190 Hearth, Training Partners and Good Interruptions

_________ POV Narration_________

Garp was indeed not happy at all to find out that Shiki had let Francisco off to wander the world without any supervision.

He was somewhat ok with him leaving on a mission sent by Enel, sure, but now he was off doing his own thing while his Captain trained.

It was too late to do anything about it anyway, by the time Shiki informed him, a few days had already passed.

Garp was half a mind away from making a meeting and searching the seas for him, truly believing that he was an individual far too dangerous to leave off alone.

The one to calm him down was his own son, Dragon.

"Dad, I get that you don't like or trust him. But he is still proven to be loyal to Enel. It's safe to assume he's not the same bloodthirsty pirate he once was."

Dragon already knew of Francisco's past with Garp, and he knew of the Rocks Pirates and the circumstances surrounding it.

He hadn't been there in person, but Garp didn't keep it a secret from him.

The old Marine Hero never really cared for the World Government's orders, he obviously wouldn't bother keeping secrets from family.

Which was why Dragon already had enough information to build a 'profile' of sorts for Francisco.

Garp didn't exactly build a beautiful picture, as the man had done a LOT of heinous things under Xebec.

But Dragon's personal experience with Francisco painted him as an agreeable and loyal individual.

He felt that Sky King Enel's Right Wing was trustworthy enough to be left to his own devices.

Garp was still mumbling complaints under his breath, but Dragon was at least able to placate him for now.

Enel wasn't even informed of Francisco's departure, as Garp didn't want him to be too distracted from his training.

Meanwhile, Larthy and her team were spending most of their time looking into the Ancient Empire that had faced off against the World Government.

Their texts could only be interpreted in so many ways, unfortunately.

But Larthy, in all her boredom, did manage to find something interesting...

More specifically, she managed to find that the word 'Hearth' had more meanings in the Ancient Script.

They didn't have many examples of it being used, but it seemed that it could refer to 'Fertility' and 'Life' as well.

'So, from a god of stoves and campfires, he went to a possible god of fertility and/or life...' Larthy couldn't help but scratch the back of her head with a scowl stretching on her face.

Instead of just a fire/heat-related Devil Fruit, now they had to look into a few more Devil Fruits in order to find the Third God Fruit...

They already had one, that being Enel. And Enel claimed to know where Nika was as well and even said that Nika was already on their side. So they essentially had two of them.

Her discovery didn't make the jobs of the Revolutionaries any easier, but at the very least they had some more things to look into now.

And just like that, the months started rolling by. Everyone was off doing their own things, the marines kept building and training, preparing for the day that they would overthrow the World Government and restore justice.

The Revolutionaries were stretching out their information networks all over the world, gathering as many clues as they could.

The Sky Guards kept training and training, Wyper eventually joined Garp's training, though he was weaker than both Oven and Enel when it came to actual strength.

Instead of focusing on his fists, he was allowed to use his spear. And he had to share a space with Oven, the two of them were even allowed to spar, though it was horribly onesided.

Wyper may have been more talented in Conquror's Haki, but that alone didn't mean much in a real fight. As he was, he was too weak to take a few serious hits from Oven.

The only reason he was able to take on more than one was because Oven was weakened by seastone.

Still, to Wyper, that just meant he had more space for progress. He certainly never wanted to feel as desperate as he had against the grunts of the Beast Pirates...

Oven was also ok with having a training partner for now. As the training regime was getting a bit stale for him.

He was used to being surrounded by his many siblings or subordinates. Isolation was not something that he was too accustomed to.

Everyone on the island progressed quite a bit in the tasks that they set out to do...

And while Larthy was looking into Poneglyphs further, Robin was looking into ways that she could spend more time with Enel...

And, one day, she finally managed to talk Garp into letting them have a bit of group training!

It was surprisingly not even that difficult, especially since he now had Oven and Wyper training together. The old Marine Hero did make it clear that it was a one-time thing though.

