-6. Observing The World In A Different Way
Story Start: The Main Deck Of The Merry, After Lunch
"You sure about this?" Zoro asked with crossed arms as he stood in front of me.
I rolled my eyes and said "Yes, I'm sure. It's all well and good to have a weapon that can reach opponents two hundred feet away, but that weapon isn't an automatic and I won't always be able to stay separated from my opponents. If the fighting gets to close quarters combat then I need to know I can trust my rusty skills in Karate to keep me alive. I missed an opportunity to spar with members of the Roaming Orchestra Pirates when they visited that island, it would be the height of both foolishness and irresponsibility to not take advantage of the fact that the ship doesn't need to be sailed for up to a month here and do some serious combat training."
"Well you're not wrong there." Zoro allowed, dropping his crossed arms, his right hand drawing one of his normal Katana. Flipping it around in his hand so that the cutting edge was facing the wrong way, he assumed a defensive stance and said "Whenever you're ready."
Nodding, I took a deep breath before I dropped into an opening stance, feet separated with slightly bent knees, hands held loose in between a knife hand and a half fist in front of me. My old Karate teacher would have likely thumped me on the back of my head for that last one but with Observation Haki up and running it gave me the best option to work with. The digits on said hands bled into the obsidian black of my second stage Armament Haki and I said "Right, let's do this."
The next instant, I shot forward making a grab for Zoro's sword with my black fingers. I could see the slight surprise in Zoro's eyes even as he moved to intercept my path with a negligent 'cut'. Not that I would have blamed him if I had the time, that WAS a sword after all, blade flipped or not. Still, Haki. Quickly changing direction with my arms, I 'caught' the blade as it came in. Even as I was being thrown off my feet, I shifted into full Lemur mode and went for the ride up to the end of the swing, momentum causing me to swing in a wide circle as I did so before I suddenly turned into my half and half form kicking Zoro in the side of his head sending him stumbling away.
Shaking his head from the ringing in his ears, Zoro turned back towards me with an eager grin and said "Trickery matched with strength, you might just be a challenge after all." The next instant, he lunged at me and I went back to full lemur form, using my small size, excellent jumping ability, and Observation Haki to dance around the sword swings sent my way. Ten swings in, I managed to actually jump on Zoro's blade as it did a low horizontal swing that would have taken my neck off, jumped a second time onto Zoro's right shoulder then leapt even higher into the air where I shifted back into half and half and spun downwards. My Armament filled tail hit Zoro's quickly risen blade and the laws of physics came into play as he launched me spinning away from Zoro.
Somehow managing to turn full lemur again just in time to land reasonably lightly on the railing in front of the entrance to the kitchen, I shook my head a bit to clear the spinning in my head and said "Alright, that could have turned out better."
"Probably. Tell me, Could you actually replicate what you just did or was that more luck?" Zoro asked.
"Combination of luck and good timing." I admitted with a shrug before I grinned and said "Doesn't mean I'm not going to try again though." With that, I leapt up, but not in a way where I would fall over Zoro. No, I leapt at a flatter angle that let me easily reach Merry's mast. Barely a moment after contact I scrambled up it before I reached the yard arm. Holding onto the underside with my arms and my legs pushing against it in preparation to 'jump', I grinned down at Zoro and said "Round Two Sword Boy!"
"Oi, I'm 19!" Zoro snapped indignantly.
"And I'm 30, what's your point?" I asked before I let my hands go and pushed off the yardarm as hard as I could, shooting to the deck like a meteor. Zoro tsked to himself even as he lazily moved his sword up to deflect. Then he got a face full of fur as I shouted "Fur attack!" Zoro spluttered as some of the fur launched into his face got into his mouth, distracting me long enough for me to grab the sword with my hands and swing around it, shifting to full human as I came up again giving me momentum to toss the blade, and thus Zoro over my shoulder and a few feet away from me.
Grunting as he hit the deck, Zoro stared up at the clouds above us and asked "What was that?"
"That was me taking advantage of Physics." I said as I strolled over to look down at him for a moment before offering him my hand.
Zoro clasped his hand into mine and I hoisted him up. Shaking his head, he said "No, I understood HOW you threw me like that, even if I'm surprised at how good you are at timing those form changes of yours, I was asking about the fur. How'd you shoot it at me?"
