until very recently. So is this the line to buy tickets to her show?" Cherry asked.

"That's right," Scruffy-guy nodded.

"I'll buy myself a ticket, then, since I'm already here. Since you were so helpful, I'll buy yours as well," Cherry said.

"Are you sure? Do you have any Beri on you?" Scruffy-guy looked unsure. "These live concert tickets are pretty expensive, nothing like the local den den mushi broadcast concerts. You might need that money to get home, yeah?"

"Don't worry about it. I never go anywhere without a few million on me, at least," Cherry smiled.

That was certainly one way of saying she had a significant portion of the entire world's total wealth stuffed in her pockets at this very moment.

"If you say so," Scruffy-guy seemed satisfied with the answer and quite pleased with the result of his choice to be kind.

Contrary to Cherry's expectations, the lines moved quite quickly. Once she got inside the building, she was able to see why.

"Let me just get my wallet out-" the man at the front of the line started digging through his pockets.

"Back of the line," an enormous fellow wearing a shirt that read 'SECURITY' grabbed the man by the shirt and tossed him out of the line. "If you hold up the line a second time, you'll be blacklisted for life."

The man had been about to argue, but suddenly went pale when he heard that. He stood up and bowed quickly, "Yes sir! I'll have my money ready when I get back!"

There was a bit of a scramble for everyone who saw it to get their own money ready. Scruffy-guy looked at Cherry worriedly as she hadn't moved at all in response to the sight.

"Um," Scruffy-guy tried to find a way to broach the subject. "Aren't you going to..."

"Don't worry about it," Cherry said.

Scruffy-guy surreptitiously got his own money out and ready because he did worry about it.

"How many tickets?" The woman at the counter asked.

"Two of the best seats we can buy," Cherry said.

"Eh?" Scruffy-guy couldn't afford that! He was going to get thrown to the back of the line or even worse, blacklisted for life! He'd literally die on the spot if they did that!

"That'll be 900,000 Beri," the ticket woman spoke with no mercy.

Scruffy-guy nearly fainted. He would have if Cherry hadn't slapped a wad of bills onto the counter in the very next instant.

The ticket woman flipped through the bills with practiced ease before handing over two tickets. "Next!"

Scruffy-guy went from seeing his life flash before his eyes to being elated!