19 Chapter 19

The blow to his gut dealt the most damage. His insides were severely damaged and he almost lost consciousness.

"Is this how I die? Will I really die like this? Will I leave Reiju alone again? NO!" Tanzo wanted to say this, but the words that came out were different.

Still, the important part is that which happened after he said that. Something inside him grew. All the anger, regret, will to live, etc., manifested and grew. He shouted "I will live" and got punched in the face.

His eyes refused to give up and the gorilla refused to stop. His emotions only grew stronger and then suddenly, a burst of haki was released from him. It was the Conqueror's haki.

A few moments after that, the gorilla stopped hitting him and he could feel the ground tremble again. He looked to his side and saw the gorilla walking away from him.

"That was definitely conqueror's haki, but if I remember correctly, the target should either get knocked out or get scared. The gorilla looks like it walked away on its own." Tanzo said.

His body continued to heal and he slept there till he was all healed up. No other animal approached him while he was healing. It might have something to do with the gorilla that almost killed him.

When he was all healed up, he got up and slowly made his way to the huge tree in the middle. Along the way, he passed through many debris of broken buildings.

He arrived at the huge tree and he could tell that it wasn't just a simple tree. Either it was special, or there was something else special near the tree. Tanzo wanted to find out what it was, but he has a main task right now, survival.

First he had to take care of food and shelter, because weather changes rapidly on the island. Tanzo wanted to eat meat, but he was in no condition to hunt for food. So, he went for fruits that looked safe. He didn't go near berries at all.

As for shelter, he found a place in the town ruins that could provide him shelter. It was creepy and stinky, but he wasn't in a position to complain. He just got his ass whooped by a gorilla and almost beaten to death.

"I first need to get used to these chains" Tanzo said while eating. After he was done eating, he immediately began training. He started with a walk around the tree. One round was enough to tire him.

Tanzo would continue to take small breaks and continue training. He just kept training the whole day, with frequent breaks. He kept repeating this daily until he got used to the chains, which took him 6 months.

*After 6 months*

Tanzo was done with his daily training, which is the same as something a normal bodybuilder would do. Without the sea prism stone chain, he could do the workout in less than a minute without getting tired.

Still, it is a great improvement from the pathetic state he was in when he first entered the forest. He was now confident in his physical abilities and, decided to go deep into the forest to hunt.

As for the Conqueror's haki he unlocked after getting his ass whooped by the king kong gorilla, he wasn't able to use it afterwards. He activated it unknowingly, but wasn't able to do it since then.

Tanzo wanted to hunt animals not just to test out his physical strength, but also because there were no more fruits around him. So, he had to look deeper into the forest for food. Since he was already entering the danger zone, he decided it would be better if he had some meat.

Tanzo loved the meat in this world. He felt that it tastes way better than any expensive meat from earth. So, he decided on hunting an animal and entered the forest.

He looked around and found no signs of any animal around him. He looked deeper and after looking around a lot, he found his first prey. A huge bird, almost as tall as Kaido. It was munching on some fruits in its nest.

'So, it is a herbivore. That explains why I never saw it hunting.' Tanzo thought.

Tanzo approached the bird slowly, trying not to alert the bird, but he was in a forest and dried leaves and branches were everywhere. When he stepped on a few, the sound alerted the bird and it immediately flew up into the sky. It screeched out loud and looked at Tanzo.

Tanzo also looked at the bird and was thinking of a plan to kill it. His strength is now that of a regular bodybuilder, which isn't enough to defeat the huge bird. He still decided to try, because he knew that he wouldn't die.

Tanzo first had to do something to get the bird down from the sky. He can't fly because he can't use his devil fruit powers. He could jump if he was at full strength, but in his current state, he couldn't reach the bird.

So, he first decided to deal with its wings. He picked up a boulder that he could throw and threw it at the bird. He aimed for the head, making it fly a little lower to dodge the boulder. The bird was now a little closer to Tanzo and he used his chains to wrap them around the legs of the bird and pull it down.

The bird resisted his pull, but was still pulled a lot closer to Tanzo. Tanzo then pulled back his fist and released his Hasshoken punch at its face. The force wasn't as he expected, but it was enough to knock out the bird.

Tanzo then wrapped the chains back around his arms and wondered "These chains seem useful in battle. Maybe I should try and practice with them in actual battle."

Tanzo then killed the bird by snapping its neck and started dragging the bird back to his temporary home.

While walking, Tanzo thought 'I feel like the hunt ended way too easily. I was expecting a lot more problems considering the unlucky encounter with the gorilla.'

As if it heard his thoughts, the gorilla he met six months ago, appeared before him again. The gorilla glared at him and Tanzo knew it wanted to fight.

