A Different Kind of Training

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"Haki is a kind of potential everyone is born with."

In the dense jungle of the island of women, Hancock began her explanation as Ruidio had requested, treating him as a complete beginner.

"There are three types of Haki: Observation Haki is an extension of the senses, such as sight and hearing; Armament Haki is like invisible armor worn over the body; and the third and rarest type, Conqueror's Haki, is a tangible sense of pressure and intimidation...

"To train in Haki, you must first be able to sense your own. So, for us Kuja warriors, the first step is to start with Observation Haki."

With that, the Empress delivered an elegant spinning kick to a massive tree beside her. Thud!! Leaves and fruit rained down.

She closed her eyes and swayed, darting around a few times to catch every falling leaf in her hands and flick every fruit away with her fingers.

"Once you grasp the basics of Observation Haki, you can master Armament Haki more quickly."

Hancock opened her eyes and casually tossed the leaves aside. "Training in Armament Haki has three stages. First, you sense the Haki in your body, then wrap it around your fist like this."

As she spoke, she raised a hand. A mass of Armament Haki wrapped tightly around her slender, pale hand, turning it a peculiar jet-black.

"We call this the 3 Snake Realm."

Hancock walked up to a boulder, held her blackened hand upright, and chopped down hard on its top, splitting it into left and right halves. "Once wrapped around your fists and feet, Armament Haki can arm them, increase their hardness, and strengthen your defense. Also, as you probably already know, Armament Haki is the only means of countering Devil Fruit abilities."

Seawater and seastone, on the other hand, countered Devil Fruit Users, not the effects of their abilities.

Only Armament Haki could do that! Sufficiently powerful Armament Haki could even forcibly undo a Devil Fruit ability that had already taken effect.

"And this is the 6 Snake Realm."

The black faded from the Empress's hand. She pressed it against the left half of the split boulder, and the next instant, despite the ten-centimeter gap between the two halves, a palm print appeared on the upper surface of the right half with a bang.

"By freely controlling Armament Haki inside your body like water, you can make it flow to increase its power. You can even destroy a target's interior from a distance without damaging its exterior."

Next, Hancock picked up a fallen leaf and casually tossed it. The weightless leaf shot toward the intact half of the boulder like a dart. With a boom, it blasted a crater half a meter across into the rock.

At the center of the rings of shattered rock, the leaf remained intact, embedded tightly in the tree trunk.

"You wrap Haki around an arrow or something else, then launch it over a long distance while making sure the Haki wrapped around it loses none of its power. That is the highest level, the 9 Snake Realm."

Hancock smiled at Ruidio. "Only those who reach the 9 Snake Realm can serve as archers among the Kuja Warriors and the Kuja Pirates."

"Oh..."

Ruidio had listened quietly up to that point. He nodded and asked curiously, "Yesterday, on that island, I briefly exchanged a couple of moves with your Kuja warriors. They said that 'Haki' and 'physical strength' were two different things. What did they mean?

"Isn't Armament Haki supposed to be armor? I thought training it meant first tempering your body to its limit, then drawing Haki out of that powerful physique!"

Hancock laughed at that and shook her head. "Many Kuja warriors start training in Haki when they're only a few years old. They start with Observation Haki, and the talented ones can fully master Armament Haki before they're ten. Many of them have never even exercised, so where would they get powerful physiques? Physical strength is physical strength, and Haki is Haki. They really aren't the same thing."

She thought for a moment, then held out her hand to Ruidio, who was listening intently. "Different people and different races have their own limits to how much they can train their physical strength.

"For example, Fish-Men are born with ten times the physical strength of us humans. That's determined by their bloodline, and no one can change it. No matter how much humans train, that gap won't simply disappear.

"But there is a way to make up for it—"

The Empress rolled up her sleeve, revealing a fair, smooth forearm. Armament Haki rapidly wrapped around it, slowly coating her slender hand and jade-like arm in black.

"When they're wrapped in Armament Haki, muscles and bones are greatly reinforced by its hardening effect. That way, even a human body can withstand explosive power beyond the limits of its bloodline, increasing it severalfold, tens of times, hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times."

She clenched her fist, and the muscles in her blackened forearm shifted. "In short, if a human expert wants to compete with a Fish-Man of the same level, aside from eating a Zoan Devil Fruit to change their constitution, their only option is to strengthen their body with Armament Haki.

