Chapter 35: Winds Rise
“Hey, Obei. What do you think Sister La will teach us this afternoon?” Aoxi put her two little hands behind her head and idly kicked the pebbles on the ground.
“How would I know, but since Big Sister said it’s a bit difficult, it must absolutely not be simple… By the way, hasn’t that guy Ember come back yet?” Obei looked around, trying to find a certain figure.
“What are you looking for that Masked Man for?” Aoxi asked puzzled.
“Of course to let him taste my Armament Haki iron fist! That guy hit me more than two hundred eighty-one times yesterday, this time I’ll pay him back one by one.”
Obei said somewhat grinding her teeth.
“My motto is: tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, repay a thousandfold!”
“No way, you’re too petty! That guy was ruthless but at least he was trying to teach us.”
“Shut up! I clearly told him to stop so I could think for a bit, but that guy acted like he didn’t hear and kept banging on my head, really treating my head like a Wooden Fish!
Adding a bit of merit with each knock, right?!”
“I’m telling you, that guy is just a sadist!”
“Alright alright, even if you want to get revenge on that guy, he’s not on the Island right now~” Aoxi was still carefree, anyway she wasn’t knocked many times yesterday and wasn’t holding a grudge.
“Since that guy isn’t here, you practice with me first, and once I’m proficient I’ll beat him until he’s crawling around looking for his mask.” Obei clenched her fist and said.
“Pfft~”
Aoxi simulated in her mind the scene of Ember crawling on the ground searching for his mask and couldn’t help laughing out loud.
“Alright, I was just wanting to see what kind of face is under that mask of his anyway, let’s head back to the Training Ground.”
Aoxi’s personality was always so hot-blooded and full of execution, she directly grabbed Obei’s hand and dashed madly back the way they came.
……
In the unrecognizable Training Ground, one red and one blue figure stood facing each other. A burst of meaningless drumming……
Alright, it was very quiet around, no drumbeats or anything. But the lines still had to be said.
Blue: “How many times have we fought each other?”
Red: “Hard to say, in my memory we’re always fighting.”
Red: “It’s time to settle this, Obei! Once and for all!” Crimson Armament Haki climbed onto her hands, golden Lightning roared between her arms.
Obei smiled slightly, her left arm wrapped in blue Haki emerged from her sleeve, black Gang Wind instantly tore the air.
The two small figures collided rapidly, crimson and dark blue fists met across the air, space emitted a sharp bursting sound.
Boom!
The poor ground was plowed once again, with the two at the center, the land dozens of meters around had sunk several meters and was covered in cracks, undoubtedly the young gods’ playtime was catastrophic for the Earth beneath their feet.
……
At this moment, La who was learning knife skills from Cook suddenly looked up toward the Training Ground, then continued cutting the Steak as if nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, there might be an Earthquake soon, Cook Dad be careful not to spill the soup.”
“Another Earthquake? Wasn’t there one just this morning? The New World really isn’t peaceful…”
……
“Damn, such strong Brute Force!”
Aoxi found herself suppressed by Obei who was slightly smaller than her, this wasn’t suppression in Haki intensity but pure power suppression, Obei’s strength was clearly above Aoxi’s!
Aoxi’s body was being pushed back bit by bit, two deep trenches already appeared in the ground under her feet.
“Damn! I won’t lose to you little one! Just Obei, watch me push you back!”
Aoxi roared, then took a deep breath, more and more golden Thunder began wrapping around her arms.
But just as Aoxi planned to build up force and push back, Obei suddenly withdrew her power, and dodged sideways when Aoxi’s center of gravity was unsteady.
“Wha—”
Her fair and tender right fist carrying destructive Gang Wind struck straight at Aoxi’s face.
“God Hand Crush!”
“Gwah~~~~”
Aoxi was directly knocked away, flying along the ground for hundreds of meters before barely stopping after crashing into a large Stone Wall.
“Tch~ Blocked it? As expected of her terrifying Intuition…”
No joy from landing a hit, Obei sensed that Aoxi had raised her hand to block the attack at the last moment.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch…” Aoxi clutched her cheek and pried herself out of the rock face.
