Individualized Training; Can Yue's Concerns

East Blue.

The Straw Hat Pirates had left Cocoyasi Village several days ago.

Aboard the Going Merry.

Nami was tending to the orange trees Sanji and the others had helped transplant onto the ship.

Zoro had already escaped the devilish beating regimen and was concentrating on his steel-cutting practice.

Usopp was still shooting birds. Even though his heart was full of curses, he did not dare say a single extra word to Can Yue.

Sanji was constantly practicing high jumps.

Luffy was undergoing close-combat training with Can Yue.

As for Johnny and Joseph, the two had still chosen the profession of Pirate Hunter and temporarily remained in Cocoyasi Village.

Perhaps they also wanted to protect Cocoyasi Village.

The morning training session ended.

While they ate, Can Yue gathered everyone together and once again clarified each person's future training direction.

He also took the opportunity to deepen everyone's understanding of one another's abilities.

"Let's start with Usopp. Your greatest talent is long-range shooting..."

Can Yue's training goal for Usopp was long-range offense and support.

That had originally been the direction Usopp would naturally develop toward.

But now that Can Yue was helping him, Usopp would naturally be assigned physical training and close-combat training in addition to shooting practice.

Improving his physical abilities would give him greater control over his own muscles.

Stronger self-control would not only improve his shooting accuracy.

It also meant he could use stronger and larger weapons, which would naturally lead to more methods of attack.

Furthermore, improved physical fitness was inevitably connected to learning Haki.

A weakling or sickly person had virtually no chance of mastering Haki.

Of course, Usopp did not need Haki training at this stage. His physical fitness had not yet reached the minimum requirement for learning Armament Haki.

Can Yue's initial plan for Usopp's close combat involved two aspects.

The first was naturally evading attacks.

The second was having Usopp train with concealed weapons at close range.

It would maximize the flexibility of Usopp's mind.

If anyone got close, Usopp could dodge and stuff a handful of "stink bombs" into their mouth at the same time.

How exactly he would make use of it would depend on Usopp's own initiative.

Likewise, Nami had not yet met the requirements to learn Armament Haki.

Nami's training also focused on physical fitness, close combat, and developing her talents.

Can Yue's idea for Nami was simply for her to become a long-range mage capable of protecting herself.

Aside from practicing her "anti-pervert staff techniques" every day, Can Yue also suggested that Nami study scientific knowledge related to climate every day.

That would give the Weather Stick more possibilities.

This was something Nami could only handle herself. Can Yue basically knew nothing about it.

As for her close-combat sparring partner, it was naturally Can Yue himself.

On the first day of this voyage, Nami suffered badly under Can Yue's powerful spear-and-staff fighting style.

The moment training ended, she launched into a barrage of verbal attacks against Can Yue.

She cursed him for holding a grudge.

Can Yue had no reply. This was training; a few bumps and bruises were unavoidable...

As for Sanji, who could not stand seeing Nami bullied and always came to punish Can Yue.

He had been beaten so badly he could not even hold a kitchen knife steady.

Sanji's physical fitness had already reached the standard for learning Haki, and Can Yue had begun teaching him.

Thus, Sanji also began his daily beatings.

This gentleman's talent naturally lay in leg techniques, so nearly all the training methods Can Yue designed for him were related to his legs.

Frog jumps, squats, and a daily total of ten thousand meters of high jumps were only the basics.

Once Sanji began adapting to that level of training, Can Yue added weight to his legs.

Rice, flour, fruit, vegetables, and all sorts of things were piled onto Sanji's legs as weights.

To protect the food, Sanji had to land with extreme care to avoid damaging it.

Sanji was so furious that he called Can Yue a devil.

But the benefits were undeniable. The stability of his leg control had clearly improved.

He also naturally included some upper-body training to keep his weakness from becoming too obvious.

Zoro was still the same as before. His daily training was all meant to increase his Haki proficiency and improve his combat ability.

His steel-cutting training seemed to have hit a bottleneck, and his recent progress had been limited, but his physique had definitely gotten better and better.

The muscles all over his body were sharply defined, and his eight-pack abs were chiseled. One glance was enough to tell he was built like a model.

When it came to muscles, Sanji had truly lost.

Sanji was extremely unwilling to accept that, so he increased his upper-body training on his own.

