Haki

A Week Later,

[New World, Mystoria Island]

After a few days navigating the unfamiliar waters of the New World, the crew reached their first destination. The journey was challenging, with sea monsters and unpredictable weather posing significant difficulties. Although the crew was accustomed to tough sailing conditions in Paradise, the weather in the New World was on a whole new level. The crew's skills were crucial in avoiding multiple potential shipwrecks.

Their first stop happened to be Mystoria Island, an uninhabited huge island with rocky pointed pinnacles and a dense, overgrown jungle. The edges of the island are very rocky, and the atmosphere was gloomy with swirling dark clouds clustering above it and heavy rain pouring down on it.

(Picture of the island)

The crew landed here and set up a small resort near the shores where they could sit around and take cover from the rain.

On the other hand, just a couple of days ago, Straw Hat Luffy appeared again in Marineford causing a steer around the world.

"So, he was alive, Straw Hat Luffy…" Kid was reading the recent newspapers with a grin "…and he even rang the bell 16 times in Marineford to start a new era"

When Kai glanced at Luffy's picture in the newspaper he could see something written in his right arm, 3D was crossed and below it was 2Y. Kai understood that that was his message to his crew that they will be meeting in 2 years instead of 3 days.

'So, his training with Rayleigh began…' Kai didn't really care that much about Luffy nor his crew unlike Kureha who was worried about Chopper's wellbeing, but she was relieved when learning that he's gonna be okay since his captain is alive.

Kid turned to Killer and the rest and proceeded to ask them "What's this Ox Bell?"

No one except Kureha, Saga and Killer knew about it even Kai kinda forgot what it means. Killer calmy answered Kid's question "The Ox Bell is a holy bell from the Ox Lloyd's, a Marine Ship that was of great significance long ago" he explained, pausing for a second before he continued "At year end, they ring the bell eight times to give thanks to the old year, and then another eight times to welcome the new year…"

"…Thus, it is the Marine custom to ring it 16 times, that's the meaning behind the 16 bell rings. However, it isn't time for that yet, I'm guessing that he rang it to announce the end and start of a new era"

"So, he's saying that Whitebeard's era is over and that he'll take charge of the new era?" Kid presumed.

"If that wasn't the case, he wouldn't have gone back to that place only to relive the pain of losing his brother" Gin remarked while standing behind Kid.

"Hahaha! What a pesky little brat!" Kid exclaimed while throwing the newspaper to the ground, he looked quite annoyed by Luffy's actions "True, that the war made him stand out from us other rookies with bounties over 100 million, but…I'm not a weakling that will let him hold that advantage for long!" 

"Just relax, we don't need to be hasty…We should take time for all things, great haste makes great waste" Kai said while relaxing in a chair beside him, he was sitting cross legged and drinking hot tea "Besides, I already have some plans in my mind that will make us a step ahead of him"

"You say that, but I'm itching for some action…" Kid said, getting up from his chair and walking towards the dozen pirates that were tied up near them. It's a pirate crew lead by a pirate captain called Haritsu Kendiyo who were unfortunate enough to run into the Eustass Pirates while trying to leave the New World.

They were swiftly dealt with without a problem. Kendiyo begged for his life which disappointed Kid who has high hopes for the New World to have strong people unlike Paradise.

"The New World…I thought it'd be entertaining, but what's with all these pussies?" Kid questioned while gazing at Kendiyo with disdain.

Kendiyo is a large man, bigger than Kid, and slightly fat as well. He has bushy brown hair and a scraggly beard and wears a red captain's coat over a white shirt and brown pants.

"Give me a break, we didn't even do anything to you! We were on our way out of these seas, please just let us go back to Paradise alive!" Kendiyo pleaded for his life.

Kid glared at him before responding "Paradise? You wanna go back to your warm, cozy homes?"

"You guys just got here, and you have no idea what horrors this sea has in store for you! If we stay here, we're just gonna die no matter how many lives we have!..."

"…all we want is to go back to Paradise I'm begging you!!" Kendiyo exclaimed, fear evident in his eyes

"Tsk, you're such a wet blanket…" Kid said, his right hand started crackling with magnetic energy as he proceeded to attract dozens of metal scraps towards him, forming a giant arm "If you don't have the resolve to risk your life…"

"Then stay the fuck out of these seas!!" Kid exclaimed as he slammed down the giant arm at Kendiyo and his men, crushing their bones and knocking them out in one go.

"GYAAAAHHH!!!!"

KA-BOOOOOM!!!

Kid, Killer, Heat and Wire then proceeded to crucify them, displaying their bodies on the shores as a stark warning so that anyone who dare to set foot on this island and challenge the Eustass Pirates while they are here will know the fate that awaits him.

"I'll catch up to you soon, so you better be ready Straw Hat! Hahahaha!!"

"What savage kids, did they have to go that far?" Kureha asked while looking at the disturbing scene of the crucified pirates.

"We're pirates, did you expect us to give them candy and show them their way back to Paradise? That guy and his crew most likely have their share of genocide against innocent people. I'm not out here doing a favor to the world by getting rid of him, and I'm not justifying this act, it's just that…we're pirates and we do whatever the fuck we want. freedom of act, that's what makes us pirates. If we wanted to be good people and go by the rules it would've been better for us to just be marines instead…well, even they have their share of genocide as well"

"Sigh…I guess you have a point" Kureha said.

"Anyway..." Kai stood and took a few steps forward, glancing towards the overgrown jungle. Towering trees and massive plants filled the landscape, with rocky mountains at the center and along the island's edges.

Currently the crew were still at the shores and haven't stepped a foot inside. With his Observation Haki, Kai was able to sense the presence of some very strong beats residing deep inside.

