[Third-person perspective]
Lubots Island, the Sky Island artificially created by Shiki.
Currently serving as the Training Island for Zoro and company, the main activity here was combat training incorporating Haki, led by Zoro, Saga, and the Three Girls.
Right now, Zoro and the others were up against one great wall.
And it wasn't Sue, who usually stood before them as their Instructor.
"Yahahahaha! You've gotten quite good, haven't you? Impressive progress in such a short time!"
"Tch... you smug bastard...!"
"Well... I actually do have room to spare."
"Grrrgh...!"
A single man had taken up position atop a large tree, looking down at them with a laugh.
Below his gaze stood five people: Zoro, Saga, Suzu, Leona, and Alice.
Despite all five coming at him together, he stood there without a single scratch, completely unfazed.
The former God of the Sky Island Skypiea, Enel. That was the man's name.
That said, he wasn't tormenting Zoro and the others for amusement right now. He was serving as their Instructor, putting them through training as a veteran practitioner of Mantra, or rather, Observation Haki.
The training method was simple.
Enel attacked them. They did nothing but dodge. That was it.
They were welcome to counterattack if they could manage it. But the reality was they could barely even evade, let alone fight back.
After all, what Enel was firing at them was lightning.
Because it came from his Powers, it was slower than natural lightning in the wild. He could probably fire much faster if he went all out. The force was just enough to cause a mild tingle, barely qualifying as an attack at all. A light shock, nothing more.
Even so, these bolts still flew at invisible speeds exceeding a bullet.
To dodge or block them, the only option was to sense them before they were fired. Where from, aimed at whom, at what scale. Reading all of that, sometimes leaping aside to evade, sometimes blocking with weapons or bodies clad in Armament Haki.
Repeating this endlessly was Enel's training regimen. He wasn't just firing away mindlessly, of course; he offered advice and guidance as needed.
The result: through this brutally extreme training, Zoro and the others' Observation Haki was steadily and unmistakably improving.
"Having already mastered Armament Haki and grasped the fundamental sensation is likely a major factor. At this rate, it won't even take months before you can all use Mantra... rather, Observation Haki at a fully combat-ready level."
"...Thanks for that."
They'd once been enemies, and on the Sky Island, Enel had thrashed them without them laying so much as a finger on him. That was probably why Zoro, and even more so Leona, who had an even longer history of hostility with Enel, stared back at him with indescribable expressions, eyes practically glaring.
Enel had anticipated this kind of reaction. He had nothing to say about it, and frankly didn't care.
Brushing it off without a second thought, he pulled out a pocket watch.
"Hmm, it's about that time. Let's take a break. We resume in fifteen minutes."
During that break.
While Zoro and Leona harbored a lingering aversion, there was one person who showed no such reluctance and spoke to Enel like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Hey, so, Enel, what kind of training did you do back on the Sky Island?"
"Hm? What's this, Miss Alice, are you interested?"
Yes, Alice, approaching him with complete ease. She did have some feelings about Enel being Leona's former enemy, but for now she'd made peace with the fact that he was a reassuring ally.
"Yeah. Because Enel, and not just you, but all four of the Priests too, had such a broken-level effective range that they could hear the 'voices' of an entire island, or even a whole country, right? I was wondering what kind of training could possibly let someone do that."
In Skypiea, the four Priests had monitored the citizens and Criminals through Mantra covering the entirety of God's Island, while Enel himself had covered nearly the entire nation. In terms of range and precision alone, this was extraordinary even by the standards of the Monsters of the New World in the Blue Sea.
It wasn't hard to imagine what a tremendous asset it would be to gain that level of power... actually, no. It was hard to imagine. Frankly, it was beyond imagination.
Alice had thought exactly that, and naturally, she'd moved to greedily pursue that power.
"Hmm, I have no intention of hiding anything, but a lot of it is complicated, or rather, a pain to explain... Well, I'll teach you gradually as we continue training. Don't rush it."
"Aww, putting me on hold?"
