Chapter 7 - First Combat and Encounter

A/N: Violence warning this chapter. It's an action fanfic so you should already know, but stating it just in case.

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In the forest on the outskirts of Shimotsuki village, a teenage Terumi can be seen slashing away at several trees with a low-grade practice sword.

Hisss

"Breath of Water, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"

A tree gets bisected perfectly in half as he runs past onto his next target.

"Forth Form: Striking Tide!"

Another tree fell, cut into four pieces.

Looking back, satisfied with his work, Terumi then leaped high into the air.

'Now, let's try this one more time.'

"Ninth Form, Kai. (Improved)"

Terumi starts dashing swiftly from tree to tree, using them as footholds, water droplets generated with each step.

"Turbulent Flowing Dance!"

At almost dizzying speeds, his figure flashes from one tree to another, slicing everything in his path, leaving behind a beautiful wave of illusory water streams.

"Whew."

'Finally, it's complete.'

It has been five years since Kuina has been born, and the year is 1507, making Terumi twelve years old.

'Ever since mastering the ten basic forms a few years ago, I've started learning a couple moves from other breathing styles as well, some of them I was able to pick up, but water breathing is still the easiest one for me right now, so I started seeing if I can improve the basic forms by combining them. Glad to see some progress being made.'

Turbulent Flowing Dance was created in combination with the Ninth form's footwork and the Third form's flexible strikes, creating a fast and flowing dash that strikes all in its path.

'My sword spiritual aura development has been going well too. I can now generation illusionary water with my moves. Once I develop my Haki, I think I'll be able to actualize it into reality.'

"Okay, one more test. First, let's calm down."

Terumi started breathing in and out, relaxing all his muscles and regaining his energy. He stood before a huge tree and faced it with his sword.

'Total Concentration Breathing.'

Hisss

He dashed forth.

"Breath of Sun, First Form!"

He waved his sword high.

"Enbu!" (Dance)

Fire summons out of his blade as he brings down a vertical slash with devasting power, slicing the huge tree perfectly in half, vertically.

"Haa, Haa."

'Damn, this still hurts so much.'

Over the past five years, Terumi has not neglected his training one bit. He stretched his time in Total Concentration Breathing to a full minute, but still cannot do 'Constant'. He tried to learn the original breathing style, Breath of Sun, although the power is great, the toll on his body is very heavy.

'One thing I've figured out over the past five years is that it's not like I'm untalented, but the breathing styles have scaled to adapt to the physique of my body who is a native of One Piece.'

'Total Concentration Breathing is meant to exceed the body's limits and improve all aspects. Which means, it doesn't matter how stronger my body gets, as the techniques are meant to exceed my limits, I will continue to struggle until I learn to control and stabilize my strength. Since I'm still growing, I imagine it'll still take a few more years before then and I will be able to master Total Concentration: Constant. After that, learning and using many breathing styles should get much easier.'

'After that, I'll just need to continually train my body, and learn and train my Haki. I don't know if I'll be able to awaken the 'Mark' or not. In theory, since I'm able to use Breath of Sun, I should be able to awaken the Mark, but so far I can't tell.'

"Okay, planning time over, let's head back."

Terumi swiftly made his way towards his village, keeping his vigilance up at all times. In recent years, pirate attacks have become more and more common. Thankfully, so far it has all been wannabes who don't even have bounties, but the danger is ever-present.

'Haa. Roger, I know you wanted to inspire the next 'D.' to follow in your path, but you also inspired plenty of foolish hooligans as well.'

'Speaking of which, it's been two years since Luffy was born. Should I sail to Foosha village? I'm still pretty young and don't know any navigation yet so the journey will be tough, but it'll be hard to get in contact with Garp otherwise. Forget it, I can't afford to wait around for him to come. There's still time before Garp starts training Luffy, I'll have another chance of running into him around then.'

Terumi grimaced as he kept thinking about the best way to get into contact with Garp. He didn't want to sail before he had the necessary strength to fend for himself, and here at Shimotsuki village where his mom and teachers live, is the best place to continue training for now.

Reaching a cliff near the village, by the water's edge, he can see out onto the vast ocean. This is the path he always takes, as it allows him to keep an eye out for incoming pirates.

'So far, either mom or one of the villagers would take care of them. One thing I've learned is that almost everyone in the village knows some level of swordsmanship. Kozaburo-sensei taught everyone how to defend themselves when he founded this village, and every new generation, many kids attend the dojo in order to learn as their parents did.'

