Chapter 4

I sighed, losing what little patience I had left. "Redhair, why am I doing this?"

"Shh, keep going, you're doing so well!" He was too enthusiastic about this.

"But this is ridiculous!" At this very moment, I was above deck doing my 'training' with my uncle, and what felt like the rest of the crew were looking on, majority of them rolling of the ground howling with laughter. But it seems that Redhair was dead serious about his training, he was too focused on instructing and encouraging me to notice his crew's behaviour.

"No, it is not. Everything that is involved with your training has a purpose, even if you do not know exactly what it is yet." He reasoned.

"So what exactly is the purpose for dressing up like a palm tree, standing in the middle of the deck and swaying in the wind? Do I have to make the noises too?!" I whined. And yes, it's true that I'm standing on the deck pretending to be a palm tree, swaying my branches from side to side while making the noises.

Redhair huffed. "Of course you have to make the noises, it's all part of the act!"

I groaned, well aware of the men dying on the ground around them, slapping the deck with force while struggling for a breath. "Is this some sort of camouflage technique or something?"
"Not quite, you'll see what it's for soon enough."

I sighed in relief as I heard Benn arrive, yelling orders to keep the crew busy and to keep their prying eyes from my training. Meeting his eyes, I sent him a silent thank you. He simply nodded and returned to his duties.

It had been a week since we left Kuraigana Island, and to say I was missing home would be an understatement. That island was everything I'd ever known. Here there were too many people, it was so noisy and loud, and there was always something going on. Although, that's also the best part of travelling with the Redhair pirates, they were so different from Papa, the only person she ever knew, besides mother, but the last time I saw her was a long time ago. So long ago that I don't even have any memories of her, the only reason I know she exists are the twin katana that used to be hers, the ones in my room.

"Oi, Jade. You're not concentrating hard enough, you have to sway in time with the wind, not freestyle swaying." Redhair's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Sorry." I uttered, changing my technique of swaying slightly.

"It's the small movements that are the most important. Focus on those. Remember, try to look like a palm tree. Not a person attempting to look like one."

I shot him a glare. "Thank you for that. You make it sound so easy."

He tapped one of his feet against the deck, he had abandoned his sandals when we had begun training for the day.

"Maybe... try just thinking like a palm tree for a sec. That might help..."

"Idiot, palm trees DON'T think."

"How would you know? Have you ever talked to one before?"

"No, because THEY DONT TALK EITHER." I growled.

"Wait, who the hell are you calling idiot?!"

I face palmed, I can't believe I'm being trained by a half-witted, slow thinking dumbass... If you can even call this training. It wasn't the same everyday at least, it alternated between strength and conditioning and, well, this type of shit. I mean, seriously? The other day Redhair tied bits of metal all over my body and told me to harden my skin to make is hard as the metal surrounding it. 'Pretend that the metal is your skin'- what utter bullshit.

"Ok, now sway the way the wind is blowing before it blows." Redhair instructed.

I stared dumbly at him, he stared straight back. I tried spelling it out for him. "You do realise I'm not a navigator. I. Can't. Predict. The. Wind."

"Of course you can. Don't doubt your abilities, it's an insult to me after I worked so hard to teach it to you."

... I exploded, "What? Are you serious? You haven't even TAUGHT me anything! You just made me stand here and sway!"

Redhair's gaze sifted onto something over my shoulder, his eyes widening slightly.

"What is it no-" I felt it before I heard it. The click was followed by a loud BANG. Everything seemed to slow right down, I could sense the bullet blasting through the air towards my left shoulder, if I didn't move right now I was going to be in a lot of pain. So I swayed my left shoulder forward and across my body, in the direction the bullet was travelling. Everything returned to normal speed again, the bullet breezed past, where my shoulder had been positioned a few moments before, the bang echoing throughout the ship. I heard the thundering of boots as the crew raced to the scene, checking to make sure there was no intruder on board the ship

I whirled round to confront... Roo? The man still had a pistol facing her and his captain, as he took a large bite from a chunk of meat he was holding in his left hand. He munched happily on it, showing me a cheeky smile. I blinked. But... why?

