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Kyoma stood stunned.
He stepped forward and poked and then pinched the girl's face.
It was soft.
It didn't seem to be covered in Haki.
'Ah, she bit me.'
"You're biting people constantly now." Kyoma withdrew his hand with a distorted expression.
A clear tooth mark marred the back of his hand, stained with saliva.
"Hmph, who told you to pinch my face!" Kagura removed the black cloth from her eyes, very satisfied with Kyoma's miserable condition.
However, the corners of her mouth had just risen when they immediately froze again.
She spotted half the wooden staff lying on the ground while the other half remained in Rayleigh's grip.
When the old man saw her looking over, he hid his hand behind his back with visible embarrassment.
"You jerk, Kyo-chan. Do you want to ruin the appearance of a cute and beautiful girl?"
Kagura rushed out angrily, her target naturally being Kyoma once again.
Kyoma couldn't dodge and was struck by the girl.
"Hey. Why is it me again? I didn't hit you."
"Don't bite... Ah!"
With a wail, his other hand met the same fate.
"Kyoma, if you can master the advanced level of [Armament Haki], perhaps it won't hurt so much when Kagura bites you."
After a while, seeing Kyoma holding the back of his hand in pain while alone, Rayleigh laughed and teased.
"What? Do you mean she can even bite through the normal [Armament Haki]?" Kyoma was quite adept at finding the key points.
"Well, with this girl's exceptional ability, I'm afraid that whether it's steel or [Armament Haki], as long as it hasn't been trained to the highest level, she likely can't be stopped."
Rayleigh looked at the girl beside Kyoma, surprise and expectation gleaming in his eyes.
In their brief contact just moments ago, he'd roughly sensed Kagura's current strength.
In her normal state, she was no less powerful than some pirates with bounties exceeding 100 million Berry. If the hidden power within her body that he'd never encountered before was stimulated, her strength would increase by more than several times over.
It was conceivable that after she mastered the two types of Haki, her strength would improve dramatically.
By then, whether facing the Warlords of the Sea or Marine Admirals, she would be able to fight them.
Kyoma also considered Kagura's prospects after learning Haki and felt delighted, thinking of Doflamingo, whom they might fight in a month.
"Then after Kagura learns Haki, won't she be able to fight Doflamingo..."
But when he saw the girl squatting on the ground, teasing ants at some point, he fell silent.
It was too irresponsible to let such an innocent girl fight one of the Warlords of the Sea desperately.
After arriving in Dressrosa a month from now, if there was a battle with the big boss, it would still depend on him and the powerful, experienced companions summoned later.
As for Kagura and Klee, although they were also very strong, they should be kept from fighting since they were too young.
This was Kyoma's awareness as the only adult in the current team.
"Forget it. Let's ignore her for now and continue practicing, Teacher Rayleigh-san." Kyoma clenched his fists, his eyes gradually growing firm.
"Nice momentum." Rayleigh looked at him with admiration.
Feeling the [Conqueror's Haki] that Kyoma displayed inadvertently, even without his own awareness, Rayleigh's appreciation grew.
Time passed slowly amid Kyoma's countless screams.
After Rayleigh had a [Conqueror's Haki] collision with Kyoma and provided some [Armament Haki] guidance, he said goodbye and left.
****
In the following time, only Kagura and Kyoma remained in the yard.
Kagura didn't return to the house.
Klee was catching up on sleep, and Drake hadn't returned since leaving that morning, so she could only sit on the ground, bored with her umbrella like now, watching Kyoma practice Haki.
[Armament Haki] required self-understanding and experimentation, just like what Kyoma was doing now, constantly striking a giant tree with his fists.
He couldn't break the giant tree with brute force alone, but required attaching [Armament Haki] to his fists, launching heavier attacks with less force.
Kyoma was currently unable to wrap his entire fist with the [Armament Haki] and could only coat the back of his fist with a little Haki when he punched, and sometimes he couldn't even use it at all.
So in Kagura's eyes, he resembled a big fool, constantly hitting the tree trunk with his fists.
The tree showed no signs of damage except for shaking after all his efforts.
However, she didn't mock Kyoma as she had in the past.
