Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 93 CONQUEROR

I had finished my quest freeing the Skypieans from God Enel. With that I had received Conqueror’s Haki. The problem was there was no guidebook on how to use it. I could have bought one. But since I could only put quest items in my status screen I’d have to try to carry the book on me. Certain events coming up would make that literally impossible to have a giant book on me. And I didn’t have the millions of berries needed to blow on the book. That left me to figuring it out on my own. 

In One Piece, Luffy awoke Conqueror’s Haki on accident. I thought it was around the time of the Kuma incident but I couldn’t remember exactly. The manga didn’t really explain it too much. He would simply get pissed off and people would pass out around him. 

I had 2 theories on how it could work. Idea 1, he had so much Haki that he expelled it out of his body. His giant amount would interact with other Haki. If the people had very little Haki then they would pass out when his touched theirs. 

Idea 2 was that he simply had a lot of spiritual energy. So much that people’s own spiritual energy would pale in comparison and short circuit. For all I knew, it was a mix of the 2, or I was way off. 

I had other worlds to go to. But I hadn’t hardly touched Haki. I was sure I could find a trainer later, but I wanted Conqueror’s Haki now. I needed to know if it could be used in other worlds. It would be useful to be able to knock a bunch of people out. With any luck it would work on zombies and I could use it in High School of the Dead. 

So after leaving the Going Merry I found Robin and followed. She was approached by a masked man and went off with him. I followed the CP9 member and Robin to their hideout and planted myself by it. Watching the area as I meditated on Haki. 

How I was understanding Haki, in my body at least, was that it surrounded my chakra reservoir. Keeping it contained. There were a lot of different uses for spiritual energy out there. 

You could sense the presence of people and things, their intentions, their strength, emotions. You could see a hyper focused version of the present that allowed you to basically see the future. You could coat yourself in Haki to attack or defend. There were the spiritual voices of things which is what I implied to the crew I could do to know their pasts and futures. There was a way to emit Haki like a chi blast from DBZ, or internalize it by damaging foes insides, and the conqueror’s Haki had another host of uses too. Which is why I wanted to try to push to figure them all out. 

With a few days by myself while drama happened around the crew I meditated on my chakra and Haki. I could more easily manipulate my chakra than anything else. There were veins throughout the body to direct the chakra. And I had actual training on the energy through ninja school. It was a fluid that I could mentally move with a simple thought. 

Haki was far more rigid. Like trying to blow glass. But the class had cooled a long time ago. I had been meditating on it randomly during my One Piece journey. And after finishing the quest for Enel I noticed a distinct difference. A difference that told me that I needed the quest to give me the capability for Conqueror’s Haki. I didn’t have it before. 

Where my Haki was like movie glass before. Weak and made to be broken over people’s heads. Now it was like tempered glass. Hardened to no longer allow anyone to bend or break it. 

So I had the upgraded version of Haki. I just couldn’t use it. Thus I played with it. Mentally trying to move and manipulate it. Forcing myself to feel intense anger. Or crying out in rage, just because it usually worked for Goku. 

None of that worked. It wasn’t till I was calm that it moved at all. Slowly but surely I was figuring out how to manipulate it. There were no on/off switches. No ‘Ah Ha’ moments. More like guesses. 

After hours of meditation I was able to expand my Haki to my abs. They distinctly darkened. Making me believe that I had figured out Armament a little. If it was Armament Haki, that area would be hardened by my spiritual energy making it nearly indestructible to people that didn’t have Haki. 

Then I tried sensing the Haki around me. From the roof underneath to the pigeons that flew by. With time I slowly understood that things were there. But I was nowhere near ready to use the skill in fights. 

I spent hour after hour trying to figure out Conquerors Haki. But it was useless. I threw that away to let it happen on its own. Thus I focused on what I could figure out about it. After a couple of days it was nowhere near ready to use in battle, but my time was up and the drama going on around me was coming to a head. I knew it was because I got a quest. 

“Time to go,” I said, stretching out. Letting out a yawn I looked around and made my way to the train station. 

I had been keeping an eye on things of course. All the drama that had happened was too boring to bother wasting time on. 

The straw hats got someone to look at the Going Merry. They agreed with my assessment that it was on its last leg and had to be replaced. We were robbed by a local gang run by Franky so we couldn’t buy a new ship if we wanted to. 

Robin was blackmailed by a secret government organization called CP9, basically the CIA. If she didn’t submit herself to them. They would kill the straw hats. But not kill them in any normal way. They’d kill them with a Buster Call. With the push of a button every marine ship close to the area would come wherever the call was let out and blow it away. No questions asked. No survivors. 

That was how they had killed her family and friends when she was 8 years old. Narrowly escaping with her own life. Because she escaped they put a 79,000,000 berrie bounty on her head. And she was nicknamed the Devil's Child. 

Robin had a lot of trauma related to Buster Calls. Which was why she agreed to leave immediately. 

The problem was that CP9 was on Water Seven for a special reason. The mayor of Water Seven, Iceberg, was the apprentice of the man that built the ship for the Pirate King. The man that built the ship also had ancient knowledge of a weapon that CP9 wanted access to. 

They believed that Iceberg had this knowledge. So they used Nico Robin as a scapegoat. Making Iceberg see Robin during the attempt to get the ancient weapon plans. It was believed that the Straw Hat Pirates were trying to kill Iceberg since she was part of the crew. 

Robin didn’t mind being hated by the Straw Hats as long as they were left alive. We were her first friends in her life since her last ones were killed when she was 8. 20 years ago. 

Because of all this drama the Straw Hats were hated and Robin was being taken to be imprisoned by CP9. None of the Straw Hays knew this of course. Except me. And since I knew it all already there was no reason to be a part of the drama. I wanted to be a side character that made the big reveal at the right moment. 

A floating railroad connected Water Seven to one of the major Marineheadquarters, Enies Lobby. I hung out by the railroad while the members of CP9 and Nico Robin got on the train. Water Seven was being evacuated since an annual tsunami was on it’s way. Causing yet more drama for the Straw Hats. 

CP9 was pretty strong. They could all mostly use the intent Haki. Where they could sense the spiritual energy around them and know when an attack was coming. There was Rob Lucci, the leader that Luffy would need to fight to progress. Then a girl Nami would fight. A swordsman for Zoro, a wolf man for Sanji. I couldn’t remember who the other crew members fought. But there was one guy that didn’t matter a whole bunch. 

Blueno. He was a tall member with black hair shaped like horns. He had some kind of door devil fruit. Luffy beat him up pretty easily. So he was my target. 

Honestly, after fighting Enel I was a little worried about Haki. Able to sense everything around you meant sneak attacks were hard. But if you were fast enough and sneaky enough, I didn’t think it would matter. 

I waited until Blueno was alone as they loaded up the ship. Channeling my chakra into my body and Jitte I ran at him with all I had. 

He was beginning to turn to look at me by the time I hit him with all I had. He let out a yelp and flew into the water between the train and station. And the Devil fruit user was done in. I cast a quick transformation jutsu and took his place. Getting on the train with the other CP9 members, I acted like the stoic side character and let the drama continue to unfold.