Chapter 17

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East Blue 

At sea, a few hours away from Orange Town 

"So, you guys had asked about what Haki is, right?", Luffy begins to speak, starting a conversation. 

"Yeah, what's this Haki thing? And can people learn to use it?", Zoro asks, intrigued. 

Interested in the topic, Nami splits her focus between steering the ship and listening to what Luffy has to say. 

"Well, there are three types of Haki. Of these three, only two can be learned by anyone", Luffy starts his explanation. 

"The first two are Observation Haki, which allows a person to sense their surroundings through spiritual energy, enabling them to predict movements. It also has applications in medicine and navigation, like performing checkups and predicting the weather, for example. The other one is called Armament Haki, which allows people to use their spiritual energy to create armor around their body, boosting their attack and defense to incredible levels. With Armament Haki, you can inflict effective damage on people who, for example, ate Devil Fruits that make them immune to attacks", Luffy says, coating his hand with Armament Haki to demonstrate. 

"And the third type of Haki?", Nami asks. 

"Well, the third type is exclusive to a select group of people. You can't learn this type of Haki through training; you're simply born with it. Then you need to awaken it, and after that comes the training to use it in a controlled manner and make it stronger. I'm talking about Conqueror's Haki, which basically allows the user to impose their willpower on others using spiritual energy. Additionally, all three types of Haki have advanced forms that are much stronger." 

"So, basically, this power boils down to using spiritual energy, applying different intentions to generate different results?", Nami asks, as perceptive as always. 

"Basically, yes. But the thing is, you first have to sense this energy to be able to use it, and the easiest way to do that is through the training that everyone goes through." 

"And do you know how this training works?", Zoro asks hopefully. 

"Well, I learned Haki in a slightly different way, but yes, I do. In fact, I have these manuals that explain the step-by-step training and the applications used. One is about the three Haki, and the other is about Rokushiki. If you want to learn, I recommend focusing a bit more on Rokushiki for now", Luffy explains, showing the two booklets he carries with him. 

"And what's Rokushiki?", Nami asks, reflecting on whether these things could help her defeat Arlong. 

"It's a martial art of the Navy. Remember how I moved so fast it looked like I was teleporting?" 

"Yeah, isn't it just that you're much faster than us?", Zoro asks. 

"Well, there's that too, but I was also using one of the Rokushiki techniques called Soru. You kick the ground at least ten times in the blink of an eye to take a step, giving you tremendous speed. If you want, we can start training both Haki and Rokushiki now. We still have a few hours to go anyway." 

"Fine by me", Zoro says, with Nami agreeing because she also wants to get stronger, not denying the possibility of dealing with Arlong in another way. 

After an hour of helping the two with Observation Haki training, a panting Nami with her body aching from being hit repeatedly while blindfolded, complains, "Why does it have to hurt so much?" 

"No pain, no gain, baby. Now let's move on to physical training. You're ridiculously weak, and the body is the foundation for everything, so your physiques need to get stronger if you want to learn these things I talked about. Come on, get up, the rest break is over, let's go, let's go", Luffy says, forcing them to stand up. Zoro was in better shape than Nami, but he was still a bit tired. 

If they thought that one hour of training was exhausting, they were in for a rude awakening because Luffy, even though he couldn't make them run or lift heavy weights due to being on a ship with limited space, made sure to push their bodies far beyond their limits in just three hours. 

In the end, the two couldn't move from the floor, so exhausted and sore that they were. 

"Well, I think that's enough for now. You guys did well despite us not having many resources available at the moment", Luffy says, hands on his hips, watching his friends try to sit up. 

He then spent the next few hours talking with them, giving Zoro tips, such as telling him he needed to hear the breath of all things after learning that he still didn't know how to do that. This way, he could cut what he wanted and not cut what he didn't want to. 

"My master told me something similar in the past. When you want to cut something, the sword cuts even the thickest steel. But when you don't want to cut something, the sword doesn't cut even the thinnest paper. Is that right?", Zoro asks, intrigued. 

"Yes, that's right. You need to feel the breath of things, then you'll be able to cut or not cut whatever you want. That's the next step as a swordsman for you", Luffy says, pointing out the things he needs to focus on first. 

In addition to guiding and giving tips to Zoro, Luffy also, at Nami's request, gave her a massage, relieving her sore muscles. And although Zoro also wanted a massage, his pride and embarrassment prevented him from asking for one. 

And so they spent the time before arriving at Orange Town. As soon as they docked the ship at the town's port, they observed a plume of smoke rising into the sky in the distance, with tall flames visible from afar, dancing in the wind. 

Using Observation Haki, Luffy detected two vital signs in front of the fire and two more vital signs at a good distance, moving away from the area. 

Curious, Luffy headed towards the location with Nami and Zoro following him, with Zoro getting lost along the way and separating from the group. 

When the two arrived at the site, they were met with the sight of a small white dog, beaten up, staring intently at a burning building. Beside him was an elderly man holding a spear and wearing pieces of armor for protection. 

'Am I too late?', Luffy thinks, clenching his jaw in frustration. 

"Hey, old man, what happened here? Why is this little dog all beaten up?", Nami asks, observing the scene. 

