Worm Piece (Worm/One Piece)

Chapter Seventy


Taylor found a quiet spot to settle into in the shadows of the orange trees. Queenie settled herself down on her lap with an imperious order to be scratched while one of Taylor's new books sat on the back of a crab next to her, some bugs holding the pages in place for her to read.

It would have been a perfectly comfortable place to be were it not for the way her everything hurt. Garp had not been kind with his training, and she suspected that had the entire crew not collapsed one after the other in the end, he would have gone on forever.

She didn't know if the training would pay off, but she suspected it would. If nothing else it put the fear of Garp into just about everyone.

But right then the huge man was slouched in a hammock strung out between the ship's figurehead and one of the masts. His great billowing snores would have been annoying if they didn't mean that the ship was finally at peace.

Taylor refocused on her book while her fingers traced absent lines into Queenie's fur.

Haki. They called the thing she did with her voice haki; and there was more than one kind of haki. It was a sort of manifestation of a person's will, that much she understood, but the entire concept was steeped in mysticism and coached in terms that she found disturbingly unscientific.

It felt as if the people who had written the book, apparently for the purpose of training Vice Admirals, didn't know the first thing about the scientific method.

It was a little like the long discourses about parahuman powers back on Earth Bet, but those had at least sought out evidence for their claims, and had done some research and testing. The book before her had examples of what could be done, but the 'how' was explained in... less than useful terms.

"In order to practice the art of Kenbunshoku Haki, it is best that the practitioner enter combat while forgoing one or more of their other senses. Sight, hearing, touch, can all be sacrificed in order to more rapidly hone the sixth sense," Taylor muttered as she read.

She looked up when Tashigi limped closer to her. The young Marine met Taylor's eyes, then focused on the deck. "Ah, hello," she said as she pressed her fingers together.

"Hey," Taylor said. "Do you want to sit?"

"Um. I heard Nami telling that disgusting ruffian Bartolomeo that if he touched her trees she would gut him," Tashigi said. That she insulted the boy without so much as a shift in tone didn't seem to phase her.

"It's fine. I trust that you won't use the trees for sword practice. It's nice here. The shade is just right."

Tashigi hesitated a little more, then she turned and lowered herself down with her back to one of the trees next to Taylor's. "Oh, this is nice," she said.

Taylor smiled and read the next line in her book. "So why'd you seek me out?"

"I didn't," Tashigi said.

"I see everything that happens on this ship," Taylor said. "Including you looking through every room you passed."

"Everything?" Tashigi squeaked.

"Everything," Taylor said.

"Oh," Tashigi said as a flush spread across her cheeks. "So, when I was looking at..."

"Yep," Taylor confirmed.

Tashigi's flush deepened.

It took a long time for the little Marine to build up the courage to ask another question. "Um, so what are you reading?"

"A book on Haki," Taylor said. Tashigi gave her a confused look so Taylor explained. "It's this... quasi-spiritual stuff that allows people to hit hard, take hits better and sense the location of things. It also allows you to impose your will on others. It's what my voice does. I was hoping to find something to control it other than speaking meekly."

"Can anyone learn that?" Tashigi asked. "It sounds a little like some very advanced sword-based techniques that I've heard of."

Taylor shrugged one shoulder and shifted to the side. "Maybe. The voice thing is supposed to be rare, but I'm not sure how trustworthy this book is. There seems to be a lot of biases and some bits seem like conjecture with very little evidence."

Taylor flipped back to the start while the crab holding the book scuttled to the side to be between the girls. They were a few pages into the start when a call cut off their reading time.

"Mountains ahead!" Nami screamed.

Taylor looked at the mountain which were, indeed, ahead of them. They were half-a-hundred miles ahead of hte, but they were certainly ahead.

"Everyone, we need to get ready," Nami said. "This is going to be hard."

Taylor sighed and went back to reading. Her bugs could do the helping.

***

As much as I would like to get off the cannon rails (at least a little) I do think we should cross reverse mountain at some point.

[] Help the others
[] Keep on reading
[] Get Garp to do all the work

Your oath.
Luffy will be pulling up a barrel and making an oath on it. Because he's a big softy. What's Taylor's dream, her goal for the future.
[] Write in...