Hi

This chapter will entirely be comprised of Leo's haki training

As you'll see some of the 'haki' features aren't entirely those shown in the real OP world, this version of 'haki' is actually consist of real world's qi concept and other interesting inner energy concepts from various mangas, 'Hunter x Hunter' being the most prominent one here, i ripped off the names and most of the concepts from Togashi's idea, but don't worry i'll explain all the terms in this chapter, i just want you to know that this idea is not original from me.

Please enjoy

"Haki is energy, a life force that powers every living thing in this world, however most people don't know of its existence, well technically they do believe that some energy is keeping them alive but that's that, they never get so far as to realize that there's so much more to this energy than it's given credit for. The few others however have tried and failed, some managed to use it without realizing that they've found it and only few who could see it with their own eyes. If a person has managed to see his haki it's only a matter of time before he manipulates it for his own purpose. Like I just did to that boulder, what I did was, I focused all of my energy in one part of my body which was my palm and then launched that energy to the boulder. But that requires another training…before going any further you need to be able to see your haki first the most conventional way to make your eyes able to see it is by feeling it first, once that happens the rest will follow…to feel it you need to relax all of your mind, your body, and forget all of your problems and thoughts so you can be at peace with your mind and you'll feel it. Do not rush it, you've got to be relaxed, it takes time…you just have to put your faith in it…now you may begin your meditation"

Day 2, midnight

As usual Leo was seated on top of the boulder in a lotus position beneath the waterfall. It's been two days and two nights and Leo found it harder and harder to believe that anything's going to change by him meditating one more day or even one more week. If this 'training' was supposed to help him with his senses then without any doubt it has done the opposite, for starter he's lost touch to his senses as a result of having been enveloped by the falling cold water for days, he can't hear anything, he can't smell anything and it's really something considering how many bats live down here, and the never-ending strong waterfall striking his head and back didn't bother him anymore now that he's used to it or is it because it has finally broken the nerves in my back? He didn't know whether that's a good thing or not but as an exchange now he felt really peaceful….It's like I'm in a womb or something. The only thing that he knew he still have was his sense of sight, having been instructed by the doctor to keep looking down at the tip of his hands on his lap that were set as if he was praying and nothing else. But what good have all this done to me? There's still no substantial change, still no 'mystical' energy that could break boulder like it was a mere twig. The doctor's promise of invincibility is the only thing that made him still mediating here, in the depth of the cave.

"It's a dangerous path you choose here" the sound of somebody Leo knew all too well suddenly reverberated around him. His eyes widened in surprise and looked around while trying to retain his controlled breathing, he looked everywhere hoping that there's somebody out there, but there's nobody around, just shadows. Of course. Leo closed his eyes and he saw him, the outline of his figure barely visible lurking among the darkness of his mind. But he knew 'he' was there.

"It's you again"

"You, me, I'm telling you I can never see the difference" the guy 'spoke' with a playful tone, it had almost felt like it was his own thought and Leo knew it wasn't his, it's got to be him. It had to be.

"No, The difference is you're not real and I KNOW I AM VERY MUCH REAL!" the guy laughed very deeply which echo reverberated around the dark empty room in Leo's mind, "Do you know how ridiculous that sounds, Leo?" if it wasn't for the darkness Leo was sure he'd be able to see him still smiling that sly smile of his.

"I don't want to play games right now, just tell me what are you doing bothering me again!"

"I just want to know why can't we just be friends like we used to be, why try to lock me away with that ridiculous bracelet? You know that'll never work on me, you certainly do now"

"Friends don't try to manipulate me into going along with something against my will!"

"Against your will?" he scoffed "you are I and I am you, your will is mine, what you want is what I want, why try to defy your own feeling?"

