Haki Techniques

Ten minutes later, Gray stopped testing, and the three Flying Wheels returned to their places automatically.

Supporting his right elbow with his left hand, Gray held his chin with his right and summed up the weapons test. "The weapons themselves are fine, but there's a problem when I infuse them with Armament Haki."

"The amount and strength of my Haki mean the Flying Wheels can only attack within a hundred meters when infused with it."

"If they go beyond that range, much of the Haki infused into them will dissipate—or it'll disappear completely."

In the world of pirates, Armament Haki wasn't divided into advanced and basic levels. The difference lay in its quality and quantity.

Besides that, every powerful fighter needed to know the techniques for using Armament Haki.

Hardening: channeling Armament Haki over one's body to strengthen defense and offense.

This was instinctive, the most basic application.

Entanglement: one of the basic applications, allowing Haki to wrap around a weapon.

Emission: an intermediate technique that let one attack enemies from a distance. It could also be applied to ranged attacks, allowing them to harm Logia users.

Generally, those without a teacher could only learn this technique through their bodies, by taking hits.

The final advanced technique was Internal Destruction, also called Ryuo. It was a secret technique of the top powers. Without someone to teach and explain it, people wouldn't even know such a technique existed.

For example, Doflamingo never used it at all in his fight against Luffy in the original story.

And Luffy, who defeated Doflamingo, only learned about this technique in Wano Country. Rayleigh, that lousy teacher, had never even told him it existed.

He hadn't mentioned Ryuo, let alone Conqueror's Haki Infusion. Luffy only learned both through his body by taking hit after hit from Teacher Kaido.

So, advanced Haki techniques were generally secret teachings passed down within the top powers.

In the Marines, perhaps only officers at the rank of Admiral candidate or higher knew about them.

(Just speculating here, but Garp definitely knew the technique—after all, he was a rival of Roger's. And if Garp knew it, wouldn't Sengoku and Zephyr, who were from the same generation, know it too?)

"Heh! My Haki isn't strong enough yet, so ranged attacks do have some limitations."

"But with Armament Haki and my new weapons, a hundred meters is plenty. If my enemies think I'm bad at close combat because of that little bit of distance, then I'll..." Just imagining their surprised expressions made Gray's heart swell with delight.

With his new weapons and Haki-enhanced attacks, Gray's offensive power had improved by at least a whole level.

The next time he met an enemy, he could give them a proper taste of blade-sliced noodles!

Having finished testing the weapons, he'd accomplished what he came here to do and could leave. Doflamingo had already informed him and Diamante of the operation in advance.

With his left hand behind his back, Gray lifted his right foot. The instant it touched down, he vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already a thousand meters away.

He lifted and lowered his left foot, flashing another thousand meters ahead.

Each step brought another flash, displaying the bearing of a true powerhouse.

At that moment, Gray was as if possessed by the Double-Pupil Woman, his Earth-Shrinking Step divine ability pointing straight to the origin of the Great Dao (showing off).

"From now on, I'm officially a Star-Level 7 Psychic!"

After leaving Baby-5 behind to continue studying, Gray and Diamante sailed for another week before returning to the family's base.

Before the two of them could even get off the ship and rest, Doflamingo had already brought the family officers aboard and set sail.

Once everyone had taken their seats in the meeting room, a heavy atmosphere filled the air.

"Family, whether we can keep growing stronger depends on this operation!"

"Fuffuffuffu... Pirates stealing the Heavenly Tribute might be a first in this world, but don't let fear make you lose your nerve."

"Hey, hey, hey... Doffy, we won't back down. We're going to wait for the day you become Pirate King."

"That's right, Doffy!"

"We're pirates—the freest people on the sea."

"Why would we be afraid of stealing the Heavenly Tribute? If anything, I'm already trembling with excitement~"

Gray said, "I heard the World Government's intelligence agency has powerful fighters they've trained. I want to test their strength too."

Everyone's enthusiasm pleased Doflamingo. "Fuffuffuffu... Family, let's make a big scene!"

"Yeah~~"

After the brief meeting, everyone understood the mission. To ensure they were in top shape, they focused on keeping themselves ready, doing only the necessary training to stay sharp.

Once everyone had dispersed, Gray wondered why Doflamingo had kept him behind.

"Fuffuffuffu... The family got you the Six Powers you wanted!" Doflamingo took out a notebook and pushed it across to Gray.

"Huh!" Gray was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with delight. Without another thought, he snatched up the notebook and began reading.

Doflamingo didn't mind Gray's rude behavior at all. They were pirates, and they were family; he wasn't going to demand much.

As long as they didn't betray the family, he let them do whatever they wanted.

"Impressive!" The notebook gave Gray a more detailed understanding of the principles behind the Six Powers, along with the most scientific training methods.

Judging by the notes, Gray guessed the author had been at least a Marine Commodore. Otherwise, there was no explaining how skilled and detailed the writing was.

"I'm going to try it out!" Too eager to chat, Gray immediately ran to the Training Room to start learning.

"Fuffuffuffu... Go ahead, just don't..." Doflamingo hadn't finished speaking before Gray disappeared from sight. "...wear yourself out. Save your strength for the battle ahead!"

He couldn't finish what he'd been saying.

"That kid's always in such a hurry." After grumbling, Doflamingo put it out of his mind. Gray's hunger for strength was exactly what he wanted to see.

In fact, as long as a family member wanted to work hard and grow stronger, Doflamingo would do everything he could to help.

Even if someone lacked personal potential, he would find them a Devil Fruit to strengthen them. That much was clear in the original story.

Although the Donquixote Family was mostly made up of useless oddballs, Doflamingo had turned all of them who wanted to into Devil Fruit Users.

Of course, the quality of a Devil Fruit sometimes came down to luck.

For example, the Swim-Swim Fruit was a purely useless ability.

"So that's how it works!" Gray closed the notebook. He now understood the theory behind Shave, one of the Six Powers.

All that remained was practice.

"Shave!" Gray stomped hard against the ground and shot forward.

"Wrong! Just stomping the ground once isn't enough to count as Shave."

Shave: stomp the ground dozens of times in an instant to achieve a rapid burst of speed. The movement is so fast that it gives the impression of teleporting through space.

Gray didn't plan to use the Six Powers in battle, but Life Return, which he could learn after mastering them, would provide the foundation for developing his own abilities. So he would devote all his effort to learning the Six Powers.