Nightin's Kanpo Kenpo relies on herbal medicine. Her physique is not particularly remarkable, but with the stimulation from the medicine, she can achieve many feats which are otherwise impossible to achieve, including the incredible ability to temporarily reverse aging.
However, such things also have their limits. Every medicine has a side effect, and herbal medicines are themselves toxic. Even medicines meant to nourish the body can turn from healing remedies into deadly poisons once the dosage reaches a certain threshold.
Nightin uses different combinations of medicines to neutralize their toxicity, but even so, her body has a tolerance limit. If the safe dosage is exceeded, Nightin may not go on a berserk rampage like Chopper, but it would still cause very serious consequences.
The Poison Heal ability, however, is different. The toxicity from herbal medicine is not the same as a special case like heavy metal poisoning. Poison Heal can perfectly neutralize herbal toxicity.
The effect of Poison Heal itself is to transform the damage caused by poisoning into the recovery of stamina and HP, turning a debuff into a buff.
In the Pokémon world, Trainers who own a Breloom will sometimes have it carry a Toxic Orb during battle. Breloom is one of the few Pokémon with the Poison Heal ability, and carrying a Toxic Orb triggers a fascinating chemical reaction.
The effect of the Toxic Orb is simple: it poisons the holder. Though it is called an orb, it is essentially a crystallization, or perhaps a stone, found within Poison-type Pokémon.
The Pokémon most known for producing Toxic Orbs are members of the Muk family. Due to the accumulation of toxins in their bodies, these strange beads form within them.
When Breloom uses a Toxic Orb to enter a badly poisoned state, it triggers Poison Heal's restorative effect, achieving an alternative form of self-circulation of energy within the body.
She didn't need something like a Toxic Orb. With Poison Heal as her safety net, Nightin could fight without worrying about the side effects of medicine, even incorporating stronger, more toxic medicines into her combat style. This is nothing short of an epic-level enhancement*. [TN: It's often used in gaming or tech contexts to describe a massive boost, major upgrade, or significantly powerful improvement.]
"It's been a long time since I felt this kind of vitality."
In her Breloom form, Nightin felt her limbs brimming with strength. It was the special vitality that "Zoan-type" brings to its host. After all, she was already 80 years old. Even with good care of her health, she was still an elderly.
Acier and Olga had both already lived for over 200 years, but they were special humans affected by Pure Gold. For more than a hundred years, time had stood still for them, and the years had left no trace on their bodies.
In everyday life, it was fine, but in battle, Nightin heavily relied on the secret medicine "Ginseng Newcomer." Only with it could she temporarily regain the vigor of her youth and unleash her full strength.
"Lord Arceus, thank you for the gift."
Her rejuvenated body moved so fluidly that even the motion of kneeling on one knee was smooth. When bending down, Nightin didn't feel the usual protest from her lower back, which was excellent news for her.
"Go do what you need to do. Your old room is still there. If there's nothing else, you can leave."
There were plenty of rooms on Onigashima, and losing one or two wouldn't make a difference. At Olga and Acier's suggestion, her room was naturally kept.
After the formalities were over, the three left Arceus's room and headed to Onigashima's gym. Nightin planned to get more familiar with her new ability.
The best sparring partner here was, of course, Olga, though Olga's current strength was somewhat over the top for Nightin.
Olga's close-combat fighting skills are not particularly strong, but it is in comparison to Jack and King. To others, her physical skills remain incredibly difficult to surpass, as she was, after all, one of the early trainees trained by Kaido.
As long as they aren't completely useless or their bodies haven't fully matured, anyone given to Kaido from a young age—if they survive—will at the very least not be weak, even if they don't become exceptionally strong. They'll have what it takes to carve out a place for themselves on the vast seas.
Rather than training with Olga, Nightin decided to find a stationary target, like a strength tester or something similar to try it out.
Before long, the three of them arrived at Onigashima's gym. Though it was called a gym, it was in fact also a martial arts arena. Besides the usual training equipment, it wasn't rare to see comrades sparring with each other.
It was a long-standing tradition of the Beasts Pirates: as long as they don't die, you can beat them within an inch of death. Because of this atmosphere, the Pokémon Center's doctor had set up a medical station right here, mainly to deal with sprains and bone-setting.
Most of the battles here were limited to contests of physical skills, and the types of injuries were likewise generally confined to a certain range.
"Sister Nightin, you've come back too? Brother Acier's been talking about you quite a bit lately."
"Ahem, don't talk nonsense. That's slander."
The pirates engrossed in weight training hadn't noticed them yet, but the doctor sitting nearby did notice the two of them.
Nightin had not officially joined before, but her skills in herbology and bone setting had impressed doctors who were from all over the world.