"Oh, that. I brought my human finger nails back, Haki'd them up and scrapped them down my arms like razor blades to get a couple handfuls of the stuff then threw it at you." I explained with a shrug.
Zoro shook his head with a huff and said "Like I said, you're pretty good with that shape shifting of yours."
"Thanks." I said with a grin before I cocked my head and continued "So...round two?"
"Oh hell yes, this is much more interesting than just doing katas." Zoro said with an answering smirk.
As we went back to our starting positions, I heard Johnny mutter to Yosaku from their observation spots on the gunnery deck "Think we could take him if we tag teamed him?"
Yosaku made that sound that usually goes with shrugging one's shoulders but I didn't have time to glance at them before Zoro bore down on me with all of the inevitability of a freight train and I had more important things to worry about.
Time Skip: After Dinner.
I had not gotten out of my training with Zoro unscathed. Once he got used to fighting someone who could change size at will he got VERY good at keeping me on the defensive. I got a good workout of both my Observation and Armament Haki as he showed me why the Santoryu user was Luffy's Second in Command. Even with a Zoan's above average durability and recovery rate I was still probably going to have a few bruises remaining in the morning. Wouldn't stop me from sparring with someone again, that someone might even be Zoro once more.
But right now wasn't about the advancement of my skills. Rather, it was time to begin teaching the others about Haki. Everyone including Luffy were sitting on barrels that we had placed at the stern of the ship, with me sitting on the railing, feet rapped around the bars to prevent an unfortunate slash embarrassing accident that would require one of the others to dive in after me. Taking a few moments to consider my words, I said "Alright guys, I told you before that I would teach you about Haki. Haki is...well, the best words I can use to describe it are 'Applied Bullshit'. It lets you detect what a person attacking you will do, increase the impact of your own attacks while at the same time allowing you to hit the intangible, and for the rare few, exert your dominance over others, usually by knocking them out."
"Uh, what's dominance mean?" Luffy asked.
"Power and influence over others." I explained. At Luffy's quiet 'ah' I continued my explanation and said "Haki is split apart into three main categories: Observation, Armament, and Conqueror's. The first two anyone can learn but the third you have to be born with to use it." Nodding at Luffy, I said "I think Luffy might have that last one. Not only is he a D, which are said to be the enemies of the gods, his goal is to be the King of the Pirates, and it would make sense that someone with that kind of ambition would have it." 'Not to mention it would make sense for the main character to have it.' I thought to myself.
"Shishishi." Luffy laughed with a grin as the others glanced at him considering.
Gathering everyone's attention again, I said "I'll go over Conqueror's a little more with you at a later time Luffy, but for now I'll focus on the other two. Observation is first and its uses are many. You can use it to sense others if they are hidden from your other senses or too far away to detect normally, sense a person's emotional state, predict an opponent's moves shortly before they make them, and true masters can see up to a full minute into the future, though only in snippets for that. It's also possible for two Observation users to communicate semi telepathically thanks to the emotion sensing, kind of like how people who have worked together for a long time don't need to actually speak to have a conversation with each other."
"On the flip side of the Haki coin we have Armament Haki. As the name suggests, its primary purpose is to defend the user. There are two stages, the first forms an invisible shield around what's being protected while the second, stronger form turns the effected object black." I held up my right fist in demonstration and a moment later it was gleaming black. Dropping both the technique and my fist, I continued "Armament Haki is more than a shield though, it's also a weapon. For starters, Armament Haki negates Devil Fruit abilities if those abilities alters the user's body. For instance, say you're fighting a guy that can turn into, oh I don't know, let's go with gelatin. A normal hit wouldn't affect the guy because his body would just turn into gelatin when hit. However, use Armament in your strikes and it would be just like hitting a normal person. And it doesn't have to be a body part doing the striking either, if you're using a weapon like a sword you can imbue your Haki into it. Most higher class swordsmen do so as a matter of course in order to prevent chip damage or outright shattering of their blades in combat."
