Haki
"Alright, just so you know these powers are difficult to awaken, two of them can be learnt by anyone with enough training, experience and will".
As promised the captain of the Red Haired Pirates was busy teaching Luffy a method to get stronger, Although the man could've just departed the island after promising to teach him means of getting stronger, Red Haired Shanks was a man who kept his promises… It also factored in that the 7 year old boy was forcing him to keep his word by pesting him for the last day or so, excited to get stronger, Hence why Shank decided to teach him a thing or two now to get the boy out of his hair. The problem was that the boy had little aptitude for learning, rather his short attention span coupled with his obsession with meat left him impaired when it came to learning something new.
"What I'm about to teach you is a power called Haki," Shank explained.
"Cool! Can I eat it?" The boy asked seriously.
Shank sighed for the fourth time that hour, undeterred, the young man pushed on.
"No. Haki is a power that allows its wielder to use their own spiritual energy for various purposes." He paused, letting the words sink in.
"It can be used to sense people's spiritual energy, predict their actions and can give the user a protective coating of spiritual energy, sort of like wearing an invisible armor" he continued.
"AH! So it's a mystery power! Got it" Luffy exclaims with a proud grin.
"Uh… Sure… a mystery power", Shank reluctantly concedes. This was going to be a long evening.
"Ok so how does it work?" Shank sighs, extremely tempted to give up but an epiphany hits him. Drilling theory and information into his head isn't getting him anywhere, The kid forgets it or just straight up ignores it. Luffy must be a visual learner, someone who learns better by observing… either that or the kid was just hopeless.
Shanks' Observation haki flares to life, informing him of all the auras and living organisms around him, from the life energy of an insect, to one of an elephant. His Haki was alerting him of a dangerous presence behind him approaching them rapidly, any minute now. "Okay, how about I demonstrate the power of Haki? This type of haki is called observation haki, watch closely". Shanks stated as he continued to face luffy.
Not a moment later the largest baboon luffy had ever seen in his short life appeared out from the jungle canopy, launching itself directly towards shanks with a large fist the size of a head, clenched and ready to collide with the back of shank's head. Luffy was amazed by what he next witnessed.
Shanks slightly positioned his body away from the trajectory of the strike before it could even launch itself, the fist just missing his face by a hair as the large animal came dashing out of the tree's canopy. The fist hits nothing but air, the weight of the baboon causing a small shockwave of stress on the ground. The baboon recovers from the failed attack.
"A strike from the left, followed by one from the right", he explains as if it were a mere fact. Luffy watches in jaw dropping awe as the baboon cocks its left fist back to strike once more, once again the attack is dodged before it's even in motion and the subsequent attacks meet either the air or the ground as shanks continues to weave through the strikes from the aggressive baboon. This routine continued for a solid minute, where the baboon got angrier and angrier from its frustration of hitting nothing but air.
"Alright you paying attention luffy?"
the boy in question dumbly nods, having no words for the awe he's witnessing. "This next type of Haki is like the invisible armor I was talking about, it's called Armament Haki". He explained whilst he weaved around another punch.
Shanks suddenly hopped away, putting some distance between himself and the baboon, now positioning himself in front of luffy protectively facing the baboon directly. The baboon takes advantage of the distance and begins charging towards him, building momentum. Luffy's eyes widen as he screams in panic.
"SHANKS IT'S GOING TO FLATTEN US! DODGE!"
"No need"
A shockwave emitted from Shank's forearm as luffy watched the baboon's fist clash against it, wind tore through the jungle air at the moment of impact, trees and dust being rustled and blown away. It's almost as if the giant beast's fist had crashed into a thick iron wall, its momentum halted immediately, as the baboon continued to struggle and shake against Shanks' seemingly normal arm, holding its entire weight back effortlessly.
"This is the power of Armament Haki", Shanks lectured, barely sweating as he held the baboon back before shoving the monstrous baboon away with his arm, deciding to end the fight. The baboon is blasted away and staggers as it tries to regain its balance, Shanks closes the distance, following up with a palm strike. A giant shockwave erupts at the point of impact as Shanks' palm lands on the beast's stomach. Wind howls through the surrounding trees, blowing leaves and branches away as the baboon is launched with the force of a sea train as it crashes through several trees before it comes to a stop on the jungle floor a hundred meter away, It's eyes rolled back into its head.
"So. That's the power of haki" The redhead nonchalantly states as if he didn't effortlessly launch a baboon the size of a boulder through the jungle a few seconds ago. He looks up at the sky and turns away from Luffy and begins to make his trek back to town.
"Let's head back it's almost dark"
Luffy was in a state of shock as to the strength he witnessed moments before, one singular thought running through his mind; he must learn haki.
XxX
Authers note: I re-edited this and the last chapter as im aware of how bad my writing was, its still not perfect as the format still looks odd to me, so i'll probably fix that later down the line.