Chapter 5: Training (Again)

[I forgot to describe the looks of Tigan, so I wanted to add photos of both Tigan and Skleth. Tigan is going to look like Laxus and Elfman, both from Fairy tail. Images in comments.]

Law and his friends returned to their rooms at the end of the day and they could tell that they would need time to get used to the weather. Bepo was the only one who was unaffected by the weather due to his fur, he was just tired from all the exercise.

As for Law, Penguin and Shachi, they were shivering, covering themselves with multiple blankets to warm up their bodies.

Shachi said to Penguin "If it is like this tomorrow along with someone trying to beat us up, we are definitely getting thrashed by all those men."

Penguin didn't say anything, but he agreed with what Shachi said. Law however, was smiling the whole time. When asked about it, he started laughing.

'This is thrilling. I forgot this feeling. The feeling of going through troubles to achieve my goal. I felt exactly like this when I was searching for the mayor. The excitement of doing something not normal to achieve a goal. This is good.' Law said to himself.

Law was not sharing the fear the rest of his friends felt. This nature of Law was due to Kazuto's memories. Kazuto was living a normal life until a man messed with his girlfriend and that's when his life changed.

He started hunting down the mayor and he was no longer living a normal life. This was exciting for Kazuto. It was also during the hunt for the mayor where he found a goal he wanted to pursue in his life, but he couldn't since his ego didn't allow him to let go of the mayor.

Law went to sleep and the three of them also went to sleep, confused.

The next day, they woke up, washed up and headed straight to the training grounds, where the Marines were already running.

They joined them and started running, barely keeping up with them. Law and his friends were only able to keep up since they had trained for a full day.

They were also able to take down those two men yesterday because they had to use their strength only for a moment, but right now, they have to use all their energy to keep up with these Marines, who have trained in that environment for 10 years.

They ran for an hour and, Penguin and Shachi had already given up. They were resting on the ground while Law and Bepo were using everything they had just to keep their legs moving.

After the last round, Tigan said "That's enough for the first day. We don't want to scare the kids."

Law and Bepo also immediately fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Skleth, the commander, walked up to them and said "Kid, we were just warming up. We can't have you give up so early."

Tigan gave them half an hour to rest and they then continued exercising, doing basic strength exercises.

They were given another break for breakfast and it was now time for their sparring session. All the Marines were looking forward to this session to beat up Law.

Tigan said to Law "Just like you wanted, you will spar with Marines with experience in real battles. You wanted to fight the strongest, but I can't control my punches and might need up killing you, so we will start with Skleth."

Skleth then walked up to the four of them, who were standing in the middle of the ground with the rest of the Marines standing in a circle around them, cheering for Skleth.

While he was walking, Tigan whispered to him "Remember what I said yesterday."

*Flashback to yesterday*

While Law and his friends were running in the grounds, Tigan called Skleth to his office. When Skleth entered his office, Tigan asked him to sit down.

Skleth did what he was told and was waiting for Tigan to tell him why he was called to his office.

Tigan sat on his chair and asked Skleth "What are you planning doing to those kids tomorrow?"

Skleth replied "Isn't it obvious? I will beat them up to vent out all my anger. They basically asked for it."

Tigan nodded and said "Almost all our Marines might be thinking the same since they are pirates, but I don't want those kids to become pirates.

Skleth, they are just kids with bad upbringing of wrong environment. I don't want them to grow up hating the Marines even more and completely become pirates. They are still small and can still be changed."

Skleth was shocked and asked "How do you want to do that?"

Tigan said "The kid with white hat looks like their leader and the strongest amongst them. We have to make him give up on becoming a pirate and convince him to join the Marines. So, I want you to train him kindly and not be too harsh on him."

Shleth looked like he didn't like the idea, but still agreed to do it for his captain.

*Flashback ends*

Skleth walked to the centre of the circle, where the four kids were. He then said "Come at me when you are ready."

Penguin, Shachi and Bepo rushed at Skleth while Law stood there without doing anything. Bepo jumped in the air and attempted a flying kick to Skleth's face.

Skleth, being fast enough, easily blocked the kick. Penguin and Shachi used the moment where Skleth's arms were covering his face to attack his legs.

Skleth was already experienced enough to see it coming and immediately dodged the first kick from Shachi while meeting Penguin's kick with his kick.

Since Skleth was stronger, he sent Penguin sliding back. Bepo landed on the ground and tried to punch him in the stomach while Shachi aimed for Skleth's back.

