Genius and Monster, Part 2

"Bang!"

"Hiss—"

While Obe's head was constantly refreshing with 'Merit +1' beside them, Ra, the eldest sister, quietly closed her eyes, as if entering a meditative state.

[As expected, observing this world from the perspective of energy is much clearer and more thorough than simply using the five senses.]

Ra, who was sitting still, had unknowingly extended her perception to cover the entire small island. She was attempting to re-observe the world from an energy perspective.

In Ra's current 'vision,' the energy emitted by all living and non-living things was like colored lights of different hues, with their size, shape, outline, and intensity all clearly visible.

[The one with the highest intensity... Hmm, it's Captain Kaido, as expected. But it's a bit different from others, this color... It seems like there's an extra, different kind of energy within him compared to others. Could it be what Burufatt mentioned, Conqueror's Haki?]

[I'll ask about it when I have time.]

Lost in thought, she naturally tilted her head. Then, King's sword sheath fell a beat later, as if King had deliberately struck an empty space.

"?!"

Ra's movement, which was clearly a step ahead of his, surprised King. Theoretically, even if she could dodge, she should have done so after he made his attacking motion.

[This blond brat dodged before I even made a move! Did she know I was going to attack her in advance?]

To verify his guess, King tried attacking by surprise a few more times, but as expected, Ra had already completed her evasion before he made his move each time.

Afterward, King tried a feint, adopting an attacking posture and momentum, but the sword sheath stopped right above her head at the last moment.

And this time, Ra didn't make any evasive movements from beginning to end!

It's important to note that King had suddenly decided to stop just before smashing down this time. Anyone who possessed Observation Haki would not have been able to react only when they were this close.

[It's precognition, for sure. This kid is only about ten years old! She's a monster!]

Ra's performance was shattering King's common sense, making him suspect if she had some racial talent for predicting the future.

[Mr. Kaido mentioned before that this blonde-haired girl was the most special among the three. I estimated it would be difficult to teach her, and it seems his words were not false.]

While King was still lost in the daze of his common sense being challenged, Ra had already withdrawn her consciousness from perceiving the entire island and then removed the black cloth covering her eye.

"Mr. King, I believe I have a preliminary grasp of Observation Haki. May I see Armament Haki?"

That's right, the Ra just now had only used a small portion of her attention focused on King to predict his movements.

"Just call me King."

King was brought back to reality by Ra's ethereal voice, but he seemed unaccustomed to her polite honorific.

After understanding that her Observation Haki was already superior to his, King didn't say much more.

He simply had Obe go with Oshi to Burufatt to continue their training, while he directly demonstrated Armament Haki in front of Ra.

The familiar energy wrapped around King's arm, enveloping the sword sheath as well.

"This is Armament Haki. It can greatly enhance the user's attack power and defense. It can also be attached to weapons like this," King explained.

In Ra's perception, a black energy had just erupted from King's body and gathered on his arm and the sword sheath.

She reached out to touch the sword sheath, and as her fingers made contact, the dark energy became even clearer.

[A very mysterious power. This Armament Haki seems to have the property of isolating external energy.]

This reminded her of her previous battle with Kaido. While her flames could easily melt his club at the beginning, after Kaido wrapped it with Armament Haki, high temperatures had little effect on it.

Ra enveloped this energy with her Divine Spark and tried to see if she could isolate a small portion of Armament Haki.

She proceeded very slowly. The Armament Haki on the sword sheath was wrapped very tightly, and stripping it required extremely precise energy control.

It was like trying to peel off a small advertisement stuck to a door intact, using rubber gloves coated with lubricant.

[Hmm... I succeeded.]

About ten minutes later, Ra finally retracted her hand.

At the same time, King sensed that a trace of the Armament Haki he had applied to his sword sheath had suddenly disappeared. It wasn't consumed, but had truly vanished.

He looked at Ra in surprise, noticing she was looking at her palm as if something was there.

[Is it a fusion of life energy and some strange energy...]

