Awakening

When Locke woke again, the first thing he saw was the familiar ceiling. The moment he saw it, he knew he had returned to the dojo.

He had wanted to sit up, but he felt something pressing down on his hand. Looking over, he discovered that it was Carmen.

The girl was sitting beside his bed. He had no idea how long she had been there, but she had fallen asleep. Who knew what she was dreaming about? The corners of her lips were slightly raised, and her lovely lashes fluttered gently. She must have been dreaming of something happy.

Looking at her beautiful face, stunning even in sleep, Locke sighed inwardly. As expected of the East Blue's most beautiful chef to appear in the anime—even sleeping, she was so breathtakingly beautiful.

Locke had wanted to keep quietly watching the beautiful girl, but unexpectedly, his stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, immediately waking Carmen.

"You're awake!" Carmen said groggily as she opened her eyes and looked at Locke. Seeing him staring straight at her, her face instantly turned red.

But Carmen seemed to remember something. Her previously gentle expression suddenly turned fierce as she clenched her little fists and punched Locke in the chest. "Serves you right for showing off! Do you know how worried you made me?"

Carmen's little fist struck his chest and happened to jolt Locke's wound. He immediately grabbed her small hand. "It hurts!"

"Hmph! So you know it hurts now? Let's see if you still dare to show off in the future!" Seeing her hand caught in Locke's grasp, the fierceness she had put on immediately vanished. She did not dare raise her voice, but she still kept complaining.

"I'm hungry," Locke said, seeing that Carmen's anger had mostly subsided.

"Hmph! Just wait. I'll go make you something to eat!" Carmen gave an haughty snort and went out to cook.

Only after Carmen left the room did Locke finally have the time to examine his current condition.

His upper body was tightly wrapped in bandages, carrying a faint scent of medicinal herbs. The dojo's physician had clearly treated him properly.

Locke slowly sat up in bed and looked out at the moon, which still hung bright beyond the window. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious. When Carmen came back, he would have to ask her.

Locke did not have to wait long before Carmen appeared at the door, accompanied by that green-haired brat.

"Locke, you're awake?" Zoro said as soon as he entered.

"What are you doing here, brat?" Locke was rather displeased by Zoro's appearance. This brat was about to ruin his private time with Carmen again.

"Of course I came to see whether you were dead. If you died, I wouldn't have an opponent anymore!"

"Now that you've seen me, you can leave."

"Hmph! I'm not leaving. Let's see what you can do about it!" Zoro said haughtily before sitting directly on a nearby stool.

"Enough, stop squabbling. Open your mouth!" Carmen had already taken out the food. She stopped Locke and Zoro from continuing their bickering, then came to the bedside and brought a spoonful of food to Locke's mouth.

Hearing Carmen's words, Locke obediently enjoyed her care.

Seeing how well-behaved Locke was in front of Carmen, Zoro made faces at him from the side. It made Locke want to throw a shoe at him.

The warm days passed quickly. Locke's injuries soon began to heal. In only ten days, he had recovered seven or eight tenths of the way. Other than the sword wound on his chest, the wounds elsewhere were practically gone, and even the one on his chest was nearly healed.

Once he had mostly recovered, Locke resumed his usual training. Only then did he have the time to properly reflect on what he had gained from that battle.

As for why he had not reflected while recovering from his injuries—when a beauty was attentively taking care of him at his side, he had been too busy enjoying that wonderful time to think about anything else.

As for Zoro, the ever-present third wheel, all he had to do was ignore him.

On the training grounds, Locke did rehabilitation exercises while recalling the events of that battle.

When he had fought Haribun, he had relied on his Devil Fruit ability the entire time. Even his final victory had involved a certain amount of trickery.

If he had relied solely on his swordsmanship, Locke believed he would not have been Haribun's match. During their exchange, he had discovered that he was far weaker than that pirate in terms of strength, while his combat experience had been completely outclassed. If he had not risked being injured to deceive him at the end, he might have died there.

His Devil Fruit ability was indeed mysterious, but his phantoms themselves could not harm anyone. If he went to the latter half of the Grand Line, the place known as the New World, then anyone with Observation Haki would render his Fruit ability useless. If his phantoms could harm his opponents, though, that would be incredible. Just thinking about it made him a little excited! Still, there was no point thinking about it now. For the moment, all he could do was keep strengthening his power and stamina.

Locke had already decided that from then on, he would focus on training his swordsmanship, using his Fruit ability only as a means to catch enemies by surprise. If his Fruit ability could harm others in the future, he could think about other things then.

After deciding on his future path, Locke settled down and trained in peace.

Every day, he ate the loving breakfasts Carmen prepared for him and dealt with Zoro's daily challenges. During that time, Locke's swordsmanship grew rapidly.

Another sunny morning arrived. Three years had passed since that pirate attack.

Over those three years, Locke had trained his swordsmanship without pause and reached the point where he could cut through steel. As for the development of his Fruit ability, he discovered that it had unknowingly reached the brink of awakening. His phantoms could now actually inflict a little damage, which came as quite a pleasant surprise to him.

However, Zoro had changed the most over those three years. Locke had no idea whether the brat had been taking some kind of hormones, but he had grown unbelievably fast! He was now only a head shorter than Locke, who had grown to two meters tall, and that truly gave Locke quite a surprise.

After breakfast, Locke dealt with Zoro's daily challenge and left the training grounds, heading straight for his master Koushirou's room.

This time, Locke had come to bid Koushirou farewell. After all, he was already sixteen years old, and both his swordsmanship and the development of his Fruit ability had reached a certain bottleneck.

Although he had his master's guidance in Shimotsuki Village, the village was ultimately too small. His swordsmanship and Fruit ability now both needed to grow through battles of life and death.