Daily Life

"Phew, what a waste!" It had taken only half an hour of intermittently rotating his Life Magnetic Field to draw out his Haki and completely deplete the Armament Haki in Gray's body.

Once his Haki was gone, it felt as if all the vitality had drained from his body, leaving him weak all over.

"Forget it! That's enough effort for today!" After struggling to get up and wash up, Gray collapsed onto the bed. In just over ten minutes, he was already fast asleep.

The next morning, after breakfast, Gray brought the three of them to the Training Room aboard the ship.

"Old man! We've got two new recruits. Help teach them the basics of physical training and what to watch out for while exercising!"

Hearing this, Lao G, who had come in with them, didn't refuse. Instead, he moved his body enthusiastically and struck a G pose. "Leave it to me!"

"G!"

Lao G was living proof that age was just a number. At his age, he was still out here being a pirate. No one else was quite like him.

The thing was, his Combat Fist might keep him at the peak of his strength, but Gray had never seen him grow much stronger.

He was the very definition of someone who was bad at something but obsessed with it!

Still, while his age might have held him back in terms of strength, it gave him an advantage when teaching the family the basics of physical training.

He'd seen plenty, which made him better at teaching the family members—and better able to tailor his instruction to each of them.

After leaving Monet and the other newcomer with Lao G, Gray stopped paying attention to them and began his own training.

Gray walked to the middle of the Training Room, where Diamante was practicing basic sword stances with a training sword.

"Oh! Are we starting?"

"Of course!" Gray answered firmly. Before Diamante could even get ready, Gray clenched his fist and swung at him.

"You do this every time. It's getting old!" Diamante teased casually, then swung his sword at Gray's fist.

Clang!

The instant they collided, Gray's fist—though not coated in Armament Haki—rang out like metal striking metal.

"Honestly, this again!" Even though he'd been ready for it, the force in Gray's body and the strength behind Diamante's swing were both redirected by Gray the instant they collided, and used to attack Diamante himself.

"Training physical combat with you is exhausting!" Diamante complained, putting in ten parts effort while keeping twelve parts in reserve, ready for Gray's counterattack.

Clang!

Punch after punch, Gray let his physical combat skills run wild.

The instant his fist collided with the sword, he used his Devil Fruit power to rotate the force coming at him along with his own strength, then sent them both crashing into Diamante.

Vector Rotation, which could also be called Direction Rotation, was a defensive technique Gray had developed for himself over the past two years.

It was also how he could withstand sword and knife attacks, and it let him launch free-flowing attacks while honing his physical combat skills.

Unless something important came up, Gray never missed his morning training.

First, he did high-intensity physical training to burn through his stamina as quickly as possible. Once he was nearly exhausted, he moved on to gravity training. This method of pushing his body past its limits helped it grow faster.

Clang!

After another collision, Gray lowered his fist and looked at Diamante. "That was the warm-up!"

"Bring it on!" As long as Gray didn't attack with the Sky Crystal Flying Wheel, Diamante was confident he could withstand any physical attack Gray threw at him.

He unleashed his Observation Haki, and a red glow filled his eyes. Diamante knew Gray's attacks were about to rain down like a storm!

"Here I come!" Both in front of him and within the reach of his Observation Haki, Gray took one step forward—and vanished.

Clang!

The instant Diamante sensed Gray appear, he had already swung his sword toward the left.

Gray's figure, which had vanished from its original spot, appeared right there.

It wasn't that Diamante's Observation Haki had reached the level of Future Sight. He had sensed Gray's presence the moment he appeared, and his exceptional physical abilities let him attack at once.

"The Spin-Spin Fruit's power is this unfair?" Every time Gray vanished and reappeared, the pressure on Diamante grew.

The sudden change in attack angle that came with Teleportation was overwhelming. If Diamante didn't know what Gray could do—and if they weren't only sparring—he wouldn't even have been able to stand in front of him.

Gray's teleporting attacks really did catch people off guard. But since he was only using Teleportation to attack with physical combat, the still-young Gray couldn't make full use of the high-speed attacks that spatial movement made possible. All it gave him was the mobility to move at high speed.

Gray's body simply wasn't strong enough. His nerves and the rest of his body couldn't keep up with the split-second changes after Teleportation.

The moment his teleport ended, his reflexes lagged before he could attack again. And since he was slower than Diamante, it left Diamante room to counter.

"Attack! Attack! Keep attacking!" Gray didn't need to worry about whether his opponent could keep up, or even think about defense. All he had to do was attack to his heart's content.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Fighting is the best!" Gray felt refreshed every time this moment of the day came around.

In this world, no one could resist the thrill of trading blows up close.

After three years of living here, Gray had inevitably picked up some of its ways.

No matter how cool or powerful his Devil Fruit attacks were, they could never make him give up training his physical combat skills.

Physical combat, Devil Fruit powers, and Haki—Gray intended to develop all three. Only by growing in every area could he minimize his weaknesses.

Clang!

"This kid has grown this much already?" After barely managing to block another attack, Diamante was forced to skid backward by the tremendous force.

"Kid! Keep this up and I'll start taking you seriously!" As a swordsman, Diamante could unleash Slash Waves; it was a basic skill. He hadn't used them earlier because they were on a ship, and he didn't want to damage it.

Besides, Slash Waves wouldn't work on Gray either. Even if Gray didn't meet his attacks head-on, his mobility with Teleportation made him impossible to hit.

But don't forget, Diamante could use Armament Haki. He wouldn't dare boast while fighting Gray in the air.

But on the ground, with Gray only using his Devil Fruit powers to assist his physical training, Diamante could confidently declare, "Even if we fought for three days and three nights, I wouldn't lose!"

"Fine, fine." Training only his physical attacks—and doing it aboard a ship—really did impose too many restrictions.

"I've just learned a new ability. Let's use it in a fight!"

Diamante: ??

"Then let's see it!" Diamante silently braced himself. Who knew what new ability he'd come up with this time? Better to focus on defense first!

But clearly, Gray's new ability wasn't related to his Devil Fruit.

As Diamante got ready, Gray vanished from his original spot once more. When he reappeared behind Diamante, his raised fist was already covered in a layer of black.

"What?!" Diamante sensed what had happened with his Observation Haki. After a moment of surprise, he coated his sword with Haki and immediately swung it at Gray.

Clang!

The black fist collided with the black sword, and a powerful gust of wind swept through the room. Everyone in the Training Room had long since turned to watch.

"Armament Haki!"