Chapter 4: Three Months and a Leg Accessory
Three months passed.
The panel moved. Rankyaku, Shigan, Life Force to Level 2 then 3, Weapon Arts right alongside it. The South Blue had plenty of red values above ten thousand and Light worked through them steadily. HQ kept sending letters about Branch 77's record. He read them over breakfast and went back to work.
By the end of the third month the panel read:
[ KARMA SYSTEM ]
[ KP: 482,700 ]
[ LIFE FORCE Lv.3 — Next: 120,000 KP ]
[ WEAPON ARTS Lv.3 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ OBSERVATION Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ ARMAMENT Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ CONQUEROR'S Lv.0 — Next: 1,000,000 KP ]
[ SORU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ TEKKAI Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ GEPPO Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ KAMI-E Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ RANKYAKU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ SHIGAN Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ LIFE RETURN Lv.1 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ FORCE AUTHORITY Max Output ]
His gift, the thing called "Force Authority" after testing he figured out worked sort of like magnetism, for now, he could attract and repel things. But even that took a lot of stamina out of him. That was why he was focusing on other things for now, he figured once his life level got higher, he'll be able to use it more.
Out of others, he liked Life Return the most. It was a skill that gave him complete control of his body. He could digest food faster, controlled his sleep, his senses much better. It was a good skill. Next came weapon mastery, he was surprised to find that he literally had a 'weapon' mastery. He could use guns, sabers, swords, cannons etc. with the same equal proficiency.
Finally, he looked at his accumulated points. 482,700. 17,300 short of Haki getting his first Haki level. He'd been watching that threshold since day one and it had been a very long three months.
482,700. He needed 500,000 for Observation Haki and was 17,300 short. He'd been staring at that gap for weeks.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Lieutenant Haas had stopped sleeping well about two months ago.
Not because of nightmares. The opposite problem — he kept lying awake thinking, and the thinking kept leading him to the same place, and the place was uncomfortable but he was more and more convinced it was correct.
Captain Yagami was right.
Simple thought. Every time Haas tried to argue himself out of it he ran into the same wall. The pirates they'd killed — every single crew — had been exactly what the Captain said. Bad people. Genuinely bad. Haas had seen the villages they'd burned, talked to survivors, read the reports. And the officials. He'd pulled Vesh's actual record after the assassination, quietly, carefully, and found things that had been buried for years. A protection racket across half the South Blue. A decade of it. Headquarters looking the other way because the numbers stayed clean.
He didn't know how the Captain knew who to kill. He'd stopped trying to figure that out. He just knew that every person Light had killed had, on closer inspection, earned it.
So he filed the reports without questions and handled the logistics — requisitions, supply runs, crew rotations — without being asked, because if the Captain was doing something real then the least Haas could do was make sure the ship ran so well that Light never had to think about it.
The rest of the crew thought he'd lost his mind. Tarro had pulled him aside last week.
"You're covering for him," Tarro said quietly. "You know what he does and you're just covering for him."
"I'm filing accurate reports," Haas said.
"Haas."
"Go pull Vesh's actual record, Tarro." Haas looked at him. "Then come talk to me."
Tarro hadn't come back.
Haas went back to his requisition forms and felt, in a way he couldn't quite explain, that he was finally doing his job properly.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Light put in for a port stop at Folena Town. The ship needed supplies and the crew needed a day off. He walked through the town in plain clothes — no coat — hands in his pockets, reading numbers out of habit.
Most of Folena was ordinary. Low greens, low reds, normal people. He was three streets from the harbour when he noticed four men moving too quietly for people who weren't trying to hide. They turned into a side alley and Light glanced at their numbers as they passed.
[ Unknown — Male ]
[ Green: 890 / Red: 48,200 ]
[ Unknown — Male ]
[ Green: 640 / Red: 41,900 ]
[ Unknown — Male ]
[ Green: 1,100 / Red: 45,600 ]
[ Unknown — Male ]
[ Green: 720 / Red: 39,800 ]
All four above thirty-nine thousand. That was not a pirate number. Pirates in the South Blue averaged twelve, fifteen thousand at most. These were people who had done considerably worse things in a considerably more professional capacity. Plain clothes, quiet moves, small port town with nothing of value in it — except, apparently, whatever was in this alley.
He followed them in.
At the far end, backed against the wall, was a little girl.
Small. Pink hair in two bunches. Clothes a bit too big for her. She had her hands flat on the wall behind her and was watching the four men with an expression that wasn't quite fear — more like someone running through options.
[ Unknown — Child ]
[ Green: 2200 / Red: 33 ]
Light stopped walking.
2200. He read it twice. He'd never seen a number that high on a child. He stood there for a moment just looking at it, and then he looked at the four men, and something settled in him that didn't need much more thinking.
The lead man heard his footstep and turned. He took one look at Light and his face went flat and professional. "Walk away," he said. "You don't want to be here."
"I think I do, actually," Light said.
"Last warning." His hand moved under his jacket.
Light was already moving.
The first one didn't get his hand out. The second and third figured out what was happening at the exact moment it stopped. The fourth turned and ran for the alley entrance — and made it four steps before Light raised his saber and held it steady, pointing at the man's back.
Force Authority. Pull.
The man slowed. Then stopped. Then his feet left the ground slightly as he started moving backward, pulled through the air without understanding why, his arms reaching forward like that would help, and Light stood still with the saber levelled and let the man come to it. The blade caught him between the shoulders and he made a sound that was mostly surprise and slid down and didn't get up.
Light lowered the saber and looked at the four on the ground. Then at the panel.
[ KARMA SYSTEM ]
[ KP: 500,250 ]
[ LIFE FORCE Lv.3 — Next: 120,000 KP ]
[ WEAPON ARTS Lv.3 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ OBSERVATION Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ ARMAMENT Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ CONQUEROR'S Lv.0 — Next: 1,000,000 KP ]
[ SORU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ TEKKAI Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ GEPPO Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ KAMI-E Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ RANKYAKU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ SHIGAN Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ LIFE RETURN Lv.1 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ FORCE AUTHORITY Max Output ]
500,250. He looked at the Observation threshold. Then at the number. Then he turned around.
The girl hadn't moved. She'd watched everything without making a sound, and the look on her face was not the look of a child who had just seen four people killed.
Smart kid, Light thought.
Then her face crumpled completely. Her chin wobbled, her eyes filled with tears, and she launched herself forward and grabbed his clutched his leg like a koala.
"WA..WHAAA..WHAHA HA!"