After the long voyage on the sea from The Island of Dreams to Baltigo, Enryu had been hearing stories from the rest of the crew about some divine abilities that were called Haki. Haki had been spoken about before around Enryu, but he never truly understood what it was or how it was achieved. All he knew was that if someone wanted to be a great threat in the Grandline; they needed to be able to activate, maintain, and control their Haki with great precision and skill. Enryu wanted to learn everything he could about Haki, which brought him to this large open field just a mile or two away from the dock of Baltigo. Enryu was dressed in a simple attire of shorts, short sleeved shirt, and his running shoes. He was the first to make it to the field, which was a normal thing around him. He loved to run fast and become lightning itself any chance he got.

Enryu would stand around the open area with a lot of his mind. The things that only true pirates could fathom. He just knew that after their meeting with Shen, opening his eyes on the power of people in the Grandline, and almost getting roasted by those abilities has all came together to push himself to a greater level than he was previously. He knew that he couldn’t relay on his Goro Goro no mi abilities forever without coming up with other ways to utilize his full potential when it comes to fighting the Marine, World Government, or anyone else that is in the way of the Revolutionary army. Enryu would learn, awaken, and train his Haki with his Captain, but he still needed to figure out what he truly wanted to accomplish with his lightning capabilities. Honestly, Enryu was thinking about converting some of his abilities into a gun-based form of combat that dealt with his lightning abilities, but he still didn’t know how to go about turning his body into a weapon like that.

Enryu finally decided to lie down on the ground on his back to gaze up at the sky to think about all those possible fighting styles and everything. All of his thoughts would come back to his captain; he had Devil Fruit that allowed him to manipulate gravity. Mangetsu seemed to have a good understanding of his fruit to the point of mixing them together with his own unique fighting styles. So he would be the best teacher for a newbie like Enryu.

Word: 420/400

It felt like a rather long voyage from Baltigo from the Island of Dreams but he was rather use to it do to his past. It had been awhile since he had actually traveled with a full blown crew, if he was too he exactly it would be over just over a two years since he had. After hearing of the poneglyphs, his mind could only bring his mind back to the captain who accepted him. He kind of laughed to himself thinking that this sort of thing would be something that the songbirds should be going after. However he quickly went back to his stone cold personality before the pain of remembering what he did set in. As he sat in the subs dining hall eating with the only arm he had, he was greeted with the company of one of his crew members, Ichimonji. "Hey, Cap. How's it going? Ichimonji said as he grabbed an apple and took a bite out of it. [color:df4c=ff66ff]"Good Mangetsu said just as Carlaa came over the intercom to say they had finally made it to Baltigo, the place where Cyrus would be.

He had never actually seen Cyrus but knew him from his impressive streak with Junbei while they where still rookies. Maybe he could convince him to join up with them as Mangetsu had heard of the sheer power that the man had. However before the searching for the man, Mangetsu had one obligation to his crew mates. While on the voyage to Baltigo the crew seemed to visit the topic of Haki, the power that everyone could awaken but many didn't. It was thanks to his old captain that he managed to awaken it but he didn't mention that. Mangetsu, Carlaa, and Ichimonji all had awakened their haki but it had seemed that Enryu and Ataru had not, so it was his job to teach them such a thing that would help them along the grand line. After leaving the dining room, he looked around the submarine to see where Enryu and Ataru would be but couldn't find them for some odd reason. It wasn't until Ichimonji had said that Enryu had walked a mile or two from the docks for his training.

Hearing of that, Mangetsu walked off of the submarine and walked for a few before finding his vice captain laying on the ground, staring up at the sky. "Shall we get started, Enryu? Mangetsu would say sneaking up on him, this would be his first time teaching anyone and hoped that he could do it as well as the one who taught him.

