"A survival technique?" Lorne's beast ears shot upright. "What are you going to teach me?"
Garp extended a thick finger and poked Lorne's solid chest.
"You're certainly tough, but being tough and taking a beating are two different things." Garp grinned. "Ever thought about what would happen if you ran into a top swordsman someday? One slash, and no matter how sturdy all that flesh is, you'd still get cut in half."
Lorne fell silent.
He really had never considered that question.
So far, most of what he had endured had been impact damage from fists, bullets, and blunt weapons. His extraordinary muscle density and resilience were enough to withstand those, but if they were replaced with razor-sharp slashes that could cut through anything...
"Judging by that face, you've figured it out." Garp plopped down on the deck. "Taking a beating isn't enough to get by on the seas. You need to learn how to turn your body into real steel!"
"Steel?" Lorne's breath caught slightly.
"One of the Six Powers-Iron Body!"
Garp suddenly clenched his fist and punched himself in the stomach!
Clang!!
A sharp, piercing crash rang out, like a sledgehammer striking an anvil! That was not a sound flesh and blood should have made!
"The principle behind Iron Body is simple." Garp rubbed his unscathed abdomen. "The instant an enemy's attack hits you, channel your awareness into every inch of muscle in your body and order them all to contract to their limit in unison. That forms seamless muscle armor and makes your body harder than steel!"
Lorne's eyes instantly lit up.
Iron Body!
The Six Powers! Those superhuman martial arts from the manga in my previous life, which developed the body's capabilities to their utmost limits! Soru, Geppo, Rankyaku, Finger Pistol, Kami-e, Iron Body! Every move was an art of combat!
"Come on, give it a try." Garp stood and clapped his hands. "Tense every muscle in your body. Remember, all of them. Don't miss a single one!"
Lorne took a deep breath, recalled the sensation from earlier, and abruptly contracted and tightened every muscle in his body.
Bam!
Without warning, Garp landed a solid punch on his stomach.
As though struck by a battering ram, Lorne instantly left the ground and flew backward over ten meters, crashing into the ship's railing with a clang.
"Wrong!" Garp shook his head vigorously. "You're just using brute force to tense your muscles. That's called toughing it out, being a sitting duck. It's not Iron Body!"
Lorne coughed up bloody spittle and struggled to his feet. "Is there a difference?"
"Of course there is!" Garp strode over and jabbed Lorne's abs hard with his finger. "The core of Iron Body is control and synchronization! You have to mobilize every muscle in your body with a single thought, like an army that obeys every order, bringing them to maximum tension at the exact same instant! That takes tremendous willpower and control over your body!"
"Willpower... control?"
"Right! Imagine your will is the Fleet Admiral, and your muscles are soldiers! When the Fleet Admiral gives the order, the entire army moves out, and not a single soldier dares slack off!"
Lorne furrowed his brows and closed his eyes.
Creak-
His bones gave a series of dull, teeth-grating creaks as his muscles began frantically squeezing and tightening inward in an utterly unnatural way.
"Now that's something, but you're still a long way off!" Garp's voice boomed like thunder.
Another punch!
Bam!
Lorne staggered three large steps backward, but this time, he did not go flying.
"A little improvement," Garp commented. "But your back and thighs are still soft! Iron Body is a full-body defense. Any muscle that relaxes will turn your defense into a joke!"
"Again!" Lorne gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot.
Bam!
Another punch.
This time, Lorne only retreated two steps, gouging two shallow grooves into the deck beneath his feet.
"Your waist! Your waist is soft! Your strength can't flow through your whole body!"
Bam!
"Your neck! Your neck is the only passage connecting to your head. Tighten that up too!"
Bam!
"Your back! It's somewhere you can't see yourself, and the weak point you're most likely to overlook!"
Garp struck while roaring the most concise instructions, every punch like a perfectly precise teaching rod, lashing mercilessly at the weakest points in Lorne's Iron Body defense.
Bam!
As this punch landed, a strange, muffled hum sounded inside Lorne's body. He merely slid half a step backward and held his footing firmly.
Garp withdrew his fist.
"Hm?"
That last punch had felt completely different from the previous ones.
"Kid, that last one had a bit of Iron Body to it."
Lorne panted heavily, blood and sweat mingling over his face. He was a bedraggled mess, but his eyes shone with startling brightness.
"I... I think I've found the way in."
At that very instant, his will had seemed to truly become a signal, reaching every corner of his body. His muscles had stopped fighting independently and instead performed an almost perfect "inward compression."
Every muscle fiber squeezed inward simultaneously, pressing tightly against his bones to form a dense, resilient, flawless layer of "muscle armor"!
When Garp's punch struck, that terrifying impact had been distributed evenly throughout his body by this perfect armor, rather than concentrating at a single point and exploding as before.
