Chapter 228
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Amon had expected many things, even something as absurd as this one right here: "Advanced Conqueror's Haki holds the essence of lightning, that's why it looks like cracking black lightning to begin with. Using it, the more proficient users can achieve lightning speed." He indeed expected something like this, but that didn't happen, luckily. But the thing that did happen was still unnerving and sudden.
Amon stood a few hundred meters far from Shanks, the red horizon stretching in the far west.
"That was an interesting technique."
Shanks smiled at this. "It's nothing impressive, Captain Roger could do more."
Amon stared at him briefly. Amon was pretty confused at first, but he can, after all, think thousands of times faster than normal humans, so by now he has reached multiple possibilities. But…
"Mind explaining what it was, exactly?"
...Why not ask the man outright? Living in this world for so long, he knew how the people were. Shanks wouldn't mind explaining this, he just seemed like that one guy.
And indeed, Shanks laughed softly.
"The three types of Haki - Armament, Observation, and Conqueror's - have three stages to them." He smiled in a friendly way. "In armament, you can project your will to your skin, giving yourself additional durability, that's the first stage. In the 2nd stage, you can project your will outside your skin, like an outer armour, or Ryou as most people know it. The 3rd stage is something I don't possess, so I can't tell you more about it.
After a breath of time, he continued. "Let's skip Observation too, you know better than me in that regard anyway. Moving to Conqueror's Haki, it is… well, similar to Armament."
Shanks shrugged. "First of all, you need to realise why everyone does not possess Conqueror's Haki. To… put it in simpler terms, only people with the Will of a Supreme King can use Conqueror's Haki, and like armament, there are 3-stages on this Haki too."
"Oh? I wasn't expecting you to start teaching me right here…. Though I guess I have time." Amon chuckled, he was interested.
Shanks chuckled too and continued, there was a more in-depth reason to why he was doing this, but Amon couldn't know.
"When someone uses Armament, for normal people it comes out in a smooth flow, but for people with Supreme King Will, the power comes crude, filtered, to match that of normal people. The nature of Armament is like a tranquil fountain, while the nature of Conqueror's is like a forest fire."
"Contrary to Armament, while using Conqueror's Haki you can project your Supreme King in its true form, there is no filter holding it back. The raging fire, when projected outside, burns the will of the people in range, causing the weaker willed people to simply lose their consciousness."
"I assume this is Conqueror's Haki's first stage?"
It was obvious, and Amon just said to clear up that he was still listening, but Shanks' shake of the head caused him to grow confused.
"Truthfully, it's both yes and no."
Amon frowned as Shanks continued.
"Conqueror's Haki does indeed possess three stages, just like I said, but… even though there is indeed a fixed hierarchy between them, you don't always start at the weakest stage, sometimes, you start at the middle or even the highest stage."
"The first stage is - unleashing your will like a sea of fire. The second is - Coating your body with this sea of fire. The third is - Manipulating this sea of fire to form anything.
From these three, people can randomly be born with any of them, instead of the weakest, unlike Armament."
Shanks revealed a mysterious smile. As Amon stilled in his spot. He didn't… know what he was expecting from Shanks' explanation, but this certainly was not it.
Shanks continued. "For example, you started with the weakest one, Projecting the sea of fire outside, which is the most common." Amon didn't know how Shanks got this news. "But Kaido unlocked the strong one as his starter-skill, the ability to coat his blows with the raging fire, which is fairly rare. Finally, I… started with the strongest, the ability to manipulate and form anything with the raging fire, which is the least common, and I only know 3 people with this power alive right now."
The first two, he was familiar with, but the third one caused Amon to remember Zoro's Asura technique. From what he recalled, Zoro supposedly used his Conqueror's Haki to form two more heads and six more swords - so he started with the strongest Conqueror's Haki type? This was almost like those affinity thingies from Cultivation Novels.
….On second thought, he recalled Raki had a similar technique to Zoro as well… she used it against Tesoro back in the day.
'Uh, fuck.'
And here he was having fun teasing her.
Shanks also didn't need to explain that even if someone started with any of the skills, that someone can always gain the two other ones by training, though they'd surely be less strong than a person who started on that path.
