An hour later.
Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 8.
A lavishly decorated tavern.
Still on the rooftop, Chaos sat with his feet up on the table. He held a glass of red wine in one hand and flicked ash from his cigarette with the other, staring at the distant street. No one knew what he was thinking.
Across from him, Crocodile sulked as he ate, white bandages wrapped around his body.
In the end, he had compromised.
But he wouldn't give up hope. If he got the chance, he'd wash away this humiliation.
"Get a good rest today. Tomorrow, we'll take a look around the Marine base. I need some Seastone."
Chaos stood up and finished the red wine in his glass. He had no intention of heading to the New World.
Instead, he wanted to get some Seastone from the Marines and use it to train.
Seastone was the bane of Devil Fruit users, but it could also be used as a training aid.
Aside from temporarily preventing them from using their Devil Fruit powers, it also drained their strength. Seastone was extraordinarily hard, nearly as hard as diamond.
Most importantly, Seastone came in different grades of purity. The purer it was, the more effectively it suppressed Devil Fruit users.
But Devil Fruit users could also train with Seastone. Though it still prevented them from using their powers, they could overcome its strength-draining effect.
For powerful figures like the Four Emperors, Seastone didn't do much.
Its only effect was to nullify their Devil Fruit powers; it couldn't drain their strength.
After all, fighters of that caliber weren't just powerful because of their Devil Fruits. Their martial arts and physical abilities were top-notch, too. They might not be able to use their Devil Fruit powers, but they could still fight with their bodies.
Chaos wanted to eliminate that weakness.
He didn't want it to trip him up in the future.
Besides, plenty of forums and message boards had claimed that Luffy trained his Armament Haki with Seastone while fighting Kaido.
He didn't know if that was true.
That was another reason Chaos wanted to train with Seastone: he hoped to quickly improve his Armament Haki.
The anime episodes came out too slowly, and the story dragged on, so Chaos had only watched as far as Luffy defeating Katakuri. He'd been letting the later episodes pile up.
In his spare time, he browsed Baidu on his phone and visited forums and message boards to learn where the story was headed.
For example, Chaos had learned about "Flowing Cherry" Armament Haki through those channels.
It sounded pretty impressive.
Apparently, you didn't need to touch your opponent to damage them from the inside. Armament Haki could also flow around the body like liquid, creating a flashy effect.
If nothing unexpected had happened, the Armament Haki Garp had shown last time was probably at the level of "Flowing Cherry," or perhaps even beyond it.
Quite a few One Piece fans had divided Armament Haki into different levels.
The first stage was newly awakened Haki that could only cover parts of the body. This was the hardening stage.
The second stage let you coat weapons in Armament Haki. This was the coating stage.
The third stage let you change a weapon's shape and create shock waves. The Haki could form solid, sharply defined shapes and be projected over a distance. This was the emission stage.
The fourth stage made Armament Haki flow like a 3D liquid. It could pass through an object's surface and directly damage it from within.
It was a very rough classification, since fans had come up with these levels themselves. The official story hadn't provided any clear details.
The first and second stages were easy to understand, but the third seemed a little over the top.
For example, changing a weapon's shape had appeared in the One Piece special Adventure on Fog Island. A Marine Vice Admiral named Kong Ming had done it.
With Armament Haki, he'd turned an ordinary feather fan into all sorts of weapons, each with tremendous destructive power.
That meant a blade of grass, a branch, or even a strand of hair could be turned into one of the eighteen traditional weapons with Armament Haki. That was a bit much.
The shock waves needed no explanation. They were simply blasts of pure Armament Haki.
Katakuri's Armament Haki was another example. When he used it, it looked solid, with sharply defined edges. Just looking at it, you could tell how hard it was.
These were probably all advanced applications of Armament Haki.
Quite a few fans in the comments had argued against the four-stage classification, especially when it came to "Flowing Cherry."
Some fans had offered a different interpretation. They thought Flowing Cherry wasn't the strongest form of Armament Haki, but simply a technique for applying force. After all, in the Wano Country arc, Armament Haki was called Flowing Cherry.
Maybe the third stage was actually the pinnacle of Armament Haki.
After all, it included shock waves, solid and sharply defined shapes, and the ability to change a weapon's form.
Flowing Cherry might just be a name, not a level—simply a different way of using the technique.
But there was no denying that damaging someone "from the inside" was impressive.
These levels were only a rough breakdown—in other words, pure speculation.
By the later parts of One Piece, Conqueror's Haki, Armament Haki, and Observation Haki were everywhere, and all kinds of Armament Haki techniques had become increasingly flashy.
Monkey D. Luffy had already become the Fifth Emperor and even possessed Conqueror's Haki, yet he'd still struggled against a few grunts. He'd spent several damn minutes just gasping for breath.
Chaos didn't think too much about it. He'd just train his Armament Haki as hard as he could. He didn't care how many stages there were. As long as his Haki was stronger than his enemy's and could hold up, that was enough.
"Do you know—"
Crocodile stopped eating and looked at Chaos as if he were an idiot. But before he could finish, Chaos cut him off.
"What are you calling me?"
"Boss."
Crocodile's face darkened. It was clearly painful for him to use a different form of address. He took a deep breath, then continued, his voice growing more emphatic. "There are already plenty of people who want to capture you. And we're very close to Marineford. Wouldn't going to a Marine base be too conspicuous?"
Crocodile thought Chaos was asking for trouble.
He clearly had no idea what their situation was.
If Crocodile could beat him, he would've already taken control of him and made him dig up gold.
Now that he had the Golden Emperor, he had wealth, power, women, fame—even the world itself.
You could imagine the situation Chaos was in. Everyone wanted to absorb him into their own ranks.
"Conspicuous?"
"What I'm after is attention and spectacle!"
Chaos looked at Crocodile with contempt and said coldly, "If you stick with me, your life will be anything but boring. I know you're not afraid of trouble. Otherwise, you wouldn't become disabled in the future."
"You called me Boss, so I'll protect you."
"Show some guts, or you won't be able to keep up with me. When that happens, I'll have no choice but to cut you loose!"
Crocodile didn't know what to say.
The more time he spent with Chaos, the more he felt that the man wasn't quite right in the head. He also loved to make grand claims.
A life full of excitement? He'd probably end up drifting around the sea.
And protect him?
They might not even survive a month.
He lacked courage?
What a joke!
Crocodile's expression shifted back and forth. He could already picture the miserable days ahead, with everyone treating them like rats in the street.
His ambitions were sky-high, but he wasn't stupid.
His wits were still sharp.
The man before him was a prize everyone wanted. Every power in the sea wanted a bite. It wasn't much of an exaggeration to say the whole world was against him.
If Crocodile stayed with him, it wouldn't end well.
The more he thought about it, the more his heart sank.
He wasn't even twenty yet. He shouldn't be cut down so early.
"Old Sand, it's your turn to step up."
Just as Crocodile's heart sank, Chaos stood at the edge of the rooftop, smoking a cigar. His upright golden hair and open-chested shirt fluttered in the wind.
"What?"
Crocodile snapped back to reality, not understanding what Chaos meant.
[The following speculation about Armament Haki comes entirely from things I found online.
If you have a different opinion or want to discuss it, leave a comment!
I'll go with whichever side has more support.]
Before you continue