Chapter 21

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Garp and I rapidly blurred from location to location, engaging ourselves in high-speed combat with the uses of Soru and Geppo.

'Shigan!' I jabbed my finger forward right at Garp's exposed abdomen, however, Garp's body unnaturally bent sideways due to his usage of Kami-E, dodging my technique.

Immediately after, Garp swung his leg horizontally, sending out a sharp, pressurized wave of air known as Rankyaku. By using Geppo once again, I managed to evade it just in time, just to see that Garp was right in front of me, with his finger pointed at me.

"Bwaha, Shigan!"

"TEKKAI!" I urgently shouted while clenching my body hard, just as Garp's finger landed on my chest.

BOOM!

From midair all the way to back to the rocky ground, I was sent blasting helplessly. However, even before I had the time to assess the damage, Garp appeared in front me once more, with his foot about to crash onto my face,

'Soru!'

Swoosh!

While in a lying position, I quickly raised my body up with my hands, before dashing to Garp's back to dodge his dangerous Rankyaku. Subsequently, I flipped my body up while sending forth yet another Shigan,

CLANG!

"Tekkai," Garp stated with a grin, as he effortlessly blocked my attack with his Tekkai, "Heh, well done, brat. The 'hand' Soru that you just performed, was quite impressive—

—Shigan!"

'Kami-E!' Gritting my teeth, I bent my body back just to dodge Garp's Shigan, before shooting my legs up,

'Rankyaku!"

"Bwahaha, Rankyaku!" To which Garp responded with the kick of his own.

BOOM!

And upon collision, I found myself grimacing due to the pain from the collision; Garp's strength, even as he held back, was too much to handle.

"Huff... huff..." Having returned to being stuck on the ground, I huffed, with my body already full of bruises and light injuries. However, I know him well. This spar was far from over, and will continue for hours at the very least—

'—Tekkai!'

I clenched my muscles to my utmost capability, just when Garp appeared above me, with his fist out this time.

"Do you know that Tekkai can also be used for the offense?" Garp said with his everlasting grin, before,

BOOM!

his fist crashed onto my crossed arms.

The ground below me cracked in spiderweb-like fashion due to the force behind Garp's attack, and I couldn't help but choke, having lost my breath for the moment.

"I can see that you've begun to get used to the Rokushikis," Garp stated casually while rolling his shoulders, "but try to be more creative than that, brat!"

"Haa..." Sighing, I jumped back up from the ground, with my breathing restored, "How did you move your body while using Tekkai?"

I was aware that Jabra, one of the CP9 agents in the anime, was able to do this same trick as well. But I just couldn't figure out how.

"I mean," I scratched the back of my head as I issued my inquiry, with Garp looking at me with his arms crossed, "It's like trying to bend your d*** when it's hard... you're going to end up tearing your muscles open!"

"Bwahaha!" Garp raised his head up and laughed out loud, before replying, "Don't try to understand how it works. You have to feel it!"

"Sorry? I didn't get it—"

""Shigan! / —KAMI-E!!!"" Having expected Garp's sudden attack, I used all nerves I got to successfully dodge his Shigan. Immediately after, I back-stepped before using Geppo to travel upward, right when Garp was bending his index finger, as if about to flick,

'Don't tell me...!'

Garp then flickered his finger at me, "Tobu (Flying) Shigan."

'Tekkai!'

I urgently tightened my muscles, right when the sharp pressure of air collided with my body; though the impact was lesser than the close-ranged Shigan, Garp's held-back 'Tobu Shigan' managed to give me yet another bruise on my chest.

'He's... demonstrating. Tobu Shigan—one of the variants of Shigan that flicks instead of jabbing; grants increased range, but with reduced damage.'

Breathing heavily, I raised up my shaky right arm, before bending my finger in a similar fashion.

And yet for some reason, I found myself smiling, 'Right now, right here, I'm becoming stronger at every second.'

Garn's grin widened upon sighting my action,

"Tobu Shigan!"

Swoosh!

Garp tilted his head sideways to dodge the air-shot that I fired, before commenting, "Bwahaha, well done!"

"Heh, you know me, Garp, huff, sensei," Taking in a deep breath while straightening my body back up, I gave a daring grin back at Garp, "I'm just getting started."

"Well said, Smoker," Garp's eyes flashed dangerously, "Then as the reward, I'll show you what's considered the secret seventh technique of Rokushiki that you can only learn after completely mastering the other six techniques."

Then, Garp brought his fists together, getting into a particular stance that I recognized right away.

"Rokushiki Ogi..."

__________

""Rokuogan!!""

Garp and I both sent forth potent shock waves at one another, which collided against each other in the middle.

BOOOOM!

My shock wave was immediately overwhelmed by Garp's, and I found my body blasted back from the force, but I quickly regained my bearing and landed back on ground—with a grin on my face.

"Heh, now that's more like it," Garp said with his arms crossed.

One month. Since I've begun the intense spar with Garp, one month has already passed by. And I tell you, one month was enough for me to master the basics of all Rokushikis AND Rokuogan, the pinnacle of Rokushikis.

