Until high noon did Jogo swayingly carry a water bucket and a mop back to his quarters.
Creak--
The wooden door opened, and a shell on the ceiling emitted a cold light, spilling down along the stairs.
"Don't you even have a place to live?"
"You deserved it, you little brat!"
A familiar voice came from outside.
Jogo had no mood to speak, carrying the bucket and mop as he walked down the stairs.
As the wooden door closed behind him, the room plunged into complete darkness.
Jogo groped around, placed the mop and bucket in the corner, sat cross-legged, adjusted to the darkness, caught his breath, and looked ahead.
Staring blankly at Hina in her cage...
To avenge the humiliation on the deck, Abu assigned Jogo's resting quarters to the most humiliating place on the entire ship—the brig.
Thus,
"The youngest historian in history" met "the navy's most promising rookie" once again!
One could only say that fate was truly ineffable.
"Pleased to meet you, yours truly is the youngest..."
Jogo reached his hand through the gaps of the cage for a handshake, only for Hina to impatiently slap it away.
"Didn't you say you were leaving? Why are you back again?"
Jogo sighed with the air of a seasoned master:
"Sai and Abu were overwhelmed by my heaven-shaking talent."
"The two of them knelt on the ground and begged me for two days, saying if I didn't come back they would eat shit every day until they committed suicide. My heart softened for a moment, fearing the other pirates would be left with no shit to eat, so I came back."
"You came back with bandages and a mop?"
Hina blinked her large eyes, looking at him with a smile at the corner of her lips holding a hint of craftiness,
"Hina heard about it, you know. You were carried back on Sai's shoulder! And you were unconscious for several days!"
Jogo rolled his eyes:
"You know, so why ask."
"Hina wants to ask you, did you do the thing Hina asked you to help with?"
"Done, done~"
"That's good~"
The two chatted for a while, going from Jogo's experiences after disembarking to his battle with Daz Bones, and then to the rumors Hina had heard over the past few days of unconsciousness.
This was not the first day the two of them shared a room.
Even in such an undignified setting, the atmosphere was surprisingly harmonious.
After a while, the cell quieted down.
Hina grew a bit tired from talking, leaning against the cage to close her eyes and rest.
With Seastone Handcuffs locked on her wrists, she felt weak every single day.
Before long, she heard faint sounds of breaking wind and footsteps coming from the room.
She opened her eyes and curiously pressed close to the cage.
"You... are practicing boxing?"
Narrowing her eyes, Hina finally saw clearly what Jogo was doing.
"Uh-huh~"
Jogo assumed a horse stance, lowered his center of gravity, throwing punches and changing palms as he shifted and moved within the prison.
Speaking of which, he had Abu to thank.
Although this brig had no bed, it was very spacious.
It seemed that at the design stage, preparations had been made to detain a large number of prisoners.
On any other pirate ship, they certainly wouldn't make space-wasting preparations like this.
But besides being pirates, the Happo Navy was, after all, an important maritime force of the Flower Country.
They had to participate in the Flower Country's wars against other nations at any time.
It was understandable that a spacious brig was specially reserved.
Now that the prison was completely empty, it worked to Jogo's advantage.
Hina crouched by the edge of the cage and watched for a moment.
She could tell that Jogo's movements were very unfamiliar, as if he had just come into contact with this boxing style. Every time he threw a punch, he would pause for a few seconds before continuing to the next step.
Sometimes, when he made a mistake, he would start all over again.
Yet he seemed to take pleasure in it.
"If Hina isn't seeing things, you wouldn't be trying to learn Hasshoken, would you!"
Hina said suddenly.
"Uh-huh~"
Jogo threw punch after punch toward the edge of the cage, his movements gradually growing more proficient.
However, Hina inside the cage sighed:
"You guy, I don't know what you're in such a rush for."
Back when Jogo was asking her how to awaken Haki, she had already sensed Jogo's impatience.
Clearly at this age, having such strength was already quite impressive.
Placed in the navy, he was a naval rising star second only to her.
Calling him a genius was no exaggeration.
Yet for some reason, this fellow was terribly anxious, as if some imminent, massive crisis was waiting for him to resolve,
forcing him to seize every single second to improve his own strength.
And now he had learned the Happo Navy's Hasshoken from somewhere.
In Hina's view, this already fell under the category of desperate measures in illness.
"Give it up, it's impossible for you to learn Hasshoken."
Jogo's movements paused slightly:
"Why?"
