"Hut!"
Morrow's fist hit the tree he was using as a striking post and was rewarded when his fist went straight through it.
"Finally, success!"
He gave himself a fist pump. Despite looking like a common jab, that punch was anything but. If he had wanted to simply break a tree, his physical strength would have let him do that easy. Instead it had taken him 2 long months of breathing exercises and specialized physical training to reach this effect.
The secret lay in the sawdust covering his fist. It meant he had finally achieved the vibration effect that Kuroobi required before he'd teach anything else.
He was torn between wanting to experiment with the new ability or immediately running back to get the next lesson, but the cooler head prevailed.
The possibilities for this are endless, and the basics are never wasted or go out of style. I need to at least make consistent effects from punches and kicks or I'll just embarrass myself. Eventually you'd want to be able to release it from anywhere on the body, but who knows how many years that would take?
At least this effort wasn't wasted no matter what he did. The bottleneck that had been facing his strength growth due to lack of appropriate weights had seemingly evaporated in front of the new and unfamiliar demands on his muscles. It was only 2 months, but he felt he was at least 20% stronger than when he started. That should taper off as his body got used to it, but it was still crazy. There were no measuring devices, but by his best estimate he was now hovering at about 9x an average adult human, or about 90 doriki using the Navy's system.
Amazing, I feel like superman already and there's still such a long way to go.
Once when he was a kid, he had a very common dream of being a professional football player, but that dream had slowly died as he grew up when the lack of talent and simple physical build had crushed him under their weight. Now though, he was in a world where physical limits seemed to simply not exist. As long as he put in the effort he would surely be rewarded, and he'd even been blessed with a high starting point. That thought superseded any qualms he had over his nonhuman appearance and reignited his dreams.
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Ok, my new dream is to be the strongest man in the world!
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Morrow was passing through the arches of Arlong Park on another visit to Kuroobi when he saw her, a tiny orange haired girl in a dirty dress carrying a book. Nami. She had already been given permission to go out thieving for her bet with Arlong, so this was his first time actually seeing her.
He'd known it would happen, but he couldn't stop a twinge of guilt. Truth be told, he had plans that could possibly help her but he had no intentions of actually implementing them. For one, he didn't want too much of a butterfly effect that would end in unpredictable consequences. For another, even if the fishmen here were complete assholes to humans they were nice to himself. He simply couldn't justify stabbing them in the back.
Does that make me an asshole as well?
Regardless of his self-deprecating thoughts, he could at least be polite.
"Hello there, my name is Morrow. What's your name?"
She looked shocked for a moment, and Morrow guessed that was because she was used to being insulted or ignored by the others rather than getting politely asked.
"...Nami. Won't you get in trouble for talking to me?"
"Nami, what a nice name. As for getting in trouble, if there is such a rule I haven't heard about it. I'm only visiting and not a member of this crew. What are you doing?"
"I make maps, and I'm in a hurry since Mr. Arlong called. Sorry."
She still looked way uncomfortable and even if she was lying there was no reason to call her on it, so he let it be.
"Well, nice to meet you Nami. I better get to my teacher as well."
She practically ran to the side building in an urge to get away from him, which left him feeling kind of disgusted with himself.
The Straw Hat Plan is looking pretty dark...
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"So you've completed what I asked?"
"Yes sir, would you like me to show you?"
"Do so."
There were no tools, so Morrow started shadowboxing to demonstrate. With an additional month to practice, he could now reliably cause vibrations with any of his punches and even a low kick.
"Hmph, at least you didn't come here with a fluke success. Next lesson will be in the lagoon out back, follow me."
They went out back and Morrow followed Kuroobi into the water. When they had reached the sea floor, Kuroobi began explaining.
"Now I've explained it before, but the essence of Fishman Karate is control of water. You already have some prelimary control of the water in your body through the exercises I taught you, so now we will move on to moving water in the vicinity. First is..."
A new phase of training had begun.