He didn't want Enel to be too distracted. Garp considered him a LOT more important than the others after all...

And so, Robin was given a bit of leeway to head into the parts where Enel trained.

She made a point to take a quick bath and change into fresh training clothes before going to him.

Robin disliked being dirty, and she especially didn't want Enel seeing her in such a sorry state.

She could feel the tremors of his punches from a few hundred meters away. Even under seastone, his strength seemed to be domineering... At least to things she was accustomed to.

The closer she got, the more she felt the ground shaking underneath her feet.

When she got close enough, Enel's strikes still echoed throughout the area.

Robin's eyes widened a bit as she looked at the deep marks that Enel's fists had left on the stone. Gashes spanning as long as the eye could see.

At that rate of improvement, Enel was sure to reach his goals within the time limit he had given himself. Although Enel still felt that his progress was lacking, Robin found it to be quite astonishing.

After admiring the training site, Robin's eyes finally settled on the man himself...

The sun was shining brightly over the outdoor training area, and in the middle of it, Enel's tall and shirtless figure was panting a bit. His body was covered in sweat, his fists were bandaged up and bleeding.

It didn't take long for Robin to remark that Enel had somewhat changed... His muscles were bulkier, and they weren't just for show either.

He was never a skinny man, but now he looked a lot more intimidating. But the biggest change was his eyes... They looked determined, more so than anything Robin had ever seen.

After she finished gawking at his panting figure, he finally noticed her. Before he could greet her first though, she finally opened her mouth.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Robin smiled coyly as she brought her palms together behind her back.

Enel smiled a bit when seeing her, he then swiped his arm, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "You know I always enjoy your company... But I'm afraid Garp would kill the both of us..."

Although he was visibly glad to see her, he still didn't want to break out of the habit he had created, he just used Garp as an excuse.

Isolation wasn't an issue to him, as long as he grew stronger he couldn't care less. And he knew that Robin would distract him... Well, it would be fairer to say that he would've been distracted by her.

Robin seemed to wave her hand dismissively at his refusal. She just grinned at him and started stretching.

"He agreed to this... Only for today though..." Robin's cheeky smile and confident attitude seemed to convince Enel, as he scratched the back of his head with a wry smile.

"Well then... No reason to hold back, I guess?"

Robin nodded as she continued stretching. As she moved, the Emperor couldn't help but admire her curves and athletic figure. He did so for a few seconds, before shaking his head and cursing himself inwardly for creeping on her.

They had been friends for a while, and he did enjoy her company a lot. He certainly didn't want to ruin that by acting out of pocket with her after a prolonged period of isolation.

"So, how's your training going?" Robin didn't seem to notice him staring at her, or if she did, she didn't mind it one bit.

"It's going well, just working on my... well... Everything, I guess?" Garp's training focused on explosive power, which was aided by agility, speed, strength and flexibility.

Punching mountains repeatedly wasn't exactly what one would expect from such a description, but hey, it was impossible to argue with the results.

Garp was a living example of the validity of his training methods. He was one of the strongest men alive at the end of the day...

Robin nodded when hearing his answer, she was also working on the exact same things as him, she just wanted to break the ice...

"You look great, by the way, sorry for just staring at you earlier..." As she spoke, she scanned his toned body, not bothering to hide her wandering gaze from him.

Enel instantly felt a jolt of something that he didn't quite recognize at first... And his heart raced for a few seconds as he scratched the back of his head and calmed down.

"Oh please... I look like shit and probably smell much worse... I haven't had a shower in a few weeks." Enel smirked a bit as he waved his hand around dismissively.

"Now now, you may stink a bit, but you certainly don't look bad..." Robin covered her mouth with her palm as smirked and her eyes wandered over his body once more.

That caused the old Emperor to cough a bit and just accept the compliment.

"Thanks. You look pretty amazing yourself..." That was the only answer he could really come up with. It wasn't anything special, but it seemed that Robin took it quite well...

