章 31: Little Garden
'The weather here in the Grand Line is no joke.' Thought Cherry.
She had only narrowly dodged a maelstrom that would have formed instantaneously underneath her ship. The fact that the Cabernet kept drifting to point away from her destination was frustrating as well. She had almost no time to do anything else!
When the weather stabilized indicating that she was close to an island, she was certain that it would have taken half the time and effort without the chaotic conditions.
Eventually she could see the island inching closer on the horizon. Great trees covered in vines towered over the shore as she approached.
Cherry reached the shore and disembarked. She would have returned the Cabernet to its place within her body for safe keeping, but unfortunately nothing that was stored within could come along with it. So she had to leave the ship behind while she explored.
What she found was very interesting. All the flora and fauna on the island were considered to be ancient. The dinosaurs were especially a stunning sight.
A few enormous predators had the courage to attack her while she explored. She wasn't in need of any meat however, so she simply taught them an important life lesson about underestimating opponents due to their appearance and sent them on their way a little worse for wear.
While collecting some interesting plant specimens, a distant thundering sound was heard from deeper on the island. Climbing up a particularly tall tree, Cherry saw the source of the sound.
The largest volcano in a cluster of volcanoes was erupting, quaking the earth with its disastrous might. The eruption stopped in short order, a relief to Cherry as she thought she might have to leave prematurely.
It wasn't long after that new thunderous sounds echoed across this ancient land.
Cherry knew what these sounds were the moment she heard them. The sound of clashing weapons, of a vicious battle to the death! Cherry could imagine the raw power of each blow that rang out.
These were no simple warriors, the cacophony conjured the image of two sword immortals in a duel upon which their pride hung in the balance.
Naturally, Cherry was drawn to the battle to see who the contenders were.
She stealthily dashed through the thick trees with her Traceless Steps.
She withheld her Life Sense out of habit to avoid disturbing the clashing warriors, though she didn't know if anyone in this world could actually detect it. She wouldn't risk offending someone that could kill her easily for no reason.
Cherry arrived at the edge of a huge clearing and what she saw astounded her.
Two giant men who stood over 20 meters tall swung their sword and axe with deadly precision and frightening might at one another. Despite their vicious actions they both wore smiles as if they were having a drink with an old friend.
Cherry took a particular interest in their weapons. She could see at a glance they were very old and in terrible shape. Each clash between the weapons was powerful enough to shatter them in their current state. Yet that didn't happen, and there was only one explanation.
'They're using Armament Haki, I'm sure of it! How could I get them to teach me? Fix their weapons? It'll be tricky due to the size, but I can manage with the help of my devil fruit...' Cherry thought while silently watching the pair.
Eventually, the fight ended with the both of them knocking each other half unconscious.
"72,732 fights..." Said the fat, blond bearded giant.
"72,732 draws..." Said the lean, long bearded giant.
A short time passed as they breathed heavily, then they picked themselves up.
"Excuse me." Cherry spoke. Her voice was quiet, but also seemed to command the attention of the giants.
"Hmm? Looks like we have another guest, Dorry." Spoke the axe wielding giant.
"You're right, Brogy. Is there something you needed from us, little human?" Spoke the sword wielding giant.
Their gazes seemed to be both friendly and challenging at the same time. As if to say "You're welcome to visit with good intentions, or to die with bad intentions."
Cherry had no idea what kind of lunatic would dare to attack them, though. Nonetheless she thought it a good sign they were willing to communicate.
"May I inquire as to whether the two of you are proficient in the use of Haki?" Cherry asked, as politely as she could manage.
""Of course we are! We aren't the strongest warriors of Elbaf for nothing!"" They shouted in unison. Followed by the strangest laughter Cherry had ever heard "Gegyagya!" and "Gababa!"
"I'll introduce myself. My name is Harpin D. Cherry." She said.
"I could not help but notice that your weapons, which are of excellent make I might add, are in a state of disrepair. I happen to be a fine weapon-smith, so perhaps we can come to an arrangement? You would teach me how to use Haki, and I would repair your weapons to be good as new." Cherry offered, holding her breath in anticipation.
The two looked at one another in silent thought, then turned back to Cherry.
"No offense, but how do we know you'll keep your end of the deal?" Brogy asked.
"Right, many of you humans are liars with no honor. How do we know this isn't a trick?" Dorry asked.
Cherry smiled. "Naturally, I will uphold my end of the bargain first. I trust that noble warriors such as yourselves would not sully your pride by reneging on the deal after I finish."
Cherry believed every word that she said was true. These two had hearts like that of sword immortals, their pride was worth more than their own lives.
The two giants were still hesitating, so Cherry hammered the final nail into the coffin. "I can also throw in the barrels of wine I have on my ship."
""We'll be in your care!"" They said in unison with great enthusiasm.
...
