The Passing and Fumbling of the Baton

It was a completely quiet in the infirmary as Enma started to work on his poor captain. Enma took out a small jar of rubbing alcohol and dabbed in a bit of the cotton, soaking it thoroughly, "this is going to sting a little, but I got to cleanse the wound of any possible bacteria." Enma put it on the long slash down his chest. Mikoto jerked slightly, but only from a pure reflex action not anything else.

"Its okay," Mikoto stated as he settled down slightly, taking a deep breath and shaking his head. "I'm fine."

"So, Victoria gave this to you, huh?" asked Enma as he started to do some finaly check-ups on him. Mikoto lifted his head up, wondering how Enma could guess that. After to Enma's knowledge he was going to the mountain to fight thousands of pirates, so immediately jumping to Victoria seemed a bit odd.

"Zesiro told Rosa that you were going to see Victoria and she told me," Enma explained the reason for his jump. "I was able to guess fairly accurately that it was her doing that wound up horribly wounding you. It wasn't that difficult to guess."

"Yeah," Mikoto stated, "She used this Conqueror's Haki to force me down."

"Conqueror's Haki?" Asked Enma, not as if he was wondering what it was, but more like he was surprised to hear about it. "I'm surprised I've always heard that people with strong will could resist it, I would've thought that that included you."

"I tried," muttered Mikoto, "but I suppose after all this time my reasons for being a pirate kind of faltered. My dad's honor no longer holds myself up it seems like. If it did then I would've quit being a pirate a long time ago. My reason has been crushed."

Enma sighed, his lip crumpling beneath his face as he slowly nodded. "Well, I suppose," Enma seemed to struggle to find the words. He ran his hand through his head, apparently unsure of what he was going to say, "if this is the end of the journey. I don't think any of the crew would fight with you about it. If this is as far as we are running, then I guess the only thing I could say is," Enma took another deep breath as he finished applying the bandages to Mikoto, "I was glad it was with this crew."

"But I suppose it is true as it was written," laughed Enma as he trudged off and outside of the ship, "All good things must come to an end eventually. If this is ours then I can still hold my head up high with pride that I was a part of this crew."

Mikoto hung his head, sighing softly. "I suppose I'm happy with it as well," Mikoto moaned as his face fell. "I would indeed be happy if this was the end. But I don't want it to be," Mikoto muttered as he toyed around with his hand, examining it. He had come up short again.

Every time he thought he had taken a step forward it seemed like something had to shock him back out of it. He still recalled first forming the techniques of After-Image and Rapid-Fire, he met Trevor and immediately found out that just those two techniques weren't enough. He hadn't gone ahead and created anything new yet, but he was still stumbling hard.

"Of course, I'm not willing to throw in the towel just yet," Mikoto muttered as he stressed his legs a bit on the ground, trying to calm his head. He needed to run right now and clear his head. Mikoto sighed as he got up and went to the top of the ship. Zesiro was probably still on the mountain, maybe he was in the mood for a switch-out. Fighting on the mountain could get quite dull after awhile.

"Haki." The thought persisted in Mikoto's head. Victoria had mentioned the three forms of Haki, all of which were a creation of true power and existence of willpower. Mikoto took a deep breath and let his body chill. It was nice and swell feeling that was now in his body as he breathed in the fresh air. Mikoto took a quick jump into the air and took off. He hit the ground and blasted away.

Victoria explained the three different forms from it. Mikoto knew a bit about them himself, namely that the first and second forms of it, Colors of Observation and Colors of Armaments Haki could both be obtained by anyone who tried hard enough. The third one was something of a rare trait. Mikoto wasn't certain if it was only something that the blessed few got or if it was just something that took extreme training and will power to originate from.

Of course, if Mikoto wanted to keep up the journey he would need to get better. He didn't want it to end, but it was entirely possible he met his limit. Even Zesiro would have to admit that the wall before them here and now was quite possibly the tallest one before them since they started this journey. Mikoto and Zesiro had both accepted the idea that this would be a difficult idea to take down.

Mikoto was still a long ways away from the mountain. He had the first Haki under his belt, but he hadn't taken too much time to train with the second.

The second would be a beneficial ability for him, though, he needed to train it. A focus on his feet, he tried to push his willpower around his body, trying to cloak it in a thick layer of protection, but he seemed to struggle slightly as he ran. He couldn't maintain it. He could feel a little bit of the force coming over his body, but nothing nearly solid enough.

