Back to Sabaody Archipelago

Having finished what she came here to do, Cherry decided it was time to leave.

Perona decided she would travel with them to Sabaody Archipelago and find her way to the New World by herself so she could find Gecko Moria as quickly as she could.

The other four of them would be waiting there for the rest of the Straw Hats to arrive which could take as long as two weeks as they would arrive a bit early.

"It was good to see you again," Hawkeye said as they prepared to leave.

"Sure, whatever." Cherry hopped aboard Cabernet with hardly a glance in his direction.

As they lifted off the ground, she did give him a little wave goodbye. Covertly, so as to not attract unwanted teasing from her girlfriend.

The journey to Sabaody Archipelago was swift and straightforward. They possessed a piece of Reyleigh's vivre card to find their way there.

They arrived under cover of night, which was ideal as a flying ship was fairly conspicuous and announcing their arrival could only bring annoying trouble to their doorstep.

"This is goodbye, then. I'll miss you everyday, but I'll find Moria-sama quickly and be back before we know it!" Perona exclaimed, trying to stay upbeat about the whole thing.

Cabernet pulled her into a bear hug. "I'll miss you too."

Perona received a vivre card for Cherry that she could use to find them again and set off to find a ship. With her strength, most would either welcome her aboard or they were weak and wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

Cherry grabbed Zoro by the scruff of his shirt when he tried to wander off.

"What's the big idea?!" Zoro asked incredulously. He didn't like being manhandled by a woman a head shorter than himself, but he couldn't quite muster the courage to fight back physically.

"We're going to Shakky's bar to check in first." Cherry explained.

"That's where I was going!" Zoro defended.

"It's not that way," Cherry sighed in exasperation, dragging him along in the opposite direction he had attempted to go.

Sure enough, Zoro was wrong about directions once again as they approached the familiar silhouette of Shakky's Rip Off Bar.

There were actually some patrons in the bar at this time, which made sense as it was only around midnight. They were quite scarce in number and had spread themselves out around the bar to silently sip at their overpriced beverages.

Shakky and Rayleight spotted the four of them as they entered from the counter. Shakky was smoking and cleaning a mug, whilst Rayleigh was nursing a glass of whiskey.

"Cherry, Cabernet, Robin, and Zoro, huh? It seems that you're the first lot to arrive here," Shakky greeted them as they sat down at the counter.

"I'm not surprised from what I've seen of Cabernet's speed," Rayleigh commented.

Cabernet didn't seem in the mood to be happy about compliments, instead pointing at a bottle of strong and exorbitantly expensive liquor.

Shakky chuckled a bit and handed it to her off the shelf.

Zoro was looking at the prices on a menu with a furrowed brow, realizing that these weren't prices he was willing or able to pay.

"How is the Sunny doing?" Robin asked.

"Just fine. I'm going to do the coating soon so that it'll be ready to go by the time Luffy arrives," Rayleigh said.

"Great, we'll head over there to get some sleep now that we've checked in with you," Cherry said.

They had a few drinks and paid for them with Shakky's friend discount (1% off), then left for the thousand Sunny to get some rest from all the travel.

Cherry didn't try to stop Bartholomew Kuma from leaving this time, though she did take some hair from him so she could track him.

He was damaged in various places, but mostly intact. She supposed that was because he didn't have to defend the Thousand Sunny all by his lonesome.

…

Serene and Merry woke up early in the morning as they were accustomed to doing and headed to the Sunny's kitchen to have some breakfast. They were surprised to find that the dining room was already occupied by four familiar faces.

"Good morning," Robin said with a smile.

"Oh, good morning." "Baaaah." Serene and Merry greeted, finding a place to sit at the table.

Cherry had prepared pancakes with some fruit toppings, bacon, and eggs. A simple, but filling breakfast to start out the day.

"So I guess this is it, then. Job done." Serene looked a bit lonely.

She had spent quite a long time here with Merry. Long enough that she considered the ship sheep to be the best friend she ever had, even if it was a bit weird to say it aloud.

Unfortunately, she was quite clear that she didn't want to go to the New World. She wasn't very strong by the standards of that treacherous sea, her devil fruit was almost worthless against people with observation haki, and that same devil fruit was indiscriminate in who it affected.

On top of just not wanting to put herself in that amount of danger. It wasn't like she'd never see Merry or the others again. They were sailing around the world, not into the jaws of death.

Okay, maybe it was a little bit like that, but they were strong enough to survive it for sure!

"Where's my money?" Serene asked.

Cherry smiled at her attempt to distract herself from her thoughts. She prompted Cabernet to pull out a briefcase that was pre-prepared with the promised 200 million Beri for helping to protect the Sunny from miscreants and handed it over to her.

"I'll stick around to see Brook-sama, then I'm gone. You had better be grateful, I heard he's become quite the star and I haven't been able to go see his shows because of this gig. Thankfully he's doing a show here on the archipelago so I can see his last performance before he goes to the New World," Serene told them.

"Why do you like Brook so much?" Zoro asked with eggs in his mouth.

"Have you seen his cheekbones?! Or his finger bones, or his ribs, or his teeth, or…" Serene began listing off every bone in the human body as if Brook was some kind of demigod with perfect bone structure.

"You had to go and set her off didn't you, Zoro?" Cherry said, with Serene still chattering away like a schoolgirl in love.

"Oh, right. Somebody wanted to meet you, Cherry. They've been waiting for you for a while," Serene snapped out of her deluge of praise for Brook. "You can meet them at this hotel."

Cherry wondered who it was for a moment, with the slightest feeling she was forgetting something.

She hadn't scanned the archipelago with Life Sense yet, but instead of seeing if she could find some she recognised she decided to let it be a surprise.

Whoever it was, it shouldn't be dangerous at all if Serene wasn't trying to give her any warnings about them. Though it was a bit suspicious that she didn't name or describe this person that wanted to meet her.

"Alright, I'll go meet them today." Cherry said, which garnered a mysterious smile from Serene.