Some things escalated and others were resolved in the time it took Cherry to get Zeus set up, but soon everything would be over.
The time of reckoning was nigh.
Luffy had reached the roof and his showdown with Kaido was imminent.
Zoro and King were busy tearing each other apart, so the latter wasn't going to have a chance to meddle.
Queen was headed for the roof as well, but he was intercepted by Sanji. The Straw Hats' beloved chef seemed to have a bone to pick with him.
Most importantly, Cherry found a great spot to watch from and she had found some popcorn. She even retrieved her pistol from Franky after topping him off, so she'd have the sugary drink on hand.
"Are you sure that you just want to watch?" Reiju asked through a mouthful of caramel popcorn. "His reputation shouldn't be impacted just because you worked together. Plenty of pirate crews are like that."
"You don't understand anything, Sis," Pudding said, drizzling chocolate over a bucket of cheddar popcorn. "Usually the captain of a crew is the undisputed strongest among them, but she's had a larger bounty than he does for a while now. If she helps him now, other pirates will mock him; they'll probably even say that she's the real captain and he's just a figurehead. That's been done before by particularly cowardly pirate captains who don't want the heat of a high bounty."
"Luffy doesn't usually care what people say about him, but I think even his pride couldn't accept that," Robin added. "Not to mention that nobody would recognize him as the Pirate King if they didn't even believe he was the captain of his own crew."
Cherry nodded her agreement. "Look! They're squaring up! So cute~"
*gacha*
Cherry snapped a picture for posterity. Fortunately that photographer from the World Economy News Paper had a spare camera and a strong desire to not be thrown off the floating island into the water below.
Well… she also had to promise to give the newspaper copies of her photos. Anything for a scoop.
"Straw Hat… you and yours have turned my party into quite the mess," Kaido rumbled, then he smiled. "At least it isn't dull, though."
"I don't care! You hurt my friends, so I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy declared.
"You'll try!" Kaido challenged.
Onigashima trembled, one or both battles of Kaido's left and right hand men growing in intensity. It signaled the beginning of his own fight as he and Luffy charged without further ado.
The clash was a swift one.
Luffy narrowly dodged Kaido's swing, both powerful and far faster than it had any right to be.
Luffy's fist buried itself into Kaido's abdomen, forcing him to bend at the waist and his eyes shot wide open with the impact.
"That actually hurt." Kaido recovered quickly, as was typical of zoan types. "You'll have to hit harder than that, though."
They went at each other again, dodging some blows and taking others.
"Luffy's gotta be smarter about this if he wants to win," Cherry commented. "A battle of attrition or trading attacks won't go well for him."
Robin looked on with a worried expression whilst Reiju and Pudding were less invested in his victory and only showed interest.
Kaido soon realized that he wasn't going to take Luffy down so easily this time, so he quickly changed tacts. He shifted into his dragon form, flying into the sky as he prepared to rain hell down upon his rookie opponent.
"Where are you going?!" Luffy cried foul, hanging off of Kaido's tail.
"Release me," Kaido whipped his tail with a resounding snap.
Luffy hurtled into the roof at breakneck speeds. Fortunately he was relatively immune to having his neck broken. He bounced off and rebounded straight back towards the dragon.
Mid flight, Luffy blew into his haki coated arm and quickly took on his Gear Fourth form.
Kaido's charging breath attack was stopped in its tracks as Luffy slammed into his chin, snapping his jaw shut and flinging his head back.
"Oof, that had to hurt," Reiju said. "Can I get a refill of that cream soda?"
Kaido used the momentum of the knockback to spin around in a circle, forming a small cyclone. Then with a rake of his claws, he turned the swirling wind into razor sharp gales.
Luffy bounded through the air with such ease that you'd think he was born in the sky. He skirted around Kaido's flurry of attacks and moved in for another punch.
"He's burning through his stamina pretty quickly. In comparison, Kaido's still fresh," Cherry observed.
"Is he going to burn out before Kaido even beats him?" Pudding asked.
"Hmm," Cherry hummed, not agreeing or disagreeing.
Luffy was doing well, all things considered. He wasn't taking so many attacks head on and he was landing many of his own.
Dragons were not to be underestimated, however.
"You're slowing down, Straw Hat!" Kaido laughed. "Getting tired already?! I've barely gotten warmed up!"
"Not even close!" Luffy answered, but his heavy breath betrayed the truth.
Gear Fourth just took too much out of him too quickly. He had the same problem against Dolfamingo, having failed to defeat the Shichibukai before his limit snuck up on him.
That was just the price of this tremendous power.
Cherry saw it differently. Luffy may not be too smart, but he should be capable of tweaking his techniques to make them more efficient. He was just too lazy to put the work into a technique that he already considered complete.
Cherry would correct that, but that came later.
Kaido and Luffy clashed once again, but something was different this time. Where Luffy had had a clear advantage in raw strength when he first entered Gear Fourth, now he was falling behind.
Kaido's head butt crashed into Luffy to devastating effect. Luffy was launched high into the air and started to deflate along the way, the escaping air sending him even higher.
Robin brought a hand up over her mouth, flicking her nervous gaze at Cherry and back.
"WOROROROROOO!!!" Kaido's laughter echoed like thunder as he charged a mountain-leveling breath.
The girls watched with their own breath frozen in their lungs, unable to look away or even to blink.
Cherry snorted. "Not everyone is keen on sitting back and watching it seems."
The other three had no idea what she meant by that until the light from the glowing energy in Kaido's throat was cast upon a figure diving down from the pitch black night sky.
With silver hair and horns, a wolf-like person swung a weapon not unlike Kaido's own kanabo directly into his spine at terminal velocity.
He might have been mistaken for a mink using Sulong if not for Kaido's pained exclamation, "YAMATO?!"
Kaido's breath was thrown off by the back breaking force of Yamato's fierce blow, firing off into empty sky alongside his surprised shout.
Yamato couldn't fly under his own power, so after his sneak attack he went tumbling back down to the island, flipping ass over tea kettle all the way down.
It looked like he was going to pay quite the price for that blow, until the means by which he got so high up in the sky to begin with revealed herself.
Cabernet's flame burst to life and exploded behind her as she shattered the sound barrier and scooped Yamato out of the air just before he crashed.
"This is really exciting. Are fights always like this with you guys?" Pudding asked.
""Pretty much,"" Cherry and Robin answered at once.