It wasn't for a little while after they had left the port that Ataru realized where they were going. This was the place of his nightmares, the city where he had been a slave, conveniently it was also where he became a underworld broker. He had connections in the city if he wished to reestablish them though it had been a while so they wouldn't be as trustworthy. However, Ataru had a feeling they weren't here for his side of business. Among the other discussions he had with his new crew they talked about Haki. Ataru personally had never tried to test his aptitude so he was more curious than anything about going with Enryu and the Captain. He would be wearing a undershirt and a black miniskirt since he assumed they'd be moving around a lot. Ataru was a little worried he'd have to Wayland he was in town whenever they went. It was very unlikely that he would need Ataru for anything but it would be seen as disrespectful to be caught unannounced in his territory. Also Wayland was much higher in the underground than Ataru, so it was also a sign of respect towards him.

Ataru saw Mangetsu leaving and followed slowly behind him. He could of kept up with him, but Ataru went to grab both of his swords and didn't want to run the distance. Plus it was a beautiful day even if they were on Baltigo, on the outskirts there were still open space. When Ataru caught up he would see both Captain and First mate he would say "I'm here hopefully I have some aptitude it'd be nice to have something so hard to trace.

Ataru would wait to see what Mangetsu said next, if anyone tried to comment on his clothes he would laugh it off. It was unlikely that anything they said were anything new he though that people raised on land had the weirdest stigmas. Ataru was also secretly excited to see how strong his captain was, he was nothing special but Ataru liked to think of himself as pretty capable of defending himself. At least when he had all of his dials on him, but even without them he was pretty fast. He wasn't the strongest but with the speed it was enough to survive in a rough world. Baltigo always made him think of how he had gotten stronger, all the manual labor the nights without food if a lady denied the master. Here he was now a master of his own fate, at least there was that. Some days he wanted to rule Baltigo but on this particular day Ataru was more of the burn it down completely.

Word count: 451/400

The clouds and sky wasn’t really much to look at from Enryu’s point of view, but it was honestly a little soothing in his time alone at the “training area.” Enryu had just begun drift off into a soothing and relaxing nap just as his Captain seemly appeared out of nowhere with Ataru. This brought Enryu straight up into a sitting position, breathing heavy and sheer surprise on his face. “Damnit… After all that shit on Island of Dreams, you just had to sneak up on me.” The lightning boy pushed himself up into a standing position before giving a small stretch to his tight limbs. Enryu gave each of them enough space to move around before placing his hands in his pockets and addressed his captain, “So! What exactly do we have to do to gain access to these powers, Captain?”

Obviously, the boy didn’t have any sort of clue on what Haki was or how would even active it. He knew basic idea of the concept, like that there was more than one kind of Haki, but he didn’t have any clue to what exactly the types where or the functional of those types. It was a mass of information that Enryu literally had no idea about. When he left Tundra, he figured it would be easy to make it in this world of pirates, marines, and revolutionaries. He didn’t even imagine that it would be full of excitement or danger, like their recent job in Island of Dreams which almost saw Enryu roasted by a flame throwing Broker.

Enryu looked from his captain to Ataru and back again before creating a little throwing knife in his hand, which he began to twirl from finger to finger with ease as he didn’t take his eyes off of the two men in front of him. “Are we gunna fight?” The words almost seemed to stick in his throat. He had fought his Captain once before, which ended with him kneeling in front of him. Enryu wouldn’t let the same thing happen twice. He had better control of his abilities now. He might’ve not learned a lot while on Island of Dreams, but he did learn that his Goro Goro no Mi is a very powerful weapon that could be used in a variety of different ways. The original user of the fruit had told him a little bit about his usage of the fruit, which was virtually pure speed to overtake enemies and opponents with ease. Unfortunately, Enryu knew that this wasn’t always the best option to take, which is what lead him into asking his Captain to train him.

Words: 443/400

After Mangetsu turned up at the spot where he would be training Enryu to gain access to his haki, Ataru showed up as well wanting to learn how to use it as well. The revolutionary captain had no qualms about teaching them both, if he taught both of them it would mean that they all would have haki and the crew would be steps closer to gaining the power that they actually needed to travel from the grand line to the new world. He had Enryu and Ataru stand exactly seven meters from where he stood so that they could actually begin the training that they needed. His young vice captain belted out a question that he too asked when he was learning, how would he exactly access the needed power? Well he would have to start out with what the power was. "Before we start, I'dike to let you know what you will be training to obtain Mangetsu said as he stared both of them in the eye before beginning his explanation.

