Disguise, Mimicry, Technique!

Chapter 43: 043. Disguise, Imitation, Skill!

"You don't know?"

Mercer looked at Garp with some confusion. "I was already getting along well with her two years ago, you know that."

"Were you?"

Garp scratched the back of his head, thinking blankly for a moment, then suddenly punched his left palm with his right fist, which was held across his chest.

"Oh, right, I remember now. There was something like that. Ahaha, I forgot."

"You nobles have such forgetful minds. As expected, I, with my insignificant words and presence, am not worthy of your attention."

Mercer said mournfully.

Garp's drowsiness vanished instantly, his mouth twitching violently.

He finally understood. When Mercer spoke to him using "you," he was speaking normally. But when he used "you" (a more respectful form), it meant he was up to something.

Judging by the tone, he must have learned it from Kureha. Whether it was true or not, Garp decided to believe it was.

Garp's eyes widened slightly, his face looking pained, but he began to explain, "I was busy, you see. Besides, it's such a small matter, easy to forget if you don't pay attention. You can't blame me, can you?"

"So, my affairs are all trivial matters, not worth your attention, is that it?" Mercer's lips curled slightly. "Alright then, you go ahead and be busy. I definitely won't bother you again in the future."

Garp's face immediately darkened, and he couldn't help but grind his teeth. "Bo! Gard!"

He finally recalled that this kind of "passive-aggressive speech" was taught to him by Bogard over two years ago.

Seeing that Garp was getting agitated, Mercer knew it was time to stop while he was ahead. If he continued, Garp's iron fist might just land on him.

Mercer immediately said, "I'll head over there first. If you feel like taking a walk, you can take your time and stroll along."

With that, he quickened his pace, running rapidly towards the distant forest as if escaping.

Garp's mouth twitched. He chuckled in annoyance and followed, "Tricked by this brat again. I really don't know how he learned this.

Speaking of which, should I take him in? Otherwise, who knows what kind of person he'll become later."

After thinking for a moment, Garp hesitated again. That woman, Dolier, was a real handful. He wasn't sure if she would be willing to let him go.

If their relationship was ordinary, it would be fine. But now… Mercer was raised by that woman, fed and cared for by her. After all these years, if he were to go and ask for the child now…

He shivered.

He stopped in his tracks, Garp grinning wryly, "I'd die. I'd definitely be dissected by that woman. It's highly likely our relationship would end there.

I should think about it more."

Unable to figure it out, Garp quickened his pace and chased after him, shouting loudly, "Mercer~ You stop right there, old man! If you have the guts, say that again? I promise I won't hit you!"

Mercer, running ahead, twitched the corner of his eye. "If I believed you, then I'd deserve to be beaten up later."

As he spoke, he increased his pace, wishing he had two more legs to run faster.

Having two more legs was impossible, but Garp behind him didn't seem to be seriously chasing.

Mercer's arms swung back and forth in coordination with his steps, his running posture natural and swift.

The two ran, one after the other, until they reached the courtyard in front of Dadan's Home. Mercer finally stopped, catching his breath, but immediately sensed a fierce wind descending from above.

His body began to twist and dodge to the left, following the direction of the airflow. Just as he dodged, a massive fist appeared before him.

Seeing the trajectory of the incoming fist, Mercer crossed his hands and collided with it. Pa! He was pushed back by the recoil.

Thump thump thump!

Before he could regain his balance, Garp threw another punch, and another. Mercer's body swayed like a willow in the wind. When he couldn't dodge, he blocked with his palms and arms.

Garp's punches came faster and faster, while Mercer nimbly dodged, using the wind from the punches.

Seeing the red glow appearing in Mercer's eyes and his focused gaze, Garp's interest was piqued.

"Observation Haki plus Kami-e?"

Suddenly, he lifted his right foot and swept it horizontally towards Mercer.

A strong gust of wind approached.

Mercer made an instant decision, leaning back and lowering his body to dodge the kick. The sound of wind whistling past his face.

He placed his right palm on the ground, twisted his body, and used his arm to exert force, flipping to the side. However, his eyes were fixed on Garp.

As soon as he landed and started to rise, his vision blurred. The next moment, he saw a large hand reaching for his face.

Mercer leaned back further, pushing off the ground with his feet and jumping backward. He adjusted his body in mid-air and landed steadily on the ground.

Looking at Garp a few meters away, Mercer's expression was solemn. At this moment, Garp's lips curled into a playful smile as he looked at Mercer. "You like flying? Fine, Grandpa will grant your wish."