Even after defending, Obei’s strike still made her face swell up, the arm that blocked Obei’s fist was also trembling slightly, unable to exert force.
“Mumble mumble, my face hurts so bad!” Aoxi rubbed her left cheek, speaking unclearly.
“Blame yourself for being dumb, actually falling for a trick that only fools Children.”
“Got it, next time I won’t fall for it!”
Stomping the ground hard, Aoxi turned into a red streak, rapidly crossing hundreds of meters to appear above Obei, then clasped both hands and smashed down toward Obei’s head.
Obei captured Aoxi’s movement with her amazing dynamic vision and immediately leaped aside.
The violent attack landed, Blast Waves rolled around immediately, smoke and dust filled the air.
“Something’s off! Aoxi’s attack couldn’t possibly have only this much power.”
Obei who hadn’t landed yet immediately noticed the anomaly in Aoxi’s attack, she didn’t seem to intend to hit at all, but rather to… kick up dust?!
“Hehe!”
Aoxi in the smoke and dust instantly locked onto Obei’s location with her terrifying Intuition and Observation Haki.
“Taste my return gift! Superconducting Wave—Thunder Cannon!”
Golden Thunder breath reflected in Obei’s eyes, with a diameter far thicker than her body.
Immediately curling up her body, arms crossed in front, Obei who had anticipated Aoxi’s intent took the hit in the most perfect stance.
A slight burning and numbing sensation swept over Obei’s body, this attack didn’t seem strong.
While Obei was puzzled, a crimson figure had already charged behind her.
“Seven hundred fifty thousand horsepower power, Aoxi Thunder Fist!” The small fist carrying golden Thunder struck straight at Obei’s back, blasting the Earth hero into the ground with one punch.
Rumble!
As if the Earth Mother giving a Response, dozens of meters high smoke and dust rose from the ground, clearly visible even from the distant Sea Surface.
“What happened? Another Earthquake? Didn’t we just have one?”
“Could it be a Seabed Volcano about to erupt?”
“Two Earthquakes in one day isn’t common even in the New World…”
“Better pack up, if a Tsunami really comes later it’ll be Trouble.”
“But I just set up stall… Hey! You brat don’t sneak free food!”
……
“Oi~ You okay?” Aoxi squatted by the deep pit, calling out loudly.
More than ten minutes had passed since Obei was beaten underground, yet there was still no sign of climbing out.
“I’m fine.”
Obei’s calm voice came from below.
“Holy crap! If you’re fine come up! Lying down there pretending to be a Turtle for so long? Scared me.”
Hearing Obei was fine, Aoxi let out a long breath of relief.
She wasn’t worried about hurting Obei, that punch she had held back on, with the other’s similar body defense it was at most painful. Aoxi was mainly afraid Obei would disregard martial virtue after being hit and go complain to Sister La.
“No Ivory comes from a dog’s mouth! I just suddenly discovered a problem.”
Obei leaped to the surface, straightened her somewhat messy hair, then said: “Aoxi, did you notice anything in our battle just now?”
“Uh… Battle, fun?”
“Tch~”
“Alright, you say, I’m listening.”
Seeing Aoxi no longer joking, Obei said seriously: “In our battle just now, besides that first clash, did we use Haki afterward? I mean Armament Haki.”
This was a problem both had subconsciously overlooked.
“Huh?! Yeah, seems like we really didn’t! Weird, why?”
Aoxi found it hard to understand, in the later battle she seemed to completely forget this new Skill.
“Because the battle rhythm was too fast, compared to the Authority we’re already proficient with, we’ll subconsciously ignore Haki which requires one Energy conversion to use.
You’re like that fighting on Instinct, and so am I trying to keep up with your rhythm.”
Not letting Aoxi puzzle too long, Obei directly gave the answer she had comprehended in the underground Dragon Field over these ten-plus minutes.
“Yeah, exactly. Feels like switching games and the keybinds changed, but you still subconsciously use the old habits on the controller.
Observation Haki like a direction key is fine, but Armament Haki like light/heavy combo moves is hard to adapt to right away.”
