274 Chapter 274

274

With Luffy,

"Is that the best you guys can do?" Sabo asked musing at both of his brothers who panted heavily. He spun his metal pipe lazily as they caught their breath.

"Easy for you to say… you aren't the one in cuffs." Ace shot back, wiping away his sweat. The chains around his arms clacking as he moved. "Stupid devil fruit weakness…"

"Heh, speak for yourself," Luffy said grinning, "I'm having the time of my life." Wiping away the blood from his busted lips. The wound shutting off by the use of his powers, it wasn't fully fixed it, but given time it would be good as new. Life Return's the best, baby!

"Yeah, Ace. You can always start with one sea stone cuff at a time." Sabo said, leaning on the metal pipe, "Luffy has built up a tolerance over many years, it's impressive that you are even able to stand with that much sea stone on your body."

"Yeah, and let him get one up on me? Never." Ace said pushing himself up and resting Enma on his shoulders. Even standing still took a lot out of him.

On Ace's hands were Sea stone cuffs, thick ones that were the bane for Devil fruit users. One set one each hand, the clacking as he moved. The same was seen for Luffy, but unlike him, Ace looked very uncomfortable.

Sabo on the other hand didn't have any devil fruit so he didn't have any sea stone cuffs, but his task was to fight against the two of them. The main goal was to improve their Haki in some way.

And also to get used to fighting with each other. This needed to be done.

The previous night Morgan had called and he gave some very troubling news. Not only were the Black Beard pirates in Jaya, two other people were seen with them. One was Aramaki and the other was Shiryu.

How the imprisoned mad Jailer came to Jaya that fast was anyone's guess. But the newspaper birds of Morgan were able to confirm that he and Aramaki were with Blackbeard's crew.

Someone had planned this. Someone that might be trying to take him down.

Teach wanted the Warlord position, so he could see a certain World Noble giving him that opportunity. When Luffy had caught the Cipher Pol Agent Ken, —who tried to blow up the ship— he had told him about Saint Camael. He should have asked Dragon about that bastard, but with all the things going on, he forgot.

Luffy was half expecting the World Noble to stop attacking him now that he was a Warlord, but it didn't seem like it. Now he was using backhanded means to attack him.

But it didn't matter. He was making preparations for this.

This was also the reason why he was delaying the journey as much as he could, with the excuse that their ship needed more time to repair and he wanted to spend a bit more time with his Vivi.

Even though some might think that his crew was ready to take them on, he knew better. He would rather be over-prepared than to take useless risks.

In Blackbeard's crew, there was Doc Q he needed to worry about, Luffy didn't know if the man already had his overpowered fruit or not. And not to mention Van Augur and Laffitte were also wild cards as one of them had the Warp Warp fruit. Another had some kind of wing or bird devil fruit, it might possibly even be a Mythical Zoan for all he knew.

From the info he knew previously and from Morgan's research they weren't easy targets either.

Jesus Burgess and Shiryu might be strong but at least they didn't have devil fruit abilities he needed to worry about.

Aramaki on the other hand was a different story, last time he was toying with him. Now that he was strong, he was sure he could fight one on one with him. But his fruit was another story.

Aramaki was stupid for not utilizing his fruit's ability. But this time, what's stopping him from attacking his crew? The Chemical Chemical fruit was an overpowered fruit.

That's why he wasn't going to underestimate his foes.

Ace's body flew in like a rag doll skipping across the sandy ground a few times, before he stopped himself by stabbing his sword into the ground.

Luffy was also thrown near him with multiple wounds on his body, but he was a bit better than Ace, as he landed on his feet, drawing a trench in the ground.

"The heck, Sabo!?" Ace grumbled, before shooting a look at his brother, "Why do you guys know the Marine Techniques? First Luffy and now you… We are pirates damn it." He was pretty annoyed at getting his ass handed to him due to the restrictions. Not used to fighting without his flames. It also showed him how much he relied on his fruit's abilities.

"Well, for one, they are quite useful." Luffy said, "Just Geppo and Soru alone should give you enough reason. Not to mention Tekkai and Rokuogan."

"And second, not all of us have broken devil fruit powers to save our ass in an emergency." Sabo finished, of course, he was using Dragon Fist as well, "Why? Is the heat getting to you, Ace?"

The Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates felt his brow twitch, "I can understand Sabo being able to learn those, but how did you learn them?" he asked Luffy.

The boy in question shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he said, not wanting to answer that question. "But then again, it just shows that I'm better. Unlike you, I haven't been slacking off on my training. Same for Sabo." He then gave Ace a mocking grin of sort, "Be careful brother, your seat as the strongest is on the line here…"

Ace felt his brow twitch from his younger brother's comment, but this time he didn't say anything. But then again, who the fuck actually thinks of training with sea stone cuffs on? The Sea and sea stone cuffs were the bane of devil fruit users, most Devil Fruit users made a note to stay away from the sea for a reason.

But it seemed common sense was something that his brother didn't know. And his said brother had found a way to work around the problem that plagued most devil fruit users for most of their lives.

And that wasn't all, Luffy was strong, as in physically he doubted even Jozu could wrestle and win against him. That level of strength just showed how intensely he was pushing himself.

On one hand Ace felt frustrated, on the other hand he kind of felt proud of his little brother. It also showed that he was slacking off in his training compared to his brothers.

Yes brothers as in, while Sabo was weaker than him without any restraints. He wasn't the Second in Command of the Revolutionary Army for nothing.

Even without a devil fruit, with skills alone, he could give a good fight against Ace. And that was saying something.

Thank God, Rayleigh had found him before he entered the New World and drilled some training into his younger self. Without that training, he wouldn't have been the strongest among the three brothers.

Ace might be prideful, and borderline arrogant sometimes but he knew he needed to step up his game if he wanted to keep his place at the top.

"Heads up…" Sabo said before dashing towards them with his pipe coated with Armament. But his Haki glowed golden for a moment, signifying the use of Advanced Armament Haki.

Luffy was the first one to charge ahead and stop the blond with his own naginata coated with Advanced Armament. "You know, you are a blonde with a long pipe. No wonder Koala fell for you…"

Sabo blinked, "Wait, what?!" and he got distracted, Luffy used the moment to send him flying. "Can't believe I fell for that shit! You are in for a beating for that one, Luffy."

"Huh!? That's a pipe dream!"

"Your sense of humor sucks!" Sabo said again clashing with Luffy, both of their clashing against each other, not fully touching with a slight gap due to the use of Advanced Armament Haki. "And stop it with the pipe-puns!"

"And what? Ruin the chance of annoying you?" Luffy mused falling back after a clash. "You underestimate me, brother! Shishishi"

"Oi, don't forget about me!" Ace said as multiple wind slashes imbued with Armament Haki were sent both of their ways.

Both Sabo and Luffy had to jump away as they saw Ace charging at them.

"Oi, I ain't the enemy here!" Luffy said, ducking a kick from Ace and jumping back as the flame user —without his flames— engaged Sabo in close combat.

It seemed Ace had gotten a sort of second wind and was quite annoyed after getting ignored.

"Shishishi… this looks like fun!" Luffy said, "Free for all~!" Luffy said, jumping into the fight with his skills and Haki.

And with that the three brothers fought for hours on end, mid-fight Luffy and Ace removed their restrictions, and the match between them intensified. The fight only ended after all three of them were knocked unconscious.

Training to failure took a whole other meaning when you had brothers like these. All in all, this was a good day of training indeed.