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'Water and fire. And it can be used in swordsmanship, and can be taught to others. Sure enough, just like I heard before, this guy's power is pretty unique.'
Looking at Hina surrounded by flames, Gion thought to herself.
After a few seconds, the flames surrounding Hina's body disappeared.
Ikki let go of Hina's hand.
"So, Ikki. Is Hina suited to learn the fire power?" Hina patted her clothes that had been dried by the flames, looked up and asked Ikki.
Although she was surrounded by flames just now, Hina surprisingly didn't feel any discomfort. Instead, she felt warm. Hina even enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped in flames.
"It's possible, but your talent in this area isn't that great," Ikki said with a wave of his hand. "If you wanna learn, you'll probably need to spend a lot of time. My suggestion is that you should focus on developing your Devil Fruit power. That might help you get stronger faster."
When Ikki used his Flame Breathing to create flames that covered Hina's body, he also sent the flames in the form of air into Hina's body. Although the flame's airflow seemed to resonate with Hina's body, Ikki felt the resonance wasn't very strong.
If this were a martial arts novel, it would probably say that the internal energy of Flame Breathing could move through Hina's body without harm, but because her channels weren't wide enough, the energy couldn't flow smoothly or in large amounts through her body.
"Huh? Ikki, are you just making excuses to avoid teaching Hina?" Hina put her hand on Ikki's shoulder, clearly not buying that he couldn't teach her. "Hina knows that Nami, Nojiko, and even Princess Vivi weren't fighters at first. The fact that they can use your swordsmanship now proves you have a special way to let others master this power, even if they don't have natural talent, right?"
Beside them, Gion's eyes were also fixed on Ikki's face. This was exactly what she wanted to understand too.
Ikki's cheeks twitched. There was no way he could tell Hina and Gion about the nutritional potions that helped Nami, Nojiko and the others master Water Breathing.
But... there were other ways.
Ikki had an idea. He smiled and gently moved Hina's hand off his shoulder.
"It's not impossible to find a way," Ikki laughed. "As long as your body can adapt to Flame Breathing, I can use some special methods to help you master it."
"Oh? What kind of method?" Hina asked.
"Haha, you've already experienced it."
"I have? Could it be what you just did..."
"Yep, that's it! If I regularly use my ability to guide and develop your body, I can quickly help you master this power."
"Sounds good! Hina agrees. You can use your abilities to help Hina develop it." Hina crossed her arms and nodded with satisfaction.
The feeling of being surrounded by flames earlier didn't make her uncomfortable. On the contrary, it felt warm and pleasant. So she didn't mind having Ikki use his power to help her learn Flame Breathing.
"I think you're misunderstanding something, Hina," Ikki said. "You didn't feel anything weird in your body just now because I was only testing you. If we really want to help you learn Flame Breathing, and make you master it quickly, I'll have to apply the flames much harder to your body."
"When that happens, your body will actually feel the burning sensation of the flames. Getting burned a bit is pretty much unavoidable. Because of how strong the flames are, your clothes, hair, and stuff might get burned away. I can protect your hair, but there's no way to spare the clothes on your body. I'm guessing you don't want to be naked in front of a guy you barely know."
Ikki shrugged as he spoke to Hina.
Hearing this, Hina immediately frowned.
Gion nodded thoughtfully beside them.
"I see. Ikki, is this how you helped your friends master swordsmanship so quickly?" Gion asked with a smile. "But if your flames can avoid hair, couldn't they also avoid the important parts of Hina's body? Wearing a heat-resistant swimsuit should work fine."
"And where exactly am I supposed to find a swimsuit that can handle that kind of heat?" Ikki asked.
"Good point, Ikki," Gion acknowledged. "If you're guiding Hina to master this power, you mentioned the flames need to be pretty intense."
"For faster learning, yeah, you need really hot flames. I could teach the normal way too, but I can't guarantee Hina would be able to learn it that way. Let Hina decide for herself," Ikki said.
