Observation Haki

"I don't know if I can do this anymore~" I said weakly as I wobbled back and forth.

"Nonsense! If you weren't a devil-fruit user, I'd have had you swimming behind the ship to keep up. This is nothing in compression to that, right?" Lorelei stated harshly.

"I knew Seastone would make me weaker but not like this..." I moaned as I finished my last pushup.

Currently, I was standing on the private balcony of Lorelei's room in our passenger ship with a sea prism stone cuff on my arm and was being forced to endure Lorelei's many barrages of full-power punches and kicks while maintaining my Tekkai. Lorelei said this was to make sure I wasn't too reliant on my intangibility so that when I actually got hit by powerful attacks in the future, I wouldn't go down in one shot due to a lack of physical endurance.

While her logic was sound, and I completely agreed with her reasoning, I still didn't like the fact I had to just sit there and take the hits. Instead, I decided to not focus on the pain and rather, continue trying to practice my haki. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth as I felt another haki-infused impact strike my face.

Each time Lorelei's fist struck me, I'd endure the blow and try to feel the haki around her fists. Maybe if I could somehow feel what Armament Haki felt like then I'd have a better understanding of it.

Another punch, this time to the gut. A punch to the left cheek. I felt blood coming down from my nostril but ignored it. I wasn't exactly sure, but I was confident that I was pretty close to unlocking the secrets to the Armament Haki. Oh, she's going to throw a kick at my junk next.

"Wait!" I yelled as I jumped back, dodging Lorelei's kick by a fraction of an inch. "Are you crazy! That's my treasure right there!" I yelled in anger.

Lorelei's eyes widened slightly at my response. "You dodged." She said.

"Of course I did! Even with Tekkai that would've hurt!" I replied defensively.

"No that's not what I meant. I aimed for it because you were closing your eyes and ignoring the training, but before I was able to strike, you sensed it and dodged. With your eyes closed!" She explained to me.

"Eh? Wait, huh? Does that mean...?" I was stunned for a moment but quickly I decided to close my eyes again. I closed my eyes again and concentrated on the feeling I had at the moment she was about to hit my gonads. "Again! Hit me again!" I yelled.

Lorelei's eye twitched, and I wasn't really sure how I knew that but I didn't let that thought distract me. She threw a series of punches towards me next. NO! Those were Finger Pistols!

I moved my head to the side, barely missing the first of her attack. I then twisted my body to the other side, feeling the wind of another jab pass directly over my chest and even slightly catch my shirt. I raised my right leg a moment later and intercepted a kick to my side. It was exhilarating. The feeling of omnipotence as I felt the trajectory of her attacks meer moments before they struck.

A smile crept its way onto my face only for my concentration to break as I noticed Lorelei blow me a kiss. My eyes opened wide just as I felt Lorelei's foot smashed into the side of my head. "Ow!!!" I yelled as I tumbled over.

I looked over to Lorelei who looked at me with a smug grin on her face. "Just because you're starting to really get the hang of observation doesn't mean you can slack off now." She said, reaching her hand down to help me up.

I looked at it for a moment, not quite sure if I should take it or not. Lorelei was a tough trainer and if I ever collapsed, she'd usually leave me there to get up myself. This was the first time she'd ever stopped to help me up. I didn't wait on this too long and decided to take her hand. If this was part of the training then I'd need to learn whatever lesson she was trying to teach me here.

As I was pulled up, I was expecting to get hit or thrown over her shoulder in some stereotypical kung-fu 'never-let-your-guard-down' type scene, but I was instead pulled into a long hug by Lorelei. I was stunned as she held me in her embrace for a while. "Even though I don't want you getting ahead of yourself, I want you to know that I'm still proud of you." She said.

My eyes widened for a second and I felt a lump in my throat appear. I had to actually force myself to not cry from happiness in that moment. This was the first time in either of my lives that I was so genuinely praised by someone. I felt like I was being a bit of a pussy by having to fight back tears over something so simple, but I decided not to dwell on it for too long and responded to Lorelei's hug with one of my own.

"Thanks, Lorelei. That means a lot, especially coming from you." I said shakily. We stayed there for a few more moments before I'd calmed down enough to separate while also hiding my face. I never actually cried, but my eyes still burned slightly, though not as much as my face was from embarrassment.

Lorelei smiled lightly. "You remind me of my son... come on, we're almost at the next island," Lorelei stated as she gently pushed me out of the room. "Go get dressed. You can have a break on this island."

