Observation Haki

Dawn shook his head and dismissed that tired old trope.

In his view, it was merely a coincidence, related to his previous training and recent experiences.

Maybe it was simply because he had finally gotten a good night's sleep?

After all, he had barely been able to sleep aboard the ship or in Loguetown, that monster-infested place where Roger had been executed!

Even if he had dreamed of the original owner's memories yesterday, it was probably because he had returned here and seen familiar people and things. The environment had stimulated his brain and activated that part of his memories.

As for awakening Observation Haki, Dawn had his own thoughts on the matter.

The battles after setting sail had constantly stimulated Dawn. Fighting endlessly upon the boundless sea had kept both his body and mind in a permanently tense state.

Then, witnessing Roger's execution and suddenly learning of a story-like background had left him exhausted, both mentally and physically.

After finally handling all those matters yesterday, he had relaxed, and his Observation Haki had unknowingly broken through.

After all, the training camp instructors had said that he was highly talented, and he had later undergone the devilish training designed by Instructor Zephyr.

Before Dawn and the others had departed for the East Blue, the training camp instructors had even said that going out to gain experience might let him suddenly awaken one day.

But he had not expected to wake up after one night's sleep already having mastered Observation Haki. It left Dawn both amused and exasperated. By the usual script, shouldn't he have broken through Observation Haki at the brink of death during a battle and then crushed his opponent?

Instead, he had awakened it just by lying down and sleeping.

However, Dawn did not consider himself lucky, because he had only reached this point after enduring countless creative beatings from all sorts of instructors.

No matter what, breaking through was a good thing. Before this, it had been so unreliable at that final threshold that Dawn had not dared to use it in battle.

Recalling the methods of all those instructors, Dawn shuddered. His awakening of Observation Haki was not really a coincidence; it was simply the natural result of all that effort.

Several months before setting sail, at an open-air Marine training ground.

Dawn's eyes were covered with a strip of cloth as he cautiously sensed the faint movements that might be present around him.

Yet no matter how hard he tried to perceive his surroundings, the result was always an instructor striking him with a wooden stick until he bared his teeth in pain.

After enduring such beatings day after day, Dawn had not sensed Observation Haki at all. Instead, he felt as though he was becoming neurotic. Any tiny rustle of wind or grass made him instinctively pay attention and stay on guard.

And that was not even the difficult part. The hard part was the fear and discomfort he felt when his eyes were first covered, when he lost his sight.

It felt as though he could not even walk steadily, having completely lost his sense of direction and balance.

Not only did Dawn have to overcome those difficulties, he also had to guard against the beatings that could come from any unknown direction.

That sense of the unknown was truly psychological torment. Some instructors attacked repeatedly, beating him senseless like a punching bag. Others maliciously made him stay on guard for a long time, only to launch a sneak attack the instant he relaxed.

In short, he never knew what would greet him the next moment, so Dawn had no choice but to keep his mind taut.

But constantly maintaining that tense vigilance rapidly drained his mental strength, leaving Dawn utterly exhausted.

And whenever he made even a little progress, the instructors immediately increased the difficulty of the training. In short, there was never an easy day.

Later, when Dawn's Observation Haki was still unskilled and worked only intermittently, things became even more excessive.

The instructors directly brought Dawn to a training camp dedicated to Observation Haki, where he ate and lived for an entire month.

Thus began the round-the-clock beatings. Sneak attacks came while he ate and slept, driving him crazy, and several instructors would join forces to beat him. He never knew who the next instructor would be; some of them were people Dawn had never even seen before.

From time to time, Dawn also saw other unlucky souls who shared his misery, though they were much older than him.

All of this drove Dawn nearly mad and even made him irritable, but his years of maintaining his composure while performing surgeries forced him to remain calm.

This method, entirely different from the willpower training on the Boin Archipelago, made the mind of this visitor from another world increasingly steady and composed.

Having lived two lives, along with all the experiences he had undergone since coming to this world, constantly transformed Dawn's heart and mind. Yet his Observation Haki still failed to cross that final threshold.

After training ended, the instructors all said that Dawn would master Observation Haki sooner or later, and he had previously been somewhat anxious about it.

But after setting sail, a series of events—the battles, Roger's execution, his own background—had instead made Dawn forget about it all, until he finally slept peacefully last night.

And now, after all his suffering, he had finally broken free from the cocoon and become a butterfly!

And now, this "butterfly" Dawn was experiencing a "press conference."

At that moment, he wore a red shirt and black tie that the royal tailors had rushed to make overnight.

Over them, he wore a black cloak. Combined with Dawn's handsome face and elegant bearing, he could not have looked more like a prince.

Seeing how he had already attracted the gazes of countless young ladies simply by standing on the stage before Gaius announced his identity made the effect obvious enough.

The entire design was thanks to Rovena. Having missed her child, she had learned to design clothing, and it had finally come in handy. How could she not be delighted to see it brought to life?

Dawn was happy to go along with it. If merely trying on some clothes could make her happy, deepen their relationship, and please his mother, what was the harm?

And although Dawn had forced himself to call them that, he had called them Father and Mother after all. Yet they seemed to notice his awkwardness and merely assumed that their years apart had made them unfamiliar with each other, so they comforted him and told him to take it slowly.

But there was nothing he could do! After transmigrating, he only had memories from this past year! He had absolutely no memories of living here before, and more importantly, he was a fake.

Even if he possessed the previous memories, he was no longer that little boy who had already died.

But after recovering those memories yesterday, Dawn had felt the original body's longing to return home and reunite with his parents.

Though he did not believe it was a remnant of the soul that had originally inhabited this body, Dawn decided to accept them. Though suddenly gaining a family did make him feel a little awkward.

But this was his repayment for the original owner granting him a new life!

It was not for the benefits brought by this identity and status, but simply to repay this body for letting him live again and return to the world.

That alone was enough for Dawn to do this. It was Dawn's conviction, and the decision of a man destined to roam the seas!

Thinking back to the nameless unwillingness this body had felt at the moment of his transmigration, Dawn suddenly understood, after recovering his memories last night, what that emotion had been about.

It was a longing for home.

Don't worry. I'll take good care of them, and I'll live well in your stead, standing above the heavens!

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