He immediately jumped up and did a back flip, dodging both their attacks. Law then used room and immediately appeared before Skleth's face and landed a kick to his jaw.

Since Skleth wasn't even expecting this, he couldn't block it on time. Skleth stepped back a little and was confused as to how he got it.

He wasn't the only one, since even the Marines stopped cheering and were completely silent, trying to process what was happening.

Law then said to his friends "Today's training is over."

Penguin, Bepo and Shachi started walking back to their rooms while Law walked forward to Skleth. Law then said "I can tell what you are trying to do and you should stop it. If you want to pull stunts like this, you should know about that person. I am from Flevance, so nothing you do will change my mind."

Law then walked away and Tigan approached Skleth. Tigan asked "What happened? What did he say?"

Skleth said "He said he is from Flevance."

The nearby Marines heard what Law said, but they didn't understand anything. Only Skleth and Tigan knew what it was about.

The destruction of Flevance wasn't known to everyone. Tigan and Skleth got to know about the massacre from their friends from other Marine bases in the North Blue.

Tigan looked at Law and noticed his emotionless eyes. Tigan then said to Skleth "There is no way we can change his mind. We will have to go with your plan and completely break him to the point where he is terrified of Marines and the word Pirate."

Skleth again didn't like the idea that much, but still agreed. Now that he knew Law was from Flevance, there was sympathy towards Law.

Tigan noticed this and said "You don't have to do this. I am going to do it myself."

Skleth asked "Didn't you say you don't hit kids?"

"That was before I knew how strong and terrifying he would become in the future." Tigan replied.

As for Law, he continued to do more physical exercises, his friends joining him after lunch.

They went on the whole day and before sleeping, Shachi said "This is way more difficult than what Law put us through."

Penguin said to Shachi "I somehow think that commander was holding back on us."

Law thought 'That's why it is easier if you have atleast one smart person.'

Law added "And I warned him about it, so the real training starts tomorrow."

"Argh" all three exclaimed at once and decided to not waste much time and go to sleep immediately.

The next day, all four of them headed to the training grounds and this time, they were running faster than yesterday.

Tigan shouted to Law "Since you wanted us to take the training seriously, we won't be jogging from now. Now start running."

Law and his friends started running and only after the first round, it was clear that they were too weak physically when compared to the Marines. Law was 15 feet away from the rest of the Marines while Bepo was slightly behind him and as for the other two, they were struggling to maintain 5 feet distance between them and Bepo.

Also, they ran for way longer than the previous day. Bepo, Penguin and Shachi didn't run till the end and gave up halfway while Law persisted till the end.

They were given a break to have breakfast and after which, they did strength training exercises till lunch. Law showed his friends the exercises for the six powers and, let them train in their own pace.

After lunch, it was the sparring session and Tigan was the one sparring against the four of them. We don't even have to go into the details since it was completely one sided and since they were tired from all the training earlier, they couldn't even fight properly.

In just one minutes, all four of them lay on the ground, unable to even move a finger. Tigan walked up to Law and said "If you want to become a pirate, you are going to need a lot more than that."

Tigan then asked some soldier to take them to their room, where they stayed till the next day.

The next day was no different from the previous day. It was just extreme physical training followed by a one sided beatdown.

One month went by with no major changes to this schedule, except that Law and the others were showing signs of improvement. They were slowly catching up to the training of the Marines and they even lasted longer against Tigan, the duration of the matches increasing from 1 minutes to 2 minutes. Tigan even had to increase the intensity of their training since they started catching up.

It was the end of the month and time for the match Law had planned where a single marine fights against the four of them for their heart.

Since Law and the rest needed to fight properly, they didn't train the previous day and took rest to be in their best shape.

Shachi asked Penguin "What if it is the Captain Monster that will fight us tomorrow? We don't even stand a chance against him. "

Penguin replied "Since he is the captain, he would think about his men more than himself, so we won't be fighting against neither Tigan, nor Skleth. It should be some foot soldier."

Penguin was absolutely right since that was the main topic of discussion in the meeting of the Marines with their captain.

Tigan said to the Marines "They are improving very fast. At this rate, the weaker foot soldiers might not get their hearts back till the kids decide to leave the base. Since the stronger ones can get their hearts even in the future, I think it would make sense if someone amongst the foot soldiers fight tomorrow. Who would like to volunteer?"

He didn't have to wait long since two hands immediately were up. Tigan looked at the owner of those hands and said to them "Decide amongst both of you who is fighting them tomorrow."