Aoxi immediately understood Obei’s meaning in her own way.
“So next we need to change methods, slow the rhythm a bit, no using Authority, purely use Haki for a battle, ensure every strike carries Haki.”
“Yeah, good!”
So after a moment of silence, the Townspeople welcomed the nth Earthquake of the day.
Inside the Canteen—
“Ow~ My soup!” A Waiter shook from the Earthquake and directly poured the whole jar of salt into the soup.
Many around also jumped from the sudden shaking.
“Really another Earthquake, how did you guess Miss La?” Someone asked.
“Nothing, I just thought usually after an Earthquake there are aftershocks, so I reminded, didn’t expect it really came.” La casually found an excuse.
“Th-then, will there be aftershocks?”
“Hm… maybe~” La sensed the two little ones’ situation and found they were playing happily, probably going to keep at it a bit longer.
“Clang~ Clang~”
Old Cook knocked the pot with an iron ladle to remind: “Everyone be careful not to spill soup and such later, now continue cooking, lunch time is almost here.”
“Yes!”×n
“Cook Dad, come taste how my soup is.” La ladled a Small Bowl of her work and handed it to Cook.
Old Cook took it, but didn’t taste immediately, first looked at it, then smelled it.
“Hm~ Clear color, fresh aroma.”
After confirming ‘color’ and ‘aroma’ were good, he then picked up the spoon.
At this moment Old Cook seemed back to his days on the Noble cruise ship tasting for Nobles, serious and strict.
“Hm?! This taste?”
Old Cook who had just taken a shallow sip immediately widened his eyes.
Honestly he’d dealt with Cooking his whole life, first time encountering this. The little girl in front of him should be making this soup for the first time, but this taste…
“How is it?”
“Taste is good. No, should say very good.” Old Cook first gave his evaluation, but then changed tone—
“But… La, why does this soup taste exactly the same as the one I just made?”
“?”
The other’s question also puzzled La.
“Because I followed exactly what you taught?”
“That’s not what I mean.” Cook shook his head.
“Even following me step by step, two Cookings’ tastes can’t be identical. Let me put it this way, even I can’t make two batches taste exactly the same.”
As a top chef, Cook’s tongue could keenly discern the subtlest taste changes in Cooking, La’s bowl of soup completely overlapped with the pot he just demonstrated!
But La still didn’t understand: “As long as all factors composing the two soups are the same, of course the taste is the same?
I just replicated all your steps exactly, including fire temperature, seasoning amounts, time, Ingredients, even stirring direction and force…”
Completely correct conclusion, since the factors constituting the two soups are exactly the same, why would the taste differ? But…
“But that’s not right!”
After recovering from initial shock, Old Cook immediately stated firmly.
His tone carried no jest, as if defending some inviolable sacred thing.
“La, you must understand that merely mechanically replicating others’ Cooking can’t make you a qualified chef. A chef who can stand on their own must find their own Cooking style!”
At this time Old Cook didn’t know this was a teaching he’d regret gnashing his teeth over later.
Even all Beasts Pirates members including Kaido would gnash their teeth together later~
Looking at Old Cook with firm expression in front, La nodded. “Don’t worry, Cook Dad, I’ll find my own Cooking style.”
“Hahaha, this old man will look forward to that day! But now you still need to watch well, learn well! In Cooking, this old man never yields to anyone!”
……
New World, twelve thousand meters above the Sea Surface, Floating Island.
“Heat Breath!”
Dragon Form Kaido directly spat Dragon Breath at the Island below.
“Xihahahaha! Kaido, you brat got a nice fruit huh!”
“But toward Seniors you still need respect! Slash Wave!”
Huge Sword Energy directly cleaved the Heat Breath. From the parted Flames, a figure emerged.
That person hid hands in wide sleeve robes each holding a Sharp Sword, cigar in mouth, head of golden fluffy Long Hair like a lion’s mane draped behind, strange sharp thin eyebrows, sharp eyes full of arrogance and wildness.
Just standing there, his whole body exuded incomparable domineering aura.
“Cut the crap! What did you call me here for—Shiki!”
……
