Time passed by quickly whilst the women grew ever stronger in their training.
Kinderella had surprisingly adjusted well to her new position as Cherry's personal assistant and her skills in serving others grew by leaps and bounds every day. She didn't enjoy it in the slightest, though she always did as she was ordered.
Robin reached the point of her first breakthrough into the second realm of body cultivation.
Cherry assisted her through the process for a smoother transition. Normally cultivators didn't trust each other to do such a thing, not even close family, as it put one's life and future cultivation entirely at the mercy of the other. However, Robin didn't know any better so Cherry just went ahead and did it for her. She didn't plan to bring the paranoia of the cultivators from her previous life into this world.
Speaking of breakthroughs, Cherry's next breakthrough was close as well.
There was a problem in this regard however. During her last breakthrough, her blood bound sword had become a conduit for a tribulation. The problem lies in the fact that her sword was currently serving another purpose and that would be ruined if the sword suddenly decided to come rushing towards her during her breakthrough.
That's why she decided to bring up her idea for what her next mission for Dragon would entail.
Dragon was in a meeting with Sabo and the commanders of each sea's army. Ivankov was a commander too, but he was busy with his kingdom apparently.
Once the meeting ended, Cherry waltzed in before anyone left and approached Dragon.
"Yo, it's been a little while since my last mission as payment for your tutelage. I had a suggestion as to what my next one would be." Cherry said.
Sabo and the commanders paused in interest as to what she might suggest.
"Hm, I'll consider it. What is your idea?" Dragon asked, mildly curious.
"I'll rescue Bartholomew Kuma, and restore his mind." Cherry spoke.
This caused the eyes of everyone in the room to widen. They all knew of Kuma's fate by now. The only reason they hadn't deemed to rescue him yet is because they believed him to be as good as dead.
"Can you truly restore his mind?" Dragon asked, with a trace of hope appearing in his eyes. If it were anyone else, he would not trust such words so easily. Except perhaps if it was Vegapunk who said them, as he too was known to operate outside the norm.
Sabo and the other commanders were subconsciously leaning closer, desperate to hear Cherry confirm her words.
"Mm, I said I would do it so I will. When he sent me flying back on Sabaody Archipelago, I made some preparations to fix whatever brain scrambling that Vegapunk was planning to do to him. I suppose there are no guarantees when that guy is involved, but I'm pretty confident." Cherry said honestly.
"Even a small chance would be good enough. I'm looking forward to seeing him again after so long." Sabo said, his hope tempered with realistic expectations.
The others agreed with his sentiments.
"Very well, please go retrieve Kuma and restore his mind if you are able to do so. We'll keep this information between ourselves so as to not get anyone elses' hopes up." Dragon ordered.
The meeting was properly adjourned this time as everyone went their separate ways.
Cherry went to meet with Robin, Cabernet, and Perona to inform them that they would be going out once again.
Robin in particular was happy to be doing this particular task, as although her experiences with Kuma weren't positive, she had heard many good things about the man from the revolutionaries that she had been getting along with, such as Koala and Sabo.
Perona on the other hand was somewhat annoyed as the mission would eat into her quality time with Cabernet whilst they were traveling.
"Cabby and I aren't even getting anything out of this! It isn't fair!" Perona complained with a pout and puffed up cheeks.
"What's good for me is good for Cabernet. As for you, you get to hang out with us even though you were an enemy not so long ago." Cherry rebutted.
"Hmph!" Perona harrumphed.
Cabernet transformed and off they went.
…
Serene came back to the Thousand Sunny after a training session with Sahkky. She was dreadfully tired and pretty sore as Shakky was quite the draconian trainer.
Apparently the woman was originally from the Kuja tribe, which explains a lot.
Serene walked past the form of Bartholomew Kuma that didn't respond to her presence at all. She still didn't have any clue what he was doing protecting the Thousand Sunny like this and he simply refused to speak when spoken to.
Kuma had accumulated some wear and tear from his frequent battles, but was overall faring quite well, thanks to the efforts of Serene, Merry, and the Rosy Life Riders no doubt.
She found Merry sprawled out on the grassy deck and decided to slump her tired body down next to her.
"Baaah." Merry bleated.
"Yeah, my training went well. I'm improving every day that I train with Shakky by a lot." Serene responded. She couldn't really understand the sheep at all, but she felt like she was pretty good at guessing what she meant.
"Baaah." Bleated Merry.
"I'm too tired to give you pets…" Serene denied.
"BAAAH!" Merry repeated louder than before.
"Ugh, fine!" Serene rolled to the side and started scratching Merry's tummy, much to the golden sheep's pleasure.
They heard Kuma start to move and lifted up their heads to see what was happening. Kuma didn't move any further, so he hadn't detected any hostiles within range.
What they saw was a few familiar figures approaching the ship. This was Cherry, Robin, and Cabernet along with an additional pink haired woman, Perona.
As they got closer, Kuma suddenly spoke up, the first time he had said anything since arriving here.
"Mission complete." Kuma spoke monotonously, before starting to walk away.
"Oh no you don't!" Cherry shouted, motioning for the others to assist her.
"Wait wait wait! He was helping to protect the ship!" Serene shouted, thinking they were going to attack Kuma.
They didn't heed her words however and jumped on him.
Robin bloomed many arms across his body to hold him still as Cherry and Cabernet physically tackled him to the ground.
"Attack registered. Initiating self defense." Kuma chanted in his emotionless voice.
Though he strained against them he was clearly not winning this particular battle of strength, in addition he could not get a good angle with his palms or his mouth to attack with his devil fruit or lasers.
His struggles began to slowly reduce in intensity as Cherry punched his body in numerous places, causing the sounds of destroyed metal to ring out.
"My goodness, Kuma. Couldn't you just behave yourself when people are trying to help you?" Cherry said, once Kuma could no longer move his body to give further resistance.
Cherry placed her hands on Kuma's back and stayed that way for about half an hour before standing up once more.
"Hey Serene, Merry! How have you been holding up? Not too bad I hope." Cherry asked.
"Baaah!" Merry happily bleated.
"I'm fine." Serene curtly replied.
"Thank you for protecting the ship while the others are gone." Robin gave them a glowing smile.
"I-I wasn't doing it for you! I just owe you all a debt, that's all!" Serene explained.
"Hehehe, yeah right. You just fell in love with the Straw Hats, not that I can blame you." Cherry mocked her feeble excuse.
"Well, now that you're back, I don't need to protect the Sunny any longer! I'm out of here!" Serene said, disembarking the ship.
Merry gave a sad look as she was leaving, clearly unwilling to see her go.
"Well, if you need another excuse, how about I pay you to keep protecting the Sunny? Hm, 200 million Beri for two years sounds fair to me." Cherry said, rubbing her chin in thought.
Serene stopped in her tracks and seemed to tremble.
"F-fine! I accept, but you had better pay up or else, do you hear me!" Serene shouted, turning around to reveal the tears flowing from her eyes.
"Sure thing." Cherry said with a gentle smile. 'This girl has come a long way since Alabasta.'
"Alright, gang. We'll stay the night and return with Kuma tomorrow." Cherry announced.