"Damn it! Hurry up and lower the drawbridge! The Buster Call is here, we need to catch Nico Robin and escape before they start bombarding the island!" Spandam's voice was heard across the whole of Enies Lobby over the intercom system.
"B-but sir?! Shouldn't we warn the marines on the island to evacuate?!" Another voice asked.
"Forget them! They will have died a glorious death on the day of my promotion!" Spandam shouted.
"S-sir, I think that Den Den Mushi is broadcasting to the whole island..." The other voice said.
"Huh? AH, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME, YOU FOOL?!" The intercom audibly shut off afterwards.
A panic ensued amongst the marines, most of whom forgot all about the pirates rampaging on the island and made for their ships. This opened a clear path for the Straw Hats' side to escape as well, though they still needed to deal with the remaining CP9 agents.
Luffy's fight with Rob Lucci was the hardest of them. He took quite a beating from the leopard man, but ultimately did come out on top.
A notable addition to Luffy's techniques was Gear Third, in which he apparently inflated his bones to create giant limbs. Cherry thought it was rather absurd, but she couldn't say anything about it since it worked.
At least until it wore off and left him as a miniature version of himself. Cherry made a mental note to tease him about it later.
Cherry let them have their battles, it would be good for their growth. She observed a new technique being used by Rob Lucci and the weirdo with white makeup and long purple hair. It seemed to allow them near complete control over their bodies, which would certainly be useful in Cherry's arsenal.
By the time their battles were coming to an end, Cherry had pretty much got the hang of it. Not too surprising since both this technique and Rokushiki had more to do with body control than skill. That was right up a body cultivator's alley.
The Gates of Justice had completely opened by now and the bombardment began. The explosions slowly made their way forward, razing the island to the ground.
Cherry joined up with the others. "Should I do anything about that Spandam guy? He'll probably make his way onto a marine ship and escape if we do nothing."
Robin looked incredibly uncomfortable, likely due to the Buster Call drudging up bad memories. "Let's just leave. There's no reason to take any risks over that thing."
They could see the shore now, but there was a problem. Several marine warships had circled around to intercept them. Fortunately, they weren't targeting them directly, though it was quite strange that they weren't.
They seemed to have picked up the marines from the island. Cherry raised her opinion of the marines by just a little bit for that small act of decency.
A voice commanded loudly from one of the ships. "This is Vice Admiral Onigumo. All marines ranked Commander and above will engage the Straw Hats. Nico Robin is to be apprehended alive, per Admiral Aokiji's orders."
That explained why they weren't being bombarded.
There were a surprising number of officers of that high of rank that came out to meet them.
For example, a masked marine who clashed swords with Zoro attempted to grab one of his swords. Zoro remembered Cherry's advice from weeks ago and kick him to create distance. No doubt he would have lost a blade just then had he allowed it.
Cherry thought that it was quite fascinating how many devil fruit users were gathered in one place, despite their supposed rarity. The Grand Line lived up to its name, that was for sure.
She was kind of annoyed that the Vice Admirals had yet to move a muscle from their ships, though. So she didn't leave them the option of hiding themselves away while their subordinates did all the hard work.
She rampaged across the ships, using hit and run tactics to attack the Vice Admirals before running away to the next before they could counter attack. They were a tough lot, but they wouldn't be leaving Enies Lobby unharmed, at least.
Cherry's "innocent" laughter would haunt the dreams of many of the marines who were present here for years to come.
Eventually, thanks to Cherry's distraction, the other Straw Hats, shipwrights, the Franky Family, and the two giants who were originally on the marines' side managed to board the Franky Family's ship and the Puffing Tom, and rushed out to sea. The marines didn't even notice due to the chaos until they got a big head start.
Cabernet came to Cherry's side to pick her up. Cherry had been so enthralled with the battle she didn't even notice her until she picked her up by the scruff of her shirt.
"Ah! Wait Cabernet, just one more!" Cherry said, stopping her from flying off with her.
Cherry swung her sword sending a sword light twisting and dodging between the marines and the warships.
"AHHH! MY LEGS!!!" A distant shout rang out from Spandam on another ship.
"Now we can go. Hehehehehe!" Cherry's actions and words sent shivers down the spines of the nearby marines.
They took off faster than anyone could react to and soon enough found themselves on the roof of the Puffing Tom.
The marine warships prepared to pursue them, but Admiral Aokiji's appeared and told them they had lost and to give up. This was frustrating for the Vice Admirals, but they couldn't openly question his judgement and simply let it go for now.