Zoro's hand drifted over his sword hilts at that and his gaze turned more intent. Nodding my head to Zoro, I said "In fact, there's something called a Black Sword/Blade. It's where a person has used Haki so often with their weapon that it has become permanently black. If you guys see someone with one of these swords before you hit the second half of the Grand Line my advice is to run like hell away from the user if they're not focused on you."
"A-and if they ARE focused on us?" Usopp asked, shakily raising his hand like a student in class.
I gave him a grim smile and said "Then you should promptly bend over and kiss your ass goodbye, though chances are that if you wait a moment you won't actually have to bend over to do so."
Usopp turned a pasty white and let out a terrified wheeze. Johnny and Yosaku both let out loud gulps while Nami had sweat start to form on their brow. Meanwhile Zoro was contemplative while Luffy simply gave a single nod to show that he understood.
"One last thing, actually make that two. First, an advanced user of Armament Haki can create a shield of the stuff a short distance away from the user's body without a medium. Second, there is another, much harder technique, where you can push your Haki into another object and destroy it from the inside."
"COOL!" Usopp and Luffy shouted, stars in their eyes.
"That depends entirely on what you use that trick on. I've seen what a human body exploding looks like, and you're going to need more than a mop to clean THAT mess up." I said with a dark smirk.
Four out of the five people in front of me turned a decidedly unhealthy green at the mental image I just gave them and even Zoro looked slightly disturbed. Shaking his head to clear that image, the Santoryu user said "So what do we need to do to learn these techniques?"
"Well I'm going to get you started on Observation Haki first. The ability to detect an attack means that you have a greater chance to avoid it. After all, the saying's never block an attack if you can dodge it. That and I think I can give you guys a head start on learning Observation if you're willing to trust me a little."
"Why would we need to trust you?" Nami asked suddenly suspicious.
I let out a shrug and said "I couldn't really do this for myself because I'd have no way to end it but I think that if I put you all into a light hypnotic trance then I can make it easier for you guys to use Observation Haki the first time. After that it'd just be a matter of practice."
Nami crossed her arms with a frown and said "You don't actually expect me to allow you to hypnotize me do you? Who knows what you'd do with a beautiful girl like me under your control?"
I shrugged again and said "Then I guess you don't mind spending a few months sitting still meditating or trying to dodge someone attacking you with a blindfold on."
"Er, well..." Nami said, eyes shifting side to side before she sighed and said "Fine. BUT! I want you to record this so that way I know that nothing fishy happened!"
"Fine by me." I said with a shrug as I hopped off the railing and put my phone against the wall of the kitchen so that way it wouldn't fall overboard. Once it was recording, I retook my position on the railing and said "Alright guys, since I don't have a giant spiral you all can stare at we're going to have to bring you into trances the longer way. We're going to be doing a visualization exercise now. I want you all to focus on the ocean behind me, more specifically, the horizon where the sky meets the water. Now, picture your thoughts as sail boats, with you as the docks. Begin taking deep breaths. Every exhale pushes another thought boat from the dock and out to sea until they are no longer visible over the horizon and the dock is empty."
It took a few minutes, and I repeated myself a few times, but eventually even Nami and Usopp seemed to have emptied their heads of all thought. Nodding, I said "Gooood, now, following thought, with every deep exhale, send your senses away until only the sound of my voice remains. Breathe In, the sails of Touch are unfurling, Breathe Out, sending Touch away...Breathe In, the sails of Smell are unfurling, Breathe Out, sending Smell away...Breathe In, the sails of Taste are now lowered, Breathe Out, sending Taste on its way...Breathe In, Sight is preparing to depart, Breathe Out, there it goes, on its voyage...Breathe In, Hearing is making ready for its own departure, but unlike the others, there is a line still attached to the dock, Breathe Out, Hearing has set sail, but the line to the dock extends as it travels, allowing you to still hear my voice even as every other sound fades away..."
Once they could only hear my voice, I said ""Observational Haki transcends the normal senses, and everyone experiences it just that little bit differently. For some, it is sight beyond sight, for others, hearing beyond hearing. Your five senses have left you, leaving only darkness around you, but that does not mean that the world outside of that darkness has ceased to exist. Push through the darkness until you can once more detect things around you. When you do, make two thumbs up."
