It was inevitable that Cherry would begin growing tired of her little game.
As much as she enjoyed making Barbossa run around like a headless chicken, it did start to get old. Especially so when he stopped being so reactive and started trying to lay traps.
With the undead pirate captain no longer actively entertaining her, she decided that the game was over. Her win, of course.
Barbossa never actually threw the compass away, even though he barely looked at it anymore. Disappointing, but not all that surprising.
Since the game was over, though, that meant she would take it back from him.
Easier said than done, since Barbossa kept the compass on his person at all times. Also, he never slept.
However, he did occasionally get distracted. It was one such moment that Cherry was currently patiently waiting for.
It was just after dawn on the fifth day after leaving Port Royal that Cherry got her chance.
An eerie fog rolled over the water where the ship was heading. A pirate called from the crow's nest, "We've arrived, captain!"
Barbossa, who had spent the last hour staring at the wall that Cherry was hiding behind and accidentally made the wood creak when she shifted her weight, perked up and headed straight for the stairs.
So single mindedly focused he was, that Cherry was able to slip out of the wall unnoticed, creep up behind him, and cut the compass free from where it was tied to his hip.
Cherry was nothing if not audacious, though, so when she saw that he failed to notice anything amiss, she became bolder.
Her thieving fingers ventured further, into his coat. She already knew where her secondary objective lied; this close up, she could almost taste its foul stench.
Her hand came away from Barbossa's coat clutching a gold coin bearing the semblance of a skull.
Just touching the thing made her stomach feel queasy. Tucked away inside the metal, something was waiting. It didn't quite reach out to her, but she could sense that it was wound up, ready to pounce.
Barbossa whirled around, exploding into motion like a hurricane.
Cherry was already gone, like a ghost.
Barbossa grumbled something about the wind before carrying on. He did shoot another suspicious glance back as he reached the stairs, though.
Seeing as she was already feeling a bit sick to her stomach, Cherry went ahead and did a full sweep of the ship and surrounding ocean with her Life Sense.
Cherry perked up in delighted surprise! Two familiar signatures lit up beneath the ship and a bit behind. The submarine!
With a smile on her face, she sank through the hull.
…
"Is that the ship?" Carrot asked, holding both her ears down as she had grown annoyed with the way that constantly brushed against the ceiling of the tiny submarine.
"At the speed it's moving, it has to be," Reiju said, irritation leaking into her tone. "How in the world is such a primitive ship so fast?!"
She'd seen vessels that could match it, sure, but nothing about the design suggested it should be able to move like that. The only ships that could outpace it either had an engine of some kind or were masterworks like the Thousand Sunny.
The submarine barely kept up with it, which had consequently burned through their power supply much more quickly than Reiju would prefer. She would admit that it lasted far longer than it should have on soda of all things, though.
"Yohoho! I can see why they were so confident laying siege to a fort city with only one ship! They were confident in a pirate's greatest strength; running away!" Brook remarked.
"Sounds about right," Reiju agreed with a smirk whilst Carrot giggled.
*tonk tonk tonk*
"""...""" Carrot, Brook, and Reiju looked at the small airlock built into the side of the Shark Submerge III.
"Is someone knocking?" Carrot asked, notably more subdued than a moment before.
"Sounds like it to my ear," Brook answered. "Although, I don't have any ears…"
Nobody laughed.
"It sounded like they were knocking on the inner door," Reiju noted.
""Huh,"" Brook and Carrot hummed in unison.
Brook checked a gauge, then he shuffled over and started opening the hatch. "It's not flooded, so I guess I'll see who's at the door."
The door swung open and revealed-
"What's up, bitches~!" Cherry strutted inside like she owned the place.
"Cherry!" Carrot bounced out of her seat and clung to Cherry about the waist. "I'm not a bitch! I'm a doe!"
"How are you not wet?" Reiju questioned. "We're about fifty meters underwater."
"I'm hydrophobic," Cherry answered with nonsense. "Terrified of water, really. So I just dodged it."
"You dodged the ocean?" Reiju asked for clarification.
"Like it's hard?" Cherry scoffed. "Brook deflects the ocean with kicks!"
"That's one interpretation, Yohohoho!" Brook concurred.
"So what's going on, Cherry?" Carrot reluctantly released her death grip so that she could hop in place in her excitement.
"Just the usual nonsense for us. You'll get it in time," Cherry said. "We've apparently reached whatever destination they were headed to."
"That's good. We were running low on soda," Reiju sighed.
Cherry produced a full sized barrel from her pocket. "I made a point to fill a bunch of these bad boys up just in case. This ought to be enough to keep it chugging along for another couple days at least."
"That is absurdly convenient," Reiju was practically seething with jealousy. "What else do you have tucked away in there?"
"Just a few tens of thousands of tons of gold," Cherry stated with a straight face.
Reiju blinked at her. "That's an exaggeration, right?"
"Indeed," Cherry nodded. "It's more than a few actually, but I didn't really bother to weigh for an exact number. Gild Tesoro was the world's greediest little piggy."
"Wait," Reiju raised her hand in a stopping motion. "I think Usopp mentioned that you guys visited the Gran Tesoro… did you guys rob the richest man in the world?"
"Pssh, no," Cherry denied. "We liberated his ill gotten gains!"
"After you murdered him," Brook added helpfully.
"I did not!" Cherry denied. "I merely shattered all his vertebrae! I didn't so much as nick the spinal cord, so he isn't even paralyzed!"
"Er," Reiju regained some of her wits from the shock of that revelation. "I'm pretty sure that even with the spinal cord intact, shattering all his vertebrae will effectively paralyze him. If anything, it's worse since he can still feel pain."
Cherry snickered. Snickered!
Reiju knew the woman was mean, but even that seems a bit much.
"Well, his whole casino was basically built on the backs of slave labor, including children," Cherry enlightened her. "That's basically the bare minimum I could have done. I could have turned him into a meat brick that filters waste water or something if I wanted to be… creative."
"Yeah, no, shattered vertebrae are fine actually," Reiju said quickly. "Please don't do that second thing to anybody. Just kill 'em if it comes to that."
Cherry laughed. "I was just kidding. I'd probably give myself nightmares doing something like that. There is a line I'm not willing to cross, even if it's a bit wobbly sometimes."