Previous chapter Recap:-
Rayleigh explains what is haki, Amy finds out her husband is alive and has managed to escape Due to Kaido. The five elders cameo.
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"Good you all are ready to begin your Haki training." Rayleigh said with a satisfied smile on his face upon seeing Lucius, Ginny and Kuma being able to casually run around while each carrying a ship on their back.
Lucius stretched his now lean and athletic body after throwing the Oro Jackson back into the sea. His face looked leaner and sharp despite still carrying that kid face. His physique was now quite similar to Sung Jin Woo from Solo leveling.
It had been around four months since their intense training had begun. During that time their growth was exponential. Especially Lucius and Kuma who carried enough strength to lift casually Oro Jackson now. Making the likes of Shanks and Buggy somewhat envious since they hadn't managed to do that yet without using Haki.
Alongside their physical training. Rayleigh had chosen to enrich them in specific fields that they had shown interest towards. Such as Kuma who had chosen to learn more about Navigation after realizing how versatile his devil fruit can become with that knowledge.
"Kuma, bring us to this island." Rayleigh mentioned while pointing to specific coordinates of an island placed in the calm belt. After Kuma used his devil fruit. They had managed to arrive on that island within 3 days.
"Let's see. Yep, There's enough targets for everyone." Rayleigh mused after roughly scanning the entire island with his observation haki. He then looked at his students. Specifically Kuma, Ginny and Lucius who were here and said "I have brought you all to this island because The best way to learn Haki is.. via fights. More specifically deadly fights that would challenge you and your will power to survive. So for at least the next 3 months you three will be trying to survive on this island. But don't worry, this specific spot will always be safe for you guys if you ever want to escape from some danger. That I promise."
"However, before that, Let me give you a basic rundown of Haki." Rayleigh said before asking "Does anyone remember what I said about haki?"
"Yes, Sensei!" The trio shouted their answer. Rayleigh, feeling satisfied nodded his head saying "Still, Let's give you a refresher… Haki is…" before explaining what he had previously.
"Previously, I had said there are three types of Haki. But don't mistake them as something rigid and fixed in concept, Rather treat them as colors. Similar to how colors can be mixed together. Haki types can also be mixed to unlock more advanced forms of Haki." Rayleigh elaborated further "Such as emission." He picked up a fist-sized for demonstration.
They watched with keen attention as Rayleigh's right hand turned black yet he didn't make any movements to destroy the rock instead the rock crumbled from inside out. The trio felt amazed by that display. Rayleigh then explained "Emission is achieved by Combining Color of Observation with Color of Armament. The former allows you to properly guide the latter so it flows into your target's body before causing damage to their inside. Rendering their inner organs damaged enough to even kill them outright."
"But that's still quite far away. For now, Let's focus on learning Armament since that's the easiest to pick up." Rayleigh said, bringing their attention back to their training. " The main concept you need to understand to awaken this, is by believing in the statement 'I firmly believe I can hit you, No matter how invulnerable you think you are.' This is mainly for when you want to attack a target."
"For Defense, It's 'I firmly believe, Nothing can harm me', Of course neither of these statements should be taken as the absolute truth. They are merely examples of what kind of mindset you should have while unlocking Armament." Rayleigh sternly warned them so they don't go astray.
Rayleigh then smiled mysteriously as he said "Now, It's time for your training to begin. It seems your future opponents are already here." Surprising the trio who immediately looked around to notice quite a hoard of giant animals were running towards them from all Cardinal directions.
"Don't worry. As I promised… this is your safe spot." As Rayleigh spoke, His eyes suddenly focused while a burst of dark red aura rushed out of his body in every direction. The trio watched with agaped expression as every single animal that was rushing to hunt them, came to a complete halt. Before Their bodies shivered as if they encountered death itself. Quite a few fainted immediately. Foam coming out of their mouth. But most ran away faster than they arrived here.
Ginny with starry eyes quickly asked Rayleigh "Sensei! What was that just now? Is that also haki?" Rayleigh smiled widely before saying "That is… Conqueror's Haki. This haki is said to be so rare, only one in approximately ten million are born with it."
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Lucius was about to do something very bold. But it was a calculated risk he was willing to take instead of being caught unprepared by enemies in the future. He had already awakened his armament Haki on the third day but he had decided to test and hone his haki further for two and a half weeks before ultimately deciding He.. would tell Rayleigh about his Stand.
"Rayleigh Sensei, I have something to show you." Lucius said after arriving in front of Rayleigh. Who's eyes widened in surprise when he noticed a vague fog-like substance eject from Lucius's body standing behind him like a Guardian. 'As expected. People with Observation Haki truly can see it.' Lucius thought with delight, noticing Rayleigh's Reaction.
"… Interesting." Rayleigh muttered while rubbing his beard. Lucius then gave a vague explanation of what he should be revealing "This is what I have named 'The Stand'. I don't quite know why but I had discovered this entity instinctively protecting me when I was about to fall from the roof of our church. From my tests so far. I have concluded it's quite powerful and seems to follow my internal commands. Also yes I have checked and I am not a devil fruit user."
