Somewhere in the East Blue.
A sheep-headed sailboat was slowly sailing along.
Usopp had painted a skull wearing a straw hat on both the sail and the pirate flag atop the mast.
The flag of the Straw Hat Pirates had been raised over these waters!
Over the past few days, everyone had seen all kinds of wondrous creatures on Rare Beast Island and formed a pirate friendship with Gaimon, who was stuck inside a chest.
Interestingly, Chouchou had also gained a whole group of underlings on Rare Beast Island.
Whenever Chouchou let out an angry roar, the rare beasts that had intended to attack them immediately lay down and showed their submission.
Everyone guessed that Chouchou's ability to subdue the rare beasts was likely due to the pressure of his bloodline.
Luffy excitedly praised Chouchou for being amazing.
Zoro, however, had given Can Yue a long look at the time. Chouchou's transformation had been entirely caused by Can Yue's blood, so what exactly was Can Yue?
Of course, out of trust in his companion, Zoro had not chosen to question Can Yue about it.
~
Meanwhile, Zoro and Luffy were undergoing Can Yue's personally administered, brutal beatdown endurance training every day.
The purpose of this training was naturally to help the two of them master the Armament Haki coating technique more quickly.
Although Luffy had barely managed to use it in his battle against Buggy, his success rate at coating himself in Armament Haki was still low lately.
It took too long to forcibly use Armament Hardening, and the area it covered was too small to form effective combat strength.
The same was true for Zoro.
So aside from specifically training Luffy's combat techniques and Zoro's swordsmanship-related skills, Can Yue spent the rest of the time making the two of them speed up their Armament Haki body-coating training under the fear of imminent, excruciating pain.
If the area being struck was not coated, the pain would reach straight into their souls.
As a result, the deck was often filled with their agonized cries.
On the day Usopp first came aboard, the sight frightened him so badly that he trembled all over and shouted that he regretted getting on this pirate ship.
It was not until Usopp saw that Nami was also undergoing extremely intense physical training every day that he understood.
There was a reason the Straw Hat Pirates were so strong.
And the strongest person in the pirate crew was not the captain, but Can Yue, who was so handsome it was ridiculous.
In the spirit of treating everyone equally, Can Yue also created a training plan tailored to Usopp's traits.
1. Complete the same amount of physical training as Nami every day: 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 sit-ups, 2,000 squats, and 1,000 frog jumps.
2. Every day, he had to shoot down one bird over this vast ocean with his slingshot for everyone's dinner. If he failed, he would have to undergo beatdown training.
However, Can Yue did not teach Usopp Armament Haki to withstand damage. Instead, he required him to dodge attacks.
During the first two days of training, Usopp had barely spotted several birds, but they were too far away, and he failed to shoot any of them down.
Naturally, there was now one more person screaming in pain aboard the ship.
Nami and Chouchou, who had yet to be beaten by Can Yue, watched this scene every day with glee.
Today, the sun was bright and the breeze was gentle.
The Going Merry was sailing across the vast, boundless sea.
Zoro was attempting to cut through the metal war hammer he had taken from the Black Cat Pirates. Cutting steel without using Armament Haki was the first stage of training Can Yue had assigned him.
Luffy had just finished his combat reaction training—in other words, continuing to get beaten by Can Yue while being allowed to fight back.
Luffy was covered in bruises, yet he was still full of energy. Holding a telescope, he was searching the sky for birds with Usopp.
"Huh? A News Coo?"
Through the telescope, Luffy saw a News Coo flying toward them.
Usopp was overjoyed when he heard that. Any bird would do; who cared what species it was? This concerned whether he would get beaten tonight. He immediately asked, "Where?"
Luffy answered with a serious expression, "At 19:59:59!"
"Okay, watch this... Listen to what you're saying!" Usopp smacked Luffy across the head.
"Calm down, calm down. Deep breaths. Around eight o'clock, right?" Usopp muttered as he adjusted his angle of attack.
"Huh, it seems to be flying toward us."
Watching the News Coo draw closer and closer, Luffy suddenly remembered the feast he had eaten when they first set sail, and drool instantly ran from his mouth.
With a rubber-powered launch, he jumped up to the crow's nest above the mast and began plotting.
