Pestering an Ex-Admiral

'Are you sure about this, Cherry? What if he gets mad and turns Dressrosa into another Punk Hazard?' Cabernet asked tentatively over the mental link.

'If he goes that far then I'll do something about him, but he isn't going to… probably. He might be a murderous lunatic, but the things he does still have a certain logic to them. He won't just kill people at random.' Cherry sent back.

Cabernet didn't think "probably" was a very good answer, but she didn't have the best people skills. She definitely couldn't make any judgments on a person she'd never met before.

Cabernet accelerated through the air, blazing like a phoenix towards the steam powered metal war ship. She saw Akainu step out onto the deck, clearly intending to intercept her, but he wasn't the target so she disregarded him.

Rather, Akainu was one of the worst matches against her.

Her fire would be useless, unless she could concentrate it to a heat that far exceeded his own. Even then the effect would be minimal, given his logia element was essentially molten rock.

Cabernet could technically bypass his logia invulnerability with armament haki, but she absolutely sucked with it and often forgot to even use it since she rarely had a reason to. If she tried to use it against Akainu, he'd just counter with his own haki over his stone body.

The only upside was that Akainu wouldn't have an easy time harming her either. Her heat resistance was insane and her physical strength would definitely be higher than his.

Instead of tackling the volcano man, Cabernet did the sensible thing and directly plunged through the deck of the ship, leaving a ripped apart, red-hot metal hole in her wake.

Akainu grit his teeth in fury and made to give chase through the hole, but when he descended below deck he found there were many half molten holes ripped through the bulkhead of the ship. He had no idea what her goal could be, as she hadn't bothered to make the same holes in the outer hull to sink them.

After a few moments of searching, her purpose became abundantly clear.

*BOBOBOBOBOOOOM!!!!!*

An ear splitting explosion wracked the ship, coming from the direction of the ammunition lock up. In other words, Cabernet had located and detonated every bit of gunpowder on the ship. She hadn't bothered poking tiny holes in the hull because she was about to blow a big hole in it instead.

Little holes Akainu could give a quick patch job to with her lava, but this wasn't something he could fix.

Akainu called out to abandon ship and quickly got himself above deck as well. He threw open the door to the deck and quickly brought his arms up and blocked a punch headed straight for his face.

The force of it was comparable to a giant's attack, but the armament haki was pathetic. There was no chance at all of it breaching his own defenses, only serving to make him actually defend rather than rely on his intangibility.

Akainu tried to envelop the lunarian woman with his lava, but she was quick to retreat after the sneak attack. His men rained bullets upon her, but they harmlessly bounced off her skin, leaving not even a single bruise to show for the effort.

*PEW* *PING*

Fortunately, that's what he had a haki trained sniper for. The rifle bullet sent Cabernet spinning as it struck her directly in the forehead. Sadly, Cabernet righted herself and shook it off, her forehead only bearing a small wound that trickled blood down her face.

"That hurt!" Cabernet shouted at them indignantly.

"I'm going to hurt you a lot more. Come down here and I'll make your death swift!" Akainu countered.

"Are you sure?" Cabernet looked genuinely confused. "Your ship is sinking, you know? Shouldn't you get to the lifeboats and go to shore?"

Her words made sense from a certain standpoint, but Akainu wasn't a fool. He wouldn't abandon the much more solid ground of his sinking ship until he absolutely had to. The lifeboats would be far more vulnerable and he might get tossed in the water if he doesn't take her out here and now.

Akainu took a page from Garp's book and started hurling balls of lava into the air at Cabernet. She was fast, but he was experienced. His tactical mind started to piece together patterns and his aim simultaneously began to get better until finally he hit her head on. Cabernet shook off the lava, but meanwhile Akainu was already lining up another throw.

As a result, Cabernet was forced higher and further away to maintain her flight. She might not be harmed by the lava ball's heat but they were gooey, thus weighing her down and restricting her range of movement.

Akainu's attention on her wasn't a bad thing, though, as Cabernet's goal was primarily to stall him and let Law do his business without a hotheaded former marine admiral getting in his way.

Cabernet cast a quick glance back towards the bridge where the sounds of battle had come to a halt. She saw Doflamingo fly through the air back to the mainland of Dressrosa with Law clutched in his hand, disappearing into the distance. That wasn't good, but at least she didn't need to stall Akainu any longer.

"I'm bored now. See ya!" Cabernet called out to the neo marines and Akainu, briefly dumbfounding them as she really flew away without bothering them any more.

The neo marine sniper took several shots at her, and they even met their mark, but it did not and could not stop her from leaving.

Cabernet wasn't merely a ship or a lunarian, but a bonafide blood bound treasure with all the resistance to damage that came with. If they wanted to shoot her down they'd either need better bullets or stronger haki, neither of which they had at the moment. Though Akainu did make note of this fact and plotted to be ready next time.

Cabernet flew after Doflamingo and Law, aiming to assist in whatever way she could. Meanwhile, the neo marines were focusing on fighting off their new foe as they boarded their life boats; the fighting fish.

…

Inside the Corrida Colosseum.

"Alright, my nachos are here so you can start now." Señor Pink said, after having made the contenders in Block C wait for almost 5 minutes.

The fighters had been growing increasingly antsy from the wait, so when it finally did start it was rather violent. Don Chinjao was especially so, as he immediately charged through the fighters towards Luffy, trampling them under foot.

"Garp's Grandson! Let me give you a take of my cone head and see if you're worthy!" Chinjao shouted dominantly.

Luffy was caught off guard by the sudden declaration as the pointy headed old man bore down on him. "What are you talking about, old man?!"

Luffy bounced out of the way of Chinjao's headbutt that carved through the stage like a hot knife through butter, splitting it down the middle from edge to edge. Some of the fighters near where the stage met the moat were tossed into the water by the suddenly quaking ground beneath their feet.

"Don't pretend to be ignorant, whippersnapper, you know what I speak of!" Chinjao spoke as if it were obvious. It was most certainly not obvious, as even Sai and Boo were at a loss to what he was talking about. Revenge they could understand, but what was this about 'worthiness'?

Cherry, now watching from the waiting room observation window, had an inkling to what he meant by it though. She was simultaneously flattered, amused, and exasperated by his actions.

Luffy and Chinjao clashed around the arena for a while, unintentionally dragging many others into their fight and knocking them out of the arena or out cold. Luffy was starting to get annoyed with Chinjao's accusations that he wouldn't even lay out clearly.

"Why do I gotta prove myself to an old coot like you! I don't even know you!" Luffy shouted indignantly.

"Hmph! If a brat like you is gonna be Cherry's captain, then you have to show me what you're made of! I won't let some weakling order her around! Not even over my dead body, I'll come back to haunt you!" Chinjao finally stated what his meaning was.

Sai and Boo face palmed. Of course this was how he'd resolve the internal conflict between his desire for revenge and not wanting his personal grudges interfere with Cherry's relationships.