300 A Tempting Invitation

"The Straw Hats have made contact with Baccarat and have entered the city, Tesoro-sama," a shifty looking man with a big head reported after phasing up from the floor.

The man he reported to was the jackas- ahem, the man with a perfectly reasonable opinion of himself from the concert, Gild Tesoro.

A drunk man overheard the report and laughed obnoxiously, mocking the Straw Hats as fools.

"What's so funny?" Tesoro asked with a cold smile.

The drunk realized something was wrong and that he'd made a big mistake. He was then promptly covered in liquid gold as his pleas for his life fell on deaf ears.

"KukukuhahaHA!" Tesoro laughed and said, "The Straw Hats, eh? They have that Harpin D. Cherry with the ridiculous bounty; how absurd. As if a woman could be such a large threat. It's not like she's a ship-sized monster like Big Mom. Don't you agree, Carina?"

His gaze landed on the woman who sang in the concert, called Carina. Her face showed a forced smile as she said, "Of course."

"Haha! That's right! It's just like how Nico Robin got that 79 million Beri bounty as a little girl. There's no way those ridiculous rumors are true. Just look at this bounty poster, she's so dainty! There's no way she's strong!" Gild Tesoro ranted, pulling out a pristine bounty poster labeled 'Harpin D. Cherry'.

Carina's eye twitched outside of Tesoro's notice. 'Does he carry that everywhere he goes? I don't recall him carrying around anyone else's bounty poster…'

"She's pretty cute." Carina spoke testingly.

"Right?! You totally get it Carina! Such a sweet, adorable woman couldn't possibly be powerful! And with a bounty of 800 million Beri? Why, she'll need a powerful man to protect her from those marine dogs, won't she?" Tesoro said seriously.

'I think I'm going to puke…' Carino thought to herself and said, "There aren't many men in the world with the power and influence to keep the world government off her back."

"You raise a good point, Carina! I ought to give you a raise… a small one." Tesoro nodded in agreement, as if he hadn't been practically begging her to say that.

"Thank you, Tesoro-sama." Carina thanked, as she was expected to.

"I suppose that I could do it; there's certainly no one better suited to do so than me. However… I'm not one to freely give charity, Kukuku…" Tesoro chuckled.

'Haaah…' Carina sighed in her mind. 'At least I won't have to put up with this creep too much longer. It's my good fortune that Nami happened to come here. I should recruit her and her friends, I'm sure they can help me out.'

"Keep me informed about Harp- ahem, the Straw Hat crew's activities, Tanaka." Tesoro ordered the shifty little man.

"Yes, Tesoro-sama." Tanaka bowed and sank into the floor.

…

Meanwhile, Cherry was plotting the downfall of the Gran Tesoro.

'Just sinking the thing would be easy, but that would be a massive waste of gold… Oh, and I guess it would endanger the passengers too.' Cherry pondered.

Trying to evacuate the ship would obviously trigger some alarms, which would start a fight between them and the Gran Tesoro's forces plus whoever else didn't want it sunk.

When Cherry first decided to destroy the massive ship she hadn't been thinking of it like laying siege to a city full of innocent bystanders, but that's pretty much exactly what it was.

'As much as I would enjoy the spectacle of mass destruction, guerilla tactics seem to be the more realistic option here, huh?' Cherry thought with no small amount of annoyance.

"Huh? Is that the weirdo who dropped Usopp off at Sabaody Archipelago?" Cherry said, ehr thoughts coming to a grinding halt.

"What? OH! HERACLES-SAN! OVER HERE!" Usopp saw him as well and drew his attention by shouting and waving his arms about.

"Oh, Usoppun! You're here as well, I see!" The strange man wandered over.

"I didn't expect to see you in a place like this." Usopp said.

"Neither would I have imagined it, but as it turns out, being an experienced botanist in regards to the strange plants found in the Grand Line is quite fruitful!" Heracles claimed.

Though it hadn't been long since they parted, Usopp spent a few minutes catching up with the strange man before returning to the others.

"I've taken the liberty to prepare 20 million Beri in chips here for you." Baccarat said.

"Ohh, how convenient!" Luffy said, before holding his stack of cash out. "I'll take 5 million worth!"

"No no, there's no need~! As our precious V.I.P.s, we can settle everything afterwards~ Fun first, business later, yes~?" Baccarat said with a sweet smile.

'What an obvious ploy to make us overspend.' Cherry thought.

"Cool! Shishishi!" Luffy snatched the box of chips from her and ran off with them.

Cherry slapped a hand to her face expressionlessly. She only JUST told him not to take a loan, like, 5 minutes ago!

"Fufufu, don't worry about our silly Captain, Cherry. Luffy is a lucky boy." Robin reassured her.

"I suppose you're right. It won't really matter if he loses it all, anyways." Cherry let it go. She'd already resolved to burn the place down, after all.

Since Luffy, Usopp and Chopper entered themselves into a race (Cherry approved of that one given the heavy skill element involved), Cherry went off to do her own thing instead of watching, much the same as Law and the samurai trio. By doing her own thing though, she means scouting the ship for structural and security flaws and the like under the guise of gambling. If the ship had a hull breach that was difficult to repair but not very fast, then they'd evacuate right?

A woman dressed as a sexy rabbit was assigned to guide her around by Baccarat. She ultimately found herself at a "high" stakes poker table smoking an expensive cigar and drinking some exquisite whiskey, no doubt both of which cost more than was reasonable for either.

"Can't believe that Straw Hat ruined my game! That was on course to be my lowest 18-hole ever, ya know?!" a familiar man's voice said as it approached the table.

"Yes yes, I heard you the first time you complained. There's still nothing we can do about it here." a familiar woman's voice said in minor annoyance.

Gion and Tokikake sat themselves down at the table and produced some chips rather haphazardly, showing that these bets weren't really worth much to them. Probably just wasting some time to ease their frustrations about a certain pirate captain.

"Hey there. Long time no see." Cherry greeted them casually like an old friend.

The two looked at her and stiffened, but soon relaxed again. After all, if the world government couldn't make trouble here, then Cherry couldn't either.

"Oh my~ I've been thinking about you ever since the last time we met~!" Gion said suddenly.

"Eh? Huh? What? Gion?!" Tokikake started to panic, was the woman he had a crush on flirting with a notorious pirate right in front of him?!

"Really?" Cherry asked curiously, wondering where this was going.

"Mm~" Gion confirmed with a seductive smile. "Maybe you'd like to come to my ship to have some fun~?"

Tokikake's jaw hit the table in shock.