Wind Rises

"Hey, Obe. What do you think Sister Ra will teach us this afternoon?" Oshi rested both hands behind her head and idly kicked pebbles on the ground.

"How would I know? But since Big Sis said it'd be difficult, it definitely won't be simple... By the way, hasn't that guy King come back yet?" Obe looked around, searching for a certain figure.

"Why are you looking for that masked guy?" Oshi asked in confusion.

"Of course, so he can taste my Armament Haki iron fists! That guy hit me over two hundred and eighty-one times yesterday. This time, I'm paying him back one punch at a time."

Obe said through gritted teeth.

"My motto is: tooth for tooth, blood for blood, repay it a thousandfold!"

"Seriously? You're way too petty! He may not have held back, but he was trying to teach us."

"Shut up! I clearly told him to stop so I could think for a bit, but that guy acted like he didn't hear me and just went bang, bang, bang on my head. Did he really think my head was a wooden fish?!

Does he get extra merit for every hit or something?!"

"I'm telling you, that guy's a total sadist!"

"All right, all right. Even if you want revenge, he isn't on the island right now~" Oshi remained unconcerned. She had not been hit that many times yesterday, so she was not holding a grudge.

"Since that guy isn't here, you can spar with me first. Once I get the hang of it, I'll beat him until he's crawling around looking for his mask." Obe clenched her fists.

"Pfft~"

Oshi imagined King sprawled on the ground, frantically feeling around for his mask, and could not help laughing.

"All right. I've been wanting to see what kind of face he has beneath that mask anyway. Let's head back to the training grounds."

Oshi had always been this fiery and decisive. She immediately grabbed Obe and sprinted back the way they had come.

In the unrecognizable training grounds, one red and one blue figure stood facing each other. A burst of meaningless drumbeats...

All right, it was quiet around them. There were no drumbeats. But the lines still had to be said.

Blue: "How many times have we fought?"

Red: "Hard to say. All I remember is us fighting."

Red: "Let's settle this, Obe! Once and for all!" Crimson Armament Haki clung to her hands, while golden lightning roared around her arms.

Obe smiled faintly. Her left arm, wrapped in blue Haki, emerged from her sleeve, and black gale force instantly tore through the air.

The two small figures collided at high speed. Crimson and dark-blue fists struck each other through the air, and space let out a piercing boom.

Boom!

The poor ground was plowed over again. Within dozens of meters around them, the earth had sunk several meters and become covered in cracks. There was no doubt that the playful scuffle of two young gods was catastrophic for the land beneath their feet.

Ra, who was learning knife skills from Old Cook, suddenly looked toward the training grounds before continuing to cut the steak as if nothing had happened.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. There might be an earthquake later, so please be careful not to spill the soup, Old Cook."

"Another earthquake? Wasn't there one this morning? The New World really is restless..."

"Damn it, what brute strength!"

Oshi discovered that she was actually being suppressed by Obe, who was even slightly smaller than her. This was not suppression in Haki strength, but pure physical strength. Obe was clearly stronger than Oshi!

Oshi's body was being pushed backward inch by inch, and two deep trenches had already appeared beneath her feet.

"Damn it! I won't lose to a little runt like you! You're just Obe—watch me push you back!"

Oshi shouted, then took a deep breath. More and more golden lightning began winding around her arms.

But just as Oshi prepared to gather strength and push back, Obe suddenly withdrew her force and sidestepped Oshi's fist while she was off balance.

"What—"

A fair, delicate right fist wrapped in destructive gale force shot straight toward Oshi's face.

Divine Fist Crushing Strike!

"Gwah~~~~"

Oshi was sent flying outright. She skimmed along the ground for hundreds of meters before finally crashing into a huge rock wall and barely coming to a stop.

"Tsk~ You blocked it? What terrifying instinct..."

Rather than feeling joy at failing to land a clean hit, Obe sensed that Oshi had raised a hand at the last moment to block her attack.

"Ow, ow, ow..." Oshi held her cheek as she pried herself out of the rock face.

Even though she had defended herself, Obe's strike had still swollen her face. The arm that had blocked Obe's fist was trembling slightly and had no strength left in it.