Reminiscing on how he's missing out on every opportunity at real combat, suddenly something caught the corner of his eye.

"Is that..."

Terumi ran towards the west cliffside and started his Total Concentration Breathing in order to improve his eyesight.

"...Pirates!"

A few hundred meters away off the coast, a large pirate ship slowly approached. It had several holes in its side but steadily made its way towards the village.

'It's coming towards me, looks like they're planning on sneaking up on the village via this cliff. What do I do, should I call for help?'

Terumi thought for a few seconds before shaking his head.

'Well, first let me check their flag.'

Terumi focused all his energy into his eyes and saw the pirate flag painted on the mast. A skull with two swords crossed.

"Dual-Blade Mikael...10 Million belly!"

"What the hell is he doing here, I read that he was making his way towards Loguetown. The first pirate with a bounty and it's 10 million? His first-mate 'Grey Arm' Jericho also has a 5 million bounty. Just my luck."

'I should call for help? The villagers aren't scared of pirates, but this is the strongest one we've ever had to face. Innocent people could get killed. If I face them alone, I could die. I haven't really measured my own skills yet so I don't know how strong I am.'

Terumi contemplated with a difficult expression while weighing his choices. Then, in the distance he saw a second ship far away, chasing the pirates.

"Is that a navy ship? I think it is! It's too far away for me to confirm but I see faint writing on the huge white mast. It doesn't look like a pirate flag, so it must be the navy! So that's why their ship has holes in it, they must have been attacked by the navy."

Seeing this new development, Terumi resolves himself to do what must be done.

"I have to stop them here and stall for time."

'Judging by their speed, the pirates will be here in 5 minutes and the navy ship, about 10 minutes behind. So that means I have to hold them off for 5 minutes before help arrives. That's not too bad. I can do this.'

Five minutes later, Terumi watched as the pirate ship collided with the cliffside, and about a hundred pirates start scaling the cliff.

'Damn, that's a lot more than I thought. Too late to regret now.'

Terumi ready himself and stood a good distance away from the cliff, waiting for the pirates to show up.

As soon as the first pirate arrived on the cliff, each party immediately noticed each other.

"Huh? What's a little brat doing here? Hey kid, get out of our way or you're gonna live the rest of your life in a slave cell."

Terumi's brow scrunched in anger. He stared at the man in front of him as more and more pirates started getting up the cliff.

'Piracy and human trafficking, filth.'

"What's the look on your face for? You're really starting to piss me off kid, we don't have time for this. Die!!!"

The pirates rushed forward, each one with large machetes in their hands.

Hisss

Terumi rushed forward and leaped.

'Breath of Water, Eighth Form.'

"Waterfall Basin!"

A powerful downward slash came down on the pirate, as Terumi utilized his full body weight and downward momentum in the attack.

"Agh-"

The pirate only let out a small scream before he got bisected vertically.

Terumi didn't hesitate and moved on to the next target, while the other pirates started panicking seeing the gruesome scene.

'Third Form.'

"Flowing Dance!"

With a swift motion, Terumi flowed through several pirates with pristine footwork that left behind a trail of winding illusory water streams cutting through each target it passes.

The pirates fell one by one before they even had a chance to attack.

"Haa. Haa."

'Not good, my anger is making me hasty, I'm spending way more stamina than I should. I need to slow down and save my energy for the captain.'

By now, all of the pirates have made their way up the cliff and saw the previous scene taking place. They started surrounding him, blocking him off from retreating towards the village.

Terumi managed to take down about 10 pirates, leaving almost 90 of them left, including the captain.

"Damn it, first I run into Garp and now a little kid is killing all my men. Can today get any more annoying?"

Mikael gritted his teeth in anger, cursing the gods for his misfortunes.

"Jericho, take some men and commandeer us a boat by the pier. Kill everyone who resists."

"You heard the captain, let's go boys!"

Terumi heard what Mikael said but didn't have time to process it. He knew that if he let these men pass, there will be innocent blood spilled today. With no time to waste as Jericho and 15 other pirates started rushing towards the village away from where he was, he bent down in an iai stance and closed his eyes.

Hissssss

'Total Concentration Breathing. Breath of Thunder, First Form.'

"Thunderclap and Flash, Sixfold!"

A thundering sound trailed in his wake as Terumi blinked forward at blinding speeds, slicing off the heads of six people, Jericho included, before landing between the remaining pirates and the village.

