Brook activated the power of the Revive-Revive Fruit again, and his body turned cold as ice. The dark and ghostly energy hidden in his flesh and blood surged with life—only this time, he could control it far more smoothly than before.
"So... has my body and spirit finally been fully accepted by the Revive-Revive Fruit?"
Brook could feel it—his ghostly spirit, the one that once drifted through the underworld, had now completely merged with his physical body. There was no longer a disconnect.
Before, all of his abilities were soul-based, transmitted through his body like a medium. But now? His body itself was steeped in underworld energy. He could summon ghostly power and dark energy at will, just as easily as flexing a muscle.
Back when he was just a skeleton in the original timeline, his physical body had long been lost—meaning the Revive-Revive Fruit's power could only bind itself to his soul. But now, with a real body? The fruit's power soaked into both his spirit and flesh, dramatically expanding his storage and output of underworld energy.
Even more surprising, Brook realized the meals he had been eating for the last year or two—the nutrition he thought was powering him—had merely built up in his body, unused. All this time, he had been relying solely on the energy his spirit brought back from Underworld.
"I've been wasting a ton of pure energy... all this time?"
He experimented—left hand filled with hell-born ghost energy from his spirit, and right hand with ghost energy converted from physical strength using the Revive-Revive Fruit. He used both to cast:
"Freeze!"
The result was night and day.
The left created a dense, dark-blue block of solid ice—ten centimeters thick.
The right? A flimsy, pale-white sheet, barely three or four centimeters.
"Damn... that's a huge gap. No way the quality difference is that massive unless... unless I've never actually trained to generate this energy!"
He comforted himself quickly.
"No, no—it's not that I'm weak. I'm just... inexperienced! That's all! It has to be!"
He immediately stopped using the hell-born ghost energy, hoarding it like a miser. Fortunately, he still had plenty left from his time in Underworld. But it was now clear: if he wanted to grow stronger, he couldn't just coast on what he'd brought back.
He had to learn to generate it—high-purity underworld energy, from scratch.
It dawned on him that while his strength had grown, he hadn't developed this fruit properly. He'd just been burning through his underworld reserves without replacing them.
"Good thing I looted so much power down there... Otherwise, I'd be totally screwed right now."
But still—compared to the rapid growth of the other fighters on the crew, Brook felt like he might be falling behind. To close that gap, he had to get serious about mastering his Revive-Revive Fruit.
That meant staying in the Underworld State (Undead), continuously converting physical energy into new ghost power, while slowly refining the quality to match what he'd brought back from Underworld.
Activating the Underworld State (Undead) again, Brook's eyes turned pale, almost glowing like white opals—eerily similar to the White Eyes.
"At least I caught this flaw early," he muttered. "That high-purity ghost energy I brought from Underworld will run dry in another year or two. Gotta fix that before it's too late."
But then—he discovered something that shocked even him.
He wasn't dead.
He could use all three types of Haki.
The cold, skeletal Brook was gone.
In his place stood a warm-blooded, full-powered Brook with a bright future ahead.
---
Meanwhile, aboard the golden spaceship...
Panic.
Crew members bolted through the corridors, rushing toward the cabin.
There, they found Brook—sitting on the ground, grinning like an idiot, looking weak as hell.
" BROTHER BROOK!"
Redfield was the first to burst in, emerging in a flash of lightning. He scanned the room, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.
"Did someone attack you?! That Conqueror's Haki just now... whose was it?!"
The sheer power of it had cracked the golden hull of the ship. Even heavy hitters like Tiger and Streusen had been knocked out instantly!
Charlotte Linlin ran forward and scooped Brook into her arms like a mother hen shielding her chick. Her eyes blazed with fury.
"WHO DARED TO TOUCH BROTHER BROOK?!"
Whitebeard and Golden Lion were both on edge, their Haki flaring as they searched the room for signs of the attacker.
That Conqueror's Haki—it was far beyond anything they could produce right now.
