Chapter 9: Divine Departure
When Zabuza woke up again, it was already daylight.
Dragging his weak, exhausted body, Zabuza followed the smell of grilled fish, and after walking for a long time, he finally returned to the lake.
From far away, he saw Shanks waving at him. Seeing that scene, Zabuza suddenly relaxed.
Even his cold face showed a trace of humanity.
"Oh, Zan, you're back!"
Shanks waved at Zabuza, wearing his signature harmless smile.
Zabuza sat down beside Shanks without any courtesy and stuffed grilled fish into his mouth.
"I'm starving. How long was I gone?"
Zabuza asked. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, and Shanks hadn't even come looking.
"Three days. I thought you left because you had something to do."
Shanks scratched his head, looking awkward.
That morning, he had found himself alone. Because something went wrong during his training, he couldn't leave, and could only wait until he recovered.
He didn't expect Zabuza to come back today.
"It's just that something went wrong while training swordsmanship."
Zabuza spoke. The bandages on his chest had split, and the wound hadn't fully healed. Fortunately, the chakra Jiraiya left behind had protected the wound for several days and prevented infection.
"You stabbed yourself?"
Shanks stared at Zabuza in shock. This guy was training some absurd swordsmanship, and with just a hilt, he nearly stabbed himself to death.
Sure enough, people in this world were all a little abnormal. Who knew what was going on with this assassin who came out of the Marines.
…
Zabuza looked at Shanks's eyes. At first, he felt something, then he understood.
"You're the idiot!"
"Compared to me stabbing myself, your training method is obviously way more dangerous."
"Hahaha, that's not what I meant."
Shanks laughed awkwardly, though his eyes still clearly screamed that he was looking at an idiot. After all, what normal person stabs himself for fun?
"I didn't have a choice. No one taught me. By the way, Zan, you really don't know what I was training?"
"You definitely know about Armament Haki, don't you?"
Shanks wasn't stupid. From Zabuza's reaction, it was obvious he knew what Shanks was training.
If Shanks could squeeze some useful information out of Zabuza, that would be perfect.
After all, that night he nearly killed himself.
Hearing Shanks, Zabuza didn't bother arguing about what Shanks called natural energy.
Or maybe Zabuza didn't really understand it either. Shanks called it Armament Haki, so Zabuza simply treated it as Armament Haki.
After all, with the Uzumaki Clan's background, Shanks surely understood more than he did.
"What I know isn't much. I only know this power is forbidden. There are rumors that many powerful people have died because of it.
That's all I know."
Zabuza's understanding of Hakim Mode was limited to vague intelligence.
Historically, people had tried to explore it, but without exception, aside from the legendary Sage of Six Paths, everyone else died.
"Forbidden power, huh."
Shanks nodded.
So the version hadn't updated yet. Roger had only just died, and the Age of Pirates probably hadn't fully begun.
So it made sense that the power used to counter Devil Fruit users was labeled forbidden.
Many powerful people died because of it, of course. Most strong fighters at sea were Devil Fruit users. If you didn't train Armament Haki and tried to fight ability users, what else would happen?
"Looks like Zan knows quite a bit. At this time, the Marines and the World Government are probably sealing certain things away. And this version isn't the same as the version when Luffy set sail. This is like a test server."
With that thought, everything made sense.
Roger's death opened the key to things the world had sealed away, and those things included the so-called forbidden arts.
Roger himself wasn't that dangerous to the World Government. To them, the truly dark era was the era of Rocks. It might have been because of the impact Rocks left behind that the Celestial Dragons and the World Government sealed certain things away.
When the Age of Pirates officially began, and the world shifted from the test server to the official server, those sealed things would gradually be revealed.
Right now, in the test server, he didn't understand it at all. He only remembered the official server.
"This is a headache. Forbidden power is really hard to train."
"You're lucky you survived. Shanks, you're a genius, but you shouldn't mess with that kind of thing."
Zabuza didn't want to face Jiraiya again. One of the Legendary Sannin, called the Toad Hakim. He didn't even know whether Jiraiya truly had Hakim Mode.
"I'm going to rest first."
After eating, Zabuza turned into a completely worn-out mess. He had no choice. He was too weak.
In front of others, Zabuza would force himself to look strong. As a shinobi, showing weakness was dangerous.
But in front of Shanks, it didn't matter. Zabuza wasn't guarded around Shanks. He didn't know why, but in front of this carefree guy, he could relax.
"Oh. Then I'll train my Conqueror's Haki for a while."
Shanks answered casually.
Armament Haki was too hard, so he would train Conqueror's Haki instead. Everyone had different talent, and Shanks's main talent was in Conqueror's Haki and Observation Haki.
"Conqueror's Haki? What is that now?"
Hearing Shanks, Zabuza was dumbfounded. No. In just a few days, you came up with something else?
…
"Conqueror's Haki."
"Three days ago, when I was training Armament Haki, something went wrong… in the end I had to cut that power off."
"Yeah. I comprehended Divine Departure. I used Divine Departure to cut that power off."
Shanks raised his katana. Black-red Conqueror's Haki instantly wrapped around the blade, and a terrifying pressure surged out.
Boom!!
A raging wind howled as the world seemed to change color.
A thunderous roar like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting echoed. In that instant, Shanks looked like a god descending, and the frightening pressure and aura made the sky darken.
Zabuza felt his soul trembling, an endless, vast momentum and an overwhelming, terrifying pressure.
Hummm!!
Click!
Shanks sheathed his sword, and that terrifying Conqueror's Haki vanished without a trace.
"Zan, want to try my Divine Departure?"
Last night, Zabuza had been knocked out by Shanks's Haki. Today, Shanks was making up for it.