All of their brows furrowed to varying degrees as they did as told. Unsurprisingly given how good she was at detecting changes in weather patterns, Nami was the first to move her hands into the gesture, taking only thirty seconds to do so. Usopp was next, the Sniper's scrunched up face relaxing around fifty seconds in as he fisted his hands with raised thumbs. Zoro and Luffy were both within a minute of the Long Nose. Finally, Johnny and Yosaku made the gesture at around the three minute mark.
Nodding to myself, I said "Alright guys we've got the hardest part done, you've broken the barrier to Observe the world. When you wake up, I want you to remember the feeling you got when you did so. But for now, it's time for your Sense boats to return to Port. This time, every time you breathe in a wind blows a ship back to the dock to be secured. Breathe Out, Hearing is spotted on the horizon coming back home, Breathe In, it quickly comes back to the dock, attaching its lines to it, once more allowing you to hear the world around you...Breathe Out, Sight has returned once more, Breathe In, it is brought in to dock...Breathe Out, Taste has returned as well, Breathe In, it is soon moored alongside the other two...Breathe Out, Smell was trailing just behind its Sister Ship Taste, Breathe In, Smell has docked beside its Sister...Breathe Out, Touch has had the longest to sail away, but now it has finally returned home, Breathe In, it pulls into the dock, lines are cast to anchor points and finally the entire fleet is back where it belongs...Now that your senses have returned to you, I want you to once more try and use Observation Haki, give me a single thumb's up when you do so."
Nami and Usopp immediately gave a thumb's up, rapidly followed by Zoro and Luffy a few seconds in. It took Johnny and Yosaku about six seconds but they too soon had their thumbs up. Nodding, I said "Alright guys, remember to keep how you pierced the darkness in mind, able to recall perfectly how you did so as you come out of your trance, which will happen when I snap my fingers in three, two, one." SNAP!
As one, the five all twitched back to awareness and began blinking their eyes a few times. Shaking his head, Usopp said "Man, that felt weird."
"You were aware during it?" I asked mildly curious.
"Vaguely." Usopp said, making a wiggling so-so motion with his hand.
I hummed then shrugged and said "Probably because I didn't specify whether to forget or remember the session I guess."
"I still want to see that recording." Nami said as she got off of her barrel and moved to where the phone was resting against the wall.
Rolling my eyes, I said "Geeze, it's like you don't trust me."
"Don't take it personally, I don't think she actually trusts anyone." Usopp said.
Nami snorted and said "I do too trust people, just not you guys THAT much."
"Fair enough." Usopp said before he seemed to turn his focus inwards. A moment later, he let out a startled "WHOA!" and fell back off of his barrel.
"Usopp! Are you alright?! What happened?!" Luffy asked in concern.
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine. I just tried using Observation Haki on the surrounding area and was surprised by what I sensed." Usopp said as he quickly got up and ran to look over the Merry's railing.
Seeing his actions, I smirked and said "Picked up on the literal ocean's worth of microscopic life forms in the water underneath us didn't you?"
Usopp nodded strongly and said in an awed voice "I had no idea there was so many tiny things hanging around that we couldn't see!"
"Yeah, it can be a bit overwhelming at first I'll admit, but training will allow you to ignore all of those signals you're receiving in favor of all of the ones that matter on the human scale of things." I said with a nod. It really had been quite overwhelming that first time I got Haki working and was swarmed by thousands of soft voices that gathered together to make it seem like I was in a rock concert.
Nami frowned for a moment before she paused the recording and closed her eyes as she focused. A moment later, she gasped and said "Oh, that's beautiful!"
The others soon followed the two's examples and various exclamations were given, from Zoro's grunt of vague interest to Luffy's excited chattering with Johnny and Yosaku in the middle. Once they had gotten over their excitement, Zoro grunted again and asked "So now what?"
"Now? We practice." I said. Hopping off the railing, I took my phone back from Nami and began making my way below decks as I said "Come on, let's see if we've got a beach ball or something similar in storage we can roll to each other while blindfolded. If not, we can roll a cannon ball amongst each other."
"Right, because that's not dangerous at all." Nami muttered even as she and the others followed me below decks. As a matter of fact, it turned out that there WAS a beach ball for us to use.
