"That was a pretty bright flash there. Are they okay?" Uta asked, skipping along beside Cherry.
"They're fine. They jumped into the pit just in time, and the feral zombies didn't get any good shots in on them. Good job on those, by the way. Very creepy," Cherry said.
"Thanks!" Uta accepted the praise with a smile. "I don't get to practice much with that sort of thing."
Uta looked behind them. "You know that I could just make them walk. It won't use up that much more energy than my world does."
Cherry cast a glance back at her three unconscious crewmates lying in the red hand wagon she pulled behind her.
"But they look so cute like this~!" Cherry answered.
Uta laughed. "They do, don't they!"
…
"You guys can come out now," Cherry peeked down the into the pitfall and called out to them.
Fortunately, the tree branch that had been placed there before hadn't been moved, so they were able to climb out with only a bit of difficulty.
"You're buying me at least three new outfits," Nami grumbled as she futilely scraped away the caked mud from her clothes.
"I'm going to be cleaning this out of my fur for weeks…" Chopper moaned, shaking himself like a wet dog.
"Did you get them?" Usopp seemed to be the only one unconcerned with the filth. He kicked at an extra crispy zombie, hoping it wouldn't jump back up and attack him.
"I think so. They weren't really alive to begin with, though, so there's no telling," Cherry said.
"Should we, uh, do something about that?" Chopper asked, gesturing at the great many trees around them they were burning like a hundred bonfires.
"I suppose I should. Wano's lost enough wildlife in the last twenty years," Cherry said.
A frigid wind blew in from the northeast. Rather than spread the flames further as any normal wind should, it instead extinguished them quickly and without mercy. The temperature plummeted from the heat of a warm oven to a particularly cold winter night.
The trio, who were still a bit damp from their impromptu mud wrestling session, shivered at the change. Neither Usopp or Nami had dressed for this sort of weather, but for Chopper this was a bit surreal.
"Why am I shivering?" Chopper's teeth chittered. "The cold shouldn't bother me this much…"
"This doesn't make any sense," Nami said, somewhat regretting that she'd removed the thick layer of mud from her body. "There shouldn't be any cold fronts moving into this area tonight, and it certainly shouldn't have put the fires out."
"Hm," Cherry hummed, unperturbed by the biting chill. "That breeze came from the northeast."
"W-what does that have to d-do with anything?" Usopp struggled to say without a shivering stutter.
"There's a superstition here in Wano. The northeast is considered unlucky because evil spirits come to the living world from that direction, and they take it seriously enough that they don't even put doors or windows on the northeast side of any buildings they construct. Interestingly, the sea down below is also insanely dangerous on the northeastern side of Wano. There's loads of shipwrecks; a proper graveyard full of them," Cherry explained, and funnily enough she was telling the truth.
"You're just messing with us, right? All of this is just an elaborate prank?" Usopp asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.
A fog rolled in with unnatural speed, so dense that it would be hard to see more than a few meters even in sunlight. At night, it made it nearly impossible to see any more than a single meter.
"I haven't quite figured out how to control the weather, Usopp. That's Nami's field of expertise," Cherry shook her head.
Usopp looked at Nami.
"I'm not doing this, stupid!" Nami chastised.
"Keep your wits about you. I'm sure this fog isn't as empty as it seems," Cherry said, but oddly her voice grew more distance with each word, until she could hardly be heard at all.
"Cherry?!" Usopp shouted. Hearing no answer, he tried, "Nami! Chopper!"
Nothing.
Nami and Chopper were in a similar predicament, and quickly they all realized that they were utterly alone and even more blind than they had been before.
Cherry snickered. The sound proof fog had been Uta's idea, and it was working brilliantly. Cherry's three trainees were still standing quite close to each other, but the earth beneath their feet was slowly pulling them apart. Their cowardly natures would prevent them from trying to move immediately, so there was no risk of them accidentally bumping into each other.
Cherry thought it was a real shame that Uta didn't want to stick with the crew once they left Wano. Her illusory world was perfect for creating these customized training environments.
She respected the pop star's choice, though. The girl had spent half her life wallowing in self pity on an island with only one other person. At the same time, she didn't really want to live the dangerous life of a member of the future King of the Pirates' crew.
Cherry had asked her what she was going to do about the World Government, since they likely hadn't forgotten her little stunt.
She said, "I'll shave my head."
It was a stupid plan that couldn't possibly work against anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together… which meant it would work just fine.
Back to the trainees, the first of their foes were arriving. Skeletal pirates; and not the fun kind, like Brook. No, these ones wanted to steal your flesh for their own bones.
The silent screams were music to Cherry's ears.
"Maybe now you'll start using observation haki, you dummies," Cherry said, though no one but herself and Uta heard her.
Usopp was quick on the uptake. He'd already started using it before Uta put him to sleep, which had honestly impressed Cherry since he hadn't really built the instincts to use it under pressure yet. Or the instincts to use it much at all.
That was going to change, even if it took all night.
…
"Alright, Uta, ramp it up," Cherry said.
"Are you sure? They're being pushed pretty hard already," Uta asked hesitantly.
"The worst they've gotten is a few nicks from rusty blades," Cherry said. "Usopp's trying, but the other two are just running around like headless chickens. If they aren't going to do it the easy way, then I'll make them do it the hard way."
"I'm the one making them do it, though…" Uta spoke in a small voice. "I don't want to hurt them. They're very kind."
"It's tough love," Cherry said. "They're sailing in the most dangerous sea in the world. You're not hurting them, you're helping them survive their own choices."
Uta clearly didn't like it, but she acquiesced anyway. As someone who sailed with Shanks in her early years, she understood how dangerous life in the Grand Line, and especially the New World, could be. Even Shanks' seasoned crew had lost someone to battle during those years; she remembered the funeral quite clearly.
Uta glanced at the pirates seemingly peacefully sleeping in the wagon and grit her teeth. "One wake up call, coming right up."