Komei

The night was cloudless, the bright moon hung high, and the stars glittered brilliantly.

On the deck of the Dog-Head Warship, Sephiroth, dressed in a Marine uniform, faced the gentle sea breeze and continuously swung the Autumn Leaf Blade in his hand, practicing basic sword techniques.

He swung his sword thirteen thousand times every day, and he had kept it up for twenty-five days.

It was an extremely dull and monotonous process, but the gains had been fairly good for him.

On the tenth day, he grasped flexible sword-gripping techniques. On the twentieth day, he learned how to swing his sword more effectively.

Next, he wanted to turn wielding a sword into an instinct...

Crunch! Crunch!...

Garp, draped in a white coat of justice, walked out of the cabin with a bag of Senbei Crackers in hand, loudly crunching the crackers in his mouth.

Behind him was his ever-present adjutant, Bogard.

"Ahahaha! Sephiroth, you little brat are pretty hardworking, huh?"

"Vice Admiral Garp, Lieutenant Colonel Bogard."

Sephiroth stopped what he was doing and nodded to greet them.

"Bogard, go exchange a few moves with him," Garp said with interest.

At that, Bogard raised a hand to press down the brim of his hat before slowly drawing the long sword at his left side from its sheath. He assumed an opening stance toward the boy before him.

Sephiroth did not waste words. He likewise raised the Autumn Leaf Blade in his hand, its tip aimed directly at his opponent.

At that moment, he felt as though a thorn were pressed against his back, as if a savage beast waiting to devour its prey had fixed its eyes on him.

A hesitation over how to begin also rose in his heart.

A flash of steel.

He did not move, but Bogard struck first, thrusting from an exceptionally tricky angle.

A red gleam flashed in Sephiroth's eyes as he instantly activated Observation Haki, predicting the trajectory of his opponent's attack and swinging his sword to block it.

Bogard's attacks grew fiercer with each slash, yet Sephiroth remained calm and composed, relying on Observation Haki to block them all.

But...

In contrast, he could not find any opportunity to attack at all.

Seeing this, Garp paused mid-bite, his brows lifting slightly.

Sephiroth's footwork was far too chaotic. He was practically a complete amateur when it came to fighting, yet every one of his blocks looked so effortless...

Has this brat already awakened Observation Haki...?

As a master swordsman, Bogard also discovered his opponent's problem after several rounds of probing.

So, during his attacks, he deliberately revealed a not-so-obvious opening.

The next moment.

Just as expected, Sephiroth, having finally found an opportunity to attack, immediately swung his sword without hesitation.

However...

Bogard's figure suddenly flashed and disappeared from his sight.

As Sephiroth continued his downward swing from sheer momentum, Bogard had already moved behind him and rested the back of his blade against Sephiroth's neck.

As Garp crunched on Senbei Crackers, he commented:

"His talent is quite good, but he has no combat experience or technique whatsoever...

Bogard, I'll leave this brat's training to you."

With that, he leisurely turned around and walked back into the cabin.

"During battle, you need to learn how to judge when it is the right time to attack, and when an opening has been deliberately exposed by the enemy...

"Although Observation Haki allows you to predict an enemy's attacks easily, you must understand that Observation Haki can also be deceived...

"The enemy can use feints and sudden changes in moves to cause your Observation Haki to make incorrect judgments..."

As Bogard explained, he also demonstrated several basic movements to help Sephiroth understand.

"During an engagement, unless the difference in strength is too great, probing attacks are absolutely necessary..."

Bogard was not someone who liked wasting words.

Therefore, everything he said and demonstrated was essentially a key combat technique, so Sephiroth listened very carefully.

Unlike the three Boa sisters, who had natural combat talent and only knew how to fight but not how to teach others, Bogard possessed a highly systematic method of instruction, allowing Sephiroth to learn twice as effectively with half the effort.

After finishing his explanation, Bogard exchanged a few more moves with him before turning and leaving the deck. He returned to the cabin and went straight to sleep.

Only after Sephiroth finished the rest of his sword swings did he enter the cabin. After taking a bath, he fell into a deep sleep on a bed in the cabin's communal dormitory.

That old fool Garp probably saw that I'm a Devil Fruit user and that I performed fairly well against the pirates, so he had Bogard guide my training, right...?

The next day, around noon.

Guided by an Eternal Pose, the Dog-Head Warship arrived at Marine G-3 Branch.

It was an island of over ten square kilometers, containing only Marine base buildings and no ordinary residences. Unless one used an Eternal Pose or navigated with someone's Vivre Card, it was impossible to find this island with a Log Pose alone.

This ensured the Marine base's secrecy to the greatest extent possible.

Conversely, if pirates used similar islands as their bases, the Marines would have a hard time finding the enemy's lair unless they happened upon it while patrolling.

The reason piracy had become so rampant in this world was not only because nearly ninety percent of the planet's surface was covered by seawater, but also because of the extremely chaotic magnetic fields on the Grand Line.

On the Grand Line, once an opponent's ship left your field of vision, if they used an Eternal Pose to sail toward some island while you had no idea where their final destination was...

Then, after the distance had been widened, continuing the pursuit would be like searching for a needle in the ocean—a complete waste of effort.

Thus, over time, many pirates actively or passively entered the Grand Line, this safe haven. Roger's final words before his death caused the number of pirates to surge, further increasing the influx of pirates into the Grand Line...

By the time the Dog-Head Warship sailed into the base harbor, rows upon rows of Marine soldiers were already standing on the dock.

"Vice Admiral Garp, you've worked hard!"

Among the soldiers, a mustached officer respectfully saluted Garp as he descended the gangway.

This time, Garp was neither asleep nor acting like his usual goofy old self. Instead, he said with a solemn expression:

"More than three hundred pirates and one ability user are being held on the warship. Take them away and deal with them properly.

"Also... seven soldiers died in this battle. Go make the arrangements."

"Yes! I guarantee everything will be arranged properly."

The mustached officer replied with an equally solemn expression.

After Garp left, Sephiroth and the other recruits were gathered on the dock to await their assignments.

Besides their group of recruits, more recruits enlisted from other islands were also coming down from different warships one after another.

After waiting for more than half an hour, a man in his early twenties wearing a standard Marine uniform stood before Sephiroth and the others.

He had two inverted-eight mustaches on his face, two scars on the left side of his forehead, and another scar around his left eye socket.

"I am Corporal Kong Ming. From now on, I'll be the squad leader of you recruits," the scar-faced man said sternly.

Sephiroth: "..."

Could this guy be the Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral who would nearly wipe out the Straw Hat Pirates with his schemes in the future...?