Training, training, happy birthday and more training

The next day

Outside the village

Today Sabo's training will begin so I brought him to the foot of a mountain. In my left hand is a rock weighting a few tens of kilogramms, similar to the ones Zoro uses for training.

"Ehhhmm… Jackson-nii? Why are you holding a rock?"

My curious little brother actually asked just now. He was eying the rock during the whole walk till here, probably wondering what I am going to do with it.

"I'll explain it to you now. Do you see the mountain in front of us?"

"…yes…and?"

"And you will run to the mountain and climb to the top."

"Just that?"

"Let me finish. Afterwards you will climb down and run back here.

"Ok, I guess that sounds reasona…"

"I just told you to let me finish. Once you arrive here you will have to defend yourself for 10 minutes from my attacks."

"!!What?! For 10 minu…"

*BAM*

"Fucking let me finish!"

"There is EVEN MORE?!!"

*BAM*

"After you either defend or avoid my attacks, I will point you to another mountain and you will repeat the process."

Looking at him I waited to see wether he will interrupt me again but this time he stayed silent.

"As for your question regarding the rock… you will bind it on your back and carry it while training."

"WHAAAT?! Jackson-nii that's impossible! The mountains don't have paths I will have to climb most of the time!"

"But I still haven't mentioned the best part."

"Ehhm… Are you angry with me because of something? If so let's talk about it you don't have to do th…"

*BAM*

"Just put this on already."

"!!!"

'Isn't that reaction exaggerated for just a blindfold?'

"Jackson-nii, really you…"

He was about to say something again but decided against it in the middle of his sentence. Probably because he was moved by the amount of love I have for him in my fists.

"Sabo, I'm not crazy even I know that your body would probably break down if we were to do this training every day."

"! Then…"

"It's just once a week. Also I'll be running along you to prevent accidents from happening but also to make sure you that you won't run too slowly."

"Fine. By the way what are we going to do the other days?"

"Training in the water. Considering that we will be on sea most of the times I find it reasonable to train your body and later your techniques in water on every second and third day. On every fourth day you will learn, try and practice techniques that I will explain to you then, the whole day long and every fifth day you will be sparring against Koushirou all day long. The remaining 2 days are for muscle relaxation and meditation."

"Don't you mean for medication cause I am sure I'll need it. Do I really have to live like that for the next two months?"

"Hey what's with that madly depressed look?! You said it yourself yesterday, that you won't lose as my vice-captain. I'm just helping you to keep your word!"

"But who would be so much stronger than me, besides you, old man and Shanks?"

"Ask me again after your first fight with Koushirou. We will train here until you fulfill 3 tasks. Beat Koushirou, learn soru and learn geppo. Any more questions?"

He didn't have any questions so we started the training right away.

Sabo ran to the mountain, climbed it climbed down, returned and then I started attacking. I attacked slowly enough for him to be able to dodge, but each attack closely followed after another, so because of the high frequency of the attacks he would have to choose the most ideal way to dodge.

I don't know which is the most ideal way for him but I believe that he will find out for himself. After the ten minutes and some bruises and cuts, he ran to the second mountain but that was his limit and I won't push him beyond. That he has to do on his own.

The following 3 days went by without anything happening and now it was time for the sparring match. Koushirou kept his promise and sparred with Sabo until he reached his limit. Koushirou wasn't really challenged by kicking his ass and Sabo even seemed to be weaker than during his fight with Kuina.

It was understandable since he wasn't in his top condition which is part of the training. After all no bounty hunter or marine is dumb enough to wait for you till you recover fully so he should get used to such situations.

During the week I would prepare revitalizing medicine, relaxing oils and a huge amount of balanced and nutritional food. In short I was burning through the money that was left at a high speed but this takes priority for now.

If Sabo manages to achieve the goals then I won't have to worry too much once we enter the Grand Line. On top of that he will be able to learn the rest of the rokushiki techniques while on ship.

While Sabo trains on land during the day, I would go dive and fight huge and I mean really huge, monstrous, sea kings on the seabed for hours. Having only Sabo train wasn't fair, besides being this deep under water hinders me enough for the sea kings to become tough opponents against which I can train the rokushiki. If a beast was way to far out of my league, than I would just soru and geppo upwards where I had an easier time fighting it.

The second week progressed in the same way but Sabo's rate of improvement is very fast. This time he hit Koushirou a few times even while still beating exhausted from all the training.

On the day after Sabo's second sparring match, he became 11 years old so I took him to a hot spring where I bought a bit of sake for us. Since our bodies were still young we only drunk one cup, cheering for his birthday before gifting the rest to some old guys who came in after us.

On that Night, I managed to kill a monstrous Sea king which earned us quite some money on the following day.

The rest of the month went on just like that. Sabo learned Soru and his strength increased enough, to put him on equal grounds against Koushirou.

Then on the first day of the second month when Sabo was about to start his training, we sensed a presence coming towards us. It was Kuina.