Chapter 18: Cloak of Levitation

Third Person's PoV:

On the figurehead of a certain pirate ship, was a man draped in a long coat. He was currently staring down at the ocean, seemingly concentrating hard on something. From his view, the smiling face of the figurehead and the calmly rippling seawater were seen. The wind gently brushing against his face and hair.

"Oi Josh, what are you doing?" A voice from behind the man asked. The owner of the voice is the unlikely captain of this pirate ship. Luffy had been trying to preform the Geppo as Josh had instructed him, but for some reason, he keeps getting distracted and worse, he could only kick the air once or twice before his legs giving out.

His strength and control were still lacking. Not even Josh could preform the Geppo in only a few days after having the appropriate leg strength. One needed great control over one's own body and focus on their center of gravity. And that meant that it required time.

"We used up most of our food supplies yesterday on that dinner because you kept pestering me to cook more food." He answered back without even looking at him. His eyes still glued to the sea below. The night before, they had a grand feast that lasted for hours because of Luffy's insistence and now they were out of food.

Luffy was grinning widely, not even looking the least guilty for eating everything. Remembering last night, he truly felt that it was a banquet fit for a pirate, the kind that he aspires to be.

Just as Luffy reached his position on top of the Merry's figurehead, the lightning man's eyes opened a little bit wider than before, and he charged his lightning in his right hand.

Just earlier, Josh had been using his Kenbunshoku Haki to look for big fish that are lurking under their ship. With the presence of Manni, it made it a little difficult, but he was still able to accurately find out when a large one gets close enough within his range.

"1 Million Volt Vari!" Josh shouts out as he stretched his hands forward. When he did, a stream of lightning shot right out of his hands and entered the water. For a split moment, all one could see were a flash of running electricity across a few miles in the ocean.

Luffy looked around curiously, he had no clue what his mate was doing. After a few seconds of silence, bubbles started popping on the surface of the sea. Slowly, the bubbles became more pronounced until, finally, the shape of a large typical fish came out of the water. Followed by a few more around it's size and then even smaller ones.

"Oooh...were you fishing!?" Luffy excitedly asked. As they ran out of food, this was the solution that Josh came up with. Although they would have to bare with just fish meat for a bit, it was better than eating nothing.

Without answering him, the blonde used Geppo to directly rush down and scoop up 5 of the biggest fish lying around. The reason he left the rest is because they weren't truly dead, instead, just paralyzed for about an hour or so. He just grabbed what they needed at the moment and let the rest go.

"Yep. These are going to be lunch and dinner." After landing back on the deck, he told Luffy. Josh used one of the weakest moves from Enel because he didn't want the attack to reach all the way down to Manni and he only needed to stun them.

Under Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp's curious gazes, Josh went inside the kitchen and prepped all of the fish before storing them inside the freezer.

The blonde sat down on a chair, still in the kitchen. He was proud of his earlier display. As he finally got some time to himself without someone bothering him, Josh finally decided to check out his mission rewards.

Taking out the Cloak of Levitation, he examined it from top to bottom. The most obvious thing he noticed is the color. Most of the cloak is deep red in color, while the inside is brown with almost unnoticeable patterns. The cloak had a high collar, with two metallic looking and triangular thing right underneath the collar. It looked exactly like how Josh remembered it in the movie Doctor Strange.

As he tried to put it on, he almost forgot that he had on his Laxus's coat still hanging from his shoulders. Smiling sheepishly, he took off the coat and put it inside something else he had also been neglecting...the inventory.

Josh watched the black long coat disappear into thin air and tried to put on the cloak again, however, he stopped. Thinking for a bit, he wanted to try controlling the object to come to his side on its own.

As he concentrated hard on the cloak, he felt some mental energy leave him. It was as if he used his Busoshoku Haki! Slowly and wobbly, the cloak lifted off his hands and flew around his shoulders and comfily placed itself down.

