One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 265: Tatababasco



"How are we going to reach Sugar with that snot guy guarding her?" Usopp asked, looking at Robin and Leo, the leader of the tontatta warriors, to see if they had any ideas.

"It's not just him, that snow woman is also lurking around here." Robin pointed out.

"Should we draw Trebol away somehow?" Leo suggested. "My warriors can cause some trouble on the docks?"

"Mm, and I can make use of my surprise to lure him away. Then Leo and Usopp can figure out how to get the tatababasco sauce ball into Sugar's grapes." Robin said.

It was as solid a plan as they could come up with on such short notice.

*CRASH!!!* *CRUMBLE!*

The ground beneath their feet quaked as a deafening blast was heard from nearby.

Seeing Trebol start to move towards the door, they tucked themselves away out of sight as he passed.

"What the hell was that?!" Usopp whispered.

"Cherry." Robin said, after taking a look outside with her bloomed eyes. "She just demolished the factory."

"What?!" Leo exclaimed, just a touch too loudly. He covered his mouth quickly and observed Sugar to see if she had heard him. She hadn't. "Our comrades are in the factory."

"Looks like they're all outside with her, though they're a bit hard to notice with their small stature." Robin reported, allowing Leo to heave a sigh of relief.

"In any case, this is great for us!" Usopp whispered excitedly. "The factory is destroyed, the tontatta rescued, and Trebol is distracted. All that's left to do is take down Sugar!"

They nodded in the affirmative. Leo took up the tatababasco sauce ball and prepared himself for a quick, but stealthy charge across what was pretty much a large empty room. No small task with two pairs of eyes that may spot him.

*Zip!*

Leo sped across the floor with unnatural speed, the fastest of his people. When he took things from the big folk, they never once noticed he had done so until he was already long gone!

Sugar was turned away from him, making one of the toys she had made not long before Trebol left dance like an idiot, unable to resist her commands. She snickered maliciously, popping grapes into her mouth as she enjoyed the show.

In an alcove near the ceiling, the eyes of a green haired woman flashed as she spotted a blur headed straight towards her little sister. She raised her wings to take flight and prepared to conjure a dense wall of snow around Sugar to block the perpetrator from reaching her.

Instead, several strong arms grappled her limbs and covered her mouth. She burst apart into snow, escaping the clutches of the arms that vanished in a puff of flower petals.

"Sugar!" Monet called out to her sister in alarm.

Sugar turned to look at her, a metaphorical question mark hanging over her head. The blur had vanished, but no harm seemed to have come to Sugar.

"Be careful, I saw a tontatta sneaking around down there! Nico Robin is also somewhere nearby, she just tried to grab me as I was coming down there!" Monet explained briefly.

Monet flew down and remained on guard next to Sugar. The situation was strange, what had been the intruder's goal? They kept their sharp gazes out for anything out of the ordinary. Well, out of the ordinary for a facility that turns people into toys, anyways.

"You, go look for the intruders! If you find someone, scream and return here!" Sugar commanded the still dancing toy.

Seeing the toy step out of the room, they could at least be certain no one was hiding right outside the door.

Sugar lowered her guard a tiny bit and reached for a grape. She didn't see the finger in her basket subtly shift one particular grape into her grasp.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

*nom*

"?!?!!?!?!!?!??!?!?!" Sugar made an incomprehensible sound of panic.

Monet turned towards her sister in worry. Sugar also turned to Monet, but she did so in a desperate bid to cool down her mouth and throat that was rapidly heating up with the woman's snow powers.

When Sugar opened her mouth to communicate her painful predicament, the fresh oxygen that rushed in sparked some kind of reaction. Thus what came from her mouth was not a plea for help, but a blood curdling scream and a gout of flames!

"Ahhhhh!" Monet screamed as well as the flames licked her face. Her snow devil fruit made her particularly vulnerable to heat and flames, amplifying the pain.

Monet's protective instincts for her sister were strong, however, and she didn't hesitate to shoot snow in Sugar's direction. Sugar had been on the verge of unconsciousness when the blast of cold on her skin and into her mouth jolted her fully awake. She shoveled the piling snow into her mouth like a man stranded in the desert gulped water from an oasis.

"It didn't work! Get her!" Leo dried out, he and his warrior not hesitating to charge into the fray with the intent of following plan B. Whack Sugar on the head really hard. Unfortunately, his shout did not go unheard by his enemies and Monet acted instantly. She swirled around in a circle, enclosing both herself and Sugar into an igloo-like dome. "Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano!" Robin crossed her arms and bloomed two giant sized legs. The legs stomped down with unearthly quickness onto the igloo; not completely destroying it, but causing enough damage that the tontatta could slip inside the resulting cracks. The tontatta did just that, letting out little, adorable war cries as they did so. The igloo reformed at the same time that Robin was winding her giant legs back up for another strike.

"Damn! Hit it again, Robin, they weren't quick enough to get inside! Hang back, Leo, I'm going to shoot inside!" Usopp said, oblivious to the fact that some of the tontatta HAD made it inside despite having just watched it happen.

Robin stomped once again, the igloo taking the blow a little better. Fortunately, there was still enough space for Usopp to get a shot inside.

"Green Star: Skull-Blast Grass!" Usopp called out, firing one of his pop greens.

A hand poked out of the igloo and produced a wall of snow between them. "I can hear you, you

know?"

"Run for cover!" Usopp shouted, already moving to do so himself.

The tontatta were quick to dodge, always eager to listen and heed the advice of a great hero like Uso-land! Robin could tell by the name of the attack that he'd shouted that she ought to

do as he said as well.

*BOOM*

An explosion rocked the building, producing an ominous skull shaped cloud in its wake. The officers' tower lost some of its load bearing walls and was liable to collapse on top of them,

but the igloo didn't hold up either.

Monet, holding onto Sugar with her bird feet, flew out of the ruined igloo and then out of the officers' tower as well, now that it had a big hole in the side of it. Though they were confident in dealing with their enemies, there was just too much at risk for them to stick around. Better to meet back up with Trebol and bulldoze them with overwhelming power whilst keeping

Sugar at a safe distance from danger.

Leo ran over to Usopp. "Uso-land! Shoot me!"

"What?!" Usopp was very confused, until Leo clambered up into his Black Kabuto slingshot

and he understood.

"Tontatta Star!" Usopp gave a random name to this as well as if he'd ever do it again.

*Sprong*

Leo flew through the air like an arrow, making himself as aerodynamic as possible by pure

instinct.

Monet noticed just before he landed on her and dodged.

Leo despaired as he started to fall out of reach... Then he was caught by a hand! Robi-land's

hand, blooming from Monet's leg!