A whole week has passed since my fight with the giant gorilla. A week that I spent mostly training my sword skills, strength, and stamina, by alternating between sword practice swings, push-ups, sit-ups..., etc. And when that became too boring for me to bear, I would head to the forest to find the giant gorilla for a quick sparring session, for the sake of gaining more fighting experience, definitely not because I was feeling lonely.

The outcomes of our fights were mainly similar to our first fight. My fighting capabilities, however, were slowly improving, and I felt it. What surprised me, however, was that the gorilla was also improving as we continued to fight. I have also forged what someone can barely call a friendship with the silver monstrosity which I shamelessly called Wilson.

At first, it was very dismissive of me because of my fighting style and probably thinking that I could only cut its side thanks to a fluke of some kind during our first fight, mostly because I failed to cut it again during our second fight. However, after drawing blood from one of its legs in the third fight, there was finally some recognition and respect in its eyes as it looked at me.

That, however, wasn't enough to earn its friendship. I also had to bribe him with many fruits, meats, and drinks, both alcoholic and fruity. That's right. He turned out to be a hot-blooded male, and the way I found out was anything but pleasant.

It happened as I was looking for him to fight and drink together. I suddenly heard a loud shriek coming from his favorite spot.

And so I bolted in the shriek's direction, afraid that the first and only friend I had in this world was in some danger, Only for my sprint to come to a screeching halt as my eyes twitched in disgust at the sight before my eyes, as I turned around and left while cursing under my breath, "goddamned horny gorilla, don't you even know the concept of bros before hoes, getting laid at the time of the day that I usually visit him at of all the times."

I had also tried and failed to figure out the marine's six powers(Rokushiki), except for the Shigan, which I could generally perform with all the fingers of my left prosthetic hand because of its metallic nature, and only being able to complete it with the index finger of my right hand after a second of concentration to harden its muscles, anything other than that spraining my fingers and causing me intense pain.

And so, after performing my daily routine today, I was once again marching through the forest to visit Wilson. Once I'm near its lair, however, I hear it shrieking again, leading me to sigh and plant my face into the palm of my hand, 'this horny bastard is doing it again, are you a gorilla or a fucking rabbit goddamnit. I'll kick him in the nuts or something the next time we fight,' I think to myself maliciously as I turn around and viciously kick a poor rock lying innocently on the ground and send it flying through the air.

However, I stop and turn around again as I hear another shriek coming from the same place, this one sounding like it belongs to a completely different animal. So I sprinted again while preparing myself for a fight, in case Wilson needed help wasn't likely.

Once I reached there, however, I just froze and felt my face distort in a murderous rage at sight before my eyes, which was the complete opposite of what I had expected.

"what the hell..., "I said in a cold tone of voice that was more similar to a growl than anything else, pausing as I surveyed the battlefield before me. "Do you think... "I growled, again pausing my words at the sight of the bloodied and surrounded Wilson. "you're doing to my friend!"

I roared as I charged sword in hand toward the bloodied Wilson, who had his back to a tree with several small silver gorillas between him and the said tree, while standing next to three corpses of adult silver gorillas laying motionless on the ground, noticing my presence, Wilson attackers, a dozen or so oversized tigers that seemed to resemble the tiger Wilson had killed when I first met him, had to split their attention as two of them break from their formation probably underestimating my thanks to my much smaller size compared to them.

However, the rest held their ground to stop Wilson from escaping as four more of them threw themselves at Wilson, trying to claw him and bite him to death. Wilson, being Wilson, however, caught one of them with his two upper arms as it lunged at his neck, trying to tear through his throat while catching another one with his two lower hands as it tried to bite off his genitals that were thankfully hidden behind a thick mane of silver fur, the other two however bit both of his legs drawing blood and pinning him in place.