"Really!" My mood was over-the-moon. We'd stopped on three other islands on our way out of the North Blue and we were approaching the last island before we'd take a government fairy across the Calm Belt into the Grand Line, and on every island, Lorelei would have some sort of training for me to do, whether it was to run around the entire island's perimeter or fight with the island's wildlife while my arms were tied up behind my back or whatever else Lorelei could think up.

Having a chance to actually stop and relax and explore the island at my leisure was going to be amazing. I wasn't expecting some exotic island like those from the Grand Line or New World, but I was sure adventure was awaiting me.

As I ran to my cabin and freshened up by wiping away all of the sweat and blood from the earlier training, I heard several shouts coming from the decks above me. I couldn't make out exactly what or were the noises being made were saying, but it didn't sound urgent, so I didn't worry about it too much. I quickly put on a loose-fitting outfit and made my way to the top deck, leaning off the edge of the ship's railing and looking at the island in the distance.

I could just barely make it out. It looked like a desert island on the coast with a large singular mountain full of vegetation in the center. As we approached the sandy and rocky harbor from the sea I could see a number of people who were gathering around it, though we were still too far out to make out what they looked like.

"How sad," Lorelei stated from beside me.

"Wah!" I yelled in surprise, as I hadn't sensed Lorelei approaching me and her words spooked me. "You scared me!" commented after calming down.

Lorelei smirked. "Thought you'd like to be liberated for your first break in 10 months." She said, slowly waving the seastone cuff I had on me earlier. I hadn't taken it off after training as I sort of forgot about it.

I looked down at myself as I felt the electrifying feeling of power swelling from inside me again. I flexed a bit, letting small amounts of electricity buzz over my skin for a second. I then looked at Lorelei with a smile on my face.

"Have fun." She said, and I decided not to second guess her.

I transformed my body into pure lighting and blinked off the ship and towards the island. I was getting slightly better at aiming my Lightning Travel ability and this time I only barely overshot my mark, ending up a few meters above the small shack I was aiming for in town.

"Ah." I let to a small sound of surprise as I fell down and hit the roof, rolling off of it and into the dirty street.

I made sure to land with a roll, though so I was able to pop up immediately once I hit the ground.

"Hahaha!" I chuckled. "I've almost got it!"

The feelings I had toward my fruit were somewhat strange. On the one hand, it was super powerful, versatile, and useful. On the other, it was very hard to control, though I always felt excited when I improved its usage. I kind of assumed I'd have near-perfect control over it due to how I saw Sabo's control over the Flare-Flare Fruit in the Dressrossa Arc being good enough to fight with an Admiral and defeat a Yonko Commander (Burgess) while only having had it for a few hours, but it seems like Sabo was a special case. Either that, or my unfamiliarity with the world was actively hindering my ability to use it properly.

Anyway, I immediately began walking around the town after finishing my inner monologue. It seems this area was the slums, as the people walking around here look pretty malnourished and seemed to be wearing rags for clothes. It also took me a moment to notice it, but it didn't look like there were many old or young people here.

I walked around for several more minutes, eventually reaching the edge of town. It was kind of a downer, but it seemed like the slums weren't just a part of this town, this town was entirely made up of slums. Despite looking almost like a wild-west town, the people were much too poor and didn't have a matching Cowboy aesthetic to spark my imagination. My wanderlust had completely evaporated by now and I was thinking that maybe it was best to just go back to Lorelei for more training. At least I knew I was getting stronger and it wasn't boring, so it didn't feel like I wasted my time like I was feeling now.

"Am I becoming a training freak? Wasn't I just excited NOT to have to train?" i asked myself aloud and suddenly felt a bit depressed.

"Cynthia, is it done?" I heard one man from nearby.

I looked up and turned my head toward a group of beggars nearby.

"Yes. I got rid of that dead weight." The woman in the group stated.

"Damn! I heard there were Pirates on the other side of the island. I'm sure we could've sold that little brat to them for some food. Maybe even have had them take out El Tigre while they are at it." The man complained.

My eyes furrowed for a moment. This situation sounded a bit familiar but I wasn't sure where I heard it from. Was it someone's backstory? It'd been the greater part of a year since I had last watched the anime and I wasn't stupid enough to write down future knowledge with Lorelei hanging around me all the time. She was training me and was a good person, but she still worked for the World Government, so if she knew I knew some future knowledge, she'd be obligated to pass it along to her superiors, and that would change the whole story.