Back on the Puffing Tom, everyone was celebrating their victorious escape.
"Baaah!" Merry bleated.
"Merry says she had fun and hopes we'll have more exciting adventures!" Chopper translated, whilst he was trying to make Cherry sit still and put casts on her broken legs.
Cherry eventually relented and let him do whatever would set his mind at ease. It really wasn't necessary to have healing aids at this point of her cultivation though.
The fifth realm of body cultivation was called the Blood Rebirth Realm. It's primary purpose was to increase the healing capability of the body by an enormous degree. Its name comes from the idea that a top rated body cultivation method could enable one to restore their body from a single drop of blood if the fifth realm was perfected.
That wasn't such an easy thing to achieve, however. Cherry even thought that a single devil fruit may not be enough to push this particular realm to perfection. She would need something more potent, and her mind often came back to the fact that when a devil fruit user ate a second devil fruit, they would "explode". It was a very dangerous idea.
Eventually they made it back to Water 7 where Iceburg was waiting to receive them.
"I'm glad you made it back safely." Iceburg said to everyone.
"Of course we did, who do you take us for?" Franky huffed.
Iceburg leaned in to whisper to Franky. "I asking just in case, but they didn't get the blueprints did they?"
"Ah! That's right! Cherry, how could you snatch the blueprints from me?! That was supposed to be my SUPER moment!" Franky complained loudly.
"What do you mean? If I didn't take them, the old man would have just a split second later. Besides you promised to let me have a look and I burned them afterwards, so it's all good, right?" Cherry made excuses.
Franky wanted to argue, but her logic was sound and she did save his life, so he couldn't muster anything to say.
"Well, it's okay if she just had a quick look at them, Franky. We're the best shipwrights in the world, and even we couldn't memorize them." Iceburg consoled.
"No, I did memorize them though?" Cherry tilted her head.
Iceburg and Franky's jaws dropped. Images flashed in their minds of Cherry at the helm of Pluton laughing like a demon. They shook the thought out of their heads, choosing to place their hopes in Cherry's good nature.
"Well, anyways. I want to thank you guys for everything. I bought a sizable amount of the best wood in the world in order to make my dream ship. I'd like to give that ship to you guys, once I've finished with it." Franky offered generously. Conveniently forgetting that it was their money that paid for the wood in the first place.
The Straw Hats didn't sweat the small stuff, however, and graciously accepted the offer.
There was about a week to kill whilst Franky was busy building his "Dream Ship", as he called it.
Cherry made sure to ask him to save all of the scrap wood left over as she could always fuse it back together to create bigger pieces. She planned to use that wood for various projects of her own during the week.
The first of which was to attempt to make her own vivre Cards, in order to track the Straw Hats. They seemed to get into the most trouble when they were separated from one another after all.
She had Luffy show her Ace's Vivre Card as an example to base her own off of, and after a few attempts she managed to make her own version of them. It took about 2 days to complete the experimental processes necessary to do so.
She made a little booklet of Vivre Cards, each page being for each member of the Straw Hats. This way she could find each of them whenever she needed to.
The group was hanging out in the hotel room discussing future plans.
"Hm? Somebody is coming this way, guys. Seems pretty strong." Cherry spoke up.
*BLAM!*
The wall of the hotel room exploded. Or at least it seemed to as an old man in a vice admiral's uniform walked in.
"Grandpa?!" Luffy shouted nervously.
"Don't you owe me an apology, Luffy? Not only did you become a pirate, you even dragged Miss Harpin down to your level!" Garp growled, slamming a fist into the top of Luffy's head.
"And you, Miss Harpin. What are you doing becoming a pirate? Your Grandfather was an old drinking buddy of mine, his dojo trained many fine marines." Garp interrogated.
Cherry took in the presence of the old man. He wasn't like the indecisive Aokiji or the depraved Wilson Alexander. This was a man who was firm in his convictions and sense of justice.
"The government decided those fine marines weren't enough and put that bastard of a world's greatest swordsman on their payroll instead. Don't blame me for the choice they made." She said unflinchingly.
"Your tongue is as sharp as your Grandmother's. Bwahahaha!" Garp laughed, though Cherry thought she could sense some feelings of guilt beneath it.
"Anyways, I trained you to be a marine, not a damned pirate Luffy!" Garp shouted at him.
"I've always said I wanted to be a pirate!" Luffy countered.
"It's that damned Red Hair that's corrupted you!" Garp shouted back stubbornly.
"Shut up! Shanks saved my life!" Luffy yelled.
Garp continued to scold (and punch) Luffy for a while, until they eventually both got sick of it and gave up.
