Chapter 10: Luckily the Toad Hakim Came Back
Try? Try my ass.
Zabuza went back to his room, dropped onto the bed, and fell asleep peacefully.
Even though Shanks's Conqueror's Haki wasn't aimed at Zabuza, facing a kind of power that ignored the body entirely for the first time was too much for him. More or less, he had a bad reaction from being unfamiliar with it.
"Sigh. Feeling invincible is really lonely."
Shanks sighed. He wasn't about to actually make Zabuza test the move.
"In this stretch of the Four Seas, Zan should be strong. But I'm someone who came back from the Grand Line. I'm completely an out-of-spec existence."
"Who would've thought Armament Haki would be this hard."
Aside from Armament Haki, Shanks was satisfied with his other Haki training.
As for Conqueror's Haki, Shanks didn't even know how he trained it out. Back then, he only felt danger.
That energy in nature seemed to be invading his body. In that life-threatening situation, Shanks could only force himself to break away.
But forcing himself out had a price. In that instant, Shanks felt completely hollowed out. He didn't have a shred of strength left, and even his Observation Haki failed entirely.
But after that energy's invasion paused briefly, it continued surging into Shanks's body. Then, it was as if a shackle in Shanks's mind snapped. In that instant, with the last of his will, Shanks swung that slash.
Terrifying Conqueror's Haki wrapped around Shanks's katana, red-and-black lightning accompanying the strike as it cut through the energy in the air.
Divine Departure.
By sheer coincidence, Shanks comprehended a sword technique. In that moment, he also understood that this move was called Divine Departure. That feeling was simple: even a god, if it came, could be killed.
Shanks's feeling wasn't wrong. After all, being able to cut through the influence of Hakim chakra with one slash was frightening no matter how you looked at it.
Shanks's so-called Conqueror's Haki was also born at that time. How it was born, Shanks didn't understand.
Elsewhere, at Mount Myoboku, one of the Three Great Sacred Lands.
"Did he fail?"
Jiraiya saw the Toad Hakim shake his head and asked.
"No. But he didn't succeed either. He found another, even stronger power."
The Toad Hakim spoke slowly. Then, a cloud of smoke appeared before Jiraiya, and Shanks's figure formed within it.
It was the scene from the Toad Hakim's dream, and also the scene of Shanks training Hakim Mode.
"He failed. He didn't control the fusion of natural energy. No… to be precise, Shanks didn't even try to control natural energy, so of course he failed."
"Then…"
Jiraiya didn't understand. If he failed, why was he fine?
"If it were a normal person at that moment, they'd be influenced by natural energy and feel like they only needed one more step to complete Hakim Mode."
"But more often than not, they walk straight into death. If they're careful, they only become an incomplete Hakim."
The Toad Hakim explained.
"Shanks's sensing is too sharp. His sensory technique lets him clearly sense his body and mind. He can even sense malice from outside. His sensory technique is being used at an extremely high level."
"On top of that, Shanks completely rejects Hakim chakra. That requires immense willpower. Once he does it, it's the same as rejecting becoming a Hakim entirely. That has never happened before."
After hearing that, Jiraiya roughly understood.
Shanks failed, but didn't fail completely. You could even call it a different kind of success.
If Shanks continued training, he might die. Stopping midway was both a success and a failure.
The absurd part was this: after Hakim chakra formed, the chance to become a Hakim was right there, yet Shanks cut it off without hesitation. He forced it to stop.
"So in that moment, Shanks killed his own chance to become a Hakim?"
Jiraiya frowned. He felt like something about that sentence was strange, but it was what the Toad Hakim meant.
"That's right, Jiraiya."
"Every creature's instinct fears that kind of power. Hakim chakra is the same. It can be suppressed by that kind of power. And beyond that, Shanks has also touched Hakim power."
As the image shown to Jiraiya froze, Jiraiya saw a layer of pitch-black coating on Shanks's katana.
"Truth-Seeking Orbs can change form freely. Maybe the power Shanks has mastered isn't Truth-Seeking Orbs, but the Uzumaki Clan bloodline is fully capable of letting Shanks master that kind of power. It's only a matter of time."
"So he did fail."
The Toad Hakim's murmuring echoed beside Jiraiya's ear, and Jiraiya just stood there stunned.
This is what you call failing?
The other side had something only the Hakim of the Six Paths was said to possess, Truth-Seeking Orbs, and an inexplicable power that could suppress all things.
That didn't look like failure at all. Hakim Mode failing was the real failure.
Seeing the Toad Hakim completely fall asleep, Jiraiya let out a long sigh.
"Sigh. Fine."
"Since the Toad Hakim says Shanks is fine, then I won't interfere."
If an accident hadn't happened, Jiraiya wouldn't have run to Mount Myoboku.
Jiraiya understood how outrageous it was for someone to train Hakim Mode alone. Something like that naturally required consulting the Toad Hakim.
Luckily, the Toad Hakim said it wasn't a big problem.
But the moment Jiraiya left, the Toad Hakim, who had just been asleep, woke up again.
Not a big problem my ass. This was huge.
"Someone outside of fate has appeared. No wonder… before this, I couldn't foresee anything at all."
Cold sweat ran down the Toad Hakim's massive head.
So it was true. When you live long enough, you really do see everything.
The Toad Hakim understood the issue. His ability to foresee fate was, in essence, also a form of sensory technique, or a simplified deduction based on sensory technique.
But Shanks was outrageous. He used sensory technique in reverse. Now he was tracing chakra back to its source, possessing a reverse-sensing ability that could cut off the Toad Hakim's foresight.
As an old being who had lived for over a thousand years, the Toad Hakim understood the reason immediately.
There was no Shanks in the fate he foresaw because Shanks's reverse-sensing technique was too absurd. It blocked his perception.
This time, it was only because Shanks's Hakim Mode training went wrong that the Toad Hakim could perceive him.
"He might also have the ability to foresee fate."
With that thought, the Toad Hakim hurried back into the dream. While Shanks hadn't recovered yet, the Toad Hakim once again used Shanks as the anchor directly.
This was the fastest and most real kind of foresight. Of course, it had benefits and drawbacks: what you could foresee was limited.
But relying on bits and pieces, the Toad Hakim could still restore the truth and reconstruct the real future where Shanks existed.
One month later…
The Toad Hakim finally woke up again.
"Shanks… the youngest Four Emperor…"
"Devil Fruits… the Great Pirate Era… the end of the world… the New World…"
"The future of the shinobi world?"