"I can feel the presence of at least 300 very strong beasts lurking inside this jungle" His Haki was still not strong enough to cover the entire island and there were probably a lot more than that on the other side as well.

"Hm? Beasts?" Kid asked, curious and awaiting his response.

"We're gonna stay here for a while in order to train and get stronger before venturing into the New World" Kai declared, he then added "We are weak at our current state and we will get defeated easily if we face the monsters of the New World, we have to learn at least the basics of Haki before even thinking about challenging other pirates who sail this sea"

Killer nodded his head in agreement "We almost died facing Kizaru without even leaving a scratch on him. I completely agree with Kai's decision"

"Getting stronger you say? It's not like we're that weak you know, you can speak for yourselves because I can beat any dogshit pirate or marine that dares to challenge me, I the mighty Don Krieg!" Krieg declared, overconfident about his abilities.

"That overconfidence will get you get killed against the wrong opponent. But don't worry, you'll soon be faced by the hard cold reality of how weak you truly are" Kai said to him, he already got a plan on how to get rid of that overconfidence and replace it with a positive confidence and fighting spirit.

"I can't say that I'm strong when I couldn't even beat Enel. If it means surpassing his level, then I'm ready to do anything!" Wyper clenched his fists in frustration when thinking about his humiliating defeat against Enel back in Sky Island. 

Unlike Krieg, Wyper recognized his weakness and was willing to improve himself.

Kid looked very serious after he heard his brother's plan "It took three of us to defeat one Vice Admiral, we couldn't do anything against Hawkeye...I'm with you, let's be ready before challenging the Emperors. You're right when you said don't be hasty, there is no point in that if we are just gonna get wrecked and suffer defeat"

"I'm with you in whatever you wanna do as long as it will help me find that person eventually" Bonney said.

Kai smiled in satisfaction after hearing everyone's thoughts "It's good that you recognize your weakness so you can do something about it"

"So what kind of training are we supposed to do to get stronger, you mentioned something about Haki? I think I've heard that term before when I visited the Marine Headquarters once a long time ago" Saga inquired.

Kai turned towards the group and proceeded to explain Haki "I don't want to repeat myself so listen carefully, I've learned this information from a pirate's logbook that I found a long time ago. Unfortunately I lost that book but I still remember most of its content, the book recorded the journey of a pirate through the Grand Line mentioning various thing among them was Haki..." 

Kai said, of course he completely made up the part about the pirate's logbook. It was because his knowledge would surely raise a lot of question marks, so it was the best thing he could come up with to avoid suspicions.

"You never told me about that" Kid said.

"It was during the time that we split up and everyone started his own gang. I found an old street vendor selling it for a few berries, the vendor probably didn't know it's real value, anyway..."

Kai paused for a moment before he started explaining and everyone listened carefully.

"Haki is a power that allows a person to utilize their own spiritual energy for various purposes. All living creatures in the world are capable of learning Haki. However, most people do not notice it or fail to awaken it..."

"...There are three types of Haki, the first one is Observation Haki which is used to sense other people's spiritual energy and predict their actions, detect their presence, strength, and emotions. Kid and I already awakened this one during our journey in Paradise" Kai said, turning to Wyper "It's what you guys call Mantra in Sky Island"

"So Aisha, Enel and the four priest were all using this ability back then. I never thought that you could gain Mantra by training" Wyper remarked.

Kai nodded "If you can master this ability, you can even see a few seconds into the future. The second type of Haki is Armament Haki which allows the person to use their own aura as armor to defend against attacks, as well as make their own attacks more potent"

"You can think of it as creating an invisible armor around your body. This one is particularly useful against Logia users like myself or Killer...it might seem like we're invincible but if you can use Armament Haki, you'll be able to hit a Logia user's real body without the need to of sea stone or other tricks"

"Which means I can finally kick your ass!" Kid said with a smirk.

"'might' not 'can'. Armament Haki also has advanced applications, Kid, the technique that Rayleigh performed to take that mermaid's neck collar off back at the Auction House in Sabaody was a very advanced technique where you let Haki flow inside a target, bypassing their defense and hurting them from the inside..."

"...This is very useful against opponents with tough external defense"

"That's sounds very powerful honestly" Kid remarked.

"But keep in mind that learning this is incredibly hard and only the strongest people can do it" Kai said before he continued his explanation "Finally, the third type of Haki is Conqueror's Haki which grants the person the ability to unleash their own willpower in order to overpower the will of others. This results in victims being mentally overwhelmed by that person, with particularly weak-willed foes instantly losing consciousness"

"Again, Kid and I already awakened this ability during our fight against Mihawk. However, we still can't control it so there is a risk we harm our allies"

"Does that mean you could knock out a thousand person as long as they are weak-willed?" Killer questionned.

"You can even knock out a hundred thousand if your Haki is strong enough" 

"This sounds stupidly powerful, if there is someone with this ability, he can change the entire tied of a war by himself" Wyper said.

"Yes, but unfortunately this ability can't be learned no matter how strong you are. It's something you get born with and its extremely rare to have, only one in several million people have it..."

"...learning advanced application of Conqueror's Haki can instantly make you one of the strongest people in the world. But that's something only a handful of strong individuals can do and its not something to worry about right now, our main objective is for everyone to learn Armament and Observation Haki" Kai told everyone.

"That sounds like it's gonna be a pain" Bonney commented. Kai turned to her with a mischievous grin.

"No pizza for you until you do that" he said.

"WHAAAT?!!!"

"Anything but pizza!!!"

"Nope, I already decided" Kai looked at his crew with an evil grin "You better be ready you lot…"

"Because I'm going to make you experience hell!"

…

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A Year and a Half Later…