96 Chapter 96

96

While the Zoro was waiting for his sword… Kunia was practicing her sword with Sanji.

The chef was reluctant to hurt a lady, more so when it was a friend. Of course, like the original, he was opposed to harming a woman. Some things never change.

But it pissed Kuina off a bit, as she viewed herself as a proud and capable warrior. So Sanji was getting a good workout by getting run down by the White Lady.

Heh, Sanji running away from ladies, now wasn't that something you don't see everyday.

With how Kuina strong was, not all attacks could be avoided or ignored. Sanji had to desperately use his diable jambe, soru if he didn't want to get hurt.

Kuina was also learning the leg-based movement so chasing Sanji was a good workout for her.

While Sanji's exoskeleton might be hard. Unlike his brothers, it wasn't unbreakable, in fact, a skilled blade user like Kuina who could cut steal, was able to cut through Sanji's exoskeleton. So even while Sanji was trying to defend himself.

Also due to Sanji's use of flames, Kuina's frost ability was getting a bit of training as well. While Sanji got his supernatural due to being a Vinsmoke experimentation, where he could bring out fire from inside his body

From Luffy's observation haki, it looked like a bright yellow core… no one else but Sanji had that… so that should be the key to his flames but it could be a whole different kind of organ. He was a vinsmoke experiment after all. And this Sanji was different from the original.

The original Sanji didn't get his vinsmoke genetics unlocked much later in the series, and they were much stronger than this current Sanji. So Sanji's flames were part of the so-called 'gift' that his father gave… which the cook hated to admit. But he promised to use the same flames to burn Judge down one day.

Anyway, in Sanji's core, it was almost as if there was a sleeping sun, where the fire was stored and Sanji was able to use it. Because even in the world of one piece, energy can't be created, just transformed from one form to another. His body absorbed the heat around him and when he used diable jambe his legs heated up to the point that they catch fire from the nearby oxygen and helium… it was whacky science, but it worked. Sanji told Luffy that himself.

In some ways, Sanji's powers were a bit like Escanor's except he didn't bulking giant every time he used his flames.

And no, Sanji couldn't control what his flames burned, his shoes and pants were just flame resistance. He could however contorl the temperature of the flame… but too much and he would even burn himself. His exoskeleton wasn't tough enough to handle hotter flames, or flames that burned blue.

But from what Sanji said, his exoskeleton was getting stronger over the years from training with sea kings… so he might be able to handle stronger flames in the future.

On the other, Kuina's frost worked totally differently. In a way, Kuina's frost attacks were literally Ice summoning… like how Luffy's mass increased when using his devil fruit powers, Kuina was able to summon her element from a different place altogether.

Of course, there was an aspect of limitation to it, as she couldn't just summon chunks of ice. Only a limited amount… but her Ice wasn't normal either. It would inflict pain over the wounds and it was so cold to the point a normal person would get frostbite from just good amount. But of course she wouldn't be fighting normal people in the grandline so she needed to improve that as wel.

Even without devil fruit how she was able to use that kind of power was beyond Luffy's imagination. Though Luffy saw her attacks being a variant of her haki.

Kuina didn't fully explain her powers to Luffy like Sanji… so Luffy was going from his own theories. It wasn't like Kuina had trust issues or anything, it would seem she had to keep her lips tight because of the original user of the technique and the promise she made with her.

Haki is willpower in energized form. The most common form is Armament and Observation. Conqueror's being an outlier. But it doesn't mean it's only that.

Now that Luffy knew armament he found that cutting steel, flying slashes, Rokugan could be considered as haki as well. Sure they wouldn't even tickle a logia user… but in a way it was a pre version of armament haki. And with observation, haki Luffy came to that conclusion.

Maybe devil fruit powers and haki came from the same source-based energy, most probably. As far as Luffy remembered there was Kinemon who could summon fire from his blade, and there was discussion in the online community about his fire being a kind of haki. Elemental Haki… like Luffy's Red Hawk or Luffy's electricity-based attack one time he used… or even Miss Goldenweek's hypnosis-based powers.

So most probably Kuina's powers worked the same way. Kind of like summoning.

While Sanji's flames were part of his biology like the electricity of minks or the flames of Lunarian.

Anyway, while they trained, Luffy was mostly checking out the island. Trying his luck to find another fruit. Sparky was with Usopp tending to his injuries and so Luffy was alone in his search. But alas even with observation haki and communicating with small animals he couldn't find any other odd-shaped fruits.

The island that was filled with Sakura trees were quite beautiful… but all the animals on the island were on edge because of the constant noise pollution that was happening due to Anchor hammering in his smithy.

But Luffy didn't mind it that much, he did shut off his ears with his Semi Keiken. What… he still had his trusty Observation Haki to go by, his paranoia wouldn't let him go by unguarded. And in a way, it was also training.

Speaking of training Luffy was currently overseeing Coby, Johnny and Yosaku's training. They were currently pushing their bodies to the extreme with weighted exercises.

All exercises that Luffy had to do when gaining a body fit for rokushiki. They had started following the training plans before barratie, still, they improved very fast.

It seemed that seeing and fighting in constant danger had brought up their potential. Heck, Johnny and Yosaku barely had any near-death battles, and yet they were able to keep up with Coby.

But then again they had been in the bounty-hunting business for many years. And already had an impressive physique. In an all-out fight, Coby would be able to beat them, but in training, they weren't behind Coby… even if his devil fruit gave him a physical boost in abilities.

While Luffy's powers of having a rubber body was bad for his strength gain, Coby's fruit was totally the opposite. Helping him gain strength because of the fast recovery.

Gin would have also joined on training, but Nami had other ideas for shopping. So the poor pirate was used to scare off local vendors to buy products at a cheap price. However it wasn't needed that much anyway, as after saving the port town from Kuro and Morgan the townspeople were happy to sell them stuff at a discount.

So the man-demon was used more or less as a carrying man for the outlandish shopping spree that Nami went on. Of course, most of the things she brought were for the ship and the crewmates, but she also had quite a bit of her own shopping.

While Luffy was overseeing the training of three pirates suddenly an explosion went off… and it came from where Anchor and Zoro were.

"Hey! What was that?" Johnny asked looking up the mushroom cloud that was going off in a distance.

"Wasn't that where Anchor set up his smithy?" Coby asked, frowning.

"Did someone attack them?" Yosaku said.

"No," Luffy said as a small smile dawned his face. "It seems that Popeye is done with his work." He could clearly see it with his observation haki… the sword it was giving of power and radiance like no other. "Let's go. Zoro should be happy with his new partner…"

Heck, even the nameless naginata on Luffy's back was reacted to the other sword's awakening.

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A/N: Zoro is getting a new friend.

I'm sorry to say but Popeye won't be on the crew, at least for now, but I won't remove him from the story. He will make appearances from time to time.

We never saw any blacksmiths (that were alive) in the early part of the story. So I wanted Popeye to be one… some would know that smiths usually have very overdeveloped forearms… and so only Popeye came to mind. So I added him to the story.

Anyway, thanks for all the support guys. Love ya all.

Have a great day. Buy!