"Claim reward." In the quiet of the room, feeling refreshed and invigorated, Leo gave the mental command. The lingering, pleasant fatigue of his 'training session' with Miss Valentine had been completely wiped away, leaving him sharp and clear-headed.
A new experience, +1. The unique flair each woman brought was something he was coming to appreciate more and more.
It was worth noting that every woman he had personally… tutored, regardless of whether they had been initially hesitant or eagerly willing, had one thing in common after several hours. Their subsequent reactions were always the same—a mixture of profound satisfaction, deep exhaustion, and a newfound, almost proprietary closeness. Those in the know, knew.
[Congratulations, Host, on obtaining the Tri-Haki Training Manual.]
What was this now? A manual? Could you just learn from a book and instantly awaken all three types of Haki? That seemed… too straightforward.
Skeptical, Leo immediately focused on the system's annotation that appeared in his mind's eye.
Through optimization, the user can rapidly improve and master the quality and application techniques of all three forms of Haki.Observation Haki: Meditation Training Method!Armament Haki: Tempering Training Method!Conqueror's Haki: Dream-State Training Method!This manual is suitable for anyone who has already awakened Haki.
After reading the system's explanation, a wave of intense, almost disbelieving excitement washed over Leo. In simple terms, by practicing according to this Tri-Haki Training Manual, relentless, quantitative training would lead to a qualitative leap, allowing one to master higher-level Haki applications in the shortest possible time.
Applications like foreseeing the future with Observation Haki, or the even rarer, almost mythical ability to listen to the thoughts of others.
Internal Destruction with Armament Haki, bypassing an opponent's external defenses to shatter them from within.
The ultimate applications of Conqueror's Haki: Infusing it into attacks, or even the legendary ability to negate an opponent's Future Sight—what some might call 'Observation Kill.'
But what truly astounded him was the Dream-State Training Method for Conqueror's Haki. You're telling me you could get stronger just by sleeping?! It sounded too good to be true.
He currently had twenty Conqueror's Haki fruits stored away. He could awaken the rarest form of Haki in twenty women. With this Dream-State method, in the not-too-distant future, the Leo Pirates wouldn't just have a handful of strong fighters; they would boast twenty users potentially capable of Conqueror's Infusion?! Maybe even Future Sight negation?!
This… this was the joy of being a player with cheats enabled?! The sheer, broken potential of it was staggering.
You probably couldn't find twenty natural Conqueror's Haki users in the entire world! Conqueror's Infusion was a tier of power only a handful of the very strongest ever achieved. As for Future Sight negation, so far, it seemed to be a unique trait of one man: Red-Haired Shanks.
But that was fine. Given enough time, nothing was impossible for Leo. When the time came, he'd lead his twenty women, all capable of shutting down an enemy's foresight, turning the most formidable opponents into blind and deaf lambs to the slaughter.
In a way, among the three Haki types, the strongest wasn't necessarily Conqueror's, but the pinnacle of Observation. It was just that in the New World, basic Observation Haki became so common it seemed less special, obscuring its truly terrifying advanced forms.
"Time to start training!!"
For Leo, that meant he was going to bed. The path to ultimate power, it seemed, began with a good nap.
The Next Morning. The Dining Table.
With the recent additions of Miss Valentine and Vivi, the once adequately-sized dining table in the Going Merry's galley was now noticeably cramped. Elbows brushed as they passed dishes, and the cheerful clatter of cutlery was accompanied by the warm press of shoulders.
"Carmen," Leo said between bites of a perfectly fluffy omelet, "remember to commission a bigger table when we reach Alabasta. The seating arrangements are only going to get more… populous in the future."
"Yes, Captain," Carmen replied with a cheerful, knowing smile, already mentally designing a grand, expandable feast-worthy table.
"Here, these are for you." After this brief exchange, Leo brought out several sleek, bound booklets—the physical manifestations of the Tri-Haki Training Manuals—handing one to each of the women who had already awakened Haki. "Train diligently according to the methods inside. It won't be long before the strength and quality of your Haki improves dramatically."
The women took the manuals with curious expressions, their breakfast momentarily forgotten as they began flipping through the pages. The air filled with the soft rustle of parchment.
"Foreseeing the future?! Observation Haki can be used like this?!" Nami exclaimed, her eyes wide as she read about advanced precognition.
"Wait, what's this about 'reading hearts'?!" she continued, her face twisting into a strange mixture of intrigue and horror. It could actually let you hear others' silent thoughts?! That was terrifying! Her secret stashes of money, her private calculations… all of it would be exposed!
"Leo," Kaya said, her voice taking on a slightly suspicious, flustered tone as she looked at him, "you haven't… you haven't already learned how to read hearts, have you?" As a proper young lady, she sometimes had… private, fleeting thoughts, especially about a certain captain. Had he been listening to all of them without her knowing?
