One Piece: Dream of Immortality

"This boy…" Cherry sighed.

A lot of people thought that Cherry was a monster. She knew this, and to an extent she even agreed with the assessment.

But Cherry was an old monster. All of her accomplishments in this world are built upon a foundation of centuries of experience and esoteric knowledge.

Luffy was a different kind of monster altogether. Two years and some change ago, he was just another brat lucky enough to get a hold of a devil fruit from East Blue. Yet here he was, getting ready to fight one of the strongest men on the planet and Cherry had to admit that he had a chance of winning.

Not a very big chance, she reckoned, but slim odds had always been the best odds for a child of destiny.

"Alright!" Luffy cheered with his trademark toothy smile, arms stretched up in the air.

"I'd say you've got it down pat now, captain. Now you just need a real fight to get the kinks out," Cherry said.

"Kaido's going down!" Luffy declared.

"Indeed," Cherry agreed. She didn't tell him about her thoughts on his chances. He wouldn't want to hear it, for one; and she'd take Kaido down personally if she had to anyways, so it was true regardless. "First, you should have a nap, though. You've been up for three days."

"You think so? I feel fine-" Luffy said, before he toppled over and hit the ground with a loud snore.

"I don't think you had to do that, Chopper," Cherry said to the little reindeer who was holding a now empty syringe.

"Luffy can't fight an Emperor of the sea on no sleep!" Chopper harrumphed.

"Fair enough, I suppose, but I think he would have done so himself soon enough," Cherry said.

"I'm not taking any risks," Chopper insisted, carefully stowing the used needle away. "He didn't even feel it when I stuck him."

"Mm," Cherry agreed half-heartedly. "I'll make sure he's in tip top shape when he wakes up."

…

Luffy blinked his eyes open.

The sun shone through a canopy of leaves above him. He sat up and looked around before realizing that he was on Chopper's back.

"Where are we?" Luffy asked.

"We're almost at Amigasa village, Luffy. You needed some rest, so the others went ahead of us," Chopper related to him.

"Chopper, Luffy!" the familiar voice of Nami called out from a distance.

Luffy hopped off of Chopper's back. His reindeer friend was moving too slowly for his taste.

"Nami!" Luffy waved and raced over to her.

"Guess who's here, Luffy," Name said.

Luffy tilted his head. "Grandpa?"

"... No." Nami looked at him like he'd hit his head. "It's Ace."

"Ace!" Luffy shouted in delight before racing off into the village proper.

Luffy ran around the place aimlessly for several minutes before a hand clamped down on his shoulder and stopped him.

"If you're looking for me, I gave you my vivre card, remember?" Ace asked with an exasperated smile.

Luffy wrapped his arms around Ace and squeezed him so tight that you might think it'd been years since he last saw him.

…

"Wow… just, wow," Cherry marveled at the sight before her.

Hundreds of mutated beasts were formed up in ranks as they followed the bleated commands of Merry in perfect sync.

"To be honest, I'm not sure what to do with them, but I also don't want to hurt her feelings by saying we don't need them," Kin'emon said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, it's not like all of our enemies are going to be at the fire festival, right? I'm sure there's a target or two we can set them upon," Cherry suggested.

"The problem is that we can't trust these animals not to cause harm to nearby civilians. Avoiding collateral damage is the main reason we're attacking Onigashima," Kin'emon said.

"I guess I could just set them loose at the festival. It'd make for a decent distraction when things inevitably go wrong," Cherry said.

"I… suppose that'll do," Kin'emon relented. "You'll have to sort out transport yourself, though. We barely have enough ships as it stands."

"Sure," Cherry smiled, already looking forward to the chaos. Then she exclaimed, "Oh!"

Cherry was running off before Kin'emon could inquire about the reasoning.

…

"This is insane!" Pudding cried.

"You don't think they can do it?" Reiju asked.

"My mother is here! She's teamed up with Kaido! Of course they can't do it!" Pudding nay-sayed. "One of them, sure, but both at once?!"

"That's what she said," Reiju sipped her tea.

"Don't joke at a time like this!" Pudding shook her possible sister in law by the shoulders.

"I'm not joking. Cherry said she could take both at once," Reiju clarified. "She also waggled her eyebrows when she said it, though."

"Impossible!" Pudding threw her hands up in outrage with a huff.

"Pudding-chan~! I brought you some cake~!" Sanji twirled into the scene.

Pudding's dour mood instantly turned around as she gushed over how sweet Reiju's brother was and thanked him for his thoughtfulness about a hundred times before they reluctantly parted.

"Maybe Sanji can just put Big Mom into a food coma and save us all the trouble," Reiju commented.

Pudding gasped, "You're brilliant!"

She was gone, chasing after the departing Sanji before Reiju could say, "I was actually joking that time."

Although, now that she thought about it… it wasn't the worst idea in the world. It only required there to be enough food to oversaturate Big Mom's notorious appetite.

…

Cherry found Luffy, Ace, and Yamato day drinking as if they weren't going to battle tomorrow.

"Whitebeard must be shaking in his boots after the Davy Back challenge, huh? Can't let our captain hog all the glory of taking down Kaido," Cherry spoke provocatively.

"Huh?!" Ace stood and glared at her.

"Why else would he send you here, if not to suck up as much credit for the fall of an Emperor as he can," Cherry smirked.

"I came here first, four years ago! If anybody's barging in, it's you!" Ace accused.

"Luffy's been out to sea for half that time and he stepped up to the challenge right away. What's your excuse?" Cherry asked.

Ace growled but couldn't argue. Or rather, he couldn't use the perfectly reasonable "I wasn't strong enough" excuse without also admitting that his kid brother has already caught up to him.

"You shouldn't underestimate my father!" Yamato jumped to his defense, though Ace wasn't sure he wanted it.

"You shouldn't overestimate him," Cherry shot back. "Whitebeard knew what was happening here, but he didn't want to risk his crew. He's an overprotective father in the worst way he can be. I'm honestly surprised he had the nerve to attack Marineford."

"Marineford is what changed his mind," Ace grumbled. "He wanted to go alone, initially; to only risk his own neck. Our family didn't agree with that."

"So he realized he's old as dirt and can't stop his kids from throwing themselves into danger forever," Cherry said.

Ace nodded, a bit reluctant to agree.

"That's about what I thought," Cherry said with a nod of her own.

"Why do you gotta be such a jerk about it, then?!" Ace demanded.

"I wasn't sure. If you hadn't given me a good answer, I'd have sent you back to your Pops. You never know when old folks will start worrying about stupid shit like their legacy," Cherry said, snatching a bottle from Ace's hands and having a sip herself.

Ace gave her a side eye, but decided that starting a fight right now wasn't a good idea, even to his drunken mind.