8 Learning the Rokushiki

(Kairo's POV)

I felt it...

I felt a gust of wind underneath my feet.

I'm sure of it.

After achieving my breakthrough, I was enthusiastic to practice more, and I believed that I would be able to use Geppo within a day.

I was right.

Initially, I did not think that feeling the gust of wind was a big breakthrough, but now I realized how big of a breakthrough it was.

According to instructor Zephyr, most people who practice Geppo would not be able to feel anything at all, and those who do, usually feel it within months of practicing non-stop.

My heritage is a cheat, surely.

The inherent talent that comes with being the son of Rocks D. Xebec is something that not a lot of people would be able to match.

It took Gol. D Roger and Garp working together to defeat him.

Speaking of Father, he's still alive for now. He hasn't been killed by Roger and Garp yet.

It'd be a shame to not witness Father's death, but I think I'll be able to witness Roger's death.

I wonder what would happen to the dude who asks Roger about the One Piece?

Anyways, as I kept on practicing Geppo, I was eventually able to perform a double jump after another week.

After a double jump, a triple jump

After a triple jump, a quadruple jump

Eventually, I was able to walk on air.

I was happy.

I almost cried tears of happiness.

THIS is my first step to avoid being cannon fodder.

Instructor Zephyr looked impressed, and so did Dragon.

Dragon could only perform a quintuple jump, but he was extremely close to being able to walk on air.

I guess that's why superior genetics does for us.

Then, Instructor Zephyr told me to spar with another instructor.

I was demolished.

Even though I had superior strength, speed, and durability, the instructor was much more skilled in fighting.

He exploited my mistakes and wasted movements, dancing around me as if he was performing, and eventually outlasting me in a battle of stamina.

Instructor Zephyr himself said that I was one of the strongest people physically in the Elite camp, but I was also one of the most inexperienced fighters.

I decided to practice martial arts on my own.

Mixed martial arts is the way to go.

I don't remember anything from my previous lives, nor did I practice martial arts in any of them.

I dabbled in hand-to-hand combat a little bit as a pirate and marine, but I always ended up using brute force to overpower my enemies.

This time, it would be different.

I would blitz the enemies with my martial arts, rather than brawling.

...

I decided that first, I would practice punching and kicking.

I started the warm-up with 500 punches and kicks, then I did 500 push-ups and ran 5 km.

After finishing the warm-up, I called instructor Zephyr for help in creating my own martial art.

He raised an eyebrow but did not question me, and he told me to show him the forms that I came up with.

He insulted all of them.

The forms I came up with looked visually appealing, but in a practical fight, they were next to useless.

He said that if the enemy stood still and did nothing during the fight, then the forms I've shown him would be half-decent.

He tells me to value adaptability, precision, and fluidity overall.

I already have the brute force that most people don't, but I lack fluidity, adaptability, and precision.

"You could throw a punch at me, but the punch would be telegraphed. I would easily dodge your punch and counterattack with a similarly telegraphed punch, you'd move to defend, but you wouldn't be able to adapt if I attacked you in a different spot. If your form has all the three things I mentioned, you would be able to adapt in a moment by moving your body parts, and counterattack fluidly without telegraphing your attack."

A/N: I'm bullshitting, so ignore this if you want.

I understood what he said to me, but it's hard to create a form with all of those things.

If my form has precision and adaptability, it'd lack fluidity.

Similarly, if my form has Fluidity and adaptability, it'd lack precision.

There will always be something missing from my form, and I asked instructor Zephyr a question, "How could you create a form with fluidity, precision, and adaptability without abandoning any of those traits?"

He smirked at me and told me to figure it out.

...

I'm frustrated.

No, saying that I'm frustrated would be an understatement.

I've been trying to figure out a way to create my own type of martial art for the past 4 weeks, but it seems like I did not have any success.

It has always been the same.

Certain forms would lack either precision, adaptability, or fluidity. They would never contain all of them.

After walking around the training camp for a long time, I came up with an idea.

Act according to my instinct.

I've been trying to force a form to have all three traits, but I never considered if it would be suitable for my body.

So this time, I will act according to my instinct while fighting the instructor, whose name I learned was Dakon.

Instructor Dakon entered a fighting stance, and so did I.

I did what felt the most natural to me.

Dakon rushed towards me with a punch directed at my abdomen, and instead of dodging it like usual, I let my instincts take over.

I redirected his punch.

Dakon seemed surprised that I redirected his punch rather than dodging it or blocking it as I usually do, but he adapted quick enough and aimed a kick at my head.

I ducked, then dashed to the side to avoid his dropkick, while I aimed a roundhouse kick towards his abdomen.

He leaned back to avoid the attack, but I used Geppo and kicked myself off the ground to propel myself towards him, and attempted to dropkick him.

Dakon blocked the attack with both arms, and I used his arms as a footing for me to reposition myself for another attack.

This time, I feinted a punch, but I actually punched him.

I dealt Dakon a notable wound on his cheek for the first time.

For the first time, I managed to bruise him.

I was so engulfed in the feeling of victory, to the point where I forgot that I was still in a fight.

Dakon didn't miss the opportunity, and by the time I snapped out of my thoughts, he was already aiming a punch towards my head.

This time, I barely dodged it, and the punch grazed my cheek.

I propelled myself off the ground with Geppo and prepared to dive towards him with an attack, to which he responded by entering a stance.

As I got closer, I noticed that the wind around his legs was bending unnaturally.

Then suddenly, he created an air blade with his kick, and it was heading straight towards me.

I knew that if this hit me, I would die.

My head would be severed from my body.

As I panicked, the air blade only got closer to my neck, and before I knew it, it was here.

My fourth life was going to end like this.

As I reminisced and wept about the missed opportunity to fully realize my potential as Rocks D. Xebec's son in my last moments, instructor Zephyr appeared in front of me and dispersed the air blade.

"Dakon... I'm disappointed in you. To think that you, a Rear Admiral, would use your trump card against a new recruit... how disappointing. You will be demoted indefinitely for almost killing a recruit."

Dakon accepted the punishment with an ashamed look while looking at me with an apologetic gaze.

Even if I was burning in anger internally, the best I could do for my image was wave it off and say, "Hey, there's no problem. It didn't happen, right? You could at least reduce the punishment for him a little bit."

Even if I didn't really mean it, instructor Zephyr still denied my statement and said, "Doesn't matter. You are lucky that I was here today, or else you would've died. We only get to live once after all, and an accident can take that away."

I didn't say anything. I could reincarnate for as long as I want. Of course, not all of my future reincarnations would possess a body with as much potential as this one. Heck, this body will likely be the one with the most potential that I will ever possess.

Anyways, I walked away after the fight, but this time, I remembered the actions that I made according to my instinct.

I tried to recreate the actions that I made and turn them into forms, and this time, it worked.

The form is flexible, it doesn't lack fluidity, precision, nor adaptability.

I will name it... Flowing Star Instinct.