"Again!" Lorne let out a beastlike roar.
"Good!"
Bam!
This time, Garp increased the force by twenty percent.
Lorne's body shuddered violently. The deck beneath him could no longer withstand it, and a web of cracks instantly burst outward from his feet!
But he-
Did not retreat a single step!
"Oh?" Garp narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Iron Body!"
Lorne growled, and the instant the fist reached him, his muscles once again performed that remarkable inward compression.
Garp's fist struck his chest with a-
Clang!!!
"Good!" Garp finally withdrew his fist, genuine, undisguised admiration showing on his face. "That's the feeling! Remember it!"
Along both sides of the deck, the Marines who had watched the entire thing already had their jaws on the floor.
"He... he really learned Iron Body?"
To train Lorne, Garp specifically ordered the warship to sail more slowly.
Every day, Lorne's Iron Body grew harder.
Before long, Garp added kicks, elbow strikes, and knee strikes to the training.
"Iron Body isn't just for blocking fists!" Garp swept a roundhouse kick into Lorne's side. "Sword slashes, spear thrusts, cannon fire-you have to withstand them all!"
Lorne was kicked sideways through the air, but forcibly twisted his body in midair, pushed off the deck with both feet, and charged back in.
"Iron Body!"
The muscles around his waist contracted to their limit the instant he landed, making his whole body as hard as an iron post.
"Good! But you're too slow!" Garp laughed as his second kick arrived. "You can't keep Iron Body active all the time in battle. That'll make you a target! You need to learn to activate it the instant before you get hit and release it the instant afterward. Only then can you combine offense and defense!"
The essence of Iron Body lay in switching!
Lorne's beast ears twitched. He understood.
He began consciously practicing instantaneous switching with Iron Body.
By the next day, he could precisely activate Iron Body only where Garp's fist struck the moment he threw a punch, while keeping the rest of his body relaxed and ready to counterattack at any time.
"Localized Iron Body?" Watching Lorne use Iron Body only on his abdomen while his arms and legs remained nimble, Garp's eyes went wide.
This kid actually figured out an advanced application of Iron Body on his own?!
"Old man, what are you spacing out for!" Seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opening, Lorne unleashed a punch.
His right fist, wrapped in dazzling golden flames of light, shot straight toward Garp's face!
"Haymaker!"
"Ha!" Garp flicked the back of his hand, casually swatting Lorne's fist aside as though swatting a fly.
But his grin stretched all the way to his ears.
"You little brat, getting capable, are you? Learned to launch sneak attacks?"
"There are only winners and losers on the battlefield. You said that yourself!" Lorne charged again after landing.
Bam!
Garp punched him down into the deck.
Lorne climbed out of the hole, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and charged once more.
Bam!
He was hammered back in.
He climbed out.
Charged again.
In the morning, Garp kicked Lorne awake and out of his hammock as usual.
"No fighting today," Garp announced lazily, a pork bone dangling from his mouth.
"Why?" Lorne instead looked unaccustomed to this.
"Because you can now consistently take punches at forty percent of my strength." Garp pulled the pork bone from his mouth and pointed at the battered, hole-riddled deck. "If we keep going, I'll have to hit harder. Then this wreck of a ship will sink."
Lorne froze for a moment.
"You mean..."
"You passed, kid." Garp yawned. "You've mastered the basics of Iron Body. As for the rest, polish it yourself in actual combat."
Lorne lowered his head and looked at his hands.
"But don't get cocky," Garp's voice drifted over. "Your current Iron Body is more than enough for the small fry in the East Blue. But on the Grand Line... you're still a long way off!"
"Then I'll keep training." Lorne rubbed his forehead.
"Mm, but rest for today." Garp stretched. "I'm taking a nap."
"You take a nap every day!"
"Shut up! Old people need their rest!"
Bam!
The Fist of Love descended from above.
Lorne crouched on the ground clutching his head, another lump rising on top of it. He had instinctively activated localized Iron Body, but it had not helped much.
Garp noticed that detail, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"You little brat, you even dare block my Fist of Love?"
"Then I'll use Fist of Love, stage two!" Garp walked away without looking back.
"There's a stage two?!"
"Hahahahaha!"
That afternoon, under the pleasant sunshine, a horn from the lookout tower suddenly shattered the peace.
Toot, toot, toot-!
"Land sighted ahead-! It's the Goa Kingdom!!"
Lorne abruptly rolled over and sat up, looking toward the bow.
At the edge of the horizon, a hazy outline slowly emerged from the mist.
The Goa Kingdom.
"Hahaha!"
A familiar, hearty laugh came from the cabin. At some point, Garp had already taken his place at the bow, his justice coat snapping in the sea breeze.
He turned his head and grinned broadly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
"We're here! Lorne, ready to meet those two troublesome brothers of yours?"
Before you continue