Admiral Kizaru appeared

Two figures clashed furiously in the underground training ground.

Lorne threw a punch, aiming precisely at Zephyr's left ribs-his Beast Ears had picked up the weakest attack "noise" there.

But his fist hit nothing.

Zephyr's body slipped like an eel to his rear right, and an elbow slammed into his back.

"Ah-huh?!"

Lorne staggered two steps and gritted his teeth to steady himself, his muscles rapidly repairing the damaged tissue under the effects of Battlefield Valor.

"Still too slow!" Zephyr said coldly. "What you 'heard' was my intent at the moment I launched the attack. But before I struck, I had already 'seen' your reaction, so I changed my attack's trajectory."

"You're always one step behind me."

Lorne wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his Beast Ears standing tall as they frantically caught every tiny disturbance in the air.

He "heard" Zephyr's heartbeat.

Steady and strong, each beat sounded like a hammer striking an anvil.

But just as he tried to predict the next move through its rhythm, Zephyr's heartbeat... changed!

The "noise" that signaled an intent to attack surged from three directions at once!

Left fist! Right leg! And the mechanical arm!

Which one is real?! Lorne roared inwardly.

He bet on the left fist.

Wrong.

Zephyr's right leg swept up from below, striking his chin precisely and sending his entire body flying into the air.

Immediately afterward, the iron fist of his mechanical arm, Crusher, followed up and smashed him into the ground.

Boom!

The floor shattered, and Lorne was embedded deep in the crater.

"Releasing three layers of real and false intent simultaneously..." Zephyr looked down at him. "This is how Observation Haki is truly used in combat. Not simply perceiving, but using perception to deceive your opponent's perception."

"Remember-what someone who can 'hear' sounds fears most is 'noise.'"

Lorne climbed out of the rubble, covered in blood, but the flames burning in his golden beast eyes were fiercer than ever.

"So that's it..." He grinned, blood seeping between his teeth. "You deliberately created three attack signals just now to interfere with my judgment?"

"Not entirely stupid," Zephyr said flatly.

"Then what if..." Lorne flexed his fists, his bones snapping crisply back into place. "I can distinguish the real sound within the noise?"

Zephyr raised an eyebrow.

"Then try it."

He vanished from the spot again.

This time, Lorne did not rush to pick up Zephyr's intent to attack. He did something no fighter would do.

He closed his eyes and relaxed every muscle in his body, without even activating Iron Body.

His Beast Ears trembled slightly as he began listening to the entire training ground.

The sound of moving air, of falling rubble, of water flowing through distant pipes, of the breathing of the soldiers on duty outside the training ground...

All those sounds wove a vast net within his perception.

Then he began searching that net for "anomalies."

Zephyr's body was moving, compressing the air, parting it, then letting it close again.

Like ripples on water, those disturbed air currents formed a clear trail in Lorne's "web of hearing."

Here it comes!

Lorne abruptly twisted aside. An iron fist brushed past his left ear, the gust it raised slicing through several strands of hair.

"Oh?" Zephyr's voice came from nearby, carrying a trace of surprise.

Lorne did not answer. The second blow arrived immediately afterward.

Zephyr's mechanical arm came smashing down from above, carrying terrifying force sufficient to pulverize rock. But Lorne's body leaned backward at an extremely strange angle like a scrap of paper blown by the wind, letting the blow skim just past the tip of his nose.

Kami-e!

But it was not quite Kami-e.

Standard Kami-e involved relaxing the muscles to drift with the air currents, while Lorne's dodge was more like "hearing" the sound of air being compressed by a fist in advance, then sliding away against the airflow.

"Not bad." Zephyr's attacks grew more relentless.

Left fist, right elbow, knee strike, headbutt-seven consecutive attacks, each with a different rhythm and angle, each releasing attack signals whose truth or falsehood was difficult to distinguish.

Lorne was hit twice.

But he dodged five times!

Just ten minutes earlier, he had been unable to dodge even once!

"You little brat..." Zephyr stopped attacking, complex emotions stirring in his lone eye. "You've evolved again?"

"I wouldn't call it evolving." Lorne removed his blindfold and worked his neck, his Beast Ears twitching smugly. "I just changed my approach."

"Rather than listening to your heartbeat to guess what you're going to do, I might as well listen directly to changes in the air to determine where you are and where your fist is heading."

He brushed the dust off himself and grinned.

"Heartbeats can deceive, but air doesn't lie."

Zephyr stared at him.

