Training

Jack woke up bright and early for the day, had a shower and got dressed before heading downstairs to the bar where Makino was already preparing breakfast. "Good morning Makino!! I hope you slept well!" Jack asked pleasantly. Makino laughed a little before replying, "That's suppose to be my line, but yes I did sleep well. Would you like some breakfast?" Jack smiled at her before sitting down at a table then said, "Makino, wild horses could not drag me away from your delightful cooking" Jack said playfully. Makino just laughed again before she went into the kitchen then came out a few minutes later with a heaping tray full of food. "I would marry you right now for your cooking skills alone if I thought I stood a chance!!" Jack declared as she put the mountain of food in front of him. "Hahaha I'm flattered, but I think I would have to decline" She said with that oh so adorable look on her face. "It's alright Makino. I already got someone I like to mess with in Cocoyasi Village. Even though I don't see her coming with me, she is so fun to mess with" Jack said with a smile on his face as he was digging into his food. "Cocoyasi? The fisherman Gyoru is sending a few of his workers there to get a shipment of tangerines, spices and rice. Why don't you send her a letter to let her know you're thinking about her?" Makino said happily. Jack smiled from ear to ear as he pulled out a pencil and paper before saying, "Makino, that is a spledid idea. Could I please trouble you to see if they will deliver the message for me while I write it?" Makino smiled as she gave a nod before walking outside. If only Makino knew that because of her brilliant idea, Gyoru's workers wouldn't be getting any tangerines from Cocoyasi.

As Jack finished sealing his finished letter Makino came back into the bar followed by a young gentleman. "Hey Jack, this is Gary and he said that he would deliver your message" Makino said happily as she gestured towards the young man. "Hello Gary. I have a letter here that I would like you to deliver to a young lady by the name of Nojiko. She owns the tangerine orchard in Cocoyasi Village. If you can't find her, just give it to her sister Nami or an old man in a police uniform with scars. His name is Genzo, and he is very hard to miss. Either of them will make sure that Nojiko gets it if you can't find her" Jack said as he handed Gary an envelope. "Oh by the way, here. For your troubles, and there will definately be troubles" Jack said as he handed Gary a few thousand berries. "Thank you sir, I'll make sure to personally give her the letter myself. I'll even ask her if that she would like me to bring back something for you as well" Gary said with a bright smile on his face. "I'm looking forward to hearing about it" Jack said with a smile on his face while internally he was thinking, 'HAHAHAHA Gary your poor bastard!! She'll kill you!'

A few minutes after Gary left the bar, Luke came walking downstairs with half open eyes. "Morning Cap, Makino" Luke said with a slight nod to both of them. "Good morning Luke. Would you like some breakfast?" Makino asked in her usual happy tone. "Yes please, that would be great Makino" Luke said as he sat down next to a smiling Jack. "Whats got you so happy this early in the morning?" Luke asked curiously. Jack was already imagining how Nojiko would react to the poor Gary, and it made his smile increase. "Oh you know, keeping in touch with past acquaintances and all. Makes a man feel good about himself" Jack said happily, though his smile said otherwise. Makino came in and delivered another heaping pile of food in front of Luke who started to chow down. "Eat up, cause after this we are gonna start your training" Jack said as he pulled out a nice long stick from nowhere. Luke almost started choking on his food at those words. Jack was a sadistic bastard, and the thought of whatever he called "Training" would not be pleasant. "You sure know how to kill a mans mood Cap" Luke said with a depressed look on his face. "Oh don't be such a negative nancy. For the first few hours of the day you're just going to be reading some books, so you won't be getting beaten. Yet" Jack said as he pulled out a stack of books, these were of course the Rokushiki, Haki, and Swordsmanship manuals. There were also the training rutine manuals for getting in shape, and hand to hand combat. Jack left out the marksmanship manuals, as he didn't believe Luke would be any good at them, and there was no point in trying to make him a Jack of all trades, when he could excell in a certain few and be a monster in his own right.

Luke was a bit confused at what the books had to do with anything, but he knew they must be helpful if that Jack was saying so. The man was far too monsterous to not take him seriously. Luke tried to reach over to grab one of the books, but his hand was slapped away by Jack. "If you try to eat food or drink anything near these books I'll beat you so hard it will feel like you're in hell!!" Jack said angrily as he made the books disappear. "Whats so special about those books that I can't eat near them? I'll be careful" Luke said, feeling somewhat insulted at the idea that he would ruin these books. "These books cost over $600,000,000 berries together. Are you willing to pay me back for them?" Jack asked with a serious look on his face. Luke's eyes were the size of dinner plates at those words as he said, "You can't be serious?!! Who in their right mind would pay that much for books?!!" Makino was also nodding her head at Luke's words, as she also didn't think there were books that would be worth that much money. Jack just shook his head before saying, "If anything, that is far too cheap for what these books can teach. 6 of these books teach someone how to use powers that even the warlords fear. One of them teaches you how to walk through the sky, while others also can teach you how to move so fast that you can't be seen by the human eye. There are 3 specific books that teach you about a sixth sense that make it extremely hard for someone to sneak up on you and sometimes gives you the ability to see the future. Another of those three books shows you how to enhance your power and be able to attack certain people that otherwise couldn't be touched. Everything I know I got from these books, so if you don't think that they are worth that price then you're crazy."