"Your muscles can generate more explosive power than those of most Kuja warriors on this island, but if they calmly used Armament Haki to strengthen their bodies, they wouldn't necessarily lose to you in a contest of strength alone.

"Ruidio, you might be disappointed, but that's the reality. The first step in training is understanding the right path to becoming stronger, so you don't waste time on an impossible one.

"If you like training your physique and physical techniques, that's fine too. But remember, once you've trained your body to its limit, all you can do after that is maintain your physical condition for as long as possible and devote more energy to training your Haki."

"..."

Ruidio's mouth fell open as he recalled the astonishing sight of Jaguar D. Saul lifting a large warship in the "Ohara instance"... Now he understood the fundamental reason the World Government and Marine Headquarters were both so eager to pursue the power of the Giant Race.

Fish-Men were born with ten times the physical strength of humans, but what about giants?

A hundred times?

A thousand times?

A human might spend half a lifetime painstakingly training their Haki to multiply the brute strength their body could unleash... but perhaps any giant child could match it with a light punch of their little fist.

The starting point of their muscles was the endpoint you strained every means to reach an equivalent of.

What if a giant also trained in Haki?

It would be strange not to drool over that!

"Did I go too far?"

Hancock pouted and gently stroked Ruidio's face. "I don't want you to be put off by me..."

"Not at all."

Ruidio took both her hands and murmured to himself, "But if Armament Haki increases strength so dramatically that it can even let humans pull ahead and contend with the naturally mighty Giant Race, doesn't that mean... there's no need to train the body at all?"

Hancock smiled. "Being better at physical techniques really does give you an advantage in battle. Besides, Armament Haki is formed from a person's 'strong convictions.' The process of tempering your body is also a process of tempering those convictions, so naturally it helps a great deal in strengthening Armament Haki."

Ruidio thought about it, then laughed. "But that's assuming the person truly believes that training their body is an important part of their strong convictions. Right?"

"You catch on quickly~~"

Hancock couldn't resist kissing him on the cheek, but the kiss left her own face burning. She smiled shyly and said,

"The difference between the 3, 6, and 9 Snake Realms I mentioned is only a difference in how well someone uses Armament Haki. It doesn't necessarily reflect the strength of their Haki. There are plenty of examples of warriors in the 3 Snake Realm defeating those in the 9 Snake Realm.

"Everyone has a different personality and different experiences, so they have different methods and habits for strengthening their Haki. Some people like peaceful surroundings and can grow stronger by training alone, but for most people, the strength of their Haki only improves significantly in intense, thrilling real combat..."

Oh, so the Snake Realms measured mechanics, while the strength or weakness of Haki came down to stats.

Now Ruidio completely understood.

Feeling pleased, he wrapped his arms around the Empress's waist, lifted her high and spun her around. Watching her long hair fly and her eyes fill with laughter, he laughed. "Then what are we waiting for, Teacher Snake Princess? Let's start training for real!"

Chapter 60: A Different Kind of Training

[Cover serial: Executive Vice President Miss All Sunday 10: "Target 2"]

[Robin and Olvia arrived at their next destination. As soon as they landed on the island, they faintly heard gunfire and cannon fire.]

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"Honestly, what's going on with you?"

Half an hour later, Ruidio and Hancock sat together on the shore of the island of women, gazing out at the vast, boundless sea, without wind or waves.

"You don't even have the strength to hit someone. Are you still the imperious Lady Snake Princess?"

Hancock hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, swaying against him as she said coquettishly, "I... only realized when it was time to actually hit you that I couldn't bear to do it~~ What can I do..."

The best and most straightforward way to train Observation Haki was, of course, sneak attacks.

As long as Ruidio could blindfold himself, plug his ears, and accurately dodge the random blows from Hancock's stick, he would have basically grasped the fundamentals of Observation Haki.

But when they actually started training, Hancock held back.

Her light, unhostile attacks couldn't stimulate Ruidio's senses enough to awaken his Observation Haki.

Rumble...

The water suddenly parted, and a giant Sea King resembling a long-necked dinosaur emerged. It made no sound and appeared quite gentle. Its eyes lazily swept over Ruidio and the Empress on the shore with a look of "intelligence."