"You're too much! You really hit hard!" Oshi rubbed her left cheek and spoke unclearly.

"Blame your own stupidity. You actually fell for a tactic that could only fool children."

"Hmph! In that case, I won't hold back either!"

Oshi stomped hard against the ground, transforming into a crimson streak as she crossed hundreds of meters in an instant and appeared above Obe. Then she clasped her hands together and smashed them down toward Obe's head.

With her astonishing dynamic vision, Obe caught Oshi's movement and immediately leaped aside.

The violent attack struck the ground, and waves of air surged outward as dust filled the air.

"Something's wrong! Oshi's attack can't possibly be this weak."

Before she even landed, Obe noticed the oddity in Oshi's attack. Oshi had not intended to hit her at all. She had been trying to... kick up dust?!

"Hehe!"

Within the smoke and dust, Oshi instantly locked onto Obe's position with her terrifying instincts and Observation Haki.

"Try my return gift! Superconducting Wave: Thunder Cannon Mouth!"

Golden thunderous breath filled Obe's vision, its diameter far wider than her body.

Obe immediately curled up and crossed her arms before herself. Having anticipated Oshi's intentions, she took the attack head-on in the most perfect posture.

A faint burning sensation and numbness swept across Obe's body. This attack did not seem very powerful.

Just as Obe was wondering about it, a crimson figure had already burst in behind her.

"Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Horsepower, Oshi Thunder Fist!" The tiny fist, carrying golden lightning, slammed into Obe's back and blasted the Hero of the Earth into the ground.

Rumble!

As though Mother Earth herself were answering, a cloud of dust dozens of meters high rose from the ground, clearly visible even from the distant sea.

"What's going on? Another earthquake? Didn't we just have one?"

"Could an undersea volcano be about to erupt?"

"Two earthquakes in one day is rare even in the New World..."

"Pack up fast. It'll be trouble if a tsunami actually comes later."

"But I just set up my stall... Hey! You brat, don't take the chance to eat without paying!"

"Oi~ You all right?" Oshi crouched beside the deep pit and called loudly.

More than ten minutes had passed since Obe had been blasted underground, yet there was still no sign of her climbing back up.

"I'm fine."

Obe's calm voice came from below.

"Hell, if you're fine, then get up here! What have you been doing down there all this time, pretending to be a turtle? You scared the hell out of me."

Hearing that Obe was all right, Oshi let out a long breath.

She was not worried that she had seriously hurt Obe. She had held back on that punch, and with Obe's physical defense being about the same as hers, it would hurt at most. What Oshi was really worried about was Obe running off to complain to Ra after getting hit.

"A dog's mouth can't spit out ivory! I just suddenly realized something."

Obe leaped onto the ground, smoothed her slightly messy hair, and said, "Oshi, did you notice anything during our fight just now?"

"Uh... fighting felt great?"

"Tsk~"

"All right, all right, talk. I'm listening."

Seeing that Oshi had stopped joking around, Obe said seriously, "Aside from that first exchange, did we use Haki again afterward? I mean Armament Haki."

This was a problem both of them had unconsciously overlooked.

"Huh?! It really seems like we didn't! Weird, why?"

Oshi found it hard to understand. She seemed to have completely forgotten this new ability during the latter half of the fight.

"Because the pace of battle was too fast. Compared to our authority, which we already wield with ease, we instinctively neglected Haki, a power that needs to undergo an energy conversion before it can be used.

You, who fight by instinct, did so. And I did so as well in order to keep up with your rhythm."

Obe did not leave Oshi confused for long. She directly gave the answer she had realized during those ten-plus minutes of enlightenment in the underground arena.

"Yeah, that makes sense. It's like switching to another game after the button layout has changed, but you still instinctively use the controller the old way.

Observation Haki is fine since it's like the directional buttons, but Armament Haki is more like light-and-heavy attack combos. It really isn't easy to adapt to right away."

Oshi immediately understood Obe's meaning in her own way.

"So, we need to change our approach. Slow the pace down, stop using our authority, and have a battle using only Haki. We need to make sure every strike carries Haki."

"Mm, okay!"

Thus, after a brief period of silence, the town's residents were greeted by the nth earthquake of the day.

