Chapter 6

West blue, Ishiria island, roku town

(8 months after Azul became Bais desciple)

"Come on, you have to be faster *smack*, otherwise I'll keep hitting you." Old man Bai told Azul while leisurely standing in the middle of the training ground. Meanwhile Azul was standing with his guard up and his knees bent slightly eyeing his master, waiting patiently for the inevitable. And just like he thought, faster than the eye could see his master threw a punch at him. Putting his weight on his frontleg Azul moved with a minimal jump to the right, barely avoiding his masters punch.

'The brat is learning, good. Time to up the pace a little.' Old man Bai thought and grinned into his bushy grey beard that reached him to the upper muscled c.h.e.s.t.

"Good, you're keeping your breath in tact and your emotions under control but you are still too slow. Faster I said!" And with that for the first time since the both of them started sparring four months ago old man Bai moved.

With a grace of a butterfly the old man entered the high carrying confronting stance which Azul had yet to learn. He instead had to rely on his avoiding stance to try and not get hit, which was way to hard considering the monster that his master was.

Slightly swinging to the left and feinting with a jab old man Bai threw a right cross at Azul who, utilising the erratic form of the avoiding stance kept on dodging and emptied his mind at the same time to not give his teacher a pattern to read from like he usually does. Next up came a thrustkick from his teacher which he barely avoided by bringing the center of his body slightly to the right though that proved to be a mistake since old man Bai changed the thrustkick midaction into sidekick with his shins by turning his knee into Azuls direction, which hit him straight into the side of his belly, emptying his lungs of air in seconds and leaving him a mess gasping for air.

"Not bad. I think you are ready for the final stance so that we can soon begin with the next level, the actual forms. How are your breathing exercises coming along?" Old man Bai asked while grabing a bottle of water for his apprentice who greedily gulped it down. His master seemed still fresh as when they started sparring three hours ago, not even a little bit winded. Not for the first time Azul asked himself what kind of monster his master was.

"Good I think. I'm having a bit of dificulty with the breathing for the windform, but the earth, water and fireform breathing exercises are coming along good so far." Azul said while pouring rain water from a tank over his head to cool himself down. Thinking back on the day his master had introduced him to the fireforms breathing exercise still brought a smile to his face. The day his craving got a release after all this time of searching.

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(flashback)

"Sit. I believe it is time I showed you another core of our art. The breath control." Old man Bai said while taking a seat on a patch of grass followed by Azul who still looked winded from the sparring of the day.

"Now, the stance I have taught you so far and the other two you'll be learning soon are only basics so that you can shift from one into the next when you are in a fight. But those stances alone are not enough, not enough to tame your spirit at least. As I told you, in a fight you are your worst enemy but also your biggest ally. In every human come together two things: the body, the flesh and blood, tendons, bones, the crude matter so to speak, and your soul, the spiritual center of your being. The thing that makes you you. A martial artist strifes to bring, through practise and discipline of the mind, the body and soul together into one solid entity and transcend the mortal world. I don't know if that is actually possible but it is a fact that the soul is an incredibly strong thing which is capable of many wondrous things. The stronger your body becomes and the firmer your control over your soul and your emotions becomes the stronger your spirit gets. So you could say that your spirit is another word for aura which some people prefer to use. Said spirit manifests into three different things. First is the most basic thing as long as your body and soul have fused to a strong enough level. Armament haki, the physical manifestation of your soul, shown on- or outside your body and the only way to touch a logia devilfruit user without them being cuffed with seastone handcuffs. You still remember the lesson about the types of devilfruits and their different types, yes?"

"Yes master. Zoan devilfruits give the owner the ability to shift into one specific animal, with there being undercategories like the ancient and mystical zoan devilfruits. The zoan devilfruits give their owner incredible physical strength and regeneration and are considered the strongest closerange fighters.

