Learning the Rokushiki

I woke the next fully healed despite the fact I had literally broken both of my legs the day before. I was truly incredible the healing that the world government has access to.

As soon as I woke up I saw Rowan looking down and me and he said, "That was a pretty hard fight, wasn't it? It was meant to test your ability to deal with people with powerful devil fruits."

I nodded, "I sure did that. Whatever fruit he got was incredibly powerful. The ability to accelerate and decelerate anything he touches is just so fucking hard to fight."

Rowan agreed saying, "That's the point. It was only due to the powerful fruit that he managed to get such a high bounty. If not he would've been just a normal thug."

"But he trained you to be careful. If you have made sure to kill with your first blow then you would have come out of the fight nearly unscathed."

"You made a mistake that he capitalized on. Next time don't leave your survival up to luck ... But for its worth kid, you did well."

I felt chastised by his words. If I had used a Hweechook to his head he would've died. But I was hasty and overconfident and Front Kicked him in the chest, thinking it would kill him.

But at least I managed to survive my mistake. I asked, "Now that we have completed the first trial are we ready to learn the Rokushiki."

Rowan smiled and said, "Yes you are. And considering what I saw there at the end of the fight seems like you have been practicing to do it in your own free time."

I hadn't but I agreed with him anyway. So after I ate the glowing food given by the doctors here and was given one more day of rest I was brought to the courtyard to begin the training.

I looked around the courtyard and could see around 25 kids left. So that test had weeded out the around 50% of the remaining students.

Considering that at the start of the year we had 100, we had a passing rate for the first year of only 25%. That was as low as some of the math courses I attended at university.

But all the future members of the CP9 were there and next to Rowan I could see 2 more men. They were not dressed in suits but looked like marines.

He announced to the class, "As you have passed the first trial you are now ready to learn the legendary Rokushiki."

"Next to me are 2 marines, Jiro and Hughy. They will help me in teaching you this powerful skill. We will not divide the classes based on what skill they wanted to learn first."

"I will teach the skills that require you to understand the movement of air to perform superhuman feats. Namely, Geppo to walk on air and Rankyaku to launch wind blades with your legs."

"Jiro will teach you to toughen up to your body He can teach you Tekkai to tense your muscles to make it as hard as steel, and Shigan to turn your fingers into weapons as deadly as a gun."

"Lastly Hughy will show you how to move quickly and dodge blows. With Soru to move short distances in a flash and Kami-e to make you as flexible as a piece of paper."

"You may choose one of us and begin to learn the skills that you believe fit you best and you can learn the fast good luck."

We all split off and I immediately walked to Rowan. Geppo and Rankyaku were the skills I valued most of the Rokushiki, they would give a ranged option and the ability to fly.

While the others were good I could replicate most of their effects. Soru for example has a similar effect to Bo-bup and the others could be replicated with enough training.

So once I reached Rowan I noticed that this was the one least populated. I only saw a few people here like Kaku. Even the other future CP9 members went to the other instructors.

I guess either they were sick of Rowan or they thought that these were the hardest skills to learn and wanted to save them for last. Fair I guess, this was the one that sounded most fantastical.

Once we were all split up we were taken to different parts of the island that I had never been to before. Here I could see a massive hole with a small stone pillar rising up from the bottom.

Our instructor said, "Here we will begin the first part of learning the Rokushiki. That is to understand how the wind moves."

"This area here is known to experience gale-force winds every night due to a regularly passing tornado. You are expected to stay on those stone pillars while the wind tries to fling you off them."

"You better adapt fast as while the fall won't kill you, it is definitely dangerous enough to break a few bones. So better adapt fast if you don't want to keep making trips to the hospital."

Pointed out a pillar that each of us was assigned. For most people, their pillar was the size of a table, they had some wiggle room and space to set their stance.

For me, the pillar I was assigned was only the space of a small chair. I did not have enough space to get into a firm stance and if I moved just a little I would immediately fall.

