Izumi Miyamura: Xover

October 16th 2xxx – Izumi PoV

Taylor was still a monster, using a weapon didn't really stop her learning rate but remained just as ridiculous and she had learned water breathing in that time, yes, she still had a lot to improve, but she was able to handle a sword more than well at the moment, the only real problem, was that she hadn't entered a state of total concentration breathing yet, she had memorized it yes, but her body hadn't experienced it yet, and we couldn't move forward if she didn't achieve it.

"Okay, let's stop," I said, stopping Taylor in the middle of her kata with the wooden sword we had been training in the mountains, in a small cleared area. She looked at me confused. I raised a katana I had brought.

"This is Shusui, she's yours now." I said simply before tossing it to Taylor, I had gotten 6 swords thanks to the templates, Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu, Enma, Shusui, Yubashiri and Yoriichi's Nichirin sword, there were several reasons why I decided to give Shusui to Taylor, Sandai Kitetsu and Enma were out of the question, they were still cursed and would kill Taylor in an instant, I had an emotional connection with Wado Ichimonji even though he never belonged to Kuina in this life but still the part that was Zoro was still reluctant to let go.

And about Yubashiri and the Nichirin sword it was different, interestingly, the Nichirin sword was better than Yubashiri and Sendai Kitetsu, but not as much as Shusui, the only reason I chose the latter was because of how fast Taylor was growing, both Yubashiri and the Nichirin would quickly become too short for her, so it was better to let her get used to Shusui early, without with or without Sun. Breathing couldn't take full advantage of the Nichirin sword.

" Th -this is it?!" Taylor exclaimed, grabbing the sword I threw at her, reverently pulling Shusui out of its sheath, the black blade shining in the sun "Where did you get a real sword?!"

"It was mine, I have a few, it was a gift, but it was gathering dust, now it's yours, I'll teach you how to maintain it, it's your duty to take care of Shusui now."

"I- thank you!" she thanked me with a childish smile as she continued to look at the sword, I smiled, walked away and pulled out Wado Ichimonji that I had also brought from its sheath and threw it to the side, Taylor was not going to enjoy this and that made me smile even wider, Haoshoku Haku was, not difficult per se, but it required some preparations to use, not because Zoro had problems or I hadn't practiced enough, but because it conflicted with Yoriichi's selfless state, they were completely polar opposites, but while Haoshoku Haki was something I had to actively use, the selfless state was already a natural state for me, so I had to actively block it in order to use Conqueror's Haki, and so I did, I imposed my will on the world, specifically on Taylor, Taylor suddenly paled and was pushed down but she resisted my will and remained conscious.

"Defend yourself and don't forget... breathe." was the last thing I said, Taylor looked at me with fear and confusion, I had been a couple meters away from her but it took me less than a fraction of a second to be in front of her with Wado Ichimonji held high, Dance , I lowered my sword in Taylor's direction, I could see and feel the terror coming out of Taylor, still it didn't stop me and I lowered my sword, Taylor threw herself to the side narrowly dodging the sword as she stumbled, fear with abject fear at the 20 meter cut I had left in the ground.

" W -Wait! W-What's going on!?!" She asked in panic, I didn't answer, I just moved again, Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance , I started with a slash at neck level, I felt Taylor push her emotions into her insects while clumsily lifting Shusui in the way, both swords collided throwing sparks but my strength, speed and technique won and pushed Taylor several meters away, extra points for not letting go of her sword, but I just kept moving forward while moving Wado Ichimonji, I moved fluidly through the courtyard while launching slash after slash in Taylor's direction while she clumsily defended herself, she tried to defend herself but she was too slow, too weak and her posture broke with each clash, the force behind my slashes and the slashes of air that licked her body, took a constant and rapid toll on her aura, it was consumed faster than any training session we had, and Taylor noticed.

She sent a swarm in my direction, I stopped for a fraction of a second and... stood still, Eleventh Form : Dead Calm , an instant was enough to cut all the insects that Taylor brought, the surprise, shock and disbelief along with fear was seen on Taylor's face for a fraction of a second, before I pushed her to her insects, I moved again, Third Form : Flowing Dance , before Taylor faced the sun, now it was a raging and winding river, completely different from the previous dance which again caught Taylor off guard letting me give her a cut on the arm that her aura absorbed at great cost, Taylor gritted her teeth and brought her insects back, this time instead of being a small swarm, now it would look like all the insects in its radius, I just stopped once more, the water from my sword fell to the ground before exploding into flames again, Hinokami Kagura : Thirteenth Form , I moved quickly without any real objective, I just moved through the dancing swarm while I cut Taylor's insects into large portions with each cut, the force behind and the pressure generated by my blows destroyed the weak insects.

As I quickly thinned out the swarm, Taylor stepped out of a group of her insects in my direction with Shisui firmly in her hand, I had seen her coming so I just turned and danced in her direction, I lowered my sword, she thrust and... stopped me, Seventh Form : Drop Ripple Thrust , Curve , had somehow collided with the edge of my sword, impressive, I wanted to smile widely, she interrupted my dance and I had to give her credit, but unfortunately for her, without entering the artificial hysteria mode of total concentration breathing, her strength was not enough for the level at which I was still holding back, so her interruption was momentary before continuing to advance, the satisfaction I had felt when I stopped was quickly replaced by shock as she tried to cover herself quickly in vain, she received a cut on the chest that pushed her meters back, fortunately, her aura still resisted.

