Li Ziming had long had a vague sense that Observation Haki—or something like it—lay within him. He had experienced something like a sixth sense before, too. Yet he could never understand why he couldn't train his Observation Haki. Facing the Sky Island priests' Mantra, however, had given him a different feeling.
"Maybe my mind is too cluttered?" Li Ziming tried to empty his thoughts and enter a state of nothingness.
He walked quietly, looking almost dazed. Yet his body unconsciously avoided the obstacles around him.
"Roar!" A strange creature appeared in front of him.
"Huh?" Li Ziming snapped out of that mysterious state and hurriedly used Soru to dodge its attack. "What the hell is that?"
He looked at the creature that had attacked him. It resembled a balloon-shaped porcupine, its back covered in stiff, needlelike quills.
"Talk about a creature whose design gives everything away." Li Ziming's mouth twitched. "I don't even have to think to guess how it attacks."
"Roar!" Sure enough, the porcupine curled into a ball and spun toward him like a sea urchin.
Li Ziming charged straight at it. He coated his right foot in Haki and kicked the porcupine away.
"Roar!" The porcupine struck a tree and came to a halt. Its thick hide seemed to have protected it from harm, but it now watched Li Ziming warily, as though it knew its quills and strength were useless against him.
"Roar!" It suddenly threw back its head and bellowed, giving Li Ziming a bad feeling.
Sure enough, countless creatures came running before long.
"Whatever happened to the monkey becoming king when there's no tiger on the mountain? Now even a pig can rule the place." Li Ziming felt a headache coming on. He wasn't afraid of them, but he had come here hoping to meet a Shandia or priest who knew Mantra and could teach him. He hadn't come to fight wild beasts.
"Sorry, I really don't have time to play with you." Li Ziming used Soru to try to dart out of the beasts' sight.
"Roar!" At the porcupine's command, every beast charged at him.
"Geppo!" Li Ziming leaped into the air, but several beasts jumped after him, rapidly closing in.
"What a pain!" Li Ziming frowned. "Explo—"
Before he could use his ability, lightning flashed, and the beasts that had jumped after him were reduced to charcoal.
"You want to learn Mantra?" Enel suddenly appeared before Li Ziming.
"Enel!" Li Ziming didn't try to put distance between them. He knew that against a lightning Logia, any distance he could make would take Enel only an instant to cross.
"Not bad," Enel said approvingly. "You recognize the great god. I came to tell you that I've started a survival game. Try to survive until the end. If you win, I'll teach you Mantra." With that, he vanished in a flash of lightning.
"A Logia really is terrifying." Li Ziming landed. The animals that had been roaring moments ago were now charcoal, a stark display of a Logia's power.
Against Crocodile, Li Ziming had at least been able to use water, or flee if nothing else. Against Enel, he was helpless.
"This feeling of helplessness..." Li Ziming slammed his fist into the ground. "Power. I never realized just how badly I wanted it."
"No—Enel should be heading for the Going Merry right now. Sanji and Usopp are in danger!" Li Ziming was about to rush over when a voice rang out.
"What good would going there do? You can't beat Enel. You'd just add another corpse."
"That's true. I can't beat him." Li Ziming wasn't startled. "But some things have to be done even when you know you can't succeed."
"That sounds lovely, but it isn't courage. It's running away. Throwing aside your fear won't solve anything. You're just giving up on yourself."
"Yeah? Then what else can I do? You tell me!" Li Ziming shouted angrily at the space before him. Strangely, no one was there.
"Admit it. Your fear, your terror, your flaws—they're all part of you. When you cast them aside, you cast aside part of yourself. That's why you could never awaken the Observation Haki buried deep within you all along. Come on. Accept your fear. Savor your terror. Fear and terror can be exquisite."
In that instant, heaven and earth seemed to change in Li Ziming's eyes. Everything around him seemed to have a voice, each telling him something. Some told him where Enel was going; others spoke of the battles taking place at that very moment. Everything in the forest poured into his ears.
"What a strange feeling." Li Ziming could even sense the joy of his surroundings. "No, I need to get back to the Going Merry right now!"
"That's it." An uncanny scene appeared deep within Li Ziming's mind. One side was splendid, like a realm out of fantasy. The other resembled the end of the world, its ground cracked everywhere. A sharp boundary divided the two, as if a blade had cut straight between them. At the center stood something like a throne, half magnificent and half riddled with cracks. A hand reached out to stroke it. "How beautiful." The speaker looked exactly like Li Ziming and gazed at the throne in rapture.
"You've finally accepted me. Hate just a little more. Get just a little angrier. Listen to me just a little more, and I'll be able to get out soon." Fanaticism filled his eyes. "Then I'll be Li Ziming! Ahahaha!" His triumphant laughter rang through that world.
Li Ziming's Soru had grown faster, but by the time he returned to the Going Merry, Usopp and Sanji had already fallen.
"Damn it. I'm still too late?" Li Ziming frowned, but his powerful Observation Haki told him they were both still alive.
"Ming!" Nami threw herself into Li Ziming's arms, trembling. "That man... That man was terrifying."
"It's all right. You're safe." Knowing how strong Enel was, Li Ziming could only offer her what comfort he could. Even with his newly awakened Observation Haki, he couldn't promise he could defeat Enel.
"Baa!" Two figures resembling goat-men suddenly appeared.
"Sorry, I'm in a bad mood." Li Ziming gave them no chance to speak. With Soru, he was behind them almost instantly.
"So fast!"
"But it won't help!"
One goat-man aimed his hand at Li Ziming. "Absorb Impact!" The other raised his hand as well. "Absorb flames!"
"Absorb them?" Li Ziming scoffed. "Explosion!" Fierce flames and a shockwave burst out, only to be swiftly absorbed by the Dials.
"We told you it wouldn't work!" the two goat-men said smugly.
"It wouldn't work?" Li Ziming said indifferently. "Are you sure?"
"Of cour—"
Boom! The Dials in the goat-men's hands suddenly exploded.
"How is that possible?" one of them cried in disbelief.
"They reached capacity... He actually overloaded the Dials?" Gan Fall stared at Li Ziming in disbelief. He hadn't imagined the man's Devil Fruit ability could do that.
"A big enough blast solves any problem. If they can absorb it, I just need more firepower." Li Ziming looked coldly at the two goat-men. "Observation Haki is nice, but my Devil Fruit ability is still my greatest strength." The latter half seemed unrelated, but someone heard it.
"Damn it! Damn it! He didn't fall for it at all!" The other Li Ziming roared furiously inside his mind. "Next time... Next time, I'll succeed!"
Before you continue