Lara's POV;

Koby was still sulking by the time we reached their gym. He wasn't a fan of me being here, Olsy, on the other hand, found it cool. He obviously liked me and had some form of hero worship as well. Poor guy was delusional if he thinks that I will ever look at him in that way. That he survived Lia's raid only happened because he hid during the fight.

Once inside the gym, they asked one of their female trainees if she would lend me a set of clothes. She did with a friendly smile and we changed together. I had to use my Ninja skills to hide the Sun Pirate symbol on my back, but that was easier than infiltrating the academy.

So now we were inside the gym and waiting for the teacher, Koby was facepalming and muttering that this will end badly, over and over. I would have hit him over the head for being this pessimistic, but the doors to the room opened with a bang and crashed into the walls, where they left an imprint.

From the many cracks on the wall, this wasn't the first time. Three people came inside, one of them, the leading man, was wide shouldered and towered over his two assistants.

“Guahahahaha, it's time to train!” He laughed. It was no one else but Garp. Right, forgot that he was their trainer.

“Hmm? Who're you? I can't recall having a long-ear human in my course?” He asked the moment he spotted me between Olsy and Koby. Koby was already opening his mouth to apologise and explain the situation, but I hit him in the side with my elbow and stopped him from being a spoilsport.

I clicked my heels together and saluted him sharply, “Sir, I'm Clair, my officer in command, Commodore Smoker, ordered me to take part in today's officer academy.”

“Guahaha, good good, it's always nice to have someone new who can show these pussies how it's done. I can feel that you are strong. Let's start with the basics, whom of you have finished their Soru training?” Of course, Garp would accept me, he either has already forgotten me or does not even care that I'm here. I mean, he is Luffy's grandfather, the idiocy must come from somewhere.

The class shuffled around, many didn't want to step in the front. Only Koby and Olsy were left in the front, I didn't bother as well.

Garp frowned from the sight but quickly focused on the three of us that are ready to show off. “Ho, so only three? And one of them is not even a regular student. Very well, then let's make a race. Olsy, Koby and the lovely Clair. The winner gets a surprise in today's sparring lesson.”

We got into position on the racing line and waited for the students to stand at the side. One of Garp's assistants was standing in front of us and had raised his hand. “Ready? Go!” The instant he lowered his arm all three of us activated their Soru.

Now the normal Soru is a movement technique that uses ten quickly successive steps to propel yourself forward with extreme speed. The more steps you can apply, before really moving forward, the faster your Soru gets. From the looks of it, Olsy was able to use eleven and Koby was at ten.

Each step was harder to master and made your Soru a lot faster.

Without the Seals limiting me I was at twenty, so it was no surprise that I was on the other side of the track when they haven't even reached the halfway point. The assistants weren't able to track my movements, but Garp was clearly able to do.

“Guahaha, the little Missy has you beaten boys. You'll have to train more if you don't want to look bad,” laughed Garp at the two boys. The class was staring wide-eyed at me and Olsy was looking as if it was only natural for me to be this much faster.

“Good, now while the rest of these pussies trains more in Soru, you three get to show me what else of the six skills you have mastered so far. Koby, start!” Ordered Garp. The students got split between Garp's two assistants and Garp handled Olsy, Koby and me directly.

“I am close to using the Shigan,” admitted Koby sheepishly. Garp nodded and gestured at a straw puppet with leather padding. Koby got close and stabbed his finger into the reinforced doll. His finger left a visible dent in the leather, but no hole.

“You need to straighten your finger more as well as add more speed,” advised Garp before gesturing at Olsy. Olsy stepped forward, took a deep breath and then shot his finger into the puppet. The leather got pierced and he left a visible hole.

“Yep yep, like that. Good job Olsy,” praised Garp. Olsy beamed at me like a puppy seeking praise by its owner. I gave him a, what might have been, proud smile and then stepped up to the puppet myself.

“I'm not very versed in the Shigan, but I'll give my best,” I said before using the finger pistol myself. The target got pierced alright, and there was a hole as well. Straight through the whole thing and out on the other side.

Garp inspected the hole and nodded a few times while holding his chin in thought. “Hmm completely through. You might want to test yourself at the distant Shigan next,” he turned back around and addressed us three again. “Next is Tekkai.”

I raised my hand, before telling them that I'm not skilled at Tekkai. I was always of the opinion that not getting hit is the best defence. Garp nodded and gave both his other students a love tap. I.E. a fist to the stomach that catapulted them off their feet and into the twenty-meter distant wall. Neither looked as if they managed to form a Tekkai hard enough to withstand his tap.

“Next is Geppo,” he announced without pause. Koby and Olsy groaned in pain but were still able to stand up. I give them credit for their endurance, that hit must have stung.