"I told you." I jumped as a felt a hand come down on my shoulder. I glanced over my shoulder to come face to face with the captain. "Don't doubt your abilities, you predicted the wind well enough just then."

I blinked up at him. "You... signalled him to shoot at me."

"I see you have the observation skills of your father. That'll come in handy for you. Yes, but if he hadn't you wouldn't have seen what I am trying to tell you, right?"

I was silent for a second before I whispered, "But what if I didn't sway in time? What if I had gotten shot?"

Redhair laughed deeply before turning and walking over to the food hall, fingering a sticky dark green substance that was splattered on the wall next to the door. I followed slowly, peering at the green, sticky liquid.

"...paint?" I questioned, frowning at the splatter.

Redhair laughed again. "Like I'd do anything that would endanger the health of my sweet little niece~" He leaned in to pinch my cheek, and I tried to slap away the pestering hands. "Also, you were starting to sway before the wind, even before I asked you to."

I sighed, but smiled at him. Seems he is teaching me something of use after all. "So is it some kind of dodging technique?"

"It's what I have been trying to teach you. It's called Haki. I will spend the next few months teaching it to you and helping you enhance your skills. Ok, kiddo?"

The next couple of weeks were spent were split into three different days, the first day would be strength and conditioning, sometimes it was run by Redhair, or if he was busy, Benn would take it. The second day is when Redhair would have me do all sorts of weird things in attempt to help me unlock my 'Haki'. And the third day would be spent either in the food hall or in my room, reading up on all sorts of books that Redhair lent me about Haki and how to harness it.

Basically to summarise the books, 'Haki' aka 'Willpower' is a mysterious power found in every living being in the world. There were three different types of it. The first two every creature has, most are just either unaware of the Haki or are unable to unlock their abilities. The third is only able to be used by some, the people who possess it are extremely strong willed and seen to have been 'chosen'.

(1) Kenbunshoku Haki, the one that was taught to me by pretending to be a palm tree. It's like a sixth sense, making the user super aware of the world around them.

(2) Busoshoku Haki, the one that was taught to me by imagining my skin was iron and then doing belly flops off the side of the ship. This Haki allows the user to use their spirit as armour to defend from attacks or make their own attacks far more powerful.

(3) Haoshoku Haki, the one that hasn't been taught to me, for Redhair is unsure of whether I have it. This is a rare type of Haki that only one in a million can use, it grants the user the ability to overpower the will of others. Redhair says that even if I do have it, he is unsure of how to unlock it, it unlocks itself at the time the user needs it most.

So there, that summarises my studies of Haki so far. I've memorised all the basic information, except for the names (of which I cannot even pronounce) so instead I call them Palm tree Haki, Bellyflop Haki and Rare Haki. Something it know that Papa would scold me over.

I am now able to dodge surprise attacks launched from my trainer at the randomest times and can now confidently do bellyflops without having to cringe in pain afterwards. I can honestly say that I am growing stronger in my skills of Haki as well as my knowledge.

Speaking of knowledge, yesterday was my last day for studying Haki, now I have only two different days, strength and conditioning, and Haki enhancing. And now that I'm not constantly studying quietly, I can engage in more conversations with the deafening Roo and Yasopp, now that they can no longer be a distraction to my training.

I also could now get to a location on the ship without getting lost 7 times- which was an achievement in itself.

I walked into the food hall and made my way over to my usual spot. Various members of the crew shouted out a greeting and I grinned back at them, I was still having trouble with most of their names but I had already grown fond of them. The Redhair Pirates, I was considered one of them now.

I arrived at my destination, the captain, Roo and Yasopp already there, Roo and Redhair howling in laughter at something and Yasopp seemed to singing a song of sorts, prancing around to it. It only seemed to make the men laugh harder.

"Ah, good morning, Jade." Yasopp greeted her for all of them, the other two idiots still laughing. Roo was leaning over his plate full of meat which, surprisingly, hadn't been touched. He had his face in his hands, trying to return his breathing back to its normal state, using his entire body to take long, deep breaths. From between his stubby fingers I could see, tears? Roo was cry-laughing? Redhair, on the other hand, didn't bother to fight it. He had planted his face onto the table, repetitively slamming one of his hands down onto the table's surface, while the other held a cup of sake. His straw hat was placed on the table, about a foot from his elbow.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" I smirked.