She could feel that Kyoma was practicing very seriously, which inspired her so much that she couldn't help trying it herself.
She ended up concentrating her mind, releasing the power of her body, and attaching it to her palm.
A layer of Haki appeared on her palm.
She stretched her hand out from beneath the umbrella, where it gleamed with a metallic luster like steel in the sunlight.
Kagura dispersed the Haki quickly.
She knew she seemed to have mastered this ability before Kyoma, but for the sake of protecting his self-esteem, she decided not to tell him for the time being.
Thinking of this, Kagura retracted her hand beneath the umbrella and continued admiring Kyoma punching at the tree.
Time passed slowly like this.
At sunset, Kagura grew drowsy, her head shaking, and the umbrella she held was about to fall to the ground.
At that moment, she heard the sound of the tree breaking.
The trunk fell to the ground with a "bang." She realized Kyoma must have finally knocked the giant tree apart.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Kyoma put a hand on her shoulder with excitement.
"Kagura, look. I succeeded!"
Kyoma was so excited he couldn't help sharing the good news with Kagura.
She saw that the tree had already fallen to the ground, and a faint layer of Haki covered his palms, shining in the sun.
"Hoh, that's amazing, Kyo-chan," Kagura spoke in a lazy voice while yawning.
****
At night, after exercising all afternoon, Kyoma took a hot bath, then hurried to the kitchen because Klee had finally woken and was hungry.
In less than half an hour, Kyoma prepared dinner.
As his Haki progressed, his cooking skills were also improving. He now understood why Sanji could feed Luffy, who could tire multiple chefs, every day.
It was nothing but practice.
The stars were sparse that night, and a bright moon hung in the long dark sky.
The night was very pleasant today, with a suitable temperature and occasional evening breezes that made people feel comfortable.
Therefore, Kyoma and the other two moved the food on the table to the small yard outside the house.
"Where is Drake-san?"
During the meal, after filling her stomach from hunger, Klee realized one person was missing.
Drake had been there for the past two days, and she'd thought that Drake, like her and Kagura, was summoned by Kyoma from another world.
"Don't worry about him. The chaotic area he went to is some distance from Island No. 53, and he probably won't be able to return tonight." Kyoma replied without even raising his head.
He had another sentence he didn't say, which was that he himself didn't know whether Drake would return after finding the pirate ship.
After all, according to the original plot, he still had the task of being an undercover agent in Kaido's pirate crew in the New World.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded at the gate of the yard.
The next moment, Drake walked in from the door in a dusty state.
"Drake-san," Klee shouted in surprise, and Kagura on the other side also greeted him vaguely while eating.
"You came at the wrong time." Only Kyoma was unhappy.
He felt like he'd been slapped in the face.
"No, I came at the right time." Drake grinned.
He saw the three people having dinner in the yard, the table full of food, and now he'd returned just in time for dinner.
"..."
'Are you rehearsing a drama with me?' Kyoma's head filled with black lines, his mouth twitching as he said, "You came back too late. We didn't prepare your share."
Although abundant food covered the table, most of it would eventually go into Kagura's stomach.
It wasn't a lie to say no food had been prepared for Drake.
Hearing this, Drake said nothing.
He raised his eyebrows, then reached into his coat, dragged out a big sack, and threw it to the ground in front of the dining table with a "click."
The sack slowly opened due to gravity, and the exclamations of Kyoma, Kagura, and Klee echoed through the yard.
"Eh!!"
It was a sack full of Berry bills.
"For the food expenses during this period and for the next month."
After that, Drake walked straight into the house, retrieved a chair, moved it to the remaining corner of the dining table, and naturally joined the dinner.
[32 million Berries can be collected. Should it be stored in the storage space?]
'There's so much.' Kyoma was shocked.
How could this guy return with so much money after just going out?
This money couldn't be dirty, could it?
But this guy was a Marine himself.
He wouldn't say he was going to rob a bank, would he?
Kyoma didn't have to follow the laws and morals of his previous world in this one.
With a slight thought in his mind, he placed the full bag of berries into the space.
