Water Walking Training

Sandersonia's anger and sense of betrayal gave way to shock and an overwhelming desire to learn.

If they could really master this, then the months they had spent training their Chakra had not been for nothing!

That was especially true for Devil Fruit users like them.

Walking freely on the sea was a skill every Devil Fruit user dreamed of.

The anger in Sandersonia's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a glimmer of hope.

She looked at Uchiha Yoru, standing on the sea, and asked gravely, "Are you sure we can learn it with the Chakra we have now?"

"I'm sure." Yoru nodded.

"This technique was designed for beginners who don't have much Chakra. The hard part is controlling it precisely, not how much you have.

"I'll send our clan's greatest prodigy to teach you until at least one of you succeeds."

With that, Yoru waved toward Shisui on the shore and called out:

"No problem with that, right, Shisui?"

"I'll do my best, clan head." Shisui gave Yoru a thumbs-up.

The clan head really knows what he's doing. A few words, and he's calmed down that whole mob of furious women.

Is Water Walking really that important?

Why do they all want to learn it so badly?

Shisui couldn't understand it.

"...Fine!" Sandersonia exchanged glances with the other leading warriors, then nodded firmly.

"We'll trust you one more time and learn this 'Water Walking'! But if this is another—"

"If you can't even learn Water Walking, you might as well put down your swords and pick up hoes."

Yoru shrugged, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

The uproar subsided for the moment.

Over the next month, the Kuja Warriors temporarily stopped refining Chakra.

Uchiha Shisui and several clan members skilled at Chakra control patiently taught them how to coat the soles of their feet with Chakra, sense the movement of the water, and adjust accordingly.

It did not go smoothly.

Accustomed to using Haki in bold, forceful bursts, the Kuja Warriors found such precise control awkward at first. Many fell into the sea again and again, emerging soaked to the skin.

But they were determined to master the extraordinary skill of Water Walking.

The Kuja Warriors threw themselves into it: stepping onto the water, falling in, then trying again...

After countless failures, someone finally succeeded!

To everyone's surprise, the first was Granny Niu, who had only begun practicing Water Walking partway through the training.

Granny Niu was already old and had little desire to grow stronger.

But to make sure those red-eyed brats weren't playing tricks, she had been among the first Kuja Warriors to start training her Chakra.

Once she had developed Chakra and sensed nothing wrong with the power, Granny Niu had stopped training.

Then she heard they would be taught how to walk on the sea.

As a former pirate who had sailed the Grand Line, Granny Niu found the prospect irresistible.

So she eagerly joined the Water Walking practice.

One day, after concentrating hard, Granny Niu discovered to her delight that she was standing steadily on the sea. She could hold it for only a dozen seconds or so, but that alone thrilled her!

Those red-eyed brats weren't lying. We can stand on the sea too!

Her success seemed to set off a chain reaction. More and more Kuja Warriors began to get the hang of it.

Like children with a new toy, they excitedly tried walking and running across the sea.

They were still unsteady, but the strange freedom of standing directly on the sea, no longer bound to a ship, filled the Kuja Warriors with excitement.

"I did it! I'm really standing on the water!"

"This is great! I won't have to worry about falling into the sea anymore!"

"This ability is so useful!"

Cheers rang out along the shore.

A month earlier, the Kuja Warriors had come demanding answers. Now their faces shone with the joy of mastering a new power.

There was far less hostility in their eyes when they looked at Uchiha Yoru.

Meanwhile, at the palace in Kuja City...

"Unbelievable! Sandersonia, Marigold, you can both walk on the sea now? Why can't I?!"

Empress Hancock stood in her luxurious chambers, indignation written across her beautiful face.

Because of their Devil Fruits and the marks on their backs, her two younger sisters had not practiced Water Walking at sea with the others at first.

Instead, they had practiced in the palace pool.

At first, the Empress simply could not believe a person could stand on water.

Was it like the Marines' Geppo?

By kicking the air repeatedly with tremendous force, a user could generate thrust, staying aloft as if climbing stairs. They could even move through the air and attack.

But her sisters' descriptions did not sound like that.

Kicks powerful enough to generate thrust would produce a tremendous recoil.

No one could "walk calmly on the sea" that way, as they had described it, much less stand there for a long time.

So the Empress concluded that the red-eyed brat must have fooled her sisters again.

Nothing Sandersonia or Marigold said could convince her otherwise.

Eventually, the two stopped trying to explain. They would practice first; once they succeeded, their elder sister would believe them.

Day after day, the Empress watched her sisters step onto the water, fall in, and try again...

After less than half a month, they really could walk across the water, albeit unsteadily.

That red-eyed brat was telling the truth?

People really can walk on water.

The Empress could no longer sit still.

She was Boa Hancock, Kuja Island Emperor and one of the Shichibukai. She was the strongest on the island and hailed by the world as its most beautiful woman.

In both strength and beauty, she considered herself without equal on Kuja Island.

Yet now her fellow Kuja Tribe members could walk on the sea, while she, their emperor, had been left behind!

How could her pride bear it?

When the Uchiha Clan had first taught Chakra, she had scoffed.

She had dismissed it as a cheap trick, far inferior to the Haki she had honed through years of training and her Devil Fruit power.

Even when her people began developing Chakra one after another, she had paid it no mind.

But now, watching her sisters walk on water...

The Empress suddenly felt that this Water Walking technique might not be so useless after all!

Learning it herself would hardly diminish her beauty!

But she was too proud to swallow her pride and ask the Uchiha Clan for lessons after treating them so coldly.

Especially that infuriating Uchiha Yoru, whom she wanted to beat senseless!

So, while the Kuja Warriors practiced Water Walking with gusto, the Empress quietly summoned her sister Sandersonia.

"Sandersonia, tell me exactly how you train that... Chakra, and how to perform Water Walking."

The Empress made it sound like a casual order, though her gaze drifted involuntarily toward the window.