"Enough with the mind games, it's this haki thing isn't it? You're afraid I'd discover mine…you're threatened by it! That's why you show up now" the guy just gave him a little laugh and stepped forward from the darkness to reveal that he's none other than Leo himself, his face, his hair and yet he's very different "Leo, Leo, Leo…which part of it do you not understand…look at me, I AM YOU and one day you'll learn that it's much much better to just embrace it, accept who you really are"

Leo just shook his head in denial, trying to get this deranged version of 'him' out of his head. This guy, he's been haunting Leo since he was a little kid, back then he believed him to be so real that his friends started to distance themselves away from him because 'Leo talked to himself during class' or that 'Leo have a weird imaginary friend'. But since the doctor gave him his father's bracelet in order to support his devil fruit theory, this imaginary friend of his was never to be seen again. At least not before today... Yes, that man, is a part of him, locked away inside of him for years and now he's trying to come back and take him over like he once did before. The doctor believed it to be the embodiment of the devil inside a devil fruit itself. There were beliefs, old belief that the devil fruits are actually fruits possessed by the devil, so by eating one the devil will lend the eater his power but at some cost. This is why Leo's been trying to suppress his devil fruit power inside himself for so long. Now he's not sure how long he can hold 'him' off knowing that the effect of the bracelet's wearing off, either that or it's 'him' getting stronger. But that's not a reason for him to stop, if he learned anything tonight, it was that he was on the right track and after all this is over, he'll get back to his life.

It's been 3 days and 3 consecutive nights. Leo was still meditating under the waterfall and something was about to change. At first it was just a passing feeling of warmth then overtime he felt the 'breeze' all over his body. Then he remembered how completely soaked he was, at his current soaked state it's impossible for a breeze to be this warm. The feeling was getting more intense as he felt his body and the air around him getting warmer and warmer while at the same time realizing that his sense of feeling should have been numbed a long time ago, if I can't even feel the freezing temperature of midnight water then why is a simple warm breeze could feel so real. It started to feel more like he was sitting on top of a sunny hill during midsummer than meditating beneath a waterfall in the middle of the night, deep inside a subterranean cavern, drenched from head to toe in freezing mountain water. There's something seriously wrong here!

He didn't know what was happening to him until he remembered what the doctor had said to him at the day he commenced his weekly meditation. It starts from the sense of touch then the other sense will follow.

So he kept meditating, trying to grab hold of that feeling, now more motivated than ever and it was not until hours later could he see a difference. It's there in his peripheral vision. It's like a thin white transparent mist is surrounding his hands below him, his black fatigue pants in the background only makes it even more contrast, it's getting clearer now as he focused more. Now he could see that it's not just a mist. It's also flowing. Then he looked around his body and found the same mist enveloping his body, seemingly protecting him from the cold of the night. He looked up to see some of the mist was flying away from him and there was nothing he could to it, he can't even control the one surrounding him. The sensation was new to him and it was very vivid, it was just how the doctor had described it to him.

"…Weirdly it reminds me of the steam that usually comes from kettles…" back in the house he told his finding to the doctor and he smiled proudly patting his shoulder.

"You've finished stage one Leo! I'm really proud of you…3 months! Not bad! I think this calls for a celebration!"

"Yeah thanks but no thanks, I think I owe it to that bald guy that did this to me, I guess it motivates me to do better! Thanks dad" added Leo not really feeling that this is the time to tell the doctor the comeback of his 'imaginary' friend yet. Though deep in his mind he wondered whether his imaginary friend had something to do with this or not.

"Yeah just remember do not base your motivation on getting back on your foe, it's not good for your aura development as I said earlier, your aura or haki whatever suits you the most, is your life force, it contains all sorts of energy, if you're angry your aura will reflect that and people like that man who beat you up can use that to their advantage" Leo just nodded not really understanding how can a man fight without feeling angry or at least the urge to crush somebody "…now let me see your stomach"

It was only a month later after Leo has fully recovered that the doctor finally agreed to take his training to the next level. Now knowing that haki does indeed exist, Leo was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of curiosity. All he currently knows about haki was that it's some kind of thin mist that surrounds peoples' body and that it's affected by his thoughts and feelings, and nothing more. He needs to know more so that he can use his to reinforce his punch and read peoples' move like the doctor and the bald thug at the town showed him.

It's summer now, the weather was warm and puffs of clouds floated high in the light blue sky above their heads as they made their way to the top a grassy hill, one of their usual training spot that gives them a perfect panoramic view of the little village down below. Once they've reached their usual spot the doctor turned toward Leo and decided that the place was suitable, which means nobody's around "Now Leo release your haki, all you got, release it, let me see it"

Then as easily as turning his hand over he let more white mist out of his body, he didn't know how but the mist somehow emanates from the pores of his skin. He looked around his body with awe. This was the first time that the doctor had allowed him to let out all of his potential haki, he'd previously tried to do this but the doctor said wasting his haki would hamper his recovery, so he's really beyond fascinated now and it showed on his awestruck face. The doc just smiled as he watched his son and disciple gets familiarized with the art of inner energy. Somehow it made him reminiscence about his own experience of finding it. It also made him even more confident that Leo was ready for this by observing his ability to control the flow of his haki although for now it's limited to letting his haki go in and out of his body.

