"Why did you do that? Put me down!" Uta whined.
"You were jumping around all over the place during your concert. How is flying with me any different?" Cherry asked.
"That isn't the same! In my Uta World, I'm in complete control! There's no risk!" Uta complained.
"There's no risk with me either, and the lack of control just makes it fun, no?" Cherry countered.
"Ugh, you sound like Luffy…" Uta groaned. "He thought teasing the Lord of the Coast was fun, too; but he's not the one who was going to set sail through its territory was he?"
"Well, he would have done eventually, wouldn't he? I can't imagine him taking a different route just for safety's sake once he began his adventure," Cherry said, to which Uta could only grumble in agreement. "We can ask him when we get to Wano."
"Is Wano even real?" Uta questioned. "The history books I've read almost regard it as a myth."
"It's very real, and also very hard to get into the traditional way. I guess for that reason it might as well not exist to the rest of the world, especially since almost nobody leaves the place," Cherry said. "Well, almost nobody except Kaido and his minions, but that's not relevant anymore."
"Luffy really beat him, huh?" Uta asked wistfully. "That man is almost my childhood boogeyman, from the way Shanks used to talk about him."
"Almost?" Cherry looked at her.
"Roux would tell me that Big Mom would eat me up if I didn't eat my vegetables," Uta giggled.
Cherry pointedly looked away without comment.
Uta blinked. "Surely not? There's no way that Big Mom actually eats people…"
"I'm afraid to say that that woman was every bit as terrifying as you imagined her to be and more," Cherry shook her head. "Was, thankfully."
Uta cleared her throat. "So, um, where's your ship?"
She looked out at the stretch of coast, empty of both people and ships. It occurred to her that despite spending most of her life on Elegia, she had never seen this beach. The island was quite small and yet she probably hasn't even seen half of it. She just spent all her time practicing instead of living her life.
The surface of the water swelled. It only became apparent as it did so that a large patch of blue sea was actually a blue something.
The monster was far more imposing in person than it was in story books. A predator that even sea kings much larger than itself are wary of. A Kraken.
"There's my sweet girl~" Cherry cooed.
Uta's brain fizzled to a stop when she heard the beast purr.
"Did that bad man trick you? Maybe I should leave a dead tuna in his bed, hm?" Cherry scratched Takako under what passed for a kraken's chin. "Or maybe a live tuna?"
The image of the giant octopus moping and leaning into Cherry's hands shocked Uta back into normal brain function. "Is that a…?"
"Isn't she beautiful?" Cherry gave the beast a kiss on the forehead.
A horrible thought entered Uta's shaken mind. "We aren't- we aren't going to ride… her to Wano, are we?"
Cherry looked at her. "I wasn't planning to, but we can if you insist. Wano isn't too far from here."
"Nonononono! I don't insist!" Uta waved her hands in front of her and shook her head so vigorously that it made her dizzy.
"Don't be shy, hop on. Takako doesn't bite," Cherry said, hopping onto the monster's head. "She doesn't like being all cooped up anyways, so this is a great chance to stretch her arms."
Takako began to wiggle in excitement, a big goofy smile adorning her enormous face. The movement seemed so casual, but it still kicked up a big enough wave to bowl Uta over.
"Whoops, you got a bit wet there!" Cherry chuckled. "That was going to happen anyways, though. There's no way to stay dry while riding a giant sea creature."
Uta let out a strangled sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper, before reluctantly climbing onto an animal capable of sinking a small ship in seconds.
Little did she know, Takako was capable of far worse.
…
"HahahahaHAAhahahaha!" Uta laughed as raindrops the size of golf balls hammered against her and hurricane winds tried to rip her free from her place atop Takako's head.
This was the fourth storm of this kind they had gotten caught in since the start of the journey. She had forgotten how rough the weather could get on the Grand Line, having spent so many years confined to one island.
Moreover, it seemed that neither Cherry or her octopus companion had a clue about how to avoid such turbulent weather in this chaotic sea. Instead, they just plowed on through by force; just about the dumbest thing you can do.
It was working though. Uta had nearly slipped off during the first storm, but Cherry had learned from the experienced and used her devil fruit to fuse her legs to her spot. A temporary measure, she was assured.
The rush of wind and water suddenly ceased as abruptly as it started. Not because the storm had ended, but because they were now inside the eye of a cyclone!
"I think we'll wait out the storm from inside here this time," Cherry spoke in a bit of a shout. "I see that you've loosened up a little."
"It was either that or die of fright!" Uta accused, but there was a hint of mirth in her tone. "I never imagined that I would miss this, rushing straight into danger like a fool. I remember one time, I had refused to speak with Shanks for a full three days. He got tired of my sulking and sailed us straight into a cyclone just like this one."
"Did you die?" Cherry asked.
Uta snorted. "No, but it did break me out of my bad mood. I was begging him to turn us around not ten seconds after. Of course, he made a point to oblige only after extracting a promise to tell him why I was angry."
Cherry smirked. "And why was that?"
"I can vaguely remember, I must have been four or five at the time. I think I might have left a toy at a port we left weeks before and only realized then. Once I told him, he turned us around and went straight back. More than a month of wasted travel to get a child's toy back…" Uta sighed. "In hindsight, I have no idea how I ever believed that it was them who destroyed Elegia."
"He doesn't seem the sort, does he?" Cherry leaned back, watching as sea water whirled around the column into the sky. "I met him for the first time when I was little, before you were born I expect. I told my Grandma that he gave me booze and sicced her on him."
"That was you?!" Uta laughed. "Beckman loved telling that story! The time an old swordswoman cracked him over the head with a cast iron skillet. 'Red Haired' Shanks was unworthy of dying by her blade, she said!"
That set them both off into a giggle fit. Cherry wished she could have seen it herself.