20 Chapter 19

[1501; One Year After]

In the middle of the wild sea, within the storm where the thunders roared and winds blew wildly, there was one brightly lightened ship in the middle, with the jolly roger engraved on its sail. Enduring the harsh weather, such pirate ship advanced through the Grand Line, filled with joy and wonder.

The pirates sang and dance. Some swung their weapons wildly, completely drunk.

"""Yohohoho! Yohohoho!"""

It was one hell of a party, and the pirates didn't even seem to care if they were engulfed by the storm or not.

"Dance! Sing! Drink! Drink as much as you want!!" Holding the steering wheel, the man wearing the hat of a pirate captain shouted jovially, completely disregarding the storm, "Everything is within our grasp!!! Money!! Freedom!! And..."

He, with his cheeks pink due to the heavy consumption of alcohol, licked his lips while shifting his eyes at the women tied and immobilized nearby, who were trembling from the cold and fear. Some had their eyes closed tight, filled with nothing but helplessness.

"...Women... keheheheh!!! Now, the only thing that we are missing is none other than the legendary One Piece!!"

Grinning widely and revealing his missing teeth, the pirate captain of the crew expressed his contentment.

"Boys!!! Who are we?!!"

Upon the captain's shout, all pirates answered loudly,

"""The Grimheart pirates!!!"""

"That's right, we are the Grimheart pirates, destined to become the ruler of the world—"

BOOM!

"—what was that?!"

In midst of his speech, the captain stopped his words, due to an unidentified thing suddenly coming in flying from who-knows-where, before crashing onto the ship.

With his grin faltered, the captain turned back, and saw a huge hole that broke through the deck of the ship, much to his horror.

"GAHHHH!!!! My ship!!!!" The captain screamed with his eyes popped out comically, totally not bothered by the fact that few of his crew members fell off the ship due to the sudden force.

"Ugh..."

Then, a groan was heard within the dust, below the hole on the deck.

"Garp-sensei is extreme as always, I swear..."

Then, through the dust, one shadow shot up. Now, the pirates saw—one teenage boy, wearing a standard marine uniform, hovering up in the air, with an exhausted expression on his face and a standard marine cap on his right hand.

Tap.

Landing on the deck, this boy had a spiky white hair and the hazel-coloured eyes that gleamed brilliantly. Placing the standard marine cap on his head, this 13-year-old marine, Smoker, now stood relaxed, while being surrounded by the entirety of the furious pirates.

"M-Marine?! There's a marine ship nearby?!!" One pirate shouted in panic, before looking all around. However, there was nothing but the ongoing storm around their ship, "Where?!"

"Who cares?!!" The captain of the crew, who was now holding onto a cutlass, screamed madly while pointing the weapon at Smoker, "He's just one marine, and we are literally hundreds in number!!! KILL HIM!!!!"

"Raaaa!!!"

Smoker watched in a relaxed position as the pirates all around him ran with their respective weapons.

"Hundreds? Now that's not fair," Smoker chuckled just as the sharp-looking axe was right above his head,

"for someone of your caliber, even thousands won't be enough. This fight isn't fair for y'all."

At the last moment, Smoker leaned in at the pirate holding the axe, such that the wooden belly of the axe hit his right shoulder and its blade cut across the empty air.

PUK!

Immediately after, the pirate with axe was instantly knocked by a fast punch from Smoker, which seemed so fast that the surrounding pirates couldn't even properly see.

Swoosh!

Ducking his head, Smoker dodged a sword that slashed above his head, horizontally. Placing his hand on the wooden deck, Smoker then kicked the chin of the sword-holding pirate, causing the latter to choke as his eyes hollowed out.

"A-Attack him at the same time!!!" One pirate shouted, before multiple pirates all ran at Smoker simultaneously, stabbing, hacking, and swinging their weapons wildly. However, none of them hit him, and instead, Smoker dodged all of them with ease while making the bare minimum of movements.

PUK PUK PUK PUK!

Then, all those pirates within Smoker's range, were efficiently knocked out by the quick jabs aimed at their faces.

"W-what is this monster?!" One pirate muttered fearfully as the cutlass in his grip trembled. He took a step back while gulping, unable to believe that so many fell without even managing to deal a single blow to the teenage marine.

The others seemed to be thinking the same. Although they were hundreds in number, the feats that Smoker showcased was simply too much—those movements didn't belong to an average human, they thought.

"You stupid dumb f***s!!!!!" The captain of the crew screamed madly, before pushing the pirates in his front away, "Move outta my way!!!"

In his hands was a Gatling gun, which he aimed at Smoker.