Then there are the logia devilfruits, generally considered the strongest type of devilfruits, since they give their owner the power over one specific element of natur and can turn into said element as they will. Everything else that is not sorted into either category belongs to the paramecia devilfruit type."

Azul repeated what he had learned while ticking of his fingers.

"Correct. Now the reason why you are able to touch a logia user with haki is because every person that is alive is surrounded by an invisible fog of aura/spirit which you will be able to perceive the stronger you become and depending on the individual differs in strength. With haki you will yourself to touch the logia user and by your will break through the veil of the devilfruit in this case the logia. In response to that the logia users spirit reaches out themselfs to protect their own soul and in the process make them loose their intangible form. Of course should the logia user also be a haki user then it becomes tricky since he should have more control over his own spirit which makes it harder to force it to confront your own. In that case the ones born with conquerors haki have an inborn advantage. Those with conquerors haki have such a naturally strong and dominating spirit that they can simply force the opponent spirit out without them being able to do much about it. That is why they are so feared. They can overpower weaker willed people and force them to do their bidding, even to the level of surpressing the spirit.

The last kind of haki is the observation haki. This kind of haki gives you the ability to 'see' or rather 'feel' the spirit of the world and people around you with your sixth sense which is a sharpened soul that has integrated the instincts of the trained body into itself to a level that the perception of the user becomes much sharper.

Though it is essential for you to know all this, so remember it well, it is still a long long way until you reach that level. But to bring you onto the path to fuse your body and soul I will teach you the breathing exercises even though I think I know which one you will favour already." Old man Bai said with a shuckle.

"The breathing exercises serve not only to fuse the soul and body but also to help you focus your intent in a fight. Just as there are four breathing exercises focused on the four elements, so are there four movement forms with different intentions to be used in a fight, focused on the four elements.

The intent behind the earthern breathing is to stay your ground and not yield an inch from your position. In the martial forms it is expressed through strong and steady movement of the legs, mostly up or down.

Unyielding, tall and unshakable and steady. That is the earthern breath and form.

The second form of breathing and moving is the waters breath and form. The waters form focuses on erratic movements, to be unpredictable and sudden. Its focus lies in the center of your body, the belly, bladder, hip. All actions originate from there. The breath behaves like a wave. First it builds up slowly and in an instant turns into a crushing crescendo. Breath in slowly and exhale fast like a crushing wave.

Ever flowing, never stopping, hectic, yet a certain calm to it. That is the waters breath and form.

The third form is the one I suspect fits you the most. Fire. The most dangerous one to others and yourself, though do not confuse dangerous with strength. No, dangerous because those that play with fire regularly burn themselfs. The form and breath of fire are different from the other three forms and breaths. The fires center lies in the region around the solar plexus, where your bodies energy originates. The breathing exercise is a short in and a short exhale, though you would do well to be catious not to loose your self to the flames. The reason why the fire breath is so dangerous is that you use the flame or aggression of your enemy to fuel your own flame and turn it into an all consuming inferno that destroys your enemy completely. Where the other elemental forms give you the ability to tap out at any time, fire on the other hand doesn't know mercy. Once kindled it will burn. That is another reason why there is no set form for the fire movement. It responds to the level of aggression shown to you in kind.

Hot, fueled by emotion and intent, all consuming. That is fire.

The last one is the form and breath for wind, the most kind but also the most fickle one. In the form it is shown through movement in the shoulder regions. It uses the energy and momentum of the opponent and redirects it to the chosen destination. The breathing is a short inhale followed by a long exhale.

The wind shows compassion and is playful like a child but can turn into a monster on a moments notice.

Now it is up to you to practise them. Go on, I will observe."

And with that Azul proceeded to try out the different ways to breath. Once he was breathing like fire the burning inside of him swelled like a flame fueled by the wind and lost in intensity when he let his breath go. Finally after so long, he finally had found a way to deal with the craving. It was looking to become a nice day still.

(flashback end)

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