After a night of cultivating, Cherry fully recovered from her injuries during the war at Marineford.
She decided to stick around Amazon Lily for a little while, learn some of that basic haki technique that Hancock promised to teach Luffy.
It's definitely not because she had pretty women fangirling over her after demonstrating her strength in their arena.
It's also definitely not because she was reluctant to leave Luffy's side. After all, she had been instrumental in saving his brother's life, which had pretty much resolved their intertwined fates in one go.
"There is no reason to stick around with Luffy and the other Straw Hats any more..." Cherry muttered to herself, hating the sound of her own voice as she spoke the words.
"And Luffy said he wants to train for a couple of years before resuming his journey with the others. He even plans to return to Marineford and make a ruckus to ensure that he would make the newspaper's front page to let them know. By the time that day comes, I'll likely have outgrown his little crew, I'm already leagues ahead of them..." Cherry convinced herself.
She shook those thoughts out of her mind. Rayleigh would arrive at Amazon Lily soon, according to her predictions based on the strength of the connection with his vivre card. Once he arrived, Cherry will have a chat with him and then go pick up Cabernet so they can resume their own travels.
It was during their haki training with Hancock that Rayleigh swam to shore after fighting off a sea king.
Hancock and her two sisters didn't flip out over another man coming to their island as anticipated, rather they seemed to know Rayleigh and even were grateful towards him for some reason.
"Rayleigh, show me some advanced haki stuff! I'm leaving soon, so let me see what's possible when I'm training on my own!" Cherry demanded.
Rayleigh didn't seem to mind her rude and selfish attitude.
"I suppose you'll need all the strength you can get your hands on after the new bounty they gave you. Can't blame them after you beat Garp and whatever you did to Whitebeard. 800 million Beri, they really don't like you do they? Hahaha!" Rayleigh responded. He also felt it would be worthwhile for her to see what's possible with haki, considering she awakened her Conquer's Haki during her fight with Garp.
Rayleigh told Luffy he should watch as well, since he had come to teach him in the first place. He demonstrated a few ways to use haki that Cherry never considered.
What she was most interested in was the application of Armament Haki that he used, in which he infused his own vital energy into his haki. She was able to use this application immediately, as she already had full control over her vital energy, which was normally the hard part for people.
"..." Rayleigh gawked at Cherry after she reduced a tree to splinters with a light touch.
"What'll happen if I combine this with Hasshoken?" Chery wondered aloud.
"Please don't do it here. I don't think I can take the blow to my ego." Rayleigh misunderstood her demonstration as a terrifyingly monstrous level of talent.
Rayleigh didn't explain or demonstrate the way to infuse Conqueror's Haki into attacks. One should master Conqueror's Haki first in it's basic use, otherwise you'll end up wasting time with training that won't bear any results. He imagined she would work it out herself eventually anyways, the little devil that she was.
"Well, alright. I guess this is goodbye Luffy." Cherry said somewhat awkwardly.
"Yeah, thanks for everything Cherry! Shishishi!" Luffy pulled her into a hug that almost sent Hancock into a frenzy, much to Cherry's amusement.
Cherry didn't bother with a boat of any kind as only the kuja pirate ship could sail in the Calm Belt with its sea serpents. So, she just used Kamisori to run through the air at high speeds in the general direction of Cabernet.
...
Zoro was pretty pissed off as he desperately fought with the native baboons of Kuraigana Island, who had learned to fight with weapons from watching the humans who once destroyed themselves with war here.
It had been almost three whole weeks since they arrived here. First Cabernet had adamantly insisted on waiting for Cherry to come get her instead of flying him out of this hell hole.
Then Hawkeye had shown up, of all people, and mocked his futile efforts to beat a bunch of monkeys.
Eventually he was struck down again, and Cabernet came and dragged him away from the baboons. The baboons never attacked Cabernet for some reason, which only added to his frustration.
"Why the hell don't those damned monkeys attack you too, huh?!" Zoro shouted rhetorically.
"Because I'm cute?" Cabernet hypothesized innocently.
The real reason was that she had the same eyes as Hawkeye, and thus they were terrified of the swordsman's revenge if they were to attack her.
Cabernet plopped Zoro down in a bed and a pouting Perona who was really getting sick of tending to his wounds walked over with a newspaper in hand.
"Here, you're doofus captain made the front page." Perona held in aloft so he could see.
Zoro didn't need to read the story attached to Luffy's picture, as the message was inside the picture itself. It took him a little while to figure it out because he had a bad case of stupid brain.
"Alright, Luffy. I understand." He said, as Perona's arms were trembling from holding them outstretched for too long.
Cabernet brought her a hot chocolate whislt wearing a frilly pink apron.
"Kyaa! You totally understand me, Cabby!" Perona gratefully took the delicious beverage from her, then nudged Cabernet over to a chair so she could sit on her lap, just how she likes to enjoy her hot chocolate.
Cabernet had enjoyed her time with Perona immensely over the last few weeks. It was also a time of self discovery for her, as she experienced new feelings that she hadn't before.
Zoro just learned to ignore the public displays of affection from the two young women. Any time he would comment on it, Perona would send her ghosts after him, which wasn't very fun, so he learned to keep his mouth shut pretty quick.
"Haven't I told you not to do such things in my presence?" Hawkeye said, as he was trying to read a book with a cup of tea. Cabernet looked an awful lot like his daughter, so it felt weird for him.
Of course, Perona could just send her ghosts after Hawkeye, the strongest swordsman in the world, so she just had to put up with his comments. Though she was too stubborn to simply abide by his requests, especially once she learned that Cabernet was a weak point of his for some reason.
"Hmph!" Perona pouted and took a sip of her hot chocolate, but didn't move from her 'special seat'.
Hawkeye was about to admonish them again when he suddenly felt a presence fast approaching the castle. He wondered if Kuma had sent a fourth uninvited guest to his home. He might have to pay him a visit to make him cut it out.
*Smash!*
A figure broke through a tall stained glass window and landed gracefully amongst the broken glass.
"Cherry!" Cabernet shouted with glee, throwing the unsuspecting Perona off her lap to give Cherry a hug.
Cherry greeted her ship / little sister with a big smile and returned the hug. "I'm happy to see you again too, Cabernet."
Zoro was somehow not shocked at all by that... 'grand' entrance.
Perona was so mad she was almost fuming over her spilled hot chocolate and how her favorite time of day was cut tragically short by Cherry's arrival.
Hawkeye got very quiet and even instinctively tried to reduce his presence. He had wanted to meet his daughter someday, but he hadn't expected that she would literally drop in with no warning.
"Hey, Pops. How's life been treating you? Good, I hope?" Cherry gave her best attempt at casual conversation. She hadn't expected that Cabernet would be with her father either, though it made sense in hindsight if Kuma wanted to send the Straw Hats to places where they could grow stronger, since Cabernet had tagged along with Zoro.
"Um, yes. I am doing well." Hawkeye replied.
An awkward silence descended over the room.
*sniff sniff* "Can I get some of that hot chocolate?" Cherry asked.
"Sure..." Hawkeye said, taking the opportunity to slip away to the kitchen to get his bearings.