258 Heart Demon
"Heavens above…" Cherry muttered, somewhat shocked at the sight unfolding before her eyes.
"That is Hakuba. Cavendish was once the beloved prince of a wealthy kingdom, but he was forced to flee after his other half committed mass murder. Hakuba is a second personality that only comes out when he sleeps, if I recall correctly, which seems to include getting knocked unconscious." Ex-king Riku walked over and explained.
The old man had taken off his helmet as there was no need to hide his face any longer. Although he maintained an air of calm dignity, there were traces of worry in his expression.
"You needn't worry too much. If that man is who I think he is, then since he has decided to protect Rebecca, he would sooner die than let her come to harm." Nightmare said confidently.
"If he is who you think he is, huh?" Riku said, casting a knowing glance at her.
"Whoo, that guy sure is fast!" Luffy said, failing to read the mood as he munched on caramel popcorn.
"I must thank you for your help before the matches began. Without it, I'm afraid that these old, aching bones of mine would not have managed to take refuge behind that young man's barrier. It has been more than a decade since I last met King Elizabello, but he has not lost his touch at all. In fact, I dare say he's gotten stronger since then." Riku said graciously.
"Mm…" Nightmare replied, her focus back on Hakuba.
'This guy… he's not a full fledged demon, but more like a heart demon with a greater sense of self. That a mortal man has managed to form a heart demon, or something similar, is highly unusual.' Cherry pondered.
A heart demon was something that could form when a cultivator's soul did not keep up with the purity of their body, thus corrupting and twisting them into something nasty. Many demonic cultivators started on their path this way.
The only way that Cavendish could have formed one was if he possessed a natural constitution that made his body insanely pure without cultivation. This was no small thing as mortal foods and drink would pollute the body, requiring cultivation to remove those impurities.
'If that's the case, then it's a real shame he was born into this world. Such a constitution is best suited to celestial energy cultivation, and this world has none.' Cherry shook her head.
At that moment, Hakuba collapsed to the ground unconscious once again. The audience couldn't see his movements, so they were confused why almost everyone had fallen over. They looked to Señor Pink hoping he would give some insight into the mysterious occurrence.
Unfortunately for them, Señor Pink was too busy picking his teeth with a rusty nail he found on the ground to comment.
Only two remained able to fight in the arena, and they were Rebecca and Mr. Prince.
The audience gave up on receiving an explanation and instead started shouting at Mr. Prince to finish off Rebecca. Mr. Prince sent them all a mean glare, but they were not dissuaded. They would rather risk taking a flying rock to the teeth than accept Rebecca entering the finals.
"These people disgust me…" Nightmare spoke disdainfully, and she truly meant it.
In her view, a child, or grandchild in this case, should not bear the weight of her grandfather's sins. Rebecca had to have been no older than 5 or 6 when the crimes these people blamed her for occurred. She was such a sweet girl, too.
"What a bunch of jerks!" Luffy concurred with a growl.
Riku almost burst into tears, so unused to his beloved granddaughter receiving such sympathy.
Down in the arena, Sanji concluded that he wouldn't shut these bastards up any time soon. As such, there was only one thing to do.
"It's just you and me left, Rebecca! Prepare yourself for our final battle!" Mr. Prince declared loudly.
This sudden change first confused then delighted the audience. Their jeering for Rebecca switched to cheers for Mr. Prince.
Rebecca was caught a bit off guard by this shift in attitude, as well. When Mr. Prince charged towards her, she took her defensive stance to receive him.
When Mr. Prince reached her, she used her usual trick of dodging at the last moment and using her opponent's momentum against them to knock them out of the ring. Unexpectedly, when Mr. Prince rushed past her, he made no desperate attempt to stop or change direction. Instead he kept charging straight forward and into the moat. She hadn't even needed to strike him.
"That might be the first time I've seen a man literally take a dive in a fight. A shame he did it for a woman, but I suppose I can respect a man who sticks to his ideals no matter what. Rebecca wins Block D." Señor Pink said before standing up, burping, and walking away from the commentator's box.
