Another piece of good news was that Monkey D. Garp suspected that the method for training the "King's Fist" might also be used to train Armament Haki. It was only a suspicion, because his own Armament Haki had long since reached its personal limit; no matter how he trained, he could not make any further progress.
Though it was only a suspicion, Garp's instincts as the Marine Hero had always been accurate, so it immediately drew the attention of Marine Headquarters.
However, the Marine commanders soon realized there was another unavoidable problem.
Unless they had awakened Haki on their own, Marine Headquarters regulations stated that Marine officers had to reach the rank of Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral before they were permitted to learn the two types of Haki, Armament Haki and Observation Haki.
Did that mean that only Marine Rear Admirals, or even Navy Vice Admirals, would be qualified to learn the "King's Fist" in the future?
If that were the case, the "King's Fist" would not be nearly as valuable. After all, those talented enough to rise to Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral or even Navy Vice Admiral had already spent years building their foundations along the original path. Changing course just for a minor additional benefit might not be worth it.
"Our Marine Headquarters is different from those pirates who stumble around on wild paths and figure things out blindly. We already have training methods that have been thoroughly proven stable and reliable."
Fleet Admiral "Steel Bone" Kong complained to the Five Elders like this, but they were all shrewd old hands. How could they not guess his true purpose?
Still, with the Four Blues already in chaos and the first half of the Grand Line far from peaceful, the Marines truly needed stronger military power to keep things