Chapter 21 - Training Buddies

May and his troop of Marines, as well as the prisoners, had been picked up by Garp shortly after. The official story had been that May had arrested the Black Cat Pirates but the Strawhats had used the opportunity to flee the scene on a ship from the shipyard.

While Garp knew it not to be true he didn't inquire further as he would have to do something if he was told by one of his subordinates that they were collaborating with pirates. Not that he wouldn't have found a way out but why go through all that trouble. Garp was sure that his grandson was fine as May had made no comment about any problems.

They made their way back to Shells Town where Garp was planning to supervise Commander Ripper to check if he was capable enough to be promoted to Captain yet.

May had kept up his habit of training everyday, though he only had time in the early morning until the reached Shells Town where he went back to full training mode. While the other Recruits were trained by a Marine Instructor, Garp had approved of exempting May from that training and instead follow his own plan.

The days started with May and Garp both doing basic exercises with heavy weights. After which Garp had to go do his duties and help Ripper in the day-to-day business, during which May either continued training with his quarterstaff or writing his books. In the afternoon May spent some time sparring with the Four Cardinals. It came as a surprise that all of them could keep up with him, while Lady South, Lord North and Earl East all seemed to be around his level, Baron West seemed to be a completely different case. It was clear to all of them that he was holding back and May could only speculate how strong he was.

After sparring with the Cardinals, Garp came back from his duties and the sparring continued. While the spars with the Cardinals were just straight on fighting Garp always had new rules to the fight to focus on different areas. Sometimes they focused on Soru and Observation Haki, other times Armament Haki and sometimes just plain old fistfighting without any fancy tricks. The days trickled by and May was seeing good progress. 

May had woken up before sunrise as almost every day for the last few weeks, he had grabbed a quick snack in the kitchen of the Marine Base and headed out into the practice ground of the base. The training ground was just a field of dirt which was trampled flat by the soldiers. Mays steps whirled up dust as it hadn't rained for a few weeks. It was peacefully quiet and May wasn't surprised that Garp wasn't here yet, made evident by the lack of loud noise.

But to his surprise two other people were already standing in the middle of the field. "I want to go back to bed. Why do we have to stand up this early?" one of them said. "Quit moaning. You don't have to be here. I told you I'm going to ask to join them, to get stronger. You asked me to wake you and take you with me." the other replied.

"I know, Koby. But I hadn't realized it would be this early."

As May came a bit closer he could recognize Koby and Helmeppo in the dark. Only a few torches were illuminating the field. "Morning you two. You here to join me?" May asked.

"Yes, sir." Koby replied.

"Don't be so formal, Koby. We are both the same rank. But feel free to join. I just need to..." May trailed of as he rummaged through the Mokeskin pouch on his hip [The Bag of Holding from Harry Potter]. "Ahh yes there it is." He pulled out two belts. One of them he put on and the other he threw behind himself in a high arch.

Koby and Helmeppo heard the noise of something heavy hitting flesh from the direction May had thrown the belt. "Thanks." they heard from the spot of darkness and a second later Garp became visible as he approached, while putting the belt on.

"Will we also get a belt?" Helmeppo asked intrigued. Koby looked at him with a look that seemed reprimanding but Helmeppo seemed oblivious to it.

"Haha!" Garp laughed "I like your motivation but you can't handle it yet. You would break down on the spot. So did May invite you?"

"Nah, I didn't. They asked to join just now." May answered the question.

"Let's see if they still want to, after we are finished with the warm-up." Garp said. Helmeppo and Koby gulped but didn't make a motion to leave. 

Their training started with 21km run, Helmeppo and Koby seemed to be struggling a lot but Garp and May made small talk like it was no big deal, to be fair it wasn't for them. Even with the belt that May had enchanted to simulate the increased gravity from Tsuki Island at full moon at its lowest level.

Helmeppo and Koby reached the base roughly halve an hour after the other two and were astonished when they saw them doing more exercises seemingly not having a break yet. "Oi May get to these two!" Garp yelled. May stopped what he was doing and walked over to the two new trainees, who were unsure what was happening.

As May reached them he knelt down and put his hands on their legs. At first they were struggling to understand what was happening but soon they felt their muscles stopping to hurt. While still exhausted their body felt fresh. Helmeppo was shocked as he didn't understand how it had worked but Koby had felt some kind of energy entering his body.

"What was that? This energy I felt..." Koby asked.

"What energy? Are you okay Koby? Maybe you should lie down for a moment." Helmeppo suggested but May shook his head. "We just started training no stopping just yet, but I must say I'm surprised that you felt the energy entering your body. I'll look forward to when you learn Haki."

""What's Haki?""

"Doesn't matter now. Let's get the real training started now that you have warmed up." May said.