Chapter 541: The World Government Moves
Brett's Observation Haki was extraordinary.
It had always been his strongest Haki type - the one that had come most naturally from the beginning, and the one that had grown furthest beyond what anyone else could reach. His Conqueror's Haki and Armament were both formidable, but in terms of raw quality, they weren't especially unusual. Strong, yes. Distinctive in their own right. But not in a different category from other powerful fighters.
His Observation was different.
It had been different from the moment he first awakened it.
Roger could listen to the voice of all things - a rare and celebrated ability. Brett was certain his own Observation Haki surpassed even that. The sheer volume and depth of what he could hear had no comparison he was aware of. In terms of both range and sensitivity, he was confident his Observation Haki was without equal in the world - setting Imu aside, at least.
With that as the foundation, mastering Observation Killing had been demanding but not insurmountable. Several days was actually a meaningful stretch of time for someone at his level, which was itself a testament to the technique's difficulty. But the completion had been inevitable, and now it was done. The technique was his.
He needed to test it.
So he went to find the person on the island with the strongest Observation Haki outside of himself.
Queen Otohime.
Shanks and Rayleigh both had impressive Observation Haki, strong enough for almost any practical purpose. But neither of them had what Otohime had been born with - an innate ability to peer into other people's hearts and, at its extreme, influence the thoughts of those around her. It wasn't a combat-oriented power, but the sensitivity behind it was exceptional.
Otohime agreed to help without hesitation.
"Just listening to your heart is enough?" she asked, smiling.
The war was drawing close, and as someone who had always hoped for peace, she couldn't help feeling some private sadness about that. But it wasn't as bleak as it might have been. Half the world's strength was standing alongside Fish-Man Island now. If they won, the world she had dreamed of - humans and Fish-Men living without fear of each other - would finally be possible. A genuinely better age could arrive.
Once she'd thought it through that way, the sadness settled into something more like resolve.
"That's all I need," Brett confirmed. "Just try to read me."
If he could block Otohime from sensing what was inside him, the training had worked.
"Then here I come!"
Otohime pumped her fist with cheerful energy, and her Observation Haki reached out.
She was no fighter. Her control over Haki had none of the precision that came with years of battle training. But her ability was innate and deep, and when she turned it on someone, it worked without effort.
The moment her Observation touched him, Brett's own Haki moved in response.
He didn't reach outward. He didn't search for her thoughts or look ahead. He drew his Observation inward instead, folding it back into himself, using it to disrupt his own presence.
"Hm?"
Otohime tilted her head. A small frown of genuine confusion crossed her face.
"I can't hear anything."
Brett's expression relaxed into a quiet smile. That confirmed it.
"What did you just do?" Otohime asked, curious and a little animated. "This has never happened to me before."
"Just a trick I've been working on."
"Well." She clasped her hands together, satisfied. "I'm glad I could help. Give it everything you have in this war."
"We'll win," Brett said simply.
"I know you will." She waved a fist at him with theatrical determination. "You'll lead us all to victory!"
"I appreciate the confidence."
He left Otohime and moved on to the second stage.
Observation Killing worked by concealing the user's presence from outside perception - scrambling the signals that Observation Haki normally latched onto. Now that Brett understood the mechanism from the inside, he had a working theory about how to counter it.
If Observation Killing disrupted a person's aura, was it possible to trace the Observation Haki being used to do the disrupting? To follow the interference back to its source, cut through the noise, and find the person underneath?
For most fighters, that would be impossible. In the middle of a high-intensity fight, nobody had the mental bandwidth to do something that delicate.
But Brett suspected he was a special case.
His Observation Haki heard things it had no business hearing. The sounds of animals, the faint resonance of inanimate objects, the shift in someone's intent before their body moved, the subtle fluctuation of another person's Haki. He could hear Haki itself if he listened carefully enough.
If that was true, then even through the chaotic noise of Observation Killing's interference, he should theoretically be able to isolate and track the Haki producing it. Especially now that he'd used the technique himself and understood what that Haki felt like in motion.
Finding a useful signal inside a storm of noise wasn't simple, but it wasn't beyond him.
Worth trying.
That meant finding Shanks and asking him to act as a sparring partner for this phase. Otohime had no experience with Observation Killing and couldn't serve as a proper target for what Brett needed to do next.
While Brett pushed through his training, the situation at Mariejois had already been set in motion.
"Lord Imu!"
The Five Elders prostrated themselves before the throne, foreheads toward the floor.
"All preparations are complete. Every available force has been assembled. The deep-sea unit's development is nearing its end."
"There is no longer any reason to wait."
The figure reclining on the throne stirred slowly. The voice that came from beneath the dark robes carried no particular urgency.
"The tedious waiting is over at last. Something interesting can finally happen."
The slightest pause.
"What have you planned?"
The Five Elders kept their heads down. They could feel the weight of that gaze moving across them.
Saint Mars spoke with careful deference. "We intend to deploy the deep-sea unit as the opening move. Each individual within it possesses exceptional power - sufficient to threaten Fish-Man Island directly."
"How dull."
Imu's tone was dismissive. "I thought you might have come up with something clever. Is that really all?"
The five elders pressed their foreheads to the floor.
"Forgive us, Lord Imu!"
"Destroying the Eve tree failed. The plan to cut Fish-Man Island off from the surface didn't work. Try something different."
The voice turned almost playful.
"Begin preparations to relocate Mariejois."
The Five Elders looked up with wide eyes.