Hina leaned against the cage, looking at him:
"You don't actually think the boxing style those pirates practice following Sai is Hasshoken, do you?"
"Isn't it?"
"To say it is, it is; to say it isn't, it isn't."
Hina did not drag things out and explained:
"Hasshoken is a secret technique of the Chinjao Family, only taught to descendants of the direct bloodline."
"As for the boxing style those pirates learn, according to the navy's intelligence, it is merely evolved from Hasshoken, no different from ordinary boxing."
"Practicing this kind of stuff can certainly build up your body, but you can forget about mastering the power of "vibration" your entire life."
"Otherwise, why do you think a boxing style as powerful as Hasshoken has no one in the navy who can use it?"
The West Blue Navy had captured countless Happo Navy prisoners; how could they not be clear on such details?
Jogo gave a soft tch:
"So insidious?"
"Didn't they say everyone is a practitioner of Hasshoken? No wonder I felt something was off practicing this set of fists."
"Feeling it's right won't help either."
Hina struck without mercy:
"Even if the true Hasshoken were laid out before you, do you think it's something that can be learned in a day or two?"
"Such a powerful technique naturally has an extremely high threshold."
"According to the navy's estimates, without over a decade of bitter training, you can't even achieve entry-level mastery of Hasshoken."
She said with a serious expression:
"There are no shortcuts to getting stronger."
"Hina has already reminded you many times, why won't you listen?"
"What are you muttering on about... I think Hasshoken is pretty simple."
Jogo did not stop his fist practice.
Hina watched for a while, knowing Jogo would not turn back until he hit a brick wall. She pouted, gave a hum, and too lazy to persuade him further, let him be.
However, after leaning back against the cage, she did not close her eyes. Instead, as if pondering something, her beautiful eyes constantly glanced in Jogo's direction, biting her lip slightly with some struggle between her brows.
Jogo did not notice Hina's anomaly.
He concentrated on adjusting his breathing, throwing punches as he moved.
At this moment in his mind, three segments of "video footage" played back and forth.
The first segment of footage,
Sai stood on the bow deck with the morning sky slightly bright behind him. He assumed a horse stance, leading the crowd of pirates below to drill the boxing style move by move, occasionally speaking up to explain the key points.
The perspective zoomed in, allowing one to feel the heat radiating from the sweating pirates.
The second segment of footage,
Towering human walls cast shadows. Abu spun around in the area like a headless fly, swinging his fists in exasperation.
In the morning light, dust faintly vibrating in the air could be seen.
The perspective rotated around Abu in all directions without a dead angle.
It recorded every single movement of Abu, every breath, every muscle tremor, and even every heartbeat...
The third segment of footage,
Behind billowing dust and smoke, Sai wore a cold expression with pitch-black iron color wrapping around his feet, whipping up a fierce wind as he roared forward, distinct ripples stirring in the air.
The perspective similarly rotated around Sai in all directions without dead angles, recording every movement, every breath, and the details of how he exerted force.
It was just that the video would blur from time to time.
That was "data corruption" caused by Jogo being driven to a desperate strait and losing his composure.
--"Historian" was able to record all information within the perception range of Observation Haki.
And when Observation Haki focused its perception on a single person, it would automatically blur the surrounding information, recording the information of the focused target in a more prominent and detailed manner.
Combined with this effect and the terrifying precision of "Otherworldly Soul", what one got was all-directional, dead-angle-free recording just like now!
"The boxing style taught to the pirates is indeed problematic... but what does that have to do with me?"
Jogo thought to himself,
"My boxing style was learned from Sai and Abu!"
Rounding it up, I'm also a direct disciple of Chinjao!!
Of course, he knew that even with such detailed footage in hand, trying to inversely deduce the cultivation method of Hasshoken from these executed moves remained a very time-consuming operation.
"Besides, Hina is right, cultivation has no shortcuts."
"Even if one day I truly master the cultivation method of Hasshoken, achieving mastery in a short time is still an impossible feat."
"Yet... why should I honestly practice according to the original path?"
Jogo looked toward the [Haki Panel], the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
Trait switch!
[...
Observation Haki (Awakened)
Trait Equipped: "Historian (Blue)", "Spy (Blue)"
...]
[Trait Effect: Makes it easier to distinguish people of different factions within the perception range of Observation Haki, and allows rapid imitation of everything about the observed target.]
I'm skipping straight to the end!
Before you continue