Chapter 5 - Training

Yesterday when we ate the devil fruits I didn’t have much time to experiment with mine, I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time. While walking back to the clearing I was at yesterday when I received my old memories, I started thinking about experiments for my abilities and trying to come up with a training regiment for my family members.

We aren’t blood-related, hell I think that Noah and Sky are both children of world nobles. Just the way they carried themselves all those years ago when we first met. It must have been like ten years ago by now.

As I was reminiscing about the past, I had already walked to my little hideout in the middle of the forest. I stood In the middle of the clearing, emptying my mind of any stray thoughts and started to activate my newfound powers.

”First will be, generating clouds!” I shouted inside my head and watched in wonder as a small cloud began forming right before me. It took a couple of seconds to fully form but that was only because I am inexperienced in generating clouds as, naturally, this was my first time doing so. Even so, I felt that it should have been a quicker process. ”Well, maybe through practice will I be quicker. After all, even Luffy had a hard time controlling his rubber body when he was young. Okay, I can generate clouds, cool, what else can I do?” I spoke to no one but myself. I willed the cloud to come closer, and it came surprisingly fast. Maybe it’s because I am closer to it that I can manipulate it faster. My connection to this little one seems way more powerful than to those up above. Though it might be because this one was made by me and not mother nature. I tried touching my newly generated cloud friend and surprisingly it was similar to a rubber ball, it had elasticity but didn’t give in and behaved a lot like clouds in the sky islands, meaning it can support some weight on it before it dispersed. Exactly three boulders or about 40 – 50 kilograms of weight.

Rubber ball might have been a wrong comparison, my clouds behaved, after thorough experimentation, more like a chair with some padding. Soft on the outer layer but hard and solid on the inside. These were the normal clouds. I also could make rainclouds which were dark blue containing almost infinite amounts of liquid. I could make the rainclouds rain down normal rain, hail, and snow. I could also make thunderclouds but they sap a lot of my energy and while I can release the thunder sealed inside the clouds, I cant direct it’s striking point. Thunderclouds also have unlimited amounts of thunder in them.

So far I could only come up with some combat applications but that didn’t bother me much, as my main weapon would be a staff and haki. My clouds will be in a more of a supporting role, such as creating footholds and changing the battlefield. I also experimented a little on my idea of making a personal cloud to transport me to battle. So far I can support myself on the cloud if I make it bigger, but making it move with me on top of it is still hard. My sense of balance is completely fucked while I’m on top of it. Maybe I should make some handles for my own safety.

I realized as I was walking back home, that I had completely forgotten to even start making a training regiment for us. When I reached our front door, I had already formulated our training regiment. We just needed to decide on some basic matters such as our weapons, when to leave and when to sell our fruit. Opening the front door while in my thoughts, I almost walked into Jackie who was reaching for the door with his head in the other direction, talking to someone. I almost walked into his outreaching hand.

”Sorry Josef, I was just coming to pick you up, as you would have been late otherwise.” He said and took back his hand from my face. ”Nah, it’s fine. I almost walked into you just now, its not your fault.”

”Let’s get straight to the point, ” I said as I saw that everyone was gathered already. ”I have a few questions that need answering and I think you’ll find them interesting as well. Let’s discuss our plans for the future first as they were left little unclear last night.”

”What else do you want to discuss?” Asked Noah, as he was apparently ready to leave already.

”First of all, I didn’t actually ask this of you yesterday, but do you all want to actually leave from here. With the training regiment and skills, I will teach you guys soon, you could live like kings in this shit hole. I’ll just say this first here, I want to leave. I want to see everything and anything this wonderful world has to offer and I would like to join me on my adventure.” I said it. My grand ambition born yesterday. Instead of my earlier day to day survival attitude, now that my old memories lie in my head, I have the power at my fingertips to roam this world as a powerful person among many others. I stared in silence towards my friends, family members.

They truly are closer than family to me. Jackie is a gentle giant who is a little less gifted in I.Q scale but is truly talented at handling our emotional states and our personalities frequent clashing. He is necessary for us to retain sanity. The glue that holds us all together.