Slightly lowering his center of gravity, Garp suddenly threw an uppercut towards Mercer's direction. Whoosh~

The whistling fist wind instantly reached him. Mercer felt a strange gust of wind, and then his feet left the ground, floating upwards.

In the gusts of wind, his entire body was caught by the fist wind and carried upwards. Mercer had to lower his center of gravity to prevent himself from being blown away.

The next moment, Mercer watched Garp approach, laughing heartily as he clenched his fists.

His heart skipped a beat.

He quickly abandoned resisting the wind, sensing the flow of energy and using the Kami-e body-lightening technique to charge straight into the sky with the wind.

In the blink of an eye, he was ten meters in the air.

Mercer looked down at Garp, who had walked directly beneath him, and suddenly noticed a look of amusement on the older man's face.

Mercer's eyes twitched, and he muttered, "No way."

As expected, Garp took a wide stance, leaned back slightly, and placed his fists at his sides.

"Ora ora ora ora ora ora!!!"

He threw punch after punch at Mercer in mid-air, cackling wildly, his continuous barrage of punches converging into a gale that kicked up dust and stones, sending Mercer higher and higher into the sky.

Garp's maniacal laughter attracted the attention of everyone inside the house. Ace, Sabo, and Dadan came out and witnessed the scene.

Sabo looked at Ace, who seemed somewhat silent, then at Mercer being swept up by the wind in the sky. He swallowed and asked, "Did you always go through this?"

"Sometimes, but not as extreme as what Mercer is going through today."

Sabo breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

But then he heard Ace's words.

"Before, he'd just tie me to a balloon and let me fly, abandon me in the jungle for survival, or find some monkeys to fight me."

Blinking, Sabo's face contorted in embarrassment. He patted Ace's shoulder, saying, "You're really lucky to be alive."

Ace looked at Sabo with a melancholic gaze, "Don't try to comfort me. Since that old man knows you exist now, do you think you can escape in the future?"

"Huh?" Sabo's mouth hung open, and he looked at Ace blankly, "No way, right?"

At that moment, "No way what?" Garp appeared before them, chuckling, "One kite is fun, but wouldn't three of them be even more interesting?"

In Sabo's eyes, dark red smoke appeared around Garp at that moment, and even Garp's face contorted into a ferocious expression.

"Don't you dare die, brats."

He tossed them into the sky, one in each hand.

The wind from his punches howled.

Garp laughed until his eyes couldn't close.

He then saw a terrified Dadan and chuckled, "Yo? Dadan, wanna play too?"

Dadan performed a dogeza with an agility that was completely unbefitting her physique.

"Please spare me, I don't want to die yet."

Garp pouted, looking bored, "This is no fun, not like Mercer and the others."

Saying that, he stopped paying attention to Dadan and the mountain bandits and looked up at the sky, a look of amusement in his eyes.

He moved rapidly around the training ground, throwing punch after punch. Streaks of wind, tornadoes of force, and spherical gusts of wind howled towards the sky.

He delighted in the surprised screams of Ace and Sabo.

Every so often, he would unleash a flurry of "Ora ora!" punches!!

All he could hear was the sound of the wind. Mercer had entered a state of Unity of Heaven and Man, precisely controlling his body and floating in the sky with the wind, drifting through the gaps in the airflow.

He maximized his self-taught Kami-e skills, swimming through the wind as if he were in water.

Wind was formed by converging air currents.

He used his body to sense the direction of the air currents and dodged according to their movement. Mercer was endlessly enjoying himself, floating in the wind, using his limbs to guide the wind and glide with it.

A strange sense of exhilaration washed over him.

Sensing the winds around him, both large and small, sometimes Garp's wind attacks were condensed. Each time, Mercer would stomp hard, using the reaction force to maneuver in the air.

It was as if he had learned Geppo.

Mercer rode the wind and soon reached the highest point of the gale.

He looked down at Garp, a hundred meters below, and at his two younger brothers screaming and tumbling in the wind not far below.

Twenty minutes later, Mercer was getting a bit bored. He waved to Karasu, who was in the air not far from him.

"Gwaa~"

Karasu flew over through the wind. Mercer seized the moment, stepped on a gust of wind, and leaped up. At the same time, Karasu flew overhead, and Mercer grabbed its right claw.

Using his Kami-e skills, he glided with the wind generated by Karasu, swaying towards the distant forest.

