Chapter 3

—Third Person—

–Year 1522: February 19–

"We're training to awaken Haki."

The five looked at each other before turning back to their captain.

"Haki?" Their voices overlapped as they asked.

"Yes, Haki is a mysterious power that gives people various abilities. I read about this somewhere in Logue Town," she said, biting into the tiger meat in her hand.

"There are three types of Haki," she began again as they leaned in, paying close attention.

"Observation Haki, the power to sense the presence of people and detect attacks aimed at the user," her words sent chills through them.

'The power to sense people? Surely she's joking,' they all thought as she continued.

"Armament Haki, the power to materialize your will to coat your body for attack or defense," she explained, and they couldn't believe such power existed.

"It also provides the user with the ability to affect Devil Fruit users."

Her words sent a wave of silence over the group; even the crackling of the fire was muted.

The five people around the bonfire were in such shock that their eyes were almost about to pop out of their eye sockets.

"What!?" they screamed as they looked at her; she seemed so calm about sharing this with them.

"Stop screaming. There is one more type of Haki." Now that she mentioned it, they finally remembered that there was indeed another type of Haki.

"Conqueror's Haki, the ability to project your will outward and intimidate your enemies into submission."

'Unbelievable.' They thought to themselves simultaneously as she continued talking.

"Only a few people are able to use this Haki, and it can't be trained like the other two," she said, standing up and finishing the meat in her hand before tossing the bone aside.

"You guys should know that I'm going to the Grand Line, and if I'm going there, I'm going to need to get strong," she reiterated as they remained in shock.

"The pirates, marines, and most of the Grand Line at least use the first two types of Haki." She looked them in the eyes with a rare serious expression that sent chills down their spines.

"If you want to come with me to the Grand Line, you can't be this weak. So we're going to train here for however long it takes for me to awaken Haki, and then we'll set sail." She said as she turned around, "You guys can train on the way if you still haven't awakened even after I do."

"Don't you dare slack off; I'll leave you behind," she said as her final piece of advice before leaving with her weapon in hand.

—Alvida POV—

I explained what Haki is to them. I don't know if it's a good move or not. But if they have any plan to betray me... I'll deal with it accordingly.

Pfft, as if. They're too mesmerized by my beauty to have thought of betraying me.

I was currently walking through the forest. Even though it's night, the moonlight shining on the island made sure to keep my path alight.

I made a foolish choice by not going with them when they hid the ship inside that cave.

I saw that it had a rocky, sandy shore. I could've made a hole from inside there to here so that I could reach the ship quickly if something happens.

Well, whatever. It's not like I can't go and see where it is tomorrow anyway. They took the lifeboat to the shore, after all.

—Third person—

The calm waves of the night sea did little to calm his mind. He was tasked with finding and capturing the pirate "Iron Mace" Alvida.

Looking at his subordinates, Commander Akira felt helpless. Even if he could defeat Alvida, what good would it do when he couldn't even get a whiff of her movements?

The bitch capitalized on the chaos in Logue Town to completely vanish, and it's been two days since he started his journey to capture her.

'That fucking bitch. When I catch her... heh, I heard she's become a nice piece of ass,' he thought, a predatory grin etched on his face.

As the vessel sailed past an "unsuspecting" island, he didn't think much of it, as he had heard that there are many powerful predatory animals in the "Cluster Islands."

Unaware of the fact that the target of his lust was currently on the very "unsuspecting" island, his vessel sailed past it.

—Alvida POV–Year 1522: February 20—

Waking up to the chirp of the birds, I looked around the tent we built at the center of the island.

I stood up and went outside to see the crew already awake and training. Heh, what a sight to see.

I never thought I'd see these guys train their asses off like this, all of them working their bodies by doing push-ups with small boulders and such.

I certainly like it; after all, this means that I have a competent and obedient crew at least.

"You guys, I see you're training and all. But why in the hell are you doing that in your underwear?!" I shouted at them from my tent. Seriously, these guys.

"Sorry, Captain!" the five guys just apologized, sweat running down their bodies.

"Whatever. Rambo, I need you to take me to the cove where you stored our ship," I ordered before entering the tent once more.

I took my cape, draped it over my shoulder, grabbed my kanabo, and walked out.

Seeing Rambo already waiting for me, I sighed and walked up to him.

"Come on, let's go," I said. He nodded, and we walked for quite a bit before we saw the shore.

Hm, the boat is not docked on the shore but was pushed into the island and covered with trees.

"Hm, I guess you guys are not that much of idiots," I muttered and walked up to the boat. Placing my hand on its backside, I pushed it into the sea with no difficulty.

"Come on," I said, grabbing him by the shirt and jumping onto it. "Now, let's go and see the cave," I said. He nodded and began to row towards the cave.

After quite a while of rowing, we saw the entrance of the cave. It was dark, and I had to squint my eyes to see it.

No doubt, if it were nighttime, I wouldn't be able to see it at all.

The cave entrance was connected with the sea, which entered inside the cave. He rowed closer and closer.

Passing the entrance and rowing inside for quite a while, we saw my ship—Miss Love Duck. Seriously, Alvida lacks creativity.

With its sails rolled up, the ship was anchored there, unmoving as it floated on the calm waters.

Hm, now that I look at it, the cave does have a rocky and slightly sandy shore. It looked like it was an ancient site from my previous world or something.

"Hm, this is good. Now we have to open a hole from here to the outside," I said, jumping down from the boat and walking to the end of the cave.

Hm? I saw a narrow hole with sunlight pouring inside. What is this? It's so small that no human can go through.

Placing my kanabo down, I clenched my fist and punched it lightly, continuing to punch as it chipped away at the hole.

Rambo stood beside me, watching silently.

After quite a bit of punching, I could see that the hole was now big enough for humans to go through.

Looking inside the hole, I saw grass and trees covering the view. I see, this is exactly what I wanted—a way to enter this cave without the necessity of going through the sea.

"Jackpot."