15 Experimenting
Cherry got up in the early morning and prepared a simple breakfast for herself. She was going to miss diving into the ocean to catch fish, but she'll just have to make do fishing like a normal person.
After eating, she put on a bathing suit and jumped over to the rocky beach.
'Time to see what this curse is all about.'
Cherry tentatively stepped into the water, focuses her attention inwards to observe any changes.
She noted that there were no changes up until the water went passed her knees. At that point she felt a wave of weakness wash over her.
Feeling herself lose control of her body and start to fall helplessly, she quickly mobilized her vital energy.
Ultimately she had to push her vital energy to the limit just to muster enough strength to drag herself back to shore.
This was incredibly concerning to Cherry, it was much worse than she thought.
When she had been submerged in the water beyond a certain point, she observed how the devil fruit inscription immediately reached out to her nervous system, targeting the nerves for controlling muscles in specific areas of the body, such as her limbs.
When she circulated her vital energy to resist this influence, the devil fruit put up quite a fight, forcing her to put everything she had into it.
Cherry sighed while lying on her back in the sand. 'Well, no point crying over spilled milk. It'll be easier to resist the curse when I'm stronger.'
She didn't know at this point in time that the curse wasn't even at full strength yet, on account of her only just having eaten the devil fruit a day before.
Cherry got back on her ship and prepared to set sail.
'I'll do some bounty hunting for a while and earn some money. Now that I'm in the third realm, I can bond a weapon to myself. I need some good materials, only the best will do for this young miss.'
...
Red Delta is a pretty little town sprawled over a river delta. The architecture was quaint, the people were friendly, and the roads were kept clean. It was quite prosperous as the inland mountains and hills contained a variety of metals in ample supply, including some rarer kinds.
The people of Red Delta were having hard hard time now, however, as a group of pirates have decided to hole up in town. They've terrorized and robbed the citizens for two weeks now and in their greed have shown no signs of leaving.
The Twin Captain Pirates they called themselves, on account of their two captains, who were twins. Pirates are quite the imaginative lot aren't they?
Pedro and Peter had bounties of 17,000,000 Beri and 19,000,000 Beri respectively. This usually wouldn't be too much for the local militia to handle, given the town's large security budget, but somehow they got a hold of enough poison to equip the entire crew.
The people of Red Delta had resigned themselves to endure the pirates until the marines showed up. It wouldn't be too much longer, since their town exported a lot of valuable metal. Someone would notice the supply chain had been broken.
However, it was the most unexpected young woman who couldn't take it any longer and stood up in defiance.
"How dare you assault that old woman!" She shouted at a pirate who had knocked over said old woman, spilling her groceries across the ground.
She was rail thin, had long strawberry blonde hair, and was wearing a pair of very thick glasses that made her look rather bookish.
However, the hefty book she swung at the pirate's head, knocking him out cold, ironically made her look less bookish.
The pirate's crewmate didn't take kindly to the interruption, nor to the attack on his friend.
"Bitch! You've got it coming now! I'll be laughing when you're writhing on the ground, foaming at the mouth!" He snarled, raising his cutlass into the air to strike at her.
The young woman panicked and raised her book in an attempt to block the blade. Although she didn't regret her actions, she did feel rather foolish now that she was facing death.
Unexpectedly, the blow she awaited never came. She lowered the book to see what happened and was shocked at what she beheld.
Another young woman around her age had somehow gotten behind the pirate. Her left hand was clamped tight over his mouth, while her right hand held the pirates own sword against his throat.
Her messy, shoulder length, black hair flowed heroically in the ocean breeze. Her piercing, scarlet eyes were calm and powerful. A lazy smile graced her lips as she spoke.
"I didn't expect to make some money when I came to spend some, but I'll take it." Cherry looked at the bookish young woman. "I was even able to save a beautiful lady. The way you swung that book was impressive." Cherry winked at her.
*BADUMP*
"Tell me where to find your captain, friend, and I maybe I won't accidently nick you with this sword that I definitely don't know is poisoned." Cherry offered generously and released his mouth.
"The captains are at the Lazy Barrel Bar, on the east side of town!" The pirate informed quickly.
"Good boy." She gave a hard slap to his head, knocking him out. She swiftly fused his clothing together to limit his movement and began walking to the east.
"U-um... Where can I find you?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she blushed deeply. She had meant to just thank her, but somehow that slipped out instead.
Cherry turned her head and gave her a grin. "It fate wills it, we'll meet again."
...
Cherry stood outside the Lazy Barrel Bar listening to the raucous sound coming from inside.
She confidently walked through the front door and was greeted by quite the mess. Half the tables and chairs were broken, discarded bottles were scattered everywhere, and puddles of what she hoped was only alcohol covered the floor.
She made eye contact with the bartender who had peaked up from behind the counter. She motioned for him to leave and he obliged quickly, crawling into a back room.
"Where are you going when you need to serve more drinks?!" Shouted an ugly man with a head that was too tall.
"Yeah!" Shouted the other man with a head that was too wide.
"Pedro and Peter of the Twin Captain Pirates I presume?" Cherry questioned loudly.
The two ugly men turned towards her. ""Who the hell are you?!""
Another pirate looked to Cherry. He studied her for a moment before his eyes widened.
"Shit! Captains, I think she's 'Cheapshot' Cherry! We gotta-"
Before he could finish his words, Cherry tossed a black ball into the air. When it touched the ground, a thick smoke instantly filled the bar, causing many of the pirate to begin coughing and gasping for breath.
This was a nifty trick she figured out using her devil fruit. By spending several hours fusing smoke and air into a compact solid, she could later un-fuse it to create a massive cloud of smoke. It was a lot of work, but the effect was worth it while she was weak enough to be harmed by bullets.
Cherry activated her Life Sense and drew her sword. She used her Traceless Steps to silently slice, punch, and kick away at the drunk, coughing, and blinded pirates.
Pedro and Peter weren't quite so helpless. They stood up and began to wildly swing their swords in random directions. Remarkably, they never came close to hitting each other.
Cherry exploited that very opening, slipping in between them. She gripped their heads and slammed them together hard enough to crack their skulls.
The bar was almost silent now, only the pained moaning of the pirates she elected to crack open the eggs of could be heard.
She opened up the windows and door to let the smoke out. She dragged the pirates outside then started fusing the pirates together by their clothing to make a huge ball of stinky men for someone else to sort out later.