Finally calming down, Roo lifted his head from his hands. "Yasopp was just telling us a funny story." He sounded high from his laughter, I rolled my eyes. Redhair also seemed to have calmed down, he ceased trying to destroy the table and rose from his slumped position.

"Yeah? What was it about that about?" I slipped next to Yasopp, opposite the two in question. Redhair chuckled and rose his mug to his lips, chugging its contents.
Seeing that his captain wasn't going to answer anytime soon, Roo answered. "He was telling us about this one time when he was with his family, and Usopp drew a unicorn on his bedroom wall with his own diaper shit and named it Jasmine." I blinked. "He then came up with a song in honour of its memory when it was washed off! YASOPP! YOU HAVE TO SING IT AGAIN FOR JADE!"

Yasopp leaped on the top of the table making the three of them jump. "All right then!" And he began kicking his feet about and throwing his arms around in some sort of dance. "Jasminee~ My uniiiiicorn~ She was so beauuutiful, like the raaainbow she was born underrr~ Mummy and Daddy said she had to go, but she'll forewer stay in my heaaart~ SECOND VERSE!" I stared at Yasopp as he continued singing. I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop, but I couldn't help it. It was a horrific song, one that could've only been created by the devil himself. It didn't help at all that Yasopp had no talent whatsoever at singing.

Redhair glanced over at me and lost it, spraying sake all over both me and himself. He roared as I tried to rid of the disgusting amount of sake and spit that managed to get on my face and tshirt, "OH MY GOD! JADE, YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN YOUR FACE! IT WAS HILARIOUS!" I growled as he collapsed into the position he was in not too long ago, face planted into the table, slamming his hand on its surface and howling with laughter. Roo, too, was dying of laughter, apparently he had seen both the face I made at the song and the face I made after his captain emptied the contents of his mouth onto the both of us. His mouth was shaped in a perfect 'o' for a mini second, before he began breaking down completely, pointing a finger straight at me and laughing loudly, reminding me very much of a hyena. I scowled up at Yasopp who noticed that I somehow became drenched in sake and was trying to not to laugh and horribly sing the devils song, failing miserably.

This, of course was how Benn found us five minutes later, the only difference being that I started laughing at Yasopp so now we were all laughing like manics. After clearing his throat for the third time we finally started to come down from our high. It took another few minutes to calm ourselves completely, a few chuckles leaking out here and there.

Benn sighed. "I'm not even going to ask what happened, I have a feeling I don't want to know." I accidentally made eye contact with Roo, causing us both to erupt into a fit of giggles, desperately trying to calm ourselves before Benn's eyes could turn towards us. I felt the weight of Benn's gaze and I shrunk in my seat, the urge to laugh gone. I glanced up and saw him eying my drenched clothing suspiciously.

I immediately raised my hand to point at the captain. "He did it!"

"I DID NO SUCH THING." Redhair hissed, sending me a terror filled glare that spoke volumes. I smirked evilly back, and sent him a playful wink.

Benn pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I told you, I don't want to know. Captain, am I doing the strength and conditioning today?"

Redhair sobered up, shaking his head. "We are nearing the island, but at we have until dawn tomorrow to prepare to dock. I've got this one."

Benn nodded, "I thought you would have wanted to do it today for some reason. How long will we be staying on the island?"

Redhair placed his chin on his hand, leaning on it heavily. "Hmmm, a couple months."

"MONTHS?" I asked incredulously, we've stopped on two islands previously, but we only stayed for a couple of days, stocking up on supplies.

"Months." He confirmed. "I have some people here I would like to catch up with, I hear the village by the shore has great sake too. It'll be great! Besides, it's a great place to finish you're six month training of Haki, then we can move on to your other training." He turned to Benn. "Take over for me while I do today's training." Once he received a nod from Benn, he got up from his seat and headed out the door. "Come on, Jade." I heard him shout. Saying a quick farewell to our friends, I raced after him.