Noticing another pair of tigers preparing to lunge at Wilson and realizing that I won't make it in time to help him because of the distance, I desperately draw archangel in a feat of speed worthy of being called a quick draw and fire from the hip, emptying its chamber in a mere half-second while shouting "it's high-noon "(author's note: a named attack that I shamelessly ripped from Overwatch XD) at a low voice which strangely reverberated through the surrounding area.

The first two bullets only scratched the torsos of the two tigers that were still information and preparing to lunge at Wilson, slowing them down and buying a precious second or two for him. The third bullet luckily landed in the left eye of the tiger that was held by Wilson's lower arms, killing it instantly. The fourth impacted the tiger's head, biting his left leg, disorienting it, and forcing it to let go. However, the fifth and sixth completely missed their targets because of the short amount of time that I had to aim and take my shot.

-0-

Wilson, of course, didn't waste any time capitalizing on the openings that I made for him. He first let go of the dead tiger that was held in his lower arms and used the now free appendages to reach out and hold the heads of the tigers that are trying to pin him down by biting his legs and smashing them savagely into the ground repeatedly until they were nothing but red paste. He then spread his upper arms apart in a titanic show force, causing the tiger held by said arms to roar miserably as it was torn in half, once more re-enacting the scene that happened when I first met him.

Looking at the mighty act of savagery, I smirk as I kill the momentum of my charge, forcing myself to come to a halt. Noticing that Wilson was safe from any immediate danger, for the moment and that the two tigers lunging at me were almost at a striking distance, I started retreating backward to buy myself some time as I tilted Archangel upwards and flicked quickly it to the side to empty its cylinder from the bullet shells, I then promptly reach to my bullet pouch to take out six more bullets which I then load into the now empty cylinder just as quickly as I emptied it.

Despite the speed of my actions, however, I was barely done in time as I had to take a big step to the side to avoid having my head being bitten off by one of the tigers which I had noticed lunging at me from the corner of my eyes while reloading the last bullet.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to counter-attack after dodging, as I had to once again dodge once by ducking as the other tiger flew right above my head, having lunged at me with a little too much strength.

Deciding that now was the best time for me to counter-attack, I swung my sword at the tiger's unprotected abdomen that was right above me, and surprisingly managing to cut deep enough to make it leave a red trail of its insides as it smashed headfirst into the dirt ground while sliding good meter or two in the direction of its lunge.

'even though their backs and skulls seem to be just a little less tough than Wilson's own, their abdomen seems to be their weak point.' I think to myself as I charge towards the first tiger that I dodged.

After I dodged a swipe of its claws, it then tried to attack me with its teeth, forcing me to evade again without stopping my momentum by bending myself backward and lowering myself my knees, causing me to slide right under its abdomen. I then shoot upwards In a mighty leap aiming to bury my sword's entire length in its stomach, which I do, and then slash to the sides, turning the tiger's insides to outsides, causing me to be drenched in both blood and gore as descend into the ground.

I then throw myself to the side to avoid getting buried under the tigers towering body as its legs can no longer muster enough strength to keep it standing.

Looking over to check on Wilson, I notice he managed to kill another tiger by crushing after engulfing it in one of his specialty gorilla hugs, leaving us with only six tigers surrounded by both Wilson and myself.

The tigers then seemed to hesitate while looking between me, Wilson, and the tiger corpses littering the ground. And after sharing several glances among each other, they then roared at us, and as I tensed myself, preparing myself to continue fighting, they turned tail and started to flee in all directions.

I took a step forward with the intent to chase after them and then stopped after glancing at the bloody figure of Wilson. After a second of hesitation, I sighed and put away my weapons while heading toward my friend. The previously mentioned baby silver gorillas were now surrounded as they looked at him with stars in their eyes.

Once I reached Wilson, I stopped right in front of him and extended my empty hand as a way of asking permission to check his injuries. He looked at my hand bewilderedly for a second but then seemed to finally understand as he grunted in approval and rested his massive figure down on the ground in a casual setting posture.

"what the hell was all that about?." I questioned, not expecting an answer, as I started to wash his wounds with the water-filled bottle gourds that I took out of my backpack.

