Happy troubles

Xie Wen held Fresh Knife: White Calm, his eyes closed as he slowly steadied his breathing.

As he opened his eyes, black rapidly spread across the entire blade of White Calm-or rather, the entire fish.

With the "black fish" in hand, Xie Wen ran through a series of hunter sword techniques before the black gradually faded. After sheathing White Calm, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly...

"I've finally mastered Armament Haki completely."

In truth, awakening Armament Haki had not taken Xie Wen very long, but mastering it had been an arduous process.

Thanks to his Monster Hunter skills, Xie Wen had reached the threshold of Armament Haki ahead of time. But that also meant that, at first, he could only activate it by entering Demon Mode or using specific moves such as Iai, Super Amped Elemental Discharge, or Charged Slash.

However, unless he was facing a Devil Fruit User, using those moves with or without Conqueror's Haki did not actually make much difference. Both Monster Hunter moves and an Armament Haki coating primarily increased his attack power, and in that respect alone, the Monster Hunter moves were actually somewhat more effective.

Besides, Xie Wen had wanted to master Armament Haki in the first place to deal with Devil Fruit Users, especially Logia users. Armament Haki that he could not maintain for long was of little use to him.

It was only later that he understood: using Monster Hunter skills to awaken Armament Haki early was like sequence-breaking in a game. He could skip the earlier content and head straight for the boss, but if he lacked the strength to beat that boss, skipping ahead achieved nothing. In the end, he still had to go back and make up for everything he had skipped.

Once he realized this, Xie Wen had no choice but to set aside his Monster Hunter skills and try training his Armament Haki in his normal state.

Still, skipping ahead had not been entirely without benefits. At least, when he retrained his Armament Haki, he could avoid plenty of wrong turns.

And so, after spending considerably more time on it, Xie Wen finally mastered Armament Haki that day.

"Next, I'll finish mapping this island, then build a boat and get ready to sail!"

At the thought of finally starting a new journey, Xie Wen felt a little thrill of excitement.

Unfortunately, neither Klee Meow nor Sanji Meow was around. He wanted to share the good news, but for the moment, he had no one to tell.

Just as Xie Wen was debating whether to keep training or go find the two cats, Klee Meow's voice rang out nearby.

"Big Brother Xie Wen, Klee found a super huge monster, meow!"

A tiny red figure burst out of the bushes beside him, then scrambled up his back using all four paws. With one paw resting on his shoulder and the other pointing back the way she had come, she rapidly explained, "Klee was blasting fish by the shore when something that looked a bit like an Almudron suddenly came out of the sea, meow. But it was much, much bigger than an Almudron! Klee thinks it might be one of those Sea Kings you told her about, Big Brother Xie Wen, meow!"

"Really? Is it still by the shore?"

As Xie Wen asked Klee Meow for confirmation, he took off in the direction she was pointing.

Sea Kings were one of the specialties of the Pirate King world. Surely they could get a page of their own in the Hunter's Notes?

"Of course it is, meow!" Klee Meow, clinging to Xie Wen's back, wagged her little head proudly. "Klee knocked it out with Jumpy Dumpty! It definitely won't wake up anytime soon, meow! And Big Brother Sanji is watching it too!"

"Great job!"

Xie Wen reached behind him and gently patted her little head, praising her loudly.

"Ehehe~" Delighted by his praise, Klee Meow nuzzled Xie Wen's neck, then asked eagerly, "Does this mean we can get another companion, meow?"

Naturally, Xie Wen had told Klee Meow about the Hunter's Notes long ago. That was also the main reason she had chosen to knock the Sea King unconscious with bombs rather than burn it outright.

"I'm not really sure," Xie Wen answered honestly. "But at the very least, getting another one-third fragment shouldn't be a problem."

As they spoke, he reached the shore with Klee Meow on his back. Sure enough, an enormous Sea King lay there, though rather than an Almudron, it looked more like a plesiosaur.

But what it looked like did not matter. The instant Xie Wen saw it, he took out the Hunter's Notes...

Well, even if he had not, Sanji Meow, who had been guarding the Sea King all this time, would have urged him to check them.

What happened next held no real surprises. Just as Xie Wen had guessed, the notes unlocked the Sea Kings page and gave him a second Palico Summoning Ticket Fragment. Even its predominantly off-white color matched the first fragment.

When Xie Wen took out the first fragment as well, the two automatically joined together, becoming a "Palico Summoning Ticket (2/3)."

"Wonderful, meow!" Sanji Meow was tremendously excited by the sight, his imagination running wild. "Maybe once you finish exploring this island, Xie Wen, you'll have enough pieces for a second Summon Ticket, meow!"

"Yeah, I was just about to tell you both about that." Xie Wen gave Sanji Meow a stroke, then shared another piece of good news. "I've successfully mastered Armament Haki. Next, I'll focus on uncovering the map, and we can start preparing a boat to take out to sea while we're at it."

