บท 62: Whoops
Cabernet was quite happy to be reunited with her best friend, the Going Merry.
She did however have some concerns about the Merry's "health".
"Merry is hurt. She's putting on a tough face, but I can tell." Cabernet said, while hugging the mast.
"I also wanted to bring that up. We need to have the Merry properly repaired by a shipwright. Fortunately we have all this gold on hand, so money won't be an issue." Nami said.
There really was quite a lot of gold here. Easily over a billion Beri worth.
Naturally Cherry had her own personal stash hidden away in Cabernet's hold.
The crew had a brief discussion and came to the decision to spend as much gold as necessary to fix up the Merry.
Cherry thought they were being somewhat naive, but she didn't say anything to them. It was better they came to their own realizations.
"By the way, Cherry, what's with the white box?" Usopp asked, pointing to the cloud iron box.
"Hm? Oh, there's a devil fruit inside. And no, none of you can eat it, it's mine." Cherry stated, leaving no room for bargaining.
"Don't you already have a devil fruit power?" Chopper asked, looking as cute as ever.
"Yes, but I have other uses for devil fruit. Well, you can try to steal it from me, but if one of you eats it, know that I can cut out your still beating heart and it will serve my purposes just as well." Cherry said with a dark smile.
"That sounds neat." Robin said.
The others weren't of the same opinion and made their mental notes not to steal the box.
"Let's go, Chopper. I want to show you the new medicinal reagent I found on the sky island." Cherry smiled sweetly. She had missed the little reindeer and wanted to chat with him.
Cherry explained the properties of the Soul Snaring Tree taproots to him, which was met with many questions. Then Cherry let him watch as she made new cultivation pills including the taproot.
These new cultivation pills were the best she could hope for at this stage of her cultivation.
Cherry's cultivation speed skyrocketed. In fact she was certain she could reach the peak of the Spirit Root Realm before reaching the next island and be ready to use the Rumble Rumble Fruit to perfect it.
The time at sea passed quickly. Cherry passed the time cultivating (she told the Straw Hat it was meditation), theory crafting with Chopper, and training Robin.
Some of the others also expressed interest in the training regimen. Mainly Zoro who was a gym rat, Sanji who just wanted the excuse to spend time with Robin and Cherry, and surprisingly enough, Usopp.
Usopp wasn't entirely sold, though. He IS a massive wimp after all.
"You know, since you've chosen to use slingshots muscle strength is going to be important for your future. The stronger you are, the more powerful slingshots you can use." Cherry lured him in.
That was all he needed to hear and he decided to join in.
Now Cherry had most of the ship (Nami refused and it was sort of pointless for Chopper and Cabernet) doing the exercise equivalent of torture. She had them right on the edge of their capabilities for the whole duration of her "classes".
"You can bend further than that, Luffy! You're made of rubber for heaven's sake!" Cherry reprimanded.
"If you can spare the focus to ogle Robin, then I apparently haven't made things hard enough for you, Sanji." Cherry said darkly.
"You're not going to become a great warrior of the sea if you can't even stretch these bands to your full wingspan, Usopp!" Cherry encouraged.
Cherry stopped to look at Serene barely holding an insane position while trembling. She silently adjusted her and moved on while Serene trembled even harder, face flushed deep red with strain.
"You're doing great, Robin." Cherry praised. She nonchalantly patted her shoulder which slightly threw off her balance and nearly caused her to fall. Robin desperately regained her balance, as she knew it would only get harder if she failed.
Cherry eyed Zoro who was holding a monstrous amount of weight in each arm while doing a modified crane pose. Cherry punched him in the stomach, but he barely flinched. He ought not to as it wasn't the first time she had done so. "Good."
"Alright we're done for now." Cherry said after an hour, causing the individuals to collapse into people shaped heaps.
Cherry looked at their heaving chests and sweaty bodies with satisfaction. She really did enjoy this teaching stuff. She passed out some energy supplement pills that would also hasten their muscle repair from the exercise.
After they swallowed the pills they were able to be up and about after a few minutes.
A tsunami formed on the ocean and the crew got to action to adjust their course.
Usopp noticed another ship heading towards them, but it was strange as it seemed to have no sails nor a flag.
When they got closer the people aboard the ship started infighting over whether or not to attack the Straw Hat ship.
Listening their their shouting, Cherry surmised they were missing all the competent members of their crew in addition to their sails.
They didn't need to defend themselves against the poor saps, though, as they were swiftly swallowed up by the tsunami.
'Did they just get unlucky?' Cherry wondered, but did not spare much more thought on the matter.
The Going Merry entered a heavy fog, on the other side of which was the next island they had been searching for.
The island was a vast plain with many tall, thin trees. The animals were also strangely elongated.
"Well, guys. I've got something to do, so I'll see you in a bit." Cherry waved goodbye, bringing Cabernet and the cloud iron box with her.
'I'm ready to make my breakthrough to the next realm.' Cherry thought, as she went to find a distant and private spot.
She didn't mistrust any of them, but she still didn't want to leave herself open during her most vulnerable moments.
The plains didn't offer much in the ways of hiding places, but she found a decent spot nestled between some hills.
Cabernet kept watch for Cherry as she made her final preparations.
Cherry opened the cloud iron box and brought out her sword.
"I'll definitely name you after this, don't you worry." Cherry spoke sentimentally.
She stabbed the sword into the Rumble Rumble Fruit and began to merged it's power into the blade.
A huge energy surged into it, far greater than any that came before. Which made sense, this was the power of lightning after all.
Cherry pulled the excess into herself and used it to put the finishing touches on her fourth realm.
"Phew..." Cherry let out a long breath. It was finally over, now all that remained was to break through. She saw no reason to wait and began immediately.
*CRACKLE*
Suddenly Cherry's sword transformed into lightning and shot into the sky.
"Huh?" Cherry was flabbergasted at the turn of events, but remained focused on breaking through.
*RUMBLE*
Thunder echoed across the plains. Great black clouds, dark as the void formed overhead.
"Aw, fuck..." Cherry's eyes widened. She realized what was happening, as well as why it was happening.
"A tribulation..." She sucked in a breath.
She belated realized just how badly she had fucked up here. She thought there just wouldn't be any tribulations in this world, after all she hadn't faced any while breaking through before now.
But now she had literally created the mechanism by which this world could create a tribulation for her to face by combining an object attached to her cultivation with the raw power of lightning.
Moreover, she hadn't faced a tribulation as strong as this one in her last life until she was breaking through to immortality.
Cherry braced herself to brute force her way through this tribulation. It wouldn't be easy by any stretch of the imagination. This would be a life and death struggle, and the odds were in the grim reaper's favor.
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