Tempting Fate

Luffy was shouting Tama's name and Zoro's face shifted into a dark look, but Cherry was… annoyed. She belatedly realized that, not only do Hawkins' tarot cards have mysterious fate altering powers, but that just declaring the game itself probably lulls his opponents into letting him draw them.

People dumb enough to toy with fate were exceptionally rare in the Myriad Realms, but they were also exceptionally dangerous. To their enemies as well as to themselves and their allies. Which is why Cherry knew to stay far away from them.

Hawkins drew another card. "The Fool, reversed. How unfortunate."

The moment Hawkins finished speaking, a few of his men started attacking each other instead of Luffy and Zoro.

'Ah, so that's how it is…' Cherry thought. 'He's offsetting the inevitable consequences by providing an inbuilt pathway for fate's ire to flow. Sloppy, but effective.'

Cherry flickered out of sight, reappeared behind Hawkins whilst standing on his mount, then stabbed her sword between his neck and shoulder into his torso.

Hawkins flinched in surprise, but otherwise remained calm. Cherry felt a powerful pressure trying to force her sword out of his body, but she managed to waggle and twist her sword a few times before that happened.

Four straw dolls popped out of Hawkins' body and at the same time four of his men collapsed in the battlefield with blood spewing from their necks.

"I wonder how many times you can do that? Once for each of your men here?" Cherry wondered aloud.

Hawkins was suddenly glad that he hadn't explained his limit of ten like he usually does. Doing so would normally serve to devastate his enemy's morale as they realized they would have to kill him eleven times. It would likely have the opposite effect to reveal that half of his remaining lives were destroyed with one move.

With perfect timing, Zoro cut down one of Hawkins' minions that served as one of his extra lives, causing yet another straw doll to flop out of him.

"Wow, it works that way too? I guess you don't have that many, huh?" Cherry chuckled. She was no longer on the back of his steed and held both of his hostages under each of her arms a small distance away. "What a worthless ability…"

'It only seems that way because you're a bunch of sadistic freaks of nature!' Hawkins wished to retort. He didn't, because it would shatter his image as someone who was always calm and composed.

Nevertheless, Hawkins understood that he was in a bit over his head here. He almost ripped a card out of his deck and hoped that fate would be kind to him.

"The Devil, reversed." Hawkins smiled and shouted, "Retreat!"

Hawkins spurred his mount into motion and he was off towards the horizon with unearthly speed. Cherry sent a flying slash after him, but despite the fact that Hawkins' was slower than the attack, he seemed to outrun it regardless. She gave chase on foot, pushing herself to the limits of her speed, and still he outpaced her.

Cherry slowed to a stop after a few kilometers and growled, "What kind of bullshit is this?!"

She understood that the reversed devil card, or whatever he called it, was to blame. It was almost like she crossed a much greater distance during the chase than he did even though she was behind him the entire time.

"Think you can play me like a fiddle, do you? How about… THIS!" Cherry reached out and plucked an intangible string. She was going to pay for that little move later, but she wouldn't regret it. She just wished that she could see the look on Hawkins face when everything came together.

When Cherry returned to the battle field, she found that a number of the Beast pirates had slipped away, but the ones that remained were all defeated.

"You've got everything over here cleaned up, I see-" Cherry tripped on a rock and slammed face first into a discarded knife, blade upright.

Luffy, Zoro, Tama, and the mystery woman all cringed at the sight, though only the latter two were surprised to see Cherry get up again like she didn't have a stab wound in her right eye.

"You alright?" Zoro asked tentatively.

"I don't know what you mean," Cherry blinked a few times and the wound healed.

"Right," Zoro elected to ignore it.

'It's already started, huh? I suppose I've only just become a transcendent. Much too early to be tempting fate…' Cherry lamented inwardly.

"Shall we get going?" the mystery woman clapped her hands to get their attention. "My name is Tsurujo or just Otsuru, I own a teahouse in Okobore. I would very much like to thank you properly there, if you're heading that way?"

"Do you have food?" Luffy asked bluntly.

"Of course," Otsuru smiled.

"Let's go!" Luffy declared.

Soon they were riding atop the lion-dog-thing, which Tama insists is named Komachiyo. Cherry prefers her own description of the beast, but she wasn't going to make a little girl cry over it. Not twice anyways.

…

"Okikuuu!" Otsuru called out as she waved her hand towards someone at the quickly approaching town's edge.

Said someone, a very tall woman in a yellow kimono, waved back happily. The large man standing behind the woman didn't look too pleased at being ignored, however. Fortunately the man simply slunk away instead of causing a scene; as much as a man of his size could slink, anyways.

"You're a bit later than you said you'd be, Otsuru. Did you have any trouble?" Okiku asked as she looked over the group.

"Just some… wild animals, nothing serious. These fine folks helped me out," Otsuru said, not wanting to worry her.

"I see," Okiku said, looking gratefully at the group now.

"Food!" Luffy cheered, growing impatient with the pleasantries.

"Yes, of course. Would you mind entertaining my guests while I prepare the food, Okiku?" Otsuru said, already rushing into a nearby building without waiting for an answer.

Okiku turned her attention back to the group and smiled. "Thank you."

"Hm? What for?" Luffy picked his nose.

"For helping Otsuru, and for your timely arrival. That sumo wrestler you saw won't leave me alone, he keeps trying to court me," Okiku spoke and gave a small bow of the head.

"If he's bothering you, why don't you just kick his ass?" Cherry asked.

"Not every woman is a monster like you," Zoro said.

"Huh? Are you asking for one of my special deep tissue post-exercise massages?" Cherry threatened, making Zoro shake his head swiftly. Calling those 'deep tissue' was a bit of an understatement and Zoro made a point to avoid her after his routine exercise no matter how effective they were.

"Are you a masseuse?" Okiku asked conversationally.

"I know a bit, but I've got strong fingers to get into those problematic areas," Cherry said, wiggling said fingers.

"They feel great!" Luffy exclaimed.

"They feel great to you because your flesh is all rubbery," Zoro corrected.

Okiku smiled at the banter and Otsuru soon came out with some food for everyone. They were modest portions, but Luffy had already eaten a fair amount earlier, so he wasn't complaining.

When she got to Cherry, she accidentally dumped a bowl of red bean soup all over her.