"What I'm more curious about is, if I used Water Breathing to quickly guide someone, what would happen to them?"
"What else? Their body would get kinda swollen. But don't worry, my power won't cause any permanent damage. My hot spring has healing and skin-improving effects, so ladies don't need to stress about their appearance getting messed up."
"It has healing and beautifying effects too? I like your hot spring more and more, Ikki." Gion smiled and extended her hand to Ikki. "You've already tested which swordsmanship style suits Hina, and you'll be teaching me in the future anyway. Could you test which style would work best for me now?"
Ikki nodded slightly, raised his hand and grabbed Gion's palm.
The next second, flames generated by Breath of the Sun enveloped Gion's arm. However, as soon as the flames touched Gion's hand, they quickly faded away.
"Hmm?" Ikki raised his eyebrows and gave Gion a strange look.
"What's wrong, Ikki? Was there something odd about what just happened?" Gion asked.
"Yeah, it's a pretty big deal actually! Those flames weren't from my Flame Breathing style," Ikki explained. "They were produced by Breath of the Sun, which is the strongest among all the breathing techniques and swordsmanship styles."
"I wanted to see if you, as a Marine Admiral candidate, could learn Breath of the Sun. But what just happened... your body strongly rejected the Breath of the Sun. When you came into contact with the Sun Breathing flames, your own energy extinguished even the weakest flame."
"In other words, there's absolutely no way you can learn Sun Breathing."
Unless, Ikki thought to himself, she used the Sword Training Room to defeat a swordsman who had mastered the Sun Breathing style. Of course, he wouldn't say that out loud.
"That's too bad, not being able to learn the strongest style." Gion pursed her lips, looking disappointed.
"But since your body rejects Sun Breathing so strongly, you might be able to learn Moon Breathing, which is the opposite of Sun Breathing," Ikki smiled and used Moon Breathing to test Gion again.
Gion and Hina watched as several crescent-shaped air currents formed on Ikki's hand. This energy flowed up Gion's arm, and soon her whole body was covered by countless crescent air currents.
Gion herself felt a cold sensation pouring into her body from Ikki's palm.
"Oh!" Gion let out a soft gasp, her legs involuntarily tensing as she felt a strange sensation flooding her heart.
But she quickly recovered and returned to her previous expression of calm curiosity.
However, that little sound made both Ikki and Hina look at her strangely.
"Seems like Vice Admiral Gion is very compatible with Moon Breathing. Your body reacted quite naturally to it," Ikki's cheeks twitched as he let go of Gion's hand.
"It's probably because your power is so unusual," Gion's expression remained calm, as if she hadn't made that excited sound moments ago.
"Ikki, you just said Moon Breathing is the opposite of Sun Breathing," Gion asked curiously. "Can you tell me more about this style? We've got time before our practice session, right?"
Since Ikki said she was very compatible with Moon Breathing, that would probably be the style she'd learn in the future.
"Sure, why not." Ikki nodded and sat down cross-legged.
"Moon Breathing was developed by Kokushibo, the older brother of Yoriichi Tsugikuni who created Sun Breathing," Ikki explained. "In terms of power, it's like how the moon can't compete with the sun. Kokushibo, who mastered Moon Breathing, wasn't stronger than Yoriichi Tsugikuni."
"Wanting power that could surpass his younger brother's, Kokushibo eventually turned to evil ways..."
As Ikki spoke, the story about Kokushibo, the Moon Breathing master, gradually unfolded before Gion and Hina.
As the story progressed, Gion and Hina gradually became more serious, dropping their initial indifference.
"That's the gist of it," Ikki concluded. "If you want to know more, go ask Tashigi for the manga called 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.' It has a lot more details. Anyway, our break's almost over."
"Vice Admiral Gion, let's find a place to fight. It's time for you to hand over your famous sword 'Konpira' to me." Ikki smiled at Gion and Hina and turned toward the door.
"Yes, it is indeed time," Gion gently stroked her hair, then followed after Ikki with her long strides.