341 Breaking the Illusion

The marine who helped in waking up Cherry for the inspection sent her a pitying look before turning his head forward again.

"At ease," Hina ordered. "You may be wondering why a Grand Line captain has come to West Blue. The reason is simple; the pirate known as Body-builder Victor and his Strong Arm Pirates are expected to make their attempt at traversing Reverse Mountain, and we're going to intercept them."

That sent the hearts of the marines into their stomachs. Body-builder Victor is a well known marine killer, even cutting down Captain Alexander who deliberately went after him.

Cherry was just confused though. 'Isn't he dead? I thought the marines already executed him?'

"Well, at least one of you isn't shaking in her boots," Hina said, seemingly appraising her. "In any case, you lot weren't selected for this because you're expendable, but because you're dependable. If things go well, you might just find yourselves among the ranks of the pirate rookie hunters in West Blue, and perhaps on the next ship to Marineford if you can impress Hina."

The marines perked up at that. Who wouldn't, when a beautiful woman was praising you and dangling a sweet reward in front of your face?

"To your stations. It'll be a while yet before we can expect combat." Hina dismissed. She notably pointed at Cherry and jabbed her thumb towards the captain's quarters.

Cherry followed behind her meekly. For some reason, there was even a shred of guilt mixed into her anxiety and she was quite certain it wasn't for her apparent night of drinking.

Hina opened the door and allowed her to pass through, before shutting the door behind them both.

"Captain Hina, I'm-" Cherry went to apologize.

Hina wrapped her arms around Cherry's neck and kissed her deeply.

"!!!" This was NOT what Cherry was expecting.

Hina broke the kiss after ten long seconds. "Hina missed you, love. You have NO idea the strings I had to make this happen."

Cherry was flabbergasted. What in the world was going on?!

"What's wrong, sweety?" Hina was confused at her silence.

"I'm… taken?" Cherry managed to say, but only had a faint hint of a memory to tell her why. A memory that her beloved had raven black hair, not strawberry blonde like the woman in front of her.

"Are you now~?" Hina switched back to her flirtatious mood. "Hina wonders who the lucky lady is? A marine captain, perhaps?"

*rumble*

Distant thunder startled her out of her confusion. She shoved Hina away from her, who looked hurt by the sudden rejection.

Cherry barged out of the captain's quarters, head on a swivel and found the ominous storm on the horizon.

Captain Hina came out soon after, but paid no mind to and likely didn't even see the storm. "What IS the problem… marine?"

"Can you see that storm? Over there, heading straight for us?" Cherry questioned her with no regard for rank or appearances.

Hina looked over and back at her. "There is no storm there that Hina can see. Moreover, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction."

Cherry could see the concern in the woman's face and felt a bit bad for being so harsh with her.

"When did you get so strong, anyways…?" Hina murmured, rolling her shoulder.

'... When did I get so strong?' Cherry asked herself. She definitely shouldn't have the strength to budge a Marineford Captain.

"Did you assault the Captain, marine?" Unfortunately, the lieutenant of the ship overheard and drew his own conclusions.

Hina was about to defend Cherry when the latter was overwhelmed by the urge to-

"OOF?!" The lieutenant crumpled to the deck, hands between his legs.

-kick him straight in the groin.

"What has gotten into you?! Hina can only protect you so much!" Hina hastily whispered to her. "Are you ill? Hallucinations?"

Cherry was barely paying attention to her. She was instead marveling at her handiwork groaning on the deck. "I feel fine. I feel GREAT!"

Something was hammering against the inside of her skull, desperately struggling to get OUT and causing her enormous pain. It was a good pain though, she was sure of it now! She needed to stoke the flame!

Cherry grabbed Hina by the laurels and pulled her in for a kiss. Hina leaned into it at first, but started to struggle when she noticed the crew was watching.

"We'll be found out, fool!" Hina reproached.

"It's okay, I'm pretty sure that none of this is real anyways." Cherry said, loud enough for the entire crew to think she had gone completely mad.

"Poor girl, she must not have been ready to face a psychopath like Body-builder Victor…" the marine who helped her before lamented. "Hopefully the captain will go easy on her…"

Cherry suddenly ran to the helm and shoved the helmsman out of the way. She spun the wheel hard to port with the wind, towards the storm.

"What ARE you doing?!" Hina was getting fed up with this nonsense.

Once the ship was headed straight for the storm, Cherry drew her sword and cut the helm to pieces in a display of haki only her instincts told her she was capable of.

"RAAAH!" the robed old man, now no more than a skeleton, lunged at her from the side.

Cherry swung her sword once more and cut him in twain at the waist. The helmsman lay on the ground in two pieces, too shocked to be frightened of his imminent demise.

Hina moved then, arms flung forward to capture her with her iron bars. Cherry truly had gone mad, and was too dangerous to even try reasoning with her.

Cherry punched her in the throat and thrust her sword at her. Hina blocked several strikes from the sword with her iron, each faster than the last.

*Bang!*

Hina's eyes widened in betrayal, a shot bore through her heart. She had been too distracted by her lover turned demon's sword arm to see her other hand go for her pistol.

"""CAPTAIN!!!""" The rest of the crew arrived too late, the exchange happening too fast to intervene. Nevertheless, they were here now, so they did the best they could to fight off the demon.

It did them no good.

The crew lay helpless, dying, or dead on the deck around Cherry who seemed unconcerned.

Her head was pounding in agony. She needed more, more, more! Not bloodshed, no, what she needs to to break the illusion over her mind, to set herself free of this false world!

*RUMBLE!*

"It's no wonder I felt afraid of the storm! You don't want me to go anywhere near it!" Cherry shouted, a mad glint in her eyes.

*Clank!*

An arm passed through her body, sealing her arms to her torso with thick iron bands. Hina, with a bullet hole still through her chest, was moving around as if she was only mildly inconvenienced by the mortal wound. Her face was emotionless as she said, "It's such a nice dream that has been made for you. Why don't you go back to sleep?"

The crew started getting to their feet, similarly unphased by their grievous wounds. Even the helmsman was crawling down from the helm with his arms, as his legs walked along after him separately.

Cherry opened her mouth and released a stream of super-heated plasma around her in a circle, burning through the crew indiscriminately.

"Why don't you want to stay with Grandma? Weren't we happy together?" Grandma Angela stabbed towards her.

The iron bars snapped off of Cherry's body, then she grabbed a piece as it fell and bashed Grandma Angela's teeth in with neither mercy nor hesitation. The pain in her head screamed at her.

The storm was overhead now. Lightning raced across the underside of the clouds, converging into a single point directly above her.

Cherry reached her hands towards it, willed it to strike her! It did not disappoint her!

*CRACK* BOOM!!!*