Wilson, however, surprised me and answered by grunting and gesturing towards one of the dead. It then grunted again and gestured in the direction of one of the dead silver gorillas with one hand while gesturing towards the baby silver gorillas with another. It probably means that the tigers attacked the gorillas while adults were taking out the babies somewhere and that he rushed in to help them defend the little ones.

'I really need to stop underestimating this guy's intelligence.' I thought to myself while raising an eyebrow at his carefree attitude.

"you sure are carefree, for a guy who was about to be bitten to death, before I arrived that is," I remarked snarkily in irritation, only for him to snort dismissively in my direction as I started to apply some medical plants that I gathered earlier this week to his wounds. Luckily most of his injuries weren't deep enough to threaten his life except for the ones at his limps which were quite deep.

That, however, didn't prove to be a problem as I quickly sealed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. Once I was finished, I just sat down in front of him, reached inside my bag, and took a couple of fruits to replenish my energy while offering some of them to Wilson, which he accepted and devoured all too quickly.

One of the braver baby gorillas started to approach me cautiously as it gazed at fruit in my hand with drool coming out of the side of its mouth. I merely smiled in its direction before reaching inside my backpack and throwing fruit in its direction.

The other baby gorillas, of course, noticed this and didn't want to miss out on the literal free lunch, causing me to smile again and offer them some fruits as well.

"well, I guess we won't be able to have our regular sparring session today, or any time soon I guess, considering the state that your limps are in," I shouted as I got up—causing Wilson to turn his gaze from the baby gorillas playing carefreely by his side to me instead.

"But I'll visit regularly to check on your wounds for any sign of infections, and maybe we can get wasted together or something," I said again as I turned around and started jogging in the direction of the stream of water, so I could wash away the dirt and blood from my clothes and body before heading back to camp.

-0-

A month and a week had passed since Winston, and I had fought against those vicious giant tigers. I had visited Wilson daily for the first week of that time, not to fight, of course, but to check the state of his wounds and make sure none of them were infected. Surprisingly enough, his injuries were visibly improving every time I dropped by, checked upon them, and apply new medicine to them.

Other than that, I, of course, didn't remain idle as I continued my daily training by myself, and I also brought several big rocks to act as weights due to my lack of proper training equipment.

I had also continued trying to figure out the marine's six powers and finally made some progress. After not noticing any more improvement with my Shigan technique, I stopped training it and turned to the paper drawing(kami-e) technique instead. Although I wasn't able to perform it in any way, shape, or form at the beginning, I finally found some success after persistently trying all kinds of different training methods like relaxing my muscles and bending my body in all kinds of nearly impossible shapes, trying to imitate Luffy's gumu gomu no Boh by turning off my conscious mind and floating around like a leaf, and miserably failing at turning off my conscious mind.

I had also tried all kinds of other improvised methods without much success. Until I finally came up with a method to train kami-e reliably and consistently that is, the way I came up with was both fun and straightforward, as all I had to do was to relax my body as much as I could while floating in the seawater motionlessly, while only minimally moving my muscles to try imitating the motion of the tides and small waves crashing into the shore of the island to try and remain still without being affected by the waves.

And once I got the hang of that by being able to stay still in the water despite the small waves crashing into me without moving my limbs and only wriggling my muscles, I decided that the next step was to try moving In the opposite direction of the waves, which was easier said than done. Still, I was nothing if not stubborn and persistent, and after going at it for a couple of days I was finally able to do it subconsciously without thinking about it.

I then swam deeper into the sea to test myself against bigger and stronger waves which was a terrible idea as I was instantly attacked by some weird, gigantic fish-alligator hybrid forcing me to stop my training and dive into the water to avoid being swallowed whole by its giant maw as it lunged at me.

