Garp's ship had been docked at the G-10 Marine Base in the Kingdom of Neil for nearly half a month.
Early that morning.
On a training ground sowhere within the base, Garp stood on the sidelines, observing a sparring session between Yoriichi Tsugikuni and Kuzan.
Although there were no active missions during this period, Garp wasn't one to sit idle. He had instead devoted himself to seriously training both Kuzan and Yoriichi.
Thanks to this intense regin, Yoriichi had made noticeable strides in both Observation Haki and Armant Haki. Just two weeks ago, his Observation Haki could only give him a vague sense of where an attack might be coming from. But now, even without invoking his Transparent World, Yoriichi could clearly grasp every movent of his opponent through his Haki alone.
While he still hadn't reached the level of seeing into the future, when he did combine Observation Haki with the Transparent World, he could easily predict the trajectory of Kuzan's attacks.
As for Armant Haki, his progress was no less impressive. Where previously he could only coat the edge of his bamboo sword, he could now envelop the entire blade with Haki.
The coverage area had expanded dramatically. Given ti, Yoriichi was confident he'd be able to coat his entire body.
As for the strength of his Armant Haki, well, since there was no standard unit of asurent, Yoriichi couldn't say for sure.
Still, there was one thing that left no doubt: with his bamboo sword imbued with Armant Haki, he could slice clean through a solid steel pillar as thick as a man's arm.
Garp had given a rough assessnt of Yoriichi's "Douriki" value: around 7,000.
In terms of Haki alone, if you insisted on comparisons, then Yoriichi at this stage might even be a notch stronger than Zoro when he returned to Sabaody Archipelago two years from now.
Back on the training field, the sparring continued. With mastery of the Navy's Six Styles and dual-color Haki under his belt, Yoriichi's strength had taken a quantum leap.
Coupled with his already-superb swordsmanship and the enhancent of the Transparent World, he utterly dominated Kuzan in close combat.
At the mont, Kuzan gripped an ice staff in both hands, his skin bruised purple and blue. His body was covered in visible welts. Yoriichi's Armant Haki had grown so potent that Kuzan, who once relied on his Devil Fruit to shrug off damage, was now unable to fully withstand the onslaught. His injuries were mounting by the day.
Still, when Kuzan fought at full power, he far outclassed Yoriichi. Whenever he felt he was about to lose, he'd use his powers to "cool things down"—buying himself a breather.
Crack!
Yoriichi ducked a downward slash and then swept his bamboo sword horizontally across Kuzan's icy staff, forcing it down with raw strength. Kuzan stumbled forward under the pressure.
Sensing danger, Kuzan's body instantly dissolved into icy mist, vanishing on the spot. A ter away, he quickly reford.
Almost simultaneously, Yoriichi launched a flying kick at Kuzan's forr location, dispersing the remaining mist with a whumph.
"Oi oi oi, Kuzan! You cheating again, huh?!" Yoriichi called out with a hint of exasperation, landing smoothly on the ground as he glanced toward Kuzan, who had retreated more than a ter away.
This wasn't the first or even the second ti that Kuzan had pulled sothing like this. Though they'd agreed it would be a close-quarters spar, this bastard kept slipping in his Devil Fruit powers.
Yoriichi's attacks were swift and seamless; Kuzan's clumsy use of Soru no longer helped him evade. But while Soru might be too slow, Kuzan had another option: as long as he could anticipate Yoriichi's next move, he could escape using his elent-based abilities.
Truth be told, Kuzan had stopped trying to beat Yoriichi with martial arts alone over ten days ago. Since then, Yoriichi's growth had skyrocketed, flipping their roles entirely and Kuzan was the one getting pumled. After a few days of this, Kuzan gave up pretending and just started dodging with his powers whenever he felt overwheld.
His close-combat skills hadn't improved much, but he had inadvertently developed a new Devil Fruit technique: mist-phase evasion.
Originally, Kuzan's fruit abilities focused purely on freezing and forming solid ice. But under Yoriichi's relentless Haki pressure, he innovated dispersing into freezing mist to dodge attacks.
Hey, credit where it's due: this new move worked way better than Soru ever did!
"This isn't cheating," Kuzan replied lazily, "I'm a Devil Fruit user. Using my powers is totally fair ga."
He grinned. "Besides, I'm just using it for movent. We're still practicing hand-to-hand, right? You could even call this a more advanced version of 'Soru'."
With that, Kuzan's body once again turned to mist and vanished—then surged toward Yoriichi like a rushing tide, enveloping him completely.
Suddenly, Kuzan's upper body materialized at Yoriichi's flank, swinging his ice staff down toward Yoriichi's skull.
Crack! Just before it landed, Yoriichi sidestepped with a tight pivot, deflecting the blow with his bamboo sword. In one fluid motion, his left hand flared with Armant Haki and reached for Kuzan's face.
Whoosh—
Before Yoriichi could grab him, Kuzan's body dissipated into mist again. An instant later, he reford directly in front of Yoriichi and slamd his ice staff toward the younger man's abdon.
Tekkai!
With no ti to dodge, Yoriichi braced himself and activated Tekkai—Iron Body. His shoes scraped violently against the ground, skidding several ters before he stopped.
Pain blood across his stomach, and his teeth clenched in a grimace.
Watching from the sidelines, Garp chuckled when he saw Kuzan resorting to his Devil Fruit in the spar.
Yoriichi's close-combat skills had completely surpassed Kuzan's. If Kuzan didn't use his powers, he wouldn't last five moves.
And a one-sided beatdown wouldn't help Yoriichi improve. Now that Kuzan had added his powers to the mix, he was finally a decent training partner again.
Besides, wasn't Kuzan still attacking with martial arts? That counted, right?
Totally reasonable.
If Kuzan had used his Devil Fruit to attack directly, Yoriichi would've lost the mont he was surrounded by mist.
Just as Yoriichi regained his footing and was about to use his Breathing Technique to accelerate—
A figure sprinted toward the field, shouting as he ran.
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
Bogard, Garp's longti right-hand man, called out urgently. "Rear Admiral Roka sent —there's news! We've got intel on the Roger Pirates!"
At the word Roger, Garp's head whipped around.
"Roger? Where are they?!" he barked, not waiting for Bogard to reach him.
"Zou! That legendary island where the Mink Tribe lives—Zou Island!"
Garp blinked, cocked his head, and stared at Bogard in confusion.
"…Where the hell is that?"
Despite decades in the Navy with battle records spanning all four seas, the Grand Line, and even the New World, Garp had never heard of such a place.
Zou Island? Sorry, no idea.
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