"So my lineage factor was… changed, by my devil fruit? And this is what granted me the powers of fusion?" Cherry asked with mild interest.
"That is correct. Unfortunately, I have yet to pinpoint the changes that devil fruit enact to the user's lineage factor. Otherwise, Germa would truly have the greatest unmatched military might in the world!" Judge managed to bring the topic back around to himself.
Cherry kept a lazy appearance, but in reality she was very intrigued. What this meant to her was that the greatest minds of this world had discovered bloodlines, and were even capable of replicating and manipulating them!
In fact, Cherry was sure that Judge knew more about bloodlines than the cultivators did back in the Myriad Realms, let alone Vegapunk.
Most importantly, this gave her a key piece of information regarding the inner workings of devil fruit. In a way, she and Vegapunk both had separate halves of the same puzzle. Vegapunk had an understanding of how devil fruit altered the user's bloodline, and Cherry understood the vital energy inscription element.
If she can meet with Vegapunk someday and convince him to share his insights, then she could finally understand devil fruit in their entirety; possibly even create them from scratch.
On a side note, the way Judge kept bringing up Vegapunk just to minimize the man's contributions to their lineage factor project was hilarious. Cherry naturally assumed that Vegapunk did most of the work as a result.
"So what did you find in there in regards to my ancestry?" Cherry asked casually.
"It's… as I expected. Kuja lineage factors are extraordinarily dominant, but some of your father's traits were strong enough to present themselves, such as your eyes. I would need to perform an eyesight examination to confirm, but you should have at least 20/10 vision." Judge spoke professionally.
'At least, he says…' Cherry suppressed a chuckle.
At her stage of cultivation, her eyesight could near perfectly process every scrap of light that entered her eyes. She could even expand her visible range a thousand fold, but that was honestly more annoying than it was useful.
Well, she supposed that her eyesight might have been better than standard before she started cultivating in this world. She just hadn't noticed because it had been a considerable downgrade compared to before she died.
Cherry sensed part of the blood sample she gave being squirreled away by one of the Germa scientists, so she remotely disintegrated it without them realizing.
Cherry clapped her hands together. "Whelp, it's been fun. However, as I am an introverted person, my socializing batteries are quite drained so I think it best that I head on out."
"I see. Perhaps we will speak again after the wedding." Judge spoke politely, but Cherry got the sense he didn't actually mean it. Whatever he wanted from her, he believed that he already had it.
"Show me out?" Cherry asked Reiju who was waiting silently to the side.
Reiju opened her mouth to answer, but stopped to glance at Judge as if asking for permission.
"Go ahead, Reiju," Judge said dismissively, waving her off as he marched away.
"See you later, Sanji!" Cherry waved to him goodbye.
"Hopefully sooner rather than later, Cherry-chan," Sanji smiled gently. The fact that he lacked his typical overexcitement when speaking to her since he has been here did not go unnoticed by her.
Cherry held out her arms for a hug. Despite his dour mood, Sanji was still Sanji so there was no way he could refuse.
After a quick embrace, Cherry traced her hands down his arms and paused on his explosive bracelets in a way that an outside observer wouldn't notice, but was obvious to Sanji himself. Cherry winked at him, confirming his suspicion that she had done something to them.
That something was pretty obvious when you consider that Cherry has a vested interest in Sanji's hands NOT exploding.
Reiju led Cherry out.
"You aren't like the other three, your idiot brothers." Cherry said once she and Reiju were alone.
Reiju glanced at her. "I'm certainly smarter than they are."
"Hm, that too. However, I meant that you seem to have the full range of human emotion, even if you hide it well. I would have thought that was a requirement for Judge's idea of a superior human," Cherry said. "Sanji was considered a failure, wasn't he?"
Reiju studied her with a blank smile. The smile dropped as she turned thoughtful. "Yes, he was. I'm more of a successful prototype than the final product. Even with my emotions intact, though, I am… obedient."
There was something hidden beneath her voice with that final word; obedient. Cherry tucked that nugget of information away in case she needed it later.
They exited the castle and found Smoothie waiting for them.
"It's about damn time. Let's go." Smoothie spoke impatiently.
Cherry shrugged at Reiju. "I'm a popular girl it seems. Catch you later!"
"Thanks for being Sanji's friend," Reiju waved goodbye to her before going back inside.
Smoothie rudely grabbed Cherry around the waist and started to march away with her in grasp.
"Where are we going?" Cherry asked calmly like she wasn't being manhandled by a woman who could juice people like an orange.
"We're going to see Mama in the chateau." Smoothie declared.
"Neat." Cherry said. "Do you think she'll engage Katakuri and I?"
Smoothie stopped dead and looked at her with both confusion and condescension. "I'll admit that you're a little quick on your feet, but that doesn't mean you're worth a Sweet General's hand in marriage."
"Not even someone who can read poneglyphs?" Cherry amended.
Smoothie actually paused to consider that. "I… I don't know…"
"It's okay, sister-in-law. No one knows everything." Cherry nodded and patted her thumb.
"Don't patronize me." Smoothie continued onwards. "It isn't very likely, not with Katakuri. Mama might agree to a marriage, but Katakuri is her strongest card. I don't believe she'll risk displeasing him, even for this."
"Why would he be displeased?" Cherry fluttered her lashes.
"Don't flatter yourself. And don't flutter your eyelashes like that; it's creepy." Smoothie said.
Katakuri and I got along just fine last night, though…" Cherry blushed and tittered like a school girl in love. "Even Brulee-nee-sama approves of me~"
Smoothie sputtered in disbelief. "You- You really have a way of screwing with people, you know that?"
"Yes, of course I do. I did plenty of screwing around last night, too~!" Cherry smiled deviously.
"Just, please… shut up." Smoothie rubbed her nose between her eyes. She really needed the wedding to be over with already.
"No can do! Hehehehehehehe~!" Cherry cackled with delight whilst kicking her legs.
'Let's see if you can keep acting like this when you meet Mama,' Smoothie thought to herself.
Smoothie picked up the pace. The faster that she reached her destination, the faster that she could get away from Cherry.
Little did she know that a certain bird-man caught sight of the strange duo, one carried by the other.
"I smell a story!" Morgans muttered to himself. He would have to be sneaky, but thankfully 'sneaky' is his middle name!