Chapter 4

Allan could remember three accidents one year after another.

If he could save Sabo, then he would be a good addition to the family.

But doing so needed more plans, when and how was important.

Saving Kuina was a bit harder, according to what he knew, Kuina died by tripping on the stairs which was a tad bit unbelievable considering how talented Kuina was as a swordsman, but his father would always visit her grave which made her death more solid.

As for it being a ruse, there was little to no chance this was true.

If Kuina was alive, then she would have shown up already, considering how swordsmen need to constantly challenge other swordsmen, she should have already become famous in the earlier or later chapters.

But the problem was how to save Kuina.

Bell-mere could be saved by being in the vicinity of Cocosia Village where Nami lived in 1514 while looking for news on Arlong Pirates, but Kuina lives in the dojo.

"Maybe I could leave a letter to warn Koshiro about Kuina's death, when was it again? I think it was after Zoro and Kuina's 2001 duel, I still have time to plan for it so let's just put it aside for now."

Allan murmured to himself.

His Devil Fruit meant that should focus more on physical skills, especially kicking skills, learning swordsmanship didn't seem that useful to him.

So his going undercover in Isshin Dojo was very wasteful in Allan's opinion.

Of course, if he found that he had a decent amount of talent with swords, then Allan would consider learning, but he wasn't too keen about it even if he felt it was cool to wield swords.

"Or maybe I could try? I don't really know if I'm talented in swordsmanship, physical skills at least could be supplemented, swordsmanship relies too heavily on talent."

Allan sighed, talent, was a big aspect of One Piece.

Kuina for example had extremely high talent when it came to swordsmanship, even most of the adults in Isshin Dojo couldn't beat her.

Koshiro told her a harsh reality which might be his way of tempering her will so she doesn't falter when Zoro catches up to her in the future because Koshiro saw Zoro's talent and potential.

Of course, Allan could be wrong about this and Koshiro might just be prejudiced because of his heritage.

But Koshiro also allowed Kuina to learn swordsmanship while giving her Wado Ichimonji one of the 21 Great Grade Swords, the heirloom of their family, a sign of succession.

Even though Zoro arrived, Koshiro still planned for Kuina to be his successor which was why Allan believed that Koshiro was just doing what he did to prepare Kuina for the harsh reality.

In the CP9, the older Blueno who started training when he was 8 years old or even younger was only a bit better than Kalifa in terms of doriki, a power measurement the CP9 uses.

Kalifa was 5 years younger than Blueno, not to mention her being a girl.

Although doriki has long been forgotten since its introduction, it at least gave Allan clues regarding power at lower to mid levels, normal marine sailors average at about 10 doriki, and the weakest CP9 Kalifa had about 600 doriki, that is to say, she was as powerful as 60 sailors if calculated in the simplest form.

The gangsters Allan faced probably had less than 10 doriki while the leaders might have 10 doriki.

As for Allan's doriki, he found it hard to quantify without a measuring device.

Of course, hard work still meant a lot, but he was not going to refer to monsters like Big Mom, Kaido, Whitebeard, and other monsters in terms of talent.

Too high.

To compare himself to those monsters would probably leave him depressed, look at Crocodile and Gecko Moria, one forgot Haki on his search for one of the Ancient Weapons Pluto while the other proceeded to stress eat while building a zombie army so he did not have to face losing another crew.

Allan's goal was to be a gold medalist in the new world, or at least have the power to deter even the four emperors so he could build his own haven.

Of course, this was a huge goal, he wasn't even sure he could meet halfway through it.

Dream big as they say, either way, this was his second life already.

After the recruitment.

Allan and his new group found a small family restaurant and celebrated with a mini banquet.

Allan returned to his base with Gin, and he built another cabin for Gin, Allan didn't want to be extravagant in terms of his home not just to keep himself humble, but because it was a temporary home.

Since he planned to leave Apple Island in the near future, he didn't plan to leave any of his family or subordinates behind, this place wasn't even near any navy branch.

And so, four more months passed by, and Allan and Gin could be seen sparring in the training grounds, the wind screamed with Allan's kicks while Gin struggled to defend with his pair of wooden ball tonfas.

Gin might perform better if he used the heavier and customized steel ball tonfas but considering the damage it might cause to Allan's legs, Gin could only use wooden ones.

"You've become stronger again Al."

Gin said while wiping his sweat.

Allan taught Gin Taekwondo, Boxing, and even Eskrima, but Gin still fell in love with tonfas, even now Gin started to develop his Demon Man Tactics using his tonfas.

But Allan emphasized exercising the body to build a foundation while they were young.

As for the techniques Allan was familiar with in One Piece, the Six Styles stood out from his memory.

Shave especially was explained by Luffy which was basically stepping on the ground 10 times with superhuman speed.

Moon Step was a higher-level Shave that lets the user step on air.

Storm Leg uses fast and strong kicks to generate sharp compressed wind blades.

Iron Body hardens the body's muscle to the level of iron allowing the user to block or endure attacks.

Paper Drawing makes the body soft and flexible akin to paper allowing the user to dodge attacks.

Finger Gun makes use of the fingers to stab the target at high speed to the level of a gun.

Shave, Moon Step, and Storm Leg were the techniques Allan was optimistic about since his devil fruit reinforced his legs more than his other body parts.

Although he didn't have a concrete way of cultivating these techniques like the CP9 or Marines, he could still experiment on his own.

Koby trained for a few months and was able to use Shave, so unless Allan had no talent in physical skills, with the help of his Devil Fruit, he should be able to master at least one of the three leg-related skills of the Six Styles after a few months.

Iron Body relies on the hardening of the muscles which quite honestly, Allan had no clues about other than just exploring his body control, but doing so would probably take too much time, so unless he found a proper training manual for Iron Body, he didn't feel like experimenting himself.

