Ice is nice

(Kuzan POV)

I remember my past life like it was yesterday. It is that Essence ... thing that I gained. It gave me perfect memory with infinite storage and data recovery. My past life is just that, in the past. So there is nothing really interesting there. The important bit is what happened at the end of that life. I remember reading manga, and comics and watching anime and the like. Sadly, those have been ... 'traded'. 

I experienced a typical reincarnation story experience. I even came face to face with one of these ROBs. I always liked characters with ice-type abilities. There was literally something cool about them. I don't remember who I am talking about here, but I do know that was my reasoning. I thought it was amazing to stop time using the element of ice or freezing. 

So I appeared before this ROB and he/she granted me the chance to reincarnate in a world of the Omniverse. When I asked her/him what I would pay for that, he/she only wanted my knowledge about these worlds. I agreed. It is a good deal. I was promised securities in order not to die instantly or ... ever for that matter. 

I was gifted three Essences. I remember reading about them and when I gained their powers, I knew what they did. They were the Essence of the Blank, the Essence of the Immortal and the Essence of the Nomad. 

The Essence of the Blank is obvious. It grants me limitless potential and the ability to learn anything. It is very useful in any situation. I wasn't to take the power of ice to the maximum and beyond. Oh, didn't I mention, that the ROB told me that my starting point would grant me my wish to use ice powers? I don't know who she had in mind, but it doesn't matter. It can be exciting to not know everything. 

The Essence of the Immortal was very versatile and not what I expected. For one you stop ageing once you reach your physical peak, I gain a healing factor, perfect memory, an indestructible mind, an eternal soul, and the ability to reincarnate. I can do that voluntarily and on the off chance that my entire body should be destroyed. That is so cool. Using this, I will be able to reincarnate into other cool characters ... at least I hope so. 

And lastly the Essence of the Nomad. This is amazing because it grants me infinite stamina, other living beings don't see me as a threat, I always have enough money on me to get by, I am immune to diseases, I automatically have the skills to drive, pilot or ride any form of vehicle or mount, I am granted the skill set necessary to survive in any environment, with my body/clothes adapting as needed. I can speak and understand any language, whether spoken, written or containing non-verbal components such as telepathy. I will always know where I am and I can 'mark' the world to one day return there if I want. 

There are three things locked temporarily. You are able to teleport by any method you wish. You can travel to alternate universes at will. You are granted encyclopedic knowledge of all the most exciting places in the multiverse. 

These three things are locked for now. So I can't just disappear from the world if it doesn't please me. But that doesn't matter. I wasn't planning on not taking this world seriously. This is my new life now and I will make the most of it. 

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My current name is Kuzan. I was born in one of the four blues as they are called, specifically South Blue. The island is called Grape Island, due to the grapes that are sold here. It is quite a good trade for the island and allows everyone to survive. I personally don't have parents ... again. It makes me a bit sad but I don't let it affect me, because from what I can tell, this world is dangerous. There are Pirates sailing the seas and from the map I have seen, most of this world is made up of water. Quite peculiar. 

I have white hair and am quite tall for my age. The hair fits since just yesterday I found a peculiar fruit with swirls on it. I ate it and almost gagged. I didn't know why but something told me to eat the fruit. It was so disgusting though and not at all tasty. However what followed after that ... oh my. The fruit gave me powers. Ice powers!!! 

That is so cool. I have to practice with it immediately. I am also very thankful for the fact that I understand the language and that I am granted the skill set necessary to survive in any environment, with my body and clothes adapting as needed. That is such an amazing ability and it gave me a number of normal skills, like cooking, woodworking, sailing, the basics of fighting and then there was one thing that I found weird. 

It is called Haki. I was granted the ability to use this peculiar power. I must say that I am not entirely sure what it does but from what I know, it is probably mostly used for fighting. I am only gifted the basics in this Haki and must make progress on my own. I will be sure to test this out more and then see all of its benefits. 

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A few years have passed. I am now 5 years old and there are a lot of things that happened. I have understood the value of Haki. It is amazing and I can't help but wonder what would happen when I reach a high stage with it. There are three types of Haki. Kenbunshoku no Haki or Observation Haki, Busoshoku no Haki or Armament Haki and Haoshoku no Haki or Conqueror's Haki. 

I have been granted access to all three and I must say that they are truly magnificent powers. Kenbunshoku grants you a sixth sense that allows you to sense the presence, strength, and emotions of others. That is the theory I know but from what I learned, there might be more things this Haki can do. It is amazing.

