Unexpected Audience

"Is this really going to be alright? It was quite the spectacle the last time wasn't it? Cherry even came back from it totally bald." Robin asked, slightly worried.

Robin was sitting on Cabernet's shoulder in her figurehead form.

"Probably, I think." Cabernet said, eating popcorn from a bucket in her open chest cavity. "She almost died the last time, sure, but she's a lot stronger now isn't she?"

Robin didn't like the sound of that, but it was true that Cherry was much stronger now. Her defensive capabilities had increased the most from what she understood as well.

A few kilometers away, Cherry was sitting on a spire of stone jutting out of the ocean preparing her mind for the breakthrough.

The cultivation pill made from the devil fruit was prepared. Strangely enough, the pill took on the shape and coloration of the devil fruit, only smaller.

Her analysis of the devil fruit's inscription suggested to her that it was a paramecia type of some kind. Thus she decided to use it on her revolver, as the firearm was mostly a weapon she made to amuse herself, so no matter what manner of ability came from the devil fruit she would be able to accept the result.

If her spear got a trash power, she'd be pretty pissed off about it. Any devil fruit power could theoretically be mastered to a level to make you a powerhouse at the top of the world, but Cherry only had so much time in a day. She wouldn't waste time trying to master every devil fruit ability available to her. She'd just focus on her fuse fuse fruit and maybe her lightning sword since it was powerful.

Cherry embedded her sword into the stone next to her, knowing it would fly off on its own anyways in a few moments. Then she pulled out her revolver and placed the devil fruit pill against it, activating her fuse fuse fruit and fusing the two together.

The fusion went as expected and the revolver's black metallic sheen started to transform into a slightly transparent crystalline material. Cherry ignored the changes happening for now and focuses on drawing in the extra vital energy to push her cultivation realm to the perfection stage.

Her gamble had paid off, the energy was boosted by a great deal and was now plenty to push her cultivation to the peak.

A complication occurred however. Where before the devil fruit's excess energy naturally dissipated when she no longer needed it, it now remained in her body. This was the result of turning it into a pill, as cultivation pills are designed to retain the energy without letting it escape.

As a result, the energy was forcing her to go through with the breakthrough immediately without the chance to stabilize her vital energy first.

'No matter. I can handle it.' Cherry thought to herself, stabilizing her energy as much as she could before…

*Flash!*

A bolt of lightning shot up into the sky, followed by a rumble of thunder. Her sword was no longer in the place it once was.

Robin and Cabernet saw the bolt of lightning seemingly disappear into the sky above.

*Whoosh*

A powerful wind suddenly picked up, blowing their hair towards Cherry's direction.

"Is it a cyclone?! I knew she shouldn't have done this outside of an island's stable weather…" Robin said.

The powerful wind swirled around the spire of rock and soon the ocean followed suit. Dark clouds formed, swirling overhead and pitch black in color. The surrounding sky started to tinge a sickly green.

Robin noticed that the black cloud was spreading far wider than it had the last time she witnessed it. Its enormity could probably be seen for hundreds of kilometers.

The ocean beneath the rock spire swirled and swirled until it became a maelstrom just as wide. If one looked over the edge, they could spot sea kings being dragged into the black depths below, powerless to resist.

The flashes of lightning started with the cloud, a similar pale and sickly green color as the surrounding sky.

One of the streaks of lightning that Cherry caught a glimpse of looked like a serpent of some kind.

"Oh boy…" Cherry said aloud, knowing she was in for a bad time.

…

Roughly 30 kilometers away, on a small island cloud riding a giant bubble and with a circular rainbow floating above it.

Several long bearded old men dressed in robes were frantically running about in a large laboratory filled with strange scientific instruments.

"Change course! We have to get as close as possible to the anomalous weather phenomenon! We've never seen anything like this before, not even in the historical records! So exciting!" An old man with a graying blonde beard, wearing a blue robe and hat.

A young woman in jeans and a bikini top walked into the laboratory. Her straight, orange hair extended just below her shoulders and she carried an odd staff with her.

"Haredas, please don't get too close to that thing! It's super dangerous!" Nami protested, just the thought of getting closer to the ominous cloud sending a shiver down her spine.

"Nonsense, girl! We won't be bested by any weather and we need to get closer for better readings on our instruments!" Haredas explained calmly.

This wasn't the first time they've raced towards a dangerous weather phenomenon. Since Nami has been with them, they've purposefully cast themselves into multiple blizzards and thunderstorms and even into two of the Grand Line's infamous cyclones!

"This time it's different though!" Nami pleaded exasperatedly. "That thing is far worse than a cyclone, I can feel it!"

"Oh, and you're right to think so Nami! However, this is our lifes' work, our calling! Several months ago we detected a similar, but much weaker phenomenon. It was too far away so we weren't able to get close enough for any proper readings, but now we have another chance and we aren't going to miss it!" Haredas said, visibly excited.

"Several months ago? Did you detect it near Long Ring Long Land?" Nami asked, struck with a memory.

"Why yes, I believe we did. How did you know?" Haredas asked, with a tilt of his head.

Nami remembered how Cherry had run off just before and came back just after that ominous black cloud back then. Completely bald, no less.

'Is Cherry involved in this somehow?' She couldn't help but wonder.

Nami no longer protested against the old weather wizards. She wanted to see if Cherry was nearby after it was over. It would be nice to see one of her friends again so soon.

"Oi oi oi oi oi oi oi! I can't contain myself! How marvelous! Such erratic weather has never been seen before outside of the New World! Moreover, none of our instruments showed any indications that such a thing would happen! It's as if it simply appeared from nothing at all, unheard of!" Haredas animatedly talked to himself. The other weather wizards weren't much better than he was.

"Surely that isn't possible? Is it the work of a devil fruit instead of being natural?" Nami thought it unlikely their advanced techniques could truly have missed it entirely.

"Don't underestimate us. Weather created from a person's will via a devil fruit or technology would have telltale signs of intelligent design. No human could create a wild beast like this, not even the world famous Vegapunk could fool us in our area of expertise." Haredas spoke with confidence. "Though I suppose it's possible human actions could have set off a chain reaction, but for a weather phenomenon of this size and power, that's very unlikely."

'Maybe it's just a coincidence after all?' Nami doubted.

…

*ZAP! HISS!*

A streak of lightning came racing towards Cherry and bit down on her shoulder like the maw of a snake.

It was only the first of the many to come, and yet its strength was already half as strong as the final strike from her previous tribulation.

Worse still, this bolt of lightning had a vague semblance of intelligence. It was more persistent than before and tried to deal as much damage as possible.

Cherry's body was much stronger now too, though. Even the damage done to her flesh was healing at a visible rate.

'I can do this!' Cherry thought to herself, rousing her own morale. Negativity would do no good to her here, in fact it might just kill her.

*ZAAAP! HISS!*

The other shoulder was bitten, electricity raged through her body. First going for the heart, then giving up and attacking elsewhere when it found the heart was too well defended.

Robin and Cabernet had moved further away as even the ambient static was stinging their skin from where they were before.

"That looks a lot worse than last time. Nevermind, Cherry's gonna die. Wanna be in my harem with Perona?" Cabernet said, casually squeezing maple syrup over her second bucket of popcorn.

"Fufufu. I don't think so, but thank you for the offer." Robin appreciated that Cabernet was trying to improve her mood. It helped, but not by much.

'You can get through this, Cherry…' Robin hoped in her heart that it was true.