Time Skip: The Next Morning, Third Story Deck Of The Baratie
Sometime between after Luffy and I had talked with Zeff and this morning a couple of tarps had been put up to cover the hole in the wall. I now had those two set on the floor of the deck and the inside of the room, kept in place by some of Zeff's books and various nick nacks as I studied the hole. Said head chef was lounging in a chair on one side of the deck while on the other was all of the lumber and tools I would need for the job. Pouring himself a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice from a pitcher he had brought with him, Zeff said "Alright Carpenter, let's see these Construction Skills you spoke of."
"Right." I said with a nod before I cocked my head and said "First things first, need to pull the damaged boards off, preferably without widening the nail holes too much, then replace the brace, oh wait, that's three supports there, that'll be tricky, going to have to pry up some of the floor boards as well to get to those, will need to be extra careful doing that. Everything else is just cutting the boards to the right shape and attaching them to the nondamaged sections."
Glancing over to Zeff, I said "Give me about two hours."
"Hmph, very well, get started." Zeff said gruffly.
I nodded and picked up the hammer and a wonder bar (mini crowbar) and began lightly tapping the bent end into the place where the top damaged board met the still good brace on the right side of the hole. Once I had it in far enough I used small taps of the hammer to carefully pry it loose, twisting the board on its x axis once it was separated enough to easily pry the nails out of their holes without putting any more damage on the wood then what was made when the board was first nailed in. Spend a few moments hammering the nails down so no one could get hurt stepping on them then set the board down to repeat with the next one below that.
As I put the last board down, Zeff said "You know, if you're going to take your time like that for everything, you won't finish in two hours."
"Would you rather I did MORE damage?" I asked before I moved over to the floor boards and began carefully prying them up. As I got the first one up, I said "Right now, I'm working on avoiding damaging the already aged parts of the floor and wall. Once I've got the new braces in I can pick up the pace since the new wood will be tougher."
"Hmph, I suppose you know what you're talking about." Zeff said boredly.
"Yep." I said with a slight nod. Once I had a row of floor boards up, I had enough room to work on the braces. Sawing the broken ends off at both the top and the bottom, I cut the new braces to the proper heights before I attached them to the old brace ends with a couple of four hole straight connector plates on either end, pre drilling them with a small hand drill and using one inch screws on the two by fours to make sure I didn't collide the screws on one side with the other. Once all three braces were in and the floor boards replaced, I took a moment to have my own drink of the orange juice and said "Alright, that's the hard part done. Now I just need to cut the siding to the right lengths and set them in place."
Zeff merely grunted at that and I let out a half snort half huff at his gruff manner before I drained my glass and got back to it. For the braces, I had used the tape measure provided. I had gravity working with me for those though so for the side to side measurements I pulled out my phone and began using the Measure app I had on it. Not only would the phone not sag or waver thanks to gravity, it allowed me to store the measurements I took.
As I quickly got all of the numbers I would need, Zeff said "That's a rather interesting device you've got there. I don't believe I've ever seen anything like it..."
"I'd be very surprised if you had." I said, leaving it at that. Zeff let out another grunt but didn't push the topic further. I cut all of the boards in one go, numbering them as I went. Once that was done, I slotted them into place on the wall, using the small hand drill to predrill holes in them as I went. Once they were all in place it was a simple matter of hammering the nails in and I was done.
A quick check of the time had me smirking at Zeff and I said "One hour and forty eight minutes. And all that's left is the waterproof paint."
"Hmph, well come on then, I'll show you where it's kept and you can finish." Zeff said, getting out of his chair and stretching before stomping off down the deck.
"Righto!" I said, being deliberately chipper to counter his surliness. After all, the hard part was already done.
Time Skip: That Evening
Usopp and I were laying prone on either side of the Merry's Kitchen roof. Held in Usopp's hands was one of the two rifles I had 'won' from the Bloody Path Pirates while I was using my Battlescout, sans laser and rifling attachments for this one. We were sighting a twelve unit pyramid of old cans on Merry's figurehead that the chefs of the Baratie had donated for us, the cans having lost their use from developing rust and small holes that leaked when filled. Apparently, one or two of the chefs of the Baratie usually did the same thing we did and use unusable cans for target practice.
