Cherry had to admit that she was surprised when Nami hadn't all but ordered her to go find the missing princess.
Instead, Nami had directed her to find the fugitive royal protector, Attano Corvo. Cherry was glad for it, too, because finding a little girl in this fairly sizable population would have been annoying.
Corvo, on the other hand, was not squirreled away from prying eyes.
Cherry tore a wanted poster free from a brick wall. On it was a sketch of a hood figure wearing a peculiar mask, wanted for the mutilation of the High Overseer among other crimes. The masked man was not outright named as Corvo, but it was as good a lead as any.
Even with a clue, it was a daunting task. Not nearly as easy as finding a person she was already familiar with.
"Hey, you haven't seen this guy have you?" Cherry asked the first person she saw on the street.
The old man took a look at the poster, then at her. "Nah, I ain't seen him."
Oh, wow. She got a hit on the first try? Because this guy just told a bold faced lie if she ever heard one.
"Are you sure?" Cherry got right up into his personal space, and not in a fun way.
The old man noticed the shift in her demeanor from curious to dangerous and stepped back, probably rethinking his life choices. "I don't know what else to tell ya. I think I'd remember a mask like that."
"And I think you do remember a mask like that," Cherry pressed. "I'm interested in meeting this fellow, maybe send some cash his way in exchange for a little work. Maybe there's a little cash in it for you too, if your memory gets a little clearer in the next few seconds."
"Well," the old man hesitated. "Maybe I seen someone like that. It was dark, though, couldn't see too clearly…"
Cherry pulled a few 10,000 Beri notes out. "Perhaps these are enough to clear up your hindsight?"
The old man snatched the notes. "A couple of Bottle Street boys were tryin' to collect my debt, and this stranger shows up and knocks 'em out clean. Even pried the boards off my door that they put there to make sure I couldn't run. He bought a few things from me and went on his way."
"Any idea where he went, or where he came from?" Cherry asked.
"Wasn't payin' him any attention before he busted those thugs up, and I wasn't tryin' to see where he was going after. I don't pry in other people's business," the old man insisted. "Alls I know, is it was the same night that he supposedly attacked the High Overseer, if you believe the posters."
"Where is the place you were trapped, and where is the place the High Overseer was?" Cherry asked, getting a few vague directions.
"Hmm, well thanks anyway," Cherry let the old man go on his way.
Not as helpful as she'd hoped, but she has a general path to follow. Perhaps by retracing it, she'll find something more substantial.
…
Okay, this guy was good. She's traipsed through the city with a fine toothed comb for three hours now, and nothing!
Robin would have found where he sleeps already. She was way better at this spycraft stuff than Cherry.
She had basically given up on finding him the normal way at this point. Now she was covering the whole city to find anyone with devil fruits. Interesting figures often had devil fruits, so there was a non zero chance that the masked dude was too.
The first was some sort of… rat woman in the sewers. She was fairly sure that wasn't who she was looking for and left her alone.
The second was familiar to her, actually. It was the Flex Flex Fruit, formerly owned by 'Body Builder' Victor, may he rest in pieces.
There were other devil fruit users in the city, a far greater volume than she'd expect from a country in East Blue actually, but she would check this one out first.
"That's a lot of thugs," Cherry commented quietly from her rooftop perch.
The building that the new user of the Flex Flex Fruit resided in was guarded by more than a fair few burly men. There was no real surprise there; strength attracts strength, and all that. She wondered if the new user was a bean pole like the last one, without the influence of his fruit.
The answer was no. The guy was fucking massive even before using his fruit. He was probably wider than he was tall, and it was all muscle. He also had a sweet handlebar mustache and sideburn combo that really suited him. The slicked back hair kind of made him look like a douchebag, though.
"Hey," Cherry spoke up.
"What do you want?" he asked without missing a beat.
"You're awfully composed," Cherry praised genuinely. People usually flipped out when she snuck up on them like that. That was the normal reaction to have, when you discovered someone had gotten into your locked office while you were in it without you noticing in the slightest.
"And you're within wringing distance," he looked into her eyes. "So, what do you want? I'm a busy man."
"Got any idea where this guy is?" Cherry went ahead and showed him the wanted poster.
"If I did, I wouldn't tell ya," he grabbed a box of fancy cigars and started the process of lighting one for himself. "His infiltration of the High Overseer's offices was clean work, the kind of talent I'd like to hire for myself. You, on the other, are some kind of assassin, so I'd rather not tell you where a future asset of mine is, capiche?"
"Okay. What about this guy?" Cherry showed him another wanted poster, this one of Attano Corvo.
"So they are the same guy, huh? Nice to know," he took a long drag from his cigar. Cherry was pretty sure you weren't supposed to smoke cigars like that. "Anything else?"
"Who are you?" Cherry asked.
"Bahaha!" he roared. "You're serious, aren't you? You went to all this trouble and don't even know my name?"
"From the iconography I've seen around this compound, I presume you're the leader of the Bottle Street gang I've heard about. I wouldn't know your name though, not being from around here," Cherry honestly answered.
"A foreigner, huh? Should have guessed as much. You look kind of familiar, now that I'm thinking about it," he rubbed his chin. "Whatever. I'm Slackjaw."
Slackjaw extended a hand for a shake. Cherry took it and he flexed, putting a great deal more strength into his grip than was polite.
"Now, I don't take kindly to- urgh?!" Slackjaw winced as Cherry put a bit of strength into her own grip. Quite a bit more than he put in his, in fact.
Cherry pulled her hand away, much to his relief. "My apologies. When you squeezed my hand like that, I assumed that we were going with the classic dick measuring contest. I didn't realize you were trying to threaten me."
Slackjaw massaged his hand, which now bore a bright red handprint around it. He studied her closely, then said, "Oh, fuckin' hell."