Monster Hunter of the One Piece World

"Hey, wait a sec!"

Seeing Sherwin about to leave without another word, Chinjao quickly stopped him.

He hadn't seriously expected Sherwin to actually do anything to Garp—he knew full well that they probably couldn't even touch the guy.

Though he deeply resented Garp for smashing in his head, Chinjao also understood Garp personality very well.

As long as he knew Sherwin and the others were acting on Chinjao own instigation, Garp likely wouldn't take it to heart. In fact, there was a good chance he'd even give Sherwin and the others a few pointers in return.

Of course, that all depended on Sherwin not knowing who Garp really was.

In general, most people in the Four Blues didn't have a clear idea of who Garp was. After Roger was executed and the power dynamics of the Grand Line began to stabilize, Garp had made fewer and fewer moves, especially outside the Grand Line.

To the average citizen of the Blues, a Vice Admiral of Marine HQ was simply too distant a figure.

Unfortunately for Chinjao, Sherwin was one of the very rare individuals who did know all about Garp history and strength—extremely well, in fact.

And even if Sherwin hadn't known anything about Garp, Chinjao little prank of a plan wouldn't have worked anyway—because he completely forgot that Hollisa, who stood nearby, also knew exactly who Garp was…

"Old man, isn't Garp the Marine who beat you back in the day? How could Sherwin and the others possibly win against him?!" Hollisa called him out bluntly, with zero intention of saving face.

On the other hand, Klee Meow scratched her little head and replied with a completely innocent logic: "Well, Grandpa can't beat him, so of course he needs someone to help, meow. Isn't that normal, meow?"

"Ahem, the problem is… we can't even beat Old Man Chinjao, so how could we help him beat up Garp…" Sherwin chuckled helplessly as he patted Klee Meow little head.

"That guy basically one of the strongest people in the world."

Just in the few chapters of the manga he had read before crossing over, the "Marine Hero" image had taken a serious dive. That "strongest" title now seemed to deserve a big, fat question mark...

Sherwin silently added this in his mind.

"Wow... Grandpa, you're so shameless, meow." Sanji Meow looked at Chinjao with a face full of disdain.

"Ah hahaha..." Chinjao let out an awkward laugh as he rubbed his bald head, explaining with embarrassment, "Actually, the situation wasn't as dangerous as you think..."

He shared his thoughts and speculations with Sherwin and the others, then added, "It okay if you don't agree. I'll still teach you Haki either way."

Probably out of guilt, or maybe for Holisa sake, Chinjao didn't bring up any more conditions this time.

Things turning out this way was exactly what Sherwin had hoped for, so he naturally wouldn't say anything else to provoke Chinjao.

However, a Felyne curiosity isn't something that can be so easily extinguished...

"That Marine named Garp sounds like a good guy, meow. So why do you want us to fight him for you, Grandpa? Were you a bad guy before, meow?" Klee Meow tilted her little head in confusion as she asked.

"Ah... well..." Chinjao scratched his shiny head again, looking troubled.

If you said he wasn't a bad guy—well, the Happo Navy was technically a military force of the Flower Kingdom, and their overseas pirating had official approval from their own country.

But if you said he was a good guy... Chinjao didn't really have the face to claim that either.

It was Sherwin who spoke up to help him out: "Alright, Klee, this world is complicated. You can't divide everything into just good guys and bad guys. Just like in the stories I told you—can you really say Gaara, Haku, or the defected Sasuke were bad people?"

"Is that so, meow?"

Although the little ragdoll still didn't fully understand, she didn't dwell on it either… As long as she listened to big brother Sherwin, everything would be fine!

And Sherwin didn't say all that just to blur Chinjao past actions in order to get his guidance. He genuinely believed what he said.

After living in this world for so long and traveling to so many places, Sherwin increasingly felt that he couldn't judge the role of pirates in this world using the mindset and values from before he crossed over.

It was true—pirates who burned, looted, and killed brought great suffering to the common people. It was also true that many people hated pirates.

But at the same time, many others looked up to the "profession" of being a pirate. Regardless of their reasons, those who admired pirates couldn't possibly be unaware of the kind of reputation pirates had as a group.

Moreover, in the manga, civilians from places like Windmill Village and Shimotsuki Village acted with pride when Luffy and others' bounties increased.

Even places like Cocoyashi Village and Drum Kingdom—regions that had long suffered pirate attacks and originally harbored deep hatred for pirates—changed their attitudes as soon as Nami and Chopper went out to sea.

So, in Sherwin view, the role of pirates in this world was more like a profession with a bad reputation. Comparatively, it was a bit like the wandering swordsmen of ancient times.

