Carrot couldn't stop bouncing in her seat. This was a real Davy Back Fight! One where she didn't even have to worry about getting stolen for her cuteness!
After Chopper, of course. She couldn't compete with that level of sheer adorable sweetness.
"You have to let me play in the next game!" Carrot couldn't contain the somewhat selfish demand. "This is so much fun just watching! I want to be in the thick of it, too!"
"If it's another team game… sure," Nami assented.
"Eeeeeehehehe!" Carrot let out high pitched peels of laughter and thumped her powerful feet on the ground. Then she gasped.
"Ooh! Nico Robin just barely avoided getting knocked out of the arena there!" the stupid looking announcer cried out. "But she just managed to dodge Marco's blast at the last second!"
Robin had managed to do that by simply vanishing her bloomed wings and dropping out of the sky, before creating them again. The whole maneuver left Carrot dazed in admiration and excitement!
The boys on the ground weren't doing too shabby either! Zoro's tiny grass sword let him take the pressure off of her snack provider with a well placed flying slash.
The idiot who looked more like an ugly, flightless bird than a fox blew his whistle again, but then had the audacity to claim he did it by accident! Luckily, whatever advantage he thought he was giving team Mustache was moot, since they didn't even try to capitalize on the distraction.
Carrot nodded her head. Clearly Mustache possessed great wisdom, understanding that games were most fun when played fair.
"Uh oh! Nico Robin has Marco in a headlock!" the loud mouth riding his bird alerted.
That was a bit of an understatement. Not only was she grappling him with her own body, but she was also growing more arms by the second to completely immobilize him!
Sanji and Jinbe amped up their assault on the three enemy horses whilst Zoro split off from the pack.
Zoro's grass swords exploded into green confetti as he performed a technique that Carrot didn't really understand the complexities of. The end result was all that mattered, anyways, and that was Marco's arm-wing flying away from his body!
Robin twisted in the air and hurled him towards the ground! Without both wings, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from crash landing! They'd won!
But Marco didn't hit the ground, no. His arm-wing simply regenerated as they old one disintegrated in flame.
"Nice try-" Marco began with a smirk.
*pweet*
However, he was interrupted by Foxy's whistle. It was much quieter this time, almost sounding reluctant. As for Foxy himself, he looked like he had swallowed a lemon.
"Marco is out of bounds. Straw Hats… win," Foxy grumbled, his voice low as if he didn't want anyone to hear him for once.
Marco blinked at him in confusion, before looking down at his arm-wing, the one he had regenerated. He had been so focused on stopping his fall, that he hadn't noticed he was just on the edge of the arena and he reformed his limb outside of it.
"Ah, nuts," Marco landed and scratched his head awkwardly, a goofy half smile adorning his face.
"Me next!" Carrot hopped up. "I get to go next!"
"Not so fast, little bunny!" Foxy tutted. "We have to do the exchange first. What'll it be, Straw Hat? Which island are you taking?"
"Fishman Island. Next game!" Luffy didn't hesitate for a second. "I'm sick of waiting! Hurry up!"
"Alright, alright, sheesh," Foxy made a point of slowly meandering his way back to the wheel.
Carrot was already there. "SPIN!"
"Hey, that's my job-!" Foxy started to rush over, but he was too late.
Carrot set the wheel spinning so fast that it wobbled dangerously on its legs. The pegs between the many varied games listed on it sounded like a machine gun as they passed the needle by.
This time, Foxy wasn't able to stop it early, since Carrot was standing right there and growled at him when he approached.
And so, the wheel spun for over ten minutes unabated.
It did eventually come to a stop. Not of its own accord, but because even Whitebeard's patience wore thin when just sitting and drinking without entertainment grew tiresome. He shot an unamused glare at the wheel and it, knowing better than to get on Whitebeard's bad side, decided to stop immediately.
"King of the Hill!" Foxy declared after Porche nudged him awake from his impromptu nap. "The number of participants is decided by the captains in this one! If you can't agree, we'll flip a coin!"
Carrot bounded over to the others where they were starting to huddle together.
"What are the rules for this one?" Franky asked as she squeezed between Nami and Usopp.
Usopp flipped through the rulebook that Cherry stole from Foxy. "Uhhh, ah! Here we go. Looks like this game lasts half an hour and, at the end, whichever team has the most members standing at the highest point on the island wins. Pretty straightforward. No weapons, as usual, and flying doesn't count; you have to be standing on a solid surface."
Franky began to laugh and Cherry joined in, the latter sounding much more sinister.
"What what what? What's so funny?" Carrot chirped. She wasn't in on the joke!
"I'll be joining this game for certain. That's all," Franky said.
"And me!" Carrot insisted. "But why is that funny?"
"Because I'm going to build the highest point on the island!" Franky snickered. "Lots of nice, sturdy trees here. Lucky me."
"We'll have to defend it too," Usopp rubbed his chin. "I could snipe from a nice, tall tower with lots of cover."
"What happens if the old man insists on only a few crew, or just one, and wins the coin toss?" Pudding brought up.
That was certainly a dilemma. Franky was pretty strong and tough, but they were likely to face off against more division commanders. Franky couldn't reasonably fight them off and build at the same time.
Carrot looked over at the other crew and found that they still weren't discussing anything. Were they really that confident that they'd win? Especially after they already lost the first round?
Maybe it was because they had so many of their higher bounties in the first game that Whitebeard was so unworried. But they still had Luffy and Cherry left! Not to mention, Carrot was going to play in this game! Whitebeard was destined to lose!
Wait… if Whitebeard decided only one person gets to play, then will Carrot even get to go?! This was terrible!
"Eh, we don't need to think so hard about this one," Cherry pulled her free from her spiraling despair. "Worse case, Whitebeard wins and takes Wano, then we get it back in the final round. We've already got Fishman Island, so we're already ahead."
"But we have to win!" Carrot disagreed. "If we don't do our best, then we won't have any fun!"
"That is a good point," Cherry nodded. "It also won't be much fun if we get all stressed out over it."
"Then… what do we do?" Carrot pushed her fingers together.
"We go with the flow. Figure out what Whitebeard plans to do, and see from there," Cherry said.