"If I took even one punch like that, every bone in my body would probably shatter. And Ares has already taken dozens, even a hundred, and he's acting like nothing happened. What a terrifying body…"
Shimotsuki Koshiro was filled with mixed emotions. Ever since leaving Wano and seeing the world outside…
Only then did he realize how vast this world truly was, how dazzling it could be.
Monsters appeared one after another without end. No wonder Wano had enforced its isolation for so long. If those kinds of creatures ever set foot there, who knew what kind of disaster Wano would face?
Koshiro steadied his mind, took a few deep pulls from his pipe. In his distraction earlier, the tobacco had almost gone out.
After a few breaths, the ember in the bowl glowed bright again. He exhaled smoke and walked toward Tengetsu Ares.
When he got close, Koshiro spoke. "Ares… so this is how you temper your body? It's astonishing."
"I'm mainly training Armament Haki. Beating my body while tempering it is just something I do along the way," Ares replied, not pausing his motions even as he spoke. "But this kind of Armament doesn't do much for refining my body."
The muffled impacts boomed like thunder, making Koshiro's ears buzz.
Thankfully, he wasn't an ordinary man. If he were, he would have collapsed from the sound alone.
Koshiro studied Ares' physique carefully.
Those knotted muscles looked like polished brass. Fine beads of sweat shimmered across his skin, and under the sunlight the tendons caught the light, gleaming like molten gold.
Like a suit of golden armor.
The sight hit with overwhelming force.
In this world… was there even a more perfect set of muscles?
Unable to hold back his curiosity, Koshiro asked, "With your strength… you're still training Armament Haki?"
"Yeah. My Haki before was… kind of special. I never properly learned Armament," Ares said, shifting his fists to a new spot and continuing to pound. "I only started training a few days ago."
"…Huh?"
Koshiro froze, stunned. "What? You never trained Armament Haki before?!"
He stared at Ares' arm, dark and glossy as if it had been polished. The power inside it was terrifying. Koshiro had assumed Ares had spent years cultivating Armament his control looked far too mature.
Then Koshiro pressed, disbelief thick in his voice. "Then… your father never taught you Armament?"
The Amatsuki daimyō was no weakling. His Armament was refined to a frightening degree.
But when Koshiro watched Ares use Armament, he didn't see Ryuo at all. He could tell Ares' Armament only clung to the surface like armor painted over the skin.
"No."
Hearing that, Koshiro puffed on his pipe a few times, then asked again, "Then do you know Ryuo?"
"Ryuo?" Ares glanced at him, genuinely curious. "What's Ryuo?"
Koshiro exhaled smoke as he explained. "Ryuo is what we call it in Wano. It's a special application of Armament Haki one that lets you project your Haki past the surface and strike inside a target, destroying it from within."
The moment he heard "Armament Haki," Ares' interest flared. His eyes lit up.
And when he heard destroy from within, curiosity flooded his gaze. "Destroy… from inside?"
Ares frowned, thinking back on the battles he'd experienced. "I've fought plenty of top-tier monsters, but none of their Armament had that kind of internal destruction."
"The only Armament techniques I know are emission, hardening, and coating."
Koshiro frowned too, confused now himself. "You mean… none of you know Ryuo??? I never even considered that. I guess I never paid attention."
"Now that you mention it… I really haven't seen anyone use Ryuo out here."
He'd assumed the outside world understood Ryuo as a matter of course. But…
Wano's isolation meant he didn't truly know the world beyond it.
"Can you teach me?" Ares' gaze burned as he stared at Koshiro. The phrase destroy from within made a thought explode in his mind.
If Ryuo could break things from the inside…
Then he could use it to train the inside of his own body.
This was a problem he'd wrestled with for a long time, and he'd never found a truly effective solution.
Koshiro smiled. "You're from Wano. And your father is a daimyō of Wano. Of course I can teach you Ryuo."
"Consider it a farewell gift."
"You're leaving?" Ares asked.
Koshiro nodded. "I fled Wano because I wanted to see the outside world. The world is huge… and I wanted to see it."
"I've been on Hachinosu for a while. Met some interesting people, saw some interesting things. It's time to go."
"Alright," Ares said, not trying to stop him. Everyone had their own dreams and their own roads.
Koshiro chuckled. "A monster like you… even if I leave, I'll probably still see your name in the papers all the time."
He'd first seen Ares' wanted poster in the news. In that face, he'd sensed a shadow of the Amatsuki daimyō.
That was why he'd come to Hachinosu.
"I'll teach you Ryuo first," Koshiro said. "Watch carefully."
He raised his left hand and explained as he demonstrated. "First, you need to feel the Haki inside your body. Make it a flowing force. Then guide that flow into your fist."
As his Haki moved, a faint pink aura wrapped around his knuckles.
Ares stared without blinking. The Armament on Koshiro's fist flowed and shifted like water itself.
He couldn't help blurting out, "That's incredible… Armament Haki can be used like this?"
"Amazing!"
Then, with the shameless sincerity only Ares could carry
"Koshiro-san, can you punch me with that?"
"…Huh?" Koshiro thought his ears had deceived him.
But Ares repeated it, just as earnest. "Koshiro-san, I want to feel Ryuo's power for myself!"
Koshiro warned him immediately. "Ares, Ryuo can destroy a target from the inside. If I'm not careful, I can hurt you."
"It's fine," Ares said, thumping his chest with confidence. "My body isn't that fragile. And my recovery is strong."
He exposed his torso, then pointed at his abdomen. "Koshiro-san, hit me right here."
"…You're sure?"
"Come on!"
Koshiro sprang forward and drove a punch into Ares' stomach.
The Haki inside him surged like invisible armor turning into a special shock passing through Ares' abdominal muscles and striking deeper, slamming into the weaker organs and tissues inside.
"Pff !"
Ares' abdomen clenched. Blood sprayed from his mouth as sharp, violent pain flooded him.
Koshiro's expression changed instantly. "Ares! Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine." Ares wasn't grimacing if anything, his face was blazing with excitement and joy. He wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth and laughed. "It really can destroy from the inside. Ryuo is incredible!"
"If only I'd learned this a few years earlier."
He was genuinely delighted.
Because Ryuo meant he finally had a method to temper his body internally.
How could he not be happy?
He'd been troubled by this problem for a long, long time.
In his mind, Ares immediately activated that "cheat" of his again breaking down Koshiro's Ryuo movement step by step, analyzing every detail with brutal focus.
He'd asked Koshiro to punch him for one reason:
To sense the nature of that Haki directly.
Koshiro continued explaining the key point. "Ryuo is all about the word flow."
"As long as you grasp it "
"If you still don't understand, I'll show you a few more times."
Ares raised his arm.
The Haki inside his body surged like countless rivers, converging into one roaring tide. It poured into his fist like a raging wave.
A layer of red aura wrapped around his knuckles beautiful in its vividness, deadly in the pressure it carried.
Ares looked at Koshiro, eyes shining.
"Koshiro-san… is this Ryuo?"
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