NEWS
Voyage Name: Awakening Ambition II
Location: Jordsand
Participant(s): Solo
Description:
After failing to learn how to use conventional Haki at Sabaody from the prisoner Hanniver, Sofia will discover that his former crew was now at Jordsand. Wanting to let them know the fate of their former crewmate, she approaches them and lets them know about what happened. After they hear her tale of how she kept him company and him wanting to teach her Haki, but dying before he could finish, the crew decides to try to teach her themselves, so that Hanniver's work can be complete.
Part I is here: https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t1808-awakening-ambition-voyage
Registration: https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t2266-awakening-ambition-ii
Sofia was at one of the few taverns that were on Jordsand, sitting with a cup of tea on the table in front of her, having it held in her hands, as she just stared into the murky water within. She was thinking about Hanniver, the man back at Sabaody prison who had tried to teach her Haki, yet died before he could.
A lot about her has changed since then. She leaned forwards a bit, trying to look at her reflection in the tea.
She was a much more jovial person now, she felt. More authentic to herself, without the binds and chains of tradition to hold back her behaviour. She was becoming a bit like a pirate in that sense, really. Or just less noble-like.
Regardless, it didn’t feel wrong. Most, if not all of the people that she was involved with weren’t as stuck-up as the people in the elite were, so starting to have a demeanour similar to them to fit in was actually quite appropriate. Although, she did still keep some of her etiquette - being a noble was still a part of herself.
Then, she tuned in to a few men talking a few tables away from her, because she heard the word “Hanniver” from them. Or, she thought she did. It was worth to eavesdrop on, she figured.
“So, the last time you saw him was at Sabaody?” one of the gruff pirates asked.
“Yep.” another, very short one said. “A loooong time ago. Hanniver was a legend.”
Sofia’s eyes opened slightly. It was possible that it was the same Hanniver that she met back at the prison. She continued to pay close attention to what they were saying.
“He was such a good fighter.” the stout one went on. “You should’ve seen him back at his prime - that man was like a god on the battlefield.”
“God is a bit of an exaggeration.” a third pirate then mentioned. “Maybe he was a god in comparison to you, because you’re so bad! Bwahyahaha!”
“Hrmpf. Anyways.” the short man continued. “That guy didn’t have a Devil Fruit at all or anything. But he was as strong, if not stronger than them, can you believe that? He beat them all!”
“Logias too?” another asked. “You know you can’t beat them! They just turn into their element or whatever, and that’s it. You’re screwed. You can’t kill them.”
“That’s were his special technique came in.” the pirate then added. “Ambition.”
There was a moment of silence, for the group to then burst into laughter, except for the small one, who just looked at them with a straight face.
“Laugh what you will.” he mentioned. “But nothing can disprove that he had what it took to get that nine-figure bounty.”
“Nine figures? OK, now I know you’re just telling tall tales, shorty!”.
He shook his head, to then put a hand into his coat and then slam down a old “Wanted” poster, with Hanniver’s name.
“Two hundred million Beli.” he hissed out of his lips, to then look at the others with a smug smile. “That’s the sort of power that our Hanniver had. You youngsters and newbies probably don’t know anything about him, but he was the real deal.”
Sofia then approached them, and quite shamelessly pulled up a seat near them. A few of that pirate group turned over to look at her.
“Hello.” she greeted, with a friendly smile. “I heard you guys talking about Hanniver.”
“We sure were.” one of them said. “And what’s that to you?”
“Well.” the noble started off. “I was with him for a bit at Sabaody. In prison.”
“You were?!” the short pirate then said. “H-how?”
“Well, I happened to be around the prison a couple of times…” she started off. “And, well. I just talked to him a couple of times. He told me about Haki - he even tried to train me to use it!”
“Hanniver. Training you?” the short one then asked. “Why?”
Sofia shrugged. “I guess he was fond of me. I was fond of him too, to be honest. It was a… Big loss to see him die.”
“He’s dead?” the small one inquired.
The noble nodded. “He is.” she replied. “He died of old age.”
