A Hot Date

Cherry was rather unused to this sort of thing.

Romance, that is.

Cultivators, as a general rule, tended to avoid long term attachments such as those.

They were a recipe for heartbreak, and a broken heart was the ideal breeding grounds for a heart demon. There were countless stories of mighty, righteous immortals who fell from grace because their lover was killed or simply died of old age before they did.

Cherry never imagined she would wind up in such a serious relationship. Perhaps it was her way of moving away from her previous life and the way she lived it.

In any case, this was the first time she had found herself preparing a surprise date with Robin.

Robin was similarly inexperienced because of her past, so they had both been kind of coasting along, taking life as it came. Sailing around the world, especially with Luffy, didn't really afford them much time for dates, either.

Cherry gave a firm nod, satisfied with what she had prepared. 'It's nothing too special, but Robin will appreciate it,' she thought.

Seeing that the sun was starting to set, she went to find Robin.

…

Somebody was tailing her.

Years of being on the run gave her an almost sixth sense for when trouble was looking for her. These instincts had saved her quite a few times in the past.

Robin knew it wasn't Cherry. Her lover could be a menace at times, but stalking her as a joke wasn't something that she would do.

Robin kept walking as if nothing was wrong, carefully choosing her path to find a more secluded area. Not an alleyway, as that would make it too obvious she was baiting her stalker. Just a side street that it was conceivable she would walk down on her way home.

The stalker took the bait.

"Hold for a moment, miss!" a voice called from behind.

Robin turned to look at the figure, the very picture of innocent curiosity. "Yes? Did you need something from me?"

Robin's arms were held up against her chest in a posture that looked defensive, but if you knew her you would realize it was as aggressive as it could get.

"Sorry to startle you," the old man with a big head said. "Are you the one known as O-Robi?"

"That's right…?" Robin wondered what he could want from her. He was dressed like a beggar and his deep frown made it seem like he was anything but happy to see her.

"I was told I could contact, er, I didn't get her name… a young woman with red eyes said I could contact her through you," Yasuie said, scratching his cheek.

Robin raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. She thought, 'Cherry did?'

"She gave me a massage that put a frown on my face for the first time in years!" Yasuie spoke with reverence in his tone.

"Now you've lost me…" Robin said with a strange look on her face. "Shouldn't it be a smile?"

Yasuie almost smiled in response, but he immediately forced it back down. "No."

…

"-and that's why I would appreciate you helping me get into contact with your friend." Yasuie finished telling his story.

Robin sipped at the cup of tea in her hands. "It's nice to know that she was doing something productive. I can tell you that she didn't do it purely out of altruism, though. She is very interested in devil fruits, and yours was simply very convenient to access compared to Kaido's men."

"It matters not why she did it, only if she'll do it again. If not for everyone afflicted by those cursed fruits, then the children at least!" Yasuie pleaded, slamming his head down onto the table with a thump.

"Oh, so now you'll tell me about them, huh?" Cherry said, startling Yasuie who hadn't noticed when she entered the room.

"I apologize for my deceitfulness! I was trying to protect people who are dear to me!" Yasuie spun around and threw himself to the floor in a perfectly executed dogeza.

"Stop that, you're making me feel embarrassed about teasing you," Cherry said.

"That is the intention!" Yasuie replied without an ounce of shame, keeping his head on the floor.

"... Has anyone told you that you're too serious?" Cherry tugged on her collar.

Yasuie lifted his head and gazed into her eyes with tears streaming down his face. "*sniffle* Not for a very long time!"

Robin laughed at Cherry's discomfort, holding her hand over her mouth.

"Alright, alright! We can go tomorrow, or later tonight if you're in a hurry." Cherry crossed her arms and turned aside. "How many of them are there, anyways?"

"Only a few hundred. Ebisu Town isn't that big," Yasuie said.

The mirth left Robin as the implications of that statement settled in her heart. Cherry's face twisted in a hateful sneer.

"The entire town?" Cherry asked, to clarify.

"Yes," Yasuie answered without hesitation. "Aside from a few outcasts that arrived later, the entire town."

It was one thing for a few dissenters to be punished by the Shogun to serve as an example, and an entirely different thing for an entire town to be cursed.

"Why? How?!" Robin asked the burning question.

"... Shogun Orochi didn't like how the residents of Ebisu Town were depressed all of the time. So he gave us food to eat, and put permanent smiles on our faces." Yasuie relished in the rage that he could finally express after years.

Yasuie and his daughter actually ate them at a later point than the town itself, first his daughter by accident and then himself to share in her suffering, but the point still stood.

""..."" Neither Cherry nor Robin had anything to say to that. It was evil at its purest, malice without reason.

"If you guys don't kill that guy, I'm gonna shove his head up his own ass," Cherry spoke after a moment of stunned silence.

"That… isn't a bad idea, if a bit crude…" Yasuie concurred, rubbing his chin as he thought about how Orochi's devil fruit actually made that semi-plausible.

"Enough of that, though!" Cherry clapped once. "I've got a date with a smoking hot babe, so get lost old man! I'll come find you later when I'm free!"

Yasuie wasn't about to upset the woman who could save his daughter from a lifetime of unseen suffering, so he did as she asked him to and 'got lost'.

"You do?" Robin asked, tilting her head.

"Heck yeah, I do! She had beautiful blue eyes, hair like a waterfall of night sky, an adorable nose, lips you can't but kiss-!" Cherry gushed, before Robin silenced her with a kiss.

When Robin pulled away, she said, "Stop talking and let's go."

Cherry smirked at her. She could tell from Robin's hastening heartbeat that she was more excited than she was outwardly letting on. Cherry took her by the hand and led her outside.

…

"I've never seen the city from this viewpoint before…" Robin marveled at the glowing lights of the Flower Capital from atop the small mountain at the city's edge.

"Almost pretty enough to make you forget what all that splendor costs, isn't it?" Cherry said as she lit a few candles on the table she dragged up here. "I should show you some of the sights I saw in my last life. This world is gorgeous in its own right, but there were so many marvels you can scarcely imagine in the myriad realms."

"Didn't you spend most of your time holed up in a forge?" Robin asked with a sweet smile as she sat down.

"Yes… one of my many regrets from back then. The myriad realms treated entire worlds like this world treats its islands, and yet I saw less of them combined than I have this one." Cherry spoke in a somber tone.

"Do you miss it?" Robin asked, an unreadable look on her face.

"Absolutely not. The natural wonders may pale in comparison, but the people more than make up for that," Cherry replied instantly. "And that isn't even including you~"

Robin blushed, casting her gaze down onto the dishes Cherry placed before her. An assortment of different sandwiches, an iced coffee, and a fresh coffee cake just like Grandma Angela makes. It wasn't fancy, but they were things she had sorely missed during her stay in Wano.

She loved it.