Over the next few days, Cherry put together a huge furnace and gathered the kind of coal that would burn as hot as she needed.
She had the giants help by moving the blades of their weapons which were too unwieldy for Cherry due to their bulk.
Cherry heated the blades and extra pieces of steel to red hot temperatures. Then they were brought to a hug anvil where the giants held them still.
Cherry fused the extra steel into the broken portions of the blades, hammered them into the correct shape, then cooled them.
Finally, she sharpened them to a razor's edge and, as a special service, fused some other metals and minerals into the edges to make sure they stayed sharp for a long time.
Dorry and Brogy looked at their weapons with the gleaming eyes of a child who just received a new toy. They shared a look and a smile, then turned towards a nearby mountain.
They took a stance side by side as Cherry watched with interest.
""HAKOKU!!!"" They shouted and swung their weapons with all the might.
Red and Blue swirling light merged together and ripped a giant hole clear through to the other side of the mountain.
'Note to self, do not piss off the giants...' Cherry thought in abject horror. She knew they were powerful, but not to this extent.
"Gabababababa!" "Gegyagyagyagya!" They laughed heartily.
"We'll teach you Haki, as promised, Cherry. Though, we can only use Armament Haki. We could never really understand Observation Haki." Dorry said.
"There are two ways to learn Armament Haki. Intense training or life threatening pressure! We can do it either way. Or both if you like! Gababababa!" Brogy explained.
"Well, let's hear both and I'll decide." Cherry said, smiling at the antics of the walking weapons of mass destruction.
Dorry spoke up. "First, is the intense training method."
He plucked a long stalk of stiff grass and handed it to Cherry. Then he pointed to a thick tree. "Chop that tree down with that stalk of grass. No special techniques allowed, Gegyagyagyagya!"
Cherry looked at the stalk of grass in her hand and grimaced. "What's the life threatening method?"
*BAM*
Cherry was sent flying by Brogy's fist. She couldn't have dodged even if she had seen it coming.
"In the life threatening method you take our attacks head on until you awaken Armament Haki as a defensive mechanism, Gababababa!" Brogy seemed quite amused.
Cherry was mostly fine after that attack, but she knew that Brogy was going really easy on her.
At that moment the center volcano erupted, signaling the giants' next duel. They hefted their newly repaired weapons and moved a bit away from Cherry before they began.
'I had thought maybe they were only so ruthless because their weapons were dull, but it seems I was wrong.' She thought, as the giants showed no mercy to one another in their battle.
'I think I'll stick with the intense training method for now...' Cherry decided meekly.
章 32: Difficult Training
Cherry approached the tree she was instructed to cut down with the stalk of grass.
'Am I supposed to figure this out all on my own? Or are Brogy and Dorry just terrible teachers?' Cherry sighed.
In either case, she would give it a good go at least.
'Grandma said Haki is the will manifested into the world. How do they do that though?' Cherry pondered. 'Well, I'll just start swinging and see where that takes me.'
Cherry did just that, swinging the stalk of grass endlessly at the trunk of the tree. Naturally this did no damage to the tree whatsoever.
10 swings...
100 swings...
1,000 swings...
At first, Cherry tried out a number of things. Such as concentrating on the stalk of grass, on the tree, on the idea of cutting. She tried imagining the grass was a sword and the tree was only soft, vulnerable flesh.
Nothing seemed to click, though. Eventually, she sank into a trance-like state and cultivated to pass the time, all the while swinging away at the tree mindlessly.
Brogy and Dorry finished their duel with yet another tie. After recovering from the exertion, they walked over to observe Cherry.
"Her concentration is good." Brogy whispered.
"Yes, but that's not enough." Dorry whispered back.
Dorry leaned down, placing his head next to Cherry. "Does your weapon cut when you have not willed it to do so? No, it is only an object. Your weapon is only a tool to make the cutting easier. It is your spirit, your soul, your will that cuts into the world."
Cherry's arm ceased to swing the stalk of grass and her eyes opened.
'That's stupid and makes no sense at all.' Cherry smiled. 'Just like the rest of this world of madness and absurdity.'
Cherry cast aside all doubt. Her word became truth, her will became reality.
"Cut." Cherry uttered. It was a simple word, but it was filled with conviction. As if there was no other outcome that could occur.
The stalk of grass swung towards the tree and just before it touched the bark, the faintest flash of black light raced along its length. The stalk of grass dug a few inches into the tree before it ripped itself apart.
Cherry looked at the tree with dropped jaws.
"I did that?" Cherry asked, pointing at the deep gash in the wood.
"Gegyagyagyagya!" "Gababababa!"
"Not bad, Cherry! Are you sure this is your first time learning Haki?" Brogy asked.
"It's not even been a single day, you're a monster! Gegyagyagya!" Dorry said.
Cherry was truly surprised, she hadn't thought it be so simple. Her mistake previously was trying to explain it, she supposed.