What satisfied Can Yue most was that Zoro's mindset remained steady. He was neither impatient nor rash, so he was surely not far from breaking through the bottleneck.

As for Luffy, aside from conducting close-combat and Armament Haki training with him.

Can Yue often discussed with Luffy how he could develop his abilities.

Luffy was extraordinarily gifted in this regard and had already gained some ideas.

As for Observation Haki, Can Yue was currently only improving the entire crew's instincts when dealing with attacks.

Simply put, he beat them up one by one, but allowed them to dodge or counterattack.

The stronger their combat instincts became, the sooner they would master Observation Haki.

Further improvement of Observation Haki depended on overall factors such as talent, intelligence, and physical strength. It was a slow process.

Now that Can Yue had joined them, the Straw Hat Crew's members had all begun growing at an accelerated pace.

After lunch, Can Yue stood at the bow, considering the next step of his plan.

According to Nami's estimate, if they continued sailing forward for about another week, they would reach East Blue's final stop, Loguetown.

If he had not joined them, Smoker and Tashigi would not yet have known the Straw Hat Crew members when they first arrived in Loguetown.

But ever since he joined the Straw Hat Crew, the nature of things had changed.

The Straw Hat Crew had long since become a famous major pirate crew in East Blue.

The Bounty Posters for Can Yue, Luffy, and Zoro had already spread across the seas.

It was impossible for Smoker to still be unaware of what the core members looked like.

They would definitely have to think of something before going ashore.

Moreover, in Cocoyasi Village, Can Yue had Chouchou sink a Marine Colonel's warship.

Whether Captain Nezumi exaggerated the Straw Hat Crew's "evil deeds" when reporting them to headquarters or not.

The fact that they had appeared in Cocoyasi Village and defeated Arlong would definitely become known.

As long as Marine Headquarters was willing, it could roughly predict the Straw Hat Crew's route and approximately when they would arrive in Loguetown.

The best-case scenario was that Marine Headquarters believed Smoker alone could handle the Straw Hat Crew.

The worst-case scenario was that they would send reinforcements.

As for what kind of force they would send, Can Yue was confident he could handle it as long as it was not an Admiral.

His previous battle with Hawk Eyes had made Can Yue clearly realize that he was still a considerable distance from the top powerhouses of the pirate world.

Perhaps he could most likely retreat unscathed on his own, but protecting the Straw Hat Crew before someone at an Admiral's level was completely impossible.

Can Yue closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled.

"Before we reach Loguetown, I hope these guys can improve their strength somewhat."

"For the next few days, I'll train them a little harder."

The Straw Hat Crew, still taking their afternoon nap, had no idea how miserable their fate would be over the coming days.

Loguetown.

Marine Branch—Colonel's Office.

Tashigi stood ramrod straight as she relayed headquarters' information to Smoker.

"Colonel Smoker, headquarters estimates that the Straw Hat Crew will arrive in Loguetown one week from now."

Upon hearing that, Smoker paused his work.

He smoked for a moment, his brows drawn tightly together.

"Tashigi, keep a close eye on the Straw Hat Pirates' movements. If you spot them, report to me immediately."

Tashigi saluted in acknowledgment, then headed to the training grounds to begin her training for the day.

Afterward, Smoker fell into thought in his office.

Before Tashigi came to see him, Smoker had also received a notice from headquarters.

Put together, the information gave Smoker a splitting headache.

Estimated arrival date of the Straw Hat Pirates: one week from now.

Estimated arrival date of the Buggy Pirates: one week from now.

The two great overlords of East Blue were actually going to visit Loguetown, the final gateway to the Grand Line, at the same time.

No matter how confident Smoker was, he would never believe he could deal with two major pirate crews alone.

Just then, the Transponder Snail on Smoker's desk rang.

"Smoker, can you hear me?"

"Yeah. It's Hina."

"I'll keep it brief. Loguetown's situation is currently very bad. Headquarters has ordered Instructor Momousagi to bring me and the others to support you.

We're coming at full speed and will need around eight days.

So before we reach Loguetown.

You must avoid clashing with those two pirate crews as much as possible, and delay them for one day.

Especially, do not challenge Buggy. Do you understand?"

Upon hearing that, Smoker's pupils trembled slightly.

She's coming? There was no reason to alarm her. What exactly did these two pirate crews do?