They had a little reunion with some old acquaintances, Colby and Helmeppo. Cherry was a bit surprised to see Colby use Soru from Rokushiki. She supposed they didn't just teach it to Cipher Pol agents.
They chatted some more whilst Garp and the marines fixed the hole he made in the wall, during which Garp accidentally told everyone that Dragon was his son and Luffy's father.
When Luffy went to go catch up with Colby and Helmeppo, Cherry followed Nami to the pool where she listened in on their conversion with a hidden Den Den Mushi.
"A shame we can't feed questions to Luffy. Those guys have really loose lips." Cherry commented.
A bit later a man with a camera approached them. "U-um, excuse m-me! I'm with the local newspaper, can I get some photos?"
"Oh, sure! You have to get a good one though, one that makes me look the cutest!" Nami was happy to get the attention.
"M-may I have one of you as well, m-miss?" He asked Cherry nervously.
"For the bounty posters, right?" Cherry gave a menacing grin.
"What?!" Nami exclaimed.
He swiftly took a photo of Cherry and ran away.
"Wow, he's pretty quick on his feet. No wonder they have him taking the bounty photos." Cherry praised.
"Why didn't you tell me that he was lying?" Nami was distraught, shaking Cherry by the shoulders.
"Hehehe, you're supposed to be the most wary one of our little ragtag group, Nami. Except for Robin, of course." Cherry teased.
Later on they had a big barbeque banquet for everyone involved in their little misadventure this time. Again Nami seemed to fail to realize it was their own money that Luffy spent to make this possible, but Cherry wouldn't ruin her mood.
Cherry didn't miss Aokiji trying to crash the party. She noticed him strike up a conversation with Robin through the wall of the courtyard.
Cherry slowly approached whilst drawing her sword, trying to reduce the presence of her will to the minimum.
Naturally Robin saw this, but Cherry placed a finger to her lips with a mischievous look.
Cherry pointed the sword at the wall right next to Robin's head and waited until they finished speaking with her eyes closed.
"Then live your life to the fullest-" He spoke.
*Shink*
Aokiji widened his eyes as the blade passed dangerously close to his throat. Of course he recognized the sword as Cherry's.
He heard Robin giggle on the other side. "I'll do that with or without your blessing."
Aokiji scurried away. Not out of fear, no, of course not. He just didn't want to start any trouble, that's all.
"Thank you, Cherry." Robin gave her a big smile. She was tired of Aokiji making her feel so helpless, so that felt quite cathartic.
The next five days Chery spent working on her other goals for the time.
First was a spear, to add to her Blood Bound arsenal. The Adam wood made for a very good spear shaft and she obtained the metals she needed for a super alloy from the neighboring cities connected to Water 7 via sea train.
The result was very good (for this world at least) and became even better once she Blood Bound it.
The last project was a slingshot for Usopp. It wasn't something he'd be able to use with his current strength, but rather something to aspire to use if he trained hard enough. He was not only the weakest of her pupils, but also showed the least improvement, so she wanted to spur him on with a tangible reward.
His current slingshot was basically scrap metal in Cherry's eyes. Worse even, it was a crutch. He used dials to increase its power instead of his own body's strength. Call her old fashioned if you want, but she believed weapons should only augment a warrior's power, not replace it.
The result was as expected of a peerless weapon smith.
Cherry had Usopp demonstrate the power of his Kabuto for her. She praised it where praise was due, and criticized it where it should be criticized. Usopp had long recognized Cherry's craftsmanship and took it well.
"Now, I've got a gift for you Usopp." Cherry said, giving him a box.
"Oh? What is it?" He asked, shaking it obnoxiously.
"Just open it!" Cherry swatted the back of his head.
"Oh, it's very stylish. Thank you, Cherry." He admired it, but when he tried to pull it, it didn't budge.
"Um, Cherry? It's supposed to be elastic you know?" Usopp said awkwardly.
Cherry gave him an annoyed look and put out her hand. Usopp gave the slingshot to her, and she proceeded to place a iron ball into it and pull it back.
Usopp watched in amazement, then his jaw dropped when she released it and the iron ball easily pierced a steel plate at a distance of 50 meters.
"See? It works just fine. It's you who isn't up to standard. However, if you work hard you can use it too. Then your gadgets will increase your strength instead of being your only strength." Cherry encouraged.
Usopp took back the slingshot and looked at it in his hands. His eyes started to sparkle with a new found desire to grow stronger.
"Hey, guys! The new ship has been completed!" A Franky Family member called out to them.
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