2

Chapter 2 – Logia Training with an Admiral

The day after Garp had introduced Kuzan to the three boys Ace, Sabo and Luffy were dragged out of bed by Garp just after dawn, with much complaining from all three of the boys in the process.

"Grandpa! I wanna sleep!" Luffy grumbled out as he stood in an open field far away from Fuusha Village.

"Yeah, why do we have to be up so early?" Sabo questioned while rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Old jerk, waking us up so early." Ace muttered to himself as he yawned loudly.

"All of you be quiet! We're just waiting for Kuzan to show up so he can start your training." Garp replied with a growl as he glared at the three boys. However after waiting for almost half an hour Garp lost his patientence and used Soru to quickly dash back to Fuusha Village and check up on the tardy Admiral. Needless to say Garp was less than amused to find the perpetually lazy Admiral still asleep in his bed at the Inn. Garp frowned heavily before grabbing Kuzan by his right leg and bodily throwing him out of the second story window. "Get up you lazy brat!" Garp roared as Kuzan went sailing out the window. In a testament to his skill and prowess as an Admiral, Kuzan landed on his feet outside wearing white pajama pants and a long sleeved purple t-shirt.

"Hmm? I'm up, I'm up." Kuzan stated as he pushed his sleeping mask up onto his forehead and gave a loud yawn.

"You were suppose too be at the field North of the village thirty minutes ago!" Garp yelled at Kuzan as he landed from jumping out of the Inn's window.

"Oh? Is it that time already?" Kuzan wondered as he scratched the side of his head. "It's a little too early for me." He remarked with another yawn as he headed back towards the Inn.

"No you don't!" Garp growled a he grabbed Kuzan by the back of his shirt and dragged the tall man all the way back to the field with several bursts of Soru. When the two arrived they found all three boys playing sword fight with some sticks they found. Kuzan took in the scene with amusement on his face while Garp's eyebrow started twitching in frustration. "Get over here and pay attention you brats!" Garp barked at the three boys. Ace, Sabo and Luffy reluctantly dropped their sticks and walked over to the two Marines. "If you three want to control your new powers you need to listen to Kuzan starting now." Garp said to the three boys before taking several steps back and sitting down to watch the boy's first lesson.

"Hmm, well I guess we should start with learning some names." Kuzan stated with a sigh as he pointed to each boy and rattled off their names. "Ace, Luffy and Sabo correct?" All three boys nodded surprised the lazy Admiral had actually remembered their names from last night at dinner. "Before I start trying to teach anything I need you three to show me what you can do already." Kuzan explained while watching the three boys nod.

"Alright, I guess I'll go first." Ace said as he stepped forward and held up his right hand. In a few moments Ace's hand turned a bright, hot red before flames appeared in his palm. Kuzan nodded at the display prompting Ace to turn his hand back to normal. Ace stepped back as Sabo stepped up to go next.

"Here I go." Sabo said before both of his hands turned black and dispersed into two small clouds of ash with reddish embers swirling around. Once Kuzan nodded in recognition Sabo reformed his hands and walked back to stand by Ace and Luffy.

"My turn, my turn!" Luffy called out with a huge grin before putting both of his hands about a foot apart. With a look of concentration on Luffy's face small sparks of lightning began moving between his two hands in a constant stream of electricity. When Kuzan also gave him a nod Luffy stopped the sparks and jumped back towards his brothers.

"Alright, I see you all have the basic ability to call forth your powers. Can you become your elements completely yet?" Kuzan asked before a yawn escaped his mouth.

"Grandpa, taught us to remain in human form so we didn't accidently damage things." Luffy replied while Ace and Sabo nodded in agreement.

"I see, well then our first little lesson will be getting you comfortable with shifting between your solid human body and your elemental state." Kuzan said as he walked further out into the dusty field. "I'll demonstrate first so you can see what I'd like you to accomplish." Within a second Kuzan's whole body had turned into solid ice and the ground around his feet froze over from the intense cold. "This is my Hie Hie no Mi power, I'm an Ice Human. I want you three to be able to turn into your respective element just as quickly as I did. Once you can freely shift between these two states then we'll move on to the next lesson." Kuzan explained as he walked towards Garp and laid down to watch the three boys try and shift themselves into their element.

