"Wake up Kuro," Kuina gently asked.
Kuro opened his eyes with struggle and looked at her.
He spoke sleepily, "What is it?"
"I want to train early today," she explained.
Looking at the clock and back at Kuina, Kuro decided to get back to sleep.
Kuina did not want him to fall back asleep but at the same time, she didn't want to continue annoying him.
"Please," Kuina begged.
Hearing her beg, Kuro sighed inside, he really spoiled her too much.
"Alright alright," Kuro replied with more energy.
He got up, cleaned himself in the bathroom, and dressed himself up.
The two then headed outside towards a forest.
Kuro yawned, "What kind of training today."
"Observation haki," Kuina replied with calm.
Looking at her, Kuro could feel that today might be the day.
He smiled at her.
"If you get it today, I'll give you another way to get stronger."
Hearing his words, she became surprised and became expectant.
"I want to see this too!" came in Zoro.
Kuina smiled at Zoro, "You're early today."
Zoro smiled, "Of course, I want to see that observation haki Kuro's been talking about."
Kuina nodded and put on her blindfold.
Kuro placed no blindfold on himself.
"Stand by Zoro," Kuro asked while calmly looking at Kuina.
Zoro nodded and stood by.
Today, Zoro knew would be Kuina's day.
Kuina had evaded their attacks to almost zero while he and Kuro weren't blindfolded.
Her growth rate was terrifying and encouraged him to work even harder.
Kuro started the countdown.
"Are you ready, kid?"
Kuina yelled with confidence.
"Aye aye, Captain!"
"I can't hear you!" Kuro stated.
"Aye aye, Captain!"
With that, Kuro silently rushed toward Kuina.
Kuina stood her ground and tried to feel her entire surrounding.
Although she couldn't see Kuro, she could feel his intention radiating off of him.
A feint came towards her and she knew.
Using little strength, she deflected the feint.
Another feint came and she knew again.
Using little strength, she deflected it again.
A real attack came and she sensed an opening in Kuro.
She quickly decided to take the opening and attack but something warned her it was a trap and she instead decided to defend herself.
Even though she couldn't see it, she knew Kuro was smiling and she smiled back.
"Try your best to defend against this one," Kuro encouraged cheerfully.
Kuro prepared to attack and looked at Zoro.
Zoro knew what Kuro wanted and although he felt it was dirty, he decided to trust Kuro.
Quietly, Zoro went towards Kuina to attack.
Kuro then attacked with brimming energy.
When Kuina was about to counter him, Zoro attacked.
But Kuina somehow knew beforehand the two of them were going to both attack her.
With stunning skill, Kuina countered both their attacks.
Zoro became surprised but not Kuro.
"Don't be surprised Zoro, keep pushing," Kuro grinned.
Zoro realized and grinned.
Both of them started attacking Kuina.
As Kuina fought back, she mainly defended herself.
But as the fight grew longer, Kuina started attacking back.
Kuro and Zoro grinned grew as they could see her improving in real time.
The three kept fighting with Kuro and Zoro haven't been able to land a single hit.
When Kuro attacked back, they were easily able to defend, but as the fight grew longer, they could see her attacks getting stronger and more accurate.
Then it happened, Kuina managed to hit Kuro and then Zoro.
Although the hit wasn't powerful, it showed that even while blindfolded, Kuina was able to hit them.
Zoro and Kuro grinned more as they made their attacks fiercer.
The fights continued with Kuina managing to hit more powerful attacks while the two hadn't been able to hit her once.
They could feel their battle coming to a close.
"Ashura!" Zoro grunted.
"Chewsday Innit!" Kuro yelled.
"Splitting Dragon!" Kuina stated calmly.
Their attacks collided and the three became still.
Zoro and Kuro fell with pain and Kuina took off her blindfold.
The look in her eyes was very sharp.
"Can I go back to sleep now?" Kuro asked with pain.
She was about to nod knowing she finally got observation haki, but then she remembered something.
"You said you'll give me another way to become stronger if I got observation haki."
Kuro remembered what he said and got up.
"Ah right."
Zoro got up and looked at Kuro expectantly, he now fully believed Kuro was legit.
Kuro could see it in their eyes, they were very excited to hear about another new way to get stronger.
Kuro started explaining to Kuina as Zoro listened.
"With a real sword, start by trying to cut wood, if you succeed, go for stone, then iron, then steel, and so on. If you get stuck with stone, try to successfully cut wood while underwater and then go for stone again. If you still get stuck with stone, then try to imbue your will into your attacks to make them stronger. If you imbue enough will into your attacks, your attacks will have armament haki in them. With armament haki, a whole new world will open up for you. Anyway, that's the basic of it, I'll tell you more when I get my sleep. Oh Zoro, if you want to obtain observation haki faster, fight with Kuina while she uses observation haki. If you fight someone with observation haki long enough, you should be able to get observation haki soon."
Kuro left the two as they contemplated and processed his words.
