chapter 9

the next, things went like normal, cook train heal cook train heal, and the afternoon free time arrived, Arowen went out to the city once more to look for a weapon, yesterday he already mapped the city and knew where each weapon shop was and so he started visiting them one by one

when Arowen reached a shop, he would look for the swords, western swords as a preference, in the one piece world sabers and katanas are very popular but after trying a few at the base, they just didn't feel right to him, and he always felt that a western sword would suit him best, he didn't why he felt that way but he couldn't help but trust his feeling,

even before this ordeal started, when he was still on earth he always had a strong intuition, and it proved to be right most of the time and since he made it in the one piece world it only got stronger and become more real to him, he didn't know it right now but that was a passive ability granted to him by his enigma, his Spirit enigma had many functions, for now as it was only semi activated, it gave him two passive abilities, the first one is a passive tempering of his spirit or soul if you want, a second ability that it granted him,

well in fact it didn't grant him this second ability, he already had it but it was very weak, this ability is called Insight, at first it was so weak it almost seemed nonexistent, but after getting an enigma it became more obvious, this ability is very rare and could be counted as a supernatural power as it doesn't deal with the logical, scientific or magical but more with mysticism and paranormal, for now it is still at the beginning of its growth, but as Arowen continues developing his enigma, his insight would become more potent, clear and accurate, at its peak it may even have some weak precognitive ability,

in brief its main function is to give the user guidance to what he deem as beneficial to him, and warn him of what he deems to be harmful to him, which is a double edged sword in certain situation, as an example if Arowen was a masochist and get pleasure from being abused then the insight would give him good vibes if someone had harmful intentions towards him, but on the bright side if he was looking to win a lottery the insight would make it more likely for him to choose the right numbers, there will be a margin of error but his chances of winning would be quite high depending on his rate of development of his enigma, as i said before the stronger his enigma the stronger the insight

now back to Arowen, he visited the shops one by one, and tried every weapon to see if it fits, but each time he was disappointed, he would just find some random reason to reject it, he didn't know why,(insight is working on overdrive here) but they just didn't fit, some weapons he thought were perfect for him but he rejected them anyway, some reasons to doing so were so ridiculous, hell he even found himself to be ridiculous and couldn't believe himself

'the fk is that dude looking at me that way, fk i ain't buying his shit'

or the more ridiculous

'that kid must want to buy this weapon, maybe 18 years later he will buy it and go for an adventure' the kid was a toddler of 2 years old lads and was just staring blankly sucking his thumb, and so the days went by Arowen would from time to time go to the city to have some fun *cough*women*cough*(AN: *sigh*the woes of men... woman, i won't go for details as this is not that kind of story, just wanted you to know that Arowen had some vices as well, he is still human and have some human needs)

a month later and Arowen still hadn't found what he was looking for, the only thing that kept his mood up is that his training gave him better results now and he was improving by leaps and bounds, but a good weapon still plagued his mind and from time to time he would think of that shop and that old man, but each time he would just reject it his earthling thinking hindered him a little bit here, another month went by and he just couldn't resist anymore, he went back the alley and was standing in front of that shop

'it couldn't be now, my luck couldn't be that good, and that old man is some hidden master, is my protagonist halo finally active? i just can't believe it' Arowen just couldn't wrap his head around such a coincidence, to him this is some anime shit going on, but he just can't ran from the inevitable, if his insight was spamming him for a whole two months and the bastard didn't follow, that is until now (AN: i know guys, i did the mother-fk-er a huge flavor and he didn't take, kept sending him author signals and he kept rejecting my so gracious flavor) , insight is a very helpful ability to have when it is accurate but it can't force you to do what it tells you, it work in a subtle way and it is up for its user to take the decision, and so shaking his head he went into the shop

the old man Jeel was still the same as always, lazily sitting on his spot smoking, and when Arowen went inside he lifted his eyes looking at him and said

"your back lad!"

"you still remember me?!"

"i may be old, but i am not that old yet lad, and it ain't like the traffic of the shop is getting any higher, few people come to my shop and even fewer comeback" the old man said lazy as always

"ah! sorry, didn't mean it that way" Arowen was flustered, which isn't normal, he didn't know that his insight right now was spamming red alerts all over the place, but in front of this old monster he didn't notice it, he was just too nervous and felt awkward, if the people in the base saw him right now they wouldn't believe he is Arowen the mad devil trainer

"so! did you find what you were looking for?" the old man asked after taking a puff from his smoke, Jeel had been observing Arowen the whole time and saw him looking for a weapon and each time he would go back empty handed, he even saw him training in the base and he was impressed by his diligence and hard work, he saw better in his old days, but the determination and the length he saw Arowen go through in his training made him remember some of his old friends, as for how he knew all of that, you may have guessed it already, he was obviously using observation Haki and its range is very big, it encompassed the whole island and good chunk of the sea surrounding it, so it was child play for him to observe Arowen

suddenly Arowen had a somber face and said

"unfortunately no! but i hope i will find it here"

"hoho! what gives ?" the old man was surprised by the answer he lost his lazy attitude and laughed surprised

"i don't know, a gut feeling, i just believe that i will find what i am looking for with you"

"interesting, what is it you're looking for?" the old man had a happy smile on his face, and even though he knew the answer to that question, he asked anyway

by now Arowen as already convinced that the old man was some old hidden master, and that he had a precious opportunity in front of his eyes, so he thought very deeply before replying

"what i need is very hard to find, a good companion, one that will accompany me throughout my journey, my companion needs to be strong and tenacious, many tribulations awaits me harder than you can imagine ...." Arowen continued for a few seconds more, he was a little bit cryptic as he couldn't divulge info about the dream world

old man Jeel was a bit surprised by the young man, and he seems to have some secrets, in his life he has been through a lot and when Arowen told him that what awaits him is harder than he could imagine it was hard for him to believe him, but he did so he pondered very hard about his next decision and told Arowen to follow to the back of the shop

"come" the old man said while waving his hand and Arowen complied