The news sent Sanji Meow over the moon. Patting his chest, he said, "Uncovering the map will be easy, meow! I've already been all over the island, meow!"

After his own rigorous training, Sanji Meow had also grown considerably stronger. Though he still could not match Sanji's feats in the manga, exploring the areas he had previously been afraid to approach was no longer a problem.

If uncovering the map had not required Xie Wen, the "player," to be physically present, the island's exploration progress would have reached 100% long ago.

"Big Brother Xie Wen, what should we do with this Sea King, meow?"

Klee Meow rested obediently against Xie Wen's shoulder, waiting until he and Sanji Meow finished their conversation before asking in her sweet little voice.

"Hmm..." Xie Wen considered it for a moment, then drew White Calm and walked toward the Sea King. "Kill it, then have Sanji make us a feast with it!"

His original idea had actually been to see whether he could tame this Sea King and ride it out to sea. However, Xie Wen vaguely remembered that Sea Kings only obeyed the mermaid princess who had awakened the power of Poseidon, and that no one else could tame them, so he abandoned the idea.

Of course, the main reason was that the little kitty on his shoulder was practically dripping drool down his neck. Naturally, he did not want to disappoint Klee Meow.

Besides, he was interested in Sea King meat himself. Its flavor was secondary; the important part was that, according to analyses by some One Piece fans and fanfiction writers, Sea King meat probably strengthened the body. Xie Wen agreed with that theory...

Otherwise, how could anyone explain why the natives here had such incredible vitality, even ordinary civilians who barely trained?

Which made Kuina dying to the "Great Staircase" fucking ridiculous!

While grumbling about the manga's plot, Xie Wen plunged the now-black White Calm into the Sea King's head. Then he took out the Carving Knife and stabbed it into the corpse.

After obtaining a portion of high-quality Sea King tenderloin, he tried stabbing it again...

With something this big, maybe he could carve it a second time?

"Tch!"

His attempt having failed, Xie Wen put away the Carving Knife in disappointment and began helping Sanji Meow butcher the enormous creature...

There was no helping it. Both his Pocket Dimension Backpack and the Palicos' had limited storage space. Without cutting it up first, they could not fit such a huge Sea King inside.

That evening, Xie Wen and the two cats enjoyed a lavish Sea King feast. Whether it strengthened their bodies remained to be seen, but it certainly tasted wonderful. Even Klee Meow ate until her little belly was stuffed, then lay in Xie Wen's arms, groaning, "Meow, meow..."

"You little glutton." As Xie Wen rubbed Klee Meow's belly, he tapped her tiny nose, torn between amusement and exasperation. "Let's see if you dare stuff yourself like this again."

"Aw... Big Brother Xie Wen, stop saying that, meow..."

Embarrassed, Klee Meow covered her face with her little paws and burrowed her head determinedly against Xie Wen's stomach...

Leaving Sanji Meow beside them terribly envious.

Xie Wen shifted Klee Meow to one side of his lap, then smiled and beckoned to him.

"It's not like I really want you to pet me, meow..."

As Sanji Meow squeezed into Xie Wen's arms, he rolled onto his back and exposed his soft belly, muttering all the while.

"Yes, yes. I'm the one who offered to give you a massage, Sanji, to thank you for tonight's feast."

Rather than expose the little tsundere cat's insincerity, Xie Wen devoted himself wholeheartedly to his great cat-petting endeavor.

Sigh... If I summon more cats later, these two hands probably won't be enough... Besides the Flower-Flower Fruit, I wonder if there's a Clone-Clone Fruit, or a Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Thousand-Armed Guanyin-some Devil Fruit that could give me a few extra hands.

With one cat beneath each hand, Xie Wen wrestled with his happy troubles.

There are plenty of theories about the color of Armament Haki, but no official explanation.

Personally, I think Oda probably didn't give much thought to its color at first. There was the "colorless Haki" that let Garp hurt Luffy early on, and when Sentomaru first appeared, his Haki wasn't shown with any particular color either.

As for why it was colored later, the main reason was probably visual presentation in the manga. Otherwise, how would readers immediately know that a character was using Haki?

It wasn't until later, when Haki was used to forge Black Blades, that black was truly established officially as the primary visual representation of Haki.

As for reddish-black, purplish-black, and so on, I feel those colors are mostly there to distinguish characters, not to indicate differences in strength.

Of course, it's possible Oda will come up with some new idea later. But at least for now, I'm writing Armament Haki according to my own understanding.

I've updated the character cards. Approval will probably take a while, so remember to send the kitties some hearts~

I also attached a picture of Fresh Knife: White Calm in the comments at the end of chapter one. It's pixel art, though... ╮(╯▽╰)╭