“However, I can’t teach you,” Shanks eventually shook his head. “I ran off to the West Blue on a whim, but my crewmates are still waiting for me on the Grand Line! So, sorry Liam, I don’t have the time to teach you Haki…”
“In that case, never mind!” Liam said with a smile.
Everyone had their own adventures.
Probably only someone like Rayleigh, who was retired and in hiding, would have the leisure to spend two years specifically training Luffy in Haki…
“So, what now… are we just going to drift slowly on the sea?”
“It seems so!” Shanks laughed heartily.
“This is so boring!” Liam lay back, using his backpack stuffed with cash as a pillow. “Come back,” he beckoned to ‘B.I.B.’ with a finger.
The armor transformed into a mass of dark energy and returned to Liam’s body.
Liam grimaced slightly, adjusting to the influx of ‘experience points’ being added to his own. He took out a green Den Den Mushi from his pocket and fed it some leftover fish meat.
“Bururu Bururu…” The little green snail, ecstatic to be out in the open, wriggled energetically in Liam’s palm, devouring the fish with gusto.
Liam continued to sort through the Stand’s memories. From the island chaos to the original plan to leave with Robin, then the sudden encounter with Aokiji…
If only he had known about Aokiji in the tavern the moment ‘B.I.B.’ saw him, things would have been much easier!
He thought to himself.
“Bururu Bururu…”
Annoyed by the tickling Den Den Mushi in his hand, Liam placed it on the ground near the pile of fish bones to nibble on.
He then concentrated and summoned his Stand ‘B.I.B.’ again.
“Huh?”
The moment the dark armor appeared, both Liam and it seemed to sense something different.
‘…’
“…”
The main body and Stand exchanged glances, realizing a certain change between them.
Liam pondered for a moment, then smiled, “Looks like your growth potential isn’t low at all, is it an A rank? Let’s see.”
He extended his hand towards ‘B.I.B.’
‘B.I.B.’ touched its “ear,” removing a small piece resembling an in-ear headset. It tossed the “earpiece” to Liam.
Liam caught it and placed it in his ear, tapping it twice.
Buzz!…
A light screen appeared, enveloping the upper part of Liam’s head. In front of his eyes, a virtual screen emerged, showing what ‘B.I.B.’ was seeing – which at the moment was Liam’s blank stare at the virtual screen.
“Don’t move, let me take control.”
Liam said, focusing on the virtual screen. Gradually, his perspective seemed to merge with the Stand armor, a part of his consciousness integrating into ‘B.I.B.’
With a thought, he maneuvered ‘B.I.B.’ to turn in place. His view shifted to Shanks, who was teasing the green Den Den Mushi with a fish bone, drawing it in and out, in and out… until the annoyed little snail bit down!
“Ow!” Shanks quickly shook off the snail, which landed with a plop on the splintered plank. He blew on his fingers, “Ouch! It’s just a Den Den Mushi, how can its bite hurt so much?”
“…” Liam noticed a subtle delay between hearing Shanks’ voice through his own ears and through the ‘earpiece’ of ‘B.I.B.’ “It seems… there’s a slight delay?”
It felt like playing a video game, with a slight delay of a few dozen to a hundred milliseconds. While it didn’t significantly affect control, it was still somewhat disconcerting.
Liam thought for a moment and decided that this minor flaw was within an acceptable range.
Bang!
Suddenly, the dark Stand armor disassembled. The faceplate, helmet, chest plate, back plate, arm guards, and leg guards floated in the air, entwined with dark Stand energy-like mechanical parts.
The faceplate, with its eye sockets glowing white, floated and rotated in the air, finally settling into position.
“It’s really hard to control…” Liam mused, “Let’s test the maximum range.”
With that thought, the helmet, chest plate, back plate, arm guards, and leg guards spread out, flying across the sea’s surface.
Only the faceplate, with its glowing eyes, hovered in place, rotating slightly…
Sitting on the splintered plank, Shanks tossed a pile of cleaned fish bones into the sea, teasing the green Den Den Mushi. Noticing the sudden change in Liam’s ‘ghost ability,’ he couldn’t help but let out a light “Hmm.”
He looked around, jokingly, “Oh no, has your ghost turned traitor?”
“It’s just a new technique I mastered…” Liam said through the faceplate, thinking, “As expected, just like the original properties of ‘B.I.B.’… no distance limit!”
Liam realized that even if he were trapped and unable to escape, ‘B.I.B.’ could exist indefinitely, wandering around the four seas. However, such prolonged separation might cause Liam immense pain when ‘B.I.B.’ returned. Even as ‘B.I.B.’s Stand user, he wasn’t confident he could withstand that kind of ‘experience point’ influx.
Even someone with a Naruto-level non-human physique couldn’t handle the exhaustion from excessive Shadow Clone training without passing out.
If Liam wanted to avoid death, he wouldn’t let ‘B.I.B.’ stay separated for long.
Considering this, he focused on the virtual screen, sending a mental command.
Whoosh!
The scattered dark Stand energy-covered ‘armor pieces’ stopped, reversed direction, and all flew back in unison.
“They can only rise about 10 meters, huh…”
Liam, wearing the virtual screen, looked at the faceplate floating 10 meters above.
When his attention shifted from “seeing Liam through the faceplate’s eyes” to “Liam looking at the faceplate in the sky,” He fell out of the ‘remote control’ state.
The faceplate wobbled, then stabilized as ‘B.I.B.’s consciousness took over.
Liam concentrated again, aligning his perspective through the virtual screen, and resumed controlling ‘B.I.B.’ despite the delay.
He commanded the scattered ‘armor pieces’ to return.
Through the virtual screen, he saw the arm guard with red flame patterns flying close to the sea’s surface towards him.
He saw himself reaching out, but the arm guard with red flame patterns brushed past him…
“It’s really tricky to control ‘B.I.B.’ this way. I can easily ‘disconnect’ from ‘B.I.B.’…” Liam thought, “It feels like my own ‘lag’ is higher than when controlling the Stand…”
The arm guard with red flame patterns made a turn, headed back, and flew toward the Ice Mass where his body was.
Liam took a deep breath.
This was a peculiar experience.
He felt his perspective split in two… He controlled the Stand’s parts while moving his own body…
Click!
Liam’s right hand fit into the approaching arm guard with red flame patterns, his fingers moving as usual.
The other ‘armor pieces’ had also returned, wrapped in dark Stand energy, floating before him.
The faceplate lowered, hovering in front of Liam.
Liam stood up, using his right hand covered in red flame patterns to grab the floating chest plate. From the glowing ‘reactor’ in the inverted triangle, he extracted a triangular chip covered in tube-like patterns.
A Pipe-Pipe Fruit, perhaps…
Liam thought about the Devil Fruit ability taken from that powder-headed guy in the Stand’s memories.
Grasping the glowing Devil Fruit chip in his right hand with red flame patterns, Liam implanted it into his own chest.
……
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