— — — — — —
About eight or nine hours later
Stepping out of the gravity chamber, Veyron stretched his limbs, savoring the sweet relief of normal gravity.
He waded into the sea for a quick rinse, then made his way back to the beach.
Aside from Merlin, someone else was there now—Fujiwara Chika, looking kind of down.
"What's going on?" Veyron asked as he plopped down in a beach chair next to Merlin.
"It's still about the Haki thing," Merlin answered.
Ever since Hancock opened up her gravity training chamber, both Selena and Fubuki—who only had Observation Haki before—had managed to unlock Armament Haki in the past few days.
(Poor Batman)
With Hancock and Veyron both having mastered all three types of Haki, and Gwen already having two after that Apocalypse world mission, two-color Haki was basically becoming the norm in the chat group.
But Chika? She still hadn't made any progress in either Observation or Armament Haki.
"I thought maybe with these eyes, I'd have a shot," Chika mumbled. "The X-ray vision might help me sense Armament Haki by seeing how the body's structured."
"Or maybe the Insight Vision could work like Gwen's danger-sensing ability to help me trigger Observation Haki... but nope."
She activated her recently acquired Byakugan—won from a ten-pull draw—and her previously bright blue eyes shifted to pale white, veins popping up around them.
"Wait, hold up," Veyron said, giving her eyes a curious look. "That X-ray vision... does it work through clothes?"
"No! And—not like that!" Chika snapped, blushing. "In that vision mode, people look like these freaky clusters of muscles, bones, and blood vessels. It's even worse than an anatomy class!"
"Ah... got it."
Veyron leaned back, shifting the conversation. "Honestly, I think you're stuck in a negative loop with your Haki training."
Haki was all about inner will and conviction. The stronger your belief in yourself, the more powerful your Haki became.
But belief had to come from the heart—it couldn't just be faked.
And right now, Chika was trapped in the classic "I can't do it, so I doubt myself, which makes me even less able to do it" spiral.
"I know... I figured that out too," Chika sighed. "But just knowing it doesn't mean I can magically fix my subconscious."
"How about trying a different path for now?" Veyron offered. "Once you've grown stronger through another route, you can circle back and maybe Haki will come to you naturally."
"Sure, but it's not like I have many options," Chika said, ticking them off on her fingers.
"Fubuki-senpai, Selena-senpai, and Gwen-senpai's worlds are all crawling with crazy-strong heroes and villains. I wouldn't dare set foot there—and besides, their powers don't really transfer to anyone else. Like Gwen's spider stuff—only works for her.
"Magic from Miss Merlin's world could be more versatile, but even if I could extract mana, all that stuff like magic circuits and spell matrices is way over my head."
"What about spiritual energy?" Veyron cut in.
"Huh?"
"I'm talking about the spiritual energy from my world. Interested?"
He raised his hand, forming a swirling yin-yang symbol from black and white spiritual energy. "This kind of energy comes from a person's natural spiritual nature."
"No need for magic circles or any external framework. It's just like Haki—once awakened, you can use it freely even in other worlds."
"Wait, what?!" Chika blinked in disbelief.
Veyron was known for being very careful and reserved.
This wasn't just Merlin's opinion—everyone in the group agreed.
Most of the girls had shared pretty detailed info about their own worlds after a month or two in the chat group.
But Veyron? Even after the group leveled up—unlocked livestreams, mission warps, all sorts of new comm tools—they barely knew anything about his world.
They only knew it was a kind of ancient setting, and that supernatural stuff existed there.
The ancient setting part came up because Veyron had once asked for help buying modern supplies—snacks, tech, etc.
Veyron didn't talk much in the chat group, and for some reason, he never shared any details about the other worlds either—like he hadn't even watched Marvel, DC, or One Piece.
As for the supernatural stuff in his world, he had once mentioned that his world had gods, yokai, shrine maiden, and that he'd awakened spiritual energy himself.
But beyond that? Zilch.
So when he suddenly started talking about bringing Chika into his world to awaken spiritual power, everyone's ears perked up.
Before Chika could even respond, someone else jumped in—
"Wow, Veyron~ Are you finally gonna be honest with us for once?"
"…" Veyron looked at Miss Fun. "Why does that sound so shady coming from you?"
"Does it?" Merlin blinked innocently, locking eyes with him.
"…Let's just pretend it didn't," Veyron muttered, brushing it off before turning to Chika. "So? Wanna give it a shot? I've got a feeling—no proof, but a gut feeling—you'll have pretty good aptitude for it."
"Of course I do!" Chika answered instantly, like she was afraid he'd change his mind. "Just wait a sec, I need to go reset my mission status and open a time gap. Then we're good to go!"
"Time gap again?" Merlin cut in. "Didn't you say you wanted to ease your family into your new powers slowly? Didn't want to freak them out?"
"Ah, whatever." Chika shrugged, full-on embracing the chaos. "I think my sisters already know something's off about me. They just haven't figured out what yet, so they're pretending nothing's wrong.
"If I stay in Veyron's world too long, I'll just borrow that charm you mentioned—the one that hides any weirdness about the wearer. Sound good?"
.
.
.