Five years later

Things have changed so much more in the last half decade. Me and Ace, along with the girls have reached a new magnitude of power. We are still far from taking down Garp in a spar, Ace’s lone wolf act interfering more often than not, though we can regularly injure him via a few scratches. My mana control and pool of power have reached such lofty heights as to eclipse my former life’s pace by leaps and bounds, and yet I still come up short. I surprised my grandpa when I asked for a second spar the day after he had most recently defeated us. I had the girls stay to the sidelines as this would have me not holding anything back, including my mana usage. Two years ago, Garp had taught us about Haki. That is where I had such a breakthrough. It was far and away different from mana. While mana came from within a metaphorical space, Haki was somehow more tangible and came from my heart and mind. They became like two sides of a coin. One was better at power (haki), while the other (mana), was so much better on the control aspect. I had the wild thought of using them together. Neutral element mana for control, and armament Haki, that of solidified will as the power. Together I believed that I could take big steps towards that of closing the gap of vast power and skill between that of myself and such as Edward ‘Whitebeard’ Newgate, but first to try and topple the mountain that is Garp.

“Why do you think even a single day can change anything, but give you a lessor result as now you don’t have others to rely on for help in your attempt to beat me?” Garp says, confusion in his voice.

“Because I have hit upon a breakthrough and as a result, I feel that it is long past me holding back against you gramps.” I reply cheekily.

“You? Holding back against me? Since when you brat?” Garp questions my five-foot six-inch-tall frame. I have packed on quite of a bit of muscle, but it is all lean, and compact. Though I have only had eyes for Makino (that she knows of). Yes, I seem to be a pig, as her and Hellfire evoke such feelings in me, but I can’t choose, and I don’t know if I will find others. I have not been obvious to the stares many a young woman, both single and not, have deigned to shoot my way as a show of their interest, but none of them have the guts to approach me. Hellfire has been joyous as last year was when I could finally wield her the way she should be. At that point she has so much to teach me. I have an actual style now, where before in my prior life it was a broken set of moves that had no real cohesion between one form and the next. She has an interesting way of teaching me the forms, that of dancing, both with her humanoid form and her weapon form. The girls by comparison to before are huge. Two-hundred fifty pounds of death dealing Dire Wolf for the smallest that is Gaia, with Chaos being two-seventy-five, and Abyss is a staggering three-hundred pounds, but all three are still easily able to control their instincts, such as not harming children, even when adrenaline runs high. As for the hazing ritual, no one has lasted more than five minutes when they undergo it, with most quitting before it even starts. While they are unable to use mana as I do, their progress in other areas is nothing short of outstanding. Tag is regularly played as a test of our speed and reaction times, though we strictly use Soru only, if only to keeping pushing our skills ever higher, though we have to go out into the forest several miles, lest people get disturbed by the crashing sounds that are worse than cannon fire. As lofty as we have gotten in our strength, Garp is usually there to puncture said balloon with multiple cannon ball like strikes. But today I plan to get ever closer to overcoming him. Garp, despite not having a devil-fruit to further enhance his already monstrous abilities is and has been for the last three decades plus, one of the strongest people under the Marine’s banner, with only a few things keeping him from being a full-blown Admiral, or even that of Fleet Admiral. The biggest is the freedom he enjoys to go where he wants, most of the time anyway. Another is the separation he enjoys from not being so close to the yoke of the Celestial Dragons. Third, and what actually keeps him being much lower ranked instead of higher is that he far outstrips the power requirements of lower ranks, and with his title of ‘Hero of the Marines’ is thus why he hasn’t been demoted, this is despite all the aggravation (read headaches) that he causes his superiors on a regular basis.

Back to the spar and my reason for having it. The breakthrough I am talking about, actually occurred over a year ago, but I wanted to plan and push the process to battlefield ready heights, not use an untested idea in a live-fire scenario. If this works, I should even be able to bypass his Tekkai augmented Armament Haki. If not, I think my hand will end up in cast, possibly my whole arm as well if things go really bad. This will also be a test to see if mana can be felt by those not familiar with it in close proximity. Ace doesn’t count in this regard, as his perception has always been crappy, though his continued loss of brain cells for his stupid ideas might be a factor in that. I also won’t use Hellfire in this fight, as while this is a true test of my strength, I don’t want a mistake to accidentally kill a person near and dear to me.

We square off fifty feet apart. One of the girls tosses a coin in the air with her mouth. Me and Garp both track it with one eye, while the other is on each other. The moment that the coin hits the ground, we are off. I lose in the first exchange, a small blade of mana along the edge of my hand swatted away before I can chop at his arm, though the mana is still formed and no sign of wondering what the energy was is seen on Garp’s face. But that was just a taste, and pure non-Soru enhanced speed, that gave off a sound akin to a thunderclap. The next blow has the throttle wide open, with the sound of the Earth shaking, and I get a reaction as with a punch laced with mana and armament Haki (but not fused), with my speed fueled by Soru, I force him to crave a six-inch grove in the ground with his feet as my punch lands center mass.

