Mastering Kenbunshoku Haki

The artillery exam was over. Neither Wood nor Gion was dissatisfied with their "below average" rating.

Even someone as demanding as Gion knew that, given how terrible the two of them were, getting a score like this was already quite an achievement.

Especially the final shot, which landed ten meters from the target—that had been an exceptional performance from Wood.

The instructor in charge of grading could only shake his head. He even resolved to have the artillery corps blacklist the two of them in the future. But at that moment, they were both thrilled.

Those few shots they had fired during the exam were their best yet...

The woods behind the Marine Academy, Marineford.

A boy wearing nothing but a pair of shorts was dodging the lunges of several wild boars in a muddy marsh.

Ever since Wood had defeated the leader of the boar herd, this marsh had become one of his regular training grounds.

After he'd thoroughly beaten the boar leader into submission, it had become his lackey—or rather, his lackey in the pork sense.

Standing in the marsh, his feet were gripped by the mud, which clung so powerfully to his soles that he couldn't move quickly.

Unlike humans, the boars seemed accustomed to the terrain, and moved as nimbly as ever.

"Grunt—!"

Several boars snorted as they charged at Wood from different directions. Strangely, he dodged not only the attacks coming from the front, but also those from his blind spots.

"All right, that's enough training for today. Thanks so much for your help. I'll get some vegetables from the mess hall tomorrow to reward you."

Beneath the moonlight, the boy picked up his clothes from a tree branch and announced that the day's training was over.

The boars that had been relentlessly pursuing Wood stopped attacking as soon as they heard him. They even grunted in response, as though they understood what he'd said.

Another year had passed since Wood had come to the Marine Academy for training.

Throughout that year, whenever he had free time, he would return to the mountains for special training.

After spending every day carrying weights and dodging the boar leader's attacks, he had mastered Soru, one of the Navy Six Forms, half a year ago.

The training he'd just been doing in the marsh was to learn Geppo, another of the Six Forms.

The Navy Six Forms were Soru, Iron Body, Geppo, Tempest Kick, Kami-e, and Finger Pistol.

Three of the Six Forms focused on strengthening the legs. Once you mastered Soru, learning Geppo and Tempest Kick became much easier.

Having the boars attack him in the marsh served two purposes. One was to help him adapt as quickly as possible to his heavier steps; the other was to train in Kami-e, another of the Six Forms.

As the name suggested, Kami-e made one's body as light and flexible as paper, allowing one to dodge attacks more effectively.

At first, Wood had let only one boar attack him in the marsh. Even so, the mud's powerful suction left him bruised and battered every day.

But as time went by, he gradually adapted to his heavier steps, and the number of boars attacking him continued to grow.

This devilish, self-destructive training had left his body covered in injuries of all sizes. Some had come from other beasts in the mountains, but most were from the boars' tusks.

Of course, hard work always paid off. After a year of brutal training, Wood was now several times stronger than he'd been a year ago.

Besides mastering Soru, he was also close to mastering Geppo.

And after enduring the boars' daily ambushes, he had failed to master Kami-e—but, by a strange twist of fate, he had awakened Kenbunshoku Haki!

At first, Wood had been puzzled by this ability to sense danger and dodge it almost instinctively. But after thinking it over, he finally understood: he seemed to have awakened the so-called Kenbunshoku Haki.

Wood was undoubtedly thrilled to have awakened Kenbunshoku Haki. Unlike the Navy Six Forms, which anyone could learn with enough effort, Haki wasn't something just anyone could possess.

Putting aside the extremely rare Conqueror's Haki, which only those who stood at the pinnacle of humanity possessed, the other two types—Kenbunshoku Haki and Busoshoku Haki—weren't rare in the Grand Line, but they were hardly commonplace either.

Both Kenbunshoku Haki and Busoshoku Haki had multiple ways they could be developed, much like Devil Fruits.

Take Kenbunshoku Haki, for instance. As far as Wood knew, it had four distinct types.

The first was Katakuri's special form of Kenbunshoku Haki. Trained to its utmost limits, it could even let him briefly see into the future!

The second type was range-based Kenbunshoku Haki. Its best-known user was Enel of Sky Island, whose version was called "Mantra." Enel's Kenbunshoku Haki could cover the entire island, making it practically a radar.

The third type was the extended-range variety, which could detect targets from far away. Snipers like Van Augur and Usopp were representative users.

The fourth type of Kenbunshoku Haki was also quite special, and only a select few could possess it: the ability to hear the Voice of All Things. Pirate King Roger was its best-known user.

Of course, all four of these types of Kenbunshoku Haki were advanced forms. Ordinary Kenbunshoku Haki could only sense danger and prompt the body to react.

Wood had only just awakened Kenbunshoku Haki, so he didn't know which of those types his ability might lean toward—or whether he'd ever be able to develop it into one of them.

Still, awakening Kenbunshoku Haki had been an unexpected boon. For a swordsman, it could be even more useful than Busoshoku Haki.

"With swordsmanship at the Swordsman level, Soru and Geppo from the Six Forms, and my newly awakened Kenbunshoku Haki, I should be more than capable of becoming a Marine Branch captain."

A year had passed, and the Marine Academy's basic courses were now complete. Under normal circumstances, ordinary recruits could officially join the Marines after finishing these courses and become qualified cannon fodder.

But some recruits performed exceptionally well and excelled in a particular area. They would remain at the Marine Academy for further training.

These elite recruits were put through even stricter training and taught abilities like the Six Forms.

They weren't being trained as cannon fodder Marines, but as junior officers in the Marines.