[Host's remaining assets: 493 million Berry]
"You have too many abilities. Flames, body recovery, and now the ability to absorb objects out of thin air." Kyoma didn't hide his abilities this time, allowing Drake to see them clearly. He looked at him with squinted eyes and said in a strange voice:
"It's just like the guy I met today."
Speaking of the guy he mentioned, he subconsciously looked at the left side of his upper body, where traces of being cut by a sharp blade remained, and a part of his clothes had been cut off.
"Trafalgar Law."
"You met him, too?" Kyoma was very surprised.
This morning, when he'd bought breakfast, Law and his crew member Bepo had followed him, and after being discovered, they'd used his fruit ability to escape, leaving him confused.
And now Drake had actually encountered him, and it seemed the two of them had even fought.
"Well, I didn't expect this guy's ship to be docked at sea, not far from you. When I came back, I saw the lights of the ship in the ocean. Just when I wanted to get closer to see this guy, he teleported to the shore, said some inexplicable words, and then started fighting."
Drake was a little depressed.
Law seemed to have said something about "the orange-haired boss," but he hadn't reacted at that time, and thought the guy was making up a reason to fight him.
More importantly, he'd been a little hungry at the time and was in a hurry to return for dinner. So he directly started the fight.
But he hadn't expected that the guy's ability was more difficult than the rumors suggested, and he'd almost been cut in half by the sword that suddenly appeared in front of him. Fortunately, he'd learned some [Observation Haki] as early as when he was in the Marines and dodged the fierce attack. Law had disappeared out of thin air as if he'd gone back to his ship.
And when he'd seen Kyoma's orange hair that was particularly eye-catching under the bright moonlight, he'd finally realized what Law was asking him.
"That guy seems to want to become friends with you," Drake said somewhat embarrassedly.
"Then why didn't you bring him? Well, I know you fought with him, so you couldn't invite him." Kyoma was a little helpless.
Combined with Law's behavior today, he'd realized that Law was most likely looking for future allies.
In the original work, the ally he'd favored was Luffy, and he'd used a submarine to rescue Luffy in Marineford, which had laid the groundwork for Luffy agreeing to join him in attacking Doflamingo two years later.
So he speculated that Law should have learned about the potential of his group from somewhere, then regarded him as a potential ally in the future.
This point coincided with Kyoma's thinking.
Similar to Law's desire to find an ally, he also needed Law's fruit ability.
Law's strength was definitely far less than that of two years later in the original work, but it was definitely more than enough to serve as a perfect assistant. In addition, with his understanding of Doflamingo's internal affairs, they would definitely have an easier time with him.
However, the only drawback of the alliance with Law was that his goal was to destroy Doflamingo's rule, so as to complete his revenge for killing Corazon, which was undoubtedly twice as difficult as their goal of just saving people.
"Kyo-chan..." Kagura's voice made Kyoma withdraw from his thoughts.
Kyoma looked at her in confusion.
Kagura seldom spoke when eating because her mouth was always full of food.
He didn't understand why the more she could eat, the more anxious she was to eat.
After he saw that most of the food plates on the table were empty, he realized that, because of Drake's sudden return, the food prepared for Kagura on the table was obviously not enough.
Klee was already full and had been listening carefully to his conversation with Drake.
There was no way around it.
One had paid for the food, and the other had to be fed.
He had to get up and continue working with the kitchen utensils.
The food ingredients were sufficient.
In less than ten minutes, he brought out many more plates of meat delicacies.
He didn't forget that he'd promised Kagura she would have plenty of meat every day.
Now he had Klee as well.
If he didn't have money to buy meat, he could just go to the sea and blow up a few Sea Kings.
'Wait, blow up Sea Kings…'
A light flashed in Kyoma's eyes.
He suddenly thought of a way to make money.
"Klee, have you finished making your new bomb?" Kyoma looked at Klee with anticipation.
"Very soon. It will definitely be done tomorrow." Seeing Kyoma mention the new bomb, Klee instantly became interested and introduced the composition and power of her bomb in all aspects.
Drake, who was eating at the side, broke into a cold sweat.
He remembered that when he'd been sleeping last night, this girl had actually been making a bomb a few rooms away from him.
If it exploded at such a close distance, he would probably die.