Unlike these doctors, who were professionally trained in various countries, Nightin's prescriptions and techniques were rough, but their effectiveness was undeniable.
Especially her bone-setting techniques, which were derived from a martial art originally developed for combat.
To better dislocate an enemy's joints, Nightin had developed an exceptional understanding of the human body's structure.
Although Acier was a research nerd, his own daughter was one of the Calamities, so his name naturally carried some weight as well.
As for why the doctor ignored Olga herself, it was because when they came down earlier, Olga had casually found an excuse to slip away, giving the two of them plenty of space.
"That's right, I'm back. This time, I won't be leaving again."
"Well, that'll make Brother Acier happy. Oh right, could you take a look at this for me? I'm not quite sure about the position of his arm."
Acier's interruption did not stop him. The tone and expression made it clear that Acier did not really hate him for such remarks. The doctor even joked a bit before asking Nightin to help treat the patient in front of him.
"This sprain… what were you doing?"
"Well…"
"It's his first time on Onigashima, and he was feeling a bit cocky. He saw the Machamp and was unconvinced, insisting on sparring with them. As a result, he took a Submission head-on. Lucky for him, if that Machamp hadn't had a good temper, his neck might have been snapped."
At this, the doctor unhappily gave his shoulder a slap, making him grimace in pain, but he didn't dare talk back.
For pirates, doctors were an extremely important profession. Usually, no one would choose to offend them, because if they got injured during a mission, in most cases they would have to rely on the doctor's treatment.
The doctor then gave a brief summary of what this pirate had done, which required some context about the Beasts Pirates' current promotion system.
If a regular pirate wanted to become one of the Blessed Ones, the first step was to pass a review and become eligible to be stationed in Wano Country. This counted as officially joining the Beasts Pirates' main force.
If their strength or accumulated achievements weren't enough for this, they could only remain on the outer islands, where in most cases the best they could get was an artificial Devil Fruit.
Being able to enter Wano Country meant the pirate had already surpassed most ordinary members and become part of the elite. Typically, pirates newly arrived on Onigashima were full of pride, and pride made it easy to make mistakes.
In the training ground, ignoring his companions' attempts to stop him, he chose to duel a nearby Machamp.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. Battle-loving Machamp wouldn't refuse such a thing.
But wanting to show off after successfully entering Onigashima, he chose a Machamp that looked particularly strong. Around it lay many other defeated Machamp, which was proof enough that this one was an elite among its kind.
However, he failed to notice another Machamp nearby, a light green one watching the scene.
Light green meant that this Machamp was a Shiny Pokémon. Most importantly, this one was female, a Shiny female Machamp.
In the eyes of the Machamp, a shiny individual was like a foreign princess. Many young Machamp, and even Machoke and Machop, sought her attention.
Within the Machamp species, the one with the most developed muscles, the greatest strength, and the strongest combat ability is the most trustworthy, and will also gain the priority in choosing a mate.
The simplest way to prove this was to fight.
These Machamps are the young males who had advanced through rounds of competition into the final round of the courtship tournament. This is the most crucial round, as they are just a step away from winning over a beautiful Machamp.
To the Machamp, the pirate's challenge at this time was not a mere challenge. Combined with his slightly provocative tone, in their eyes this was an enemy trying to "steal their wife."
The genes passed down in their species meant they could not refuse such a challenge in a courtship setting; refusal was equivalent to admitting defeat and giving up. So it went all out, using its specialty move: Submission.
Machamp has a signature move: they would grab an opponent with all four arms and twist them up in an intricate hold, which was very hard to break free from. This was called the Machamp special.
After that, they would roll along the ground together with the opponent. In the process, both sides would take damage, though as the user, Machamp would suffer far less from it.
Fighting a Machamp wasn't impossible. Fighting-type Elite Four Bruno often trained bare-handed with his Machamp. Just like his legendary feat of capturing a giant Onix with his bare hands, these are all part of his daily life.
But even Bruno, a human-shaped Pokémon in his own right and proficient in many martial arts, had to be careful when facing Machamp. This arrogant pirate had run right into a courting Machamp's path, and the result was serious dislocation of both arms.
No one mocked him, though. Things like this often happened among Onigashima's newcomers.
This included, but was not limited to, getting electrocuted by Ampharos, kissed by Alolan Muk, taking a direct hit from Tinkaton's hammer, playing with Bisharp's blades, or foolishly touching the burning coal pile on Carkol's back.
To date, the unluckiest pirate was one who had received a "loving hug" from Perona's Bewear. Compared to that guy, the one who wrestled with Machamp could only rank as the second most unfortunate.
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