One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 33: Cabernet



"Cherry!" The woman gripped Cherry into a bear hug.

Cherry felt a surge of emotions come through her connection with the blood bound Cabernet, proving beyond all doubt it was true.

'So the devil fruit was some kind of Human Zoan type? There are winged humans too?' Cherry thought.

"Yup!" Cabernet said in a bright and cheery voice.

Cherry was caught off guard. 'Did she just hear my thoughts?'

"Yup!" Cabernet said in the same tone as before.

"How does that work? Ah, of course, you're controlled by my thoughts so naturally you'd be able to hear them as well..." Cherry concluded.

Cherry looked at the woman that was holding her in a vise grip. Despite her cutesy voice and actions, her appearance was the complete opposite.

Her face bore a familial resemblance to Cherry's, except somehow it was even scarier. She stood just over 2 meters tall and had a heroic physique with powerful muscles.

Anyone who looked at her would think she was a female mob boss for sure.

A thought occurred to Cherry. "By the way, Cabernet. What happened to all my stuff that was stored... inside of you?"

Cabernet's face became thoughtful. She began rub, tap, and knock on different areas of her bare skin.

"I think it's still... somewhere?" She gave an innocent smile, or at least as innocent as her demonic face allowed.

"Well, turn back into a ship and we'll make sure it's fine." Cherry requested.

Cabernet complied and Cherry checked around. She found that everything was in order and as she left it.

'How convenient! Its not quite as good as a spatial storage ring, but this is good too. Especially with the absence in spatial storage rings in this world.' Cherry nodded in satisfaction.

The wood of the Cabernet started to creak and formed an eerie voice. "Hey, I'm not just useful as storage!"

Cherry got the sense she was trying to pout over their connection.

"Ohhhh? What ELSE can you do then, Cabernet?" Cherry teased. *FWOOSH*

The wood beneath Cherry's feet burst into flames. She leapt away from the spot. "You can make fire? I guess that makes sense, given the flames on your shoulders before."

"That's not all!" Cabernet groaned. The ship suddenly lurched into motion.

Cherry went above deck to see what was happening. To her surprise, Cabernet had sprouted giant wings on either side of her ship form which were now bringing them into the air.

"Flight?! You can do it in ship form too?!" Cherry sighed with praise. "I'll admit it, you're amazing Cabernet."

Cabernet touched down to the ground and transformed into her human form. She made a proud pose with her hands on her hips. "Of course I am! Hehehe!"

"We should really get some clothes for you..." Cherry said.

Cabernet looked down at herself. "Oh yeah! I want to try clothes!" She said excitedly, jumping up and down.

...

After Cherry gave Cabernet a crash course on common sense and basic modesty, she brought her to meet Brogy and Dorry. They immediately got along, bonding with each other through their simple mindedness and innocence.

Fortunately, Cabernet figured out she could shape her own clothes from her sail, so clothes wouldn't be a problem.

Cherry asked the giants if they knew what race the devil fruit turned Cabernet into, but they didn't know either despite their long lives.

While Cabernet had a play date with Brogy and Dorry, Cherry took stock of her cultivation. She was now in the fourth realm. This realm is called the Spirit Root Realm. It's primary change to the body was to transform the nervous system into a semi-spiritual form.

On top of improving the speed of the brain's processing of information, it also connected the soul directly to the body. That allows for instantaneous reaction speeds and sensory reception. If one reached the stage of perfection, one could even remain conscious and continue to move after decapitation, at least until total brain death.

That was a long ways off though, she hasn't even begun yet.

Cherry got started on transforming her nervous system while Cabernet practiced setting things on fire and flying about, in other words fooling around.

A month passed, during which Cherry got a proper foot hold in the fourth realm and Cabernet became accustomed to her new abilities and form.

Cherry got Cabernet started learning Armament Haki as well, though she wasn't sure she would be able to learn it being a ship and all.

She was glad to find that Cabernet could learn it just fine and even had the benefit of drawing on Cherry's experience through the blood bond.

Cherry was very excited about Cabernet, as she was certain she was the first person from her old life to have a sapient blood bound artifact.

Sentient weapons were incredibly rare, let alone sapient ones. Such weapons had never been willing to submit themselves to another will after forming their own after countless millennia.

A few more months passed while Cherry helped to train Cabernet in Armament Haki and general martial arts.

She had been on Little Garden for about 10 months now, she figured it was about time to set out for the next island. She brought out her log pose, but something was strange.

"Why hasn't it set to the magnetic field yet?" Cherry wondered aloud.

"Hm? Oh, we didn't tell you? It takes a year for the log pose to set on this island." Dorry said while chewing on a dinosaur bone.

"Ah, that's ridiculous. I've got some eternal log poses, but... if it's only a couple more months, I can wait." As she said these words a shiver went down her spine. 'What the hell was

that?'

Cherry looked around and scanned the jungle with her Life Sense, but found nothing out of the ordinary. 'Did I imagine it?'

"What's wrong, my slice of Cherry pie?" Cabernet asked, sweetly.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"It's nothing. Why are you calling me that?" Cherry asked amused.

"I wanted to try using nicknames!" Cabernet cheered.

"Okay then, my little barrel of wine." Cherry responded with a smile.

"Hmmmm... I don't like it!" Cabernet laughed.

...

The days on Little Garden passed by uneventfully, but Cherry couldn't help but feel a creeping sense of dread. She was sure it wasn't just her imagination after a few weeks.

She wasn't going to run away from a challenge however and elected to remain at least until

the log pose set.

She also couldn't just abandon Brogy and Dorry. Even though they were much stronger than her, they were also dimwits. A cunning opponent could outsmart them even if they were weaker than the two giants.

In the final day of her year on Little Garden, she finally caught wind of other people on the

island.

As she scanned over them, and found that one in particular gave her the sense she should stay away. However Dorry had already come across the small group traveling with this individual, she had no time to warn him to be careful.

Cherry rushed towards Dorry's camp with Cabernet by her side.

First she heard Dorry's thundering laughter. "Gegyagyagyagya!"

Then she heard unfamiliar laughter. "Dahahaha!"

She broke through the tree line into the clearing of Dorry's camp.

Cherry saw Dorry tipping the contents of a boxed lunch into his mouth, which seemed much

too small for him to properly taste. Next to him was a lanky young man in a straw hat and red vest eating an absurd amount of dinosaur meat. Sitting to the side quietly was a large duck

and a familiar blue haired princess.

"Dorry! You have guests, I see?" Cherry called out.

The giant, two humans, and duck turned towards her. When the young man's eyes landed on her she realized why he felt so strange to her.

It wasn't danger she sensed from him, but a grand destiny. Children of destiny were always,

ALWAYS trouble!

'Cabernet, don't interact with that boy no matter what!' She sent a command, no, more of a desperate plea to Cabernet through their bond.

She had to do everything in her power not to get roped up into this boy's destiny by the whims

of fate!