Chapter 6 : Devil Fruit

Today I woke up in a very good mood. The different skills I had gained yesterday seemed to get me closer and closer to the objective Grandfather had set for me in two years. Become as strong as a Rear Admiral.

I would be very far off from the strongest powers of this world, but unless a vice-admiral came in person for us, which does not happen unless there is a “Buster Call”, Luffy and I would be free to act however we deemed fit on the first part of the Grand Line.

I would need more years to confront the top tier Shichibukai and stuff… But all in all, everything would be fine for us if we bid our time and grew our strength and experience in “¨Paradise”.

Anyway, I had told Luffy that we would not set sail before we became 10. The reason for that was that I wanted to get as strong as possible for one, but also avoid becoming a marine. Grandfather had already planned to take us back with him once we grew that much.

Yesterday was a day off for our practice. Ace and Sabo were beaming with joy when I had told them that I was going to town. So today I planned to train them a bit in the morning before leaving.

I woke them gently and we took our breakfast before they followed me to our usual training spot.

I let Luffy sleep a bit more, so it was just Ace, Sabo and I. It did not matter that much to me because I would wreck him tonight after we came back from Foosha Village. The best way to motivate him was to use meat...Hehe.

I did not use the same means as Grandfather to train Luffy after all. As my older brother, I had respect for him, despite how dumb he acted most of the time. I used incentives and it worked even better than just throw him to tigers or hang him on balloons…

He could be stronger with more dedication, however. Ace was closing the gap at a fast pace and it was not sure who would win a fight in 5 months. I won’t even talk about Sabo who was the second strongest of our group. Luffy could not even land a hit on him.

“Bang!!” Ace and Sabo got in close range and launched kicks and punches at me very violently. They had perfect teamwork. Sabo had mastered the use of weapons and could fuse his Haki with his pipe.

The wind blew as I received both their blows with my two hands. They were in midair and could not make me move. Cracks started to appear beneath my feets.

“Krr..!”

When they wanted to step back I grabbed one of Ace’s legs who was still not on the ground due to the confrontation of our energies. They were both floating as if time had stopped for a few seconds.

“Paa…” I used Ace as an object and the weird attack propelled both of them on the nearby tree that got instantly broken. I followed at full speed and did a few somersaults when I got close to where they landed. I jumped very high and after a last acrobatic move, I spun defying gravity in their direction.

I did not use Haki for this move as I did not want to break them but just play a bit. They stood up ready for the incoming blow. They had long since given up facing me one vs one…

“Boom…” My reverse kick broke their united defense very easily and the impact broke a few of their bones.

“Aaah!...” They were released into the the air once again and crashed at a few different spots.

“This is enough for today I guess,” I said with an evil smirk.

“Raoh I’m going to teach you a lesson one of those days!” Ace put back his bone into its socket and told in frustration at the same time.

“Brrr!”

Sabo did the same and shook his head in desperation. “Give up Ace, he did not even use 10% of his strength. Our objective was to become stronger when we asked him to teach us Hokuto anyway...Our real opponents are on the sea.”

“Hmph!” Ace snorted and ran into the forest not waiting for my permission to leave.

“ Raoh, go easy on us tomorrow, Haha,” Sabo said with a pleading smile and left following behind his best friend.

“We’ll make a trip to Gray Terminal tomorrow,” I said before his shadow disappeared from view.

“Okay!” He was puzzled but he did not argue.

I watched him leave and got back into serious mode directly. “Today I need to figure out why Shanks came to our town.”

I knew he was a good man from meeting him. But I did not want the results of his quest to cause collateral damage to our town after he left. Objectives which I still was not clear on…

I was used to having everything in my grasp so I was troubled by his arrival on our Island. The Island was small but there were still a few people related to world nobles in Goa town.

If by chance his goals did not coincide with those people, our village might become a battlefield…

Putting those thoughts aside I went back home.

“Oh, Raoh back already?” Dadan was surprised to see me come back from training that early.

“Um! We need to make a trip down the mountain today again.” I replied.

“You’re going to see that pirate again huh? Say hi to Makino for me.” She smiled. Dadan was very different with me compared with the crazy trio. Among her adoptive children I was the most reasonable one and never caused trouble for her., so she already saw me as an adult.

She was not essentially wrong to think like this…

“Where is Aniki?” I asked.

“He’s already gone to town. He went as soon as he woke up.” Dadan said surprised I was not in the know.

“This guy…” I was surprised but it totally fits his personality.

I bid goodbye to Dadan and descended the mountain skipping steps. There were no beasts on the way to Foosha Village so I could power through the forest easily.

After 5 minutes I arrived at Makino’s bar.

To my surprise, there was no noise inside the bar.

I took a peek inside and what I saw left my jaw open.

“Idiot!! What you just ate is a devil fruit for fuck sake.” Shanks was yelling very noisily