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Chapter 12– A Goal.
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"Hm, brat. Why are you at the beginning of the book? I could have sworn that you were at the end of it the last time I looked." Garp asks while resting near the campfire. I myself also resting on the side opposite to him. I have been under his tutelage for... I don't know how long. I just know that I am very different from the boy that first arrived on this island.
And like every night after a long hard day of training, I rest on my makeshift bed made of a bunch of leaves next to the fire and read my book. But having been here for a long time and not having anything other than my book to relax, I had read through the entirety of these books multiple times, and so I have been rereading them.
"I am reading the book again, Garp-san." I answer him, not looking away from the book and trying to instil the information in my head so that I have a firm theoretical base I can use when I finally get around to doing some practical work.
"Okay." Garp simply answers before going back to whatever the hell it was he was doing. I don't know. I am not paying attention. And so we sit in silence for a while, the crackling o the fire keeping us company, as well as the loud snores of George, who sleep under a tree.
"But, why are you reading it again? Why aren't you doing any of the things it is actually telling you to do?" Garp breaks the silence, asking the questions he must have been thinking of for a while. Honestly, the reason why is obvious.
"Because I can't do anything without the proper tools, I can't chop down trees, I can cut the wood down, I can't fix the joints together. I just can't do any of it without the proper equipment, so all I can do is read the book until we finally get back to Conomi Islands, where I can actually start to do some carpentry." So I speak, expecting Garp to just reply with another okay and go back to whatever it was, but instead, I hear him get up off the ground and walk towards me.
I look up to see Garp looming over me with an angry, as well as disappointed, face. He suddenly reaches out and grabs my book before flinging it into the darkness behind him, taking me completely surprised and leaving me stunned for a second before I react and jump up to face him.
"WHAT THE HELL? WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR OLD MAN!? I WAS READING THAT!" I shout at him, enraged that he just took the one thing keeping me occupied on this island and giving me some respite from the intense training. But thankfully, when I look to where he flung the book, I can see that it is just resting on the sand further down the beach, and some of my anger bleeds, knowing I can just pick it up.
"You stupid little shrimp, what the hell have we been doing this entire time?" Garp calmly asks, a slight tone of anger in his voice, but more than that, I can hear him thinking I am an idiot for some reason, as if I was doing something wrong.
"You have been training me?" Even though I know it is the correct answer, I can't stop it from coming out as a question. The only thing we had been doing on this island was training, yet there must be something I am missing if Garp is acting like this, some sort of hidden lesson.
"You said you wanted to be the world's strongest man, didn't you? So come on, follow me, brat." Garp asks, turning his back on me and walking towards the forest. I quickly scramble to my feet and follow him. After all these days full of training and listening to his orders without question, it has been drilled into me, and I don't question him when he asks me to do something unless it is insanely absurd.
"Yes, I want to be the strongest man in the world. I will be the strongest man in the world." I answer him as we finally reach the forest, and Garp stops in front of a giant jungle tree.
"You don't want to be the world's best swordsman, or axeman, or poleman, or gunman?" Garp turns around and looks down at me, regarding me with a calm neutral eye.
"No, I don't want to be any of those things. I only have one goal: to be the world's strongest man." Of course, I answer, to which Garp seems to be happy as he rewards me with a slight smile and a nod.
"Good, good. Then, WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO USE TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT, YOU DUMBASS!?" Garp suddenly yells, completely changing his tune and catching me off guard. I stumble back, surprised by the sudden change of tone. I bet he woke up most of the animals in the forest with that, though George being the lazy lump that he is, is still snoring away just fine.
"W-What? I-I NEED TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT AND STUFF TO BUILD STUFF! HOW ELSE WOULD I MAKE ANYTHING!?" I shout back immediately, feeling like I am not in the wrong here since I am correct in what I am saying. However, I have no clue what the world's strongest stuff he was saying has to do with carpentry. There is no connection.
"WHY DO YOU NEED AN AXE TO CUT DOWN A TREE WHEN YOU CAN DO THIS!?" He punctuates his sentence by bringing his left hand up and slicing through the tree to his left, the side of his palm slipping through it as if it was made of butter and completely. I watch as the tree begins to topple before it starts falling to the ground, but before it even hits it and I have the chance to process it, Garp continues his tirade.