"""Señor Pink~!!!""" Screamed some young ladies.
"Cheater! Coward!" was the common sentiment in the crowd towards Rebecca's victory.
Riku let out a deep sigh. The whole spectacle gave him a strange sense of déjà vu, but he couldn't remember anyone ever being scorned so much for winning in the history of the colosseum, no matter how he thought about it.
"Now all that's left is the finals. How do you think you'll fair, miss Nightmare?" Riku asked.
"I think the audience is in for a surprise. I hope they aren't too shocked-" Nightmare answered, before whipping her head around to look at the wall behind them. "SHIT!!!"
The ground beneath Nightmare's feet exploded into debris and dust. Nightmare vanished from the spot instantly, but the direction she went in was obvious. This was because she hadn't bothered to navigate the maze of the colosseum to get wherever she was in such a hurry to go, instead electing to rip through the thick stone walls in a straight line.
Riku was shocked at the sight. It had to be said that the colosseum wasn't built of ordinary stone and was not so easily broken. The stage was made of far inferior stone because it was made to be modular, that was why it was so easily destroyed during the matches, though that wasn't exactly "easy" to break either.
Luffy was confused and elected to follow the path in Nightmare's wake to see what was going on. Riku thought it would be wisest not to follow as well, but his sense of responsibility drove him to do so regardless.
Luffy and Riku arrived at a hole in the outside wall of the colosseum just in time to see Nightmare deck THE Donquixote Doflamingo in the face, sending him flying several meters away. Beneath her feet was a skinny young man who also had tattoos and looked pretty beat up.
"Tra-guy?!" Luffy shouted, jumping out of the hole and running over to the injured man.
Riku is in disbelief. 'Was Doflamingo always so weak? Was he really just defeated with one punch- oh, he's getting back up. Nevermind.'
A marine admiral was also swiftly approaching the area so Riku, seeing that he was out of his depth here, wisely decided to slip away. He wouldn't be any help in such a high level fight. The best he could hope for would be to kill Doflamingo in a sneak attack, and even that was a really, really long shot.
"*cough* Get away from here, Straw Hat! Our alliance is over!" Law spat through bloody coughs.
"What are you saying?!" Luffy didn't understand.
"He's saying that you can't win! Between me and the blind old fogie over here, there's nothing you can do but lie down and die! Fufufufu!" Doflamingo said and cackled.
Cherry's punch had been very fast, so fast that Doflamingo couldn't dodge out of the way or block even after hearing her rip through the walls of the colosseum. However, what it possessed in speed it lacked in power, thus he only had superficial damage from the attack.
"I wondered about you, so you really are Harpin D. Cherry? There's no reason for you to help these two fools otherwise." Doflamingo guessed.
Before his eyes her body became shorter and the tattoos on her arms seemed to melt away from her skin.
"No point hiding it any longer, now. Oh, Mr. Admiral, I just did an amazing transformation, just so you know!" Cherry said.
"I appreciate you keeping me in the loop." Fujitora stated honestly.
"Enough talk!" Doflamingo shouted. He threw himself forward, knowing that he needed to set the pace to maintain an advantage.
"Take Law and run, Luffy." Cherry said, stepping forward to meet the Shichibukai.
Luffy obviously didn't want to leave all the fighting to Cherry, but he also couldn't let an injured ally be in the line of fire. "I'll be right back!"
"Oh no you don't!" Doflamingo said, swinging a string whip towards Luffy and Law.
*SNAP*
Cherry caught the whip out of the air and lightning burst forth from her arm and raced down the length of the whip. Doflamingo hardened his arm with armament haki and tried to yank her forward.
*CLANG*
Sakura Tengoku was forcibly materialized as it collided with Doflamingo's haki coated fist. He got the handle with his free hand and swung it at Cherry.
"A lightning sword is worthless if it doesn't have any haki to counter your opponent! FUFUFUFUFU!" Doflamingo cackled as Cherry's life would now be claimed by her own weapon.
