15 A Challenge

At first, Belo Betty was suspicious of me, but after hearing my story and how I escaped from World Noble, she took pity on me and became more of a big sister figure than a commander.

I officially enlisted into the Revolutionary Army without giving any of my devil fruits. In end, I decided to keep the fruits either for myself or give it to the Revolutionary Army when the time comes.

One thing for sure, I will give one of my mythical fruits to Sabo when I meet him, a Fenrir or Three-legged Crow. Both of them are fire-related fruits, so he will have fire type power, just a little different from the original story. This also means I have to come up with ways to prevent Ace's death from happening.

'For now, I have time, so I will think of something when the time comes. I have to build strengths that can match both Marines and Yonko if I want to participate in the Marineford Arc.' With that, I joined the Revolutionary Army and began my training and life as a rebel in a One Piece world.

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3 Years Later, the Year 1512,

I turned 11 years old and for the past 3 years, Bunny Joe trained me on basic espionage and intel gathering while Ahiru taught me basic world history and current events around the world. For my combat training, Ivankov took an initiative and gave me a brutal lesson on how people in the Grand Line fight on my first day.

I end up particularly loving the combat training since I can use the experience of Garp and Z but also two haki and Rokushiki in my arsenal. I was instructed not to use my devil fruit until Ivankov is satisfied with my physical training, that was until he was surprised by how I improve and learn each lesson quickly. He even praised me as a prodigy and told me I was worthy of learning his Newkama Kenpo style, which I declined because it requires a bit of a unique style that I can't replicate. In the end, Ivankov gave me his approval to use my Earth devil fruit during my combat training. With the use of devil fruit, my combat strength among the Revolutionary Army went over the chart, making me one of the top 5 fighters in the East Blue Army and this is without using my Titan fruit or demon magic.

Early Morning,

I was sparring with Betty in the base when the crow landed near us. Stopping the training, she grabbed the letter from the crow and read the details. Finishing the letter, she burned the letter with her lighter and spoke to me in a serious tone, "David, get everyone to report to the west side of the island. We have to secure the area for an incoming Revolutionary Army ship, we have special guests coming." With that, she grabs her flag pole and we start walking towards the west side of the island.

40 minutes later, after securing the west side of the island, I could see in the distance a large ship with a dragon figurehead approached the island. As it gets closer, I realize this ship has a large eastern dragon on the side of the ship from front to back, this only means one thing, the supreme commander of the Revolutionary Army, Monkey D Dragon is here.

When the ship docked, many of the agents of the Revolutionary Army and civilians worked on medical assistance to those injured and ship maintenance. While this is happening, I was inside of the ship with Betty and the rest of the commanders from all over the Blues, this includes Ivankov, Kuma and Dragon himself.

The meeting starts with Dragon explaining why they are here in East Blue, "We just came back from my home, Goa Kingdom. We were supposed to watch the movement of World Noble who was visiting the East Blue but to pass the inspection from the World Government, the nobles of Goa Kingdom decided to burn the junkyard called Gray Terminal and people who live in it. In the end, we manage to rescue the people and take those who want to join our cause."

Betty was furious when she heard the action of the Goa Kingdom, to burn the people alive just to please the World Noble is more of a monster than a human. I acted shocked but I knew that this meant Dragon not only recruited more people for his cause but also rescued Sabo and brought him here.

A few minutes later, the meeting ended and everyone left the room except me. When Dragon saw that I was the only one in the room he asked me with curiosity, "You must be David, Ivankov has been talking about you. So, what do you need from me, young man?"

I said with confidence, "I want you to take me to the Grand Line when you leave, I know I'm ready for field operation."

With a smile in his face, Dragon asked me, "What made you think you are ready?"

With ambition in my voice, I said "Because I'm strongest in East Blue, I know there isn't anything here that can teach me more. That means I have to go to the Grand Line to get stronger."

After hearing my resolve, Dragon laughed, but it wasn't a mocking laugh. It was a laugh of realization that the 11-year-old kid shows more determination than other agents in his army. With a big smile, Dragon said, "I will take you to the Grand Line if you can beat me in a fight. If you think you are ready, then you have to prove it to me." With that, Dragon steps outside to the shore while I follow him.

5 minutes later

I'm currently facing Dragon face to face on the shore. Everyone stopped what they were doing and focused on me and the supreme commander who announced the sparring match. Bunny Joe and Ahiru protest but surprisingly it was Betty who stops them, "This is David's decision to prove that he is ready for the next stage of his training. We are here to witness the result of his training and his determination."

"Get ready, Start!" It was Ivankov who took the role of referee and initiated the start of the fight.

The moment the fight starts, I move ahead with super speed and use Rankyaku (Storm Leg) at Dragon. Just as my attack was about to hit, Dragon used his right hand to redirect it to the sky, without giving a chance to fight back, I got close to him and used multiple Shigan (Finger Gun). Surprised by the sudden close-range attack, Dragon used his own Kami-e (Paper Drawing) to dodged all of my attacks at high speed and fell back to distance himself from my close combat range.

With frustration, I used my Earth fruit to raise the sands from the ground and reshape it into dozens of spears. With all my might, I threw it toward Dragon but he used his Observation haki to dodge them, it was at this moment I turned the sand spears into the net and used it to catch him. Just as he was about to be caught, a strong wind blew out from Dragon and my sand net got destroyed.

Immediately, I use the sands around him to lock his feet, as expected he once again dodge my attack. Just as he dodges, I use Soru (Shave) to appear behind him and attempt to punch him with my Armament haki using Garp's fighting style. Dragon quickly turned around to see a familiar punch coming right at him, but he counters using his Armament haki. When our attack clashed with each other, it created an explosion big enough to shake the ship and everything around us.

For the past 3 years, I trained my two haki using memories and experience of two famous marines, but having those memories and experience doesn't mean I can master it instantly. I'm still an 11 years old kid and without a fully developed adult body, I can't use armament haki in full potential. So when Dragon's haki clashed with mine, it was my loss as I got thrown into the sea due to impact and lost my consciousness into the void.