42 Chapter 042

I let them die.

Luffy woke up in a cold sweat and immediately shot upright in his bed. It took his brain a moment to process the concept of a nightmare and another to convince himself that the flashback had been just that. The dreams were always so vivid. Even the pain that his mind invented didn't wake him up. He raised his hand over bloodshot eyes and slowly climbed out of bed. Taking a deep breath, he walked out the door and onto the deck of the Going Merry. He spotted Zoro leaning over the railing, green hair following the path of the cold night wind. Luffy walked up beside him and stared out over the sea, still trying to get the images out of his head.

"Couldn't sleep?" Zoro asked. Luffy shook his head. "Which one of them was it this time?"

"All of them," he replied. Zoro was silent for a minute.

"It won't happen again. We're here for a reason," Zoro reminded him. That reminder alone seemed to give Luffy strength, and he nodded. For a long while, they silently looked out over the dark waters, leaving each other to their thoughts.

Luffy finally spoke up. "Hey, Zoro? How strong do you think you are right now?"

Zoro thought for a moment. "A little stronger than I was after our two years of training, I guess," he answered. "How about you?"

"About the same," Luffy replied honestly.

They were thinking the same thing, but Zoro voiced it. "We really need to get into shape," he said.

"Not just us," Luffy replied. Zoro shot him a curious look.

"Tomorrow, we start Haki training with the rest of the crew," he said. Zoro blinked.

"Already?"

"The sooner the better."

An excited grin made it's way onto Zoro face. "Sounds like fun."

Luffy smiled despite the lingering tension in his mind and body. "Go easy on them," he said as he turned and walked away.

"No promises."

Nami, Usopp, and Sanji stared at Luffy and Zoro in confusion. "Haki?" Usopp repeated. "Those techniques that you use? Can we really learn those Luffy?"

Luffy nodded. "Zoro has mastered them too. There are three types of Haki. One is Conqueror's, which isn't an option for you guys unless I've completely missed something, but anyone can learn the other two. I'll demonstrate those now. Which of you wants to volunteer?"

Nami and Usopp both turned to Sanji, who shrugged and walked up to Luffy. Luffy turned around so that his back was facing Sanji. "Try to kick me. As many times as you want."

Sanji raised an eyebrow. Is this dipshit serious?

"Yes, Sanji, I'm serious. And I'm not a dipshit. Not unless I want to be."

Sanji blinked in surprise. Did he just—

"Read my mind?" Luffy finished. "Not exactly. If you want an explanation, you better start kicking." Sanji, who was extremely curious now, started doing just that. He started with one swift kick, expecting Luffy to get shot overboard, but Luffy swayed out of the way of his kick, coming back to his initial position once Sanji brought his foot back. Sanji frowned, and then kicked three more times. Three more times Luffy dodged. A tic developed over Sanji's eye. He attempted to sweep Luffy's legs only for Luffy to jump over his foot, and then launched into a full on barrage of kicks, which were all dodged as well. Finally, he stopped.

"This game sucks," he said plainly.

"It's no game," Luffy said, turning around. "That was Observation Haki. It allows you to sense a living being's aura as it radiates off of them. The most obvious use of this skill is that you can sense where people are, and the most practical use is arguably that you can predict what a person is going to do next in a fight before they even start doing it. But those are just the most basic uses. Once you get really good, you can sense things like the type of being, its strength, and its emotions. With full mastery, you can even hear individual thoughts as they go through someone's mind if you focus hard enough."

The Straw Hats were silent as they took in this information. Sanji himself was getting kind of excited thinking about the potential of such a skill. "So, you really were reading my mind earlier?" Sanji asked in amazement.

Luffy shook his head. "It's not really reading your mind. I can't tell what you were thinking a minute ago, just what you're thinking when I listen in. And even then, it's a much more vague feeling than that. It's not as if I'm hearing what you're thinking. It's more like I'm feeling what your emotions are with extreme precision. People who train in Observation Haki, along with training to suppress their auras so that they're more difficult to keep track of, usually train to control their emotions so that it's harder to know what they're thinking. I'm not much good at that, though. But anyway, that's Observation Haki. Next." Luffy pointed to his forehead with his thumb. "Kick me in the head as hard as you can. I won't move this time." Sanji didn't question it this time, his curiosity getting the better of him, and he spun around on his palm for momentum before kicking Luffy's head full on with a Concasse. Luffy didn't budge. Sanji grimaced and got up.

"How'd it feel?" Luffy asked.

"Like I was kicking a steel wall. Hurt like hell," Sanji replied.

"Right. That's Armament Haki," Zoro cut in. "It allows one to coat a body part in an invisible suit of armor to strengthen both attack and defense. Unlike Observation Haki, which is pure mental training, this is half mental and half physical. Your mind and body have to be in synch for it to work. Doubt is your worst enemy. Even a true master of Armament Haki can lose to a novice at it if he's hesitating. Unlike Conqueror's Haki, which is fully powered by one's will, Armament is a power that's fueled partially by will and partially by bodily training. Once you get good at it, you can imbue weapons and other objects with it, and with enough mastery, you can use armament hardening."

Luffy brought his arm up at his side, and the Straw Hats watched as it darkened to a shiny obsidian black. "That lets you harden the entire mass of a body part or weapon rather than just coating it, making it preferable in some situations. If you're using Haki on something extremely large, like a giant inflatable limb, go with hardening if you can." Luffy almost laughed as Nami, Usopp, and Sanji looked at Zoro like he was an idiot.

"Usually for strengthening solid objects, hardening is the best choice. It's not an option when strengthening non-solid or immaterial attacks though." Zoro turned back to Luffy, who was thoroughly impressed. Zoro was good at explaining the stuff that Luffy had ingrained without really thinking about it. "Did I miss anything?"

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