"Don't be like that. And I say this without flattery: as I mentioned earlier, your rate of improvement is genuinely remarkable. You'll reach that level soon enough. Besides, I myself am right in the middle of training as well. In Observation Haki and everything else, I'm still very much a work in progress."
"Really? If we're talking Observation Haki alone, you seem like you've already blown past everyone else and basically mastered it."
Alice's words echoed what Leona and Zoro were privately thinking, even if they didn't say it aloud.
"In 'range' alone, perhaps. But there are many other aspects to develop. For example... hey, you there, Saga."
"? What?"
"What did you have for breakfast this morning? How much did you eat?"
Enel directed the question at Saga, who'd been outside the conversation until now and looked caught off guard by the sudden address. Puzzled as to why he was being asked such a thing, Saga began to answer...
"Hmm... white rice, grilled fish, assorted pickled vegetables, miso soup, and fruit. Yahahahaha, you ate eight whole fish and went back for seconds on the rice and miso soup three times each. Quite the hearty appetite, commendable. Oh, and Miss Leona, lunch is coming up soon, so hold on a little longer."
"White rice, grilled fish, pickled cucumber and eggplant and daikon... and miso soup and fruit... wait, what?!"
Saga was stunned to have the contents recited back to him verbatim. The others watching from the side were equally shocked. Some of it was information Saga hadn't even said yet.
And then, right after that:
A long, low growl rumbled from Leona's stomach, apparently running on empty by now.
Watching this whole sequence unfold, Alice grasped its meaning and nodded.
"Predicting someone's actions alone wouldn't let you recite what they were going to say, or predict that Leona's stomach would growl. This is... Future Sight."
"Astute. One of the Ultimate reaches of refined Observation Haki: seeing slightly into the future. And yes, it is possible, Saga."
"Something like that is possible?! ...Ah!"
Saga, who'd blurted that out in astonishment, was further stunned when Enel answered the question before he'd even finished asking it.
"I had heard tell of it from Mother, but seeing it firsthand is still quite startling... Even for something related to Haki, 'tis a tremendous power that rivals a Devil Fruit ability."
"But what I'm doing isn't fundamentally different from ordinary Observation Haki. I've simply expanded and refined the 'range' and 'precision' of hearing 'voices' to their absolute limits, and the result is the ability to know the future. That's all it is."
"...What do you mean?"
Leona didn't seem to follow, so Enel considered for a moment how to break it down. Prefacing with 'This is purely my own personal experience,' he continued.
"This applies not just to Future Sight, but to developing and strengthening Observation Haki in general. What you need is Experience in hearing 'voices.' Not just accumulating repetitions, but hearing many different kinds of 'voices.' That's what matters."
"'Voices'... you mean the thing people unconsciously emit, the thing you sense through Observation Haki? Aisa was always talking about how she could 'hear' them. What do you mean by 'kinds'?"
"...Ah, right. Miss Leona's adopted sister was a natural-born Mantra user, wasn't she. In that case, asking her about it might prove quite informative. As for the kinds of 'voices,' to put it simply: it's about hearing, learning, and remembering as many examples as you can of what kinds of voices people emit, and how they emit them, under what circumstances. That is what matters."
When someone is directing goodwill at you and wants to cooperate.
When someone harbors hostility and is about to attack.
When someone has lost the will to fight and is about to flee.
When someone is on the verge of screaming and crying from overwhelming grief.
When someone has fallen into despair and their spirit has broken.
When someone is putting on a facade, scheming to use and betray you.
In all these different situations, what kinds of voices do people emit?
When you hear a certain voice, what does it mean that person is about to do?
By experiencing and understanding as many of these as possible, and by becoming able to read and judge them quickly, the precision of Observation Haki climbs ever higher.
"And then, by taking in every 'voice' emitted by those present, down to the subconscious level, hearing even intentions the person themselves isn't aware of, and combining all of it in your mind, you derive the 'future.' That is what I just demonstrated."
"So it's like... gathering a massive amount of information and making predictions based on it..."
