Training

It was the start of the second month of the Straw Hat Pirates' five month training trip. It was hard because of the weights weighing them down.

One weight was 150kg. Each of the Straw Hats had four on them, two around the wrists and two around the ankles. So they had 600 extra kilograms of weight on them.

It was extremely limiting, the weaker ones like Nojiko, Nami, Kaya and Usopp couldn't even move their limbs.

Zoro and Sanji were having a hard time too, but they weren't complaining, no one was. The one with the hardest time was Luffy, the 100% pure Sea Stone Wristbands drained every last drop of his neverending stamina.

The weights didn't make it any better.

He didn't complain. Instead, he was walking around the ship aimlessly, trying to train his body to get used to the cuffs.

Everybody was following his lead, they were trying to find something to do. They knew that if they needed to get stronger, they would have to endure hell first.

.

.

One week later...

Zoro sighed as he started swinging Wado Ichimonji downwards repeatedly with both of his hands on its grip.

He and Sanji were able to walk properly with the weights on them now. Luffy was slowly catching up with them but the sea stone Wristbands he was wearing 24/7 was weighing him down a lot. So it was up to them to carry the team temporarily.

Zoro couldn't even use Soru now which was a bummer. But he focused on his physical strength and his swordsmanship instead.

Even Nami who would usually complain about physical activities, didn't complain one bit. She needed to be serious now like Zoro and Sanji was, and she didn't want to fall behind either.

Luffy explained to all of them that in order to fully master the first level of the weights, they must get to their original speed with the weights on so that the weights won't weigh them down and surpass it by 2x.

They had a lot on their shoulders, literally. But they're willing to give everything they got to get stronger.

.

.

The second month was over, Luffy grinned as he was able to run now with all of his limitations still on him. Everyone was able to do that now and get even faster with it, he was the last one to do it due to his extra limitations.

He noticed that Usopp was buffer and more confident than before. Luffy was proud of everyone for not quitting the moment the weights were activated.

"Hey, Usopp." Luffy called Usopp who was in the middle of curling a dumbbell.

"Hmm?" Usopp hummed back.

"I think you need to modify the body weights put on us so that we can control the weight put on us. I should've thought of that before we put it on and activated it so that we could progress at our own pace, stupid me. " Luffy grumbled in annoyance. Usopp chuckled as he put down the dumbbell.

" I think some of us, especially Zoro wouldn't like that. I'll see what I can do though, should we take it off now? " Usopp asked. Luffy nodded.

" Yeah, we should. Everyone, take off your weights right now! Usopp needs to do some modifications with it! " Luffy ordered them all. The crew gathered around and piled up the weights.

Usopp went to work as everyone left him to his own devices. Zoro looked at himself and looked at Sanji.

"Hey, shitty cook. You wanna race around this island?" Zoro challenged her. Sanji smirked and loosened her tie.

" Hell yeah, moss head. I wanna see how fast I've gotten now. Better not cry when I win!" Sanji smirked. They started running. To the others, all they saw was two blurs getting further and further away from them.

Luffy chuckled and looked at the sea.

[Sea Stone Resistance: A+(25%)

Once the skill maxes out, it will not drain your stamina any longer. But your Devil Fruit powers will still be nullified.]

Luffy grinned broadly. His physical endurance must be through the roof. But he shook his head and went back to physical training.

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.

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The third month of the Straw Hat Pirates' five month training trip had just started. They had moved to two other islands during their training trip. This was the fourth Island they stepped foot on.

Luffy decided to start training them in utilizing Haki. He decided to start with Kenbunshoku Haki since he felt it was the most useful for everyone right now.

Luffy looked at the wooden stick in his right hand. He had read through Garp's diaries and found out that this was the most effective way to learn Kenbunshoku Haki.

Garp had been trained with this method too.

His training to learn Kenbunshoku Haki involves dodging various types of attacks while blindfolded, as well as counter attacking while blindfolded. The most important thing to remember is that every attack carries an intent, and a hint.

Luffy was kinda nervous. He had never received any Haki training from Garp and he was also a newbie teaching a newbie.

He growled. "Fuck it. We're already insane with the weights put on us." Luffy decided and called for a meeting in the forest on the island they were training on.

Everyone gathered around him. "Alright everyone, today we're gonna start learning how to use Haki. We're gonna learn Kenbunshoku Haki together. " Luffy explained, surprising them.

" One variant of Kenbunshoku Haki is it allows its user to sense another person's intent to act in the immediate allowing them to predict what someone is going to do, usually seconds prior, in what resembles a pseudo-form of precognition. It's like seeing the future without actually seeing it. " Luffy grinned as he held up a lot of rags.

" So we're gonna train in that. We're gonna blindfold ourselves. " Luffy revealed. Zoro blinked.

" We're gonna what? "

.

.

"Luffy!!! I'm gonna kill you once I take this blindfold off!!! " A blindfolded Nami screamed angrily as she, Usopp and Nojiko were put in one team and were currently being attacked by a giant bear.

The bear roared loudly and charged towards her. Nami squealed as she heard loud stomping approaching her quickly.

She touched her thigh and grabbed her Clima-Tact which was in three segments. She put it all together and it created one long Bō staff.

The bear roared and swung down its giant claw at her. Nami heard its roar so she decided to just raise up her staff.

*BAAM!!!*

Nami gasped as she felt the bear's paw slam into her weapon. She started pushing back against it.

She was doing really well. "Usopp!! Nojiko!!! The bear's right in front of me!!" Nami shouted. Usopp and Nojiko who had no idea where the bear was before due to the blindfolds blocking their vision, knew where it was now by hearing Nami's shout.

They aimed their respective weapons at the bear. "I'll kill it!!" Nojiko shouted.

"No!! I'll kill it!!! Sanren Kayaku Boshi!!" Usopp shouted and fired three explosive pellets at once.

*BANG!!*

Nojiko fired a bullet from the Wrist-Mounted Gun on her right hand.

*SHIK!!!*

*BOOOM!!!*

The bear was pierced in the head by Nojiko's bullet. The pellets exploded once it came in contact with it, blowing it up to pieces.

Nami squealed and covered her face, shielding herself from whatever stuff was headed towards her.

"Alright! You guys can take it off now!" They heard Luffy shout. The trio took off their blindfolds and looked at the bear who was in pieces now.

"Alright, Zoro, Sanji, Kaya! You're up!" Luffy grinned. Zoro sighed as he blindfolded herself, Usopp helped Kaya tie up his blindfold before he helped Sanji tie up the blindfold.

Nami went up to Luffy and pinched his cheeks while pouting at him. "Luffy! Why didn't you jump in? You saw that bear was about to attack me!" Nami whined. Luffy laughed and patted her head.

"But you blocked it's attack! You should be proud of yourself, Nami! You blocked a bear's attack while being blindfolded." Luffy complimented, making her blush and look away.

" Well, when you put it like that.... " She mumbled. Luffy chuckled and looked at the new blindfolded trio, waiting around.

[Sea Stone Resistance: S+(Max)

You're a normal person now, nothing is limiting you, except you still can't use your Devil Fruit powers.]

Luffy had already taken off his Sea Stone cuffs before training with his crew in Kenbunshoku Haki.

The suffering was worth it as he will be able to run and use his Rokushiki techniques without being a bit tired if he ever got cuffed in Sea Stone cuffs.

He used Soru to disappear and then returned back a second later while easily holding off another bear with his bare hands.

Luffy set the bear free and grinned.

"Start fighting for your lives, you three!!!"

To be continued...

(I believe that backstories and World building are important in novels. Even if they are long and boring to some, it may be important in the future.)