Inside the cafeteria—

"Ahh~ My soup!" Startled by the earthquake, a kitchen hand dumped an entire can of salt into the soup.

Many people around him were also startled by the sudden tremor.

"It really was another earthquake. Miss Ra, how did you know?" someone asked.

"It was nothing. I just thought there would usually be aftershocks after an earthquake, so I gave a reminder. I didn't expect one to actually happen." Ra casually came up with an excuse.

"Then, then will there be more aftershocks?"

"Mm... perhaps~" Ra checked on the two little ones and found that they were having the time of their lives. They would probably keep making a fuss for a while longer.

Clang~ Clang~

Old Cook knocked on the pot with an iron ladle and reminded everyone, "Be careful not to spill soup and the like later. Now keep cooking. It'll be lunchtime soon."

"Yes!" ×n

"Old Cook, come taste the soup I made." Ra ladled out a small bowl of her work and handed it to Cook.

Old Cook accepted it, but did not rush to taste it. He first looked at it, then smelled it.

"Mm~ The color is clear, and the aroma is fresh."

Only after confirming that both its appearance and fragrance passed inspection did he pick up a spoon.

At that moment, Old Cook seemed to return to the days when he had sampled dishes for nobles aboard luxury cruise ships, serious and strict.

"Mm?! This taste?"

Old Cook's eyes immediately widened after taking a small sip.

To be honest, he had dealt with cooking his entire life, yet this was the first time he had encountered such a situation. The little girl before him should be making this soup for the first time, but this flavor...

"How is it?"

"It tastes good. No, it should be said that it tastes excellent." Old Cook first gave his assessment, but then his tone shifted—

"But... Ra, why does this soup taste exactly the same as the one I just made?"

"?"

Ra was equally confused by his question.

"Because I made it according to what you taught me?"

"That isn't what I mean." Cook shook his head.

"Even if you followed me step by step, the two dishes could not possibly taste exactly alike. Let me put it this way: even I cannot make two batches in a row that taste identical in every respect."

As a top-tier chef, Cook's tongue could keenly distinguish the slightest changes in flavor. Ra's bowl of soup perfectly overlapped in taste with the pot of soup he had just demonstrated!

But Ra still did not understand. "As long as every factor making up the two soups is the same, then naturally they will taste the same, right?

I merely replicated every one of your steps, including the temperature of the fire, the amounts of seasoning, the timing, the ingredients, even the direction and strength of stirring..."

It was an entirely correct conclusion. If every factor making up the two soups was identical, what reason could there be for them to taste different? But...

"But that's wrong!"

After recovering from his initial shock, Old Cook immediately spoke with absolute certainty.

There was not the slightest hint of jest in his tone, as if he were defending something sacred and inviolable.

"Ra, you must understand that merely mechanically replicating another person's cooking cannot make you a qualified chef. A chef who can stand on their own must find their own cooking style!"

At that moment, Old Cook did not know that this was a lesson he would regret so badly in the future that it would make his teeth ache.

Even all the Beasts members, Kaido included, would later have to grit their teeth along with him~

Ra nodded as she looked at Old Cook's determined face. "Don't worry, Old Cook. I'll find my own cooking style."

"Hahaha, then this old man will look forward to that day! But for now, you still need to watch carefully and learn properly! When it comes to cooking, this old man has never been inferior to anyone!"

New World, twelve thousand meters above the sea, Floating Island.

"Heat Breath!"

Kaido, in dragon form, spewed a mouthful of Dragon Breath directly at the island below.

"Shihahahaha! Kaido, you little brat got yourself quite a decent fruit!"

"However, you should show respect to your seniors! Flying Slash!"

A massive sword slash cleaved the Heat Breath apart. From the divided flames, a figure emerged.

The man held a sword in each hand, both concealed within his wide sleeves. A cigar hung from his mouth, while a head of fluffy golden hair fell behind him like a lion's mane. His unusual eyebrows were sharp and slender, and his fierce eyes brimmed with arrogance and wildness.

Simply standing there, his entire body radiated an incomparably domineering aura.

"Cut the crap! What exactly did you call me here for—Shiki!"