“I see.” he then replied. “So… Wait. He taught you, right?”
The girl nodded. “Indeed he did.”
“So, you know how to use Haki, right? Ambition?!” he nearly shouted. “You should teach us!”
The girl chuckled uneasily and scratched her temple. “Actually, I don’t know how to use it… He died before he could finish his lessions with me. So… I don’t know. I was wondering if you guys perhaps knew.”
“We don’t.” one of them replied. “To be honest, not until a few minutes ago with shorty here explaining what it was, we had no idea that it even existed in the first place. The world’s crazy if a power like that exists. An ability to touch Logias? Madness. It’s got to be smokes and mirrors or something, I don’t believe it.”
“I already showed you the bounty poster, man.” the small one then said. “What else do you want me to do to prove it to you? Bring the dead man here and have him show you himself? Well, we can’t do that! He’s dead! Besides, this lady has seen him, right? You saw him do it? The Haki thing?”
Sofia nodded.
“See!” he continued. “What more proof do you need of this sort of thing. You got to believe in us for this. I wouldn’t lie to a nakama, what sort of person are you taking me for?”
The girl then rose a hand. “I could try to… teach you what he has taught me?”
The short man replied by slamming his own hand onto the table. “We can complete Hanniver’s legacy.” he then said. “Together.”
“But can we trust her?” one of the pirates there asked. “Like, we’ve just met her today. Right now.”
The small one then slammed a fist to his chest, putting it over his heart. “If Hanniver trusted her, so will I!”
Sofia smiled, out of politeness. There was a flaw in the man’s logic there, because the issue was that what she was saying could all be a lie in the first place, but given how passionate he was about all of this, she felt like she shouldn’t correct him.
Sofia eventually met up with these pirates - who revealed themselves to be the “Black Sleeve” Pirates, over at a beach, near to where they had parked their ship.
“And that’s what Hanniver taught me.” the short one said, after giving an explanation about Hanniver tried to teach him Haki, yet, he didn’t manage to be able to use it. He just wasn’t good with that sort of things.
“I see.” Sofia then said. “So, it’s all about using your ambition, right?”
“Yeah.”
“...I really don’t get it.” the girl then mentioned with a chuckle, to then let her shoulders drop. She sort of understood it, but making something as ethereal as “ambition” to become something that can affect the real world in such a directly tangible way escaped her comprehension for now. It was just so bizarre.
“Then let’s stop thinking about it so much.” the shorter one then said, and got into a fighting stance, with his hands up and ready to punch and his body lowering, knees flexing. “And let’s just go do it.”
“R-really now?” Sofia then blurted back. She had never actually tried to attack someone before, not even in a spar situation like this. She has never actually fought, before. The girl has definitely taken hits, though, and plenty of them, but she had never even pulled a punch herself.
“Don’t think about it - let’s go!” he then said, and with a single step, he blasted towards her, sending a punch out towards her, which she instinctively reacted to by turning her Castle Dimension Barrier into a shield - but then, she dismissed it, letting the punch go through cleaning, connecting with her stomach. He was too short to reach any higher.
“H-hooooough!” she coughed out, as she felt the punch start to dig deeper into her stomach, for the man to then rebound back.
“Apply that you’ve learnt from Hanniver!” he then called out.
“But aren’t we supposed to not think about it?” she countered.
“That too! At the same time!” the short one replied.
That sounded a bit pretentious to her - how was he supposed to be the guy who now knows what the key to Haki is, if he’s the guy who has been failing to learn it all this time!
She put herself into a similar stance to the other man, in imitation. She didn’t know what she was doing here. How to punch, how to move, all of that was beyond her. But, she could at least try to do this.
Then, the man darted back towards her, and tried to make another punch connect with her stomach again, but she managed to put her arm in the way, making it hit that part of her instead.
The hit slammed against her forearm, and she could feel the pain start to burn there, as she tiny man then took a few hops backwards.
“Just… One moment please.” Sofia then asked the man. “I need a bit to prepare. Mentally.”
“Sure.” the stout guy replied, bouncing on his heels. “Just, don’t take too long, OK? We’ve got to do this like BAM, you know? No waiting, no procrastinating!”
“Yes, yes..” Sofia replied.
“Doing alright there?” her Navigator asked her, from inside her head. Sofia quickly summoned a small clone of herself next to the little Marine so that she could answer.
“Yeah.” the clone said, once it had formed. “It’s just… Difficult. I get that this whole process is supposed to allow me to learn to unlock how to use my ambition, but I still don’t get it. How is fighting like this useful for that?”
Anna Blue then rose a finger. “Remember Hunter Jacquelin.” she pointed out. “What you used there, it had to be Haki, right?”
“The wave that I made? That looked like Calico Jack’s?” Sofia wondered.
“Exactly.” the little one said. “That’s my hypothesis.”
“Why?” Sofia asked.
“Think about it.” the Navigator then said. “Just think about it.”
The clone rose her eyebrow.
“”They’re related.” she then said. “Why? Because both are activated by this release of sheer, instinctive emotion, right? If shorty here is right about what he’s saying, that is.”
“No, no. He’s right.” the clone then replied. “Hanniver was talking about the same thing.”
Her eyes opened wider. They were the same thing.
She has had Haki all along.
“See. I knew you’d see it too.” Anna Blue then chuckled. “I wonder why he didn’t tell you about this… Wave Haki thing.”
“I don’t know.” the miniature Sofia then said. “But maybe this short guy knows.”
The real Sofia then looked back to the tiny man.
“Ready?” he asked. “You seemed spaced out there for a bit.”
“Yeah.” the noble replied. “But, I have a question. There’s only two kinds of Haki? The Armaments and the Observation types, right?”
“Correct.” the man then replied. “Just those two. Hanniver probably started off by trying to teach you the first one right? Armaments?”
She nodded.
“So, he probably doesn’t know about it either…” Anna Blue then hold her from within. “Weird. Maybe… It’s really rare? Quite the coincidence then that both you and Calico would know how to use it. Well, not really know. Be able to use it. If they knew about it, they would be telling us about it already.”
The miniature Sofia then nodded too.
“I see.” the real Lady Sofia then said. “Let’s continue then.”
Then, she felt another jab to her gut, and she looked down, surprised to see the man having successfully punched her again.
“Don’t lose focus!” he said. “Or you’ll lose the fight!”
“We’re competing now?” Sofia asked, amused.
“Hey, if you want to! It makes it funner like that, don’t you think?” he replied.
Sofia then straightened her improvised stance again. She wouldn’t lose here. Even if it was just pretend. She tried to channel those same feeling that she had when she was fighting the kidnapper Jacquelin. How was it?
It felt… Angry, she remembered. But it was a certain kind of anger. It wasn’t rage or anything of the sort. It was… Passion. To achieve something. Something like that.
Then, she had to put that onto her body, she remembered Hanniver mentioning. She had to put her “ambition” on her body. And that would make it stronger.
“You’ve lost focus again there!” the short man then yelled out, launching another punch at the apparently distracted Sofia.
“I’ve actually got all of my focus.” she then stated, as she punch hit her stomach again. But this time, his fist didn’t sink in.
It stopped.
“W-what?” the guy muttered out, and looked at this fist. It had slammed against a layer of blackness.
Armaments Haki.
“Y-you’ve done it!” the man then called out. “That’s it! That’s the thing, that’s Hanniver’s technique! That is ambition!.”
Sofia then looked down, to see what he was talking about. And there it was, a spot of shiny blackness. Just like the old man Hanniver had before when he was teaching her back at the Sabaody Prison.
She had done it.
“N-now teach me! Please!” the short man pleaded. “I-I… I’ve always wanted to know! Please, I beg of you! Let me finish what Hanniver has started - we’re already halfway! Let’s complete it!”
The noble then chuckled.
“Sure. Let’s get you to learn Haki too.” she replied, and resumed the sparring.
