317 Armor with Pockets

"Oh, yes. I also made this last night, apparently," Cherry said.

Suddenly a suit of armor appeared around Cherry's body and she struck a heroic pose.

Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, Franky, Momonosuke, and surprisingly even Kin'emon were instantly enthralled with sparkling eyes.

"""So cooool~!""" "SUPER!" "How marvelous! I have never seen such armor before!" the boys chimed in admiration.

Meanwhile Robin and Nami blankly stared at her, unimpressed.

"And it has pockets~" Cherry added, stuffing her hands into the seams between the plates.

Cracks appeared in Robin and Nami's facades. As hard as they tried to, no woman could resist the devilish allure of pockets! Still, they put up quite the valiant fight until-

"Look at how much gold I can fit in them~!" Cherry pulled handful after handful of coins and jewelry out.

-Nami's will broke and her walls crumbled.

"Make me one too~!" Nami joined the boys in begging Cherry for their own suits of armor.

"Come to the dark side, Robin! We shall ride into battle as shining knights of old!" Cherry declared.

Robin rolled her eyes. "I suppose I wouldn't mind a historical replica, but I'm not wearing it into battle."

"Come on, Jinbe! I know you want some too!" Cherry redirected to the whale shark fishman, who was a bit caught off guard at suddenly getting roped in as well.

"Armor would only weigh me down in the water, but I appreciate you thinking of me, Cherry." Jinbe said reasonably.

"Challenge accepted!" Cherry gave him a thumbs up.

Cherry looked at Brook, who perked up enthusiastically even though he was trying to look like a mature adult. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully before saying, "I've never made armor for someone without squishy meat to protect before… How do you feel about being dipped in molten metal, Brook?"

Brook shook his head so fast he accidentally sent it spinning around on his neck bones. "That doesn't sound very pleasant at all!"

"???" Cherry looked confused. "Do you even feel pain without a nervous system?"

"Yes, of course I do! I haven't been playing it up for sympathy all this time!" Brook looked affronted.

"I see. That must be…" Cherry smirked. "Phantom pain~"

"Yohohohoho!" Brook laughed in hysterics. "Ghost joke!"

"Youch?!" Brook laughter ceased as he rubbed his bottom and looked at an innocent Chopper holding a hypodermic needle.

"Amazing! I never thought about it before, but it really IS strange that a skeleton can feel pain!" Chopper looked so darned cute when he was excited that Brook decided not to chastise him for prodding him without warning.

A few minutes later, Carina reentered the room after calming herself down. She looked down at the floor where a number of the Straw Hats (and friends) were scribbling on paper. Cherry was going around between them pointing at and whispering to them about what they were drawing.

Carina went over to Nami, assuming that if she was involved it must be important. "Are you putting the plan on paper to visualize it better?"

Nami jerked her head up and met Carina's eyes, looking slightly panicked. Carina's eyes naturally dropped to the paper she was drawing on and saw… a cutesy rendition of Nami wearing bikini armor. It was actually quite well drawn. Nami scooped it up and hid it behind her back hurriedly, but the damage was already done.

Curious, she glanced around at the others' drawings which also featured themselves wearing various styles of armor, though most didn't compare in quality to Nami's except Franky's. Counterintuitively, the guy with the giant paintbrush on his back was the worst among them. She wasn't even sure his drawing was even a person wearing armor, just that she couldn't possibly imagine what else it could be.

"Yoink!" Cherry sang as she snatched Nami's drawing from her. "Hm, this won't be very protective you know? It leaves most of your vitals open to attack. Did you become allergic to modesty over the last two years or something?"

"Shut up!" Nami snatched the drawing back, blushing a bit from embarrassment. "I wouldn't be caught dead in that fashion travesty you've got. And why hot pink? I thought you didn't like wearing girly things?"

"I like pink just fine! It's just the dresses that I don't like." Cherry defended her terrible fashion sense.

Carina was so confused that she decided to just go with the flow. They wouldn't be acting until later anyways, might as well pass the time this way. She took a piece of paper and some odd colored wax sticks to start doing her own.

"Cherry-chan~! I finished mine~!" Sanji pirouetted over to her and offered his drawing to her.

Cherry took it, mildly amused, then nearly did a dry spit take at what she saw.

Sanji had done a decent job of drawing himself for an amateur. Crayon Sanji was mostly dressed the same as he usually dresses with the exception of simple shin guard plates and heavy spike boots. The problem was the ginormous codpiece.

"Do you really think this is necessary, Sanji?" Cherry asked with an incredulous smile.

"Of course~! Don't worry, the heavy boots won't slow me down a bit~!" Sanji said with what he thought was a cool wink.

"I'm talking about the codpiece…" Cherry corrected exasperatedly.

"Oh… It's important to protect my manhood." Sanji said, suddenly dead serious.

"And the size?" Cherry chuckled.

"You think it might not be big enough?" Sanji asked without any sign of joking.

"Fine, fine, but who are you even 'protecting your manhood' from?" Cherry asked.

Every pair of eyes (and eye sockets) turned their gaze on her. Cherry looked a bit sheepish and said, "It's not my fault men leave their weak point wide open…"

"How often does she-?" Carina started to ask before Nami interrupted with, "Don't ask."

Franky then brought his to Cherry for her perusal. "Check out my SUPER schematics!"

Franky's drawings didn't disappoint. They were highly technical in nature compared to the more artistic direction his crewmates went with. It wasn't armor in the traditional sense. More like improved interlocking plates for his cybernetics along with alloys that aren't achievable by ordinary means, but very achievable with Cherry's fusion fruit and mastery of metalworking.

Cherry and Franky devolved into a rabid discussion that nobody else could follow due to them casually throwing around highly technical terms like they were chatting about what they had for dinner last night. Incidentally, they did actually talk about what they had for dinner last night briefly before diving right back into it.

*knock knock*

A knock at the door caught some of their attention. Sanji walked over to answer it revealing Trafalgar Law.

"I'm not sure how I should feel that it took all of half an hour to find you all. Moreover, you just answered the door without even looking, didn't you?" Law said.

"If you were an enemy, I'd just kick you." Sanji said, as if that settled the matter.

"Haaah, whatever." Law sighed. "Can any of you tell me why they're handing out fliers for Zoro-ya's execution tonight and why you're so unconcerned about this?"

"That mosshead can get himself out of trouble." Sanji dismissed.

"We're gonna do a heist to save Zoro! Shishishi!" Luffy declared loudly.

"Hey! We agreed not to give Trafalgar Law a cut!" Carina reprimanded. "Also, don't shout about what we're planning!"

Law blinked at them slowly. He needed some coffee.