A thought struck Ruidio. He took out a Poké Ball and threw it at the creature with all his strength.

Click!

The Poké Ball opened automatically, firing a beam of red light that struck the long-necked Sea King, as huge as a small mountain, and turned it into light before drawing it inside.

Plop. The Poké Ball fell into the water...

Ruidio stared. "..." There was nothing for it but to go down and retrieve it.

Splash! He dove into the sea, only to see the indicator light on the Poké Ball floating in the water flashing faster and faster. Finally, the ball snapped open—

A great mass of red light shot out of the ball, and the long-necked Sea King reappeared.

The seawater was already rushing back with a roar to fill the space left by its disappearance. When it suddenly reappeared, the water exploded outward in every direction, raising wave upon wave.

The waves carried the Poké Ball toward Ruidio. He snatched it up and nimbly swam to shore.

The system had rated his Swimming as proficient, at least, so waves like these weren't enough to trouble him.

Hancock had been waiting for him. She reached out to pull him ashore and patted the seawater off him, asking in surprise, "That ball can capture not just pets, but Sea Kings too?"

"But only if you can beat a Sea King into submission first."

Holding the empty Poké Ball, Ruidio looked back as the long-necked Sea King, which seemed somewhat confused and somewhat angry, submerged and disappeared. "Or... someone could make the Sea Kings truly love them and willingly submit."

Hancock reassured him, "Sea Kings can't be tamed... With a body that big, even my Love-Love Fruit ability couldn't turn the whole thing to stone. I could kill it, but if I did, there'd be no way to capture it, would there?"

Clearly, Conqueror's Haki wouldn't do much against a Sea King that size either. Otherwise, where would that leave Sea God Poseidon?

Ruidio thought for a moment, then took out five Poké Balls and gave them to Hancock. "If you get a chance to find smaller or younger Sea Kings, you could try capturing them. Once they grow up, they can protect this island as partners."

Hancock was taken aback. She accepted the five shrunken red-and-white Poké Balls in a daze.

Ruidio pinched the tip of her reddening nose and smiled. "Didn't you appoint me vice emperor of Kuja? I ought to do something to show my appreciation."

Seeing that she was about to cry from being moved again, Ruidio patted her hand and changed the subject. "By the way, I just thought of a way to train Haki that might be better."

"What is it?" Hancock asked, her voice a little nasal as she carefully put away the five Poké Balls.

Ruidio raised an index finger and smiled. "You can wrap Armament Haki around a weapon to strengthen it, right? So couldn't you treat my hand as a weapon and wrap your Haki around it? Then, by sensing your Haki, I can stimulate myself to gain control of my own. Right?"

Hancock froze. "But... isn't using Haki on someone else an attack...?"

"Huh?" Ruidio blinked.

"Eh?" Hancock was puzzled. Wasn't that right?

Ruidio scratched his head. That did seem to be true. Releasing your own Armament Haki and wrapping it around a sword counted as advanced Ryuo in Wano Country, and in Kuja, it was at least the 6 Snake Realm.

Releasing flowing Haki like that was essentially a defense-breaking strike that hit through a barrier. That was the technique Master Lu used to pummel Teacher Kaido's shell.

"Whatever. Let's try it first!"

Ruidio smiled. "Don't worry about me getting hurt. I have a special way to heal."

Even if his hand broke or was pulverized, as long as too much time didn't pass, he could grow it back with Reverse Cursed Technique once his uses of Satoru Gojo Mode refreshed tomorrow.

"..."

Hancock hesitated, but she liked seeing him so spirited, so she obediently sat facing him and held both his hands. "It might hurt a lot when my Haki enters your body..."

"Go ahead." Ruidio's gaze was firm as he squeezed her soft, slightly sweaty hands.

Hancock had no choice. She summoned her Haki, gathering it in her right hand like flowing water, then carefully controlled it, spreading it bit by bit onto Ruidio's hand.

Ruidio's brow twitched.

Hancock hastily withdrew her Haki. "Does it hurt? I'm sorry..."

"Keep going." Ruidio knew he had to be a little firm with her.

Hancock could only comply, distressed for him. She slowly released Haki from her right hand again, treating Ruidio's nondominant left hand like the arrows she normally used, but wrapping it with a touch a hundred times gentler...