"OR THIS!?" Garp kicks his leg to the side and sweeps it through the air. I see a mesmerising arc of blue energy flash off into the distance and through multiple trees, seemingly having permeated through all of them without doing anything. But then, after a second, as one, they all slip and start to fall, even before the first one Garp chopped with his hand reaches the ground. And Garp doesn't stop there.
"IF YOU NEED TO DRILL SOMETHING, THEN DRILL IT!" He reaches his right hand out, and with his pointer finger, he begins to poke into the tree to his right multiple times with an insane speed, his fingers dipping into the tree like he was putting his finger inside jello.
I could hardly tell what had happened before he pulled his hand back. I can see multiple holes shot into the tree, all imperceptibly close to each other, with less than a millimetre between them. They make a perfect circle, except the finger thrusts are so precise and powerful that the tree still stays perfectly together.
"IF YOU NEED TO HAMMER SOMETHING, THEN USE YOUR DAMN FIST!" Garp clenches his hand into a fist and then drives it forward with the force of thunder, right between the circle of holes he just made. He blasts that chunk of wood straight out, and I can only blink as it whooshes by me and off over the water, probably not stopping till it kills a Seaking or hits another island. A nearly perfect circle is left in the tree, Garp's fist poking out through it.
"IF YOU NEED TO GET UP HIGH TO BUILD, THEN JUMP UP THERE!" Garp pulls his fist back out and then jumps up into the air reaching about halfway up the tree, and then he jumps again and reaches the top of the tree, and then again, and again and again. He defies the law of everything to ever exist and jumps off absolutely nothing to get higher, and then he continually jumps in the air to maintain his height.
"YOU DON'T NEED WEAPONS. YOU DO NOT NEED TOOLS. ALL YOU NEED IS YOURSELF. THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN TRAINING YOU FOR!" Garp shouts before he stops jumping on nothing and begins to fall to the ground. As Garp does so, he faces towards the depths of the forest and starts to kick out multiple times as he falls to the ground, sending out numerous blue flashes that are smaller than the previous one he did, and they only slice through a single tree.
When he finally lands on the ground, the tree falls apart, and multiple wood logs fall down from the sky, littering the floor. I quickly hop backwards when the very top of the tree comes down with all the branches and leaves.
Garp then turns around and looks towards me, but I have no clue what to say after having my mind completely blown and seeing multiple super abilities that I had no clue existed, which means my journey to be the ultimate force on this planet is going to be much more complicated than I thought.
Garp walks past me and towards the beach again, and I am treated to the view of an absolutely demolished forest that has been cut down to just stumps. Logs were strewn all over the ground. Seeing the destruction wrought by this man in less than a second, I turn around to look at him, astonished, and he is not even a little bit out of breath.
I quickly run off after him as he walks past our campfire and towards the sea, confusing me as to what he is doing, but then he walks towards the boat we arrived in for some reason. He stops there, looking down at it as I come and stands next to him.
"Wow, that- that was... wow." That is all I can manage to get out since I simply don't know how else to express my amazement at the sheer power that was just shown to me. But he doesn't respond. He just stays there looking down at the rowboat in thought.
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"Um, Garp-San? What are you-WAIT, DONT-" Suddenly, before I can react, Garp reaches down and grabs onto the boat before lifting it up, and he faces the ocean. Getting an inkling of what he is trying to do, I try to stop him, but before I can, he throws the boat with all his might out across the ocean, and I can only watch as it blinks out of existence on the horizon.
"Hm, there, no more boat." I can only stare blankly at Garp, who nods in satisfaction with his handy work, pleased with the result.
"Why? Why did you do that?" I speak listlessly because Garp had just rid us of our only means of transport off of the island. So now we can only wait for some ship to come out here and hope they pick us up, and I have been here for a few days now, and I know that no ships at all pass this island.
So our only hope now is to wait until Garp's crew figures out something is wrong and comes looking for us, Bogard is definitely reliable enough, but until he comes, I will be stuck here with Garp and George, two giant gorillas.
"Because, you little shrimp, I will be damned if some student of mine is going to be as useless as you are turning out to be. You say you want to be the world's strongest man, but you make stupid excuses. You want to be a shipwright too, don't you? That is why you are reading the book. Then you are going to have to make us a boat to get us off this island, and we are going to stay here until after you do. So get to it." Garp says, not taking no for an answer, and I can't exactly say no since this is my only option now.