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“So you have gotten better. In all this time, that is the first time that you or any of the others has made me move from a hit that landed. I hope you are sleepy you eggplant grandson of mine, cause you are about to go night-night.” Garp says with a grin on his face, as despite my attack having torn through his uniform, and hit his skin, there is not a mark on him.

I don’t speak, but I do give him a reply, that of a Rankyaku laced (more like fused) with air-natured mana. I see the split-second surprise in his eyes, and rather than dodge, he brings up his right forearm and uses Tekkai, only to be shocked at the result as I grin wide enough to split my head in two. For now, dripping from his arm are several thick drops of blood, his Tekkai clearly not up to the job of stopping the augmented air with the sole goal of ‘cut’.

“What was that? It wasn’t Armament Haki as it is too unstable to be used in such a manner away from the body. Observation Haki can’t be weaponized so that leaves something else, but what was it you brat? You are strong, there is no doubt about that, but to get through my Tekkai with an Rankyaku, that is something else.” Garp says with a mixture of wonder and annoyance in his voice.

Garp is the one to initiate this strike, as he tries to cave my head in with a heel kick from his left leg as he suddenly drops out of the air. I could dodge his attack, but if I can take the blow and survive well enough to counter, that would be so much better. Tekkai, my burgeoning Armament Haki, and earth-natured mana hardened to a stone like intensity allow me to do so much. With a scream of pain from me, I don’t move an inch when I take the force of his heel on my left fore-arm. No bones broken, but I will have a bruise later on that is about three inches wide by two inches long and several layers of skin deep as he breaks through but barely. That is not the end of our confrontation though, merely one of so many. My counter does a lot more damage to him, as the ankle part of his boot explodes from the perfect fusion of Armament Haki and mana. There is no element in this blow, as I continue my live-fire test of different combinations against the most formidable opponent that I can currently encounter. I get more good news as I hear a pop from his ankle.

“That was also something way different, though the split-second use of Armament Haki is a nice touch.” Garp says with an eyebrow raised, as with a stomp he pops his ankle back into place from when my blow dislocated it.

From there we are then off to the races as those first few blows only took maybe fifteen seconds at the most. Almost like a gatling gun of cannon balls being fired is heard as we beat the hell out of each other, with me ending up way worse as now that he knows that I can take it, he dishes the punishment out until I can barely stand and that is debatable as I’m wobbling on my balance of just one foot.

We both look like hell. Garp’s uniform is mostly destroyed except for his pants from the knees up to the waist and his shirt which is more like a tank-top than a military uniform shirt. As for my clothes, I have had swimsuits that covered more and I’ll leave it at that. As for injuries, we are both bleeding in multiple places, though my bruises outnumber his at least three to one. I don’t know about his broken bones, if any, but for me, yeah, holy hell. Six ribs on the left side, and three ribs on the right. Index and middle finger on the left hand from a failed Shigan double impact. Middle, ring, and pinkie fingers on the right hand from punching an Armament Haki covered chin (yeah, hurt me as much as you would think). My right foot is fine, but I can’t put pressure on my left foot from when he stomped on my navicular (inner part of my foot). I had to pop my own right shoulder back in, which I was able to do so when I blocked a punch with my elbow almost straight on, though that blow in turn almost broke my shoulder. My back is relatively unscathed except for some hand-print sized bruises, meaning with the size of Garp’s hands, just two more and my back would be covered. Both my ulna and radius from my left arm are broken in multiple places, both from different blows. My head has had more than a few whacks, with at least a partial concussion even with my hard head. Jaw is broken and I’ve spit out at least six teeth, that I know of. I think that covers the major stuff, but I’m still raring to go, that is until the ground suddenly is a lot closer between one blink and the next. I turn my head at the last moment so I don’t literally eat dirt and I then know no more.

Garp’s point of view

‘He’s this strong now? Holy crap. Makes me glad he doesn’t want to be a pirate. I don’t think I have had to work this hard in years to beat someone. Either that, or I’ve gotten soft in my old age. I’m definitely going to be feeling this for the next several weeks. He is going to go so far it is going to be so much fun to see what trouble he stirs up in his quest to be the freest man, when he leaves Dawn Island in almost three years that is.’ Garp ends his inner monologue as he laughs so hard. This continues to go on long enough that he starts to hurt even more as his injuries get aggravated from the prolonged motion.