She seemed to blush, before turning her gaze and looking Enel in the eyes with a coy smile,

"Oh, stop it. You're making me blush... Your words are almost as flattering as your gaze was earlier..."

After that, Enel seemed to cringe for a few seconds.

"Yeah... You know, girls catch on pretty fast when someone's ogling them..." Robin gave Enel a coy smile as she tied her long hair into a ponytail.

"Sorry, I may try to be respectful, but I am still a man. Now then, I think we should get on with training... Before Garp comes here to coach us personally."

It was impossible for the Emperor to not realize that she was teasing him.

He wasn't exactly bothered by it, but he also didn't feel like engaging too much with it for now.

They still had quite a lot to do, and the day was still young. They couldn't be slacking off already.

"Fine fine... By the way, I don't mind you looking~" Robin smirked once more as she turned around and flicked her ponytail towards Enel's abs.

He stood there for a few seconds, as she walked over to one side of the field and started training by herself, going through the motions of Fishman Karate towards a large rock.

Enel just sighed as he walked over to his own side and clenched his fists, getting into a boxing stance, his style was more of a mix between marine-issued martial arts and the styles that he had seen on Earth.

After a bit more punching at stones, the two of them did get to training each other. It was mostly Enel coaching her, and helping her use some of the Rokushiki even while weakened by seastone.

The two of them talked a lot more about their time during that training, both of them didn't seem to have any troubles with the isolation, but they did have issues with the repetitiveness of the task they were doing.

Alas, they had to suck it up and continue. It was too late to back out for either of them, and Robin had already resolved to become stronger before going back to sailing with her crew...

Eventually, day turned to night, and both Enel and Robin were left panting on the ground, as they finally reached the final stretch of their training day... When they could finally sleep.

"Hah... This was a lot more bearable than usual..." Robin said through her panting, as she looked at Enel, who was laying down beside her.

"Indeed... You're good company, Robin..." Enel said as he smiled towards her, his earlobes shooting into the ground as he stood up forcefully.

Robin blinked a few times as she stopped herself from blushing at his honest compliment.

"What's up?..." She looked up at the giant man as he stretched a bit and slowly crouched down near her.

"Nothing much... Just taking you back to your bed." Enel smiled as he slowly picked her up.

Robin was shocked, but she didn't protest at all. He surprisingly didn't sling her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he did back when he was training her on Baltigo.

This time, it was a princess carry... Well, at least an attempt at it.

It was only now that Robin realised just how BIG Enel's hands were...

One of his palms was holding onto both of her thighs, while the other seemed to be able to support her back without any issue.

Although it felt like a princess carry to her, it was more as if he had made a chair for her out of his hands, and he just happened to keep her relatively close to his chest, which she leaned on.

It did manage to warm her heart regardless. This time, she couldn't even suppress her blush as she felt him touch her directly.

He didn't smell nice, that couldn't really be helped though, as his accommodations weren't as good as hers. He didn't even have a bed, let alone a place to take a proper bath...

She could get over the smell quite easily though, especially when since Enel was a great person in Robin's eyes...

For a second, she wanted to propose sleeping with him in the wild, on his side of the mountain, but she didn't want to ruin a good day with rejection... She was making good progress, she didn't feel the need to rush things.

After a few dozen minutes of walking, Enel finally reached the makeshift cabin that was given to Robin.

She snuggled up to his chest one last time before he placed her on her stone bed gently.

"Goodnight..." He muttered as he noticed her fall asleep almost instantly, a satisfied smile stretching across her face.

The Emperor couldn't help the smile that surfaced on his own as he turned around and left.

'... I hope Garp lets her interrupt my daily routine more often...'

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Took me a bit, yea I know. Btw, we've reached chapter 200 on Patre_on, which is pretty nice :)) I think we've got like 50 more to go.

At least I believe so, Anyway, have a nice day!

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)