The second one, is Busoshoku no Haki. Busoshoku Haki is a form of Haki that allows the user to use their own spiritual energy to create, in essence, an invisible piece of armour around themself, providing incredible offensive and defensive capabilities. That is the basics I know about but there has to be more to this. I can't wait to unlock the other uses of this Haki. 

But the third type of Haki is the one that intrigues me the most. Haoshoku Haki is a rare form of Haki that allows the user to exert their own willpower over others. Unlike the other two types of Haki, this type cannot be awakened through training and only one in a million people are born with this ability. It is said that those who have this Haki have the qualities of a king or Conqueror.

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I tried to be smart and train all of these Haki types. However, I found out that it requires a lot of stamina to practice Haki. Even though I have unlocked all of them, it is not possible to truly train them, because I am still so weak. It is for that reason that I began my training. Now it is important to note that my stamina is limitless but my strength is still not high enough to truly use the Haki. 

I wasn't sure whether I would stunt my growth if I trained too early. So I did the only thing I could train, running. I did long runs and every day, I would run a bit further than the last one. I ran farther and tried to be faster every day. Due to my limitless stamina, I would never get tired. So I ran every day and gave it my all. 

What use was this training? 

It allowed me to train my coordination. I tried to take different routes every day and used the woods to train my 'parkour' skills. I tried to get to my destination as fast as possible and therefore I trained in balance, hand-eye coordination and lower body strength. 

I would jump over tree trunks lying on the ground, climb on top of tall trees and then down again, climb tall cliffs and the mountain on the island and more. I really liked this training. I was a bit sad that I wasn't sure when I could start training my muscles, but I decided that I would start at five. I already was taller than children my age. 

I also started to swim in the sea. The water was so much cleaner than in my last life. The animals were bigger as well. I wonder if that has to do with higher vitality or life energy in this world. That could be an explanation. But then that would mean that I could train without worrying about stunting my growth no? 

I still decided to wait until I was 5 and now that that moment has arrived, I can finally start training. But something else has happened that I am unsure what to make of it. 

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I can sometimes hear certain things ... talk. I know this sounds strange but it is true. It happened the first time when I was diving in the sea, after fishing for some food.

I don't know what that was but I heard a very deep voice saying something about a ruler being born ... I got goosebumps the first time. I wasn't sure what that was but I am certain that no one else had ever heard something like that. 

But there is more to this. I have been getting this feeling lately. A feeling that I should be somewhere. Or more like, it would be good if I was somewhere. I am not sure what that is but it is like something calling out to me, to leave the island and go in that certain direction that is calling me. I can tell that something is there, that I would either profit from or that interests me. 

And theoretically, that is possible. Since I have endless stamina, I don't sleep. So at night, I practice the use of my 'devil fruit'. That is the name of this marvellous fruit that gave me these powers. I can not only control and create ice, but I can also turn into ice. It is an amazing feeling to turn into ice. 

I used the nights to practice with these ice powers. I first tried to create as much as possible. And what I found out is truly wonderful. The power of this fruit, the Hie Hie no mi is dependent on my stamina. Now if you have a lot of stamina, that means that you can continue using the power. If you don't have any stamina left, you can't use it anymore. 

Now guess who has endless stamina? And guess what that would mean for someone who has endless stamina? 

Exactly. I can endlessly use the power of the Hie Hie no mi. I spent all of my nights getting familiar with the Hie Hie no mi and turned everything I could find to ice. I started small and then worked my way up. Since I had endless stamina, I theoretically could already do that. But I wanted to perfect this and hone my abilities. 

So I only moved further up, after I had reached a total freezing of an object in one second. If I used more than one second to freeze something, I counted it as a failure and had to try again. This way I went from freezing a pebble to freezing wooden sticks, to boulders, large trees and now parts of the sea. 

And now this brings me to the last thing I found out. I am very very weak when I get in contact with water. I found out the hard way, when I walked along the beach and almost drowned when a wave hit my legs and I fell down, like a weak puppy. Thankfully my body adapted to the situation and I actually grew gills. The Essence of the Nomad is truly a wonderful thing. That is very dangerous in a world like this. 

But thankfully there is a solution to this. Exposure. I have no limit, so I decided to slowly walk into more and more water and try to still move. It does indeed work and allows me to not be weak in water anymore. I still need to practice with this but it is getting there. 

So now I am thinking about whether I should follow this feeling or not. I am still too weak to truly do anything in this world. I am sure that those pirates are far stronger. Maybe I can join the Marines ...?