The sea beast, of course, followed after me and didn't waste any time simply opening its mouth and shooting in my direction with its mouth wide open. I barely managed to avoid its gaping mouth by desperately waving my hands and feet in the water and working to dodge to the side, which put me In a good position to strike its side; however, punching it with my bare hands didn't do much damage thanks to its hard scales and the water mitigating the strength of my attack.

This situation repeated its self several more times as it purposefully tried and succeeded in pushing our fight deeper and further into the depth of the seawater. Until I started to run out of oxygen, so I punched it as hard as possible to make some distance between us and decided to swim back to the surface. It, of course, didn't want to let go of me and started chasing me, noticing the difference in speed between us and that it would most definitely catch up to me before I reached the surface and realizing that I would die If that happened by drowning due to the lack of air if I kept fighting it or by being swallowed whole if I turned my back on it, I hesitated for only a fraction of a second before I lifted my left prosthetic arm and aimed it in the direction of the incoming sea creature while holding its forearm with my right hand as my left prosthetic hand extended and moved to the side on its own.

I took another second to concentrate and steady my aim. Once it crossed the ten-meter marker that I set inside, I head quickly activated my arm's projectile launch system and then resolutely turned around and swam towards the surface.

However, a mere second after I turned around, as I was desperately making my way towards the surface, I was surprised by a sudden shock wave coming from right below that pushed me upwards and sent me flying out of the water.

I took several deep breaths of fresh air as soon as my head had left the water and prepared myself to dive back into the water, to check the state of my opponent after being hit by my explosive arm projectile, and continue fighting if necessary. So I dived back into the water only for me to stop dead in my tracks in shock at the state that the giant fish-alligator was in, its oversized, alligator shaped head was gone replaced by a red patch of water with tiny bits and pieces of flesh, bone and brain matter floating about and spreading in all direction tainting the deep seawater with its redness, while its fish-like body was was filled with all kinds of cuts all over it with even several of its fins missing.

Fearing that the blood would attract more predatory sea-dwelling creatures, I quickly swam back to the surface and then to shore.

once I was back on land, I started to frustratedly pace around the sandy shores of the island while throwing a hissy fit inside my head,' just when I found a fast and reliable way to improve kami-e this motherfucker just had to come and ruin it.' I thought inside my head and kept pacing until I finally calmed down and decided to give up training kami-e like that today, opting to do it tomorrow once all the blood and settled down and the sore became clear.

And so I did that the very next day but with much more caution, only starting to train after I made sure that all the blood was gone and that there were no large sea creatures capable of threatening my life anywhere nearby.

I didn't make much progress at first, very much like the beginning of my training. Still, I continued to throw myself at the exercise every day for the remainder of the month without doing anything except for my training routine and visiting Wilson two or three times a week. As the days passed, I was slowly but surely improving until I could do it subconsciously without any trouble by the end of the month.

Once I was able to do that, I decided that it was time to test its effectiveness in a fight, and so I spent the entire next week fighting as much as I could both against Winston, who had made a full recovery at this point, and all kinds of forest creatures until I was able to use kami-e subconsciously during a fight. If that doesn't make me a bonafide kami-e master I don't know what will.

-0-

Another month had passed since I had mastered kami-e, a month which I had the first half of training my Shigan technique again after I noticed that learning the technique has become much more manageable after mastering kami-e, which made a lot of sense since Shigan was the hardening of the fingers muscles to point where they would be hard enough to penetrate a rock, and all it required nothing but physical strength which I already had and also a fine control over your muscles which I had gained through training my kami-e.

It only took me a week to reach the point where I could do it on command with all the fingers of my hands and another week of constant fighting for my life to integrate it into my fighting style fully.

I'll never forget the look on Wilson's face after I had gotten drunk and smashed a rock by only japing it with my index finger. I, of course, didn't use Shigan on Wilson during our daily sparring sessions as it was too dangerous and could cause serious injuries.

I then trained the iron body(Tekkai) technique since it was the next most logical option. It had the exact requirements as Shigan, with the only difference being is applying your muscle control all over your body instead of just the fingers.

