Chapter 121

A month and a couple of days have passed since our arrival to Swallow island, and with the black pearl's final upgrades finished, it was also the time for us to set sail once again.

My crew and I spent this time between relaxation and training, and I think I might have found the best way to train Observation Haki. Observation is basically sensing the wills of those around you, not hearing them, not seeing them, but feeling them, which is why I had some difficulties learning it.

As a person with enhanced senses, I lean to unconsciously rely on them, which is counter productive in training Observation Haki. Luckily, the solution quickly came in the form of a room with absolutely no light or sound.

How can such an invention came to be, you ask? I have no idea, but it utilizes Tone and lamp Dials Wolf modified in his free time away from upgrading the black pearl.

It's a room where there is no sound or light, so you can't rely on your senses, forcing you to rely on your sixth sense or whatever it's called as you dodge projectiles that person outside the dark area would throw at you.

I quickly had Wolf build a dark room in the black pearl after trying it even though I didn't find much success learning Observation through it, but it's the first step, so there's that at least.

Wilson also seemed to find it interesting, especially since it allowed him to get some payback from Charles. The four-armed gorilla had taken Charles, who fell asleep after a training session with Bob, and dropped him in the dark room.

It was funny as hell watching Charles wake up and begin freaking out about having lost his sight and hearing, which might have been a little too cruel to the little shit, but it was still funny, so whatever.

Speaking of the little shit, he was slowly showing the makings of a tiny monster with all the training he's been receiving from Bob, Elly, and Kozue in the past month, but he still had a long way to go.

Still, this was the first step for him to become truly strong, and he seemed eager to keep going, so maybe he'll make something out of himself when he's older.

I haven't been slacking off on my training as well. I worked on my devil fruit abilities by sparring with Wilson along with training in the dark room.

I didn't achieve much when it came to Observation Haki, but I could feel that was getting closer, and now it's only a matter of time and grinding. That said, however, I did manage to master phasing my weapon and myself and changing my sword's weight while fighting, and I can now do it subconsciously.

My crew have also been doing their own training, and Wilson seemed to take his defeat in Skygaurd seriously as he dove into training his physical strength and endurance.

Laffite worked on his new devil fruit ability as well. What? I didn't mention that Laffite ate the cloud-cloud fruit? I didn't think it needed to be said since it seemed to be such an obvious choice.

Who better to make full use of a weather-related devil fruit than a navigator? The answer to that is no one, of course, so the fruit naturally went to Laffite.

Bob and Doc Q didn't do any training as usual, and they seemed to be getting along because of how much time they spent on the ship together, which was good.

Byron kept working on his devil fruit too, and he was slowly getting more powerful and better at controlling his flames, allowing him to unleash more and more destructive attacks.

Kozue gave me a pleasant surprise by awakening Armament Haki while she was sparring with me, making her the fourth person in my crew to do so.

Elly spent her time training Charles, helping Wolf, and training herself. She also spent some time tinkering with the Dials we brought back from the cloud sea, upgrading her gear and making her that much stronger.

I've also confirmed that Elly does indeed have an intuitive form of Observation Haki since she had no trouble dodging whatever we threw at her when it was her turn to try the darkroom.

Law had spent the past month single-mindedly trying to learn Geppo, and unsurprisingly he managed to get the hang of it in only three weeks as I trained him myself, but I digress.

It was finally time to leave as my crew and myself stood on the black pearl's railing, waving goodbye to the people who came to bid us farewell. Almost everyone was here, Wolf, Rudd, Shachi, and penguin. Still, Charles was missing, which wasn't surprising considering his edgy nature that wasn't much different from Law.

What surprised me was that Bepo wasn't present as well, but it suddenly made sense as I remembered something that happened earlier, so I took with a grain of salt, shrugging my shoulders with a smile.

"The grand line awaits," I said with a smirk as I turned to look at my crew. "So start up the jet belt, and let's get out of here," I instructed, and my crewmates cheered, rushing towards their stations in preparation for our voyage.

The jet belt was the name Wolf chose for the only ship upgrade visible from the outside of the black pearl. As the name implies, it was a belt made of jet, breath, and water dials which the inventor attached to the keel of the ship that would absorb the impact of the water hitting the black pearl's front, transferring it to the rear to make the black pearl move forward at a faster pace.

The jet and breath Dials usually absorb and release air, but after some tinkering on Wolf's part that I didn't even bother to ask about, he managed to modify them to their current state.

"Everything seems to be in order, captain," Laffite said with a smile as he fiddled a board full of Dials near the wheel. "Hold on to something because we'll be heading towards the reverse mountain at top speed," Laffite concluded as the black pearl sped out of the docks at an incredible speed that wasn't previously possible.