Hachinosu, in the conference room
Roy's core members sat around a long table.
Roy briefly explained the situation of G-1 and G-2, and then began to assign tasks.
"From today onwards, G-1 and G-2 will be our training grounds."
All new recruits took turns participating in combat training.
The core members will take turns leading the team; I want to keep the navy in the New World, constantly wearing down their forces.
Kyros.
"Your Float-Float Fruit is responsible for transportation."
All participating troops are under your unified command. Once the fighting is over, withdraw; do not linger in battle.
Kyros nodded. "Understood."
" Bullet, Mihawk, Tesoro, Crocodile, the four of you will take turns."
Each time, one person leads the team, while the rest remain on the island on standby.
If those old guys in the Navy dare to leave base, we'll teach them a lesson.
In the days that followed, G-1 and G-2 bases became the liveliest places in the New World.
Before dawn, the sentries at G-1 Base spotted a dense array of ships on the sea.
The fleet from Hachinosu seemed to emerge from the darkness, a dark mass pressing towards the base.
The alarm blared throughout the base, and the naval soldiers jumped out of bed, grabbed their weapons, and ran toward the fortifications.
Kyros stood on the flagship's deck at the very front of the fleet, his Float-Float Fruit powers covering the entire fleet.
All the ships, under his control, traversed the sea with an extremely uncanny agility, moving at such a speed that the navy's gunners could not even aim accurately.
"Fire!" At the command of the naval commander, the coastal defense guns roared to life.
The shells flew towards the fleet, trailing red flames, but most of them didn't even hit the ships.
Kyros used his powers to deflect it, and it crashed into the sea, splashing up white sprays.
As the fleet reached the outskirts of the port, Bullet leaped from the deck.
The White Tiger Model is directly unleashed.
"Men! Follow me!"
Bullet punched the harbor breakwater, creating a large gap more than ten meters in diameter in the reinforced concrete structure.
Pebbles flew everywhere, and seawater poured in through the breach.
The soldiers from Hachinosu behind him roared battle cries and surged into the harbor like a tidal wave.
On the eastern defensive line, a naval Rear Admiral drew his sword, attempting to organize a counterattack.
Before he could even raise his sword, a pale green slash flew in from the horizon.
He was cleaved dozens of meters away, knife and all, before finally coming to a stop after crashing through several walls.
Hawk Eyes stood atop an abandoned lighthouse in the distance, while Black Blade Yoru pointed diagonally at the ground, his golden eyes as calm as a stagnant pool.
Kuina, standing beside him, gripped the Ame no Habakiri, her eyes sharp. In the two years since the Paramount War, her swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds, but she hadn't had many real combat opportunities.
The opportunity to learn from the World's Greatest Swordsman on the battlefield is incredibly rare.
"Look closely at the trajectory of that last strike," Hawk Eyes said without turning his head.
Kuina nodded vigorously.
On the western flank, Tesoro's lightning strike silenced all the naval guns.
Golden arcs of electricity rained down like a storm, precisely hitting the ammunition depots of every coastal defense artillery piece.
Explosions rang out one after another, and flames shot into the sky. He stood in mid-air, his hands in his pockets, looking as relaxed as if he were strolling down the street.
After the attack ended, the powerful naval personnel stationed on the island finally arrived.
Bullet, Hawk Eyes, Tesoro, Crocodile, and Kyros all came to greet them.
The remaining members of Hachinosu then engaged in a fierce battle with the marines.
The battle lasted for a full two hours.
The new recruits on Hachinosu took turns fighting under the cover of the core members, one wave after another.
Some were wounded in battle, some were terrified by the navy's counterattack, but many more developed their eyes through real combat experience.
A young soldier, fresh out of Training Camp, excitedly told his comrades during the retreat, "I hit a naval lieutenant commander! I really hit him!"
His companion, clutching his arm where shrapnel had grazed him, grimaced in pain but still managed a smile.
"That's nothing. I pierced a lieutenant colonel's shield with the Shigan from Captain Roy's manual."
Such conversations could be heard on every evacuating ship.
Kyros stood on the flagship's deck, looking at the young soldiers' faces, which showed a mixture of exhaustion and excitement, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
His Float-Float Fruit ability activated again, and the entire fleet drew a beautiful arc on the sea surface, retreating towards Hachinosu.
At G-1 Base, Ryokugyu stood amidst ruins, his face ashen.
His Woods-Woods Fruit ability was completely countered by Tesoro's lightning in the previous battle.
Every time he tried to entangle the soldiers of Hachinosu with his roots, lightning would strike precisely, burning his newly grown roots to charcoal.
"Here we go again."
He gritted his teeth and said,
This is the third time this month.
They never finish the battle; they just blow up a few gun emplacements and destroy a few sections of fortifications before running away.
Fujitora stood beside him with his eyes closed, his blindfold tapping the ground.
"They are conducting military training."
"I know they're training troops!"
Ryokugyu punched the wall next to him, smashing a large hole in the already crumbling wall.
"But what can we do? Chase after them? You saw what happened last time we did—"
Last time.
Akainu personally led a team to pursue the retreating fleet from Hachinosu, but they were intercepted by both Hawk Eyes and Bullet on the way.
Bullet's White Tiger Gundam sank two warships with a single punch, and Hawk Eyes's slash cleaved a third ship in two.
If it weren't for Akainu Magma-Magma Fruit barely managing to block the subsequent attacks, that pursuing fleet would likely have been completely annihilated.
Since then, the navy has learned its lesson.
The people on Hachinosu finished their attack and left, leaving the navy helpless.
But the military training operations on Hachinosu didn't stop there.
Red Count Redfield, the old monster who has been living in seclusion on Hachinosu for several years, has recently started to stretch his muscles.
The Red Count's Blood-Blood Fruit combined with his Vampire Model means that if he manages to inflict a wound on someone, the ensuing battle is predictable.
Red Count always goes out alone, either to G-1 Base to cause trouble for Garp and Sengoku, or to G-2 base to teach a few Marine Admiral a lesson.
In the end, the Navy devised a plan to besiege Red Count, but Red Count's Observation Haki detected it in advance, and he spread his huge bat wings and retreated directly.
The navy returned empty-handed.
Forced to split their forces again, they re-stationed them at both bases.
This went on for several weeks.
The new recruits on Hachinosu are growing rapidly in actual combat, but the construction progress of the navy is being greatly slowed down.
The defenses of bases G-1 and G-2 were constantly being repaired and dismantled; the construction teams could never keep up with the rate at which Hachinosu was being destroyed.
Akainu stood atop the G-1 Base watchtower, clenching his fist as he watched the wakes left by the retreating Hachinosu fleet on the distant sea.
He knew what Roy was up to.
He used the navy as a whetstone to grind new recruits into veterans. But he couldn't stop it.
Pursuing them would risk an ambush, holding out would lead to attrition, and launching a preemptive attack on the main island of Hachinosu would be suicidal.
Meanwhile, on the training grounds of Hachinosu, another batch of new recruits are boarding a ship, preparing to head to G-1 for the next round of live-fire training.
Roy stood by the office window, watching the excited expressions on the faces of the young soldiers in the direction of the port, and took a sip of his tea.
Take your time, there's no rush.