When he was gone, the two immediately started trying what he said.
Kuro punched a tree and his fist hurt.
A tear formed below his eyes.
He only wondered what he was thinking, did he think he was Garp or something?
As for the reason why he punched a tree, he got tired of being a swordsman and wanted to be a brawler.
Putting on steel gloves, Kuro punched the tree.
This time, it felt easier and less painful.
"You did nothing wrong tree, except being good for punching."
With that, Kuro started punching the tree like Senator Armstrong.
He used the most stamina he could use on every punch while trying to punch as fast as he can.
The training was simple, grit and endure the pain for as long as you can.
Go to stone next after the tree is easily destroyed with one punch, then iron, then steel, then something stronger.
There was an idea Kuro had, an idea he highly believed.
A brawler gains armament haki the fastest, a swordsman gains armament and observation haki at equal pace, and a sniper gains observation haki the fastest.
Very quickly, Kuro lost all his stamina and fell to the ground.
He could see feel his body being somewhat damaged.
Another idea Kuro had was that Brawler had the best endurance, Swordsman the strongest attack, and sniper the best speed.
With these two ideas, Kuro wanted to make himself a jack of three trades.
Getting back up, Kuro continued punching.
He knew that those that didn't push their will to its limit wouldn't be able to unlock armament and he had to do just that.
It was painful and very tiring.
Kuro wanted to quit and stop so many times.
But every time he felt like quitting or stopping, he became disgusted with himself and told himself that pain was weakness leaving the body and pleasure was weakness entering the body.
Over and over he punched the tree as he repeated a single thought that pain was weakness leaving the body.
When he felt his will was about to break, he kept pushing himself.
He wanted to be the first to unlock armament among the three of them.
"Kuro, aren't we training today?" Kuina asked suspiciously.
Zoro too was suspicious of Kuro as the three of them didn't seem to be going to the place where training usually was.
Kuro smiled at them, "We're going to a fair."
"A fair!?" Zoro and Kuina looked at him weirdly.
"What's that got to do with training?" Zoro asked confused.
Kuro smiled more, "It's got a lot to do with training but I don't want to explain. All I can say is that the fair will be beneficial to our training."
Kuina and Zoro didn't seem to believe his words, but he had never been wrong before so they decided to trust him.
The three of them reached the fair and saw many fun things around.
Kuro grabbed their hands, "Come on let's go have fun."
Zoro and Kuina wondered how having fun had anything to do with training as they were pulled by Kuro.
They reached a dart game and Kuro put Kuina up front.
Kuina easily won the dart game with observation haki, it felt like cheating to her.
She got a giant teddy bear and left the stall owner impressed.
They went to a wack a mole game and Kuro put Zoro up.
Zoro fighting spirit was burning after seeing Kuina play the dart game and he easily wacked every mole with ferocity.
The three tried cotton candy, rode roller coaster, road Ferris wheel, rode the merry go round, and tried many other food.
Feel joyful and happy, the three were on their way to another entertainment when Kuina sensed something with her observation haki.
She stopped and Zoro wondered why she stopped.
Kuro looked at Kuina with a strange calm as he could see that she had detected something he had suspicion of.
"Why'd you stop Kuina?" Zoro asked curiously.
Kuina looked coldly at a tent, "I think I saw an unconscious kid being carried into that tent.
Kuro chimed in, "That's not surprising, it's not unusual for fairs to have kidnappers that sell kids into slavery. The unluckiest kids usually end up at Mary Geoise."
Zoro and Kuina looked at Kuro shocked wondering how he knew.
"How do you know that?" Kuina questioned with shock.
Zoro too did not understand how Kuro knew.
Kuro shrugged, "Don't want to tell you how, but do you want to save those kids inside the tent?"
"Of course," Kuina and Zoro both stated.
Kuro looked at them sharply and they held their gaze against him.
"Those slavers inside there, they're not good people, don't hold back and don't hesitate. If you kill them, don't guilt yourself ok?"
They seemed to realize and understand what he was saying and nodded.
"Watch out for their poison and kids who are pretending to be caught."
Zoro and Kuina took in the information and quickly nodded.
"Let's go," Kuro stated.
With that, the three of them headed inside.
The slavers inside saw them and were confused but quickly became excited at the new preys.
Kuro did not hesitate and rushed forward with a real sword.
Kuina and Zoro followed after with real swords.
With Kuro's decent armament, he easily brute force his way against the slavers.
With Kuina's observation, she easily avoided their attacks and took them down by attacking their weak point.
With Zoro's ferocity, he easily overwhelmed them.
The slavers were shocked as they struggled.
They were east blue slavers and although not very strong or experienced, they shouldn't be struggling against three kids.
Time passed quickly and all the slavers were down.
The three of them went out and alerted the adults outside who then came in with shock and anger as they freed the unconscious children.
With Kuina's observation, she sensed hidden slavers and revealed them to the adults who then took the slavers down.
With things seemingly taken care of and a fun day, the three left the fair.
