Continued Training

"You forgot about the training session, didn't you~?", Borsalino asked Venator as they ate in the cafeteria.

'Sh*t.'

Venator used his rights to remain silent, but the look on his face was enough to tell Borsalino what happened.

"Did you delve too deep into your training?"

Venator hesitantly nodded, confirming Borsalino's words.

"Don't worry about it~ Sakazuki's done that before~"

At the mention of his name, Sakazuki looked up from his breakfast and glared at Borsalino.

"Don't say anything else."

"Ohhh~ Scary~"

Borsalino poked fun at Sakazuki, who responded exactly as how he intended to.

"Tell instructor Zephyr that I won't be attending the session in the morning today, Stes."

"Okay."

Venator asked Stes for a favor, who gladly accepted it, and he finished up his breakfast to go train Soru.

'I need to learn how to stop during the middle...'

That was the one thing Venator still had problems with, as his success rate was very unpredictable when it came to this.

Venator stretched before using Soru, dashing into the forest, before trying his best to stop before hitting a tree.

"F*CK!"

The attempt wasn't very successful, and Venator ended up crashing right into the tree, dislocating his shoulder once again.

'I feel like this happened before...'

It DID happen before. Last night, to be exact, Venator recalled.

Venator then got up before attempting the same thing as before, but this time, it seems like he learned from his previous mistake.

With every attempt, he was able to get closer and closer to his goal, before he was able to stop with no extra movement.

Venator smiled at his success, before looking down at his body.

His body was marked with bruises from crashing into trees countless times, but the real victims here were the trees that he crashed into.

Venator then decided to head to the showers to wash off all the dirt and splinters that rooted itself onto his body.

As he exited the showers, he met someone on his way.

"Instructor Zephyr.", he respectfully greeted.

"Venator.", the man returned the greeting. "Why didn't you attend the session in the afternoon yesterday?"

"My apologies, I delved too deep into my training."

Zephyr rose an eyebrow at his excuse, before letting Venator go on his way.

"This time, don't forget.", Zephyr called out as they walked away from each other.

"Of course, sir."

Venator wouldn't make the same mistakes twice.

...

Venator kept his promise, as he attended the training in the afternoon.

He looked at his fellow participants, which were only two.

Borsalino and Sakazuki.

"Hello."

"Hm."

"Hello~"

The three greeted each other in their own ways, before getting started on their stretches.

As they were stretching, Zephyr entered the site and spoke out loud, "As you three already know, all of you have devil fruits."

Borsalino, Sakazuki, and Venator did not look surprised at the proclamation. It seemed like they've already guessed that Venator have a devil fruit.

"While your devil fruit would be a large part of your arsenal, over reliance on it is not good. There are many things, like seastone weapons, that can nullify them."

The three nodded at Zephyr's statement, seeing the logic behind it.

"I'm talking to you, Borsalino."

"They wouldn't be able to catch me anyways~"

"Eventually, you'll meet someone who is able to do so."

"There's no way~"

Borsalino's words could be seen as arrogance from another person's perspective, but it wasn't unfounded. None of the three's arrogance would be unfounded at this point.

Borsalino's devil fruit, the Pika Pika no Mi, granted him speed that would allow him to stand at the apex of the world. It is the greatest of speed-related devil fruits.

Sakazuki's devil fruit, the Magu Magu no Mi, was said to have the greatest offensive power among all Devil Fruits.

Venator's devil fruit, while not at the apex of any attributes, offered a far greater versatility than the Pika Pika and the Magu Magu no mi.

It's just a pity that Venator didn't know what his was called. All he knew that he was able to conjure energy to do his bidding.

Perhaps it's the Energy Devil Fruit?

Regardless of what it was, Venator knew what it could do, and that was enough for him.

To him, it's just a tool at the end of the day.

A tool that would ultimately be his brother's downfall.