It was fast, the blows kept falling on a defenseless Taylor causing her Aura to be consumed in heaps until I finally saw it, the breaking of her aura while she was on the ground, but I didn't stop, I advanced with a slash towards the ground she rolled out of the way but I was slow enough that it left a thin cut on her shoulder, she quickly stood up and looked at her bleeding shoulder in shock, I still didn't stop and she turned her gaze in my direction and... she breathed, finally.

I smiled widely as I watched her body enter the breath of total concentration and she didn't stop me, I moved, this time she met me halfway, my Clear Blue Sky met her Second Form : Water Wheel , we both spun at the same time, for the first time since I attacked her, she withstood the blow, stood firm and quickly launched a Fourth Form : Striking Tide , the multiple cuts were directed in my direction and did not hesitate to go to the weak points, unfortunately for Taylor I dodged them with Fake Rainbow leaving an afterimage where she was while I attacked her with Raging Sun from the side.

Taylor looked surprised but quickly adapted and... kicked the air? No, she kicked the swarm, or rather a group of insects that formed a kind of semi-solid platform then I noticed, she was using Ninth Form : Splashing Water Flow, Turbulent , minimized her landing time so that she could somehow hit the swarm before it collapsed from the force and weight of her, managing to move in time to avoid my attack, now it was my turn to be on the defensive, Taylor had a new dimension for combat at her disposal and she was making the most of it as she increased her speed to attack me from multiple directions, my smile widened even more.

She really was a monster so I didn't hold back, despite Taylor's great and wonderful efforts her strength was not at my level without holding back so I stopped her assault dead with a vertical slash upwards, that seemed to surprise her slightly but she tried to attack again but I was faster, I imbued my arms and Wado Ichimonji with Haki and... I lowered my sword, Taylor felt the abnormality of the blow and instead of receiving it head on she quickly jumped to the side in alarm, it was the right decision when my sword made a cut almost 300 meters long, cutting both stones and trees in its path, no size or hardness stopped the cut, she looked at me incredulously, I just laughed nervously.

"I guess I got carried away," I said timidly.

"You think?!" she squealed in alarm.

"It was a good workout, I got a little excited," I defended myself.

"Training?! I almost got cut! Like a dozen times! "

"Now that's insulting, I would never have seriously harmed you." I huffed, she just pointed at the cut in the mountain, "occupational hazards." I shrugged, she looked like she was about to continue yelling so I employed a secret technique, "Speaking of which, congratulations! You've finally mastered total concentration breathing! " I changed the subject, she glared at me but I let it go.

"It's... different, I'll be honest, I thought it didn't exist."

"Hey!"

"I feel... better than ever, even though I know I'm exhausted and hurt."

"adrenaline, once you stop breathing your body will start registering it."

"I thought so, but this is... fantastic, how come nobody knows about this? It could elevate all heroes and hunters to a new level."

"Or villains, it's not something that can be taught lightly, even more so when it can be used so badly with such ease." I replied and she grimaced.

"Point. Still, it's... wow!" She shifted and jumped a few times, scanning her body before stopping and looking at me. "Leaving that aside, what the hell was that pressure you used at the beginning of the fight? I felt like I was going to die more than with that final cut, which by the way I want to know about too. I want to believe it wasn't pure physical force and it didn't look like anything you could do either." I snorted.

"to the response of both, Haki"

"haki?"

"Yeah, to put it simply, it's an advanced form of using aura, Busoshoku Haki, Armament Haki, or simply Armament Color, you use your aura, your will, your soul to harden parts of your body or weapons to a ridiculous level, increasing not only in offensive and defensive terms exponentially, but they also have some extra properties."

"Harden? Something like passive aura armor, but in a more... concentrated way? "

"You can think of it that way, it's the closest you can get without going into too much detail, it has some fundamental differences and is certainly difficult to master, but it increases your power by leaps and bounds."

"I... can learn?" I hummed lightly.

"you can, but it'll be difficult, much more so than we've done so far, training and copying movements is one thing but Haki is more personal, more difficult, it might take months or years to even scratch the surface." and I was being honest, even Haki was something of this world as I had discovered, it wasn't something many hunters used or heroes at all, most were A or S rank hunters so the information there was on the internet was little to none, certainly nothing like how to train and unlock it, but it was something that was learnable to everyone, at least the most normal two, so it wasn't unheard of that Taylor could learn if she had the motivation that she had "and the 'pressure' of the beginning as you called it, it's called Haoshoku Haki, Conqueror's Haki or Color of the Supreme Rulers , only one in a million people are born with this ability, and few are those who learn to use it."

"of the conqueror? supreme rulers who? "

"It is said that those who possess this type of Haki have qualities of rulers, a king or queen, the most basic use is the ability to impose your soul, your will on others, if the gap between wills is too much, it is possible to faint ."

"Wait what, you can just knock people out without doing anything?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course not, using Conqueror's Haki is difficult, but other than that, yes, and it has no limit on how many people, it's simply imposing your will on an area, if you're facing an army of normal people or a group of civilians for example, it wouldn't be unheard of to even knock out 50 thousand or 100 thousand people effortlessly." Taylor looked at me incredulously, and so would I, because Conqueror's Haki was mastered, period. "Enough of that though, I'll create a new training menu, you're at an advanced enough level to move on."

"I still haven't been able to hit you," she said with a pout.

"And I'm not going to let you have it that easy either." I rolled my eyes, "But you're improving, by leaps and bounds, in fact, you surprised me back when you started using the bugs as platforms, seriously impressive." Taylor blushed at the praise.

"I-it just occurred to me, I didn't know if it would work." she said shyly.

"You did it, good job." I smiled at her before kissing her softly, she returned it shyly "Now, let's go back home, we have a lot to do."