Ten seconds later, looking at the lush green trees below, Mercer released Karasu when he was twenty meters off the ground and fell.

He adjusted his body angle in mid-air. Spotting a branch as thick as his fist, Mercer precisely grabbed it with both hands. With a snap, the branch bent into an exaggerated arc before breaking off.

At the same time, using the branch's recoil, Mercer landed steadily on the ground.

He patted the dust off his hands.

Mercer stretched, the feeling of his feet on solid ground steadying his heart.

He grinned, "This feels pretty good, quite interesting."

Watching Ace and the other guy still screaming in the sky not far away, Mercer offered them a second of silent prayer in his heart before chuckling rather uncharitable.

From up there, the wind blocked the view, making it hard to tell, but from here, it was clear that Garp's control over Strength was perfect.

This technique was worth learning.

Without a word, he extended his Observation Haki to perceive, observing Garp's technique for generating Strength.

Instantly, Garp noticed Mercer. He turned his head towards Mercer's direction but only glanced for a moment before looking away.

"That little brat is trying to steal my moves again. No, this way I'll be at a disadvantage and have much less fun later. I need to make it a bit harder for him."

Armament Haki began to flow within him, obstructing the Perception unique to Observation Haki that was "circling" around him.

Mercer's expression faltered, and he couldn't help but pout, "Stingy old man."

But then the corners of his mouth turned up, and Mercer smiled smugly, "You have your plans, but I might have my own way over the wall."

Sensing the wind Garp was generating, Mercer, in a state of Unity of Heaven and Man, began to perceive the frequency of the aura emanating from the wind. He started to "Disguise" his own aura frequency, and after a moment, he achieved synchronization.

He merged his own aura into the wind generated by Garp.

His Perception began to adjust, becoming like the wind itself.

The "Disguise" was complete.

After all, Garp was guarding against the Perception of Observation Haki, not the omnipresent wind he himself had generated.

Suddenly, the obstructing feeling around Garp lessened considerably.

At the same time, Garp felt the prying sensation disappear and pouted:

"Giving up so easily? Not persistent at all. It seems I'll have to lecture him later."

He then stopped the flow of Armament Haki within his body and began to focus on toying with Ace and the other guy in the air.

On this side, Mercer sensed that Garp had let down his guard, a smile appearing on his face as he began to perceive without restraint.

Strength originated from the ground, flowed through his legs, twisted his waist and hips, traveled up his spine and muscles to his shoulders, and the full force of his body erupted from his fist.

His entire body's muscles and bones worked in coordination, even the flow of blood within him was being influenced.

Is this "Return of Life"?

There was a sense of effortless fluidity.

Mercer perceived with surprise in his heart, and began to imitate on the spot, mimicking Garp's stomp, hip twist, arm tuck, and even his breathing frequency.

Mercer's breathing subtly synchronized with Garp's in an instant, making him feel like crying and laughing:

"He's using the 'Free Breathing Method,' my breathing technique. So you can't blame me for this."

His expression calmed, clearing his mind of distractions. He focused intently on throwing punches on the spot, perceiving the movement of every muscle in his body.

Gradually, With every punch Mercer threw, an air current would shoot out from his fist, causing the surrounding vegetation to bend.

His movements became more refined, his technique more exquisite.

Qi flowed through his entire body, Strength flowed through his entire body.

Carefully sensing the flow of Qi and Strength within his body, recalling Garp's movements, Mercer gradually gained enlightenment.

"The complete techniques of 'Rokushiki' unified into one, and forging his own style, acting at will, Strength born from the heart."

This was what Mercer perceived from Garp's technique.

The next moment, Mercer withdrew his Perception. He had learned what he needed to learn; continuing further would be counterproductive. Blind imitation would only turn him into Garp, not himself. Learning and comprehending up to this point was enough.

"What I needed to learn, what I needed to know, I now understand. The rest is up to me to refine.

To temper my own purity."

Mercer took a deep breath and exhaled, exiting the Unity of Heaven and Man state.

Next, he would enjoy the embarrassing spectacle of Ace and the other guy.

Perhaps he was tired of playing, or perhaps without Mercer, Garp felt less accomplished. Not long after, Mercer saw Garp retract his fist.

Just as Ace and the other guy were about to fall to the ground, Garp caught them both with one hand each, effortlessly.

Looking at their terrified faces, Garp chuckled sheepishly, "Alright, morning warm-up is over. Let's go for a swim training session."

New author, new book! Please continue reading!

Please recommend! Please invest! Please give me your monthly votes!