Garp's ship had been docked at the G-10 branch naval base in the Nier Kingdom for nearly two weeks.
Early one morning,
somewhere in the branch's open space, Garp observed the taijutsu sparring between Tsugakuni Yoriichi and Aokiji.
Despite his absence from missions, Garp hadn't been completely idle; instead, he diligently coached Aokiji and Tsugakuni Yoriichi in their training.
After this period of training, Yoriichi's Observation Haki and Armament Haki had improved slightly. Two weeks ago, Yoriichi's Observation Haki could only roughly sense the direction of an opponent's attack, but now, even without the ability to use the Transparent World, Yoriichi could use it to predict his opponent's every move.
While still far from predicting the future, when Yoriichi combined his Observation Haki with the Transparent World, he could easily predict Aokiji's attack direction.
Yoriichi's Armament Haki is also improving at an incredibly rapid rate. While his previous Armament Haki could only attach to the blade of his bamboo sword, it now covers the entire blade.
The attachment area has increased dramatically, and given time, Yoriichi's Armament Haki will undoubtedly cover his entire body.
As for the strength of Armament Haki, Yoriichi is unsure, as there's no quantitative standard.
However, one thing is clear: even with a bamboo sword, Yoriichi could sever a solid steel pillar the thickness of a fist with a single strike after attaching Armament Haki.
Garp roughly assessed Yoriichi's dōri and gave it a value of 7000.
In terms of Haki alone, if one were to compare Yoriichi to others, he's probably even stronger than Zoro, who returned to the Sabaody Archipelago two years later.
In the open air, Yoriichi and Aokiji were sparring. After mastering the Six Styles of the Navy and the Two-Color Haki, Yoriichi's strength has truly soared.
With Yoriichi's already superb swordsmanship and the blessing of the transparent world, he completely dominated Aokiji in the physical training.
At this time, Aokiji, who was holding the icicle with both hands, had blue and purple patches on his skin, and there were many bruises. Yoriichi's armed color domineering was getting stronger day by day. Aokiji, who was originally able to remain unscathed by relying on the power of the fruit, was gradually unable to withstand Yoriichi's attacks, and his body was getting more and more injured during this period.
However, when Aokiji burst out with all his strength, his combat power was still far superior to Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Often when Aokiji felt that he could not hold on any longer, he would use his ability to help Yoriichi "calm down" and give himself a breath.
"Snap!" In the open space, Yoriichi Tsugikuni jumped back to avoid Aokiji's slash, and then the bamboo sword was pressed horizontally on the popsicle in Aokiji's hand, and it was pulled down. The huge force made Aokiji stumble forward.
Sensing the danger, Aokiji's body immediately transformed into icy mist, vanishing from the spot. Instantly, he recondensed a meter away.
Just as Aokiji was leaving, Yoriichi leaped forward and kicked Aokiji right where he had been standing, dispersing the icy mist.
"Hey, hey, hey, Kuzan, you're cheating again, aren't you?!" Yoriichi's kick missed, and he landed steadily on the ground. He grumbled helplessly, watching Aokiji retreat over a meter.
This had happened more than once. Although it was supposed to be a physical training session, that jerk Aokiji always used his abilities during practice.
Yoriichi's attacks were fast, and the flow between them was seamless. Aokiji's half-baked shave was no longer able to dodge Yoriichi's attacks.
While using shave wasn't enough, Aokiji could easily use his fruit power to evade them before they reached him, as long as he could predict the direction of Yoriichi's attack.
As early as more than ten days ago, Aokiji couldn't defeat Tsugokuni Yoriichi with just physical skills, but then Yoriichi grew rapidly and suppressed him easily. After being beaten by Yoriichi for a few days, Aokiji simply let himself go completely, and used his fruit ability when he felt he couldn't hold on.
Over the past few days, Aokiji's physical skills didn't improve much, but instead he developed a new fruit application ability, which is the evasive method that just dispersed into ice mist.
Originally, the development direction of Aokiji's fruit was simple freezing and turning elements into solid ice. Under Yoriichi's increasingly powerful armed color domineering attack, Aokiji developed a method of turning elements into ice mist to dodge.
Hey! Don't say, this new ability developed by Aokiji is much more useful than shaving!
"This is not cheating, I am a devil fruit ability user, and it is reasonable for me to use my ability."
"Besides, I'm only using it for displacement. We're still training in physical techniques. You can think of this ability as a more advanced 'shaving,'"
Aokiji said with a smile. His body once again transformed into icy mist and dissipated. Simultaneously, the mist began to rapidly flow towards Yoriichi, enveloping him.
Suddenly, without warning, half of Aokiji's body solidified from Yoriichi's side, and the popsicle in his hand smashed towards Yoriichi's head.
"Pah!" Just as the popsicle was about to hit Yoriichi's head, Jigoku Yoshitsugu shifted slightly to the side, backhanding a bamboo sword to deflect Aokiji's icicle. Then, his left hand imbued with Armament Haki, he grabbed Aokiji's face.
Whoosh—
before Yoriichi's hand could reach Aokiji, his body transformed into icy mist again and dissipated. The next second, Aokiji solidified directly in front of Yoriichi and launched an icicle into his lower abdomen.
Iron block!
Unable to dodge, Yoriichi could only use the iron block to resist. The soles of his shoes rubbed violently against the ground, making a "swoosh" sound. He was pushed several meters away before he finally stopped.
The pain in his abdomen made Yoriichi grimace.
Seeing Aokiji using his fruit power to fight Yoriichi, Garp also grinned but did not intervene.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi's physical skills had completely surpassed Aokiji's. If Aokiji didn't use his fruit power, he would probably be defeated in less than five moves.
A one-sided crushing attack would not allow Yoriichi to advance further. Now that Aokiji had used his fruit power, he was just enough to be Yoriichi's opponent. Besides, Aokiji's attacks were all physical skills, right?!
It made sense.
If Aokiji used his fruit power to attack, Yoriichi would have lost the moment he was surrounded by the ice mist.
Just as Yoriichi recovered his strength and was about to use his upper breathing technique to speed up, Bogart hurriedly ran towards the open space, shouting as he ran:
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
"Rear Admiral Roca asked me to tell you, there's news! There's news about the Roger Pirates!"
Garp heard Bogart's shout and quickly turned his head to look:
"News about Roger?! Where are they?!"
Without waiting for Bogart to approach, Garp hurriedly asked.
"Zou Island! The island where the legendary Minks live, Zou Island!"
Hearing this news, Garp was stunned. He tilted his head and looked at Bogart in surprise, asking, "Where is that?!"
Although Garp had been a marine for decades and had left his mark on the Four Seas, the Grand Line, and even the New World,
he had no idea what the hell Zou Island was. He had never heard of it.
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(End of Chapter)