Names

Staring into the hungry eyes of the gargantuan, eight-limbed abomination, Cherry was quite fortunate to have finished repairing her important organs to an extent that she wouldn't lose progress in her regeneration from a brief interruption.

'Actually, skin is technically an organ too isn't it?' Cherry mused, noting that she currently didn't have any. 'Who needs skin anyways? Not me, that's for sure. Skin is for the weak.'

A pulse of high speed vibrational energy expanded in a short radius with Cherry at the center. The octopus sea king's tentacle that was wrapped around her was forced open. The skin of the tentacle, particularly where it had been in direct contact with Cherry, was ripped apart. The muscles hiding beneath were pulverized (or tenderized, depending on who you ask) into a soft, meaty mush.

The hungry look was wiped off the octopus' face and was replaced with an expression of pain, anger, and most of all, fear.

By no means was it a timid creature that backed down from a fight at the first sign of danger. However, it can do a simple calculation of potential gains and losses, even with the mind of a beast. A tiny morsel, however mouthwatering it appears, was not worth the loss of more limbs or worse, damage to its innards.

One might compare the situation to that of a large fish attempting to eat a pufferfish, only to receive a nasty surprise.

By the time the octopus completed its admittedly quite slow analysis of the cost benefit ratio, Cherry already had functional limbs. She'd still come in last place in a beauty pageant with Moria's zombies, but she didn't need to be pretty right now. Not until she met back up with Robin anyways, she couldn't show herself to her lover looking like an anatomy textbook's illustration of human musculature.

As she was about to swim away, she stopped as she had a thought. She spun around to gaze at the octopus sea king that returned her gaze with wary eyes.

'I didn't have any interest in that before, but this one ought to be quite useful.' Cherry pondered.

The octopus had a decent sense of danger, but the way the morsel was looking at it was strange. It wasn't quite like she wanted to kill or eat it, but it felt danger all the same.

It didn't help that the morsel seemed to be growing more flesh with every moment that passed. That was a creepy sight to witness, even for the octopus.

Cherry rushed forward towards the octopus' face. Whatever thoughts dwelled in the sea king's simple mind vanished and were replaced by instinct. When offered the choice between fight and flight, fight was chosen for better or worse.

Powerful tentacles slapped towards Cherry, each one able to crush a warship with ease. Although the octopus was quite dextrous by sea king standards, it couldn't compare to the much smaller target that easily weaved between them and reached the octopus' face.

Cherry flopped onto the octopus' forehead and grabbed on for dear life.

What she was about to do was quite foolish in her current circumstances, but when would she receive another chance like this?

Cherry sent her will into the octopus' mind, attempting to overwhelm it and make it submit itself to her.

The great beast raged, its pride fueling its inner battle against Cherry's will. In its wild flailing, it even managed to strike her once with a tentacle, but she held firm to its head.

Alas, it could not put up a struggle for long. It became still and docile, submitting itself to whatever fate that the morsel had in store for it.

Cherry extracted her will from its mind and began a ritual she was familiar with, but never had the desire to use before. A beast contract.

The octopus was probably about as good as it got in this world. Intelligent, powerful, agile, and best of all aquatic, a useful trait to possess in a world that's mostly ocean.

The octopus felt a tickle in its mind when she finished, like something asking it to become a servant.

Its pride briefly rose up again, but it then considered if it would really be so bad to submit here. The deep ocean wasn't an easy place to live, even for a sea king of its power. If nothing else, it should be safer to submit to the unexpectedly powerful morsel, right?

It accepted the pact that was offered to it and a connection formed between the morsel and the octopus.

'So you're a kraken are you?' Cherry thought with a smile that was creepy for a different reason than normal. 'And you're a girl too. I do have a habit of attracting the ladies everywhere I go, huh?'

A strange sight could be seen in the next moment, if anyone had been around to see it. The kraken seemed to get slurped into Cherry's outstretched arm, defying all logic that would suggest such a large thing could hide within such a small body.

Contracted beasts could dwell within the body of a cultivator no matter the size, much the same way that a blood bound weapon was able to. There was a difference to bloodbound weapons, however, in that a cultivator could only have a single contracted beast. It wasn't so much because of a lack of capacity, so much that a beast contract was far more special.

That was the reason Cherry hadn't used it previously, as cultivators tended to be quite picky about such a thing.

'I wonder what would have happened if I did make a beast contract before I died, though? Would it have come along with me? That would have been interesting.' Cherry pondered.

Cherry settled down to the seafloor to finish her body's regeneration, which was thankfully not rudely interrupted.

'Now what should I call you. You don't have a name for yourself already, so I guess we need to come up with one.' Cherry thought towards the kraken.

'Burble.' The kraken responded neutrally.

'Burble? Are you sure?' Cherry sent teasingly.

'BURBLE!' The kraken responded indignantly.

'Hehe, I'm just messing with you. How about… Takako?' Cherry offered.

'Burble…' The newly named Takako accepted bashfully, sensing that Cherry was being sincere over their connection.

'Destructotron could work too.' Cherry thought to her.

'BURBLE!!!' Takako responded, hating the feeling of being teased like this.

'Hehehehe!' Cherry giggled.

'I suppose it's about time I named my sword too.' Cherry thought to herself. 'My revolver will need a name as well, but that can wait until I know what it can do.'

Cherry wasn't fond of long, complicated names for her weapons. She much preferred they were short and to the point.

Tribulation?

It was certainly an apt name, though she thought its true meaning would be lost on others in this world.

Raijin?

The name of a deity of the past that Robin told her about. A god of lightning, thunder, and storms. However, some cultures in this world called powerful, but still very mortal men "gods", so it ran the risk of being named after some random loser from the past.

Cherry never did like coming up with names for her works. She's made so many weapons that, even though she only actually named a fraction, the ones she did name could form a small mountain.

'If only I had a group of creative individuals to give me some ideas or inspire me in some way…' Cherry lamented.