Beginning of the Auction

The first thing Cherry did after Robin warned her about the Charlotte siblings was to pass on the warning to Cabernet. If Charlotte Katakuri learned that both of his quarries were within arms' reach, he might just decide to cast away all civility and attack them immediately.

Cherry reckoned she could beat him with some difficulty, but she would trouble many people with the resulting collateral damage, both to property and to people.

"Okay~ I wasn't planning to return tonight anyways~" Cabernet responded over the link. Her voice sounded a bit unusual, but not in a bad way.

Two way communication wasn't normally possible with Blood Bound Weapons, nor was it normally thought to be necessary at all. However, given that Cabernet was sapient and often separated from Cherry by long distances, she saw fit to work something out to resolve that little issue.

It turned out to be a rather difficult problem in reality and she had been almost completely stumped on how to go about it. Blood Bound Weaponry was already a very sophisticated technique and thus didn't have much room for modification without forcing you to just start from scratch on a completely new technique.

Fortunately, inspiration had come to her within the cutest of packaging. Den den mushi. Cherry had unconsciously categorized the adorable snails as the same sort of naturally telepathic creatures as she was accustomed to in her previous life.

This was incorrect, as she discovered whilst "playing" with them one day at Baltigo. Den den mushi actually generated their telepathic abilities with a very complex and delicate vital energy construct inside their brains. Thankfully, despite the complexity it still didn't compare to devil fruit inscriptions, so she was able to work out how it functioned with a bit of study.

The end result was a supplemental ability with which she could strengthen the mental connection between herself and Cabernet, allowing two way communication. A side benefit was that she could directly call den den mushi as well, provided they were within the range of the technique. Long range den den mushi still needed more study before she could replicate that, and she's been busy with other things.

"Alright then, have fun with Perona. Try not to break her." Cherry said.

"Mm~ No promises~" Cabernet responded.

"Who could have guessed that Perona would be the submissive one?" Cherry muttered to herself.

She turned back to Robin who was waiting for her to finish, sitting on the edge of their bed. Robin patted her lap and gave her a seductive smile.

Cherry approached and sat down on her lap while facing her, whilst Robin wrapped her arms around Cherry's waist and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

...

The time until the auction passed by peacefully and without incident. The Charlotte siblings made no moves to leave the penthouse suite at the hotel, having the hotel staff or their subordinates bring them whatever they needed. It made Cherry wonder if they really wanted to catch her and Cabernet after all.

Finally the day of the auction was upon them.

Cherry headed for the location early, preferring not to bump into the Charlotte siblings if at all possible.

"Welcome Ms. Harpin. The V.I.P. box is awaiting you right this way." A familiar woman greeted them as they entered the auction house.

She was the same woman that Cherry had dealt with before. Seeing how she was genuinely happy to see Cherry, one could presume she was rewarded handsomely for the part she played in introducing her to Chinjao, even if it was small.

The V.I.P. box was very extravagant and rested on a balcony at the highest point overlooking the main auction room. They were given complimentary snacks and beverages, which were actually gourmet dishes in snack sized portions along with a selection of very rare wines and teas.

"No." Robin said without explanation.

"Yes?" Cherry replied, pretending not to notice the way Robin was glaring at the bottle of wine in her hand.

"You'll get drunk and make a huge mess!" Robin reprimanded.

"No I won't~" Cherry said reassuringly with amusement. "I can only get drunk if I deliberately stop my vital energy circulation."

Robin didn't look as amused as she was. "And are you going to deliberately get drunk?"

Cherry looked away from her piercing eyes, but somehow that only made it feel worse.

"No." Robin said, snatching the bottle from her hand. Then she turned to the attendant assigned to their room. "We'll be having tea."

"Spoilsport." Cherry muttered with a pout. Robin pinched her cheeks in a playful warning.

"You can't be impaired when you're dealing with the Big Mom pirates. Isn't it people like them that made you hesitate to go to the New World immediately?" Robin asked.

"I'm not afraid of them. Big Mom herself would be too much for me right now, but she isn't here. Maybe that Katakuri can put up a decent fight, but he's the only one worth worrying about. The rest can be cleaned up by you and the flirting couple over there." Cherry explained confidently, pointing at Cabernet and Perona sharing a colorful cocktail in a big glass.

"Just be careful. I've lost enough people in my life…" Robin sighed.

Cherry felt a bit bad for worrying her and wrapped her arm around Robin's shoulders comfortingly.

"Alright." Cherry said in a rare moment of seriousness.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The auctioneer spoke, voice amplified by den den mushi. "The auction will begin in just a moment!"

Cherry wasn't paying too much attention to the auctioneer's ramblings and sweeped the crowd with her Life Sense.

The Charlotte siblings were present of course, as was Morgans. She was somewhat surprised to find the axe guy, Sentomaru, here as well.

'This isn't the sort of place I expected to find that guy. Are the marines planning to do a raid on the auction or something?' Cherry wondered.

However, there was no sign of suspicious movements around the auction house. It also didn't seem very likely that such a man would attempt to rob the auction as he didn't seem like a stealthy sort.

"The first lot we have for you is a shipment of firearms and ammunition…" The auctioneer announced. In one of the seats below, a disguised Sabo didn't even let him finish and immediately bid on the lot.

The auction continued with various "boring" lots that Cherry had no interest in.

One lot was even for a box of candies made by a world renowned confectioner. Charlotte Brulee bid on this item relentlessly, not even giving the auctioneer enough time to repeat the bids that opposed her.

"Does she like candy that much? And why would anyone pay 40 million Beri for one box of candy?" Cherry wondered aloud.

"Big Mom is infamous for her love of sweets. As for the candy, it's only worth what others are willing to pay for it. I have heard great things about this particular candy though. Apparently the confectioner makes each box unique and never makes an identical one again." Robin explained.

"Hmmm?" Cherry hummed. "50 million!"

"I hear 50 million Beri from the V.I.P. box!" The auctioneer repeated.

The only reason Charlotte Brulee didn't immediately up the bid against it was that the auctioneer had almost finished counting down her own bid and so she was caught off guard. In addition, the voice was familiar to her as one of her targets.

Brulee glared at Cherry, who was peeking over the balcony at her with a mocking smirk.

"55 million!" Brulee shouted with her number raised.

"60 million~" Cherry called in a singsong voice.

"70 MILLION!!!" Brulee almost screamed through her gritted teeth.

Most of the other people present were terrified at this display of blatant disrespect toward one of Big Mom's children.

Strangely enough, Katakuri was perfectly calm, not even bothering to look in Cherry's direction.

Cherry gave up on trying to get a rise out of the man after the bid reached 100 million, allowing Brulee to take it.

"Wiwwiwwiwwi! Too rich for your blood, eh?! I won!" Brulee celebrated. "I did well, didn't I Onii-chan?"

"I suppose it's fine since Mama won't complain about receiving candy." Katakuri said.

Brulee went a bit pink at the cheeks in embarrassment as she realized that Cherry had tricked her into spending more than she needed to.

The auction continued as Brulee grumbled quietly to herself.