Smoker, unfazed by the sight of the firearm, looked at the back of the pirate captain with narrowed eyes, where the civilian women—who were looking at him with shock—were tied around.

"M-MOVE AWAY!!!" One woman then shouted out of worry, just as,

"RAAAAA!!!!!"

The pirate captain fired the Gatling gun at Smoker,

"DIE!!! DIE!!! DIE!!! DIE... huh?"

However, to everyone's shock, the bullets simply phased through Smoker's body, and instead of the blood, what they saw were the wisps of smoke that arose from him.

The deck that lied behind Smoker suffered instead, having been completely obliterated.

Thud. One pirate mumbled while falling on his butt, "D-devil fruit..."

"S***, I got a little distracted," Ignorant of his surrounding, Smoker scratched the back of his head while sweating nervously, "Garp-sensei told me not to use my fruit ability. I'm f*****..."

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!!" The pirate captain, terrified by Smoker's existence, screamed at his lungs. With trembling eyes, he then forcibly grinned once again, about to point his Gatling gun at the civilian women—

"Oh, no, no, you can't do that,"

—but found Smoker's hand holding onto his wrist all of a sudden, when Smoker hasn't moved from his spot.

That's right. His hand, going against the common sense, stretched out all the way to where the pirate captain was standing, with the puffs of smoke connecting between his detached hand and arm.

"Since I used my fruit ability already, might as well continue using it."

"AHHHHHHH!!!!" Just as the pirate captain lost the grip over the Gatling gun and fell to his knees, due to the crushing grip that Smoker's hand had over his wrist,

'White Out.'

The incredible volume of smoke rushed out of Smoker, engulfing the whole ship in one go. Within an instant, the hundreds of pirates, including the pirate captain, were caught under the strong grip of the Smoke Smoke fruit.

"MMMFFF!! MMFFFF—"

With all pirates muffled and undergoing suffocation, Smoker took out a Baby Den Den Mushi from his chest pocket, and muttered into it,

"Situation clear. Hostiles subdued and hostages rescued—"

<<Brat!!!>>

Smoker flinched due to a loud shout that rang from the Baby Den Den Mushi,

<<I told you not to use your fruit ability!!!>>

"I'm sorry, alright?! I had no choice!"

<<We're going to have A LOT of fun when you get back here!!!>>

Smoker groaned, with his body slumped from depression.

'...F***.'

__________

"Hnnnngggg!!!!!"

"Listen, brat, I'm going to be straight here!"

Under the blue sky, away from the previous storm, Smoker was busy doing the endless series of push-ups, with two huge dumbbells above him, one huge boulder from who-knows-where above the dumbbells, and Garp above the boulder, munching onto the rice crackers.

The marine ship in which they were on top of, had a thick rope connected to the large pirate ship that belonged to the subdued Grimheart pirates. The civilian women moved to the marine ship, quietly sitting on one side with their minds now in ease.

"Five hundred... ughhhh... nine!!!"

"You've improved a lot in the past year!" Garp said with his mouth full of rice cracker, "But that's still far from enough! When I was your age, I was already lifting up an entire marine ship for fun!"

The marine soldiers, who stood on the sight, sweatdropped,

'''Your standard is simply out of this world, Vice Admiral Garp!!!'''

For an entire year, they watched just what kind of devilish training methods Garp placed Smoker under.

1. Survive as Garp's punching bag!

2. Climb up to the moving ship from one dangling rope tied at the end of it, in the middle of the ocean—when Smoker was a devil fruit user, and could only move when he happened to bounce out of the water by a stroke of luck!

3. Survive in the Sea King's stomach for a week!

4. Survive being thrown by Garp like a cannonball, to the middle of the pirate ship!

5. Punch 100,000 times for each fist, everyday!

There simply was no stop to how cruel Garp's training could get, and the marine soldiers were amazed every time they saw Smoker, who didn't let out a single complaint during those training sessions.

"However, hm... I suppose that a little reward is fine." Sitting up on the boulder and crossing his arms thoughtfully, Garp stated, "Since regardless of the progress, you are doing your best."

"Re... huff... reward...?" Smoker, while breathing heavily, said in glee, "Which... huff... one?"

"More training, bwahahaha!!!"

Smoker's expression darkened, and the marine soldiers couldn't help but feel sympathy for the teen.

Garp, ignoring the antics of those around him, thought with a grin,

'But it won't be just your everyday type of training. It will consist of the unique set of training methods which I believe that you now are ready for it—'

Smoker's body trembled so much from the stress, that the dumbbells and boulder below Garp began to sway unstably. The marine soldiers nearby gulped nervously while taking few steps back.

'—the Rokushiki (Six Powers).'