Chapter 7

West blue, Ishiria island, roku town

(Old man Bais pov, four months later)

'Never would I have thought that I could feel such pride in someone elses accomplishments. Hee, am I getting soft in my old age?' Old man Bai thought to himself with a slight grin on his face as he observed his disciple with keen eyes like a hawk eyes his prey, ever watchful, missing nothing.

As he observed Azul train his application of the fire breath a small plume of transparent smoke escaped Azuls mouth and nose while breathing out. Meanwhile he was flowing from stance to stance, turning and twisting around an invisible opponent, now and then striking with a swift kick or strike, always keeping his guard up and never swaying and keeping his balance with all the extra weight tied around his ankles and back.

Over the months he had gotten a growth spurt and was now standing at a proud 1,50m. Impressive for a seven years old kid.

'Maybe I should add more weight to give him more of a challenge? Naa, I'll up the weight next week. Let him accustom himself first a little bit. Will make it all the harder once he got used to the weight he is carrying now, hehehe.' Old man Bai grinned to himself. Nobody ever said that a Master couldn't have a little sadistic streak towards his disciple, after all he had to have some fun now and then as well, no?

His disciples Kiai drew him back into reality not for the first time wondering where his disciple took all the power and air from to produce such a mighty battlecry.

"Alright, that's enough for now. You've come far in the past months. But you still need to keep your fires breath steady. You still sometimes let your fire get out of control. This is nice and cool in a controlled environment but it will cost you once you leave safety and get into a real fight. Always keep a tight leash on the fire inside you, at least so long as you haven't reached the journeyman stage of the martial path. Do you understand why?"

"Well, after learning the basics in the beginner stage and studying them, as I am doing at the moment, in the apprentice stage the journeyman has gained enough control over his spirit that he is able to manifest and control it to a certain extent outside of his body and perceive others as well, so long as they aren't masters in the art. Thus building a protective shell around the own body which other people inner flames shouldn't be able to penetrate." Azul repeated what he had been told some time ago when he reached the apprentice stage of breathcontrol.

"Correct. But try not to focus so much on the fire breathing. I know it is the most natural for you but I have taught you the rest for a reason. So long as you haven't reached the journeymans stage and have a firm control over your body and soul balance is a necessity which the other breathing forms give you. Now start meditation. I'll prepare the food today. Having you lay waste to the kitchen for the past week was hard enough to watch, let alone taste its results." Old man Bai said with a snort.

Truly, as formidable an apprentice Azul may be, he was a catastrophy in the kitchen. Pitty anyone who has to taste his food, if you could even call it that.

(pov end)

Azul having heard his masters words grew red in the face in shame. He had always tried his hardest to reach his masters level in everything to make him proud of him, but the harder he tried to cook something tasty the worse it got. Not for the first time Azul had wondered if he was born with two left hands when it came to cooking. What was it that made him unable to apply himself in the kitchen? He had sworn to find out one day, and if it killed him in the process so be it. Not like it hadn't nearly happened once already when he tried to twirl the kitchen knifes like his master did on occasion. 'Damn that was embaressing....' Azul thought to himself, still remembering his weezing and laughing master rolling on the ground, not able to stop crying once he saw Azuls disheveled appearance.

Sitting down Azul took in a calm breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm his hammering heart from the hours of practise and enter the calm of meditation. Soon he reached his equilibrium and could feel the flame inside himself, which had over the months grown alot. Still his control over it and the craving feeling he had felt all these months ago had only become better and was gettting better by the day. One day he had asked his master what the craving inside himself was since he was unable to come to an understanding even after his master had taught him so much already. He had first looked up everything there was his master possessed about anatomy in the hopes to find out if it maybe was a medical condition or something of the like. Obviously he had found nothing. That's why he went to his master.

At first the old man had hummed with a contemplating look on his face which soon grew to one of understanding. When Azul had asked what he thought it was his masters words had baffeled him a little.

(flashback)

"Do you still remember when you first had this craving as you call it?" Old man Bai said before revealing what he thought about the matter.

Thinking back on the day he had his first contact with his inner flame he remembered his selfreflection and his confrontation with the hard reality this world contained.

"Yes, I was reflecting to myself about all this" Azul waved his hands around as if to take in the whole world with a gesture, obviously failing but judging by his masters look on his face he understood completely what Azul meant by it "and what kind of person I want to be and who I don't want to be."

"I see. That explains it than. It seems you really were made for the fire breathing form since you learned it without even knowing that it existed at the time. What you did, from the looks of it, was to take in the suffering and misery around you and use it as fuel to join together your soul and body in a nearly unconscious way which indicates to a strong soul, strong indeed. Burning something nonphysical as fuel and absorbing it to strengthen your soul. In all my years traveling the grandline I have never seen something like this..." Old man Bai murmured the last part to himself, seemingly reminiscing about his younger days.

"Wait, strong soul? Doesn't that mean that I will be able to unlock the conquerors hak-"

"It is a possibility, yes, but that remains to be seen since a strong soul is not enough. Your fusion of body and soul and the resulting spirit will show you the truth in due time. Patience and we will see."

Old man Bai told him while patting him on the shoulder with a kind smile on his face, revealing his old age for once.

"But, it doesn't harm to show you a few exercises should you really manifest the conquerors haki in the future. After all with a power like this comes great responsibility and no disciple of mine will be unable to control his own haki!" Old man Bai said with conviction bringing a bright grin to Azuls face.

(flashback end)

And so Azul started to hone the flame inside of himself. Fueling it yet always keeping control over every single aspect of it. In the beginning it had been unbelievably hard and even now there were times he was unable to bring the fire under his control and his master had to step in and direct the energy of the flame to his mouth which resulted in a transparent plume of smoke escaping Azuls mouth. It truly was a task he wasn't ready for yet but he would learn how to control his spirit or die trying. No way was he going to disappoint his master!