"Come on! Today, I'm going to shatter the myth of Armament Haki with my Indestructible Body!"
Bardock shifted into his Monkey King Beast Form, dropping into a solid, wide stance as he braced himself to take a beating.
"You're insane," Hancock muttered.
She stepped forward and drove a fist directly into his chest. She used only about half her physical strength, channeling just a thin layer of Haki—barely enough to protect her own knuckles from the impact.
Thud!
Bardock didn't even flinch. He casually brushed his chest and gestured for her to keep going.
Now that she had a baseline, Hancock didn't hold back. She lunged forward, burying a full-power punch deep into his gut. The sheer kinetic force of the blow sent Bardock skidding backward, his feet carving twin trenches in the dirt.
"That one definitely had some serious power behind it," Bardock assessed, rubbing his stomach thoughtfully. "It stung a bit, but it didn't actually do any real damage."
"If that's the case, then I'm going all out with my Armament Haki," Hancock warned, her eyes narrowing. "You might actually get hurt this time."
"Bring it on! Hit me with everything you've got!"
This time, the atmosphere shifted entirely. Hancock didn't strike right away. She focused deeply, drawing out her Haki and funneling all of it into her hand. Only when she felt the invisible armor layered over her fist grow incredibly dense did she finally strike, aiming specifically for his shoulder.
Bardock felt the crushing pressure a split second before her fist even touched him. The moment her knuckles actually made contact, the contained energy violently detonated. He was launched through the air like a cannonball, flying backward until he crashed heavily into a massive tree trunk, finally sliding to a halt.
"Ow, ow, ow... that actually hurts!" Bardock hissed, quickly scrambling to his feet and rolling his shoulder. "I definitely took some damage there, but nothing major. Your punch already has the prototype of Flowing Armament Haki in it!"
Instead of looking pleased, Hancock actually seemed a bit discouraged. Aside from using her Devil Fruit abilities, that was her absolute maximum attack power. Yet Bardock had taken it head-on without dodging or blocking, and had only suffered minor injuries. Sure, she had deliberately aimed for his shoulder to avoid crippling him, but he was years younger than her and couldn't even use Haki yet! At this rate, in a few short years, her attacks wouldn't even be able to scratch him.
Completely oblivious to her internal crisis, Bardock tilted his head. "Hey, Hancock. Why are you fighting with your fists instead of your legs? Where's your Perfume Femur?"
'He's right,' Hancock realized, her eyes widening slightly. 'I could use my legs! Kicks naturally generate way more force than punches. Besides, my growth has been completely stagnant for the past three years. I'm basically only slightly stronger than I was at twelve. I'm just about to enter my prime growth period—my strength is definitely going to skyrocket from here on out!'
"What is a 'Perfume Femur'?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"Ah, you haven't invented that yet? I just assumed you already knew it."
"You make absolutely no sense," she huffed, crossing her arms. "Are we done testing?"
"Yeah, we're good. I have a solid understanding of where my defense is at now."
"Fine. I'm going to bed."
Rolling his sore shoulder, Bardock followed her toward the boat. The stinging pain was already starting to fade. "A good night's sleep and I should be completely healed by morning," he muttered to himself.
Slam!
The heavy cabin door slammed shut right in his face, nearly flattening his nose.
"Hey! That's going too far! At least let me grab my sleeping bag!" he yelled through the wood.
The door cracked open for a split second, and his sleeping bag was violently chucked at his head before the door slammed shut again.
"Alright, fair enough. You are the Pirate Empress, after all," he grumbled, picking the bag off the deck.
Honestly, Bardock wasn't worried about the future Empress's powers in the slightest. According to the manga, Vice Admiral Momonga had to stab his own hand to distract his lust with blinding pain just to avoid being petrified by her. But Bardock? Despite being built like a tank and standing at 1.7 meters tall, biologically, he was still half a month away from his ninth birthday. He hadn't even hit puberty yet. Whatever aesthetic appreciation his adult mind had for beautiful women simply couldn't trigger a biological response in this body. As far as her Devil Fruit was concerned, he was a completely desireless man.
