NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Traitors
The man known as Mr. 8 was doing his best not to show his panic.
Was this Miss Halloween bluffing? But he really had read the letter and resealed it.
Should he attack her right now? That would draw a lot of suspicion on himself and they would have to flee before their cover was completely blown, which would be difficult.
Even if he did attack Miss Halloween, could he win that fight? She was remarkably calm, as if she hadn't just accused him of being a spy to his face only a moment before. That suggested a great deal of self confidence.
Cherry watched the funny looking man squirm in his inner panic that could not be hidden from her Life Sense, as well as the blue haired young woman in the other room in the same situation.
'Right on the money, huh? Well let's see if I can get anything out of him.' She thought.
"You are being awfully quiet, Mr. 8. How about we have a little chat. The girl should come in and have a seat as well. I don't know if I should think she is a fool for not running away after I discovered her, or if she has a good head on her shoulders to realize that running away is impossible." Cherry spoke with calm confidence.
Mr. 8 snapped out of his thoughts and his is protective instincts took over. 'Even if we're revealed, I cannot risk the princess' life on a gamble!'
He picked up his saxophone and quickly brought it to his mouth and blew into as hard as he could, aiming the deadly end at Miss Halloween.
And nothing happened. He pulled it away from his face to see the saxophone has been cut into pieces somehow. 'She realized it was a weapon and sabotaged it without me noticing?!'
"Something seems to be wrong with your instrument, Mr. 8." Miss Halloween mocked him.
He dropped the pieces of saxophone and grabbed the ends of his ribbon tie and yanked. 'She shouldn't know about my hair cannons!'
This time he had a complete view of what happened. A sword appeared out of thin air in Miss Halloween's hand, slashed through his tie before the cannons were set off, then the sword vanished once more.
"Do you have any more party tricks? Or are you willing to talk like a civilized person now? If not, I can show you some of my own tricks. I'll say they aren't as amusing as yours, though." Cherry said, wondering if maybe these people were too stupid to even have any useful information.
Mr. 8 looked at Miss Halloween with a resigned look on his face. "Why not just capture me like your mission told you to? Why insist on sitting down to talk?" He asked, honestly perplexed.
"I won't be answering any questions unless I am satisfied by your answers to my questions." Cherry denied, then turned to look at a peephole in the wall. "Stop quaking in your boots and come sit with us, young lady. You are not a child, you are a spy. Act with some professionalism."
Mr. 8 wanted to tell her to run, but he knew it was useless. "Do as she says, Miss Wednesday. There is no escaping from her grasp." The words tasted of something foul on his tongue. He lamented his weakness.
Miss Wednesday bit her lip and took a deep breath to calm herself. She entered the room and sat across from Cherry, next to Mr. 8. There was now a certain air of dignity about her as she gazed at Cherry with noble determination.
"Nice to meet you, Princess." Both of them winced at Cherry's words. "Hehe, if you wanted to hide it you should alter your mannerisms properly. I've met royalty before, so I recognized your practiced bearing at a glance."
Miss Wednesday facepalmed herself. She had lapsed into her royal manners subconsciously, perhaps as a way to feel in control.
"Now, please tell me everything. Start with what you know about Baroque Works, its agents, and its leadership." Cherry gestured for them to speak. They were somewhat confused about why she wanted to know things that may get her into trouble, but that wasn't their problem so they shared what they knew.
The two surprisingly did have a lot of information about Baroque Works. They spoke for a few hours about how it was trying to usurp the throne of a kingdom called Alabasta here in the Grand Line, as well as some of the means they have employed to do so.
Unfortunately, they didn't yet know who Baroque Works' mysterious leader, Mr. 0, is, nor the identities of the Chief of Staff, Miss All Sunday, and the other top agents.
"So you're the Princess of Alabasta I presume? Perhaps Mr. 8 here is one of the royal guard here to protect you? Interesting." Cherry stroked her pumpkin mask's chin thoughtfully.
Miss Wednesday spoke up impatiently. "Who are you? Are you not loyal to Baroque Works?"
Cherry considered whether to answer the question honestly, or at all.
"I've only just been hired into Baroque Works. I haven't decided where my loyalties lie just yet, thus my questions. There's something missing from the big picture in the supposed plan you've told me about. Why does a criminal organization have any confidence in stealing control of a country affiliated with the World Government?" Cherry asked.
They two of them looked at each other. "We don't know that either..." Mr. 8 said downcast.
"Would you be willing to help us?! You don't seem to have any faith in Baroque Works' success. If you work with us instead, we can promise great rewards!" Miss Wednesday offered desperately.
"Hmm. I don't intend to involve myself with this organization any longer. At first I planned to sow some chaos in their ranks for giggles, but it's too risky. I won't tell anyone about your identities, so rest assured. As for working with you instead? I'm not really feeling it." Cherry said.
"We'll pay you 1,000,000,000 Beri!" Miss Wednesday almost shouted, slamming her hand on the table as she stood up suddenly.
Cherry and Mr. 8 stared at her silently.
"Hehehehehe! That's a good one, Miss Wednesday! Even if you were actually capable of paying me that amount, the issue isn't one that money can solve." Cherry found her lie to be quite amusing. It's obvious that Alabasta wouldn't be doing well financially during such a crisis.
"Alright, it's about time I get a move on." Cherry said, standing up and stretching. "Oh, almost forgot."
Cherry picked up the ruined saxophone gun and stuck the pieces back together, fusing them with her devil fruit. The other two watched with interest and some horror, realizing that she must also a devil fruit user on top of her sword skill. They were glad they didn't push things any further.
After fixing Mr. 8's tie as well, Cherry spoke up again. "Any messages you want to send back to Alabasta in case I head that way? Can't be easy to communicate covertly."
She felt somewhat bad for treating them so harshly before. Cherry found it rather respectable, if stupid, for the Princess to take up this role for her country's sake.
"No, we'd better not. Thank you for the offer." Miss Wednesday said tiredly.
"Okay, then. I'm going to wreak havoc now. Mind telling me where you keep the valuables?" Cherry's face twisted into an evil smile under her mask.