Someone had broken into their inner cabin... and beaten Brook to the point of collapse?!
But Brook, still grinning in Linlin's suffocating grip, was just pretending.
He had used the low-level ghost energy—newly generated by his physical body—to create a fake aura of weakness.
He wasn't injured at all.
Still, seeing how genuinely worried his crew was, he felt a warm pride swell in his chest. These were his people. And they truly cared.
Maybe... this is a good chance.
Brook considered milking the situation. A little "near-death" moment might light a fire under the crew.
Maybe they'd stop slacking. Maybe it would push them harder.
So he put on his best "suffering warrior" face and said,
"It's alright. You can all relax. It was just a passing master from somewhere. He was chasing an enemy and dropped in to give me a little... guidance."
He gently pushed away from Linlin and began gathering ghost energy again. His aura slowly climbed, but it still felt weak to the others—exactly what he wanted.
They believed he was holding back the pain.
Shiki traced a finger across the deep cracks in the storage chamber holding the seastone.
"Brook... was that guy really that strong? His Conqueror's Haki nearly tore the ship apart."
Brook nodded, voice full of genuine respect.
"He's not from this era. He used to be the strongest of his time. Now, he's leading his country to become the strongest force on the entire Earth."
Brook's eyes gleamed.
"He told me one of his enemies has been provoking him. Today, he's heading to another Island to kill some ugly bastard named... Peilosi."
Everyone went silent.
If Brook respected this man that much, then he had to be a true powerhouse.
Someone worth looking up to.
Someone they could all aspire to stand beside.
-------------------------
The four top fighters of the Hell Pirates surrounded Brook as they exited the cabin and returned to the conference room. Inside, Kaido, Shakky, and the others had already stood up, still visibly shaken.
That blast of Conqueror's Haki earlier was so intense that even Shakky—someone who possessed a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit and had a bounty over 100 million berries—was momentarily stunned.
"Brook, are you alright?"
The pale-faced Stussy stumbled over first, gripping Brook's arm with concern. Her large, worried eyes sparkled like stars.
"I'm fine. I'm sorry for dragging everyone into danger again. This one's on me... but now you've all seen the truth, haven't you?"
Brook gently patted Stussy's hair as he addressed the crew. His tone turned serious.
"Compared to true powerhouses, we're still far too weak. The title of Overlord that the Navy forced on us... it's just a label. We aren't as strong as we thought."
As Brook scanned the room, his gaze paused briefly on the Golden Lion, Shiki—easily the most arrogant among them. Hopefully this incident would make him rethink underestimating enemies, especially groups like the Rocks and Diger Pirate Crews, and the Navy's three Admirals, the strongest military force in the world.
"I get it now, Brook-sama!" someone replied quickly.
"Hey, Brook!" Shiki said, his eyes blazing. "Do you know how to train Conqueror's Haki? I wanna use it like that too! That level of power is insane!"
Redfield, Newgate, and Big Mom turned to Brook, clearly intrigued. They, too, wanted to reach that terrifying level of Conqueror's Haki mastery.
Brook nodded seriously. "You can't train Conqueror's Haki the same way as Armament or Observation Haki. It doesn't grow through simple repetition—it grows with experience, with the strength of your spirit. You've got to fight. Constantly. Against powerful enemies. That's how you sharpen your will and expand your presence."
He clenched his fist. Now that he'd fully awakened his Haki, he was done playing it safe. No more hiding. No more holding back. The Hell Pirates were going all-in.
No longer would he worry about how long old monsters like Diger could stay at the top. The new age was calling, and they were going to answer. When they returned to the New World, they'd join the race for supremacy, stepping over the corpses of the Butcher Pirates and the Diger Pirates to carve out their rightful place among legends—equal to the Rocks Pirates.
"Hahaha! Then I'm gonna challenge Jack!" Shiki roared. "If I beat that bastard, I'll level up for sure! My Haki'll skyrocket!"