'Seriously, what kind of mutated freaks are the Kozuki family?' he thought, shaking his head as he laid out his sleeping bag. 'Oden was hitting up the red-light district at six years old, and Momonosuke was an absolute pervert by age eight!'
When Hancock woke up the next morning, breakfast was already simmering over a campfire, and Bardock was in the middle of his sword drills.
Ever since transmigrating to this world and eating his Mythical Zoan fruit, his recovery speed was absurd. He was up before dawn every single day. He would warm up, run through his swordsmanship katas, and then push his physical endurance to the limit. Whenever he had a spare moment, he painstakingly deconstructed the Rokushiki techniques. He had trained his base Devil Fruit powers as far as brute force could take him; unlocking its deeper abilities would require sudden inspiration in the heat of battle.
Watching Bardock swing his blade from afar, Hancock quietly began her own morning workout. They trained in their own separate spheres, not interfering with each other, until the sun climbed high into the sky.
"Another perfect day! You ready?" Bardock called out, sheathing his sword. "Let's eat on the go while we fly."
"Give me a minute to wash up, then we can leave," she replied crisply.
By the time Bardock finished packing up the campsite and loading the boat, Hancock was already back and ready to go. She was incredibly efficient.
"Let's go!"
Over the next stretch of their journey, Bardock finally experienced the absolute psychotic nightmare that was the New World's weather.
One minute, the sky would be crystal clear; the next, baseball-sized hail would rain down out of nowhere, forcing him to rapidly warp the Flying Nimbus into a giant umbrella. Another time, a ferocious squall materialized instantly, and Bardock had to push his stamina to the brink just to punch the boat through the screaming stormfront. They even flew directly over a colossal, ocean-swallowing whirlpool—though thankfully, being airborne completely negated that threat.
"Phew... we're finally almost there. What a brutal trip," Bardock exhaled heavily. Thanks to his telescopic vision, he could already make out the blurred silhouette of an island on the horizon. "I can't even imagine how deadly it must be to actually sail on the water down there."
"That's because neither of us knows a single thing about navigation," Hancock snorted. "A top-tier navigator can read the atmosphere to avoid these freak weather patterns, and even if they get caught, they know how to steer the ship out of it. If you couldn't fly, we would have died ten times over by now."
She crossed her arms, though she was secretly deeply relieved. That sudden squall had nearly smashed them into a rogue wave; if Bardock hadn't aggressively yanked the boat into a steep climb, they would have been fish food.
"Hey, don't get so worked up! We made it out without a scratch, didn't we?" he grinned.
"Hmph. If we don't find this Tontatta Princess who can 'heal anything,' I am going to turn you into a stone statue and donate you to Shakky's bar as a permanent decoration."
"You're joking, right? Oh, speaking of which—Hancock, when someone gets petrified, are they still consciously aware inside the stone?"
"How should I know? Want me to test it on you right now?"
Seeing her raise her hands eagerly, Bardock frantically shook his head. Someone else could volunteer for that particular science experiment.
"Green Bit is an island adjacent to Dressrosa!" Bardock blurted out, rapidly changing the subject. "On the surface, it looks like an uninhabited island covered in massive botanical plants, but the Tontatta tribe supposedly lives deep underground. How should we approach them? Do we just walk right in, or do we find a middleman first?"
"If we just show up uninvited, will they even accept our visit? And who would this middleman be?" she asked, lowering her hands.
"The local royalty, of course. The two islands are right next to each other. If anyone knows how to contact the dwarves, it's the Riku Royal Family of Dressrosa. If we just barge into Green Bit, I'm worried the dwarves will hide from us. Legend says they're incredibly innocent and kind-hearted, but they rarely ever show themselves to strangers."
"Let's head to Dressrosa first and scout out the situation," Hancock decided. "We can make our next move after that."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's keep a low profile. I'll drop the boat into the water so we can pull into the port normally."
As the boat settled onto the waves and sailed closer, Bardock stared in awe at the massive, sheer rock formations encircling the island of Dressrosa like a natural fortress.
'This terrain is a tactical masterpiece,' he mused. 'It's insanely easy to defend and almost impossible to siege. No wonder Doflamingo eventually chose to conquer this place. That whole "reclaiming his ancestors' throne" speech was nothing but a convenient excuse.'