Sky is the beautiful rose of our family, with its thorns of course. Now with the maturity of my old memories, I have found that I am thinking her a lot more and sometimes she just pops into my head from nowhere and I get distracted. Her cooking is awesome and brought me solace many times when I had a particularly depressing day.

Noah can be annoying but I truly think of him as my younger brother that I never had and he is reliable to the point that I would leave my life in his hands. I looked at them all and they looked back. I know that they picked up on my insecure tone, from their looks. They now know how I feel.

Jackie was the first to respond and broke the silence. ”I will leave with you. With all we’ve been through here together I can’t just leave you alone. Who knows when Sky will kill you”.” He said with a smile on his face. ”Plus there is a place on the Grand-Line where I want to visit as well.” ”Where?” I asked with relief in my voice. And his response left me shocked.

”The village of warriors. Elbaf. My late mother used to tell that our family was from there before she was even born, and her goal in life was to reach Elbaf. Unfortunately, she passed before she made it there, but I will go there in her place.” So he really was part giant. How can he remember something like this? We have known each other since we were like 4. Maybe she made him memorize the name before she passed. I thought maybe since he was really tall for his age, but giants are almost twenty meters tall. I wonder how Jackie's giant blood shows itself? Through height or through strength?

”We will also go with you. We have a goal that we need to reach no matter what. We were going to leave this place sometime soon, but there never was any opportunities to tell you guys or an opportunity to leave.” Said Sky looking apologetic. I was in a shock. These two who I’ve known for almost 10 years now we're going to leave. And they might not have even informed us about it.

”Where do you need to go?” I asked while masking my chaotic emotions.

”Mariejois”

…

”Fine, we’ll take you there, but I want to hear the full story some other time” There is no way in hell that we would be let away easily when we go to Mariejois. But luckily that is one of the places on my bucket list, so it’s on the way. Somehow. Even if there is no one clear way.

Maybe I shouldn’t have given her the ancient zoan fruit. Well, what’s done is done.

”The next order of business is our weaponry. What will you use to fight? I can train you in hand to hand combat but I will use a staff. I don’t know any other fighting styles or weapons proficiently enough to teach you. I can give you pointers regarding the weapons you should use, but it’s ultimately your choice.” I let them ponder for a while. This decision should be left to them.

”I am also thinking of recruiting Nina to our crew. As her being a marine will be beneficial to us. And she knows most, if not all of the Marines six powers. Having trained them for five years, I am sure she is good enough to teach them to us. Plus, she is strong.” This news left Jackie ecstatic and Sky looked ready to kill for whatever reason. Jackie had had a little bit of a crush on Nina, who was the only girl coming close to his height, and her personality matched very well with his. Actually, they were the opposites, she was hot-headed and got easily enraged, while Jackie is gentle and likes to take his time with things.

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”Really?! I’d love to see her again. But will she accept and join us if we are pirates?” He said.

”That brings me to my second question. Yesterday I asked you whether you’d want to become pirates or marines or what I’d call adventurers. I kind of made that question unfair. Remember what I said, it had no positives and only the negatives. As I wanted you all to join my cause I skewed the question to be more persuasive to me. I apologize for that.” I said and bowed deeply. I had to do this or it would have bugged me my entire life, for taking away their freedom of choice and I doubt that would have been the last time I’d do something like that.

Looking up I saw them, their differing emotional states being clear in their faces. Mild anger and distrust from the brother-sister pair for only a second and relief and anger from Jackie's side.

”Why would you do something like this?” Asked sky, face cool and controlled.

”I only wanted us to stay together. I would have accepted if any of you wanted to become pirates or marines, but I only wanted us to stay together and out of trouble.”

”Well I’m glad you came forward with this, but I’d prefer if you wouldn’t do this kind of things to us anymore. I understand that you only wanted the best for us and that is why I’ll leave it at that.” Said Jackie with a smile on his face. Why you gotta be so cool, man. Damn. I can tell that Sky only accepted my apology when Jackie accepted it. Noah was still looking distrusting of me as this was their chance to get to Mariejois. He’d come around, I know he would.

