Chapter 16 - Momousagi

Raiden was up early the next day. He was really excited to meet his new trainer. He arrived at the ground almost half an hour early.

"Ara, someone sure is excited to meet me huh?" Some whispered in Raiden's ear.

Raiden turned his head so fast he almost had a whiplash. Standing infront of him was tall, slim woman with massive assets. She had black hair and a spider tattoo on her right thigh. Raiden had to admit she looked dropdead gorgeous.

'It's Gion!'

"Um, who are you?" Raiden decided to play dumb. Gion didn't have her vice admiral coat on. Him recognising her would be weird.

Gion face palmed. 'It looks like Garp-chan didn't tell him who's going to teach him.'

"I'm vice admiral Gion. You were waiting for your teacher right? Well that happens to be me." She looked proud for some reason, Raiden just thought he was mistaken.

Raiden was surprised that Garp managed to convince Gion to teach him. She was a Vice Admiral, and and an admiral candidate. Also his swordsmanship had stagnated ever since he left Shimotsuki village. Gion, being a master swordswomen herself, would be a great help to him.

"Anyway, let's not waste anymore time. Pick up your sword. I want to see what level you're at and we'll move on from there."

Raiden nodded and pulled out his two swords.

'A dual sword user huh.'

Gion unsheathed her katana and pointed it at Raiden.

"Come."

Raiden rushed forward and brought his right sword down while preparing a horizontal slash with his left. The was the most basic attack he learned during the 4 months he practiced his sword.

Gion easily deflected the initial blow. As for the second one she took a step back to dodge it. This was the advantage of two swords over over one.

While it was weaker in terms of attack power it made up for it in terms of lethality. If you're slow you'll get caught by one of the swords and over time in battle the injuries, even if shallow, will continue to accumulate making it hard for you to fight.

'His strength and speed are amazing. But his attack pattern is really result oriented. While nothing wrong he'll have harder time against stronger opponets whom he can't catch off guard with that straightforward style.'

As her monologue ended she noticed Raiden move again. He did something that Gion didn't expect at all. Raiden threw the sword in his right hand towards Gion and used geppo at the same time to reach a certain height in air.

Gion deflected the sword Raiden threw at her with a flick of her wrist and looked at the incoming Rankyaku blade Raiden used.

At the same Raiden used geppo again and useing gravity, he moved towards Gion at breakneck speed.

He watched as Gion deflected the wind blade. He raised his sword over his head and with a shout executed a downward slash. But...

'I missed?'

He felt a blade on the back of his neck.

"That was a very good plan Raiden-chan. The problem is if you loose your chance to land the attack you'll loose all your temp at once. But, not bad just don't use that combo with someone who's faster than you."

Gion was very pleased. Sure his swordsmanship was a bit lacking, but the boy had a amazing head on his shoulders. That last combo he pulled would've caught most people off gaurd.

She ruffled his hair and smiled at him.

"I'm going to make you an amazing swordsman Raiden-chan!"

Raiden grinned back at her.

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Raiden found the theoretical teaching really boring. It included basic maths, something that was too easy for Raiden who worked through his engineering degree in past life.

History was filled with propaganda, so he zoned out of that.

Geography was somewhat interesting, but once he found out he had to memorize a bunch of data he zoned of that as well.

Raiden found out why Dax called Arthur a nerd. The boy had an unbelievable intellect. He didn't want to be a frontline combatant, but a navigator. Raiden respected that.

Arthur knew he wasn't physically on par with others so he decided to choose a safer job than others.

Dax was mad that Raiden was getting private lessons, but he couldn't do anything. He knew Raiden outclassed him completely in the test. He was mad at himself.

Days passed by pretty quickly.

The trio actually started hanging out more. Arthur and Raiden enjoyed talking about various diverse topics, and Dax stuck by because he thought if he did everything Raiden did he'll get stronger too.

Raiden decided to perfect his navy 6 styles and and swordsmanship during these 3 months.

Once he joins Garp, he will be focusing on his physical aspect more anyway.

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It was night time. Raiden was practicing his with his sword. Gion taught him the basic concept was using flying slashes. It was really similar to Rankyaku.

Raiden closed his eyes and slashed his two swords in a cross shape. He repeated the same process multiple times until it happened.

Raiden felt a weird energy, a connection of some sort, he took a deep breath did the same slash again, and this time two condensed waves of energy went flying out at breakneck speed towards the training dummy and obliterated it.

"Finally!"

"What was that!?"

Raiden heard a feminine voice exclaimed. He turned around to see a familiar figure gawking at him.

"Hey! How did you do that?"

"You mean that flying slash?"

"Yeah! That!"

"I can't really explain it. I just felt a weird connection with my sword and slashed and it just happened."

The girl was not happy with the explanation.

"Who are you anyway?"

"..."

"..."

"You don't remember me?"

"...no?"

"Tch, I'm Keiko, we are in the same class and I ranked just below you in the comprehension test."

"Oh!" Raiden genuinely forgot about her.

Keiko was sure she wanted to punch someone.

She sighed.

"Forget about it. Teach me how you did that."

"You can't do the flying slash yet. You're too weak."

Keiko was offended. She pulled out her sword and pointed it at Raiden.

"Oh yeah! Then I challenge you to a duel."

Raiden just sighed at her attitude. He hated dealing with people like her.

"Very well."

Keiko felt Raiden's demeanor change completely. She felt small.

"I'll let you have the chance to attack me first." Raiden said in a serious tone.

*Gulp*

Keiko gritted her teeth. She hated it. She hated feeling weak. She hated feeling small. All this reminded her of that day...

"Ahhhh!" With a roar she rushed forward and attacked Raiden.

"Too slow."

Raiden deflected her sword and rammed the hilt of his sword hard in her stomach.

Keiko lost her breath for a moment. Her grip on her sword loosened, as she knelt on the ground panting and puking.

Raiden looked at her impassively. He didn't know her story, there were many characters in this world that were never mentioned in the manga. He didn't know what pushed her to train.

But Raiden felt the desperation in that attack. And that generally led to one of two outcomes. Either you become someone great or someone who will make stupid decisions and on this sea, that means death.

Raiden sighed. He looked at Keiko who was kneeling down coughing and had tears in her eyes.

"Listen. You need to strengthen your body first. You can't skips steps. If you want you can come find me here at night. I practice here everyday."

With that Raiden left the training ground. He had no intention of spoon feeding some every little thing.

He gave her a reality check and grounded her feets, now it's upto Keiko to decide what she wanted.

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