I showed a few hops of Geppo and then waited for Olsy and Koby to shakily jump into the air. Both of their Geppo was enough to stay airborne but not useable for quick moves or fighting. Kinda like Noa's.

Garp motioned for us to come down. “Now Rankyaku, one of you will use it, the other will evade with a Kami-e. I will act as the training dummy before you switch.” Did Garp just now realized that he can't use a storm kick on someone that is not able to evade? Or was he just not in the mood to attack us with deadly blades of wind?

Whatever it was, I got paired up with him. We moved into a reinforced part of the gym, steel plates were lining the walls and there were barricades stopping any attack from flying out and at the other students. Koby and Olsy were in their own area and the soft clunk of storm kicks could be heard through the metal. Garp gave me a bright encouraging smile. It was Garp, so did give him the strongest storm kick I could muster.

The blade of razor sharp wind flew off of my leg and raced at Garp. He has lost his smile and had decided that Kami-e was not a good idea, the force blade was too massive for that. Instead, he used Tekkai and Haki to enhance his own defence.

The blade crashed into him, made a massive boom and blew up a dust cloud large enough to block my sight. The dust slowly settled down and I could see that Garp was no longer standing at his starting position.

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My attack had enough strength to force his body back, through the reinforced metal and a few good meters back to the other trainees. Garp himself had a slightly cut vest and a bright grin on his face. There was no visible damage anywhere on his body, only dust.

“Guahahahaha, that's a strong kick, Missy. Now here's mine!” He raised his leg and brought it down in an incredibly fast kick. The air got distorted and a storm kick, easily four times the strength of my own came back at me.

I had to bend my whole body so wide backwards that I almost touched the ground. The storm kick raced narrowly over my nose and crashed into the reinforced metal wall, then cut through it and continued to fly off into a main barricade wall of the island. There it struggled to cut through the sea stone reinforced metal until it finally got deflected into the air.

I stood back up, looked through the wall, saw the dent in the other one and then the parted clouds in the sky. This guy does not know the meaning of holding back. No wonder Luffy is such an idiot.

Both students and assistants alike were gaping at Garp and me.

I rubbed the back of my head in fake embarrassment and laughed sheepishly, Garp did the same, noticed me doing it as well and then laughed a loud belly laugh. “I like ya Missy, how about you switch your commanding officer? I could train you personally,” he then asked.

“Sorry, Smoker is a good boss. He helped me a lot, I can't leave him without paying him back,” I replied with an apologetic smile.

“Bah, too bad. The best are always taken. Well, let's continue. Olsy, Koby, come out and to the sparring ring, the mock fights start,” shouted Garp. Both Olsy and Koby came out from their part of the storm blade area and looked with a little pale face at the destruction that Garp and I had caused.

“Who'll fight whom, Garp sir?” Asked one of the trainees. Garp pointed at some random guy and then at another. Both got into the ring and began to fight in hand to hand combat. The fight was boring, probably at the strength of Noa when we were in Alabasta. And Noa was fucking weak back then, at least for my standards.

More fights like that took place, some less impressive than the others. Helmeppo was the strongest of this weak bunch. Then there were Koby and Olsy, they fought fairly well, both at the level of Luffy during the Enies Lobby attack.

“And now your special threat, you little Missy, get to fight against me!” Declared Garp loudly after the last fight. Koby facepalmed and I smiled widely.

The students stepped as far away from the ring as possible. Garp threw his Marine coat away and faced me in the middle of the ring, a wide grin plastered on his face. “You may start.”

I nodded and used a Soru to get close to him, he tracked me with his eyes and raised his arm to block my kick. A small shockwave was generated from the impact, and yet Garp didn't move a single centimetre. “That's good Missy, but can you keep up?”

He vanished the moment he finished and reappeared behind me, fist cocked back for a hit. I leaned back and used Kami-e to evade the incoming punch of death. It raced over my head and I used the chance to hit his elbow with two Shigan before he managed to pull back.

His other fist came down at me and I had to roll out of the way. It crashed into the floor and produced a cater, as well as some wind that blew me off a bit.

I righted myself mid-flight, used my hands for a handstand and kicked with my right leg out. A storm kick flew at Garp, who crossed his arms and activated his Tekkai. The blade crashed into him but no damage at all.

So I began to rotate on my hands like a breakdancer, each turn generated a new storm kick that rapidly flew at Garp. He got pelted by my onslaught and dust got thrown up. Then suddenly I felt his presence next to me and had only enough time to activate my Haki before he landed a blow in my side.

I crashed into the wall of the gym and dented the reinforced metal. “Guahaha, was that everything little Missy?” Laughed Garp with a wide grin.

“Nope old man,” I replied and pushed myself out of the wall with enough force to fully destroy that section. Garp's grin grew wider and he brought his fist back to meet me head on. I coated my own arm in the stronger Haki version and both our attacks met each other.

