Chapter 22: Observation Haki
『Hm? That kind of energy again.』
La keenly sensed the energy emanating from Armament Haki, its nature identical to what Boss Kaido had used back then.
“Gua! It hurts so much! What kind of power is this?”
Aoxi covered her nose, looking at Mr. Burufaruto’s calf and arm through the tears involuntarily seeping out, clearly noticing the existence of Haki as well.
“Hm? Brat, you don’t know Haki?”
“Should I know it?”
Aoxi rubbed her slightly reddened little nose, her tone carrying a hint of grievance.
“Whoa~ In that case, let this senior teach you a lesson!”
“Fish-Man Karate, Continuous Thousand Watt Straight Fist!”
Having roughly gauged the intensity of the opponent’s body, Mr. Burufaruto showed no mercy whatsoever.
In an instant, countless fists wrapped in Armament Haki assaulted Aoxi, but she dodged them all one by one with her astonishing dynamic vision and reaction speed.
“Don’t dodge! Taking hits is the fastest method to awaken Armament Haki! Feel my Haki attack with your body.”
“Fooling who?! Only an idiot wouldn’t dodge!”
“Trying to trick this young master into taking hits with this trick? You’re still 20,000 years too early, Minotaur Uncle!”
Aoxi bounced left and right, narrowly dodging every single fist.
“You little brat! In that case, Fish-Man Karate—Water Vapor Phantom Fist!”
Seeing that ordinary attacks couldn’t touch the opponent at all, Mr. Burufaruto decisively unleashed his cultivated Fish-Man Karate.
Droplets of water seeped from his broad palms, instantly turning into mist with his high-speed punches, completely concealing Mr. Burufaruto’s fist path.
“Gua! So despicable!”
Unable to see the direction of the opponent’s punches, Aoxi was now directly beaten into howling, only able to flail her hands in wild blocks.
Obei on the side watched Aoxi get batted around like a lump of dough and stepped forward, unable to resist rushing in, but was stopped by La’s outstretched hand.
“Big Sister? You…”
“Don’t worry, attacks like this can’t hurt Aoxi.” La was still very confident in Aoxi’s physical defense.
“It’s a rare opportunity like this, let her properly feel the sensation of battle. Things like this won’t be uncommon in the future.”
“Uh… Even so, having her keep taking hits isn’t a good method either.”
Though they often bickered usually, seeing Aoxi beaten like a sandbag by a stranger was still hard for Obei to endure.
“You’re right.”
La thought for a moment and felt that just taking hits wasn’t very effective, so she spoke up to remind:
“Aoxi, don’t try to catch the opponent’s attack with your eyes, sense the opponent’s energy with your consciousness.”
This was the method he had figured out during his battle with Boss Kaido, predicting the opponent’s actions by sensing the flow of energy inside their body.
This body now flowing with Divine Power internally had extremely strong resistance and adaptability to external energy.
High resistance meant damage reduction or even direct immunity to energy attacks, for example, La was completely immune to flames and other high-temperature or low-temperature attacks.
High adaptability meant that in terms of energy manipulation and energy perception, the three of them could easily accomplish things ordinary people could hardly achieve or even imagine.
Just like how an Ability User of the Burn-Burn Fruit couldn’t weave flames into a piece of clothes indistinguishable from normal like La could.
This was a magnitude gap in the precision of manipulating their own energy.
Back to the present, having Aoxi sense Mr. Burufaruto was actually making her utilize this body’s highly sensitive characteristic to energy changes, mastering the opponent’s actions directly without using her eyes.
But Aoxi, who was currently taking hits, had no leeway to carefully comprehend the meaning in La’s words.
“What energy? How do I sense it?”
“People, animals, stones… any object has energy.
Though invisible and intangible, just like the Divine Power in our bodies, it can be perceived.”
“Haven’t you already been able to sense the flow of energy in your body? Try using the same method to sense external energy.
Don’t rush, close your eyes first and go by the feeling of your body. It’s not difficult.”
To let Aoxi understand more accurately, La said this in Chinese, so Mr. Burufaruto didn’t understand what she was saying.
Otherwise, he would immediately realize that what La was describing was the method to awaken Observation Haki.
It was just that La had changed the vague phrasing of sensing the ‘aura’ of all things into the concrete term ‘energy’.
La carefully explained the principle of perception to Aoxi, patiently guiding her step by step to master the ability to sense external energy, rather like teaching an infant to walk.
Of course, if ignoring Aoxi’s pained screams in the background.
“Close my eyes and go by feeling? Sister La, are you joking?”
This comic-book-like coping method made Aoxi involuntarily wonder if she had accidentally offended La at some point.
“Whatever, I can’t dodge with my eyes open anyway, I’ll give it a try.”
With a broken-pot-is-broken mindset, Aoxi closed her eyes, then clearly felt the punches hitting her body hurt even more.
One punch, two punches, three punches… shoulder, cheek, forehead…
『Perception, energy, feeling』
Gradually, after who knows how many hits, having grown accustomed to the pain, Aoxi began to notice that the fists hitting her body seemed to carry specks of light.
『Is this the energy on the opponent that Sister La mentioned?』
Finally getting a glimpse of the door, Aoxi immediately focused her mind.
More light spots appeared on Mr. Burufaruto, gradually spreading from his fists to his entire body.
In Aoxi’s consciousness, Mr. Burufaruto’s figure became clearer.
『No wonder his fists got so hard, he wrapped special energy around them~』
Noticing the glow on Mr. Burufaruto’s fists was different from the rest of his body, Aoxi instantly grasped the secret of Armament Haki.
So in a short time, having mastered energy perception, she immediately sounded the horn of counterattack.
“Haha! Your moves are useless against me now, next it’s this young master’s turn!”
“Eat my Thunder Cannon too!”
Aoxi tilted her head to dodge Mr. Burufaruto’s fist, then followed up with a mini Thunder Cannon from her left hand that accurately struck his abdomen.
“Wha…!”
Caught off guard, Mr. Burufaruto was directly sent flying.
However, with his rich battle experience, he flexibly twisted his body in mid-air and landed steadily, though white smoke still rose from his belly.
“Roar~ Managed to defend in time?”
Aoxi noticed that the opponent had gathered energy in his abdomen just before being hit.
This instinctive behavior was also honed by Mr. Burufaruto through countless battles.
『She actually awakened Observation Haki first?』
Mr. Burufaruto, straightening his body again, touched his somewhat stinging belly, his face showing a bit of surprise.
『I thought I could beat out the Armament Haki.』
Incredible, what a talented brat, no wonder Boss Kaido recruited these little girls.
“Hey! Whatever-your-name Uncle, wanna keep fighting?” Aoxi blew on her little fist and said.
“No need, I’ve got a rough idea of your strength. You do match up to an executive position.”
“But you still don’t have Armament Haki, you’re a bit early for the real battlefield.”
Having roughly probed the opponent’s strength, Mr. Burufaruto lost interest in continuing the fight.
“By the way, that lightning just now—are you an Ability User?”
Responding to him was Aoxi’s innocent face full of question marks.
“So what have you been talking about, Uncle? What Haki, what Ability User?”
“Could you explain it to us? Mr. Burufaruto.
The three of us were on an isolated small island before, so these terms are quite strange to us.”
Seeing the two stop, La also stepped forward at the right moment, asking the opponent about Haki and Ability Users.
After all, this seemed related to this world’s power system, which was fairly important stuff.
“Alright, seeing your clothes and age, you probably wouldn’t know anyway. Follow me first.”
With that, Mr. Burufaruto moved to lead them into his residence, of course not forgetting to remind the dumbfounded Deke on the side that he could leave.
