Bab 51: Sea above the Sea
A couple weeks pass at sea, during which Cherry created her first proper cultivation pills using the Hero Water she obtained from the reluctant King Cobra.
The result was better than she expected thanks to the medical knowledge provided by Chopper. The differing philosophies, understandings, and techniques between this world's medical knowledge and her own of pill refining allowed her to gain quite the broad view of the subject.
Her progress in the Spirit Root Realm has been advancing quite quickly since making her first batch. It was a shame she didn't have any reagents of a spiritual nature, as that would make her cultivation pace truly outrageous.
She anticipated she would reach the bottleneck of perfection within a month or two.
Her insane speed of cultivation would make cultivators cry tears of blood in envy. She had her monstrously potent vital energy to thank for that.
If she ever met Hawkeye, she would thank him for providing half of her good genes before she kicked his ass to avenge her family.
Cherry's discussions with Chopper also allowed his own expertise to increase by leaps and bounds. He was able to apply her insists to his rumble balls. He increased their length of effect from 3 minutes to about 5 minutes, as well as reduced the cooldown time between normal uses from 6 hours by half to 3 hours.
Unfortunately he could not work out the kinks from taking a second rumble ball before the cooldown period was over, but he was greatly satisfied with his results regardless.
Nami called everyone over to explain that the log pose must have been broken somehow, as it was now pointing upwards.
Robin explained the legend of the sea above the sea and the sky islands that floated in it.
While some in the group expressed disbelief, and others like Luffy accepted it immediately, they were rudely interrupted by a massive ruined ship falling from the sky.
Luffy found a map of "Skypeia" amongst the wreckage before it sank, seeming to prove Robin's claims.
Luffy went to explore the sinking ship in makeshift diving gear along with Zoro and Sanji. During their dive, a group of scavenger pirates showed up to lay claim to the ship.
Cherry didn't intervene in the hijinks that ensued, but when a giant turtle sea king ate the ship, she did leap into action. Less to save them and more to carve into the great beast in search of pill reagents with potent vital energy.
The pain of being carved up made the sea turtle open its mouth to roar, allowing the eaten people to escape.
After the divers returned to the Going Merry, a shadow was cast over the sea. Looking up they saw the impossibly huge silhouettes of humanoid figures in the distance.
They didn't want to leave the unsuspecting Cherry behind, but Cabernet told them she would get her and follow behind shortly. So they fled away from the towering horrors.
When Cherry came out of the now deceased sea turtle, she found no one waiting for her. She glanced at the silhouettes and realized what must have happened.
"So they think they can just leave me here? I'll show you how it feels to be left behind. Cabernet, ship form, we're catching up." Cherry said. Cabernet obliged and they swiftly flew in the direction the Going Merry left in.
It didn't take long to catch up, Cabernet was quite a bit faster than the Going Merry. They flew up alongside the Straw Hat's ship without touching the water.
"Thank goodness you're okay, Cherry!" Nami said.
Cherry looked at Robin, winked at her, and motioned for her to come aboard Cabernet. Then she scowled at Serene and pointed at the deck as if to command her to board. The Straw Hats watched perplexed aa the two women boarded the winged ship.
"What's going on Cherry?" Asked Usopp.
"Hm? Oh, I'm going to the sky island." She said, waving her own log pose in her hand.
"I guess I'll see you guys later. Hehehehe!" Cherry laughed evilly.
"What! No fair!" Luffy was outraged.
"What's not fair? You left me behind, so now I'm leaving you behind. Who knows, maybe I'll see you up there? Hehe, or maybe not, I'll be sure to tell you all about it." Cherry sneered childishly, sticking out her tongue.
Robin watched this with no small amount of amusement. The prospect of exploring new lands in the sky was quite exciting too.
The Straw Hats did seem somewhat embarrassed as it was true that they left her behind, capable as she may be of handling herself.
"We'll definitely come to the sky island!" Luffy shouted resolutely, accepting the challenge in earnest.
Cherry smiled at them as she waved goodbye and Cabernet lifted upwards, following the log pose into the sky.
Robin and Serene were enjoying the flight, it wasn't everyday they could ride a flying ship after all. Though Serene was doing her best to pretend she wasn't, lest Cherry think to ruin her good mood.
They rose up higher and higher until they were level with the log pose. Then they flew forward until a white sea appeared before them.
Although the air was quite thin up here, nobody important was having too much trouble breathing.
*Serene gasping for breath on the deck*
"It's beautiful." Robin admired the heavenly clouds that surrounded them.
Cherry was of the opposite opinion. It reminded her of the particularly pompous immortals that believed 'living amongst the heavens was the only suitable place for my esteemed self'. Proper immortals lived on mountains, in her opinion.
A distant rumble echoed over the white sea. The source was nowhere in sight and came from a different direction than the log pose was pointing.
"What do you reckon, Robin? Should we stay our course or go check out the cause of that ruckus?" Cherry asked.
"I am curious about it as well. The sky island the log pose points to isn't going anywhere." She responded.
"I think we should stay away from the scary sounds..." Serene mumbled. Cherry smacked her upside the head. "I didn't ask you."
Cabernet shifted her course to approach the distant sounds.
After half a day's flight they arrived at a strange island made of cloud upon which many damaged homes similarly made of clouds rested.
They landed on the shore, Cabernet transforming into her human shape, and moved further inland.
"Stop! Name yourselves and your intentions!" A voice called out. It was a bald man with sunglasses, white wings on his back, a tattoo sleeve on his right arm, and he was holding a strange looking sword.
"We're new to this sky sea. We heard a cacophony from this direction and came to see what it was about." Cherry responded, seeing no reason to aggravate the man unnecessarily.
The man studied her for a moment. "This is no place for outsiders. Leave."
"No?" Cherry responded.
"Then do not blame me for being rude." He prepared to attack, but Cherry didn't seem to take him seriously at all.
"That's enough, Ohm. Perhaps these strangers can help us." Another man came out of a nearby building from where he was watching.
He was shirtless, had very long earlobes, and in place of wings he had a ring of drums imbedded in his back.
"My name is Enel. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone