[A/N: I'll be honest I'm a little regretful at making him use Haki so early, so what I'll do is that for the next 4-5 years (So until he's 15-16 years old) he will only practice his Devil Fruit abilities and swordsmanship, and when he reaches the age mentioned he will finally train Haki after his body has matured enough.
After all, we know for a fact that Haki can be very draining on the body, and that's for adults, so imagine for children? Well, anyways, sorry for this, hope it doesn't bother you all too much, he'll still be able to use Armament Haki very well when he starts sailing at 17 but not Ryuo, CoO and CoC, he'll learn those later in combat.]
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[1 day later]
"Ugh," Waking up groggily, Edwin currently felt like an absolute wreck, "where am I? Isn't this my room?" Looking at his surroundings, he was confused as the last thing he remembers is being in a forest.
'The forest…WAIT!! Kuina, Saga!!' Finally remembering the events of a day prior, the young boy jumped out of bed and ran out of his room with strenuous steps.
"Kuina! Saga!" Storming out of his bedroom, he called out their names with a frantic tone, not knowing about the well-being of his two friends.
As he ran in the hallway, Edwin suddenly sighted four doors opening up at the same time, from them came out Kozaburo, Asirius, Saga and Kuina, """"EDWIN!!""""
All crying out at the same time, they lunged towards Edwin, safe for Kozaburo, and tackled him to the ground, giving him a tight hug.
"Burorororo!" Laughing boisterously, Kozaburo exclaimed, "How are you doing, brat?"
"Still feeling a little tired. Do you know what happened grandpa? The last thing I remember is seeing two pirates about to ki–OH NO, the pirates!" Still laying down on the ground, Edwin suddenly thought back to the pirates they had attacked.
Yet, before he could even worry, Asi explained to him, "Everything's fine, Edwin. The pirates, well the Captain, was just playing a prank on us after seeing how strong we were for kids from the East Blue."
"Oh. So, they're gone now?"
"Yep, restocked and went on their merry way." Kozaburo concluded, "So, are any of you hungry?"
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[1 year later]
Gazing at the sky, a peaceful air hung around Edwin as he breathed in the morning breeze with his eyes closed, "Aaaaaaah, this is the life. Intense training and then relaxing under the beautiful evening sky. The only thing that's missing is epic adventures."
As Edwin relaxed under the shade of a tree behind the Dojo, he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards him, "Hm? What are you guys doing here? I thought you wanted to keep practicing to catch up with me, Shishishi!"
Snorting in displeasure, Kuina told him, "Don't get too arrogant, I'm gonna become the World's Greatest Swordswoman and then beat you up."
"We were asked by Saga to come here. Apparently he has someone he wants to introduce us to." Asi explained the reason they were there, ignoring Edwin's teasing.
"Hmm, well alright." Making some place under the tree's shade, Edwin patted the ground, "Make yourselves comfortable, the weather today is perfect."
Laying down on the ground, the three waited for about a quarter of an hour before Saga finally showed up, with someone following behind him. "Hey guys, this is the guy I wanted you to meet. His name's Zoro."
"Hi, I'm Roronoa Zoro, it's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Zoro, I'm Edwin."
"I'm Asirius, you can call me Asi though."
"My name's Kuina, but you can call me the World's Greatest Swordswoman."
Listening to the three in front of him, Zoro suddenly frowned after hearing Kuina, "World's Greatest Swordswoman? Hmph, that won't be possible as I will be the World's Greatest Swordsman!"
"Heh, it seems we share a common dream, how about a fight then? To see who's stronger." Surprised by the green-haired kid's declaration, Kuina challenged him to a duel.
"Fine." Accepting the request, the two immediately headed for the dueling ring.
"This went better than I accepted. To think he would integrate so quickly in our group, and just after his parents died too." Shaking his head and sighing, Saga muttered in surprise and sadness.
Perking up at what Saga mentioned, Edwin looked his way as he asked, "Wait, his parents just died? What happened?"
As they walked to the dueling ring, Saga explained to Edwin and Asi, "Well, one week ago, he received news that his mom and dad had been killed in battle by pirates. And since we'd been friends for a few years I decided to bring him here so he could cheer up, and maybe even start living here instead of living alone."
"I see, so that's how it is. Well, don't worry Saga, you and I are brothers, so your friend is also my friend, we'll take care of him." Smiling brightly, Edwin gave Saga a thumbs up as he appeased his worries.
"Thanks, Edwin."
Their conversation done, the three boys kept walking and finally arrived at the dueling ring where they could see Zoro and Kuina facing off against each other.
"It's about to start." Just as Asi said that, Kuina made her move. Rushing in, she swung her bamboo sword as she made direct contact with Zoro's head.
[A/N: I have no idea when Zoro started training exactly so I'll just make it that he started only a month before the death of his parents, making him extremely inexperienced right now.]
""""Eh?""""
Confusion appeared on the faces of Asi, Edwin and Kuina, as they did not expect for Zoro to get defeated this easily.
"Oh yeah, he just started sword training about a month ago." Saga finally mentioned.
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As the months went by, Zoro integrated himself into the group, as they all became good friends, especially Zoro and Kuina as they developed a rivalry between themselves.
When it came to Edwin, he focused on honing his swordsmanship and Devil Fruit, Haki taking a secondary position in his mind as he could hardly use it for more than 10 seconds. The worst of it all is that training didn't help that much, what did though was growing up.
It seems that a mature body was needed for prolonged use of Haki. He guessed that 15 or 16 years old should be around the time when his body would reach the best time to train Haki, from what his grandpa told him about the Land of Samurai. Stating that even the son of their lord, Kozuki Oden, only started using it at 15 years old.
[A/N: I have no idea when Oden started using it, but the wiki mentions that he could already use Ryuo at 18, so I think 15 years old makes sense.]
It had now been 4 months since Zoro joined their little sister-brotherhood, and they had to admit that the guy was definitely a natural with the sword, improving faster than anything they had ever seen, safe for Edwin–this guy was abnormal.
"Damn, that was a good meal, Shishishi." Giggling to himself, Edwin was currently heading towards the stairs, yet as he was about to take his first step, "Watch out!!"
Screaming out loud, Kuina could be seen flying down the staircase, as she had unfortunately taken a wrong step.
"Oh shit!" Surprised to see a flying human come his way, Edwin immediately opened his arms and caught her, "Are you alright?" He added as his gaze radiated surprise and worry, 'Why the hell did I suddenly feel like I took a cold plunge?' Edwin wondered as he felt shivers up his spine.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Edwin." Breathing out in relief, Kuina could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
"Alright, that's good. Be careful next time." Adding this, Edwin finally went up the stairs as he headed to his room, intending to go pick up his swords.
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"My control has become significantly better over the last 2 and a half years, yet my firepower is quite lacking. Could I maybe make my flames hotter? But…I've tried that so many times, yet every time I feel like I'm on the verge of taking a dump."
Pondering about the inadequacy of his flames, a 14 years old Edwin stood at an impressive 218 cm (7'2") tall. He was currently standing on a small hill overseeing the Dojo, as he wore a beautiful white yukata with black and blue butterflies that was opened so as to show his chest, accompanied by a long black haori with white, orange and red flowers on it.
[Image here]
He wore no footwear, his only accessories being a beautiful earring of a constellation with little chains coming out from behind his earlobe, and a tattoo of two crossed cutlasses on his chest. Both were situated on the left side of his body.
[Images here]
Playing with his earring, the last gift Kozaburo had given him before he passed away, Edwin smiled gently thinking of his grandpa. The old man had died a year ago peacefully in his bed, a smile on his face. On his bedside table a note read, 'To my son, my grandson and my granddaughter. I love you all.'
His death had greatly impacted Edwin at the time, yet he felt no frustration over it, knowing damn well the old man wouldn't want him to resent the natural cycle of life. 'Aaaaah, rest in peace, grandpa.'
Sighing deeply, Edwin felt frustrated as he couldn't think of any other way to increase his flames' output except thinking about it or just forcing hard enough and hoping that it would succeed.
'Argh, this is frustrating!' Getting up angrily, Edwin suddenly stopped himself as he thought of something, 'How about I just "condense" the flames. No, this is not the right term…Ah Ha! Fueling! Yes, I just need to find a way to fuel my flames.
'Maybe blowing wind on them? No, too inefficient. Then, what I need is a source of energy to fuel them. But what could I possibly use?'
As Edwin kept playing with his flames, making beautiful and intricate shapes with them, it finally hit him, 'Oh my god,' sighing disappointedly, he said to himself, 'How could I have been so stupid. It's been in front of me all this time. When I use my Devil Fruit powers, what they use up is always the same thing…Stamina.
'In other words, they use the very energy of my body, so all I gotta do is consciously channel this energy to increase my flames' firepower!'
Finally figuring out what he had to do, Edwin put himself to the task as he concentrated on his body and flam– "Huh?"
Confusion sprang in Edwin's mind as he suddenly saw his fire become fiercer and get noticeably hotter.
"Are you kidding me, has it really always been this easy?" Edwin almost had tears in his eyes as he thought back to the time he cra–well let's not get too detailed over here.
Although, what Edwin didn't was that it was this easy only because of the splendid control he had over his flames.
"To think I spent the last year trying to figure this small thing out." Edwin shook his head, as he smiled brilliantly, "Well, no need to feel down, since I've finally succeeded, I should reward myself with a good meal!"
Getting up from the ground, Edwin headed back to the house next to the Dojo, where Saga, Asi, and himself currently lived. Koushirou, Kuina and Zoro had decided to move into the Dojo, as the house started to get too crowded.
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"I'm back!" Announcing his return loudly, Edwin headed to his room first. As he was about to head up the stairs he sighted two teenagers sitting in the common room, looking intensely at a strange fruit. It was shaped like a cube, with cubic spirals and was the color white.
"Uuuuh, is that what I think it is?" Edwin's eyes were wide open as he directed his question towards Asi and Saga.
"Um, yeah." Asi responded as he was also quite shocked at what was in front of him.
"Sooo, how'd you guys find it?"
This time it was Saga who answered, "We didn't, when we came back home about ten minutes ago, we found it on the table, in the place of one of our fruits." Astonishment was still present on his face as he looked at the fruit, "So, Asi. You wanna eat or…?"
"Hmmm, nah, I'll let you have it. You were the first one to see it after all, Sahahaha!"
"Alright! Then, don't mind if I do!" As they agreed on who would get the Devil Fruit, Saga grabbed it and proceeded to take a big bite, and immediately regretted it, "Ugh, this tastes like shit!"