Over the following days, Gern began his first-ever Haki training, with Zephyr and Garp taking turns putting him through the wringer...
At 3:50 a.m., Marineford's harbor was still shrouded in darkness.
Gern stood on the warship's deck, his hands and feet bound in heavy chains, the cold metal pressed against his skin.
The sea breeze carried a salty tang into his face. A faint glimmer appeared on the distant horizon-the edge of the Calm Belt.
"Scared, brat?" Garp asked beside him, his voice muffled by the large meat bun he was chewing.
"Scared?" Gern curled his lips. "I'm scared you won't be able to keep up with me."
"Hahaha!" Garp roared with laughter and slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him into the sea. "That's the spirit! Then let's crank things up right away!"
"I'm used to intense training. I just want to know why I need chains to go running! This makes no-"
"Because this was the real purpose all along!" Before he had finished speaking, Garp grabbed Gern's chains and hurled him toward the sea like a sandbag!
Splash! The icy seawater swallowed Gern's head in an instant.
The sea's suppressive effect left him barely able to use his Devil Fruit power, his limbs as heavy as lead.
"Didn't you say we were going running?!" He struggled desperately to the surface, gasping for breath, only to hear Garp bellow from the bow.
"I don't like wasting time. You've already been training for a while.
"Show me some Armament Haki now, and I'll pull you up. If you can't... you can feed the Sea Kings!"
"Fuck..." Gern gritted his teeth and paddled desperately.
But a Devil Fruit user truly had no way to resist the sea.
Ten minutes later, Gern felt his muscles weakening, his breathing growing rapid.
Just then, an enormous shadow appeared beneath the surface.
Gern's pupils abruptly contracted. It was a Sea King as large as the warship, slowly closing in on him!
"Hey! Vice Admiral Garp!!" He snapped his head up toward the warship, only to find Garp leisurely pouring something into the water.
Blood.
The thick scent of blood spread in an instant. The Sea King's eyes turned scarlet, and it suddenly charged!
"Goddammit!!" Gern swore. The Sea King's enormous jaws were already open, its fangs gleaming wickedly as its foul breath washed over him.
Death was a hair's breadth away.
At that critical moment, a scorching force erupted inside him. Dark red Armament Haki wrapped around his legs like flames!
The Sea King's sharp teeth snapped down hard, but it was like biting steel. A shrill metallic screech rang out!
"Oh?" Garp raised an eyebrow and grinned. "See? You can use it after all!"
Garp leaped off the warship, sent the Sea King flying with a single punch, then hauled up the half-dead Gern and called to the record keeper with a laugh:
"Write this down! This brat awakened his Armament Haki in seventeen days-two hours faster than Kuzan!"
"Throwing a Devil Fruit user into the sea can't be right, Vice Admiral Garp!" Gern lay sprawled on the deck, drenched and gasping for breath.
"You'll get court-martialed for this! I'm going to report you to Sengoku!"
"Heh-heh, you've already awakened your Armament Haki." Garp crouched down and patted his face. "So let's not waste time, eh?"
Gern: "..."
The blazing sun scorched the training grounds on Volcano Island.
Bare-chested, his muscles taut, Gern braced both hands against a ten-ton block of granite, trying to push it up a steep slope.
Sweat rolled down his back and evaporated into white mist on the searing rock.
"Too slow!" Garp stood at the summit with a blade of grass between his teeth, shouting impatiently. "Where's your Haki? Use it!"
Gern gritted his teeth and tried to coat both arms in Armament Haki, but his newly awakened Haki was extremely unstable, its strength rising and falling.
The rock's weight nearly crushed his spine, and his knees trembled from the strain.
Just then, something whistled through the air.
Boom! A cannonball struck the rock dead-on, and the blast sent Gern flying!
"Gah!" He hit the ground hard, his chest tight and a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Not good enough!" Garp appeared before him in an instant, his fist coated in pitch-black Armament Haki. "What kind of special training is it if your bones aren't thoroughly broken? Again!"