"Good, you're probably wondering why it comes out of your body, well your haki is essentially your energy, the kind where if you lose too much you'll feel tired and pass out. It's what keeps you on, just like lamp with electricity, without electricity a lamp will flicker and die. Average person as you've probably noticed, have their subconscious mind controlling the amount of energy that gets out of their bodies every day that's why you don't see as much 'mist' around themselves as you see around yourself" The doc paused to give the young teenager some time to swallow it all in, then he motioned the doc to continue.

"Now the flow that you told me about, it's the life energy that you waste every day, once it goes away it never comes back. It's what cause people to age. The older people get, the less energy they have…same with you, if you use up all of your haki aka your energy like now and you don't know how to maintain it you'll get tired fast because this is not the natural amount that a body normally produces its energy, it's like working out without lifting anything. So now it's best for you to let your haki back into your body" he did that and wished that the doctor would tell him that earlier but as he looked around him it's come to his attention that there's still some mist around him that escaped from his body while some flew away into the air, just like any other previous days but those days he didn't even think to suppress it now knowing the true nature of haki he wanted to keep it together as many as possible.

The doctor expecting his confusion continued his explanation "Now to counter that issue…we use 'Ten'…now observe" the doc took a deep breath and then suddenly the mist surrounded him. Leo was surprised at how much larger the area that's covered by the mist was, it's almost twice the diameter as his.

"No, it's not naturally this much, it's another technique called the 'Ren' but forget about it, I released all of this because it'll make you easier to see the change in flow in my haki, so observe carefully" then Leo saw the flow started to stabilize itself, now it was moving more smoothly compared to the torrent like flow that his haki has. Now he realized it was because no energy escaped the radius of the bulk of his aura, so his energy has nowhere to flow but around him. He'd somehow managed to keep all of them within his grasp, like earth with its atmosphere, he managed to do that. Wow, this is going to take months for me to learn…

"Where to start with this?" asked Leo, still confused

"Well if you can let out that many energy out of your body then you should be able to contain them right? Remember when I say the energy is affected by your thoughts, feelings and even commands? Why don't you start with that?"

"But how do I know it's working? My feeling changes and I see that they're still mists! Are they supposed to change colour when I'm angry…?" Leo said shrugging his head, then suddenly he felt goosebumps down his neck. It felt as if someone with great anguish was targeting him, but where? He looked around him, ready to punch whatever sob that's going to jump him but he's still shivering and nobody is insight. It all became clear to him when the doc laughed.

"Feel it? That's my anger for you, now practice! I have to go back to the house, don't be late for dinner you need as much energy as possible if you want your practice uninterrupted, the thing about haki is despite it having its own body it's still bound by your physical body so if you're sick or low on fuel i.e. you're not eating enough there'll be fewer haki, it'll also be harder for you to control it because again, the best way to control haki is if your mind and body is at peace" the doc said casually as he walked down the hill, waving his hand.

Pumped, Leo suddenly went into action. At first he was frustrated that no matter how hard he focused the energy kept floating out of the mist. Maybe because he's not focused enough? With the chirps, the rustling, the view they're too colorful it's distracting. Then he realized the best way to develop his haki was by meditating under his usual spot, that was after all where he got to feel and see his haki for the first time and believe it or not the solitude the cave and waterfall provided has contributed a lot to his progress. But it's not the only helping factor, as he came to realize that day, learning the art of haki can't be rushed, even if in theory it sounds simple it takes practice, patience and perseverance to see advancement.

3 Days later

"Lesson three, now that you can contain your energy…" the doctor looked over to confirm and saw Leo's haki still leaking here and there "well…most of it since it requires lots of practice, especially your breathing Leo, to completely manage the 'leak' you can start thinking about letting out as much energy as you like…this is what is called as 'Ren'…for 'Ren' to be completely effective one of course has to have considerable amount of energy to release, that is one of the reason I assigned you with those tiring cardio and other exercises, it's for you to have higher energy and most importantly stamina, as maintaining most of your haki with the Ten combined with Ren technique in a combat is very exhausting your stamina also has to be leveled with the amount of haki you produce and release…my Ren for example" again he took a deep breath then amazingly as he exhaled the energy was way way bigger than the one that he showed Leo one month ago, it reaches the ceiling and it reaches to him, he could felt the creeping sense of anguish like he felt that day only ten times more severe, so severe he couldn't move his body, he just looked frightfully at the doctor like he was a monster or something which he had no chance of winning against.