[EXIT]
Location: Jordsand
Participant(s): Solo
Description:
After failing to learn how to use conventional Haki at Sabaody from the prisoner Hanniver, Sofia will discover that his former crew was now at Jordsand. Wanting to let them know the fate of their former crewmate, she approaches them and lets them know about what happened. After they hear her tale of how she kept him company and him wanting to teach her Haki, but dying before he could finish, the crew decides to try to teach her themselves, so that Hanniver's work can be complete.
Part I is here: https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t1808-awakening-ambition-voyage
Registration: https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t2266-awakening-ambition-ii
Sofia was at one of the few taverns that were on Jordsand, sitting with a cup of tea on the table in front of her, having it held in her hands, as she just stared into the murky water within. She was thinking about Hanniver, the man back at Sabaody prison who had tried to teach her Haki, yet died before he could.
A lot about her has changed since then. She leaned forwards a bit, trying to look at her reflection in the tea.
She was a much more jovial person now, she felt. More authentic to herself, without the binds and chains of tradition to hold back her behaviour. She was becoming a bit like a pirate in that sense, really. Or just less noble-like.
Regardless, it didn’t feel wrong. Most, if not all of the people that she was involved with weren’t as stuck-up as the people in the elite were, so starting to have a demeanour similar to them to fit in was actually quite appropriate. Although, she did still keep some of her etiquette - being a noble was still a part of herself.
Then, she tuned in to a few men talking a few tables away from her, because she heard the word “Hanniver” from them. Or, she thought she did. It was worth to eavesdrop on, she figured.
“So, the last time you saw him was at Sabaody?” one of the gruff pirates asked.
“Yep.” another, very short one said. “A loooong time ago. Hanniver was a legend.”
Sofia’s eyes opened slightly. It was possible that it was the same Hanniver that she met back at the prison. She continued to pay close attention to what they were saying.
“He was such a good fighter.” the stout one went on. “You should’ve seen him back at his prime - that man was like a god on the battlefield.”
“God is a bit of an exaggeration.” a third pirate then mentioned. “Maybe he was a god in comparison to you, because you’re so bad! Bwahyahaha!”
“Hrmpf. Anyways.” the short man continued. “That guy didn’t have a Devil Fruit at all or anything. But he was as strong, if not stronger than them, can you believe that? He beat them all!”
“Logias too?” another asked. “You know you can’t beat them! They just turn into their element or whatever, and that’s it. You’re screwed. You can’t kill them.”
“That’s were his special technique came in.” the pirate then added. “Ambition.”
There was a moment of silence, for the group to then burst into laughter, except for the small one, who just looked at them with a straight face.
“Laugh what you will.” he mentioned. “But nothing can disprove that he had what it took to get that nine-figure bounty.”
“Nine figures? OK, now I know you’re just telling tall tales, shorty!”.
He shook his head, to then put a hand into his coat and then slam down a old “Wanted” poster, with Hanniver’s name.
“Two hundred million Beli.” he hissed out of his lips, to then look at the others with a smug smile. “That’s the sort of power that our Hanniver had. You youngsters and newbies probably don’t know anything about him, but he was the real deal.”
Sofia then approached them, and quite shamelessly pulled up a seat near them. A few of that pirate group turned over to look at her.
“Hello.” she greeted, with a friendly smile. “I heard you guys talking about Hanniver.”
“We sure were.” one of them said. “And what’s that to you?”
“Well.” the noble started off. “I was with him for a bit at Sabaody. In prison.”
“You were?!” the short pirate then said. “H-how?”
“Well, I happened to be around the prison a couple of times…” she started off. “And, well. I just talked to him a couple of times. He told me about Haki - he even tried to train me to use it!”
“Hanniver. Training you?” the short one then asked. “Why?”
Sofia shrugged. “I guess he was fond of me. I was fond of him too, to be honest. It was a… Big loss to see him die.”
“He’s dead?” the small one inquired.
The noble nodded. “He is.” she replied. “He died of old age.”
