Whatever Sai said to Don Chinjao, the old pirate eventually agreed to the boy's request. Bardock was thrilled; he finally had a crewmate who didn't rely on a Devil Fruit.
The moment Bardock had realized the two teenagers were Sai and Boo, he had fully intended to invite them into the Dandelion Organization. They were both destined to awaken Armament and Observation Haki, their combat potential was remarkably high, and they possessed strong, honorable character. Sai, in particular, would eventually grow strong enough to surpass an elderly Chinjao and was generally considered a winner in life.
However, since they had started off as enemies, Bardock didn't rush the recruitment. Over the past week of living together in the cabin, Bardock slowly built a rapport with them, gradually easing the tense atmosphere.
Initially, Sai and Boo were completely unconvinced by their defeat. They had been taken out by Robin's surprise attack and firmly believed that if they had been given a chance to fight properly, the outcome would have been different.
To prove a point, Robin casually defeated both of them in a head-on sparring match in the snow. Her Flower-Flower Fruit was incredibly lethal; unless her opponent's physical strength or Haki completely overwhelmed her, fighting her in close quarters was a nightmare.
After that, Daz Bonez put on a terrifying display of his steel body, standing completely still and allowing Sai and Boo to attack him repeatedly until they exhausted themselves and gave up. Because the two brothers hadn't awakened Armament Haki yet, they simply couldn't utilize the true penetrating power of the Hasshoken shockwaves. Without it, they couldn't even scratch the bounty hunter.
By the end of the week, Sai and Boo had developed a profound curiosity about Bardock's crew. How could a group of traveling adventurers—some of whom were younger than them—be this absurdly powerful?
When Chinjao finally admitted that he had lost to Bardock in a one-on-one fight, the brothers' curiosity peaked into genuine awe.
That was when Bardock formally extended the invitation. Sai accepted almost immediately, eager to test his limits in the wider world, though he insisted on getting his grandfather's blessing first. Boo, however, was more pragmatic. He felt that one of them needed to stay behind to care for their grandfather and manage the Happo Navy. Acknowledging that his own potential wasn't as high as Sai's, Boo chose to remain in the Kano Country to guard their home.
Inside the small wooden cabin, the entire crew gathered around the central table.
"Everyone, you already know Sai," Bardock announced, pointing to the teenager. "From today onward, he is officially a member of the Dandelion Organization. He is our comrade."
Sai stood tall, his expression incredibly serious. "I am Sai. I promise to train hard and become a comrade you can rely on."
"Welcome to the crew, Sai," Robin smiled warmly. "We're all family here, so there's no need to be so formal."
"Welcome! If you have any questions about the ship, just ask me!" Leo cheered. "If you ever get sick or injured, please make sure to find me!" Mansherry added. "Great. Another person for the chore rotation," Perona sighed, though there was a slight smile on her face. "Welcome," Daz Bonez nodded curtly.
Having finalized the introductions, Bardock moved to the next agenda item. "Moria has arrived, which means the Shadow Training plan is officially a go. However, his current stock of shadows is pretty low, so our options are limited. I want you all to speak with Absalom later and see if there are any specific skills you're interested in learning."
"Keep in mind," Bardock warned, "martial arts and swordsmanship can be rapidly learned through shadows, but you obviously can't copy Devil Fruit abilities. As for academic knowledge or technical skills, the shadow temporarily grants you the original owner's talent and instincts, allowing you to intuitively solve problems, but you don't receive their actual memories."
"That's still incredibly powerful," Robin noted, her eyes widening slightly. "If someone were to absorb multiple shadows simultaneously, wouldn't their learning speed multiply by several times? Or even hundreds of times?"
"It's not that simple," Bardock shook his head. "The more shadows you absorb, the exponentially greater the mental strain. You'd lose your mind before you could learn anything. Furthermore, Moria won't allow it. When a shadow is inserted into a living host, Moria has to physically rip the shadow back out before the time limit expires, otherwise, the shadow automatically flies back to its original owner. There's no way he could perfectly wrangle hundreds of escaping shadows from multiple people at once."
Bardock didn't actually know the exact mechanics of Moria's shadow-wrangling limits, but he knew the Warlord would definitely refuse to do that much manual labor.