Even though I had a foundation to start working from towards learning the iron body technique, it wasn't all smooth sailing, as it was much more complicated than the finger gun technique to learn.

But I was slowly making progress as I could barely harden my body for only a second by the end of the month.

And as another three weeks passed, I could finally keep my body hardened for a full minute. And so I stopped training it for now as it wasn't a problem of my understanding of the technique; instead, my body was lacking, as my muscles weren't durable enough to take the iron body technique to the next level.

I then, of course, spent another week of endless fighting to absorb the technique and add to my fighting style again.

My next step, of course, was trying to figure out the three remaining techniques. Tempest kick(rankyaku), shave(soru), and moonwalk(geppo) were all coincidentally leg-based powers. And so, after another week of me running in circles around myself and not making any progress, I stopped and focused on my sword training to use that as a base to learn rankyaku and then hopefully both geppo and soru.

I spent another week swinging my sword and trying to come up with all kinds of ways and shortcuts to improve as a swordsman, like doing sword meditations, trying to pass my sword through leaves without cutting them as Zoro did during the alabaster arc during his fight against Daz bones also known as mister one, and even heading deeper into the island and fighting all kinds of strong creatures using my sword which also didn't bear any fruit.

And so as I was drinking my frustrations away and trying to come up with another way to take my swordsmanship to the next level, I suddenly recalled a specific scene in the Dressrosa arc when that Orlumbus guy threw Zoro into the air, Zoro then chanted something before he used one of his named attacks to cut Pica in half while he was in his giant statue form.

I've always been wondering what's all this chanting thing that Zoro does before unleashing a big attack is all about 'maybe it somehow acts like naming attacks before unleashing them to increase their power by helping the person channel more concentration on and thus more power their attacks?'

Even though I don't remember the exact chant, coming up with a chant of my own may be the key to improving my swordsmanship. So I decided that working on that, even if it was a long shot, was a better course of action than drinking and doing nothing for now.

And so, after washing my head to sober up and drinking some refreshing bottle of gourd juice, I sat in a meditative position while trying to think of a chant that had deep meaning and was related to swordsmanship instead of being just some nonsensical gibberish.

And after many hours of meditating on my swordsman training and my personal experience with the sword, I could finally come up with something that sounded like an actual religious chant and not something that an eighth-grader with Chynibyou syndrome would shout at school during lunch.

So I grabbed my sword, satori, and walked to the forest until I reached a vast and thick ancient-looking tree I had discovered some time ago, it seemed to be at least 30 meters long and had a diameter of 5 meters. Although it was enormous, it didn't have any fruits or leaves meaning that it was already approaching the end of its lifespan.

Standing two or three meters away from the ancient decaying tree, I held the sheathed satori by the body of its sheath in my right hand while holding its hilt in my left prosthetic one in a textbook stance of Iai or quick draw in English.

And while maintaining the same stance, I slowly approached the tree as I chanted.

"sudden enlightenment is the beginning and rooting of all heavenly wisdom," I chanted loudly and felt my mind becoming clearer, throwing all useless thoughts to the side.

"and so with the root of wisdom as my sword" my mind, which had been previously emptied of all thoughts, was now filled with sword intent, becoming something akin to the blade of a sword.

"There is nothing I can not cut..." I chanted again as I felt connected to satori in ways that I didn't even know were possible.

"satori no Kakyoko (song of sudden enlightenment)" I did not chant this time, but I screamed at the top of my lungs as I drew satori and swung it in the tree's direction. There was a white flash of light and then nothing. (author's note: a bit of wordplay at the start of the chant, as the name of satori, which is johnny sword, literally means sudden enlightenment when translated to English)

'another failure..?' I thought sourly as I brought satori's blade to its sheath and slowly buried the sword into its sheath. However, as the metallic clang signaling the sheathing of a blade sounded, I heard another sound, the sound of groaning that wood makes when it's put under more pressure than it can handle, to be more precise.