”With my heart being settled we come to the question of how to sail the seas. Pirates, marines or some unaffiliated method. As much as I am eager to go adventuring we aren’t strong enough. There are many beings that could kill us with a wave of their hand. Either the pirates or the marines. Doesn’t matter which we choose, both sides have extremely guys working for them. That being said I suggest that we wait some time before making a final decicion. We need to train. Have you come to a conclusion on how and with what you want to fight?”

They looked puzzeled for a moment before realising that I changed the topic to the one we had earlier. Jackie was first to answer. ”With my strength, I think I’d prefer just using my fists. Plus all these weapons and learning all of the aspects sounds tiring enough for me to lose interest.”

”Sure. I can train you in hand to hand combat. Is there some kind of fighting style you’d prefer. In the fights that we’d had you always used your body to your advantage, so maybe something akin to krav maga or ...”This muttering went on a little while until Noah stoppd me ”You lost us when you started talking about different unknown styles” ”Wha- oh yeah. Sorry. I’ve decided on a martial art for you Jackie. One that will make good use of your heritage and current fighting style.” ”Nice. But where did you learn something like that. You certaintly didn’t know how to fight when I’ve had to save you multiple times from the local gang members.” Shit. Fucking old life memories confusing me. Phew. Relax. ”Remember everyday when I wanish to my hideout in the woods for the whole day? What do you think I was doing? Nothing? How could I do nothing for the whole day. No. I’ve been practising.” ”How come you don’t gain any muscle then?” Shiiit. Freaking sharp eyed witch. Damn you Sky. When did you sneek a peek at my non existent abs. ”Martial Arts isn’t all about muscles. I.. It’s also about the thecnique. Thats what I’ve been training, more than muscles. Enough about that. Sky, have you decided?” She sighed ”Yes, I’ll also take your hand to hand combat lessons.” She said and I shifted my focus from her to Noah as I don’t want to be exposed more.

”Actually I think you shoould go with knives in both hands. You are ambidextreous right? It’d be a shame not to use such a gift for your own advantage.” I said while turning back to Sky. She looked puzzeled. ”How did you know that? I know for a fact that i’ve never said it out loud.” ”You use both hands when you cook. Specificially you use a knife in both of your hands. I’ve seen you do it, and know that it’s almost impossible to do without being ambidextrous. So you’ll be getting hand-to-hand combat and two knives. Cool. Noa,h you’re next” I turned back to him.

”I’d rather not fight… if possible?” ”Not possible. You have to atleast learn hand to hand combat for now and maybe a weapon in the future. The places we’re going to aren’t friendly and the people we meet will want to kill us. Decide on something and you’ll devote your life to that. Jackie for example, he can throw a mean kick with his strength and big build, but that doesn’t matter if the opponent is faster than him and dodges. Normal people fight with their fists and sometimes with their legs. But martial artists fight with their whole body. Fists, Elbows, Legs, Knees, Shins and heels. Not only does that give a lot more variety, youll also learn to temper your body and spirit. This world is a magical world where fruits can give people the powers to harness lightning, become the master of fire and turn people to stone or steal their shadows and make use of them. In this world, there are huge sea monsters that roam the seas and snack on warships. And people indistingushable from you and me who have their morning swim next to these monsters and they aren’t the least bit afraid cause they know, the monsters know, and the rest of the world knows that almost nothing can hurt them. In this world, our bodies can surpass human limitations. We only need a strong enough will. If you fear hard work then you can never improve.”

I ended my speech and stared at Noah who was speechless from my psuedo-pep talk and said, ”Don’t you have somewhere you need to go. Do you think you can just sail there all willy nilly and just be a passenger while others fight. If you have 500 000 000 Beli then maybe. But you don’t have, do you. That’s why you need to forge your own path to the goal you want to achieve. Pirate king Gol D. Roger is a man you can take as an example. You can say anything you want about him but he certaintly left his mark in history.” He’ll leave an ever bigger mark soon. It felt like I said these words more for myself than for him. Something like sementing my detrmination. Something along the lines of not dying in a random alley and being remembered.