"I bet you guys I'll be the first one to do it!" Luffy said to his two brothers with a grin as he held up his right fist.

"You're on little brother." Sabo replied with a grin as Luffy pouted and stuck his tongue out at Sabo.

"I'll beat both of you, I am the oldest brother after all." Ace told them with a smirk as he ran off to the other side of the field to start trying. Sabo and Luffy both ran off in different directions to start practicing too.

Ace started by trying to force his whole body to ignite at the same time, though this method worked for his arms, torso and head he couldn't get his legs and feet to ignite at the same time as the rest of his body. Sabo tried a different method slowly working his way up from his hands he was able to turn his forearms, upper arms, head and torso into a swirling cloud of ash and was slowly working his way down to his waist and legs. Luffy was simply discharging electricity all over his body trying to make his body become the lightning, though simply discharging the lightning wasn't going to do that but it was helping Luffy with calling forth his element freely so his idea wasn't a total waste.

It was nearing dinner time before the boys had finally been able to transform into their elements completely. The three boys had only stopped for a short lunch around midday before going right back to training each boy still trying to beat the other two by being first to complete a full conversion. It was just an hour or so before dinner when Sabo had managed a complete transformation from head to feet. Ace and Luffy both grumbled about losing before trying to beat each other to second place. Ace accomplished his full conversion next by starting from his feet and changing his body as the flames climbed higher rather than trying to get the flames to burn downwards from his arms to his head and torso. Luffy, after seeing both his brothers beat him at the change got frustrated and accidentally transformed as he let his powers flow outward without restraint, this did have the rather amusing effect of sending Luffy across the entire length of the field as a flash of lightning which stopped only when Luffy hit the ground and the lightning dispersed into the ground.

"Well, you three finally got a full change down." Kuzan said with a yawn as he approached the three boys. "Of course it took you all far too long to make the change, but will work on speeding up your shifting during the next lesson." The Admiral finished before turning around and heading back towards Fuusha Village with Garp.

"Come on boys, time for dinner!" Garp called as he walked with Kuzan towards the village quickly followed by the three hungry children.

~The Next Day~

"Alright, now that you three can change into your elements at will, we need to work on the speed you can change at." Kuzan drawled lazily while sitting in front of the three boys in the field again.

"Why do we need to be able to change as fast as you?" Sabo questioned as he held back a yawn of his own.

"One of a Logia user's greatest abilities is being able to dissolve or otherwise become intangible to most forms of attack by shifting into their element. If you can't change fast enough any attack could potentially be fatal." Kuzan explained to the three boys before Garp's leg quickly kicked the head off the tall Admiral's shoulders. All three boys cried out in shock at what Garp had done before they realized that there was no blood. In fact where Kuzan's head had been separated, the only thing the boy's saw was his neck made from ice. Kuzan's head rapidly reformed from the icy stump of his neck before returning to normal. "This is what I was talking about." Kuzan stated while the boys looked towards the severed head and found only small pieces of broken ice.

"That's so cool!" Luffy exclaimed with sparkling eyes.

"I understand now." Sabo stated with a nod.

"That could definitely be useful." Ace said looking between the shattered ice and Kuzan.

"Now to save me some time and trouble I'm going to incorporate your speed shifting training into your instinctive shifting training." Kuzan explained with a yawn.

"What's instinctive shifting?" Ace questioned with confusion at the new term.

"What I just demonstrated is known as instinctive shifting. By sensing an incoming attack you shift instinctively into your element to avoid the attack. If you sense the attack but can't change fast enough it's just a waste." Kuzan replied as he laid back into the grass. "Garp will help you three get this down over the next week or two." Kuzan stated as he put his sleep mask over his eyes.

"What's grandpa going to do?" Luffy questioned before a pebble smacked into his forehead at high speed sending the seven year old onto his butt. "Ow! That hurt!" Luffy exclaimed while Ace and Sabo looked around trying to figure out where the pebble came from.