"Good. Very good. Hahahahaha!"

Zephyr turned his back to Lorne, his mechanical arm reflecting a cold gleam beneath the lights.

"Rest for ten minutes, then we continue."

"Ten minutes is too long." Lorne had already resumed his stance. "Three minutes is enough."

"Shut up. I said ten minutes, so it's ten minutes."

"...Yes, sir."

Training continued from early morning until noon.

Zephyr increased the intensity of his attacks bit by bit, progressing from sheer physical speed to hardened punches infused with Armament Haki, then to combinations incorporating Observation Haki predictions.

Lorne was sent flying countless times and got back up countless times.

His ribs broke and mended, then mended and broke again.

His Beast Ears were caked with blood, yet they remained erect, never ceasing for a moment to catch the "sounds" of this world.

By the end, Lorne could dodge six out of ten attacks Zephyr unleashed at full strength.

He could also withstand the remaining four with Iron Body, no longer beaten so helplessly that he had no chance to fight back as he had been at the start.

"Enough."

Zephyr finally called a halt. His breathing was somewhat heavier than usual. Maintaining both Observation Haki and Armament Haki at high intensity for so long had taken a physical toll even on him.

Lorne lay spread-eagled on the shattered floor, steam rising from his body as his muscles rapidly repaired themselves under the catalyzing effects of Battlefield Valor.

"Teacher, are we continuing tomorrow?"

"What's the rush?" Zephyr unscrewed his flask and took a swig. "Observation Haki isn't something you master in a day. You don't even qualify as a beginner yet. Being able to 'hear' attack signals and changes in airflow is only the most basic application."

"True masters of Observation Haki can sense the presence of every living thing within dozens of miles, read their opponents' emotional fluctuations, and foresee scenes several seconds into the future."

"You're still a long way from that level."

Lorne rolled over and pushed himself up into a sitting position, his golden beast eyes shining.

"Then I'll train until I'm not."

Zephyr glanced at him and said nothing more.

He turned toward the training ground's main entrance, but after just two steps, he suddenly stopped and looked toward the doorway.

"...Who's there?"

A languid voice drifted in from outside.

"Oh my~ You've found me~"

The door was pushed open.

A tall, thin man strolled slowly into the training ground.

He had short, curly black hair and a pair of sunglasses perched on his nose, concealing most of his face. Stubble covered his chin, giving him an unkempt look.

Over his yellow-striped suit, he wore a Marine coat.

An enormous "Justice" was emblazoned on the back of that coat.

Borsalino.

Marine Headquarters Admiral-Kizaru!

"Teacher Zephyr~ It's been so long~" Kizaru slowly raised a hand in an utterly perfunctory greeting. "I just got back from a mission~ When I passed the recruit camp, those youngsters told me an incredible monster had joined us~"

He tilted his head, his gaze behind his sunglasses directed somewhere impossible to tell.

"So I stopped by to have a look~"

Zephyr's expression darkened instantly.

His dislike of Kizaru was nothing new.

"What are you looking at?" Zephyr said coldly. "There's no monster here for you to see."

"Oh~ You're so fierce, Teacher Zephyr~" Completely unaffected by Zephyr's attitude, Kizaru continued toward the center of the training ground with those slow steps that made people want to go up and kick him.

His gaze fell on Lorne.

"Is this the boy~?"

Lorne stood and met Kizaru's gaze.

Kizaru's life signs were suppressed to a level that made them difficult to detect, as though his body could turn into particles of light at any moment.

The Glint-Glint Fruit.

Logia.

Lorne's fists clenched involuntarily.

"What's wrong~ Little fellow, are you nervous~?" Kizaru's speech remained outrageously slow.

"No." Lorne stared straight at those sunglasses. "I was just wondering what an Admiral's bones would feel like to the touch."

Kizaru tilted his head.

"Hmm~"

Zephyr stepped forward, blocking Lorne as he glared fiercely at Kizaru.

"Borsalino, if you've finished your mission, go back and write your report. This is my training ground, and Lorne is my student."

His tone was icy, without a trace of courtesy.

"If you want to see a monster, go look in a mirror. Lorne is ten thousand times better than you lot who rely on your Devil Fruit abilities. He's the purer, stronger monster."

Kizaru shrugged, wearing an expression that said, "How scary."

"You're still so strict, Teacher Zephyr~"

He did not move any closer, merely standing where he was with his head tilted as he "looked" at Lorne for a while.

"Well~"