I decided it was best to just ask what they were talking about. I didn't recall anything about l Tigre, Pirates, and a brat, after all. "Hey!" I called out to the beggars.

They all flinched and looked over at me curiously. "Oh, it's just a kid." One of them said as the others relaxed.

"I'm a kid who can still kick your ass," I responded confidently which caused the people to hesitate and straighten up. "What were you talking about there? It's interesting." I asked with a colder voice than I'd normally like.

"Ah! Well um... it's uh." One of the people started to stutter and I could tell he was about to lie to me.

"[Tempest Kick]" I said, kicking my leg forward quickly. My attack deliberately missed the group, cutting down a large shed that stood next to us.

The people all straightened themselves up immediately. "Cynthia got rid of her brat by abandoning it in the forest!" The man said.

"Huh?" My voice was now cold as ice as I looked toward the woman who was shaking in her boots. "Is this true?" I asked her.

"N-no! You don't understand! She was only a slave baby!" She said, shaking in fear.

"What's a slave baby?" I asked.

"A Slave Baby is a child born for the specific purpose of selling into slavery once they've grown old enough to do manual labor." A voice came from down the street. It was Lorelei, who was walking towards us.

"You tracked me down?" I asked, a bit surprised to see her here.

Lorelei smirked. "You never lost me. I was watching you with my Observation Haki this whole time."

I raised my eyebrow at that. "I doubt I'd get into any trouble, and even if I did, unless they know Haki, I doubt anyone could kill me on this island," I stated.

"Well there is one man on this island who could, but that's beside the point." Lorelei looked toward the woman with cold and murderous eyes. "You left your child to die because you couldn't sell them?"

The woman, who had now soiled herself, collapsed onto her knees. "No! Baby 5 would never have lied to be old enough to be sold in the first place! We were starving and even pirates don't want to buy children as slaves." She said. "Please don't hurt me! I don't want to die!"

My eyes went wide. "Baby 5?" I asked aloud in shock, though it seemed Lorelei misunderstood what I was saying.

"Yeah. It's not uncommon for slave babies to not even have names. It's disgusting, and the fact she was the fifth..." Lorelei said, gritting her teeth in anger.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I needed to use my Observation Haki right now! I hadn't really planned on stealing anyone from canon to have on my crew in the future, as I didn't think I even could considering everyone I would have had was in the East Blue and I was in the North Blue. I also knew I wouldn't be able to take Luffy's route, as I'd get stuck on Little Garden for a year and possibly get my crew sick with whatever Nami got that got her sick enough to force Luffy to climb the Drum Mountains. If I didn't have a good doctor on my crew we'd be wiped out.

Since I wasn't planning on following Luffy's route, then I couldn't count on encountering any of the people he did either, so now that this chance had presented itself to me, I needed to capitalize on it.

I closed my eyes and extended out my Observation Haki. What most of the fanfics from my previous life didn't really ever get was how Haki worked. They usually had some stupid limitations like having a range of only a few meters when they first started training it. In reality, Observation Haki wasn't really limited to a range. It was more of just a matter of precision over a distance. That's why Ussop was able to clearly make out Luffy, Law, and Sugar from kilometers away after literally just unlocking Observation moments earlier. Even Aisa, the Shandian child from the Skypeia Arc, without training, was able to detect people all over Skypeia dying.

Of course, it was impossible to see across the entire planet with Haki, no matter how good it was, but the true test of a person's Observation Haki was how precise their sense of Haki was. I was positive that I wouldn't be able to pick up the faint feeling of a single child in a crowded city with my newly minted Haki, however, one who was alone in the woods. That much would be childsplay.

The world was dark as I sent my Observation Haki out. I scanned the mountain and forests for a moment, sensing several large and powerful beasts, however, I skipped over them for now as they weren't my target. I continued scanning for what felt like an eternity, however just as I was about to give up, I detected it. the faint pulsing of another lifeform.

For the briefest of moments, I allowed myself to feel relief. I would be able to rescue Baby 5 and bring her with me as part of my crew. Hell, I could probably get Lorelei to train her to be my own combat maid if I was lucky enough. It was then that I felt a chill run down my spine. There was a large presence, seemingly sprinting towards her at an enormously fast rate. It was like a freight train it was so big.

I couldn't wait. I opened my eyes and shouted at Lorelei. "I'll be back! I need to save my future maid!" I shouted as I turned myself into lightning and zipped toward the location.

"Maid?" Lorelei asked, confused.