"You should have shifted faster!" Garp called out from the other end of the field.

"Grandpa you jerk!" Luffy yelled out only to have another pebble smack him, this time in the stomach. Ace and Sabo both found themselves struck by pebbles as well causing all three boys to run around trying to dodge the pebbles they could barely see or hear before they were hit.

~Two Weeks Later~

Sabo, Ace, and Luffy are walking through the field they've been using for their training for the last two weeks as dozens of pebbles and even some larger rocks fly through the air at them from multiple directions. The various stones simply pass through each boy without the boys seeming to notice. After several minutes of this the stones stop flying and the boys are approached by Kuzan and garp.

"Seems like you boys finally got the hang of instinctive shifting." Garp said with a grin while Sabo and Ace glared at him and Luffy had is customary large grin.

"Evil old man." Sabo muttered while glaring at Garp.

"Stupid jerk, thinks he's funny." Ace growled while increasing his glare. Both reactions only caused Garp to laugh at the two boys, while Kuzan looked on mildly amused.

"Now that you can instinctively shift and dodge attacks that you can see and hear coming we'll move on to the next lesson." Kuzan stated as he walked around the boys to get in front of them.

"What else is there to learn besides how to fight with our powers? Now that we can instinctive shift we're practically unbeatable right?" Ace questioned with his arms crossed. Kuzan launched a kick at the ten year old, at about ten percent of his actual combat speed, allowing Ace to see the incoming kick in time to shift. Kuzan's kick connected and sent Ace several feet backwards where the boy landed on his back.

"You were saying?" Kuzan asked with a serious look on his face.

"Ack! *cough* How did you *cough* hit me? I'm fire!" Ace questioned through a coughing fit as he tried to get air back into his lungs. Both Sabo and Luffy just stood in shock at seeing Ace get hit while he'd been able to shift.

"That's part of the next lesson." Kuzan explained with a yawn. "Logia users often feel invincible but they can be hit in a number of ways. For example an element that is contradictory to your own, like water to fire, or if your opponent can use Haki, like I just did against you."

"What's Haki?" Sabo asked the question all three boys were thinking.

"Haki is the force of your will and spirit. It can empower the body or a weapon with training. It is one of the only surefire ways to effectively combat Devil Fruit users." Garp explained as he flicked both Luffy and Sabo in the forehead.

"Ouch! Grandpa!" Luffy cried out as he held his forehead. Sabo kept quiet but still held his head in pain.

"Furthermore Haki can be divided into three categories. Busoshoku or Armament Haki, Kenbunshoku or Observation Haki, and Haoshoku or Conqueror's Haki. Haoshoku Haki can't be trained and occurs only in one in every one million people or so. But anybody can train and master Kenbunshoku or Busoshoku Haki, which we'll be teaching you the basics of. Once you've got the basics down the only thing that will let you get any better with Haki is experience." Garp explained before a grin spread across his face as he held up three blindfolds. "Training begins now!"

~One Month Later~

"Luffy, I think I hate your Grandpa." Sabo said as the three surrogate brothers continued to spar with Garp while blindfolded and using Armament Haki to fight back instead of their Devil Fruit powers.

"Grandpa is kinda mean." Luffy agreed as he sensed a punch from Garp and leap back to dodge only to be kicked in the stomach by Garp's follow up attack.

"He's a stupid old man." Ace said as he launched a punch with his Armament Haki active, a vague transparent haze seeming to surround the ten year old's fist, Garp simply knocked the punch aside before trying to flick Ace in the forehead. Ace ducked backwards to dodge the flick while Sabo launched a kick at where he sensed Garp was going to move, only to get punched as Garp dodged the kick and counter attacked. Suddenly an alarm clock rang and all three boys dropped to the ground exhausted.

"Look at that, you boys lasted the whole sparring time again. That's seven days in a row now." Garp said happily with a smile while the boys took off their blindfolds.

"Slave driver." Ace muttered as he crawled towards the lunch basket Garp had brought with them this morning.

"Task master." Sabo grunted as he also tried to crawl towards the lunch basket.

