One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 502: Bink's Sake



Cherry waved goodbye to Zoro with a genuine smile, even though he grumbled and complained the whole way. It felt like sending her grandchild off to school.

She wondered if he accepted her conjecture that his swords may be the source of his poor directional sense, or if he just realized there was nothing he could do to make her give his swords back to him even if he had the swords to fight her with.

Fortunately the greatest weakness of a swordsman was not having a sword.

At least it was in this world. Sword Immortals, the freaks, could twist their little minds up and convince themselves that literally anything is a sword, then reality would just go along with it like it's afraid that saying no will get it beaten up and its lunch money stolen.

'I guess I did make a sword that poked a hole in reality at the end there though, didn't I?' Cherry thought. 'I hope that doesn't become a problem... but at least it isn't my problem.'

Back to Zoro's one item scavenger hunt; Cherry had told him that she left hints for him, but that was a complete fabrication.

For one, it would have been cheating. Normally that isn't a problem in her book, but in this case that might actually hinder Zoro more than help him, the goof. Instead, she was hoping that he'd be so busy looking for the nonexistent hints that he might stumble upon Shusui entirely by accident.

"He's cute," Hiyori muttered with a wistful look.

"He's single, too," Cherry said.

"O-oh, I see..." Hiyori looked away to hide her blushing face.

"... Are you going to get married?" Toko asked.

"No!" Hiyori denied, covering her face with her hands.

...

"I- I don't know..." Hiyori looked at the object in Cherry's hands skeptically.

"Come on, we don't have anything better to do," Cherry pressed lightly.

"Denjiro told me never to accept such a thing from a man," Hiyori sounded unsure.

"You're making this sound really weird, girl. It's just a drink," Cherry poured two cups of a fancy sake that she acquired. "If you get too rowdy, I know a trick to sober you up right quick." "Can I have some?" Toko asked.

"Sure," Cherry handed her one of the two cups without an ounce of hesitation.

Hiyori snatched it from Toko's hands and downed it. "You can't give alcohol to a girl as young as Toko!"

Toko pout, as adorable as it was, said she disagreed.

"I'd normally agree, but getting drunk alone is no fun at all," Cherry raised her cup and drank it down. "I was hoping Zoro would have gotten back here by now. He wouldn't complain about having a drink or twenty."

"T-twenty?!" Hiyori's voice pitched up in an amusing squawk. "Surely not!"

"I can handle that easily, and Zoro would certainly try to keep up," Cherry chuckled. "You don't have to destroy your liver on my account, though, rest assured."

Hiyori relented. What little of the taste she had managed to sample when she swallowed it as fast as possible hadn't been unpleasant, per se. Surely she could stand to have a little more?

...

Zoro was tired.

He was also very pleased with himself.

He smiled as he cast a glance to the sword on his hip. The big monk had been waiting for him at Shimotsuki Ryuma's grave and had glowered something fierce at him, but it seemed that the bet he had with Cherry was one he intended to honor.

He was in such a good mood when he finally found Shusui that he didn't even gripe at the monk for making him sit through an impromptu history lesson. Ryuma's life was interesting enough to keep his attention, too.

"Aha!" Zoro spotted the house that he had slept in the night before. He hastened his steps before slowing them again. "Hm?"

Singing. He could hear singing.

*sniff sniff*

The scent of booze on the wind. Damn good booze, too.

"There better be some left over," Zoro grumbled and marched straight up to the front door.

Zoro reached up to knock, only to miss the door when it creaked open by itself.

The singing had gone silent, the light of the fire he saw beneath the door was nowhere to be seen inside the dark interior. Even the warmth he thought he felt when he'd stepped up to the door had vanished and left only bitter cold behind.

Zoro narrowed his eye and placed a hand on Shusui's hilt as he stepped inside. "Hello?"

The door slammed shut behind him, but he didn't flinch. Skittering sounds could be heard amongst the rafters but it was too dark for him to see anything.

Zoro slowly took one step, followed more surely by several more.

"I know you're in here somewhere," Zoro spoke to no one in particular.

A ghostly giggle, like tinkling bells, echoed off the walls.

"There!" Zoro lurched forward and grabbed-!

A sake bottle!

"That's mine, you bastard!" Cherry roared, landing on his back and wrestling him for the

bottle.

"Hawkeye made sure I could fight in pitch black! There's no way you can hide this from me!" Zoro laughed raucously and threw Cherry off his back over his shoulder.

"That's cheating! Plug your nose, you damned booze-hound!" Cherry demanded.

"Light the fire so I can find a cup or I'll drink it straight from the bottle," Zoro threatened.

The fire roared to life, nearly blinding Zoro enough that he might have missed Cherry lungingNôv(el)B\\jnn

at him right after. Or rather, lunging for his bottle.

Hiyori and Toko watched quietly from the side, the former pleasantly tipsy if her gentle

swaying meant anything.

"Can we start singing again?" Toko asked.

"Yes! I think I have learned Bink-sama's one quite well," Hiyori agreed. "I am as fond of his

song as I am of his beverage of choice!"

"We gotta get moss head drunk first or he won't sing along!" Cherry changed tacts from preventing Zoro from drinking to making him got his fill and more.

"I'm not going to sing," Zoro denied, though he seemed eager for the drinking part.

"You'll sing if you wanna see your swords again!" Cherry poked his chest.

Zoro frowned. "We'll see."

"Yes, we will! Drink!" Cherry insisted with a cheshire grin, pouring sake into something that

was clearly a bowl and not a cup.

"How much of this stuff do you even have?" Zoro questioned as she counted the empty

bottles scattered on the floor but gave up at a dozen.

"More than you can handle," Cherry stoked his competitive streak.

"I doubt it," Zoro chugged his bowl. "Another!"

"Hehehehe! That's the spirit!" Cherry giggled. "That's the right attitude, too!"

That set Hiyori off into her own giggle fit. Who knew the princess liked a good pun?

The night air was filled with the sounds of merry making. Not quite the atmosphere one might expect from a graveyard, but the dead were hardly complaining.

""""Yo-hohohooo~ Yo-hoho-hooo~"""" And it turned out that Zoro was wrong, after all.