Chapter 18 A 'Snowy' Training Session

*peryperypery* peryperypery* *perypery CLICK*

"Hello? Who's this?" I asked curiously.

"Hey, this you Kal? It's Kai" The bartender answered.

"Yep, what's going on? The kid in the funny hat finally show up?" I asked with excitement.

"Yeah he just sat on my stool, said he's looking for somebody called Daniel Demetrius something something…" Kai said with a chuckle.

"Yeah that's him, hand him the snail please, oh, and give him a room for two weeks. I'm about that far away I'd say, I'll pay ya when I get there." I said with a smile. He said that was fine before he passed the phone to Law.

"Hello?" I heard a childish voice greet me.

"Hey what's up kid, you still feeling like shit?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah… I'm in the final phase of the disease." He replied in a somber tone.

"Well if your little skeptical ass came sooner it would've already been fixed"

"Well, if your letter wasn't so fucking weird I would have!" The kid yelled back, I couldn't help but laugh at his demeanor.

"Yeah you're probably right Law, huahah, name's Kal by the way, it's nice to hear from ya. I'm about two weeks away from Embassa, I've already had Kai set you up with a room and food. Just wait there and don't make a scene" I said with a smile as I could see his facial expressions change.

"How are you so sure you can help me? It's incurable" Law asked, confused.

"Well, I'd rather not answer that over the Snail. Just have some faith little dude" I said before hanging up, quickly heading from my office to the deck.

"Boys!, we're going back home, we've got some more recruits to pick up" I yelled with a smile. 'Kind've forgot that we were now not an all-guy crew anymore. Both the girls turned away from the endless seas to look at me with confused expressions.'

"Who are we picking up Cap? Why didn't we grab them before we left?" Mori asked, confused before pulling the anchor.

"We've got a fighter and our doctor to pick up." I said with a smirk.

"....Fighter….no…" Drake said from the helm obviously coming to the conclusion.

"Yep, you got one right. Gotta get Ceaser" I said with a smirk as Drake slumped in defeat.

"Who's Ceaser" Somebody asked in front of me, looking around me and seeing nothing. I looked down to see Little Sugar looking at me with a pout.

"Oh he's pretty cool actually, he's a 3-meter-tall gorilla I trained in my hometown!" I said with excitement. Her eyes lit up in curiosity.

"Is he strong?" She asked.

"Well he beat Drake up a bunch of times, plus I told him to become the king of the island before I came back. It's been about 3 months so I'd say he's gotten maybe twice as strong!" I said while pointing at Drake, he was giving me a stink eye for calling him out like that but I didn't care.

"Really! He sounds awesome" Sugar said while jumping up and down.

"And the doctor? What's the world on them?" Mori asked while setting the sails.

"He's only about Sugar's age, but he's extremely smart like all of us combined and still we would be an idiot compared to the kid. He's a master Doctor at the age of eleven. I finally got word that he arrived in Embassa." I said, causing the crew's eyes to widen at Law's feat. 'It really is impressive but people can do crazy things with their life on the line. Especially in this world'

"That's awesome, we really need one with the number of injuries we've been getting lately" Mori said while rubbing his still sore thigh from his battle with the 'Cannibal'.

"So what bribe are you gonna pull out your ass to get this one on the crew Captain," Drake said with a smirk. 'That little bastard…. Ha just wait till he realizes his first mate position is in jeopardy with Law as competition' I finished the thought with an evil smirk, and it widened as I watched Drake begin to sweat.

"Well for your information it's the one I took from your idiot crew" I said which caused Drake's eyes to widen in understanding.

"So that's what we've been waiting on, you've been scouting this kid for that long" Drake said putting the piece together. I merely give him a nod.

"Alright I want you two to continue your training, we've got about two weeks so make it worth it" I told Mori and Drake.

"Understood Cap" Mori replied.

"And you two girls are going to be eating, that will be your training for this week." I said, causing both girls to quirk a brow in confusion.

"How is that training?" Monet asked.

"You girls are skin and bones, you'd probably hurt yourselves more than it'd help if I let you start training like this" I pointed toward their skinny bodies, to which I got two scowls in return.

"Ahhh, don't be like that. Just trust me it'll feel like training, you girls are required until I say you're fine to eat 5 full meals a day. Understood." I ordered. 'Hell sometimes it's harder to eat excess amounts of food compared to excess training. It's way more mentally straining than anything.'

"Yes Captain" Monet replied, looking sullen.

"Yes Cap" Sugar replied with a smile, copying Mori's nickname for me.

ONE WEEK LATER...

After a week of more Haki training and working on another swordsmanship move it was finally time to check on the girls and see if they were ready to start there training.

Walking into the kitchen I gave both girls a once over, their ribs were now unseen and there was a thin layer of fat on their skin. 'Jeez peoples bodies in this world are weird, in only a week they went from malnourished to basically perfect health'. I thought while giving them a nod and a smile at their progress. 'Especially Monet, she started filling out her shir…'

"Captain, is there something I can help you with" Monet asked me with a smirk, obviously catching me checking her out.

".....Yes, I'll be training you on your Devil fruit for now. Sugar go bother Mori, tell him I said to get you started, he'll know what I mean" I said while motioning the girls to the middle deck where we usually do our training. Sugar gave me a smile before running off towards Mori who was lifting all the weight we had on the ship over his head in a shoulder press.

"Alright follow me, I have a few targets set up for you" I told Monet as we headed towards the ranged area I set up on the eastern side. Basically just metal plates with vague human shapes painted on for targets to practice attacks.

"Targets? What are we going to be practicing exactly?" Monet asked with excitement about finally getting a chance to use her fruit.