"Food." Luffy called out weakly as he quickly crawled his way towards the basket.

After lunch Kuzan had the boys take a nap for an hour, supposedly so they would be well rested for the next stage of their training, though all three, plus Garp, knew it was because the Admiral was being lazy again. After the hour nap the boys did feel more relaxed and rested and promptly woke Kuzan up by nudging him repeatedly until the Admiral sat up and started explaining.

"Alright, alright the next stage of your training is to teach you how to fight effectively with your Devil Fruit powers. Just throwing your element around will only get you so far before someone with better technique takes you down. I'll demonstrate a few of my techniques and maybe you'll get some inspiration for your own techniques." Kuzan explained as he got up to show a few of his techniques to the boys. "Ice Block: Partisan." Kuzan said as three trident shaped pole arms formed from ice in front of him and were quickly launched towards one of the few large rocks near the edge of the field. The three projectiles smashed into the rock leaving behind large gouges where ever they struck the large stone.

"Wow!" Luffy said in awe as his eyes sparkled. Sabo and Ace couldn't help but agree; that attack had been awesome.

"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak." Kuzan announced as his entire right arm turned to ice and a large bird of ice formed and raced towards the same large rock. This time however the rock was completely obliterated by the Admiral's attack.

"Giant ice bird!" Luffy yelled happily his eyes practically glowing with excitement.

"What the heck! That was huge!" Ace and Sabo exclaimed at the same time. Both boys shocked by the amount of ice Kuzan could create in an instant and the power behind his technique.

"One more and then I'll let you try and come up with your own ideas for techniques." Kuzan stated as he walked over to a large tree at the edge of the field. He placed his hand on the tree's trunk before announcing his attack. "Ice Time." The large tree was quickly frozen solid as the boys watched on.

"Freaky, a tree-sicle." Ace said as the three brothers looked at the frozen tree.

"Do you think it tastes any good?" Luffy questioned while looking at the tree.

"Idiot." Sabo muttered to himself while face palming.

"Now, you three try and come up with some techniques of your own. Try and think of the attributes of your respective element while you come up with your moves." Kuzan instructed as he sat down away from the frozen tree.

"Oh! I know!" Luffy exclaimed channeling lightning around his arm. "Lightning Block: Pheasant Beak!" he yelled throwing his arm forward but only succeeding in sending a lightning bolt into the sky. "Aww, why didn't it work?" Luffy pouted as he looked at his hand.

"Hmm, let me try something." Ace said as he brought flames from his body in front of him. "Fire Block: Partisan!" he yelled but only succeeded in sending a wave of fire a few dozen feet in front of himself. "Ok, this is harder than it looks." Ace admitted.

"Boys, you can't just try and copy my techniques. My techniques are formed from ice, a solid element. Trying to solidify lightning or fire may take you quite a while considering neither are naturally solid, it might even be impossible." Kuzan explained from where he was sitting.

"So we don't have to say Fire Block or Ash Block to make techniques like yours work?" Sabo asked as he turned his left hand into ash watching the red-orange embers swirl inside the cloud.

"Of course not, I came up with Ice Block when I was younger and had only recently started developing my powers and techniques. It helped me focus and often led to having better results from my techniques. If you want to come up with something that will help you concentrate that's fine, hell I'd recommend it, but it should be something that helps you focus." Kuzan replied before yawning lightly.

"I see so something that helps me to focus." Sabo muttered while he began thinking deeply.

"I'll have to think about that for a while." Ace said as he started walking around slowly.

"I have no idea." Luffy commented with a large grin as both Sabo and Ace face palmed.

~The Next Day~

"So what did you three come up with?" Kuzan asked from his position laid back on the ground.

"Me first! Me first!" Luffy said with a grin as he bounced around.

"Go ahead, Luffy." Kuzan replied which caused Luffy to grin even bigger.

"Goro Goro no Pistol!" Luffy exclaimed holding up his right hand like a gun his index and middle fingers extended. From the tips of Luffy's fingers a thin, but bright bolt of lightning shot forward and pierced the still frozen tree leaving a hole about an inch wide straight through the tree.