'Just what kind of conviction does one need to possess to carve out a mountain with the force of will alone?' A shiver went down her spine as she looked at the laughing giants.
...
Now that Cherry had a starting point for Armament Haki, she decided to take a break and explore the island.
Little Garden, the giants had told her the name, was a large island of sprawling ancient forests. Cherry would not miss the opportunity to gather the many useful materials that could only obtained on ancient islands such as this one.
After a few hours of exploration, a familiar signature popped up in her Life Sense's range.
"A devil fruit!" Cherry shouted and raced towards the location. She could not risk it being eaten by something while she dallied.
She sprinted towards the devil fruit at maximum speed for half an hour.
Finally she reached the place, it was nestled in a hard to reach point that likely prevented the typically large animals from getting to it.
The devil fruit appeared to be a pineapple. The spikey skin of the fruit was a silver white color with black, tear drop shaped spirals. The leaves on top resembled flames.
She didn't recognize this particular devil fruit, which was somewhat annoying.
Although it didn't really matter to her if the power was useful or not, she currently had two blood bound artifacts she could bind it to. Knowing what the devil fruit does would make the decision easier.
'No matter, I'm not ready to use it yet anyways, I'll decide when the time comes. One more thing I need to do on this island, I guess I'll be staying here for a while.' Cherry thought.
Cherry returned to her camp near the giants' camps. She decided to tell them about the fruit so they wouldn't eat it by accident somehow. She could trust them not to steal something this valuable from her.
Cherry spent a few months doing nothing but cultivate and train Armament Haki, rarely even stopping to sleep.
Cultivating would only get harder the higher the realm she reached.
The first realm, or the Muscle Strengthening Realm primarily tempered the musculature, but also improved organ function and the five senses. This realm was a breeze for Cherry due to her training before she started cultivating.
The second realm, or the Bone Refining Realm primarily enhanced the durability and quality of the skeleton and also the flesh to a lesser extent. This has the added benefit of enhancing the blood and making it much less likely to bleed to death. Her training only helped a little bit in this area.
The third realm, the one she's in currently, is known as the Heart Core Realm. It's primary purpose to it revamp the heart and thus bring a qualitive leap to one's vital energy as the heart is its source. The higher the quality of the vital energy, the stronger one's techniques with it became.
Cherry would be able to manage the third realm well enough on her own, but if she wanted to complete the next realm and beyond in a timely fashion, she would need miracle medicines designed for that purpose.
Which meant she needed someone like a doctor to help her, but can also be trusted. Not an easy task.
In the meantime, she had also hit a roadblock with her Haki, which meant she needed to try something new.
She approached the giants after one of their duels. "Guys, I need to do the life threatening method. My training isn't working out lately-"
*BAM*
"Gabababa! Not like that, Cherry! You have to become an immovable mountain, an unbreakable shield!" Brogy laughed after kicking her halfway across the clearing.
Brogy continued to bash Cherry around the clearing, increasing the strength of his blows whenever she started to get even slightly comfortable.
Although it was a very brutish method, it was also very effective. Cherry started to improve once more, albeit slowly.
Cherry continued in this daily routine of getting thrashed in the day and cultivating in the night for another few months.
By this point her Armament Haki had reached a decent level in both offense and defense and her cultivation had finally reached the point that she could use the devil fruit to perfect the realm.
Cherry returned to her ship, the Cabernet, and sat cross legged on the deck. She brought out her sword and the devil fruit, and pondered about the choice between the two blood bound artifacts.
Her sword had been with her for far longer. That was a reason in favor of using it first. Though, she could also say that's precisely why she should not use a random devil fruit with unknown effects on it and choose more wisely.
While lost in her thoughts, the rudimentary spirit she had sensed from the Cabernet before, once more awoke from its deep slumber. It could not communicate properly, but Cherry could feel that it was asking for her to choose it.
"Well, if that's what you want." Cherry had been stuck on the fence and this request tilted it in favor of the ship.
She wasn't sure what this spirit was or how it formed, but she was interested to see how it would develop in the future, especially with a devil fruit.
Cherry put the sword away and place the devil fruit onto the deck. She focused her own devil fruit to fuse the new one and the Cabernet together and found the process proceeded much more smoothly than she could have hoped.
A change came over the ship and Cherry dragged the excess energy into herself to complete the third realm.
Her mind was focused entirely inwards, taking no notice of the happenings in the outside world.
So when she finally opened her eyes with a sigh, having perfected her Heart Core, she was shocked to see that there was no ship in sight. Fortunately. she had beached it beforehand or she would have fallen into the water.
Instead of a ship, there was a woman with silver white hair, scarlet eyes resembling Cherry's own, reddish-brown skin with patterns like the grain of wood, great black feathered wings, and crimson flames dancing along her shoulders and upper back.
Cherry gawked at her. "Cabernet?"
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