“I see.” he then replied. “So… Wait. He taught you, right?”
The girl nodded. “Indeed he did.”
“So, you know how to use Haki, right? Ambition?!” he nearly shouted. “You should teach us!”
The girl chuckled uneasily and scratched her temple. “Actually, I don’t know how to use it… He died before he could finish his lessions with me. So… I don’t know. I was wondering if you guys perhaps knew.”
“We don’t.” one of them replied. “To be honest, not until a few minutes ago with shorty here explaining what it was, we had no idea that it even existed in the first place. The world’s crazy if a power like that exists. An ability to touch Logias? Madness. It’s got to be smokes and mirrors or something, I don’t believe it.”
“I already showed you the bounty poster, man.” the small one then said. “What else do you want me to do to prove it to you? Bring the dead man here and have him show you himself? Well, we can’t do that! He’s dead! Besides, this lady has seen him, right? You saw him do it? The Haki thing?”
Sofia nodded.
“See!” he continued. “What more proof do you need of this sort of thing. You got to believe in us for this. I wouldn’t lie to a nakama, what sort of person are you taking me for?”
The girl then rose a hand. “I could try to… teach you what he has taught me?”
The short man replied by slamming his own hand onto the table. “We can complete Hanniver’s legacy.” he then said. “Together.”
“But can we trust her?” one of the pirates there asked. “Like, we’ve just met her today. Right now.”
The small one then slammed a fist to his chest, putting it over his heart. “If Hanniver trusted her, so will I!”
Sofia smiled, out of politeness. There was a flaw in the man’s logic there, because the issue was that what she was saying could all be a lie in the first place, but given how passionate he was about all of this, she felt like she shouldn’t correct him.
Sofia eventually met up with these pirates - who revealed themselves to be the “Black Sleeve” Pirates, over at a beach, near to where they had parked their ship.
“And that’s what Hanniver taught me.” the short one said, after giving an explanation about Hanniver tried to teach him Haki, yet, he didn’t manage to be able to use it. He just wasn’t good with that sort of things.
“I see.” Sofia then said. “So, it’s all about using your ambition, right?”
“Yeah.”
“...I really don’t get it.” the girl then mentioned with a chuckle, to then let her shoulders drop. She sort of understood it, but making something as ethereal as “ambition” to become something that can affect the real world in such a directly tangible way escaped her comprehension for now. It was just so bizarre.
“Then let’s stop thinking about it so much.” the shorter one then said, and got into a fighting stance, with his hands up and ready to punch and his body lowering, knees flexing. “And let’s just go do it.”
“R-really now?” Sofia then blurted back. She had never actually tried to attack someone before, not even in a spar situation like this. She has never actually fought, before. The girl has definitely taken hits, though, and plenty of them, but she had never even pulled a punch herself.
“Don’t think about it - let’s go!” he then said, and with a single step, he blasted towards her, sending a punch out towards her, which she instinctively reacted to by turning her Castle Dimension Barrier into a shield - but then, she dismissed it, letting the punch go through cleaning, connecting with her stomach. He was too short to reach any higher.
“H-hooooough!” she coughed out, as she felt the punch start to dig deeper into her stomach, for the man to then rebound back.
“Apply that you’ve learnt from Hanniver!” he then called out.
“But aren’t we supposed to not think about it?” she countered.
“That too! At the same time!” the short one replied.
That sounded a bit pretentious to her - how was he supposed to be the guy who now knows what the key to Haki is, if he’s the guy who has been failing to learn it all this time!
She put herself into a similar stance to the other man, in imitation. She didn’t know what she was doing here. How to punch, how to move, all of that was beyond her. But, she could at least try to do this.
Then, the man darted back towards her, and tried to make another punch connect with her stomach again, but she managed to put her arm in the way, making it hit that part of her instead.
The hit slammed against her forearm, and she could feel the pain start to burn there, as she tiny man then took a few hops backwards.
“Just… One moment please.” Sofia then asked the man. “I need a bit to prepare. Mentally.”