"Huff... huff..." Breathing heavily, with no strength remaining in me, I fell back on the rocky ground, now lying down without any care.

"Rokuogan. The point of this technique is to pull up the entirety of your physical strength at the tips of your knuckles. The 'entirety,' by definition, means all parts of your body, and in order for you to successfully do so, you must 'feel' and 'control' your body." Garp, casually walking toward me, stated, "And therefore, the mastery over Rokuogan opens the next set of possibilities, known as 'Seimei Kikan (Life Return).'"

Garp leaned down and grinned in front of my face, "But Seimei Kikan isn't something that can be taught. Your brain only amounts to part of your whole body, and this technique requires every single cell within your body to know and be aware. All the other Seimei Kikan users stated the technique only awoke during the most dangerous battles in their lives; if Haki responds to your mental strains, Seimei Kikan responds physical-wise."

Lifting me back up, Garp squinted his eyes at the sea ahead of us, trying to locate where our marine ship was.

"Eh... now, where are they, again?"

However, he sighted nothing; it seemed that the ship, currently under Bogard's command, was patrolling at some distance away from this island that we stood on top of.

"The patrolling route changes every day, in order to prevent the pirates from shrewdly avoiding us," While still held by Garp by the back of my shirt, I said knowingly, "but one thing is for sure: they are bound to come to this location as well; the patrolling route is supposed to cover the entirety of the area you are assigned to, Garp-sensei."

"Hm..." Garp closed his eyes and hummed thoughtfully, "Then... aha!"

Placing me down on the ground, Garp said with a grin, "More training, I suppose."

Without any word, I looked back at Garp with heavy exhaustion in my eyes, before I saw his huge fist approaching my face.

"Looks like I'm not too far off from learning that Seimei Kikan—"

BOOOM!

__________

During the night, after we finally returned back to the ship, I was sitting outside with bandages all around my body. The exposed section of my face was brutally swollen, causing all the marine soldiers, who were on lookout duty like I currently was, to gaze at me with pity.

But that wasn't the key. After I regained consciousness on this ship, the only thing I managed to see was the Garp seemed furious for some reason. He was standing on the edge of the ship, with his strong grips completely destroying the rails. Noticing my gaze, he said back then,

<...Smoker, it seems that I will be away for a while.> He seemed to be in contemplation, <And I cannot bring you with me. Staying here will only hinder your growth, so for one... no, two years, I will have to...>

Having just woken up back then, I couldn't follow what he was speaking of. But now, with enough time given to think, I began to put the puzzles together.

"Hey, Gandalf," I asked the huge, brawny man who sat on my left, "Is it true that Garp-sensei is going on a vacation soon?"

"Well... while you were unconscious, after two of you returned, Vice Admiral Garp suddenly received a call from the headquarter." Gandalf replied with a serious expression on his face, "I'm unsure of what the deal was about, but Vice Admiral Garp was shouting with evident anger in his tone, and from his shouts, we could tell that the person whom he was conversing with, was none other than the Fleet Admiral Sengoku."

Gandalf paused momentarily to breathe, before continuing, "Then, after the call has ended, Vice Admiral Garp suddenly declared that he will be away for quite some time, and that we will be placed under Vice Admiral Bogard's command until then."

Taking out a dried fish from his left and handing it over to me—to which I accepted with gratitude before taking a bite—Gandalf sighed, "Knowing that Vice Admiral Garp isn't quick to anger, something big must've happened. Nothing comes up in my mind, however."

Nodding in thanks while munching on the hard texture of the dried fish, I gazed off at the dark sea while thinking,

'Approximately 14 months passed since my transmigration and Gol D. Roger's death. What could've happened—'

My eyes widened in realization, and the dried fish fell off of my hand.

"Hey, Smoker, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Picking the fish back up, I smiled at Gandalf, concealing my shock.

'The current date is December of the year 1501. The Marine's utmost concern, from the information that's been going back and forth, was the rumour that the Pirate King has a child. However, even after checking all newborns at the estimated time of birth of Pirate King's child, Marine found no trace of Pirate King at all; Sengoku probably realized that Garp knew something about it.'

Then, Garp's statement of going on vacation made sense. Apart from the select few, he probably was the only one who knew the whereabouts of Portgas D. Rouge.

'And I remember this one detail about Ace—that his birthday is none other than the January 1st of the year 1502—'

"Hey!! All of you!! The updated bounty posters arrived!!" Then, one marine soldier interrupted my thoughts all of a sudden, running into my sight with the stacks of bounty posters in his hands.

Due to the harsh weather and the long distance to travel, the delivery of newspapers and bounty posters tends to be irregular; it wasn't a strange thing that we received them late at the night.

However, as the marine soldier leaned down and spread out the bounty posters one by one, I found myself frozen.

In the middle, there was one bounty poster with a very familiar face—the woman with long, straight, and white-coloured hair. Below the picture, the name was written,

Nico Olvia.