"I'm Boodle, and this is Chouchou. The building on fire was a pet shop owned by a friend of mine. He and Chouchou opened this store about ten years ago. This place was a treasure trove of memories for them and for me too. Unfortunately, my friend passed away some time ago due to an illness. Chouchou has been taking care of the store ever since. About a month ago, these pirates showed up and besieged the town, forcing the citizens to evacuate to another part of the island for safety. Chouchou has been regularly defending the store from pirates, but this time he couldn't stop them. They stole what they wanted and set fire to the rest", Mayor Boodle says, clenching his jaw as he speaks. 

Throughout the explanation, Luffy remained silent, looking at Chouchou with his straw hat covering his eyes from view. 

"Poor thing, he's been taking care of the store all this time, waiting for his owner to come back, and those bastards did this", Nami laments, the difference between a regular pirate and Luffy becoming increasingly clear to her. 

"No, you're mistaken. He's not waiting for his owner to come back. Chouchou is very smart; he knows that the owner is no longer with us. Like I said before, this store holds many precious memories for him. It was his treasure", Luffy says, his voice faltering slightly at the end. 

Without saying anything further, Luffy begins to move in the direction where he had previously sensed the two vital signs moving away from this place. 

"Hey Luffy, where are you going?", Nami asks, but receives no answer as her companion walks away. 

Now alone, Luffy finds himself facing a huge lion carrying a guy with a ridiculous haircut on its back. 

"Who are you, brat? Get out of the way, I'm not in the mood today. That damn dog still managed to bite me", Mohji says, still irritated with the annoying little dog from earlier. 

Noticing the bag of dog food in the lion's mouth, Luffy asks, with his straw hat covering his eyes, "You were the ones who set fire to Chouchou's treasure, weren't you?" 

"What? What the hell are you talking about, brat? Get out of the way, or I'll kill you. Got it?" 

"Nah, I'm not in the mood. Instead, I'm going to beat the crap out of you for what you did", Luffy says, starting to walk towards them. 

"Richie, kill this punk", Mohji says, pointing at Luffy. 

Richie then charges at Luffy like a raging beast, thirsting for blood, only to have his head driven deep into the ground by a punch from Luffy, who made sure not to hold back as much as he usually does when fighting really weak opponents. 

To give you an idea of how much he didn't hold back with that punch, the impact of Richie colliding with the ground created a very deep crater the size of a city block. 

The result was a lion lying destroyed in the middle of the crater, but he was probably still alive, I think, well, he was in bad shape, but alive. Whether he'd be able to walk in the future or if he'd have some kind of brain damage, well, that's not my problem, and Luffy couldn't care less either. 

Meanwhile, Mohji, the lion's owner, had been thrown into the air by the collision of Richie's head with Luffy's fist. 

Just before he hit the ground, he was grabbed by the collar by Luffy, who now held him up with one hand. 

"I'M SORRY, FOR WHATEVER I DID, JUST DON'T KILL ME", Mohji pleaded with Luffy. 

"Nah, apologies won't bring back Chouchou's treasure but don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. You're no use to me dead, but I'm going to make sure you live with something to remind you of what you did", Luffy said, now grabbing him by the hair. 

Suddenly, Luffy slammed his face into the ground, further enlarging the existing crater. In the process, he ripped out all the hair he was holding, leaving Mohji bald, perhaps forever. 

Luffy then grabbed the bag of dog food the lion had been carrying and returned to the place where Chouchou, Nami, and Boodle were. 

Arriving there, he placed the bag of dog food in front of Chouchou, sat down next to him, and said, "This was all I could recover. You're strong. I mean, I didn't see the fight, but I'm sure you were incredible", he then paused, looking at the now extinguished ruins of the building. "You know, it's not the building itself that's your treasure; it's the memories, right?" 

As he said this, Chouchou shifted his gaze from the ruins and looked at Luffy intently. 

"I mean, this is where you made precious memories, but just because the pet shop was destroyed doesn't mean those memories are gone too. No, they're still very much alive, here and here", Luffy said, pointing to his heart and then his head. 

"You know, when do you think someone dies? When they die from some illness, or maybe when they get shot, or maybe when their body turns to dust? No, none of those answers are correct. A person truly dies when they're forgotten," Luffy said to Chouchou, though it wasn't just him listening intently, Nami, standing beside them, was already crying as memories of her deceased mother flooded her mind. 

"I loved him. This place was all I had left. It was the only thing he left behind. This pet shop was the greatest pride of his life, and I had promised to protect it, and now it's gone, everything is gone", Chouchou said, tears streaming down his face as he stared at Luffy. 

"Nah, I'm sure the greatest pride of his life wasn't the pet shop; it was you. And you seem very much alive to me. If you want to reunite with your owner in heaven and be able to look him in the eyes with pride, then live. Live to the fullest, with no regrets. That way, when you meet him again in heaven, my friend, you'll have many stories and adventures to share with him, and I'm sure he'll love them", Luffy said, gently stroking Chouchou's head. 

Chouchou sniffled a little before getting up and taking the bag of dog food to leave, but not before asking, "What's your name?" 

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to become the King of the Pirates." 

"Hauauauauau, thanks for everything, Luffy, and you're pretty strong too", Chouchou said before leaving. 

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(AN: 2,198 Words)

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