Chapter 31 - 31: Strange phenomena.

Somewhere on the deep blue sea, a rather massive marine's ship with a dog's head biting a bone could be seen currently sailing quietly.

It was of course Garp's ship who was going toward Marie geoise for a certain mission of his, accompained by Zephyr, Edam and of course his crew. They had departed about 2 days ago.

A dozen of soldiers were on the deck as they were doing their duties that is, washing the ground, stand on guards and such...

And right on the dȯġġƴ's head, a black haired kid with the strange peculiarity of having a tail could be seen there as the fresh breeze of the wind was colliding against his face mixed with the unique smell of the sea. What a relaxing scene it was.

Of course that kid was Edam, who for an unknown reason sat there crossed legs while glaring at something placed just in front of him, right on the dog's head.

Looking closely, it was a white stone that was in front of him.

His two hands were extended at both side of the stone as if he was protecting the flame of a candle that was about to fade out.

It seems that he did that for a rather long time now as his gaze was deeply focused not moving an inch from the stone.

Even the marine's soldiers at the side were puzzled by that and were murmuring softly between themselves.

'What is the vice-admiral's grandson doing ?" One guy said as he looked at Edam's sitting and focused figure on the dog's head.

"Oh I heard that the instructor Zephyr had made a special training for him." Another one replied enthusiastically.

"Oh okay... but its been hours now no... ?" The former guy said doubtfully.

"Indeed..."

...

"Hey did you hear ? The famous training camp will started in a week or so, have you register your son already ?"

"Of course how could I miss that and you ?"

"Yep my boy say that he would be just like his father." One of them said like proud peacock.

"But we have the lowest rank here..." One of them comment wryly on this.

"..."

"..."

Meanwhile Edam who was unmoving as a boulder and focused to the extreme for hours was finally showing sign of moving. His fingers began to twitch as a change occured to the stone.

The stone that was originally pure white was gradually changing color. The process was a little slow and last some minutes as it would turn black and then white and so on for a rather long time.

However after ten long minutes of interchanging colors the stone finally turned completely into a deep black color.

Seeing this Edam at last reacted after hours of absolute silence.

"Oh... I did it...?" This reply was more like question instead of a certitude.

He had finally succeed at doing this after who know how many hours however not an ounce of happiness was seen on his face, instead confusions and doubts was present all over his face right now as he looked at the result that he was sure shouldn't have been anything near this result.

With his arms still outstretch and his fingers still covering the stone, a strange scene had took place all of a sudden.

Right In the palm of his hands, and all around the stone, a luminous white sphere was currently shining fervently right at the center of the stone that had lost its black color and had now returned to the previous white color.

Even weirder was that the stone which was completely fine like any other stone was progressively crumbling apart as if it was nothing more than some sand.

He had even noticed that before the stone crumble away, he had lifted a little his two hands causing the "energy ball" to move along but also making the stone move along with the energy ball and thus making the stone float an inch from the dog's head before it eventually disappear in dust.

This strange phenomenon rendered our little Edam completely speechless.

"Uh... What exactly is happening right now ?"

The original goal of this training that was especially "concocted" by Zephyr was to train his ability to deploy his Armament Haki on the little stone in front of him. It was Edam who had at first asked his grandpa Zephyr if he by any chance had a training for him and obviously as a teacher of great reputation Zephyr couldn't possibly disappoint this grandson of his right ? So the latter proposed to train his Haki that his gramps Garp had already mention days ago and started by explaining the fundamental basics of Haki.

In short, Haki is a mysterious power that is found in every living being in the world. It is not that different from the typical senses. However, most people do not notice it or fail to awaken it. Broadly speaking, there are two types of Haki available to everyone, given the proper training, but there is a third type that only a certain group of "chosen ones" are said to possess.

The first type is called Kenbunshoku Haki which grants users a sixth sense of the world around them and limited precognitive abilities. "It seems that my beast sense was somewhat similar to it even if mine had some flaws that it didn't have."

The second type is called Busoshoku Haki, which allows the user to use their spirit as armor to defend against attacks or to make their own attacks more potent.

"It was because of this that gramps could hit luffy and make him scream even though he was a devil fruit user." Edam thought.

And finally third and last one the Haoshoku Haki, a rare type of Haki that only one in a million people can use which grants the user the ability to overpower the will of others.

"However grandpa Zephyr told me that this Haki couldn't be trained or obtained so..."

The stone should have turned a deep black and that's it, not gleam like a christmas ball or float like a bubble. Less to say about the fact that the stone disappeared into cosmic dust when the purpose of this exercice was to strenghten the damn stone till it became as hard as steel.

Everything that had happen in this short time that passed didn't make a single sense for him, however as he really did want to learn he tried again.

Frowning a bit, he thought " Again !" he then picked up another stone that Zephyr had hand him over. He was really lucky that Zephyr has by chance grabbed a lot of stones before departing.

He then tried again and this time it took him even less time to imbued his stone, about one hour.

However just like the first time, after having been completely dyed black it wasn't long before it turn dusty resulting in another failure.

He then continued to try and try and try again even though those attempts all turned in vain but he didn't gave up and still persevered.

After having failed about a hundred time, an idea suddenly came to him.

Earlier at his first try it had begun smoothly without any trouble, he could feel his Haki coursing his body and being imbued successfully in the stone but, as it was nearing the end he felt a second sort of energy forcefully replacing his Haki.

With that in mind he took two stones, placed them in his two hands and started to focused on those two stone as he forgot everything else.

What he didn't know was that to the side, with his arms crossed in front of his ċhėst, Zephyr was watching his training with a keen eye and had already known what was the problem with him and seeing him finding a solution to his problem made him smile even though he too didn't know what was this thing.

You can think of it for example as if Edam was currently in front of a delicious chicken wings made by a random cook but then Makino's speciality was suddenly brought in front of him.

Of course Edam would choose Makino's food over the chicken, that wasn't even a question to ask for him, he would instinctively choose her's.

And that was the same for Edam right now, his body would instinctively choose the other energy as if it has always been made for his body's usage instead of the Haki.

Meanwhile after an hour of struggle, Edam finallly saw his first succes.. In his right hand the stone was black and in his left hand the stone crumble away as a white and fiery light shone there instead.