A Whale and Haki

Going Merry, Reverse Mountain.

"Oi Luffy, there is a whale the size of a small mountain in front of us."

"Is that so? Alright."

Usopp felt the presence of Laboon, which was a member of the largest in the whale family- an Island Whale. Luffy just dismissed the matter itself while the others took some time to process the information.

"HUH!!! Why the hell are you guys not doing anything then?!"

Nami was tired of these guys and their easygoing attitude and looked at the other two, who were also alright with it. Looking at their actions, even Nami herself started to believe that they would be fine.

But the next second she changed that view when she saw the whale in question go back into the sea and had begun to bang its head on the Red Line.

"What is that whale doing? There is a lot of scars on its head too. Looks like he had been doing that for a while to me."

"Should we fight it? I want to see if my swords can cut through it!"

Sanji and Zoro was ready to kill the whale at that moment but Luffy beat them to it.

Luffy jumped into the air and extended boths his hands to the extreme.

"[Gomu Gomu no Impact Bazooka]!"

The whale, who was about to clash with the Red Line was met with a technique that was mainly used to one-shot most adversaries. The poor whale was pushed back into the sea while Luffy smashed into the Red Line due to the backlash.

Laboon was seriously impacted and it felt like he would start another fight but it calmed down all of a sudden. Luffy and the others were confused with the whale's sudden action but they were soon overwhelmed by another question when they saw a door on the side of it.

"You guys are seeing the same thing as me, right? That is a door isn't it?"

Sanji was the first to question the logic of how a door exists on a whale in the first place. Zoro looked like he wanted to say something but the two bodies flying in their direction took preference. The first one was a weird looking man wearing a crown while the other was a lady with flowing blue hair.

As soon as they saw what it was, Sanji disappeared from his place and reappeared on the deck in a moment, holding the lady in his hands while the man was kicked aside by Zoro into the main mast.

"They are both unconscious."

"It was YOU who made that guy unconscious!"

Even Usopp felt the need to quip when he saw Zoro easily shrug off his actions. Usopp also felt another approaching presence and lifted his head, only to see a flower shaped shadow.

"Is that the person who threw these two?"

Nami focused on the newcomer and felt it was pretty unbelievable for someone that old to defeat the two people that was thrown on deck, since she felt that they had some decent strength through her haki.

*stare intensifies*

*tension builds up*

After a moment Zoro and Sanji slightly changed their stance to an offensive one.

*tension peaks*

"Don't even try. Someone will die if you do that."

A calm voice replied when Zoro was about to draw the sword. Sweat slowly flowed down his forehead and he turned to look at the crew. Everyone was as tense as him except Usopp... who was unexpectedly trying to hold back a laugh.

"THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!!"

"Because-...Because you fell for that gag! Ha ha HA HA HA HA!!!"

The angry Zoro lost all the tension and focus he had due to Usopp's laughter as Usopp kept on laughing without stop. The others also had the same reaction since Usopp did not feel that the old man was an enemy.

"Are you with those two? It doesn't look like it, huh."

He answered his own question and turned towards the Twin Capes. That was when Luffy jumped back into the ship. The old man stopped for once and looked at Luffy for a while, smiled and left.

"Who was that weird old man?"

"Who knows. Anyway lets throw these two at the port and dump these two there."

Zoro answered Luffy's question while pointing at the two extra people on board. Sanji had hearts in his eyes as he watched the fainted beauty, so much so that Nami punched him because she felt ashamed at his actions.

When they reached the port though, Zoro unceremoniously tossed the two away, and looked happy that there was one job less to do. This was the beginning of another mini battle between Sanji and Zoro, but it looked very different to the normal man's eye, with both of them doing mid air movements which caused sonic booms and energy slashes and kicks that were similarly strong, it was clearly at the levels of a peak battle for most in Paradise.

...

Usopp looked at the two causing havoc around the area, which was enough to destroy small lighthouse. He wanted to explain a lot of stuff to these guys now as they had reached a certain level of strength and so he jumped into the air and intercepted the two of them and threw them to the ground.

"You could just tell us to stop!"

Sanji was a bit pissed off about Usopp interfering in their fight, so he yelled at him while getting himself out of the small crater made by the impact.

Usopp reappeared back on the ground and walked between the two and headed towards where Luffy and Zoro was. He then looked back to them both and gestured them to follow.

"Old man, what is the problem with that whale?"

"The whale's name is Laboon. It is a long story if you want to hear it."

Crocus, the keeper of the Twin Capes then went on to explain to the crew including Usopp and the other two about Laboon and the Rumbar Pirates and how it was denying the fact that his friends had abandoned him.

"...I even went on a journey to find these people, but I could not find them no matter what."

Sanji and Nami were a bit angry hearing the story while Luffy was running towards the whale holding a large log of wood.

"Isn't that our mast?"

"Yes it is...our main mast. DON'T DESTROY THE MERRY YOU DOLT!!"