"There are anomalies." Shanks suddenly said. "For example, Monkey D. Garp has a Supreme Will, but he can't use Conqueror's Haki for reasons I am not aware of. However, he can use his Supreme Will on his Armament, which creates an almost similar effect to Conqueror's Coating, though he even has some… other benefits. Anyway, we are getting off-topic."
Shanks raised a finger, visible reddish-purple haki slowly gathering on its tips, it imitated the Hakai Energy from DBZ… almost. "This is what I started with, the ability to manipulate the raging fire. Here, you can project your Supreme Haki outside your body, and can even give it any colour. Most importantly," the ball slowly twisted, forming a… square box. "You can create any construct as long as your imagination allows you to, and the more proficient you are the more durable the construct is."
It was when a purple half-transparent square box, similar to the one on Shanks' fingertips, suddenly visualised around Amon, trapping him inside.
"That's how I stopped your movements before. I made an invisible box around you, causing you to become disconnected from the outside world."
"..."
Now, this. This was the bullshit he was talking about.
—★—
That's not how Haki is supposed to work. This is basically Green Lantern shit...
On second thought, didn't green lanterns use their wills too? Fuck, apparently Oda took inspiration from that. Ugh, and I knew nothing of this.
Hah… I wonder how strong Roger, or Xebec, was. Though I shouldn't worry about the past, I still have Imu to worry about.
I am barely concerned about Shanks. He is… well, strong, but I am not just a kid either. This power might be new to me, and I might not be skilled enough to use it yet, but I have time.
"Then, let's continue where we left."
Shanks had explained enough as he dashed at me, invisible to the eyes of normal people, maybe even Yonko Commander's eyes, but I could see him move. I could see him jump down to his atoms. There is a reason why Shanks said I knew more about Observation than him.
Shanks blitzed behind me, his single hand phasing through his Haki Construct that I couldn't phase through, meaning the creator of the construct can phase through them at will, and punched towards me.
However, I entered my top speed, in the ever-so-familiar slow world. I simply clad my fingertips with my Goro-Goro's electricity and Conqueror Haki's crackling backlighting, giving it a mix, making it stronger than it should be since both are lighting, even if one is spiritual and one is real.
If I can't use my lighting to hurt it, I would use my own Conqueror's Haki. It's like using a thorn to remove a thorn.
I simply jabbed my finger on the 'Wall' in front of me, just while Shanks' fist kept coming towards me. He was fast, probably as fast as the Kizaru who I fought years ago, but I was faster.
My finger simply hit the wall without creating a hole unlike how I was expecting, but a dent did appear, so I continued thrusting my finger on the wall before a small hole was created on the 4th thrust. I simply transformed into my logia form and phased through the hole at lightning speed.
I don't want to fight this man, not because I am scared, but because I have better things to do. Focusing on this battle would get my Sins killed, after all, they are against all three factions present there, Whitebeard Pirates, Marines and Beasts Pirates. I can't leave them to die, so I have to go.
Bzzt~
I delicately made a sound, I can now control the sound of my teleportation, but Shanks needed to know I am gone, and that he did.
Leaving the moving-slowly Shanks behind, I flew down to the sea surface just where Shanks' ship was waiting. I simply damaged the parts of the ship that would allow it to travel and flew off, I don't need him to follow me.
Shanks said he can form things, so maybe he'd be able to form another ship too, but I doubt he can keep it charged enough to reach Marineford, because if he could… I wouldn't have been able to come out alive.
—★—
Bzzt~
His punch went through nothing as Shanks frowned and stopped.
Looking around he couldn't find Amon at all. Using his Observation Haki to search for Amon, he found something else instead, he realised that something had happened to his boat. Not enough to make it drown, but enough to render it useless for now.
Shanks clenched his jaws.
"Well, I delayed him for at least 20 minutes."
Shanks knew, from the get-go, that Amon could free himself anytime, the 'Voice' around him told him so, along with his own
Of course, this meant Amon would soon grow stronger, Shanks knew someone like him would be able to learn the 3rd skill in a few more years, but it was not as if that wouldn't have happened without him explaining it, he could have soon found out about it, anyway. Maybe right in this war? There is Sengoku and Kong there after all. If they decide to intervene… he'd learn about it anyway.
He just hoped… the 20 minutes he bought would be enough.
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Author's Note:
This is when things would start getting detached from normal One Piece... Just a heads-up.
What do you think of this new power-system though?