"Simple, but effective. Seems you've found what works for you, Luffy." Kuzan commented as Luffy was congratulated by his brothers.

"I'll go next." Ace said with a smirk. "Enkai: Hibashira!" Ace waved his arms around bringing forth large amounts of fire before launching a huge stream of fire directly into the air above him. The pillar of fire reached a height of fifty feet before it dispersed.

"Not bad, seems you need focus for larger attacks. Small ones seem to come to you much easier." Kuzan stated having seen Ace play with small balls of flame like they were toys when they took breaks from their training.

"Well, I guess it's my turn then." Sabo announced with his own grin. "Ash Make: Darts!" Sabo's hands both turned into large clouds of ash from which several dozen black spike-like darts were launched before stabbing into the ground in front of Sabo for at least thirty feet.

"That's also good, Sabo." Kuzan responded as he picked up one of the darts from the ground. "This thing feels like incredibly dense charcoal. So you compressed your ash together until it solidified?" Kuzan questioned while examining the dart.

"Yep, that's why I used Ash Make as my focus command. Turning my ash into objects is a lot different than when I use it freely as a large cloud or wave. So the word Make helps me focus on giving it a form." Sabo explained as he reformed his hands and returned them to normal.

"That was great!" Garp shouted from the edge of the field surprising everyone. "I knew you boys could do it! You'll all be great Marines one day!" he said with a laugh as he walked towards the group.

"I don't wanna be a Marine, Grandpa! I wanna be a pirate!" Luffy yelled back.

"Yeah, I'd rather do what I want than what I'm told." Ace replied with his arms crossed.

"I enjoy being free and doing what I like; besides Marines take orders from snooty nobles." Sabo commented with a frown.

"You'll all be Marines and like it!" Garp yelled back before calming down and turning to Kuzan. "Sengoku needs you back Kuzan, says he needs an Admiral's presence back at Headquarters for one of the monthly report and review meetings."

"Aww, man. Those are so boring. I was hoping to have a longer vacation." Kuzan replied before he turned and started walking with Garp back towards Fuusha Village.

~One Hour Later~

"Well, looks like this is goodbye for now boys." Kuzan said as he stood before Garp's ship which would take both the Admiral and Vice-Admiral back to Marine Headquarters. "Keep practicing your skills and powers and you'll go pretty far in this world no matter what you decide to do."

"Sure thing, sensei." Luffy, Sabo and Ace replied together before looking towards the opposite bay, where all the resident's boats came and went from, when they heard someone scream. The reason for said scream was that the Sea King, known to the local people as 'The Lord of the Coast' was rising up from the water in the middle of the bay with a loud roar.

"Man, can't even get a peaceful send off from your home island can I Garp?" Kuzan asked rhetorically as he, Garp and the three boys walked towards the other bay's shoreline. Once the group arrived the Sea King turned to look towards them and let out another roar. "Here's one last thing I want you boys to think about when you get stronger." Kuzan said as he stepped forward and put his hand into the sea. "Every competent Devil Fruit user usually has one or two attacks that are so powerful they only use them when a situation calls for it." The Sea King was by now swimming quickly towards the group on the shore with its mouth of razor sharp teeth opened wide. "You three are a bit young to be able to bring out that much power yet, but I have no doubt that you all will be capable of it one day." Kuzan continued eve as the Sea King was getting closer and closer. "But for now I'll let you see the kind of technique and power I'm talking about." He finished with the Sea King no more than twenty feet away from him now. "Ice Age!" Kuzan exclaimed and in that instant everything froze.

"No way!" Ace said dumbfounded.

"Impossible!" Sabo commented with his eyes as wide as possible.

"So cool!" Luffy yelled as his eyes sparkled.

The Sea King, the ocean and even parts of the shore were completely frozen in place. The temperature had noticeably dropped several degrees and 'The Lord of the Coast' was frozen solid mid-lunge.

"Alright I guess we should set sail now." Kuzan said as he and Garp started walking back towards Garp's ship; leaving the boys to stare in awe at the level of power they could someday wield