“Sure.” the stout guy replied, bouncing on his heels. “Just, don’t take too long, OK? We’ve got to do this like BAM, you know? No waiting, no procrastinating!”
“Yes, yes..” Sofia replied.
“Doing alright there?” her Navigator asked her, from inside her head. Sofia quickly summoned a small clone of herself next to the little Marine so that she could answer.
“Yeah.” the clone said, once it had formed. “It’s just… Difficult. I get that this whole process is supposed to allow me to learn to unlock how to use my ambition, but I still don’t get it. How is fighting like this useful for that?”
Anna Blue then rose a finger. “Remember Hunter Jacquelin.” she pointed out. “What you used there, it had to be Haki, right?”
“The wave that I made? That looked like Calico Jack’s?” Sofia wondered.
“Exactly.” the little one said. “That’s my hypothesis.”
“Why?” Sofia asked.
“Think about it.” the Navigator then said. “Just think about it.”
The clone rose her eyebrow.
“”They’re related.” she then said. “Why? Because both are activated by this release of sheer, instinctive emotion, right? If shorty here is right about what he’s saying, that is.”
“No, no. He’s right.” the clone then replied. “Hanniver was talking about the same thing.”
Her eyes opened wider. They were the same thing.
She has had Haki all along.
“See. I knew you’d see it too.” Anna Blue then chuckled. “I wonder why he didn’t tell you about this… Wave Haki thing.”
“I don’t know.” the miniature Sofia then said. “But maybe this short guy knows.”
The real Sofia then looked back to the tiny man.
“Ready?” he asked. “You seemed spaced out there for a bit.”
“Yeah.” the noble replied. “But, I have a question. There’s only two kinds of Haki? The Armaments and the Observation types, right?”
“Correct.” the man then replied. “Just those two. Hanniver probably started off by trying to teach you the first one right? Armaments?”
She nodded.
“So, he probably doesn’t know about it either…” Anna Blue then hold her from within. “Weird. Maybe… It’s really rare? Quite the coincidence then that both you and Calico would know how to use it. Well, not really know. Be able to use it. If they knew about it, they would be telling us about it already.”
The miniature Sofia then nodded too.
“I see.” the real Lady Sofia then said. “Let’s continue then.”
Then, she felt another jab to her gut, and she looked down, surprised to see the man having successfully punched her again.
“Don’t lose focus!” he said. “Or you’ll lose the fight!”
“We’re competing now?” Sofia asked, amused.
“Hey, if you want to! It makes it funner like that, don’t you think?” he replied.
Sofia then straightened her improvised stance again. She wouldn’t lose here. Even if it was just pretend. She tried to channel those same feeling that she had when she was fighting the kidnapper Jacquelin. How was it?
It felt… Angry, she remembered. But it was a certain kind of anger. It wasn’t rage or anything of the sort. It was… Passion. To achieve something. Something like that.
Then, she had to put that onto her body, she remembered Hanniver mentioning. She had to put her “ambition” on her body. And that would make it stronger.
“You’ve lost focus again there!” the short man then yelled out, launching another punch at the apparently distracted Sofia.
“I’ve actually got all of my focus.” she then stated, as she punch hit her stomach again. But this time, his fist didn’t sink in.
It stopped.
“W-what?” the guy muttered out, and looked at this fist. It had slammed against a layer of blackness.
Armaments Haki.
“Y-you’ve done it!” the man then called out. “That’s it! That’s the thing, that’s Hanniver’s technique! That is ambition!.”
Sofia then looked down, to see what he was talking about. And there it was, a spot of shiny blackness. Just like the old man Hanniver had before when he was teaching her back at the Sabaody Prison.
She had done it.
“N-now teach me! Please!” the short man pleaded. “I-I… I’ve always wanted to know! Please, I beg of you! Let me finish what Hanniver has started - we’re already halfway! Let’s complete it!”
The noble then chuckled.
“Sure. Let’s get you to learn Haki too.” she replied, and resumed the sparring.
[EXIT]