"But Garp, you don't understand. I never wanted to be a shipwright. I just wanted to learn carpentry to do work on my own house. The book I was reading only talked about houses and not boats, and even then, it was just the basics. I have no idea how to build a boat." Seeing what Garp did earlier, I can see that it is feasible to get the resources and do the work. However, I will not be able to do it with the ease that Garp did so for many years, but I can slowly take resources from this forest and work on making something, but I still need to learn how to build a boat.
"GODDAMN IT, STOP MAKING EXCUSES! DO YOU THINK THAT THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD MAKES EXCUSES WHEN HE COMES UP AGAINST A WALL? NO! HE KEEPS SMASHING AGAINST THAT WALL UNTIL IT BREAKS OR HE DIES, SO YOU MAKE THAT BOAT, IT IS JUST A HOUSE THAT FLOATS, GODDAMN IT!" Garp shouts at me, and I stumble back, shocked by his sudden rise in anger, the pure vitriol in his voice and the hate in his eyes, eyes that seemed to be looking through me at something else.
Suddenly he seems to recognise me, and that hate leaves his eyes, and the anger leaves his body, his form losing its tenseness and relaxing. The angry visage on his face disappears, leaving a calm look in its place, and then he seems to regret his outburst.
"Sorry, kid, I was just reminded of something else and took it out on you. My bad. Listen, it really isn't that hard to build a boat. It is just a curved box with some seats, and it floats. You are my student now, which means you have to be better than the rest. I won't accept anything less. I have a reputation to uphold, after all. Stop giving up before you even try. It pisses me off. If you keep doing that, you will never be strong or fulfil any of your dreams." Garp then walks back over to the campfire and lays down on his makeshift bed, leaving me standing there contemplating his words.
Stop giving up before you even try, and stop making excuses...
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It has been a really long time since that day. In comparison, that day was actually close to the day we came to this island, and now it has definitely been at least a couple of months. I haven't ever started on making my boat yet, focusing on my own training first as well as waiting till I was strong enough to actually start chopping down trees with my hands, but obviously, that was not going to happen.
I knew that, but I still tried. Every day, I try to chop a tree down with my own hands, going at it with the sole focus of chopping it down, but all I ever do is chip away at the bark. But, what Garp said really stuck with me, and so I wanted to try it this way first, to try and do it with just my own body, but after these months of training, I feel like I am in a good enough place with my training that I can start on the boat.
I knew that the chances of me bringing down a tree with my own fist were negligible, but I still tried, but it was not going to happen anytime soon. I was just not old enough or strong enough to do so.
Garp was angry that I was giving up before I even started and that I was not even thinking about trying. He didn't want me to actually make a boat with my own hands and nothing else. he just wanted me to try, to try and do build the boat before I even gave up. I think Garp might have been projecting his own problems at me because he seemed to be more talking to himself when he was screaming at me that day, he is a powerful man, but he seems to also have his own share of problems.
So it is time to try another way again. I can not chop down the trees to get the resources to build a boat, but I can get the resources to create tools, and I am going to make my own tools to help me build the boat.
So, what do I need to build a boat? I need wood and nails, and that is about it. The wood is easy since there is an overabundance of it on this island after all, but the nails won't be found here, and so I need a substitute for it. But somehow, I don't see myself finding anything on this island to act as nails, so I need to find something to do the job that nails would do.
Nails are there to pin two or more things together and hold them firmly in place, so I just need to find something that can keep two or more things together, and I have already seen the perfect thing. The same thing that I had used to make my makeshift bags, twine. While thin, they are pretty strong, and if you gather enough of them, you can bundle them into a cord and twist them around to make some makeshift rope.
With that taken care of, I now need to get wood, but I won't be able to do that with my bare fists, which means I need to make a makeshift axe. To do that, there is a rockface not too far away from here with loads of stones all over the place. So Garp sometimes makes me do my training over there on the sharp rocks.
I can probably find a sharp rock over there, and if I can't, then I can just start bashing rocks together until one fractures and gives me a sharp stone. Then I can use some of the aforementioned twine rope to secure that to the head of a tree branch, and voila, a makeshift axe.
