Chapter 16 - Sengoku

Almost a year had passed since Garps training regime had started, Garps training had been relentless. Every day had started with basic strengthening exercises followed by a gruesome morning of spars against the old man. After a short lunch break the training continued with Haki or Soru, a Rokushiki technique that allowed him to reach extreme levels of speed, training. While the spars had begun with simple unarmed fighting they soon had started to incorporated swords, haki, soru, his devilfruit abilities. While training with haki and his devilfruit had progressed at an impressive speed due to the help the One Ring offered, soru came slower but still faster than his abilities with the sword.

After the first few weeks of swordsmanship training, May had approached Garp with an idea. He wanted to swap away from the sword and instead adopt the quarterstaff into his fighting style. Garp had agreed immediately as he saw Mays aptitude with the sword was worse than many marine recruits.

Training with the quarterstaff had started with even more frustration than with the sword. The quarterstaves kept breaking whenever Garp blocked a blow. While May knew that the problem would only last until he was able to fully coat the staff in armament haki, he also knew that it was not worth it to wait for that long instead of building up familiarity with the staff.

So instead he relied on his devilfruit, concretely a book that he hadn't used much before, the Simarillion. With but a few sentences two branches appeared before them, one gold and one silver. The gift of the Two Trees of Valinor, that brought light to the land of Valar. With the help of old man Baron they soon had two quarterstaves made, working with the wood had been a bit difficult according to Baron, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve he didn't want to expose.

Training with these quarterstaves had proved way more fruitful than before as they soon discovered that they weren't only way sturdier than any known wood, they also complemented the three elven rings as May discovered that he could channel their abilities through the staves.

But sadly the dwarven ring was a bit wasted on them as it only made his body stronger but didn't help with the wooden staves.

After this one year of training May felt himself being on a totally different level than before, while still leagues away from Garp he sure as hell wouldn't have anything threatening him outside of the Grandline.

May was sure that there was loads of stuff Garb could still teach him but the marine had called him back to duty, while being Hero of the Marine gave you certain privileges they ended somewhere. 

So the six of them made their way back to Marineford, getting picked up by Garps ship.

Marinford, Fleet Admiral Sengokus office

Garp and May were sitting at the big table inside Sengokus office, the latter sitting at the other side of the table. "So this is your new disciple, Garp. Doesn't look like much." Sengoku opened the conversation.

"Well, looks can be deceiving. But he still has a long way to go if he wants to compare to people like us. So what have you called me back for?" Garp inquired.

"You know exactly why. You haven't done anything for over a year, you are still a vice admiral and have to do your job. Especially in these times." The Admiral replied.

"Pah. Don't be so serious."

"You just barged in my office a year ago and demanded to get a year off and to only call you if there was an emergency. Maybe you should've told me that you were training somebody unaffiliated with the marines in that time. What do you think you are doing?" 

"This is unrelated to my job as a Vice Admiral. When you work for as long as we have, it's okay to have a private hobby." Garp answered

"You call disappearing for a year, to train this man, a hobby?! Well I guess we can't change anything about it now. You will set sails for Shells Town in the East Blue immediately. Word has reached us that Captain Morgan the 'Axe Hand' has lost control over his base after an attack by pirates." Sengoku said.

"Aye. I'll see what's up with that. Maybe we can put your training to the test, huh." Garp said and hit May on the back. This time May managed to hold himself and the chair and not smashed into the table by the slap.

"I'm afraid you can't involve a civilian internal marine affairs." Sengoku interfered.

"Okay, May I hereby conscript you into the Marine as a Chore Boy." Garp announced.

Sengoku was ready to reply to that but May couldn't take it anymore. "Chore Boy?! That is the lowest rank in the Marines. Don't you think that with my power I would deserve a higher rank..."

"No Garp is right. As a new Marine we need to evaluate your ability to lead men before we promote you in any leading capacities. The highest rank we can give you right now is Warrant Officer." Sengoku argued.

"Then at least give me that."

"No. You will learn how it is to be the lowest rank before you can get promoted. It's important to know how it is to be a Chore Boy if you at some point wish to lead." Garp said.

"Fine." May said in defeat. He didn't even want to stay in the Marines but he wanted to continue his training with Garp and being part of the Marines was the easiest way to do that for now. It just was so humiliating to be a Chore Boy when he got wipe the floor with almost all Captains.