I raised my head to look at the tree and was gobsmacked and at a loss for words at the scene before my eyes.

The tree was leaning to the side, exposing the part cut neatly and smoothly in half as fallen to the side. That, however, wasn't the end of my surprise as the tree fell and exposed an even more shocking scene behind.

Everything within a distance of ten-meter of the tree was also cut in half. It was grass, stones, shrubbery, and other smaller trees in that area, it was all cleanly cut in half.

"did I just do a flying sword slash..?, huh, neat," I said exhaustedly, and that was the last thing I did today as my vision grew dark and I fell to the ground unconscious with a smile on my face.

-0-

Three months and one week had passed since I had unleashed my first flying sword slash. Remembering that moment still brings a smile to my face, even to this day.

And even though it was pretty exhilarating, I decided not to do it again, unless necessary, of course, as it had left me unconscious for what had to be at least three days judging by the state of the rotten fruits that I hand found in my backpack.

I had woken up with a killer headache and a feeling of weakness all over my body. Not long after that, my field of view was covered with Wilson's large face, and he was looking at me with a strange mixture of reproach for not being careful and stupidly endangering my life, respect for achieving the feat of cutting everything near that ancient tree, and wonder at my stupidity for sleeping in the middle of the forest.

After asking him what had happened and why I was waking up in his place instead of near the ancient tree where I stupidly knocked myself out, I had spent several minutes trying to decode his grunts and weird hand gestures.

The gist of the story is that he had felt something when I had unleashed my mantra-powered flying sword slash. So he came to investigate only to end up fighting several predators who were trying to devour my unconscious body and then flee while carrying me back to his place.

Listening to him and realizing how close I came to death, I felt no small amount of cold sweat rolling down both of my foreheads and back as I continuously ate the fruits that Wilson had generously offered me without stopping.

It took an entire stack of fruits, almost as tall as myself, for me to finally be able to move and think properly. And so, feeling somewhat full and with some energy to spare, I went back to my camp, but not without thanking Wilson and bidding him farewell first.

It took me three full days of both food and rest with only a minimum amount of training to finally feel like I was in top shape again. And once that happened, I started my brutal daily training sessions once again while focusing on trying to learn rankyaku since I, fortunately, didn't forget the feeling of the flying sword slash that I had used on the ancient tree.

I started by wriggling the muscles on my ankle and trying to make them take the shape of a blade, which again proved easier said and done as I had only controlled them by hardening and relaxing them so far doing nothing complicated like trying to make them take a particular shape or keep them in said shape.

However, my persistence and stubbornness once again came through as I could finally make the muscles on my ankle take the shape of a rough and dull blade of a sword, with no natural sharpness to them after two weeks and a day of training. That, however, was more than enough for me, as I didn't even think it was possible to make muscles truly sharp by shaping them like a blade.

I spent another six days trying to replicate the feeling of the flying slash through my ankle. Finally, I had some success by being able to unleash a crescent-shaped, white-colored flying slash that was only a meter long and only traveled a maximum distance of a meter and a half before dissipating, which was the limit for me now, as I had to have stronger leg muscles to perform better and stronger rankyaku flying slashes.

I then spent the next month working on just that and nothing else. I first started, doing squats, lunges..., etc. while carrying all manner of large rocks on my back until I could make the flying slash travel a maximum distance of two meters, anything more than that would require to perform a named attack which would deplete much more energy than its worth.

And then again spent another week of fighting to gain experience with the technique and truly make it my own.

Of course, the next step for me was, to try and learn the shave(soru) technique.

Which seemed quite simple to train. But very difficult to master. As it and moonwalk(geppo) were the only two of the marine's six powers that had been clearly explained in the anime series.

For a person to perform a soru dash, they would need to kick the ground a total number of 10 times, and they have to do that in the same it takes an average person to blink his eyes, which is quite simple in theory but very hard to apply in real life.