"Does it appear as an entity to you? To me I can only vaguely make out a humanoid floating fog behind you And that's only because I have observation haki active right now. otherwise if I intentionally look at it without haki. Then I can't see anything." Rayleigh voiced what he saw. Then gave his own speculation "That possibly means Haki can work as a counter to it… So I presume revealing this to me means you want my help in order to master this ability?"
Lucius nodded in agreement then said "Yes. More specifically I wanted to see if I can use my Haki via this Stand and how powerful it actually is." Lucius's words caused Rayleigh' eyes to shine in intrigue. so he immediately launched an attack against Lucius without a warning and he was pleasantly surprised when the stand managed to precisely stop him albeit the strength was quite lacking.
Rayleigh then punched the stand without using haki yet his hand passed right through it as if he was fighting against a fog logia fruit user. After a few more non haki attacks he decided to cover his hand in basic Armament before launching another punch at the stand.
This time there was a reaction. Rayleigh was able to 'Touch' The stand however he still failed to deal any meaningful damage to it. Thus he decisively punched with Emission instead yet he controlled it to the lowest he possibly could as he still wasn't sure if it would cause any damage to Lucius.
*Cough* Lucius let out a gentle cough as a drop of blood came out of his nostril. Seeing that Rayleigh immediately stopped the test and checked up on him. "You alright?" Rayleigh asked with concern. Lucius replied back "Yeah, It felt like someone punched my nose, everything else seems to be fine."
Rayleigh let out a sigh in relief. Then saying "Let's stop the tests for now and assess the results." and walking back to his previous rock sitting spot with Lucius. "First, To give you a Rough estimate on how powerful your 'Stand' is currently. You can probably win against someone with Vice admiral strength and no Garp doesn't count." Rayleigh said after contemplating.
"Second, The stand's reaction speed is probably near instant so no attack should be able to hit you unless it can overwhelm your stand completely." Rayleigh analyzed with an intrigued smile however his expression turned peculiar when he said "Third… Your stand is truly broken because only by using Emission was I able to hurt it at the end. Which seems to transfer into an outer injury for you. Hmmm. I think infusion might be the most fatal counter for you." Rayleigh Lightly elaborated on what he meant " Infusion is basically the same as Emission but With the additional usage of conqueror's haki. So it's quite deadly and I can probably count all users with my fingers."
"But." Rayleigh spoke with narrowed eyes. "That is only when regards to your Stand not your physical Body." Then he chuckled lightly before saying "Either way you have a strategic advantage in battles, because fighting you, would be the same as fighting two vice admirals at the same time. Yes, yes. you can finally compete against a vice admiral since you have unlocked at least armament."
Lucius's eyes glowed as he eagerly asked "Do you have any suggestions on how I could make my stand use haki?" Rayleigh after contemplating "Hmm. There probably is a way that I could think of. Earlier you mentioned something about This stand following your internal commands… That could also apply with Haki. Go ahead try"
Lucius wasn't quite truthful regarding that. The stand, in actuality, didn't need any internal commands but rather.. he could control it as if it was his own body and he had already tested earlier to see if his stand could use haki. Yes. It very much could.
But Lucius had still pretended to not fully grasp that simple idea because It was a strategic test by him to see if revealing his stand to Rayleigh would actually be beneficial or not. And it has proven to be very helpful indeed.
"Sigh… I hope nobody even considers making you an enemy. For their own sanity and what you would do in retaliation with this broken ability" Rayleigh bitterly commented as Lucius affirmed his stand could use haki. "Now tell your stand to punch me with armament." Rayleigh said quickly refocusing on the matter at hand.
'As expected… Roger was right. The world itself favors him.'Rayleigh thought Internally as he was punched near instantly with a haki fused punch that he wouldn't have been able to defend against if he hadn't applied armament beforehand.
"Lucius… tell me the truth. Are you actually the Protagonist?" Rayleigh asked with a hint of amusement. Lucius didn't reply but merely showed a sweet smile causing Rayleigh to shake his head to rid of such silly thoughts.
"This might seem odd… But I would suggest not using your stand in battle against people until you are sure you can kill them off or you become strong enough to defeat me." Rayleigh suddenly suggested with a serious look on his face "I know you probably don't plan to, considering how smart you are. But I still felt obligated to warn you as your teacher." hearing those words of concern made Lucius inwardly happy.
Seeing Lucius' sweet smile Rayleigh lightly added "Although if you have to use it.. Then I think using them as a way to distract the enemy would be best.. considering how fast your stand is. You could probably imitate a bullet's speed and poke a hole with the stand's finger if it has any."
"Now… Let's Focus on your Observation Haki Training. I estimate it will be awakened within a week or so." Rayleigh spoke with almost complete confidence then began explaining haki.
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Word count: 2006
Author's note:
Sorry if this chapter feels dry to read or awkward. While writing it I was feeling tired and unmotivated so I didn't have the same fervor as when I wrote previous chapters.
Suggest ideas if you have any or areas I could improve.