A New Ability Beaten into Him!

A New Ability Beaten into Him!

Garp's ship had been docked at the G-10 Marine branch Naval Port in the Neil Kingdom for nearly half a month.

Early one morning.

In an open area of the branch, Garp watched as Tsugikuni Yoriichi and Aokiji sparred in hand-to-hand combat.

During this period without any missions, Garp had not been idle. Instead, he had been earnestly training both Aokiji and Tsugikuni Yoriichi.

After this period of training, Yoriichi's Observation Haki and Armament Haki had both improved somewhat. Half a month ago, Yoriichi's Observation Haki could only roughly sense the direction of an opponent's attacks. But now, even without using Transparent World, Yoriichi could grasp his opponent's every move through Observation Haki.

Though he was still far from the level of seeing the future, when Yoriichi combined Observation Haki with Transparent World, he could easily predict the direction of Aokiji's attacks.

Yoriichi's Armament Haki had also improved rapidly. If his Armament Haki had previously only been able to coat the blade of his bamboo sword, it could now cover the entire weapon.

The coated area had increased enormously. Given enough time, Yoriichi's Armament Haki would surely be able to cover his whole body.

As for the strength of his Armament Haki, there was no quantitative standard, so even Yoriichi could not say for certain.

However, one thing was clear: even with a bamboo sword, once he coated it in Armament Haki, Yoriichi could cut through a solid steel pillar as thick as a fist in a single strike.

Garp had roughly assessed Yoriichi's Doriki Value at the time and gave him an estimate of 7,000.

Speaking only of Haki, if he absolutely had to compare Yoriichi to someone, Yoriichi was probably a notch stronger than Zoro when he returned to the Sabaody Archipelago two years later.

The sparring match between Yoriichi and Aokiji continued in the clearing. After learning the Marine Six Styles and the two types of Haki, Yoriichi's strength had undergone a qualitative leap.

Combined with Yoriichi's already exceptionally refined swordsmanship and the enhancement of Transparent World, he completely suppressed Aokiji in their hand-to-hand sparring.

Aokiji, who held an ice pillar in each hand, was already covered in bruises, his skin mottled blue and purple. As Yoriichi's Armament Haki steadily grew stronger, Aokiji, who had once relied on his Devil Fruit ability to avoid injury entirely, was gradually unable to withstand Yoriichi's attacks. The wounds on his body had only increased over the past few days.

Still, when Aokiji went all out, his combat strength remained far beyond Tsugikuni Yoriichi's. Whenever Aokiji felt he could no longer hold on, he used his ability to help Yoriichi "calm down" and give himself a breather.

"Smack!" In the clearing, Tsugikuni Yoriichi leaped backward to evade Aokiji's slash. Then he pressed his bamboo sword sideways against the ice club in Aokiji's hand and dragged it downward. The tremendous force made Aokiji stumble forward.

Realizing something was wrong, Aokiji decisively turned his body into ice mist and vanished from where he stood. In an instant, he reformed a meter away.

At the very moment Aokiji left, Yoriichi launched himself forward with a kick at the spot where Aokiji had been standing, blasting apart the ice mist.

"Hey, hey, hey, Kuzan, you're cheating again, aren't you?!" Yoriichi's kick missed, and he landed steadily on the ground. Looking at Aokiji, who had retreated more than a meter away, he complained helplessly.

This had not happened just once or twice. They had agreed to spar in hand-to-hand combat, yet that bastard Aokiji always used his ability during training.

Yoriichi attacked quickly, and his transitions between attacks were smooth. Aokiji's half-baked Soru could no longer evade Yoriichi's attacks.

But while Soru could not evade them, as long as Aokiji could predict Yoriichi's attack direction, he could use his Devil Fruit ability to dodge before Yoriichi's attacks reached him.

More than ten days ago, Aokiji had already been unable to defeat Tsugikuni Yoriichi using hand-to-hand combat alone. After that, Yoriichi grew at a rapid pace and easily turned the tables on him. After getting hammered by Yoriichi for several days, Aokiji simply let himself go completely. Whenever he felt he could not block an attack, he used his Devil Fruit ability.

Over the past few days, Aokiji's hand-to-hand combat had not improved much. Instead, he had developed a new application for his Devil Fruit—the evasive technique he had just used, dispersing into ice mist.

Aokiji's Devil Fruit development had originally focused solely on freezing and elementalizing into solid ice. Under the increasingly powerful attacks of Yoriichi's Armament Haki, Aokiji developed this method of evasion by elementalizing into ice mist.

Heh! And damn, this new ability Aokiji had developed was far more useful than Soru!

"This isn't cheating. I'm a Devil Fruit user, so it's perfectly reasonable for me to use my ability."

"Besides, I'm only using it for movement. What we're still training is hand-to-hand combat. You can think of this ability as a more advanced version of 'Soru.'"

Aokiji said with a smile, his body once again turning into ice mist and vanishing from the spot. At the same time, the ice mist surged rapidly toward Yoriichi and enveloped him.

Suddenly, half of Aokiji's body condensed without warning beside Yoriichi. The ice club in his hand smashed viciously toward Yoriichi's head.

"Smack!" Just as the ice club was about to strike Yoriichi's head, Tsugikuni Yoriichi shifted sideways in a small movement and knocked aside Aokiji's ice pillar with a backhanded swing of his bamboo sword. Then he coated his left hand in Armament Haki and reached for Aokiji's face.

Whoosh—

Before Yoriichi's hand could grab Aokiji, Aokiji's body turned into ice mist again and vanished. The next second, Aokiji reformed directly in front of Yoriichi and slammed an ice pillar into Yoriichi's lower abdomen.

Tekkai!

With no time to dodge, Yoriichi could only endure the blow with Tekkai. The soles of his shoes scraped violently against the ground with a "scrape, scrape, scrape," and he slid several meters before finally stopping.

The pain in his abdomen made Yoriichi bare his teeth.

Seeing Aokiji use his Devil Fruit ability against Yoriichi, Garp merely grinned and did not step in to stop them.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi's hand-to-hand combat had already completely surpassed Aokiji's. If Aokiji did not use his Devil Fruit ability, he probably would not last five moves before Tsugikuni Yoriichi defeated him.

One-sided suppression could not help Yoriichi improve further. Now that Aokiji was using his Devil Fruit ability, he happened to be a suitable opponent for Yoriichi. Besides, wasn't Aokiji still using hand-to-hand combat when he attacked?!

Perfectly reasonable.

If Aokiji had used his Devil Fruit ability to attack, Yoriichi would have already lost the instant the ice mist surrounded him.

Just as Yoriichi recovered and prepared to use his Breathing Technique to increase his speed, Bogard hurried toward the clearing. As he ran, he shouted loudly:

"Vice Admiral Garp!"

"Vice Admiral Garp!"

"Major General Rocca sent me to notify you! We have news! News about the Roger Pirates!"

Hearing Bogard's shout, Garp swiftly turned his head.

"There's news about Roger?! Where are they?!"

Before Bogard could even approach, Garp urgently asked.

"Zou Island! The legendary island inhabited by the Mink Tribe, Zou Island!"

Upon hearing this, Garp froze. Tilting his head, he looked at Bogard strangely and asked, "Where's that?!"

Garp had been in the Marines for decades, and he had left his footprints across the Four Seas, the Grand Line, and even the New World.

But sorry, Garp truly had no idea what the hell Zou Island was. He had never heard of it.

(End of Chapter)