I could tell already that this was going to be fun. And as the day turned to night, we could feel the winds pick up. I could see the tornado in the distance, damn the weird weather of the Grand Line.

As soon as it hit us, most of the kids were sent flying immediately falling into the hole. Only a few managed to last 10 seconds and by the time a minute had passed only me and Kaku were left.

I had felt the winds when I tried to quiet my kicks in the jungle by minimizing my wind resistance. This was much the same just on a much higher scale.

I had to constantly feel the winds the wind buffeting me and move my body to the path of least resistance. I had to keep in mind as well that I was being buffeted on all sides.

Sometimes I would have to maximize my wind resistance to my right to ward off a powerful gust to my left. These maneuvers were like balancing on top of a tight rope.

Then 3 minutes in Kaku fell and soon after at 5 minutes I fell as well, hitting the ground hard but not enough to break bones.

The winds didn't reach down here and I lay on the ground bruised and battered. I could see the other kids around me with broken bones, likely I had a much higher vitality stat than them.

Out of an entrance in the bottom of the hole, I saw doctors stream in and take the injured off. I followed them being the only one still capable of walking.

The next day we were back to the hole, and instructor Rowan informed us that to progress to the 3rd level we had to say on our pillar until the tornado moved on, which was 4 hours.

So the next few days we a lesson in pain and balance, teaching us how to not only move with the wind but against to make sure that we stayed on the pillar.

I was the first one to finish the course, taking only a month to master the challenge despite the drawback of having such a small pillar to stand on.

I then moved to finally mastering the moves. Rowan said, "You will be first learning Geppo as it is the simpler in the way we manipulate the wind."

"You have learned how the wind moves and now we focus on fighting against it. With Geppo our goal is to maximize the wind resistance below your feet that it feels like standing on solid ground."

"You have to kick the air below as quickly as possible to maximize the surface area of your foot for the maximum wind resistance."

"If it was that simple, however, any idiot with enough strength could learn it. No, you also have to feel the wind and where it is the hardest."

"It is not something I can truly describe but the training you just did will greatly help you. Later on, if you master it enough then we can move on to Rankyaku."

I nodded and immediately started practicing. I had the power for the Geppo but when I kick the air instead of propelling me up it kept making a massive gust of wind in the opposite direction.

I know that is how normal physics is supposed to work but this is the world of One Piece fuck that shit. So after 2 weeks of fruitlessly jumping and making gust of air I felt it.

That feeling of solidity below my feet like the air there had turned to stone. After that first success, I managed to do it consistently after 2 more weeks of training.

Rowan then taught me the began teaching the Rankyaku, saying, "You have a talent for understanding the air. No one yet has managed to pass the tornado stage, though Kaku is close."

"Rankyaku though manipulating air to some of the highest degrees. Unlike swordsmen, you don't get a blade for your flying slash to follow you have to do it with your leg."

"Your leg if you haven't noticed is round. It is not a slashing weapon but a blunt one. So the first thing to learn is to concentrate air."

"You can probably send out guts of air by now with just a kick but that is pretty basic. Useless other than for pushing people away."

"Using Rankyaku you have to turn all the wasted force and concentrate it into the edge of a blade. There is no easy way to learn this other than practice, practice, and even more practice."

So that is what I did. I practice for 2 months just blasting away at the air making huge gusts of wind in the process. Slowing makes the blasts more tight and powerful.

Before my blasts, were just gusts of air but now they were battering rams of wind. But finally, after those 2 grueling months I managed to do my first Rankyaku.

It took me another 2 months before I managed to get it down consistently. Damn, it was annoying how long it took me to get the trick down but damn if it wasn't worth it.

I had spent around 5 months just learning 2 moves of the Rokushiki, I would have to really step up my game if I wanted to master the entire set before the next trial.

The good thing for me though is that with all the manipulation of wind I could now do the Jin Mo-Ri Original: Blue Dragon's Kick.

I kept it as a trump card not showing it off and only practicing it in the dead of night. But I was ready. I made a goal in the next 7 months I would master all of the Rokushiki techniques.