Usopp had the cloth cover of the gun folded to cover the gun barrel rather than the flintlock and trigger areas. There was a loading gap on the right side of the barrel to place a musket ball and powder combo cartridge straight into the back of the barrel that opened up when you pushed the trigger guard away from the trigger like one of the old style repeating rifles in my old world. Closing the mechanism after loading it Usopp said "I can't believe you talked me into trying one of these things."
"Slingshots are all well and good as a special weapon but that one in your pouch isn't very intimidating to others until they've seen you use it or you've gotten infamous for using it. If you want to REALLY make someone piss their pants right at the start, have a gun ready that you can have pointed in their face." I said as I pumped the Battlescout once, held my breath, and then fired.
The first can was knocked off of the pyramid, hanging from the figurehead by the string attached to its bottom for easy recovery and a hole in the right side a couple of centimeters from the red line half of the cans had marked on them, the others marked blue. Usopp sighed and said "Fair enough I guess." As he fired and the next can fell off, his shot having hit the top right due to recoil, he side eyed me and said "And I think if you had said that earlier instead of making that bet for the week's chores I would have agreed sooner."
I shrugged as I pumped the Battlescout and looked down my sights as I said "Maybe, but chores are boring."
The third can jumped off of the pyramid and swung from the end of its line and Usopp chuckled as he said "You're not wrong there." His next shot was much closer to the center of the can and he sighed as he said "Getting used to the recoil of this thing is a pain though."
"That's why we practice." I said, pumping the Battlescout and firing.
Usopp scoffed and as another can jumped into the sky before bungie jumping said "Please, I've fired that thing and it barely twitched when I pulled the trigger."
Pumping then firing, I said "True enough, but I've shot other firearms than just this one before back home and they had a bigger kick." Skeet shooting at Camp Daniels and firing blanks from a hunting rifle at deer foam targets for a couple of weeks at Camp Coker had been a couple of highlights in my time with Boy Scout Troop 305.
Usopp merely hummed at that and put in his next cartridge and fired. A moment later he let out a triumphant "HA!" As he middled his latest can and said "Finally!"
"Good job, see if you can keep it up." I said as my next shot hit the ninth can, rather high but still on the line.
"Oh that'll be easy now that I've got the hang of this." Usopp bragged as he reloaded and fired. Sure enough, the tenth can was middled as it was shot off the figure head.
We each fired one last shot before we got up and made our way over to the figure head. Scrabbling up in lemur mode, I pulled the cans up by their strings and set them down in two groups. After studying where each shot had landed in relation to the aiming lines I tsked and said "Looks like you beat me by one shot."
"Yes!" Usopp said, pumping his right fist with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah." I said mock grudgingly with a sigh before I said "Well, I'd ask if you wanted to do best two out of three but there were only so many bullet cartridges on that bastard I killed so I think we have to settle for one round."
"Well I don't mind using my slingshot if you want to go more rounds." Usopp said with an eager grin.
"Ha! Yeah, how about no?" I said with a shake of my head.
Usopp started snickering as we brought the cans down into the storage hold for future use.
Time Skip: Three Days After Arrival To Baratie
Usopp and I were in the area he had claimed as a workshop working on a new mixture for his exploding stars, using my phone's access to the internet to make a mix of chemicals that Usopp was already calling his Hellfire Star. He may or may not have started cackling like an evil genius as the list was composed. Given that thermite was one of the components, I felt like letting out a cackle of my own once or twice.
However, our science lab time was cut short when Usopp suddenly looked up from the chemicals he was mixing with an inquisitive hum.
"What is it Usopp?" I asked with a questioning frown.
"I'm picking up something large coming towards the restaurant, but the people on it feel really weak, and not in the strength sense, more like on death's doorstep kind of weak." Usopp said. The kid began storing the chemicals we were working with as he said "I'm going to go see what's going on, something tells me I don't want to be in the dark about this."
"Considering that this world operates on Manga/Anime Logic, that's probably the right call." I said in agreement as I helped him before the two of us headed above decks, walking through the thick fog towards the restaurant to see what was going on. Something told me that Luffy's month of working for Zeff was about to be cut rather short.
END
Author's Notes: This one went MUCH faster than Tailor's. I guess it helped to have a format already. High Winds is up next.