"Mastering Ren could mean a quick victory in a fight since the larger your energy is the more powerful the blow your foe's going to get from your attack, not to mention the ability of launching one single attack toward multiple foes within your radius, this is different than Ten for example since Ten is mainly used as a basic defense against haki attack, Ren is mainly used for offense… Now let me see how much energy do you have" he did as he was told and soon found himself surrounded by a much larger energy than usual, it's comparable to the doc's first demonstration of Ren a month ago. It just goes to tell how much he's still lacking in this lesson.

"Good for a beginner but it's severely lacking, you'll need practice more, more cardio, more strength training and you'll have it. But that'll be enough to land substantial blow to defenseless foes though I never do and never will support such action" the doctor said, remembering that night where he had to do a surgery on Leo because some irresponsible haki practitioner abused his power to hurt his son. Bullying the weak is never good, it's nasty.

"Good now how am I going to conjure my aura so I could reinforce my attack and defense?" asked Leo, he can't wait to break some boulders; he'd be like one of those heroes in comic books he once read during his childhood

"It's called 'Hatsu', the release of your energy to protect yourself. What's important for you to understand is that your haki is not actually the one that launches your opponent into the sky, no, your haki is just the radius, what inside it is important, it is the 'Hatsu' or 'release'. Inside, is your will and strength. Weak release of your energy will cause nothing to your opponent but a slight tickle…your will, your wants, your command is the most important. You want to intimidate your opponent, you just need to show as much killing intent as you can, you want to reinforce your punch you just focus on that and your Hatsu will do just that, but be careful sometimes there are other energies that got released along with your main Hatsu which is usually filled with great emotions such as anger that the practitioner currently experiences, you don't want to show your opponent too much of your feeling or he'll be able to read you like a book, if you think you're hopeless, it'll show in your Hatsu when you attack him and you'll absolutely lose…so again, keep your head cool"

As soon as the doc dismissed him Leo quickly ran to his training spot uphill. Now he knew all the basic and was eager to practice it as much as his body can cope. The hill was deserted as usual as he looked around for something to practice his haki on.

An hour later he'd managed to crack, not destroy, a few rocks but no boulders to his dismay. As much as he wanted to, as much as he put all of his intention of destroying that darned boulder into his Hatsu the boulder won't budge let alone a crack. He did feel the difference in his haki as he got more and more used to releasing his haki for other purpose other than for the sake of aging but it wasn't enough, he needs more energy. The idea of losing so much energy for breaking some rocks frustrated him because he's done countless of training to improve his endurance and strength since he was little, he could break stones with a chop of his palm and run a couple of kilos in the dense forest and yet all those energy…

"…is not even enough to break a rock?

Leo was back in the house, sitting on the couch relaxing, legs outstretched on the coffee table in the main room while the doctor was preparing dinner in the kitchen "I see…to release your haki to such level you need months of training Leo…it might look like it's simple but to break those rocks by pure energy you need lots of them. That's why you think punching them is easier right? But remember this, this is just a training because I did not teach you all this just for you to be able to break some rocks, in the future you fight your opponents' haki by using your own haki, you cannot punch them without any reinforcement, they'll break your fist in an instant, that's why this is important. Knowing how to protect yourself by using your haki isn't enough for there are people out there with stronger haki that can break yours easily…making sure that you're up to par with them is the best way to win a fight. Breaking rocks, like what you're doing now is a way to know your haki level, and seeing that you managed to crack some rocks on your first try I'd say it's already quite good"

"I just thought that years of endurance training would have had amounted to something you know…but months? Geez that's long" complained Leo, the doc cannot know this but since the day he found out about his haki he's been seeking to settle some scores with the bald guy from the town. He's so eager to make him sorry for beating him up but at this rate, he can forget about it.

After a long pause the doctor spoke up "Well…I suppose you could, just for a moment, take that sea-stone bracelet of yours off…and maybe…"

Leo suddenly sat upright, legs off the table "W…WHAT? What did you say again!?"