"I guess you could call it devil fruit utilization training, but putting it simply you're going to practice condensing your snow. But before that let me give you a quick explanation to how devil fruits exactly work, at least from my experience" I said while motioning for her to sit on one of the chairs that were sitting in the 'range'.

"Ok Captain" Monet said sitting on the chair and giving me her full attention.

"So for the basics you've already read about the three types of fruits and strengths and weaknesses right?" I asked, receiving a nod in return.

"Good, well basically there's a limit on the amount of time you can use your fruit in a battle, using your abilities requires stamina, so that is the second purpose of this training. To pass your basic stamina limits thus being able to use your abilities for a longer period" I said to which she easily understood.

" Now onto the second topic. First you need to understand that many people have eaten amazing fruits but failed to use them to their full potential because of one simple factor, they lacked Imagination." I said to which she quirked her brow in confusion.

"Really? Imagination" She asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it's the biggest factor in devil fruit utilization, it may sound easy but it's harder than it sounds. How about a test, give me one of the ideas you've come up with for your fruit" I told her curious to see what she's come up with so far.

"Ummm, well seeing as how you want me to condense my snow I was thinking of creating weapons with it…" She said looking unsure if that was a good answer.

"Hmm, not a bad start, let's go with that for today. Start with making a cylinder about a foot wide" I said to which she raised her hand making it in under a second.

"Good now condense it as hard as you can, try turning into a needle" I advised, it took her a few seconds of concentration before she managed to do it.

"Ok good job, now send it at the target" I ordered.

"Snow sickle,huhu!" She said with a laugh as she sent it forward at about an arrow's speed at the target, as soon as it hit the metal it exploded back into powdered snow, not even denting it.

"Yep this looks like a good place to start, I want you to be able to pierce the metal target by the end of the day, after you can do that we'll be ready to move on to increasing the number of them" I said with encouragement as she began trying over and over again to make her snow condensed enough to solidly pierce the target.

5 HOURS LATER....

After watching Monet for around Ten minutes I decided to leave her to her devices and head toward the other side of the deck to continue practicing a new Special move for my swordsmanship. After seeing the destructive power of 'Atseun Senko' I couldn't stop the itch to create another one.

'I really wish I could've seen exactly how damaging it was against Killian, considering I had to turn it into a blunt attack to avoid killing him. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it cut him completely in half.'

But seeing the power from combining Soru with my sword skill, I decided to try to combine them in a different way this time. 'But this time with a different sword, the technique I have in mind wouldn't work with Tengoku, at least the version of it I have in mind' I thought while giving the Jian sword at my waist an appraising look.

EPIC-GRADE SKILLFUL GRADE SWORD

YANG

EFFECT: 1.3X DEXTERITY BOOST, DAMAGE +120% WHEN WIELDING

'Now with Tengoku strapped across my back and Yang on my hip, I look like a well trained swordsman' I thought with a smirk before crouching down and holding the still sheathed Jian blade tightly.

'The basic Idea for the technique was laughably simple, a basic draw attack. But combining it with Observation Haki and Soru it becomes insanely more dangerous. Using my Haki I can judge my opponents next move, easily dodge any counter they make after I flash towards them with Soru.' Finishing the thought I decided to put my Idea to the test, one metal target sat ten meters from me.

I tightened my grip in preparation before flashing towards the target, appearing 20 meters away with my blade already back in its sheath, not even a full second passed. Turning around I watched with a satisfied smile as the 3 meter thick metal target split in two falling to the ground in pieces.

SKILL LEVEL UP

(INTERMEDIATE) SWORDSMANSHIP LVL 11-(15)/50

'Nice, 4 full levels after 5 hours isn't bad at all. But that move worked perfectly, now I just need to test it in real combat to see its viability. Hmm, what about the name….' I finished the thought while debating a good name for the attack.

"How about… Single Sword style: Shunji Kaku, short and simple" I thought with a smirk before hearing somebody call me. (A/N: Single sword style: Instantaneous draw)

"Captain! Come quick I did it" I heard Monet yell to me, deciding to show off a little I flashed behind her. 'Hmm she finally did it, still it's only an inch in but it stayed solid. Good enough to go through a human body I'd say.'

"Nice." I said.

"AHH!" She shrieked in surprise as I appeared behind her. "Don't do that" She said with a scowl.

"No really good job, now I want you to increase their number , at least 10 sickles before I'd consider this as your first complete move, make sure you try to practice your aim as well. It'll be harder to aim each one with that number. After that we'll move on to moving target practice."

"Where are we going to get a moving target?" Monet asked while trying to form 5 Sickles at once and sending them at the target, causing my eyes to widen slightly at her quick progress as all of them stuck into the metal target. 'I guess I wasn't completely bullshiting when I said they had good talent at using fruit powers'

"I'm right here?" I said with a quirked brow.

"Huh, you want me to send these at you?" She said surprised, missing three of her next shots in the process.

"Yeah… You won't be able to even scratch me with something like that" I said while walking in front of the target, and baiting her to throw them at me.

"You're sure?" She asked one more time.

"Yeah 'Snowball', go for it" I said with a smirk taunting her, barely getting 'Tekai' up in time as five sickles slammed into my chest. 'Hmm, nice speed on that one'

"Phew that was refreshing" I said while brushing the snow off my red cloak causing her to pout at her failed surprise attack. "Why don't we make this a little more fair" I said while putting on a blindfold.

"You're just messing with me aren't you" She said mildly fuming.

"No, go for it. We've still got all week to practice after all" I said as I locked my Haki onto her getting ready to start some training of my own.