Mikoto kept kicking across the ground, but his Haki couldn't cover his entire body and hold on any more. It wasn't strong enough, it wasn't staying on. Mikoto took another deep breath. If he couldn't harden all around his body, he would just have to focus on only a few parts of his body at a time. He supposed if he had to start somewhere. His golden feet would probably be the best starting point.

There was a slight tickle, Mikoto would put it, as his feet became encased in the thick armor of his will. From the feel alone Mikoto could tell that his was very different from how Trevor made his. Trevor's Haki was sleek and well-defined, like that of a blade. Mikoto's feet currently felt clunky. He doubted he could cut through a piece of paper with it, much less that of bone like Trevor had shown time and time again his ability to do.

There was possibly a small problem with your thought when you began to compare yourself to Trevor, especially when you came up short. Come to think of it, it seems like Trevor has been on Mikoto's mind for awhile now. Ever since they got on this island people kept comparing Ravenbone to Trevor, then Mikoto met with Gan, a revolutionary like Trevor supposedly was now, and now this incessant remembering of Haki from Trevor's point of view.

How did Trevor seem to pull it off? Where the heck did his will power come from? Was it something as simple as just wanting to kill? Mikoto knew his sort of willpower could never possibly come from such a thing. He had to find something else, but still as Mikoto's feet hit the ground he realized that his was definitely waning in face of Trevor's force.

Mikoto still had some ground to cover though, he would make it up in the next few steps without a doubt. He began to press himself forward, bolting down the line and right to a tree. He quickly weaved to the side and threw his entire body to the left and then immediately to the right. He could train a bit more on his way to the mountain than he was planning.

He began blasting down the line, weaving and blasting through the trees, taking up and zig-zagging through the dotting of the trees. He ran through the trees with a great angle of his legs, he was doing a very good job moving through the brush with a quick footed job. He was quick-footed and had a good degree of speed and agility behind him, this test wasn't even difficult for him any more. He kept it up and blasted past the trees in the way.

As he went thought he began to realize there was a slight difference to how his footing hit the ground. The Haki coating his foot changed his footing up a bit slightly. It was a bit slick. He slid a bit more than he was expecting. It was kid of like wearing a shoe without any grip beneath it. It seemed a little bit surprising it was like a slick, smooth bottomed shoe.

Maybe there was a way to change it. Mikoto recalled Trevor's methods, which included actually managing to extend it a bit. Mikoto could in theory even create a bit of tracks to do so. Create teeth on the bottom of his Haki. He started to create a bit of teeth on the bottom of his shoes to create traction. Mikoto kept switch between a flat sole of his shoe and a razor-sharp teeth on the bottom.

The switching would definitely help train himself a bit more. It would allow him to learn more and more about his own extreme training and any short comings which may come out more and more from his training. His weaknesses may eventually come to fruit if he kept this up. He would master Haki and figure out his true goals.

He had succeeded at becoming a successful pirate, now what? What's his next goal? Is it just the One Piece? To be honest Mikoto didn't care for being rich. He liked money, but he didn't need everything! The idea of One Piece just seemed too much for him to strive for. Is it just a life of adventure? Then why be a pirate? Marines and Bounty Hunters or even Revolutionaries had lives of adventure. Why is a pirate cool to be?

(-With Victoria-)

"Don't you think you may have been a bit harsh on the boy," John asked as he sat down before Victoria. The two had moved on to having dinner and discussing the day's events. "He may have fumbled with that baton of yours, but its not like it was his choice to pick it up. He seems to honestly just want to help."

"Trying to help doesn't get anybody any special treatment," muttered Victoria as he stabbed her steak nearly in two with just a thrust of her fork, "And what did we say about discussing pirate topics while at dinner. How are we gonna have a kid if all we can talk about is pirates?"

"You're saying you don't want our kid to know we were pirates?"

"I'm not saying that, I'm saying not all of our conversations can center around piracy. I don't want our kid to become a pirate just because we are pirates. If our kids want to become Marines, I'm fine with that choice as well."

"Kids? As in more than one?"

"We'll talk about it later," Victoria stated with a smile, "We were talking about Mikoto, weren't we?"

A Wish For Chaos