"Of course, that's merely the process I follow. Others may use entirely different approaches. It's best to try things and find the method that suits you. I myself can still only see the faintest sliver of time ahead, so I'm in the midst of honing it further. Now then."
Enel rose to his feet.
"Break's over. Let's get in one more good push before lunch. Surely none of you are already exhausted from that little warm-up?"
"...Hell no. Obviously not."
The destination they were aiming for was still incomprehensibly far away. It lay at an end that even Enel, standing right before them, had not yet reached.
They recognized that. And precisely because they recognized it, the fire in Zoro and the others' hearts burned all the fiercer.
"Oh, but wait just a sec, Enel, one more thing?"
"? What is it, Miss Alice?"
"Only if you happen to know, but... when's Mom coming back? I mean, I've got no complaints about your instruction or anything, but I haven't gotten to see her lately and... I'm running low. I need to recharge my Mom levels."
"Honestly, thou..."
Suzu sighed at Alice's usual antics, mildly exasperated. Enel, for his part, didn't seem particularly bothered, but paused as if something had just come back to him.
"Ah, my apologies. I forgot to pass this along. Originally, I was told she should be back by tomorrow, but..."
"But?"
"A message came in this morning. Something came up unexpectedly, and it may take a bit longer than planned."
"Aww... what kind of something?"
Alice was visibly displeased. While the others watched her with wry smiles, Enel continued.
"If I recall correctly... apparently a new Pirate showed up wanting to either join the crew or come under our banner, so she's conducting an interview or something along those lines."
"Huh? A pirate wanting to come under our banner... Sue personally interviews people for that kind of thing?"
"For rank-and-file additions, she delegates it to subordinates, and those under Grandpa's management at that. But if 'tis someone of considerable standing or reputation, Mother does sometimes assess them directly."
"So that means some big shot is trying to join up?"
"Who could it be...?"
***
Meanwhile, around that same time, the Sue who had been the topic of conversation was on a certain island, one of the Golden Lion Pirates' territories.
There, flanked by her close aides Beauty and Blume, she sat at a desk, facing a single man across the table, deep in conversation.
What was she doing, exactly?
"All right, let's start the interview. I don't really care about formalities as long as you're not over the top, so just relax, take it easy, and talk like you normally would."
"...Much obliged."
The man sitting across from her was already at ease, as if to say 'you don't need to tell me twice.' He'd sunk deep into the sofa, leaning against the backrest with his legs crossed, cradling his weapon, a sword, in his arms. Both hands in his pockets. Hat still on.
In a stuffy corporate or academic interview, this wouldn't just cost him points; it'd be grounds for instant rejection. But as she'd just said, Sue didn't mind. No point fussing over things like that when dealing with Pirates.
"That said, the content is pretty straightforward, and I think we'll be done quick. So just to confirm: you want to join under the Golden Lion's banner, bringing your entire Pirate Crew with you. Is that right?"
"Yeah. I brought a gift, too."
With just his eyes, the man indicated a table in the corner of the room. Sue and the others followed his gaze.
'...No matter how many times I see it, what a sight... gonna haunt my dreams.'
There lay countless Hearts.
Not bloody lumps of flesh lying lifeless on the surface. For some inexplicable reason, they were beating vigorously, pulsing away fully exposed. As if each heart had been severed from its owner's body while still functioning, made to exist there independently.
A hundred of them in total. Every single one had belonged to a Pirate of considerable renown, and some among them had been active in the New World.
Naturally, none belonged to anyone in the Golden Lion Pirates. If anything, the collection was centered on those who had caused trouble for the Golden Lion or stood in opposition.
"Yeah, well... honestly, the visual did freak me out a little, but they're useful, so I'll gratefully accept them. All right then, I'm just going to ask a few simple questions and confirm a few things, so answer honestly, but don't be too stiff about it. Just relax... Trafalgar Law-kun."
Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law.
One of the Supernovas, same as Luffy, Zoro, and Bonney.
He, too, for whatever reason, was about to set foot on a path that diverged from the original history.
To be continued...