Speaking of skills, Haki is the most important power in One Piece, it's a potential that every creature holds.

The three types of Haki were Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Conqueror's Haki.

Armament Haki allows the user to coat their body or weapon with an invisible armor that provides incredible offensive and defensive boosts.

Observation Haki lets the user detect or observe other people or objects from differing ranges depending on the user.

Conqueror's Haki was said to be an innate talent that only one in a million people possessed and allows its user to impose their will on others, and could be used to oppress those with weaker wills.

Allan planned on laying a solid foundation and then going to the Grand Line to find someone to teach him how to awaken Armament Haki, Crocus in Twin Cape was a good choice, as someone who boarded the pirate king's boat, he must have learned or heard how to learn both Armament and Observation Haki.

There was also that old man in Mt. Colubo who might or might not possess Armament or Observation Haki.

For Observation Haki, Allan thought about the training Luffy was shown to have done, so he thought he could try doing the blindfolded dodging exercise to awaken his Observation Haki.

And finally, Finger Gun, thrusting the finger fast enough to mimic the damage caused by a gunshot, Allan actually had some thoughts for Finger Gun training, but things still need to be tested.

From Allan's understanding, Finger Gun was basically a one-inch punch but with the use of the fingers. A bit harder to learn than the other leg-related skills, but Allan at least had some hope of learning Finger Gun.

For four months only Fossa visited Allan and Gin for reports, the other nine wrote their reports on paper, which surprised Allan how they were able to learn to read and write so quickly.

Although Allan was a bit disappointed because none of the 9 boys showed talent, he at least got Fossa, a candidate for a family member, although he was already 15 years old, from Fossa's reports, Allan discovered that Fossa had a keen sense and would occasionally sniff out hidden information from his own observation and through reading the reports of the other kids.

Fossa had the potential to be a staff-type talent, there were really too few managerial talents in One Piece that Allan knew of.

If Allan could find a suitable Devil Fruit, Fossa might become a true talent for both auxiliary and combat aspects.

Although the other nine boys didn't show too much potential, the nine were loyal enough.

They followed Allan's training regimen daily and every month Allan would increase the intensity of training but the nine were able to follow through, knowing how to read and write, Allan could still use them as staff and maybe even combatants in the future.

Allan also trained hard in transforming, now he had a more human form, less bloated, but it was still far from enough, especially because Allan remembered a piece of information about fleas and other insects.

If his control over his transformation did not improve, then he could only see but not touch the key to his devil fruit development.

"Gin, can you help me with training?"

Allan suddenly asked.

"Aren't I already helping?"

Gin asked in confusion.

"It's a new training method, it'll be your turn after me when I prove its effectiveness, I guarantee this skill will be very helpful."

Allan was talking about Observation Haki, it's also not because of a whim of his, rather, Observation Haki could, in theory, increase Allan's training speed, if he was able to feel the changes in his body more, then Observation Haki could help in training other moves.

Since Observation Haki could feel the presence of others, then it should also be able to feel himself right?

Eh, why did that sound wrong?

Allan couldn't help but cough.

But his conjecture shouldn't be too off.

It also had more obvious effects in battle, especially in the Four Blues and Paradise since weapons like guns were still a huge threat to people like Allan.

"Really? Then what do I do?"

Gin said with eagerness, only in training would Gin show another side of his overly serious demeanor, almost like a child.

"First get the wooden bat in the corner."

Allan instructed while he pulled out a strip of black cloth before blindfolding himself.

"Why did you blindfold yourself?"

Gin asked.

"It's part of the training, what I need you to do is hit my head with that wooden bat."

Allan said as he pointed at Gin.

"I'm here Al."

Allan coughed away the shame when he heard Gin's voice in another direction, he nodded his head before sitting down cross-legged.

"Don't tell me when you'll hit, but don't hit me too fast."

Allan added.

"Good."

Gin replied.

Bang!

Allan didn't expect that Gin would hit immediately but gritted his teeth through the pain.

Wait till it's your turn.

Bang!

The left?

Bang!

Hissss, this is far harder than I thought.

Bang!

This time to the right.

Bang!

Bang!

Two times! This guy is having too much fun!

Gin smacked Allan with the wooden bat to his heart's content, if Allan could see Gin's face, he would've seen the slight smile on Gin's mouth.

After an hour of training, Allan stopped Gin when he felt too groggy to continue.

"You! Aren't you enjoying this too much?"

Allan accused while kneading his aching head.

"You're thinking too much Al, ahem, it was you who asked me after all."

Gin said while facing the other way.

"Heh, don't worry Gin, I'm not angry, after I get some results with this training, I'll be sure to teach you well."

Allan said with a sinister smile.

"Su… sure."

Gin shivered after feeling the chill in Allan's smile.

Although Allan said so with mischief, he really wanted to let Gin train only after he himself got some results, his body was far more resilient than Gin's body not to mention how sucking blood helps Allan heal his body from trauma and injuries.

So only after knowing that the training worked will Allan retalia… help Gin with training.

Another month passed by and Gin could be seen smacking Allan with a wooden bat, but this time, Allan was able to dodge one out of three hits on average.

"Alright, let's stop here Gin, I can already feel some type of feeling in my head, but I can't seem to grasp it."

Allan said with a sad tone, one month and he did feel some improvement in his senses, but he knew it was far from enough.

But progress was progress, no matter how slow, except for Observation Haki training, Allan also hunted in the mountain forest for food and money.

"How about it Gin, I heard a merchant ship docked at the port, and they'll stay for about two more days. Let's go see if there's anything interesting for sale."

Allan said with a smile, every now and then he would ask Gin to go to the village or port.

This was not only to socialize, but see if there was something helpful that he might find, even some books about navigation might be useful.