The remaining pirates rushing toward the village barely had time to register what happened as their comrades fell around them. Terumi took the opportunity and dashed in amongst the surviving as the bodies were still falling to the ground.

'Breath of Thunder, Third Form.'

"Thunder Swarm!"

Drawing and resheathing his sword at thunderous speed, waves of sword slashes went out in all directions as they cut the remaining pirates around him to pieces.

"Gah, Haa. Haa."

Terumi knelt down with one knee on the floor, still holding tight onto his blade.

'This is not good, I didn't give myself enough time before switching between breathing styles. The backlash is starting.'

"You...You DAMNED BRAT!!!"

Mikael could not contain his anger anymore as he saw his first-mate and several of his men once again cut down by the teenage boy in front of him. Mikael unsheathed his dual blades and sprinted at full speed towards the kneeling boy with murderous intent in his eyes.

"DIE!!!"

'Move, move!!'

Terumi kicked off the ground and backflipped off the ground, narrowly dodging a lethal downward swing. His momentary evasion kept him alive, but a swarm of sword swings rained down upon him as Mikael chased him.

Parrying what he could, Terumi did his best to defend while fighting against the excruciating backlash of pain from switching breathing styles within a short period.

"I got you now!"

Mikael locked Terumi's sword in defense with a swing of his left sword, while he stabbed forward with his right, directly at Terumi's face.

"Shit!"

Terumi leaned his head back in an attempt to dodge but was not able to fully escape the attack, as the sword narrowly missed his eye and grazed across his forehead, leaving a large cut above his left eye on his forehead.

Terumi took the momentary cockiness of the pirate thinking he has won and kicked him in the stomach, forcing him back.

"Heheheh, how long can you last now with that wound kid? What's wrong, you were moving much faster when you were killing my men earlier! Already out of juice? Hahahaha!"

'Damn it, the blood is covering my left eye. I need to get away and bandage it up or I'll have to fight with one eye.'

Terumi breathed heavily as he looked around. He's too far away from the cliff to see when the navy will arrive.

The rest of the pirates stood behind their captain, madness shone in their eyes as they glare mockingly at the young boy, taking pleasure in his current state.

Suddenly, at that moment, a figure flashed up the cliff as if he was flying, holding a large cannonball in his hand.

"Wahahahaha, I got you now. You scum didn't want to face me earlier and now you're bullying a kid? Take my cannonball!"

BOOM.

"Ahhh!"

Several pirates got thrown around in the explosion as it landed directly in the middle of where they gathered. The lucky ones that managed to escape the blast got knocked out by the impact of the explosion.

Mikael looked back in terror as he saw the figure of the person chasing him, before turning back to Terumi who was kneeling on the ground, gawking at the explosion.

"Damn it all!! You stupid brat! I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!"

Mikael leaped into the air with all his might, his eyes reddened with rage.

"Shit. Come on!"

Terumi shakingly stood up and held his sword up, ready to trade strikes with the pirate.

At that moment.

"FILTHY SCUM! Ittoryu, HANA GIRI!"

Hana's voice echoed in the air as Terumi saw a blinding figure flash forth, slicing Mikael midair. His body fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, dead.

Seeing that the danger has passed, Terumi collapsed backward onto the ground, still grasping tight onto his sword.

Hana rushed to her son, seeing the large wound on his forehead.

"Terumi!! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine, mom. Just a flesh wound."

Hana tore off a piece of her blouse and used it to quickly bandage her son's head, stopping the bleeding.

"Just what on earth happened? Someone ran to the village saying they saw a pirate ship heading this way. As I came up here to check, there was a huge explosion!"

Hana looked around as she saw pirates sprawled out on the ground. Some of them were knocked out around a smoking crater, some of them cut by a sword.

"Did you do this?"

"Not all of it. Someone came to help me."

Right at that moment, heavy footsteps were heard coming towards them out from the smoke.

"Who is it!?"

Hana readied herself for combat, before seeing the figure standing before her. His graying hair and beard did not take away from the immense pressure oozing out of his muscular body.

"You are...Marine Hero, Garp!?"

"Oh? You know me? Wahahaha! I came across these pirates while on my journey. I thought I could have some fun and kill time but their ship was a lot faster than I thought. Sorry if I ruined this cliff. Wahahaha!"

Terumi got up as he saw the legendary man before his very eyes. Even though his body still ached with pain, he could not contain his excitement seeing such a famous character from the show.

'Marine Hero, Garp!'

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A/N: This was a long one, I hope I was able to write a good action scene. Give me your thoughts!