Wrapped entirely by Divine Spark, a trace of Haki gradually decomposed in Ra's palm, its essence revealing itself before her.

[However, I don't seem to have this special energy within me. Is it because of different races? Or is this energy unique to the people of this world?]

Thinking of energy with characteristics of another world, Ra immediately thought of the famous 'Chakra.'

The situation had hit a slight bottleneck, but for Ra at this moment, it wasn't yet a troublesome issue.

[Let's try to imitate it with Divine Spark first.]

As her body followed her thoughts, Ra immediately began adjusting the nature of her Divine Spark to approach that peculiar energy.

It must be said that energy originating from a deity possesses extremely high plasticity, capable of mimicking the properties of almost any other energy according to one's will.

This Phantom God power, which could be called a 'Ditto of the energy world,' was fundamentally a distortion of reality and a modification of rules.

However, due to the influence of the Divine Spark, this energy with infinite possibilities often manifests in a single form externally.

But this singularity allows Divine Power, when materialized as an authority, to reach energy levels far exceeding ordinary Divine Power releases.

In simpler terms, the Divine Spark acts like a converter, transforming Divine Power into its most suitable form during release.

For example, Ra's flames and Oshi's lightning are the essence of a god's external authority.

And now, Ra has found a second form of Divine Power release, which is Armament Haki.

With a thought, she combined her simulated Divine Power with life energy, and golden Armament Haki with flame patterns appeared on Ra's arm.

And unlike ordinary Armament Haki, Ra's Armament Haki is directly visible to the naked eye, requiring no Observation Haki to perceive.

"This, this is golden Haki?! How is that possible? Isn't all Haki black?! But this feeling is undoubtedly Haki..."

King found it difficult to comprehend what kind of existence this little girl before him was. She had learned Haki from scratch in just ten minutes, without anyone teaching her.

This had far surpassed the realm of genius; she was a true monster! The common sense of this world seemed completely inapplicable to her.

"Yes, this is indeed Haki. The reason it's different from ordinary people is probably because our race is a bit special."

"Thank you for your patient guidance, King. As for teaching Oshi and Obe Armament Haki, I'll handle it. Ordinary training methods might not suit them."

Ra bowed slightly to King to express her gratitude. After all, he had stood still for a full ten minutes with his Armament Haki activated for Ra to observe, without rushing her once.

King muttered to himself that he hadn't taught her anything, yet she had learned it just by standing there for ten minutes.

"Since you've already learned it, I'll go teach that blue-haired brat first. You're free to do as you please."

"Mm, I was just about to go find Captain Kaido to learn about Conqueror's Haki. I'll take my leave for now. I'll leave my younger sisters in your care."

"Eh? You're leaving already, Sister Ra? You mastered Haki that quickly?" Oshi and Obe, still being beaten, watched Ra's departing back like two little raccoons abandoned by their mother, their eyes full of helplessness.

"Study hard with the two teachers. I have something to discuss with Captain Kaido. I'll probably be back by dinner."

Ra turned back and waved gently at Oshi and Obe with a smile, like a young mother saying goodbye to her children at kindergarten every morning.

"Hey, what kind of monster is that little girl? Could she really be from some 'God Race' like that blue-haired brat said?"

Burufatt had also noticed Ra awakening her Armament Haki. That brilliant, sacred flame-gold Haki had shattered his common sense as well.

"Perhaps. After all, anything is possible on this sea. And even if they were a true [Race of Gods], they probably wouldn't be that powerful in reality... Alright, let's continue teaching."

King seemed unwilling to dwell on the topic further. Burufatt wisely didn't press the matter.

"Alright! Since your sister has graduated, you two, as her younger sisters, definitely won't be too far behind! Get up and keep dodging my attacks!"

"Bon~" "Bon~" "Bon~"

"Damn it!" "Quack! That hurt!"

"Stop fooling around and concentrate!"

"Red-haired brat, you're not allowed to run! Get back here!"