”Don’t worry. Something like your future shouldn’t be decided in a few minutes. For now, you’ll only take the hand to hand combat class. IF you find a weapon you’re interested in just tell me. I might or might not be able to help you, but I’ll do my best.”

”Okay, we got weapons covered, I will now speak about my hand to hand combat course. Two hours of every morning will be used in training self-defense and building up muscle Specificially we start at seven am. Now I know that his will impact you jobs and routine, so I’ve decided to go and sell the mud mud logia fruit in the city. West blue’s biggest trading hub, The Vulkk city must have some auction houses or similiar things. I will then make our living standards rise by two hundred percent. Getting us a house in the merchant district near the stores with good security. Also, it’s the closest to the shore. I’ll get us a few good cooks and a butler. These are a must if we are to fully focus on our training.

There is a one hour resting period after morning practise where we will eat breakfast and rest. At ten a’ clock comes individual practise for two hours until twelve. From twelve you have three hours of free time, do what you want. At two there will be lunch served Three pm to five will be combat practise. Five to seven will be a common time for us to deepen our friendship and comradarie, this is also the place to socialise with our future crewmates. Then at seven there will be dinner and after that free until seven am the next day.”

”You said with future crewmates, what do you mean? It won’t be just us?” Asked sky in a slightly distressed voice which I just dismissed to be the anxiety of meeting new people and not fear of and lack of trust to other people.

”Well, we don’t have a navigator, and while you can make good food, do you really know what kind on nutrition person needs most just by hearing the symptoms or the name of the ilness. That is why I need you to get better and thought of getting you a teaher or someone knowleagable. Hell maybe we can just get good chefs and have them teach you , it’d save money. Neither do we have a capable doctor. You never know what kind of ilness one gets out in the Grand Line, not how to treat it, not how they got it, nor how to defend one against it, is it infecitous or not, is it lethal or not. These two are the ones we need to actually even leave. Ones i’d like, for variuos reasons, to have are a Sniper, Historian/Archeologist, Muscician/Singer and last but not least a tinkerer/scientist/weapons maker I don’t really care who but someone with a creative and quick mind. And before you ask, I thought of inviting Nina bbecause she is strong and because she know the marines six powers.” I said that last part while looking at Sky and she just rolled her eyes at me.

”This is just a foundational schedule, it can be altered for person-to-person if need be. We won’t be using this schedule until I get us a new place. You all have tomorrow free right?” I asked and although I knew the answer I wanted to be sure, and thankfully I was right according to their bouncing heads.

”Tomorrow I will introduce you guys to training. In two days I’ll go to the city and look for a place to sell the devil fruit. Who wants to come with me?” All three raised their hands, but sky opened her mouth. ”I think I should come. I have a devil fruit power and can protect you and the money. Also when we go shopping for all the different things we need, I’ll keep track of the spent money so we can save some for later.”

”Okay, Sky is going with me then.” I said and Jackie and Noah looked almost deoressed that they weren’t allowed to go with me.

”While I have nothing else to talk about. Do you guys have anything you want to talk about. Anything piques your interest while I talked?”

”What kind of weapon will you use, Josef?”

”Good question Jackie. I’ll be using a staff. For now, it will have to be just from normal wood or metal, but I hope that one day I’ll get some wood from the treasure tree Adam and make my staff out of that.”

”I really want to make a ship out of Adam tree… Did you guys know that supposedly the pirate king’s ship the, Oro Jackson, was made from Adam tree?” Noah interjected with longing in his voice.

”Too bad that it’s expensive and rare. I heard that Adam wood enough for a small ship was sold for AT LEAST 200 million Berries.” I shot him down fast.

”Damn it.”

”Well if you got no other questions then I’ll retire for the night. Goodnight and look forward to tomorrow” I said as I walked away from the cramped common room.