"Yeah, Leo, fess up!" Nami chimed in, pointing an accusatory finger, playing along but with genuine curiosity. "Have you been eavesdropping on our private thoughts this whole time?"
Leo shook his head, a lazy, knowing smirk playing on his lips. He leaned back in his chair, the picture of relaxed confidence. "Not yet, I haven't. But do I even need to listen to your thoughts?" He let the question hang in the air for a moment, his eyes twinkling with amusement as they swept over their blushing faces. "During our… intensive one-on-one training sessions… don't you end up telling me everything yourselves?"
The memories of those vividly colorful declarations and pleas, uttered in moments of passionate, uninhibited abandon, flooded back to each of them. A chorus of blushes erupted around the table. Nami looked away, fiddling with her orange hair; Kaya studied the grain of the wooden table with intense interest; Tashigi adjusted her glasses unnecessarily; even the normally bold Carmen suddenly found her tea fascinating. They looked down at their plates, their ears turning bright red, suddenly unable to form a coherent retort.
So shameless!
They really shouldn't have brought it up. Once again, Leo had rendered them speechless with a single, well-aimed remark. They were starting to realize the full extent of their predicament: they were utterly outmatched by him—both in a straight fight and in any kind of verbal sparring.
Sigh... it seemed they were destined to be thoroughly and happily 'bullied' by Leo for a lifetime.
Little Garden. The Beach.
On a comfortable striped lounger, a tall, lanky man with the number '3' sculpted prominently from his own wax hair sipped a cup of expensive black tea, enjoying what he considered a well-deserved vacation. The prehistoric roars of the island's giants echoed in the distance, a mere backdrop to his leisure.
"Hahaha... It's only a high-level agent of my caliber who can enjoy such luxurious treatment," Mr. 3, Galdino, mused aloud, his voice dripping with theatrical self-satisfaction. "I truly feel sorry for those lower-numbered fellows. They're probably still busy running trivial errands for the Boss right now, poor, overworked things."
This incredibly narcissistic monologue earned a silent, utterly deadpan stare from the small girl sitting nearby on a picnic blanket, diligently working on a watercolor painting of a strangely serene-looking tyrannosaurus.
"Mr. 3..."
"Miss Golden Week!" Galdino hissed, making a frantic, exaggerated shushing gesture. "Have you no professional decorum? Shouting my name out in the open like that! What if we're discovered?!" He then primly adjusted the giant, waxy '3' atop his head, as if it were a crown and not a giant beacon announcing his identity.
Miss Golden Week slowly looked up from her painting, her large, expressive eyes lingering on the gigantic, impossible-to-miss number '3' on his forehead. With a sign that obvious, it'd be harder for people not to discover you, she thought, her face a perfect mask of blank stoicism. Such a narcissist.
"Miss Golden Week, what have you been looking at so intently these past few days?" Galdino asked, taking another languid sip of his tea. "You seem to have lost all interest in our delightful vacation."
He casually glanced at the stack of papers she had tucked beside her paint set.
"It's our latest assignment from the Boss," Miss Golden Week stated in her characteristically flat, emotionless tone, handing the topmost paper—a mission briefing—over to him.
"Oh? Is that all... WHAT?!" Galdino's screech was so sharp and sudden he spat his mouthful of tea all over his linen trousers. "Such important news, and you're only telling me now?! If we delay the Boss's mission, we'll both be in deep, unimaginable trouble!"
He snatched the paper from her small hand and scanned it rapidly, his eyes darting back and forth. Soon, a deep, irritated frown creased his forehead.
"Mr. 5 is dead… and Miss Valentine has turned traitor?!" he read aloud, his voice rising with each word. A condescending, nasal laugh escaped him. "Kuhahaha... What a pair of useless failures! Utterly pathetic!"
Galdino sneered, his own pride inflating like a balloon. "Does that weight-obsessed simpleton truly believe she can escape the long and powerful grasp of the Boss? How naïve!" It just went to show, all agents with a number below 3 were nothing but brainless, incompetent trash, unworthy of the Baroque Works name. In the end, it always fell to a man of his refined intellect and power to clean up the mess and deal with these troublesome interlopers.
Once he successfully completed this mission, he was sure to earn the Boss's special favor. A promotion was inevitable! Perhaps he'd even take that brutish Mr. 1's spot as the right hand!
The thought was immensely, deeply pleasing.
"Come, Miss Golden Week," Galdino said, rising from his lounger with a newfound, self-important sense of purpose, brushing tea droplets from his pants. "Our idyllic vacation is regrettably over. It's time to get to work."
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T/N :
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