"Hahaha!"
After hearing Ide's answer, Ur burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. She looked up at him, still giggling. "You say you don't know magic? Are you kidding me? You took down over a thousand people without magic? Or do you just think I'm naive and easy to trick?"
"Uhh..."
Ide stayed silent. What was he supposed to say?
First of all, I really don't know magic!
Second, yes, you do kind of give off a 'naive and easy to trick' vibe.
"Give me your hands!"
While Ide was struggling to come up with an answer, Ur seemed to have laughed enough. Without warning, she grabbed his hands roughly and yanked off his leather gloves.
"What are you doing?" Ide asked, looking at her suspiciously.
"Heh."
"You said you can't use magic, right?"
"Then let me check for myself. I'll see if you have any magic power in your body. Magic doesn't lie..."
Ur stopped mid-sentence, as if a fishbone had gotten stuck in her throat.
To Ide's confusion, she started kneading his large, callus-hardened hands with her soft, delicate ones.
Her eyes grew wider and wider, filling with genuine bewilderment. She muttered to herself, "That's not right! Ide really has zero magic power? Is this a joke?"
"See? I didn't lie to you, did I?"
"I really don't know magic!"
While Ur was spacing out in shock, Ide's voice drifted down from above her. She might have been imagining it, but she detected a hint of smug amusement in his tone.
"If you don't know magic, then how did you defeat over a thousand rebels?!" Ur snapped back to reality and demanded an answer.
"Haki."
Ide answered without hesitation.
"Haki?!"
Ur paused. She had never heard of an ability called "Haki" before.
"Haki is a way of converting willpower into offensive power!"
As he spoke, Ide slowly drew his beloved sword. He quietly focused his Haki into the blade.
Zzzzt!!
A sharp, crackling sound exploded near Ur's ears. She watched as a strange, black aura extended from Ide's arm, completely coating the sharp blade of his weapon. Black lightning flickered around him ominously.
BOOM!
Another explosion of sound. Ide swung his sword forward. A pitch-black slash wrapped in thunder tore through the air.
The slash traveled for a full kilometer before dissipating, carving a deep, bottomless trench into the earth and obliterating a nearby forest.
"Is... that Haki?"
Ur stared at the slash that had torn through both sky and earth, her pupils constricting.
After a long moment, she recovered and glared at Ide. "Hey! If you already have this kind of power, why are you so obsessed with magic?"
"Because magic is stronger!" Ide replied with firm conviction.
"Huh?!"
Ur was stunned. She shook her head rapidly. "I don't know how you came to the conclusion that magic is stronger than Haki! But I have to tell you—I've never met anyone stronger than you."
"That's just because you haven't seen much of the world," Ide laughed, patting Ur on the head teasingly.
"Jerk."
Ur slapped his hand away, her face flushing red with annoyance. It was admittedly cute.
"Remember when you asked me why I was lying in the snow?"
"To be honest, the reason I ended up there is because I met a powerful 'wizard' and lost."
Ide thought back to Imu's ridiculously overpowered abilities, cold sweat forming on his forehead.
"Is... is that so?"
Ur's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are there really wizards that powerful in this world?"
"So, how about this?"
"I teach you Haki, and you teach me magic."
Ide looked at Ur's exquisite face, thought for a moment, and proposed the trade.
"You already said magic is stronger than Haki, so I think I'll just focus on learning magic," Ur shook her head gently. She was curious about this "Haki," but she hadn't even mastered magic yet. It was better not to bite off more than she could chew.
"Okay."
Ide didn't push. He respected her choice. As long as he could learn magic, he was satisfied.
"Alright then."
"If you're going to learn magic, take your clothes off first."
As she spoke, Ur started taking off her own clothes.
"Uhh."
"So fast?"
"Isn't this a bit inappropriate?!"
Ide watched as Ur removed her thick cotton coat, revealing her curvy figure. He unconsciously licked his lips, which were dry from the cold wind.
"Cut the crap!"
"Do you want to learn magic or not? If you do, strip!"
When it came to Ice-Make Magic, Ur became a completely different person—serious and stern.
"Stripping!"
"I'm stripping!"
Ide wasted no time. He ripped off his shirt and started on his pants.
"Wait, Ide."
"You can keep your underwear on."
Ur stopped him, a dark line forming on her forehead.
"Hiss."
Stripped down to his underwear, Ide sucked in a breath of cold air through clenched teeth.
"Calm your mind. Feel the energy in the atmosphere."
"If you really want to learn magic, you first have to sense the Ethernano particles in the air, draw them into your body, and store them in your Magic Container."
Ur spoke slowly and softly, helping Ide relax and quickly enter a state of meditation.
"I see... so these blue particles floating in the air are magic particles?!"
Sensing magic energy was child's play for someone with advanced Observation Haki. Ide quickly located the particles as Ur described and began guiding them into his body.
"Huh?"
If Ur didn't already know that Ide was extraordinary, she never would have believed him.
Even the most talented wizards usually needed hours to sense atmospheric Ethernano when they first started.
"System, activate!"
Deep within his mind, unbeknownst to Ur, Ide gave the command.