Zoro and Usopp almost turned into a two man comic piece seeing Luffy breaking the mast and using it as a weapon for beating the whale. He then went on to beat the whale in a typical Luffy fashion, tanking all the attacks and using it against the enemy. The poor whale was quite badly shaken when Luffy stopped the attack.

"I'm strong right?"

The whale Laboon was really confused at the question. He looked at Luffy for answers.

"I am stronger. And I will definitely return to this place again. Until I come back and have a fight with you again...don't you dare to smash your head like that again!"

Laboon was emotionally moved and started to cry. Luffy also painted Laboon's head with the Jolly Roger of the crew, or something resembling that, on Laboon's head.

"This is the mark of our promise. So don't destroy it!"

Laboon started to make happy whale noises looking at Luffy, which probably indicated its agreement and from the looks of it, Luffy understood what it was implying.

Usopp and the other two of the combat unit was still having a staring contest. Usopp was the first to give up and sat down.

"So you guys know there is a way for normal people to counter Devil fruit users, right?"

" Yeah."

"We did see how you hurting Luffy with a punch, so we know some techniques exists that counter Devil Fruit users."

They both replied. Usopp had told them about how [impact] affected most devil fruit users other than a certain type of them and a few exceptions but did not explain what they were or how to tackle them. Luffy also joined them as they were speaking while Crocus looked at them as if he was also interested in their conversation.

"So let's start from the Devil Fruits. They give special abilities to those who eat them while taking away their ability to swim. Sea Stone is a creation that is similar the sea solidified, and there is also a weakness to the ability users."

They had seen how Luffy lost his strength and ability when under the influence of the chains, so they knew that too.

" Devil fruits are mainly divided into three types- Logia, Zoan and Paramecia. There are sub-types for each type."

"Logia is said to be the strongest kind of devil fruit. It transforms a person into an element, and is impossible for a person to wound them other than by using Sea Stone or the element's weakness. The Marine captain at Loguetown was a logia type Smoke-man. Just by owning a logia class devil fruit one would be near invincible in the first half of the Grandline."

"Zoan fruits allow people to turn into animals. It usually increases the strength and regeneration of the user. There are sub divisions to it- normal, ancient and mythical. Mythical Zoan is actually the rarest fruit type. The first commander of the Whitebeard Pirates is a Zoan type."

"Paramecia is basically everything else. It may allow changes to a person's body or give them the ability to create and manipulate materials. This type has the most numbers and variation. Luffy and Buggy both fall in this category."

The new information made the crew shocked to a certain extent as it was the first time they heard about Logia and Zoan type users. Nami was especially scared when she thought about the possibility of facing an offensive type logia but Usopp did not let off on his explanations.

"The Devil fruit users are a major power in the first half of the Grandline but once you pass the red line again, just being a ability user is not enough, not even a logia. This is because of the existence of the technique called Haki."

" Does it allow normal people to attack ability users?!"

Luffy became really interested when he heard about how ability users could be damaged, as he himself had been at the short end of the stick while knowing next to nothing about it.

"Yes. As you have seen my hits inflicting damage on Luffy, that is the power of armament haki. It directly affects the enemy ability user and also increases the strength and defense of the one using it by a lot. The other one is called Observation Haki, which helps predict an attack or to detect people. As it grows stronger, so does its range."

" I am telling you this because you three have reached a certain threshold of strength and endurance to start training in these two types of Haki, or your techniques won't develop further due to your lack of senses. So from today you will also be training for awakening haki along with the usual training. Nami has already learnt a bit of observation Haki so you three are behind her in that sense. Try your best to not fall behind a lady in terms of fighting ability, alright?"

The three were literally burning up when Usopp gave them the training methods for awakening and consolidated haki. They knew how important a guide was in terms of training haki as Usopp told him how much time it took him to develop Haki to a satisfactory level, and even then it wasn't probable that they would awaken it soon as it depended on their talent and understanding.

...

"We won't go back unless we kill this whale!"

"We never fail in our missions!"

The two idiots who were thrown out almost attacked the whale but Luffy punched them unconscious.

"Why did you do that?!"

"I just felt like it."

Luffy's answer had basically defined his personality. He went back to train again but Usopp stopped him.

*click*

*thud*

Luffy fell to the floor suddenly and was made to wear his training suit. Usopp had not allowed Luffy to train Haki at all to increase Luffy's spirit strength so that Luffy could consolidate 'that' power faster later.

...

In the meantime, Nami found out that Log Pose was required for navigating the Grandline, and Luffy took out the one he had found from the two earlier. Again, as luck would have it, Sanji and Luffy fought and the Pose was destroyed.

Nami got angry.

...

Thankfully the Keeper had a spare, and also explained to Nami on how to use it. On the ship though, the two idiots, who named themselves Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday asked them to give a lift to the next island that was on our way, Whiskey Peak.

'Let's see how dangerous this place is...Grand Line!'

Usopp stood on the crow's nest and waited to evaluate the danger levels posed by nature itself as they began their first journey in the most dangerous ocean in the world.

...