"There are exactly three types of Haki but not everyone will have all three and some will only have one kind which they are considered a god in He was remembering things he had learned about haki over the few years and his own experiences. "I myself only have two types of Haki, Kenbunshoku and Busoshoku but you all might have all three or just the one you specialize in he finished talking as he used his gravity powers to make several pebbles float from the ground up into the arm next to his loan arm.

"No, I will not be fighting you today but I will be using these pebbles for the first haki I will be teaching you, Kenbunshoku He remembered if being the first haki that he learned too and the one he had the most trouble with due to his old lack of awareness of his surroundings. "Kenbunshoku haki is like a sixth sense, it allows you to sense those in the area around you without you even having to look or even feel the emotion of others when you become more adept He plucked one stone out of the air and tossed it up and down with his hand. "I want you to close your eyes and turn around, I will keep throwing these stones at you till you can dodge it only using haki Mangetsu said with slight amusement in his voice as he stared directly at Enryu when he said it, he knew that he would probably try to phase through it using his Logia fruit but Mangetsu wouldn't let it slide this time.

Ataru listened to Mangetsu as he began the lesson on haki, he sure hoped he had some kind of innate ability with seeing that would be cool. Then again any of the abilities would be useful, this would surely be a great day maybe he would even be lucky enough to use all three. Mangetsu began his focus on Kenbunshoku after hearing the instructions Ataru would turn to face away from Mangetsu. He would try his hardest closing his eyes finding his center and really trying to use his senses to predict the rock. Forming a mental picture of what he had turned his back too Ataru constructed the portrait in his head. Now he would focus his ears to try and hear when the rock was whizzing through the air. He thought he was doing pretty good until the first rock hit him square in the back of his head. Ataru sighed he had no idea it was even coming for him trying to think of what to next he got hit by another stone. A little frustrated, Ataru focused even harder for the next attempt. In fact it almost looked like he was shaking a little from concentrating so hard. Never the less the rock still hit him squarely without Ataru even moving. He turned around at this point and looked at Mangetsu speaking "You have any tips Captain, I just keep getting hit I don't really know how to sense it coming. Maybe I'm no good I have no idea HahaGhaaha.". Ataru felt incompetent but he didn't really want Mangetsu to know that so he turned around after speaking. Hoping that after asking he would listen and somehow get the hang of it. A couple rocks to the dome would confirm to Ataru that maybe he needed a break. He stepped out of the training for a second to catch his breath.

Still unsure of himself Ataru hoped that Enryu was having an easier time, it'd be useful especially with how quick he'd get with his lightning fruit. Ataru had a feeling though that he wasn't compatible with this type of haki. Knowing this anyways he hopped back into the training for another confirmation. He hoped that the next lesson would prove to be something he could do, Ataru was trying to not to be frustrated. Even if he wasn't compatible with haki he still had his sword and he could always make dials. That's what'd he do make some goggles, who needed haki he could easily make dial goggles maybe even add night vision. Different ideas and versions of dial goggles would litter Ataru's mind and after a couple more rocks hit him he bowed out permanently. Sitting on the sidelines for now next to the captain Ataru felt the lump on his head and had at that moment confidence he had no idea how to utilize Kenbunshoku

482/400

(Sorry for it taking soooo damn long, I apologize.. Let's speed this along)

The fundamentals, basic information, and layout for all the different forms of Haki were laid out in front of Enryu by his Captain. They weren’t fighting, but it seemed like they would be trying to awaken the Observation form of the three types of Haki. Enryu was definitely intrigued by the concept of Kenbunshoku. He was already absurdly fast to begin with, because of the Goro Goro no Mi that he ate. But he didn’t have the sight to utilize the full potential of his speed without some form of enhancement to his vision. Obviously this could mean even more potential and power coming from Enryu if he could just learn this form of Haki. Mangetsu told him and Ataru to turn around, close their eyes, and focus on perceiving everything around them to dodge the pebbles without sight, which only made Enryu smirk. He was going to pull another one over on his captain by phasing through the pebble with ease.