If you hadn't made a name for yourself, you were just a drifter or a delinquent. But if you had built a reputation, you became a local hero or a respected outlaw.

Of course, the reason things were like this wasn't only because of "peaceful pirates" like Luffy and Shanks among their ranks, but also largely due to the world rulers being so inhumane.

In short, it was a matter of choosing between bad and worse.

Therefore, according to this world perspective, being a pirate could, in certain contexts, be considered equivalent to being an "adventurer" or something similar.

However, even with words like "dreams" and "freedom" dressing up the pirate profession in beautiful wrapping, Sherwin had absolutely no interest in becoming a pirate himself.

...

During the following period, Sherwin and the two Felynes stayed at Chinjao small courtyard, where Chinjao earnestly taught them the methods of Haki cultivation.

He didn't hold back at all just because Sherwin hadn't agreed to his condition of "beating up Garp."

In fact, having been won over by Klee Meow cuteness and Sanji Meow cooking, Chinjao even brought out the Hasshoken, the Happo Navy secret technique kept at the bottom of their treasure chest...

Although he didn't directly teach Sherwin and the Felynes how to train in Hasshoken, he did explain the basic principles behind the technique and its core concepts.

But after hearing Chinjao explanation, Sherwin understood why Chinjao wasn't particularly concerned about him learning Hasshoken.

The key to Hasshoken was essentially releasing a kind of penetrating force similar to "striking a cow through a mountain."

However, Armament Haki already included techniques like external release and internal destruction.

So for Sherwin, once he mastered these Haki techniques, using Hasshoken or not didn't really make much of a difference.

Or to put it another way, Hasshoken was quite similar to the Marine Rokushiki—it was a method that imitated Haki and was used to stimulate Haki during training. You could even call it a "budget version" of Haki.

Within the Rokushiki, Tekkai followed the path of Armament Hardening, while Shigan and Rankyaku aligned with external release.

Hasshoken, on the other hand, combined both external and internal destructive force, which also made it more difficult to master.

Moreover, since the internal destruction technique was the hardest to grasp, even mastering Hasshoken didn't guarantee that one would be able to use it once they awakened Haki.

In fact, many of Sherwin Monster Hunter techniques could also be seen as similar examples—though the power systems of the two worlds were fundamentally different, the Monster Hunter techniques tended to manifest as a sort of "shortcut-style" Haki awakening.

Even after understanding these principles, the various applications of Armament Haki weren't easy to learn.

The basic hardening was straightforward, imbuing was manageable, external release was already a bit tricky—but under Chinjao guidance, Sherwin had at least managed to barely grasp it.

The only technique Sherwin just couldn't master, no matter how hard he tried, was internal destruction.

But considering that in the original story even Luffy only grasped it after doing a few sit-ups and receiving guidance from Hyogoro, Sherwin didn't feel too anxious about it.

Besides, Chinjao had especially reminded him:

"Haki training alone is far from enough. Even though you've already learned most of the Armament Haki techniques, if you go up against a real expert—even if they only know basic hardening—you'd still have a hard time winning.

That because the quality of your Haki is far inferior. Only through the crucible of real battle can your Haki undergo a qualitative transformation. Just relying on training won't take you to a higher level."

Similar words had apparently been said by Rayleigh to Luffy in the manga as well, so… maybe Rayleigh wasn't such a lousy teacher after all, and everyone had just misunderstood him?

According to Sherwin understanding, Haki likely wasn't something you could grind out like becoming a sword master in a backwater village.

Once you hit a certain bottleneck, you'd need battles against opponents of similar strength—or even fights to the death—in order to break through.

That why Luffy awakened advanced Observation Haki during his fight with Katakuri, and was smacked into Ryou by Kaido after three hits. It wasn't just plot armor—it was also the result of accumulated experience.

But in any case, Sherwin study of Armament Haki was basically complete. As for Observation Haki, the Happo Navy didn't have any techniques like Kami-e (Paper Art), so Chinjao training method was pretty simple...

He made Sherwin and Sanji Meow keep their eyes covered most of the time, and brought in a group of Happo Navy reserves to ambush them at any moment. Sometimes Chinjao himself—and even Klee Meow—would join in the surprise attacks.

As a result, Sherwin was constantly covered in bruises and cat scratches during that period.

What annoyed Sherwin the most was… Sanji Meow actually awakened Observation Haki before he did…

It must be a racial talent difference!It had to be!

(As for the "peaceful pirate" concept, it was actually introduced in a one-shot manga before the main One Piece serialization began.

Luffy and Shanks were both originally categorized as "peaceful pirates." But after the series officially began, that classification was likely seen as too forced and was eventually dropped.)