"Waaah!! Nooo!"
A little spirit foot in a tiny leather shoe kicked wildly, and Garp got caught off guard and took a kick to the face.
His face darkened, and he let go of the ankle in his hand.
Perona's spirit zipped back into Mercer's chest. The next second, Mercer felt her hug his heart again.
Though there was no physical sensation, his heart still gave a reflexive twitch.
Mercer looked at Garp helplessly. "Grandfather, what was that you just did?"
"Conqueror's Haki entanglement," Garp said with a dark expression. "It's a technique for using Haki, like Armament Haki entanglement."
Mercer nodded in understanding. "So Conqueror's Haki entanglement makes it pretty easy to grab spirits."
Mercer looked at the black-and-red lightning arcing around Garp's right hand, hesitation in his eyes. He entered the Heavenly Human State as he breathed, then reached out and grabbed it.
He felt nothing at all.
As Garp stared in surprise, Mercer looked him in the eye and asked,
"Grandfather, is Conqueror's Haki like Armament Haki? Does it have both offensive and defensive properties?"
At that, Garp gave Mercer an oddly complicated look. "Observation Haki is a power of perception, though I just noticed you seemed to use it in a different way.
"Conqueror's Haki does have offensive and defensive properties, just like Armament Haki.
"The lightning around my hand looks dangerous, but it's actually useless.
"Generally speaking, though, Conqueror's Haki is extremely difficult to control, so a lot of people don't know about this. People who can use Conqueror's Haki entanglement usually don't bother trying to use it defensively.
"After all, people who have Conqueror's Haki are almost always fearless troublemakers who love to turn the world upside down. People like that generally don't care about defense. They're plenty aggressive."
"Mm." Garp gave Mercer a