He let go of the bird and took up a fighting stance. The gorilla immediately rushed at him with alarming speed, which was quite surprising considering its huge build. Tanzo could follow its movements with his eyes, but his body wasn't strong enough to react.

When the gorilla got closer, he understood that he had no way of fighting back, so he decided to focus on defence. He used Tekkai and armament haki to block the attack.

When the gorilla was close enough, it used its hands to support its body and lifted its legs. It then kicked Tanzo in the gut, sending him flying.

Tanzo crashed through many trees before stopping. The gorilla then came charging at him, jumped up when it was close, and landed on Tanzo, while also hammering his head.

He had multiple fractures and multiple organs were damaged. His strong exoskeleton protected him from any life threatening injuries. The gorilla then continued to beat him up and left after beating him up till the brink of death.

Tanzo's body started healing itself while his mind was questioning reality. He had many questions like 'Why did the gorilla attack me?', 'Why is it so strong?', or 'Why did the gorilla just leave?'

While all these questions were important, the biggest question in his head was 'How the fuck can a gorilla use haki?'

A haki is an invisible energy and the black color in the show was just for the viewers to know that the character is using haki. Usually, you can't see if anyone is using haki. Only those who can use haki can tell if someone is using haki.

So, Tanzo knew for sure that the gorilla just used haki when it kicked Tanzo and sent him flying. It was also strong, stronger than Tanzo's haki.

Although Tanzo only saw One Piece in his leisure time and doesn't remember everything, he was pretty sure that there was no animal or gorilla in the show that could use haki.

Tanzo waited for his body to heal and then went back to the place he encountered the gorilla. After he made sure that the gorilla wasn't close to him, with the help of observation haki, he went and picked up the bird. This time, he made sure to run back to his home.

He then started cooking the bird. While it was cooking, he kept remembering all the things that happened that day.

'Now that I think about it, I met the gorilla two times and both times I couldn't even sense it approaching me. Every time I saw the gorilla, it was in my field of sight. I am now curious about the gorilla. It can fight, use haki and also sneak up on me. What was this gorilla doing in the show?' Tanzo thought.

Since he didn't have any answers, he decided to forget about it and enjoy his meal, which also ended up as a huge disappointment since the meat was hard like rubber.

Tanzo still ended up finishing the whole bird because his regeneration needed a lot of energy and he didn't want to go hunting again.

After the meal, he trained continuously the whole day and slept peacefully that day. The next day, he headed into the forest to hunt again. He hoped that the gorilla would beat him up if he does something to piss the gorilla. So, this time he made sure not to do so.

He headed the opposite from the previous day since it might be the gorilla's territory. Also, he decided not to hunt the bird he had yesterday.

He tried everything to avoid the gorilla, but as if the gorilla was searching for him, it appeared before Tanzo again. This time also he was beaten up close to death.

Tanzo tried various things like, leaving at night, or shrinking down to human size to escape, but nothing worked. He was found every time and beaten till death.

This kept repeating everyday and all Tanzo could do was get beaten up. This continued for two months. Tanzo also used traps, but it broke through everything with pure strength.

"Argh.....I am fed up with the gorilla. I feel like it is enjoying beating me up everyday. Am I an unbreakable toy in its eyes? The only good things that happened in these two months are that the motivation to kill the gorilla pushed me to grow stronger, and learnt that my body is evolving." Tanzo said while walking through the forest.

The two months would have been good without the beat up. He pushed himself to increase his strength, which now brought his strength to 20% of his original strength without the sea prism stone. Two months ago, he was only at 5% of his original strength. So, that is a very great improvement.

Also, after he was beaten up by the mad gorilla, he learnt that his regeneration speed was increasing slowly. This meant that his body was adapting and evolving with the situation he is in.

Tanzo was searching for his meal and it wasn't difficult to hunt. It was what happened next that made him hate hunting for food. As usual, he caught a huge fish from the river and was returning back to his home when he met the gorilla again.

He dropped the fish and took his fighting stance. Although Tanzo was getting beaten up everyday, he still tried to put up a fight everyday. Even the gorilla seemed to have noticed his progress, since its attacks became faster and stronger everyday.

At first, he could only helplessly get beaten up, but as he kept improving, he could slowly react to the gorilla, block a few attacks, try to punch back, and even try to use Hasshoken.

Although he failed to land a single move yet, he was making steady progress. Even though his strength increased, he still wasn't able to land a blow. This showed how strong the gorilla was.

Tanzo, staring at the gorilla that has been torturing him ever since he got here, said "Today, I am going to land at least a single blow to your face."