Usopp told Luffy to stay quiet. They only needed to wait a little longer.
Finally, this hardworking News Coo suffered the greatest malice in the world. Just as it reached above the deck and prepared to drop the newspaper, Usopp fired his slingshot.
With a duang, propelled by the powerful force of the rubber band, the steel pellet instantly shattered the News Coo's skull, and it fell down.
The poor, innocent News Coo, working hard to make money for its boss, had met its end just like that.
Before it died, it probably had regrets and unwillingness, but no one cared.
Luffy was already considering how to cook it. He grabbed its still-warm corpse and headed into the kitchen with Usopp.
~
After finishing her training, Nami wiped the sweat from her forehead and slowly walked onto the deck, carrying the fragrant sweat of a young girl. She picked up the newspaper from the ground.
"Huh? This newspaper has news about us defeating Buggy."
"Oh?" Zoro, who was still training to cut steel, paused his training and walked over curiously.
"Can Yue, 30 million. Luffy, 20 million. Me, 15 million. Luffy's is fine, but why am I getting further and further behind Can Yue?"
Zoro looked annoyed. He picked up his swords and walked away to resume training.
"Wow, I'm worth 20 million? So Buggy was that formidable in the Marines' eyes?"
Luffy, who had been about to bleed the News Coo, immediately ran out upon hearing his bounty. He grabbed the newspaper and shoved it in front of his face.
After reading the newspaper, Luffy began complaining with an unhappy expression.
"The Marines are unfair. Can Yue is obviously much stronger than Buggy, so how can he have the same bounty as Buggy?"
Even as he read the newspaper, Luffy was speaking up for Can Yue's injustice.
Can Yue remained calm and did not care about the bounty issue.
If they really wanted to argue about it, based on the strength Buggy had displayed, he was definitely worth more than 30 million. There was clearly something fishy about that bounty.
The Marines had probably concluded that they had only defeated Buggy through a scheme and by joining forces to gang up on him.
There would be plenty of pirates in their future voyages with strength similar to Buggy's, as well as many far stronger than the current Buggy.
Thinking of this, Can Yue emphasized something to everyone.
"In the future, pirates with bounties in the tens of millions will be small fry, so you all must train hard."
Luffy and Zoro nodded seriously.
When Usopp heard that pirates worth tens of millions were small fry, his teeth began chattering in fear again. He shouted together with Nami, "Then we'll have to rely on you three to protect us from now on."
All they received in return was Can Yue's icy stare. Nami stuck out her tongue in fright, while Usopp did not dare say another word.
After being serious for a moment, Luffy returned to his airheaded mode. "Hehehe, Usopp shot down a bird just now. We'll have meat tonight."
The moment everyone heard that, they felt their salivary glands begin to work.
Because on the first day Luffy set sail, that bastard had eaten an entire refrigerator of meat prepared by Kaya and Merry!
After several days without meat, even Can Yue found himself craving it.
"Hehehe, then I'll go cook." Luffy rolled up his sleeves and headed for the kitchen.
Suddenly, Can Yue recalled the scenes of Luffy cooking from his memories. The Sunny had nearly been destroyed, let alone this tiny Going Merry.
So he whipped Luffy back onto the deck and said coldly.
"If you can't cook, don't make trouble."
"Can Yue, are you going to cook?" Nami's budding heart began to stir again. After all, how blissful would it be to watch such a handsome man cook?
Can Yue snorted. "I can't. Nami, you do it!"
Nami: "...!!!"
An hour later, everyone had finished eating the roasted bird.
The pitiful working bird had become nothing but a skeleton, which Chouchou was gnawing on.
The five of them sat around the table and began a meeting.
Usopp: "First, our nutrition is unbalanced!"
Zoro: "Second, the captain eats too much!"
Nami: "Finally, no one can cook."
Luffy frowned for a long time, then smacked his forehead. "Then we need to find a cook!"
Can Yue nodded in agreement. "If we keep going forward, we should be able to find the Sea Restaurant Baratie."
Luffy was overjoyed when he heard that. "Hehehe, agreed! Brothers, next stop: the Sea Restaurant! Let's find a cook to join us!"
Before you continue