Boom! Another punch embedded Gern in the rock face, sending rubble flying.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, but gave a low chuckle and slowly climbed to his feet.
"Again... it is, then."
The Navy Special Training Ground.
Gern held a wooden sword in both hands, facing a thick steel shield. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers was already torn and bloody from repeated slashes.
"Your breathing is uneven." Zephyr's voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Instructor Zephyr." Gern spun around. Zephyr had appeared behind him without his noticing, his gaze beneath his sunglasses as sharp as a blade.
"Haki isn't brute force." Zephyr approached and pressed a finger against Gern's trembling wrist. "It's precisely focused will."
He took Gern's hand, and Armament Haki spread over the wooden sword like ink.
"Feel it." Zephyr's voice was low and firm. "Not 'smash it apart,' but 'let the blade pass through the gaps in the material.'"
Gern held his breath and focused. Following Zephyr's guidance, he coated the wooden sword with his own Armament Haki, then lightly swept it across the steel shield.
Swish. There was no harsh clang of metal. The steel shield parted soundlessly like tofu, its cut surface as smooth as a mirror.
"So that's how it works..." Gern stared at the cut, a glimmer of understanding flashing in his eyes.
"Twenty thousand extra repetitions tomorrow." Zephyr released his hand and turned to leave. "If you're off by more than a millimeter, start over."
"Armament Haki is the 'will to protect,' not a weapon for slaughter!
"Control matters more than strength, and precision is deadlier than fury!"
Several months later...
Blindfolded, Gern stood at the entrance to a narrow metal passage, its walls lined with sharp spikes.
The passage ended at the sea, where Garp stood on the warship's deck, hefting a cannonball in his hand with a broad grin.
"The rules are simple." Garp's voice carried clearly through the sea breeze. "Keep your eyes covered, get through this passage, and don't get hit by my cannonballs. Every scratch means ten extra runs."
Gern swallowed, his gaze sweeping over the sharp iron spikes.
This wasn't training. It was torture.
"Ready?" Garp's grin widened. "Begin!"
Boom! The first shot came screaming toward him, its searing flames tracing a crimson streak through the air.
Gern ducked sharply. The cannonball skimmed his back and struck the iron spikes, and the blast knocked him off his feet.
"Too slow!" Garp roared, already grabbing a second cannonball. "Where's your Armament Haki?! Your Observation Haki? Use them!"
Gern gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet. Armament Haki instantly coated his arms as he calmed his mind and reached out with his senses.
Moments later, the second cannonball followed. This time, Gern twisted aside to dodge, but the blast still slammed him into the wall.
Rip! Pain shot through his right shoulder as an iron spike sliced his skin, blood instantly soaking his sleeve.
"Ten extra runs!" Garp's voice rang out like a sentence being handed down. "Keep going!"
Gern steadied himself, panting, and nodded.
When the third cannonball came, he stopped dodging and swung his fist instead.
Bang! His Haki-coated fist met the burning cannonball head-on. It exploded in midair, showering sparks everywhere.
Garp raised an eyebrow, then burst out laughing. "That's more like it! But don't celebrate just yet!"
Over the following days, Gern ran through a hell of flames and steel.
His body was covered in scrapes, but his movements grew faster and faster, and both his Armament Haki coverage and Observation Haki perception became increasingly precise.
When he knocked the final cannonball away with his knee, Garp finally put down the cannonball in his hand.
"A barely passing grade." Garp jumped off the warship and approached the panting Gern. "Know why we train this way?"
Gern wiped the blood from his forehead and shook his head.
"In the New World," Garp said, his expression unusually serious, "sometimes you have to keep moving forward even when you know you'll get hurt.
"Pain slows you down, but Haki..." He pointed at Gern's healing wounds.
"Is the armor that lets you forget pain, and the ability to anticipate and dodge every attack!"
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