There was a crackling of lightning when our Haki's met each other, wind got generated and some of the weaker students were blown away. Sadly, Garp was stronger, bigger and heavier than me and he was starting to win this match of fists.

I didn't want to cheat and use my vibration power, so I did the next best thing, I kicked off with a Geppo and gave myself that little bit more strength that was needed to lift Garp off of his feet.

Yet Garp wasn't finished either, he rolled himself into a ball, made a full spin and then kicked at me with his suddenly outstretched leg. I grabbed his leg, used it as a platform and sent my boot to meet his face. He reacted quickly and moved his arm in the way. The crash was loud and rung as if steel hit on stone.

Neither of us was in a good position to continue, so we separated.

“Guahahaha, haven't had this much fun in ages,” guffawed Garp. He jumped at me and tried a one-two combo. I evaded the first and redirected the second strike, before bringing both fists into his stomach.

He coughed and had to bend over from the impact. Then, suddenly, he grabbed me on my hip and lifted me up. He raised me up and has every intention of bringing me down to the ground, head first.

Luckily it also allowed me to be at face level with him and with both his arms busy I had enough time to give his nose a few good punches, each enhanced with the strongest Haki I could muster.

For the first time in this fight, blood flowed, his nose was broken after the third hit.

And yet it did not break his grip, he only grinned at me with a blood-filled mouth and then let himself fall down, my head between his legs and on a direct course to the ground.

I raised both my arms and stopped the fall before he could splash my head open like a ripe melon. I now had to carry both myself and his body with my arms, while being in a weird position.

Still, I could use that. I moved my free dangling legs down, wrapped them around his head and squeezed. “MWHMWHWM,” protested Garp. I tightened my squeeze and he had to throw me away, or else his head would get crushed.

He gave me barely enough time to spin mid-flight when he was again at me. His knee came flying up and I used it to lift myself up to his eye level, where I then used the additional force to make a forward roll over his head. I was still spinning when I grabbed the back of his head. He got ripped along and crashed down into the ground.

I rolled off and spun around to punch my elbow into his face, but he had already rolled away.

Both of us were ready to continue, he still wore that wide grin and I felt refreshed from this good spar.

Yet everything must come to an end, this end wasn't satisfying. “Sir! You have to stop!” Shouted a Marine who came running inside the gym.

Both Garp and I looked at the Marine. He and another one, the woman that I ditched a few hours ago, came running to us with worried expressions on their faces.

For the first time, I had the chance to look around. The wall where I had crashed into was completely destroyed and another section on the other side had wide cuts from my storm blades. Craters littered the floor and the students were hiding in a corner. Staring at me and Garp with wide eyes and open mouths.

“What? Cadet Clair and I had fun, she was just about to get serious,” said Garp, annoyed at the interruption.

“That's not a cadet, that's Slicer Lara you were fighting,” said the Marine woman, she gave me a glare that might have had the intention to make me feel bad, but I cared nothing for her.

“And? Then Slicer Lara and I had fun. That's even better, now she does not have to hold back anymore,” he counters argued. His assistants facepalmed and the woman looked dumbfounded.

Garp turned back to me, his wide smile still in place. Blood streamed down his nose and into his grinning mouth, but he did care not, he looked happy. “Now that I know who you are, don't hold back any longer. I was just about to tell you anyway, one last attack. Give it your all or you might die!” he then shouted before he launched himself at me.

His fist was now even coated in advanced Haki.

I shrugged, activated my own Haki, added vibration into the mix and even strengthened myself with the first level of my angel fruit. Not enough to sprout wings or give me a halo, but enough to slightly glow and radiate an aura.

Both out attacks clashed, lighting sparked through the hall from the clash of two very advanced Haki users and wind threw rubble and people away.

The ground under us shook, strained under his strength and my vibrations before it gave away and exploded. Each of our attacks got cancelled out and we both were thrown backwards. He crashed into the reinforced wall and I through the destroyed wall.

I flew through a couple of classrooms, before stopping in a teacher desk. The Marine officer that was lecturing the class was looking at me with a bewildered expression.

I grinned up at him, stood up and dusted myself off. The borrowed uniform was almost shredded by now. Rips and tears were all over it, it was dirty and barely held together. Welp, it wasn't mine, to begin with.

“Who are you?” Demanded the teacher to know.

“Hi, I'm Clair, I had a little spar with Garp. He punched me through the gym, then through a few classrooms until yours. Sorry for the desk, give him the bill,” I answered before walking back through the hole.

On my way back I ignored the many stares of shocked students.

Back inside the gym, I found Garp how he got lectured by an old woman with a cane. She was hitting him on the head and he was pouting and arguing that it was so much fun.

“What's up?” I asked the moment I reached them.