ตอน 377: A New Apprentice
Cherry had just seen her two favorite idiots and her grandmother only a month or so ago, so the dojo that she called home for a decade and a half was not her first destination.
Instead, she made her way to the smithy to visit with old man Martin to catch up and to show off her new spear and armor.
*ding ding*
Cherry pushed the familiar door open, setting off the bell fixed above and waltzed inside like she owned the place.
Behind the counter of the showroom sat a girl who couldn't be older than fourteen or fifteen. Cherry only felt a vague familiarity with her and couldn't quite place her face. Of course her memory was perfect, but the last time she spent more than a day on this island was almost eight years ago, before she left to explore the world and when this girl must have been a young child.
The girl had a deep tan, shoulder length brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and the beginnings of a fit musculature. The smudge of soot on her nose, the thick leather apron she wore, and the calluses on her hands gave her away as a new apprentice of Martin's.
The girl went from looking bored out of her mind to beaming with excitement when she heard the bell ring. Cherry heard her whisper a faint "Finally!" before she all but shouted, "Welcome, welcome, come on in! Please, tell me how I can help you!"
'She must be dreadfully bored to get so excited about a potential customer,' Cherry thought amusedly.
"I was hoping to get a new set of silverware," Cherry made up on the spot.
Cherry thought the girl had been excited before, but now she was practically radiating joy and anticipation.
"Master Martin lets me make the household stuff! Are you looking for real silverware?! How fancy do you want it?! You look like a pirate, should I stylize them with skulls?! Is there a particular jolly roger I should use for inspiration?!" The girl rattled off questions one after another without waiting for an answer.
Oddly enough, though, Cherry didn't feel that the girl was simply ignoring her, but rather that she was intuiting each answer before Cherry opened her mouth to speak it. This was a skill that Cherry had seen from a rare few genius blacksmiths in her time, and one she did not possess herself. It spoke of the girl's natural talent in the art of metalworking.
'Damn, if old man Martin hadn't already gotten to her, I'd snatch her up for myself…' Cherry lamented.
"I'm not leaving Master Martin's side until there is nothing left for me to learn from him," the girl spoke calmly and seriously, a stark contrast to her hyperactive state from before.
"Tsk," Cherry clicked her tongue. This girl was too sharp. "If you were willing to abandon that old man so easily, I wouldn't take you anyways."
Loyalty was important in a master / disciple relationship; at least it was in Cherry's mind.
"Are you really here for silverware?" the girl asked tentatively, clearly having her mood dampened by the thought that she wouldn't be able to make it after all.
"Fashion them after the Straw Hat pirates. Twenty sets, in case we have guests or our captain accidentally swallows a couple." Cherry said.
The girl lit up once more, then tilted her head in thought. "Straw Hat? Why does that ring a bell?"
*ding ding*
The front door rang as it opened and old man Martin stepped inside.
"I'm back, Rosalie…" Martin said, looking up to see Cherry and smiling broadly. "Oh, you're here again, Cherry! I thought it would be a while yet until I would see you again."
"Ah! You're the one who got Rat-Face fired!" Rosalie remembered, shouting her recollection in a cheery tone.
"Rosalie, what have I told you about using harsh language around customers?" Martin raised an eyebrow at her.
"That only the best can afford to speak how they want, I remember!" Rosalie saluted.
"And is that you?" Martin tried his best to keep his amusement in check.
"Nobody makes better nails than me!" Rosalie declared confidentally.
"Hehehehe, you have quite the handful with this one, don't you old man? She's talented and she knows it, too!" Cherry chuckled.
"You're telling me. Fortunately she's had the sense not to beg me to let her make weapons yet." Martin stroked his mustache.
"Damn," Cherry looked at the bright eyed Rosalie again with renewed envy. "Can't you go and drop dead so I can have her?"
"You wish. I can live another fifty years with a youngster like her spurring me on." Martin chuckled heartily.
"Hmph! You can watch the shop, Gramps; I've got work to do!" Rosalie stormed away into the smithy out back. Both Cherry and Martin knew that she was just eager to get her hands dirty with the craft, rather than annoyed.
"Gramps?" Cherry asked Martin.
"I married her grandmother a few months ago," Martin explained, blushing a bit in pride.
"Ah, so that's how I know her. She was just a tiny little thing when she was 'helping' her grandmother in that bakery on main street. They had amazing honey rolls," Cherry remembered.
"They're even better now. Anyways, what brings you here, Cherry? I know you didn't come all this way from the latter half of the Grand Line for a visit," Martin asked. He was curious how she had made such good travel time, but Cherry had always been strange and mysterious that way.
"Big Mom invited me to a tea party under threat of death, and not my own if you understand me." Cherry said. She wasn't sure if Big Mom's people would bother with the old smith, but it was better to warn him than not anyways.
To Martin's credit, he didn't seem all that worried or bothered at all by this revelation. "I take it that you've already handled the problem, at least in the short term?"
"You know me well; it was the first thing I did when I arrived," Cherry said. "They could send more though."
"Something tells me Big Mom will soon have bigger problems to worry about," Martin said.
"Enough of that, onto the good news!" Cherry exclaimed.
Suddenly Cherry was clad in a full suit of bright pink armor and wielding a spear with a drill-like spearhead.
"You've gone and done something strange again, I see," Martin said, examining the armor closely.
*Bam!*
The door to the smithy slammed open.
"Gramps, we don't have enough silver- WHAT IS THAT MADE OF?!?!?!" Rosalie burst inside the room and soon rushed to Cherry's side.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure; I was drunk when I made it. Check this out though," Cherry said, pulling several silver bars out from the seams.
"IT HAS POCKETS?!?!?!" Rosalie exclaimed in shocked disbelief.
"I fused it with the Pocket Pocket Fruit, and the spear with the Drill Drill Fruit," Cherry bragged.
"A drill? Is that really an effective shape for a spearhead?" Rosalie asked. It was a reasonable doubt to have.
"If anything it's too effective. The first time I used it, I accidentally pierced a hole through a mountain," Cherry explained.
That little tidbit had not just Rosalie, but also Martin rattling off questions and discussing possibilities. Cherry realized she may be stuck here for a while.
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