Enryu would follow Ataru’s lead and turn to face the opposite direction from his Captain, close his eyes, and take a deep breath in. Letting his body fall away again, Enryu would try to let the pebble phase through the back of his head, but he was struck directly in the back of the head with the pebble with relative ease. “Ow..” Enryu thought. Obviously he wouldn’t be able to just phase through it, but he honestly had no idea why that was possible. Yet he knew that he had to do this the right way now, Enryu turned back around facing the opposite direction of his Captain and closed his eyes again to focus on everything around him.

Everything seemed to disappear around Enryu while he focused in on his other senses. He could feel the sun on his skin, wind rustling around them, and he could even hear the pebbles that his Captain was moving around in his hand. The next couple of pebbles would hit Enryu in the back, shoulder, and back of the neck. Just when Enryu was about to give up, he got a small glimpse of an image just before the next one struck his back again. Excitement coursed through his body as another pebble flew towards him, but this time Enryu moved his head to let the pebble fly harmlessly by it. Turning back towards Mangetsu, Enryu slide his hands into his pockets before speaking, “There was a vague image of the pebble that came into my mind for a brief moment. I couldn’t really see everyone, but I could get a vague picture of the things going on. Is that it?” Enryu would ask in a very questionable tone. He was curious about the abilities that Kenbunshoku had to offer, but he was about to find out the true abilities of this form of Haki.

Words: 475/400

Mangetsu stood and watched as both of his students turned their back and closed their eyes, waiting for their teacher to begin throwing his stone.Who has the capability to use this Haki? Let's find out The captain said as he began to throw rocks at them both, using a minor amount of his gravity powers to continue throwing the pebbles as he had no other hand to do so. At first, Mangetsu thought that they couldn't do it at all by the way the rocks just kept hitting them without actually moving. The person that worried him the most wasn't Enryu but Ataru, his newest member to their crew. He watched as each attempt how hard he tried but for some reason, he just couldn't do it. His theory was proved even more when Ataru turned around and asked for tips, saying that maybe he was just no good. "Well, Ataru. Just focus on the surroundings, try to imagine them in your head in real time Mangetsu would say to Ataru as he turned back around and allowed him to finish throwing his pebbles. After having thrown a few more and seeing no progress at all, it seemed that the broker had no aptitude for this kind of haki, which was kind of saddening as it would be very important in travels. Hopefully he had one of the other two, that way he wouldn't be completely handicapped when fighting the enemies to come. After realizing this, Mangetsu told him to sit next to him till the next lesson Haki lesson had started but he continued with Enryu who seemed to be able to time the throwing of the pebbles more and more.

Mangetsu continued his throwing, watching as his timing got better till eventually he managed to avoid one of them. "So he has one of them the captain said as he watched the excited Enryu turn around and explain to him what he saw. He gave a very basic description of what it was like to actually see with haki. "That is the amateur version, yes. As you keep going you will be able to see more and more Mangetsu said as he looked from Enryu to Ataru. He could tell that he was more than a little upset about the fact that he couldn't use this kind of haki. "Don't worry, Ataru. I believe that you will be able to use this next type of haki his voice was filled with empathy and hope, he hoped that he could at least give the man some of his confidence back.

"Now the next kind of haki that I will be teaching you is called Busoshoku haki he tapped Ataru on the shoulder lightly so he would know to get back into his position. "Busoshoku Haki is like an armor but an invisible one created from your spirit but it is hard to explain so I want you both to punch me in the chest he knew that they would both seem a little freaked out but it is better have felt it than just hear an explanation of it. "By punching me, you will feel the hardness of the armor and try to replicate it yourself Mangetsu said as his he hardened his whole torso in busoshoku haki. Hopefully the way that he was taught would work for them as well.

While watching Enryu slowly manifest his abilities Ataru was happy for him. It did make him feel better to see that the Captains abilities weren't wasted on both of them. Hmm I'm probably setting a horrible impression, I'll just have to try extra hard on this next task. I wonder if Enryu will be able to use all of the haki move sets. He didn't know much about the first mate but his potential seemed to be what Mangetsu was interested in. Listening to Mangetsu talk to Enryu, Ataru figured it would be good at the least to know a little about the ability even if he couldn't use it. At the end of speaking to Enryu he turned to give Ataru some words of encouragement. It did make him feel better, though he would definitely show his captain when he finished his vision dial goggles.