When Luke and Makino heard some of the things the books could teach they were dumbfounded. "Are you serious?" Makino asked with wide eyes. Jack nodded his head seriously at her. "If the Government or the marines knew I had these books in my posession I would be hunted just for that and nothing else. The government has the Rokushki manuals, but they don't have the Haki or sword manuals. They have instructors that do a piss poor job of teaching those, and they have certain notes on some of the things. These manuals contain it all, and I can guarantee their authentic. So no food or drink near them!!" Jack roared seriously. Luke and Makino both nodded their heads, while Luke wolfed down everything on his plate, then Makino scrubbed the table clean, then they both washed and dried their hands before they both sat at the table. "I take it you also wanna read them too Makino?" Jack asked with a smile on his face. Makino's face went red and she nodded her head nervously.

Jack pulled out all of the books again, but this time he also pulled the marksmanship manual out as well and slid it closer to Makino. Jack explained what each manual taught, and let them go through them at their own pace. Jack told them they could read them all, but Luke would have to start his Haki training before he learned the six powers or more swordsmanship. Makino was just curious how books could give people inhuman abilities, and read them to satiate her curiosity. A few hours later and they both finished reading all of the books, then Jack showed them how to look inside themselves and control their Will. Surprisingly Luke could feel the energy after only a few minutes, but couldn't do anything with it. More surprisingly though was how Makino could also feel her Will. Jack gave Luke a blindfold and proceeded to beat him senseless for a few hours, while Makino also blindfolded herself, but she just went about her day trying to use Haki to do her job. This continued for the next few days for them, while Jack focused on learning the Six King Gun technique, the supposed secret 7th technique of the Rokushki manual. He of course had to buy the manual for it, and realized why someone would have to master the other 6 techinques in order to learn it. It was because the technique utilized all of the other ones in order to use it.

Since their training had began two weeks went by in a flash. In this time Jack had managed to use the Six King Gun a few times, but he wasn't near mastery. He also didn't drain all of his energy doing it like Lucci seemed to do in the anime. He guessed because the technique used a form of Armement Haki in it without doing it the correct way. Jack substituted the incorrect way with plain Armement and it went alot better from there. Luke managed to be able to move his Will throughout his body and create a protective layer of his own Armement Haki, and could see everywhere around him in a 5 foot diametre. Luke had gotten really good at dodging Jack's attacks and they actually managed to have a decent spar. The fight lasted clear until Luke started to brag, at which point Jack got more serious at beat the daylights out of him. Makino could do everything around her without the use of her eyes, and wore her blindfold most of the time now, as Jack said the more they used it the less Will it would require, and it would also strengthen their own Will from someone elses. Neither Luke or Makino could even begin to use Conqueror's Haki, but Jack said that it worked more based off emotion. They had to fill their Will with emotion and spread it out around them. Their Will's also had to be stronger than whatever it was they were trying to use it on.

Luke learned more from the sword manual than he ever would have thought possible, and Jack also gave him tips and insights that he had learned on his own. Although she didn't want to, Jack had Makino learn to use the pistol. Jack even gave her one of his own revolvers with quick replaceable cylinders. Her aim got extremely good when she used her abservation Haki with it. Jack gave her a shoulder holster and made sure that she could draw and fire it in record time. It was no where near his level, but no marine ever learned to shoot like this. She could even reload while moving so that she wasn't a sitting duck. Jack's reasoning had been, "If someone ever comes and tries to lay a hand on you or someone you care about you won't be defenseless." Jack was almost certain that she would never attack someone, but she damn sure would and could defend herself.

Luke and Makino also practiced Shave and Moonwalk to a certain degree. Jack told Makino that it would help keep her in great Shape and not get fat, which got him a death stare, but he recovered by saying that she could also learn to fly with it. That had sealed the deal for both of them, especially Luke as now he could survive Jack's death ship when next they flew.

"Well you both have progress beautifully, but I'm gonna have to cut training short for a bit. I wanna head to Loguetown for a bit then we'll come back here. I wanna have a chat with someone there." Jack said cryptically. "Who do you know in Loguetown?" Luke asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "I haven't actually met him yet, but from what I know he is one of the better marine soldiers throughout the world. He isn't all that strong, but for the first half of the GrandeLine and the Blues, he is basically untouchable. He also isn't a fan of the World Government and hates pirates with a passion. There isn't a great chance of recruiting him, but so far he is one of the very few marines I wanna recruit to be on my crew" Replied Jack with a big smile on his face. "Well lets hurry so that we can get back here as fast as we can, I wanna continue my training. I didn't think there was still so much for me to learn, but this manual is a godsend" Luke replied happily while holding the swordsmanship manual as if it were the only thing keeping him alive.

"Well you both have a good trip, and I'll see you when you get back" Makino waved to them happily. "Are you sure you don't wanna join us Makino? It would be super fun if that you became the cook/bar owner for us?" Luke asked almost pleadingly. "Hahaha I'm sorry, but it's still no. I have no intention to fight anyone and love how peaceful it is here. You will always be fighting someone, and thats just not something I could do" Makino said apologetically. Luke turned back to Jack with a hopeless look on his face before saying, "I think we better give up and try and find someone to take over for Makino." "Fear not, we shall keep at it until she see's reason and comes with us. We might have to take the whole damn village if we have to!!" Jack replied stoically. Makino laughed at their antics, but little did she know that Jack was already planning on getting a certain Devil Fruit that would allow him to literally take this place with him. The two made their way towards the docks before Jack pulled out the ship before saying, "Because I know you don't wanna take too long, we shall be flying the whole way. I don't know why I didn't think of using the blast while we were already really high in the air to keep going further until now." Luke just stared at him for a few seconds before he yelled, "Because we didn't know if we were gonna survive the first blast or not!!" After Luke calmed down a little they boarded the ship before launching themselves in the direction of Loguetown.