CHAPTER 599: DIRTY DUELING

"This thing really is useless..." Cherry clicked her tongue and gave the compass a shake, as if that would make it do what she wanted it to. "It must like you a whole lot, Robin, because I swear it hasn’t so much as twitched away from you."

"Let me try..." Robin moved behind Cherry and wrapped her arms around her, resting her chin on Cherry’s shoulder to see the compass. "Oh, look at that."

"What the fuck?" Cherry exclaimed. The compass finally spun away from Robin and pointed in the direction of... Will’s blacksmith, probably. "How does this thing even work???"

"It’s very mysterious, that’s for sure," Robin nodded, though the nod ended up being more of a nuzzle into Cherry’s neck.

"Don’t pretend like you haven’t figured it out!" Cherry complained.

Robin tittered and let her go.

"WHY?!" Cherry shouted. The compass had gone back to pointing at Robin.

Robin laughed like she heard the best knock knock joke in the world.

Cherry huffed and put the compass away. It was a riddle that she could sort out some other time. "I think it was pointing to the blacksmith for a second there, anyways. Let’s go."

Avoiding the soldiers rushing around town was a piece of cake for the two of them. Not that a pair of well dressed women would be stopped to begin with.

Cherry waited for a trio of soldiers to run past the shop before approaching the front door.

"Do you hear that?" Cherry asked.

"Sounds like a sword fight," Robin observed.

"Indeed," Cherry tried the door. "Locked."

She tried the door again, and this time it swung open without resistance; although, the lock was still latched to the door frame.

Cherry stepped inside, waited for Robin to do so as well, then shut the door and fused it back together.

An older man who stank of cheap booze was snoring away in a chair, blissfully ignorant of the violent duel happening in the forge further in.

"Mr. Brown, I presume," Robin said.

"I guess. He wasn’t here yesterday and his work is crap," Cherry dismissed.

They left Mr. Brown to his nap and went to have a peek at the duelists.

It was almost like watching a dance. Will and Jack, of all people, pranced around the room, using any surface they liked for their fancy footwork.

It was only a few moments after Cherry and Robin started observing them that the two men noticed their audience.

"Miss Harpin!" Will shouted in alarm. "You mustn’t be here! This man is a dangerous pirate, and he has no qualms with threatening women!"

"No point in warning her, lad. She’s a pirate too," Jack said, then leveled an annoyed look at Cherry. "Give me back my compass!"

Will took Jack’s momentary lapse in focus to lunge at him, but was deftly parried. Then they were off again.

"I won’t allow you to impugn on a lady’s honor with your lies, pirate!" Will denied his claim without doubt or hesitation.

"Yeah!" Cherry agreed. "Neither myself nor any of my sailing companions are wanted for any acts of piracy anywhere in the Cheribbean Sea!"

As far as she knew, anyways. It has been a whole day, so Luffy could have gotten up to all kinds of trouble by now.

"What cheap tactics will you try to distract me with now, pirate?" Will sneered at Jack.

Jack spat in his face.

"And they call me Cheapshot..." Cherry muttered.

Robin elbowed her in the ribs. "You’re worse."

"Don’t flirt with me in front of the boy," Cherry chastised.

Will was fortunate enough to have flinched back when Jack hocked a loogie in his direction, just barely managing to avoid the disgusting glob a spit and phlegm.

Unfortunately, this gave Jack enough space to reposition himself somewhere more advantageous... right behind the two lovely ladies who graciously provided him with a living obstacle to use against his more honorable foe.

"Excuse me, don’t mind me," Jack said and he squeezed past them into the storefront. He reached the front door and started fumbling with the latch to unlock it-

*thump*

-and a sword jammed into it in just the right spot to make the latch immovable. At least not without a great deal of force, or tools to work away at it.

*whistle* "Damn, that was cool," Cherry appreciated. "Threaded it right between our hands, too. Never seen Zoro do something like that."

"Zoro is more focused on the killing aspect of swordsmanship, I suppose," Robin commented.

"My apologies, ladies," Will even looked like he meant it, as he tried to get around them to Jack. "You really should be going, though."

"And miss all the fun?" Cherry smiled. "Oh, you should meet my wife. Introduce yourself, wife."

Robin leveled a look at her, then smiled at Will. "I’m Nico Robin. Nice to meet you."

""Wife?"" Will and Jack asked as one.

"You got a problem with that?" Cherry raised an eyebrow.

Will shook his head quickly.

"Absolutely not," Jack winked.

Will tried to gut Jack, but of course Jack saw it coming and made things difficult for the poor boy.

"What’s your beef with Jack anyways, Will?" Cherry asked.

"What do you mean? He’s a pirate!" Will explained. "And he threatened Miss Swann!"

"Yep, that’ll do it," Cherry nodded. "Jack also saved her from drowning a few minutes beforehand though. The navy’s men were fumbling with their ridiculous overcoats and he jumped right in with only a moment’s hesitation."

"He did?" Will frowned and kicked Jack away. "Wait... How do you know his name?"

"That Norrington fellow said it when he caught up to him," Robin covered seamlessly.

"He led me to a shady bar in the early hours of the morning and tried to get me drunk," Cherry instead added fuel to the fire. "I’m not such a lightweight that just one bottle of hard liquor will do me in, though!"

"You followed me and tried to get me drunk!" Jack accused. "Then you stole my compass!"

"Like anyone would believe a pirate," Cherry tutted.

"I might give you the compass back if you tell me if Miss Swann had anything... strange on her person," Cherry offered, dangling the compass to tempt him.

"Strange?" Will asked. "Strange how?"

"Didn’t see anything, sorry!" Jack lunged for the compass.

*click*

Then Jack found himself with a pistol in his face. He barely even caught the motion of her drawing it. It was an odd looking firearm, but the way she brandished it led him to believe it was no less dangerous than the standard fair.

"No need for that..." Jack realized only then that his sword was gone. He hadn’t seen her do that at all!

"Miss Harpin has you dead to rights, pirate," Will sounded unbelievably smug as he leveled his own sword at Jack’s back. "Best you surrender now, and preserve what remains of your life."

Jack drew his own pistol and leveled it at Will.

"I’ll take option number three. You let me leave and nobody gets hurt," Jack threatened.

"Shoot him," Will insisted, glancing at Cherry.

"She won’t do that, lad," Jack spoke with confidence. "She likes you more than me, but not so much that she’ll shoot me rather than let me go free, if that’s an option."

*crack*

"Augh...?" Jack slumped to the ground, his legs squeezed together around his busted balls.

"Robin!" Cherry exclaimed. "I didn’t know you had it in you!"

"How did you know he wouldn’t shoot?" Will asked. He didn’t sound offended at all, just curious.

"I had a feeling that shot wasn’t meant for you," Robin shrugged.