59 Awakening Observation Haki

Beside an uninhabited island in the West Blue, the Explorer One furled its sails and gently rocked with the sea.

Sherwin, along with Klee Meow and Sanji Meow, disembarked onto this island that didn't even appear on the Navy's charts.

It was quite a coincidence, really—this island hadn't been on their original route. Sherwin had been fishing when he suddenly caught a Sea King.

The beast clamped down on the hook and thrashed wildly, dragging the Explorer One in all directions. By the time Sherwin killed it with a single slash, the ship happened to stop right near the island.

The island itself wasn't very large—about the same size as the sports field at Sherwin's university. It didn't even require setting foot on it to be charted; just circling it by boat would've lit up its map data.

They didn't come ashore because they had discovered something valuable here. On the contrary, the entire island was made up of pitch-black rock. Apart from some moss and barnacles clinging to the edges, there was absolutely nothing else.

Rather than calling it an island, it was more accurate to say it was just a massive black reef.

The real reason they landed here was that both Sherwin and Sanji Meow wanted to try out Klee Meow's method for awakening Observation Haki.

Although they could've used the small-boat towing method they had tried before, it was far too inefficient.

There was always a risk of falling into the sea, and going back and forth wasted a lot of time. It just wasn't suitable for training Observation Haki.

Finding an isolated island where they wouldn't be disturbed, like this one, was a much better choice.

As soon as they landed on this nameless black reef island, Klee Meow quickly pulled out the materials and tools for bomb-making. But after just fiddling with them for a few moments, she started squirming like she had fleas.

"Ugh… Being stared at like this feels really weird, meow…"

Now Klee Meow finally understood how Sherwin had felt when he was doing blade meditation and they were all watching him.

"Sherwin-nii, Sanji-nii, can't you just… not stare at Klee so seriously like before, meow?"

Clearly uncomfortable, Klee Meow put down her bomb-making supplies and whined at Sherwin and Sanji Meow, who were staring at her without blinking.

Back when Klee Meow was experimenting, Sherwin had kept most of his attention on her, but confident in his own strength, he wasn't nearly as focused as he was now—he'd even had time to space out a bit.

"Ahem… Sorry about that…"

"Sorry, meow!"

Both man and cat awkwardly looked away, though they still couldn't help but glance at Klee Meow whenever they tried to focus their attention on her.

After thinking for a moment, Sanji Meow simply sat down where he was, lowered his head, and closed his eyes as if taking a nap—but his furry, curled ears stood upright and alert...

He looked a bit like a Kadabra from Pokémon.

Sherwin also sat cross-legged, laying the Sword across his lap and once again began his sword meditation.

But before closing his eyes, he reminded Klee Meow, "When you sense that the bomb's about to go off, give a shout. I might not react in time."

After a short pause, he called out to Sanji Meow, "Sanji, come sit next to me. If you're too far away, I won't be able to protect you."

However, Sanji Meow shook his head, opened his eyes, and gave Sherwin a toothy grin. "If I sit next to you, it won't be real training, meow. If a bomb really goes off, I'll run over to you, meow."

Sherwin frowned but knew that Sanji Meow had his own principles, so he didn't press further. He simply made up his mind to focus all his attention on Klee Meow from now on—he couldn't afford even a moment of distraction.

Understanding the situation, Klee Meow comforted him. "Don't worry, Sherwin-nii! Don't forget, Klee can control how powerful the explosion is, meow!"

That was true. As Klee Meow became more adept at using her Flare-Flare Fruit abilities, even when her experiments failed, she could often reduce the blast strength in time.

Since bomb explosions didn't consist of just heat and flame damage, Sherwin didn't have to constantly intervene—this was one of the reasons he'd agreed to let Sanji Meow train alongside her.

Having strong resolve was always a good thing—but resolve alone didn't guarantee success.

At first, Sherwin and Sanji Meow couldn't accurately sense when the bombs were going to explode.

Either they didn't notice the signs in time and had to rely on Klee Meow to shout a warning, or they mistook a harmless reaction for an imminent blast and jumped up for nothing—only to startle Klee Meow right in the middle of her bomb work...

Then the bomb really exploded.

As a result, Sherwin often didn't have enough time to throw the bomb far enough. The two Felynes were always fine, but Sherwin, as the only one with a full-sized human body acting as a meat shield, ended up in rags by the end of the first day. By day two, he had simply stopped wearing a shirt altogether.

By the third day, Sherwin and Sanji Meow had gradually begun to grasp the precise timing of the explosions. But truth be told, it didn't have much to do with Observation Haki—it was just that they'd become familiar with the subtle cues that came before a detonation.

Still, the training wasn't without gains. At the very least, their sensory abilities had improved considerably. They were one small step closer to awakening Observation Haki.

Three days later, Sherwin and the others returned to the Explorer One and left the nameless deserted island behind.

It wasn't that they didn't want to continue exploring. The main issue was that Klee Meow had run out of inspiration and didn't have any new bomb designs for the time being.

Besides that, there was another reason — the island, which had originally been the size of a stadium, had been bombed until barely ten square meters of land remained…

"True Master of Terrain Alteration" — truly worthy of the name!

…

"Well, we might as well stop by a town to restock," Sherwin said as he changed into a fresh set of clothes after returning to the ship. "We still have plenty of food, but we definitely need to replenish our fresh water."

In fact, there was still quite a bit of fresh water stored on the ship and in their packs. But when it came to critical supplies like water, Sherwin had set a very high safety threshold. When calculating the reserves, he would deliberately exclude the water in their backpacks.

While he was at it, Sherwin also needed to buy himself a few new sets of clothes.

It wasn't because all his clothes had been blown up earlier — it was because he'd grown taller again…

Maybe it was the high nutritional value of the food in the world of One Piece, but Sherwin now looked about fourteen to sixteen years old, and he was already taller than he had been before crossing over.

Of course, that was a good thing. Even though his pre-crossover height had been above average on Earth, in this world, it didn't make much of a difference — he'd still look no taller than Capone Bege, that shorty.

In fact, Sanji Meow and Klee Meow had also grown a little taller, but the Felynes had a natural limit to their size, so their growth wasn't very noticeable.

The clothes they had bought earlier still fit just fine. More importantly… the outfits they originally came with somehow had an adaptive function — they would automatically adjust to fit as they grew!

In other words, those outfits were actually considered equipment.

Why didn't my starting villager outfit have that kind of feature?! Who's the one with the real cheat ability here, huh?!

After fiercely ranting about his lousy so-called cheat, Sherwin pulled out the core of his actual cheat ability — the Monster Hunter Manual.

"Let's see… which island are we landing on next?"

Sherwin opened the map and zoomed in on the silhouette of their next target.

"Well now~ What a coincidence." Sherwin raised his eyebrows slightly, a trace of surprise in his voice.

On the "pre-rendered" silhouette of the island, three large characters were clearly displayed—

Land of Flowers.