He grinned wildly, already imagining a future where his Conqueror's Haki could demolish entire ships and knock out weaker pirates without lifting a finger.
Redfield and Newgate exchanged glances, already contemplating their next opponents. Meanwhile, Big Mom glared daggers at Stussy, who was still standing a little too close to Brook for her liking. Shakky noticed too—her instincts sharp—and narrowed her eyes.
Kaido was practically bouncing with excitement. He wanted to awaken his own Conqueror's Haki immediately and start fighting side by side with these powerful crewmates, growing his own spirit strength through battle.
I'm way stronger than that idiot Tiger, Kaido thought smugly. I didn't pass out from Brook's Haki—he did. When he wakes up, I'm gonna roast his ass for weeks!
He really thought he could throw a bounty poster in my face like that? I'm a trainee without a bounty, not some pushover!
As for Tom, the Fishman had woken up after being shaken a few times. When he saw the cracked golden ship, his heart shattered.
Without saying a word, he pulled out new wooden boards and tools and immediately began repairs. For a master shipwright like him, leaving it damaged even for a moment was torture.
Watching Tom work so hard made Brook feel a bit guilty. After all, the damage was caused by the shockwave from his Conqueror's Haki.
After giving everyone the order to rest, Brook announced they would return to the New World tomorrow via the Grand Line.
Since Tom's repair work was noisy, the crew moved to the main building in Golden City on Golden Island to sleep. Meanwhile, the people of Ohara Island spent the night unconscious, still recovering from the earlier blast.
Inside the Golden City's main building, Brook originally planned to spend some quiet time with Stussy… but of course, Shakky ruined that idea. Just as the two were about to settle down together, Shakky appeared, full of smug gossip energy. Brook immediately knew that Stussy wouldn't be getting any peaceful rest tonight.
Eventually, the crew all found their own rooms and settled in for the night.
Meanwhile, Brook continued to explore the powers of the Revive-Revive Fruit. He was trying to make his ghost form run automatically and generate ghost energy even while resting—so that he could continue training without wasting a second.
Even though Brook couldn't use Haki before, he had still spent years training with Redfield and the others, offering guidance and serving as a sparring partner. His theoretical knowledge of Armament and Observation Haki was rock solid.
Now that his body could finally use those powers, he was determined to master all three types of Haki. Only by combining top-tier Haki with a top-tier Devil Fruit could he stand as a true Overlord.
The reality was this: very few warriors could rely solely on physical strength and Haki. Without natural talent—or a proper mentor—most people would never reach the top.
If you didn't have someone to teach you Haki, how would you even start? Could you really beat someone who already had Haki to learn from them?
Devil Fruits, on the other hand, gave power immediately. Even without instruction, you could experiment and grow stronger on your own.
But Haki? Without guidance, all you could do was beg, steal, or spy to learn it. And if no one wanted to teach you, you were out of luck.
Not everyone had a mentor like Kaido. Take Roger, the so-called chosen one—no one knows who taught him Conqueror's Haki. Yet somehow, he mastered it and fought alongside Garp to defeat Rocks!
As for Whitebeard, his Conqueror's Haki wasn't a surprise—he was a former crew member of Rocks. He probably learned it directly from him.
Kozuki Oden didn't learn Conqueror's Haki entanglement during his four years with Whitebeard, but when he joined Roger's crew for just one year, he saw Roger and Whitebeard's Haki clash mid-air and finally understood. When he returned to Wano, he used that power to scar Kaido with an X-shaped cut.
What does that tell us?
If you want to become the strongest by mastering Haki, you need a teacher.
Just because one guy reached the top through Haki doesn't mean you can do the same. You might die long before you get there.
That's why top-tier Devil Fruits are often the foundation of power—they help you survive long enough to find the chance to learn true Conqueror's Haki.
Not everyone's lucky enough to be like Shanks, who inherited the complete Haki training system from the Roger Pirates. That's why he became famous at such a young age.
Even Roger and Whitebeard didn't reach their peak until their thirties or forties.
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