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At this moment, the sky was clear and the sun shone with an unforgiving brilliance. A gentle breeze swept across the deck of the Dream Chaser, and the water rippled slightly, presenting a scene of deceptive peace.
On the ship, Satori stood frozen. Hearing the term Armament Haki from Ace's mouth felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Isn't this the ability Grandpa Garp used to knock me into next week? So that's what it was for!
Seeing Satori's wide-eyed expression, Ace's eyes flashed with realization. He figured Satori had seen the technique before but hadn't grasped its mechanics. He continued his explanation: "As long as you imbue your body with Armament Haki, a Logia's elementalization becomes ineffective. When I stood still earlier, if you had used Haki, your fist would have struck my physical form instead of passing through fire."
"Of course," Ace added with a smirk, "I can still use elementalization to create a void in my body to dodge, but you'd at least have a fighting chance."
Satori nodded, his tail twitching in excitement. "I knew it! If I couldn't hit you no matter how hard I tried, there'd be no way to win." He beamed at the pirate. "Now that I know, once I learn this Armament Haki, I'm confident I can beat you! Hehe."
In the ears of most veterans, a child claiming he could learn Haki on the fly to beat a Whitebeard Commander would sound like arrogant nonsense. But Ace didn't see it that way. He saw the raw potential in the boy. "Then once you've learned it, we'll have a rematch. But don't expect it to be easy—I don't plan on losing to a kid."
Ace felt a rare prickle of pressure. Satori was already this strong at his age; in a few years, he would be a monster. Ace reminded himself not to slack off on his own training, lest he bring shame to Pops and the crew.
"So, Ace... do you know Armament Haki?" Satori asked, tilting his head.
Ace snapped back to the present and nodded. "Of course." To be the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, one had to master the basics. He had spent years under the tutelage of the world's strongest men.
"Can you show me? Like, really close?" Satori pressed. He had only seen it for a split second before Garp's "Fist of Love" sent him flying. He wanted to understand the feeling of the energy.
Ace didn't suspect the boy was trying to mimic it instantly. He simply clenched his fist. A dark, metallic sheen emerged, coating his hand in a shimmering black energy. "See? This is it."
Satori leaned in so close his nose nearly touched Ace's knuckles. He looked from every angle, his eyes scanning the flow of the energy. "Can I touch it?"
Ace was taken aback. "Touch it? Well, sure. Go ahead."
Satori reached out. His fingers brushed the hardened air around Ace's fist, feeling the density and the invisible pressure. After a moment, he withdrew his hand, his expression turning solemn. He stepped back, dropped into a deep horse stance, and began to throw slow, deliberate punches into the air.
The Genius of Combat
"What is he doing now?" Vivi asked, stepping out onto the deck with Nami to catch some sun.
"Probably some new weird training," Nami sighed, though she watched closely. "The guy's a training maniac. He never stops."
"Ga?" (Is he punching the air?) Chopper tilted his head.
Click. Sanji lit a cigarette, his eyes narrowing through the smoke. He had heard the conversation between the two. A wild, impossible guess began to form in his mind. He couldn't be...
Under the collective gaze of the crew and a legendary pirate, Satori focused. His punches began to accelerate. What started as the crawl of a turtle transformed into the speed of a bullet. Dazzling afterimages blurred his arms. Gusts of wind spiraled around his body, making his clothes billow and his black hair dance wildly.
Ace's eyes narrowed. He felt the atmosphere around the boy shifting. The air was getting heavy, vibrating with a familiar frequency. Could it be... at this age?
"HA-YA!!" Satori roared.
BOOM!!!
As his right fist thrust forward, a shockwave erupted. It wasn't just displaced air; it was a physical force that struck with the roar of a sonic boom.
CRACK!
The force was too much for the ship's decor. Directly in front of Satori's fist, the sturdy, hand-carved monkey figurehead—the pride of the Dream Chaser's bow—snapped off with a violent splintering sound and plunged into the sea with a massive splash.
"I did it!" Satori yelled, ignoring the sinking wood. He stared at his hand. A dark, inky energy was rapidly flowing over his skin, turning his fair fist into a weapon of obsidian. It was a perfect mirror of Ace's demonstration.
Ace stood frozen, his jaw nearly hitting the deck. He really did it... He learned Armament Haki by just looking at it?!
But Satori's joy was short-lived. Behind him, a silhouette emanating an aura of pure, unadulterated malice emerged from the shadows. It was a demon king with orange hair and eyes glowing with a man-eating red light.
BANG!!!
With a single, non-Haki-imbued punch, Demon King Nami smashed Satori face-first into the deck.
"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO THE SHIP, SATORI!!!"
At that moment, Nami's anger-fueled combat power surpassed all logic, making her, briefly, the most terrifying being on the Grand Line.