From that night onward, Don Chinjao began formally instructing the crew in the Hasshoken. The training started with the fundamental physical conditioning and basic stances, progressing into the complex forms, the specific parrying techniques, and finally, the advanced application of Haki and the legendary Secret Techniques.
It was during these lessons that Bardock finally understood the true nature of the Hasshoken. It wasn't just a martial art; it was a highly specialized technique for forcing Armament Haki to flow outward in the form of destructive, penetrating shockwaves. By mastering the Hasshoken, one naturally mastered the concept of Emission (Advanced Armament Haki).
The most difficult aspect of the art was the Secret Technique: concentrating that massive, flowing shockwave into a single, microscopic point before releasing it. Executing this required a very specific physical conduit—like Chinjao's drill-head. Attempting to unleash that level of concentrated force through a normal limb without the proper conduit was incredibly difficult and dangerous, which highlighted just how monstrous Sai's innate talent was in the original story when he managed to replicate the technique using his heel.
Bardock's daily schedule became intensely packed. He relentlessly cycled through physical conditioning, swordsmanship, Rokushiki, and Hasshoken training.
The moment Bardock firmly grasped the absolute basics of the Hasshoken, he immediately went to Moria and requested to borrow Chinjao's shadow for a test run. The moment the shadow entered his body, Bardock felt an incredible surge of instinct. It felt as if he had been practicing the Hasshoken for decades. He also suddenly felt an overwhelming, bizarre urge to headbutt things.
Empowered by the shadow, Bardock flawlessly executed every single Hasshoken technique in Chinjao's arsenal, except for the drill-based Secret Technique. He even successfully performed the Butou Kaiten (Martial Head Rotation). However, the moment he stopped spinning, he violently threw up in the snow.
When the time limit expired and Moria extracted the shadow, Bardock instantly lost the veteran instincts. But the muscle memory and the mental clarity of having executed the moves perfectly remained. All he had to do was relentlessly practice the forms based on those memories, borrow the shadow a few more times to correct his posture, and his proficiency skyrocketed.
His swordsmanship progressed just as rapidly. By the end of the second week, he had achieved his first milestone: tunneling completely through the Jewel Ice Sheet in a single training cycle without resting. The next step was to continuously reduce the number of slashes required, compressing his power until he only needed one swing.
Two grueling months flew by. Bardock had condensed his power to the point where he could slice the entire glacier open with exactly two slashes. He was absolutely confident he could achieve the single-slash milestone within the final two weeks of his timeline.
Daz Bonez had also managed to tunnel through the glacier in a single cycle, but his progress had slowed significantly after that. He couldn't recover his stamina and heal his torn muscles instantly like Bardock could. Even though they had both technically been training for two and a half months, Bardock's actual volume of sword training was several times higher—and that was with Bardock splitting his focus among multiple disciplines.
One afternoon, Moria, whom Bardock hadn't seen in days, suddenly walked out onto the ice.
"Bardock. Dr. Hogback officially accepted my invitation. I'm setting sail immediately," Moria announced, a wide grin on his face. "I won't be coming back to the Kano Country. I'm heading straight for the Grand Line. If you want to continue the Shadow Training plan in the future, you'll have to come find me."
Moria paused, cracking his knuckles. "So... how about we have a real fight before I leave?"
Over the past two and a half months, Moria had also made terrifying progress. By constantly utilizing Chinjao's shadow in combat, the Warlord had successfully awakened and mastered both Observation and Armament Haki, and he had learned the fundamentals of the Hasshoken.
During this time, Moria and Bardock had sparred frequently, but they had always held back their lethal techniques. Moria had gone from being completely outmatched in close combat to trading blows evenly over the past few weeks.
For the last fifteen days, Moria had been secretly developing a massive new trump card. Now that he was leaving and the technique was complete, he couldn't possibly sail away without testing it out.
"I thought you'd never ask," Bardock grinned, his golden eyes flashing with excitement.
He had been building up a massive amount of pent-up energy. Relentlessly hacking at a block of ice for two and a half months, while undeniably effective, was incredibly monotonous. Unlike Robin and the others, who occasionally took days off to explore the Kano Country, Bardock hadn't taken a single day of vacation. He was itching for a real fight.