It wasn't like the magical item was sentient, however, just by supplying the relic with some of his mental energy and his intention, it moved on it's own afterward. This fascinated Josh. It was a weird feeling, like he was controlling and not controlling at the same time. For example, there might be times when one's own body part moved just on instinct.. it was exactly like that.

It will take Josh some getting used to, but he is certain that this item will be very useful to him, not just in fights, but also in other areas.

As he moved the cloak, he could feel that its movements were a little unnatural, as unnatural as a moving cloak gets anyway. This must be the limitation of only using his mental strength, and not magic. After he gets used to it, Josh is sure that he can levitate and fly short distances, but high-speed long-distance flights were out of the question.

Josh, with his new Cloak on, marched out of the kitchen to check on the progress of the other's training. As he walked, he felt the slightest differences the cloak had with his previous coat. First of all, the relic was much shorter. The end of the coat before would drag on the ground sometimes, but the magical item didn't even reach his ankles.

Secondly, the cloak is naturally much lighter, not that it mattered. However, he did feel and look much less baggy, making his hard earned muscles show themselves through the sleeveless suit and the open chest he had on.

When he reached outside, the first thing he saw was Usopp and Luffy getting chased around by Zoro with the swords nearly missing them. 'Good, it looks like they are training properly.'

The new master of the Cloak of Levitation looked up at the only problem. Near her room, there she was lazily tanning herself under the sun. Josh didn't really want to push it yet until she agreed to actually join with her own mouth, but this was getting ridiculous. Nami had expressed her desire to not train with, in her words, "a bunch of sweaty men."

Maybe she didn't want to train with the rest of the guys, but might be willing to take private lessons?

To go try his luck, Josh climbed the stairs and arrived in front of a peacefully sleeping Nami. Once in a while, she would giggle softly or snort cutely.

'Lazing around while everyone works hard, ey!?' Josh thought silently to himself with an evil smile on his face. He approached the sleeping girl quietly and made sure to not make a squeak as he passed her. Silently he opened the door to her room and a few minutes later, came back out with a mischievous grin and quietly went back down.

Reaching the deck, everyone finally notices him as they were now taking a break. Looking at him curiously. "How's the progress for your training going?" He asked.

"I've think I can almost shoot out a wind blade. I think..." Zoro said seriously. This guy... he really doesn't care much about anything other than swordsmanship, does he? He was told to practice the Rankyaku. But, that's fine, because if he gets it then doing the same with his legs should be easier.

"It's only been a day since we've started my hell. What changes do you think is gonna happen!?" Usopp shouted a little bit too loudly, almost waking a sleeping demon.

"I got bored...", Luffy flatly stated, all the while picking his nose! Josh hardened his heart with Busoshoku Haki before he lost it and accidentally slap him off the ship. Zoro and Usopp were understandable, but he's supposed to be the.. nevermind, that's just the man known as Luffy.

"Yosh.... no food for you then." He calmly said as he closed his eyes, purposefully pretending to not see his panicking face. "Ahahaha.. did.. I say bored? I was....lying. Phew", Luffy made the worse way possible to lie. Stutter, not make much sense, look away, let out a sigh at the end. He's really the worst liar around. Almost as bad as Usopp when he gets caught.

"Oh.. so you were lying then?" I baited him, to which he nodded frantically. "I can forgive you this one time for lying. But wait." Pause for dramatic effect. "What if you lie to me again?"

He didn't know what to say. He was sweating bullets while looking left and right. Zoro and Usopp snickered at his misfortune. "If you were lying and I find out..." another dramatic pause, but this time add an evil smirk. "I'll tie you up to the mast and make you watch as we have barbecue party on the deck!"

As soon as I said that, he went off running. "Noooo!!!" I naturally chased after him. My teeth turning into giant fangs and my eyes going wide. "GET BACK HERE AND PRACTICE!"

It was quite the mock chase and in the end, we laughed it off. Our days continued like that, with mostly zoro taking the training seriously, Usopp making a thousand excuses, Luffy's constant distraction and short attention span, and Nami's unwillingness. Damn.. what does one gotta do to make these clowns take things a little more seriously!!?