章 127: Decisions Decisions
"I... I don't know. Forever isn't something I can really comprehend. It's hard to even imagine living as long as the giants do." Robin said, feeling a bit guilty at being unable to give a more conclusive answer.
There was no disappointment to be seen from Cherry, though. Rather, a radiant smile spread across her face.
"That's a very good answer, Robin." Cherry walked over and gave her a quick hug.
"I don't think I follow what you mean?" Robin asked perplexed, but glad she hadn't hurt her lover's feelings.
"If you had simply accepted without question, I may have refused to teach you at all. Immortality isn't something to be taken lightly. You can't truly understand the concept of forever until you've lived so long that time loses meaning to you. Even then, nobody will ever truly live forever. Eventually, something always comes along that'll give you a swift kick towards the grave." Cherry explained, quite proud of Robin passing her little test.
Cherry felt different to Robin now. She had a more mature air about her, like Cherry was the older and more experienced of the two of them. That's when a thought occurred to her.
"How old are you?" It was such an odd question to ask, considering she had met her as a young girl all those years ago.
"In this life, I am twenty three." Cherry answered simply, but the insinuation in her words was anything but simple.
"And... in total?" Robin asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"Six hundred and seventeen." Cherry smirked at the look of shock on Robin's face. "For an Immortal, I was quite young when I died. Young enough that I was still counting the years."
"Can you tell me about the history of the world over that time?!" Robin asked excitedly after recovering from her shock. Always the archeologist, she was.
"Not the history of this world, darling." Cherry chuckled as Robin digested yet another bombshell.
Robin laid down and stared at the ceiling quietly. Cherry laid down next to her and joined in observing the rather boring stonework.
"You don't have to decide right this instant you know? Immortality doesn't come easily, it'll take years to reach that point." Cherry broke the silence.
"Oh, that makes sense..." Robin sunk further into the mattress as the tension left her. Clearly she wasn't ready to make such a huge decision about her life, which was only natural.
"What's it like, living so long? Does it ever get boring?" Robin asked.
"There were lots of things to occupy myself back then. Treasure hunting, craftsmanship, pursuing the arts, killing people..." Cherry explained before being interrupted by a pinch to her side. Robin didn't like that last one being considered merely a pastime.
"What? You think you've met evil doers, you should see what multi-thousand year old psychopaths do for fun. Slaying those types was a necessity. Even Luffy wouldn't be able to find any good left in someone so steeped in malice." Cherry went on to list some of the nefarious deeds she had heard of or even witnessed personally.
Robin didn't think such people deserved any mercy after Cherry listed their crimes.
"And don't even get me started with demonic cultivators. They can't even be called human any more and, in fact, they don't call THEMSELVES human either. Let's just say that destroying whole worlds in their pursuit of power isn't even the worst thing they've done." Cherry finished.
"Wait, how many worlds are there?" Robin asked.
"Hm? There were too many to count. We just called them the Myriad Realms collectively." Cherry answered.
Robin was dumbfounded by that. Too many to count? That was simply mind boggling.
"Nevermind that." Robin decided to change the subject. "Tell me about 'Cultivation'."
"Well, there's a few different branches, but you only need to worry about Body Cultivation..." And so Cherry described the general theory involved and how to get started.
"You've got a few options for methods that I can give you. There's the method I use, which is a divine level method, called the Ethereal Star method. This required a ton of rare resources and is very slow if you're not a freak like me, which you aren't.
Then there is an immortal level method, called the Mythic Beauty method. Also not easy, but much less difficult than the first one, also not nearly as resource intensive. A good well rounded method with a focus on improving one's beauty.
Finally there is a transcendent level method, called the Heaven Splitting method. Remarkably easy to cultivate this one considering its level, very suitable for wielders of edged weapons. I gave this one to my Grandma.
There are a few more, but they aren't really worth considering as they don't compare to these three." Cherry spoke.
"What do the levels mean?" Robin asked.
"They're an indication of how high one can consistently reach using them if one meets the demands of the method. For example, a divine level method can bring you to the divine realms of cultivation, provided you have the resources, talent, and work ethic. However this doesn't mean you can't reach a higher realm, just that the difficulty will exponentially increase." Cherry explained. "Divine is the highest followed by Immortal, then Transcendent, etcetera."
"I suppose I know which one you'd want me to choose..." Robin glanced at her coyly.
"I wasn't a body cultivator before this life, so I didn't collect the methods. You can already say you're lucky to have such high level choices." Cherry pouted. Of course, she did still want Robin to choose the Mythic Beauty method, just for more reasons than making her even more sexy than she already is.
"Alright, show me what I need to do." Robin said, sitting up.
Cherry walked her through sensing her own vital energy, how to move it around, then finally instructed her in how to begin cultivating the first realm via the Mythic Beauty method.
One Robin had it handled by herself, Cherry decided to take a nap.
...
A cemetery on an unknown island somewhere in the Grand Line.
Admiral Sakazuki stood before a fresh grave that read "Sakazuki Hiroki".
It's been a few days since of the war with Whitebeard. Normally his rage would have subsided by now, but it still boiled over threatening for manifest his lava and melt everything around him.
His son, Hiroki had been a drooling fool for most of his life. Until one day he was suddenly aware of himself. He had apparently absorbed information of the world around him as he was able to quickly grasp language and knew how many things were already.
Soon after he developed an interest in blacksmithing and showed prodigal talent in the field.
But now that was all over. He was murdered by some rogue during the war.
Thin streaks of lava poured down Admiral Sakazuki's face. Something broke inside him when he found out what happened. This would be the last time he would ever shed tears, his enemies would have to shed them in his stead.
Admiral Sakazuki walked away from the cemetery, never to return. There was too much work to do, too many pirates to kill.
He didn't need to know who was responsible and it wouldn't make a difference if he did. They were all complicit, they would all burn for what they did to his boy.
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