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**[Cover Story: Big News 5: ‘Why are you looking for this person?’]**
**[South Blue. A passerby, unable to bear it any longer, sternly warns the clueless old man that the person he’s looking for is extremely dangerous— a fearsome Devil Fruit ability user! The old man, puzzled, mutters that he came here precisely because he was curious about that power…]**
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“But… it seems really hard…” Robin frowned after listening for a while.
“It sounds pretty simple to me…” Liam stroked his chin. “Basically, it’s some sort of energy hidden within the body, right? The hardest part, I think, is that first step— figuring out how to find that power within yourself.”
Given his current level of control over his body, Liam thought that if Haki existed within him, he should have already discovered it by now. According to what Rayleigh told Luffy in the manga, Haki exists within everyone, but most people can’t perceive it, let alone use it.
Isn’t that a contradiction?
Liam could now command his stomach to instantly secrete large amounts of gastric acid to digest tons of food. He could even control his scalp to make his hair move, grow new teeth instantly after drinking milk, and concentrate the power of every muscle fiber to make himself as hard as steel.
If he pushed himself, he even suspected he could speed up the flow of blood in his veins.
At this rate, Liam wondered if he might even be able to regenerate limbs like a Namekian.
Yet, despite having mastered what seemed like more advanced techniques, it was as if he were blind to the Haki energy within him. This left him feeling baffled.
Still, his curiosity piqued, Liam began to listen more intently to the Kuja warrior’s explanation.
“…So, Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) is the armor of the Kuja warriors, and it gives every arrow we shoot incredible destructive power.”
Cosmos, with a long snake coiled around her arm, stretched the snake into a longbow. She drew the bow, and Busoshoku Haki quickly entwined around the arrow before she casually shot it at the ground. With a bang, the arrowhead created a small crater.
And this was just an ordinary wooden arrow— so plain that even a child could snap it.
“Cosmos Nee San is amazing…”
“Haki!”
The young Kuja trainees gazed in awe and admiration at the sight.
“Yawn…” Hancock yawned, clearly not paying much attention.
“…” Cosmos pulled another ordinary wooden arrow from her quiver and nocked it onto her snake bowstring. “Now, let’s play a little game with Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki)… Guess whether or not the arrow I’m about to shoot is entwined with Haki before it hits the ground.”
As soon as Cosmos drew her bow, the other girls were eager to guess. But Hancock casually said, “No Haki.”
“…Really?” Cosmos blinked, only to hear Hancock add, “Now it has. Are you playing with me, Cosmos?”
Genius girls are truly difficult to handle…
As Cosmos admired Hancock, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. When she was Hancock’s age, she had only just started Haki training and was far from mastering it.
She fired the arrow, and with another bang, it created a small crater in the ground.
“You’re amazing, Hancock!” Her friends praised her. “We couldn’t feel anything at all…”
“Yeah, Nee Sama, I can’t sense anything on that arrow either…”
Cosmos smiled, “You got it right, Hancock. But even if you’re amazing, you should be considerate of your fellow companions…”
She blinked, thinking that with Hancock’s talent, perhaps she might become the next Empress someday.
Hancock would be turning eleven in a few days, yet she already possessed strength that surpassed the average level of not just Kuja pirates but even Amazonian warriors in general.
If she weren’t so young, the Snake Princess would have likely already agreed to let her join the Kuja Pirates…
Hancock suddenly looked puzzled.
“What’s wrong?” Cosmos asked as she nocked another arrow with a smile. “Did Hancock’s Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) stop working? This arrow…”
“No!” Hancock turned her head, looking past the puzzled faces of the other girls. “Over there… Is there something there?”
Her slender finger pointed far off into the empty distance.
The younger Kuja trainee soldiers followed her gaze, their wide eyes filled with confusion.
“What’s there?”
“I don’t see anything…”
“Maybe there’s a wildflower on the ground? Oh, I must have been mistaken…”
“What are you all talking about!” The green-haired second sister, Sandersonia, shouted loudly. “My elder sister wouldn’t make a mistake!”
The orange-haired third sister, Marigold, looked at Hancock. “Elder sister…”
Hancock ignored the others. “Hmm…” She murmured, squinting her eyes at the blurry black figure ahead, and started walking toward it. “What exactly is that thing…”
As the beautiful young girl approached, Robin hurriedly asked, “Liam! What should we do?”
Liam calmly reassured her, “Why are you so nervous? Being discovered was always a possibility.”
After all, the entire island was filled with Haki users.
Even though they mostly specialized in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) to enhance their arrows, it was rare for someone to only know Busoshoku Haki without also having some proficiency in Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), or vice versa.
So, Liam had never expected to remain hidden indefinitely without being detected by the Kuja warriors on the island.
“Be careful, Hancock!” Cosmos called out from behind Hancock, who was walking toward the ‘B.I.B.’
Hancock didn’t look back. She swiftly sidestepped, moving out of the way just in time. A sharp whistling sound followed as an arrow sped past, heading straight for the blurry black shadow in Hancock’s vision.
Cosmos, holding her snake bow, shouted, “As expected from Hancock! I was right, there’s something there!”
Bang!
The arrow, wrapped in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), grazed the ground, creating a small crater.
“Did it dodge?” Cosmos was fully focused, using Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) to barely detect the movement of the shadow as it evaded her arrow. She squinted, focusing on another direction. “There! What exactly are you?”
“How rude! You’re the thing!” Liam, standing in front of the doorway of Stand City fortress, made a silly face.
Whoosh!
The second arrow whizzed through the air.
“Time to run!” Liam laughed heartily.
The dark-armored figure’s eyes glowed white. At this speed, with the perceptiveness, reflexes, and agility copied from its original body, the arrow posed no threat at all.
With a slight sidestep, it easily dodged the arrow wrapped in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki).
Then ‘B.I.B.’ glanced back at Hancock before striding away.
“Salome!” Hancock called out, and her white-scaled, phosphorescent snake instantly tensed up, transforming into a bow in her hands.
Hancock grabbed a wooden arrow and pursued the strange, fleeing black figure.
Cosmos reached out and called, “Hancock!”
Sigh!
Cosmos turned to the other girls, speaking seriously, “Training is over for today. Everyone head back. Inform the warriors you know, and I’ll go notify the other Guardian Warriors and report to the Snake Princess.”
“Yes!” the Kuja warrior trainees responded in unison.
“Elder sister…” Second sister Sandersonia and third sister Marigold looked worriedly at their big sister Hancock running into the distance.
Cosmos smiled and reassured them, “Don’t worry, your elder sister is very strong!”
She laughed, “I might not even be able to beat her.”
……
(End Of Chapter)
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