With that axe, I can chop down wood, and using another sharp stone, I can shave down and carve that wood, shaping it into something I can make use of. A plan is coming together. I can see this all working out quite nicely.
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"There, finally done." I speak aloud, relieved to finally have finished my boat. I have spent ages working on it and fine-tuning it till it was perfect, and finally, the day is here.
"Would you look at that? I knew you had it in you. Let me just get my crackers, and we can be on our way." Garp says, looking down at my boat in amazement, and who could blame him? It is a work of art. I worked hard to make something practical, but also, since it was the first thing I ever built with my own two hands, I made it look good as well.
A sleek wooden boat, clean and smooth, with nothing jutting out or anything, I took extra care to sand it all down to size. I even managed to shave down two branches to make good solid oars to row the boat with, and now we can get off of this island and go back to Shokuyasi Village.
"Alright, let's get out of here." I am brought out of my mesmerisation by Garp returning with his smaller sack of crackers, having seriously dwindled his massive supply over the many months we have been here. He drops his bag into the boat, jumps in, and takes a seat, lying back to rest his head on the sack, clearly not going to help with the rowing, just like on the way here.
"Alright, bye, George, have a nice life on the island!" I shout to George, who sits on the beach eating a fruit, the last one I will ever peel for him, and he looks back at us confused, so I ignore him.
"Greh?" I hear George grunt confusedly while laying my hands on the back of the boat. I start to push it off of the sand and out onto the waters. I keep doing so until I feel the water rise to my knees, at which point I hop into the boat as well.
I grab the oar and dip it into the water, feeling it hit the sand underneath, at which point I start to push. "Alright! Let's go-"
"GRAAAAH!" Hearing a roar coming from right behind me, I turn around, and I see a big black mass moving rapidly towards us before-
*Splash*
I am submerged under the water for a second before I jump back up out of it and gasp for breath, confused as to what just happened, only to see a wet gorilla face staring back at me blankly.
"Grah?" George grunts and I find myself feeling tired. This dumb ass gorilla just ran after us and jumped on our boat, smashing the thing to pieces and ruining all of my hard work. But seeing his dumb face that doesn't seem to comprehend what he has just done, I remember that George is basically a child, and there is no point being angry at him since he doesn't know any better.
Sighing, I pick up the one oar that survived and start to wade back through the water towards the beach, resigned to starting my boat again and building it again. Lifting my heavy legs out of the water, I step back onto the beach, only to suddenly feel a shiver journey down my spine as I feel an ominous presence at my back.
"You..." I quickly turn back to see Garp standing there in the shallows, water dripping off of every inch of him, but more importantly, the sack in his hand is drenched through, the sack that carried the snacks that he spends all day eating and water is dripping from it.
Garp begins to stalk towards me, walking normally as if the water wasn't even there. I prepare myself for him to berate me for having ruined the only thing that Garp actually enjoys on this island besides me hurting myself in training.
"Make a bigger boat. The monkey is coming too. He won't take no for an answer, damn dirty ape." Garp walks past me and back towards the beach, dropping the wet sack on the sand and then walking back towards the campfire.
"Wait, what? Why are we taking George?" I ask, looking towards George, who has now pulled himself out of the water and started to vigorously shake himself, spraying water everywhere. What are you, a dog?
"The monkey wants to stay with you for some reason, and it will keep trying to come with us and breaking the boat, so just let him come. he isn't much trouble anyway." Garp says, having already started the fire back up and drying himself in front of it.
"God, Garp-San. I thought you would be much angrier since all of your crackers are gone, and you will be eating no more of them till I build another boat and get us off of this island." So I speak, coming to sit next to him to dry myself as well.
"You know what shrimp? Since we have so much extra time now, we can step up your training. You have really come into your own since we got here, so let's make you even stronger." Garp says, staring straight into the fire.
"Oh wow, okay, great! So what are we going to do? Are you going to teach me how to jump into the air like you did or how to make those cool wind blades you did with your legs?" I cannot wait. I will be truly awesome with those at my disposal.
"No, no, you are already on your way to doing that stuff. No, what I am talking about is experience. What is the use of training if you have never actually used it? I think it is time you get some real hands-on experience." Garp turns to look at me, and I am scared at the truly wide unfriendly grin on his face. I don't think he has so easily forgiven me for ruining his crackers.