As Mangetsu started to explain the next Haki technique Ataru would chuckle a little when Mangetsu said to punch him in the chest. At first he thought it was a joke until this black substance appeared around his whole torso. Ataru was definitely curious on how strong it was, he wouldn't punch at his full strength, but he knew his captain was strong and he was more curious on how strong this shield was. As he struck it he wished he had struck it harder. Mostly because it hurt since he didn't break the armor and his blow was instantly felt back on his own hand. He wouldn't show any signs of pain Ataru was too excited for that. This was the kind of haki he wanted to use, something that you could manifest and surprise someone with. All it would take is one surprise for an opening that could be easily exploited with his dials. It was his turn now though that's what Ataru would focus as he would stand 10 feet away from Mangetsu while closing his eyes.

At first he imagined the black armor that Mangetsu had on his torso and tried to force it into existence with his will. After giving himself a headache after about 10 seconds Ataru could tell this wasn't the right way to go about it. He thought about how Mangetsu described it, now that he thought about it he said spirit not will. A small difference but one none the less what was spirit to Ataru. He had been so in touch with his body and his physical existence since his time as a slave he had forgotten not everything lies on the physical plane. Ataru reached inside himself and what he found was a wounded spirit crippled by his hardships, he needed to feed it. So he did, what he fed it he wasn't sure but it seemed to work because as he fed his spirit he felt a great confidence inside himself. He opened his eyes and saw the blackness it was only on his hand to his elbow  but it was more than enough for him. Jumping with excitement he shouted to Mangetsu and Enryu "Guess I'll only be good at close combat Haki, but I did it!

Smiling at his achievement, Ataru wanted to practice but by himself. He would go would wave to both Enryu and Mangetsu as he left telling them he would see them for dinner. His strength was just becoming unlocked and with this technique he had unlocked a new surprise for his enemies.

Exit
WC: 577/400

The Kenbunshoku Haki seemed to be what Enryu was adept at, which was absolutely perfect for his type of fighting. He could picture the pebbles a little clearer after he performed the task a couple more times, but Ataru wasn’t adept in this skill of Haki. Since Haki wasn’t universal in all cases of awakening; Ataru probably didn’t have this form of Haki. He could easily access another form of Haki if Observation wasn’t his cup of tea. His Captain spoke about the simple version of his vision, but he did say that it would improve with usage and training. Moving along, Mangetsu spoke about the next form of Haki that was called Busoshoku Haki. This form of Haki, by the way Mangetsu instructed to strike his chest and references to armor, instantly made Enryu think of it as an augmentation of the natural defense of the users.

Enryu stepped forward to “strike” his captain, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew that the armor was going to be tough, and he simply knocked a little bit on the armor. The pressure was received back at his hand with full force of the knock, and Enryu could feel the invisible armor rebound back against his knock. Stepping back to watch Ataru get it a go, Enryu didn’t really understand the concept of the Haki. Sight was easy. He was a true marksman, and sight was everything to him and his abilities. But the augmentation of his body was a little bit out of his wheelhouse, Enryu relayed on his intangible a lot, which would somewhat put him out of tune with his actual body. He felt lightning throughout his whole body when he was supposed to be feeling his spirit strength into armor.

Enryu performed the steps again with his eyes closed this time to try and focus more on his own body. He tried to imagine the dark Haki armor spreading over his body to cover it like leather armor. But the sudden excitement from Ataru meant that he had finished the task, he peeked one of his eyes slightly open to see the dark armor stretched over his hand all the way up to his elbow. He sighed slightly before looking back at his Captain, “It doesn’t seem to be working for me. I can’t feel the same power drain from me like when I was using Observation. I guess, we all have our skills.” Enryu gave a simple smile to let everyone know he understood what it meant. People were always different. Some had potential in some areas while others absolutely failed in others. It was the law of balance in the world. People who had remarkable abilities granted to them obviously had to have some flaws built in as well.

Words: 464/400


=====> Exit