Even though I could theoretically do it, thanks to all the leg training and exercises that I had been doing in the past month, it was challenging for me to perform, primarily because of the time frame that the soru dash had to be performed within.

It's not like I could not kick the ground ten times during the time it would take someone to blink his eyes. HOWEVER, what I failed to do was figure out the time frame that I had to perform such a feat in. I mean, how the fuck am I supposed to know the exact time it would take someone to blink their eyes.

I had first tried to kick the ground as fast as I can only for me to crash face-first into a tree and break my friggen nose. I then tried to slow down the speed of my kicks, only move at a slightly faster rate than I usually do with the added disadvantage of not being able to decide the distance I'll move and not being able to change directions, and that's when to my utter disappointment I discovered that to perform a proper soru dash I had to kick the ground precisely ten times in an exact and unknown frame of time without even a fraction of a second of delay or haste.

And so I spent the following weeks experimenting and perfecting the timing all while tripping and crashing into all kinds of objects, rocks, trees, bushes, and shrubbery, you name it, I crashed into it, not to mention tripping and crashing into the ground face first and stuffing my mouth with an ungodly amount of sand and dirt until I could finally master the timing and by god, it was worth it as I can't even describe the rush and exhilaration of speeding through the forest and jumping from tree to tree while moving at such a high speed.

Once I had my fun, I, of course, once again took a week of fighting and terrorizing the poor inhabitants of this deserted island to absorb the soru technique into my fighting style.

-0-

I sat leisurely near the campfire with a cigarette in my mouth and a guitar in my hands while playing it and staring at this familiar and unfamiliar man sitting in front of me. I became lost in my thoughts as I gazed at his three eyes that were closed in relaxation as he listened to me playing a soft relaxing melody with my guitar, his huge two-and-a-half meter tall figure that was draped in a simple loincloth, made from shrubbery and leaves, only moved occasionally to take small sips from a bottle gourd filled with juice that was mixed with a large amount of whisky.

I closed my own eyes as I thought about the past four months.

After mastering soru to the highest possible degree, I then moved on to the geppo(moonwalk) technique, which of course, didn't require any brainstorming or any specialized training method.

It was the most simple one out of the marine's six powers in principle and application. To perform a geppo step, a person would need to kick the air hard enough to jump off of it as if jumping over a solid surface.

Its only requirement was having an ungodly amount of leg strength, which I did not have at the time. So I did what any sane person would do.

I took the largest and heaviest rock I could find and started running and doing squats while carrying it on my back.

To do such a thing, I had to lower my torso and bend my arms backward beyond my back to embrace it in a weird backward hug in a way that was very similar to how Atlas from Greek mythology carried the giant rock as his punishment.

I continued doing that and nothing more for an entire month. And even though I could release a rankyaku that could travel for a distance of 4 meters by that point, I still couldn't even do a single geppo step, and so I persistently continued doing that for two more months until I could do it.

I could unleash a three meters wide Rankyaky that could travel five meters by that point, but I could only remain in the air for five minutes using geppo steps.

It was also at that time that Wilson came to visit me. What's more, he did not come empty-handed either. As he came closer to me, I noticed he was carrying an oval-shaped, purple fruit with a lot of black swirls lining its bottom with a smooth upper part attached to a yellow swirly stem.

I, of course, didn't take long to put two and to together and realize that Wilson was carrying some devil fruit. He shoved it in my hands and started grunting and gesturing questioningly in its direction.

He was asking me about the edibility and taste of this fruit, as he had seen nothing like it on the island before. He probably asked me about it since he knew that I had eaten at least one of every fruit on this island thanks to my poison immunity, making me very knowledgeable about what was edible and what was not here.

After taking a minute to choose the best way I could describe what a devil fruit is to someone who had lived his entire life on a deserted island, I told him it was a mystery fruit that could give mysterious power to whoever ate. Still, it would also make them unable to swim for the rest of their lives, and that I could tell him what kind of mysterious power it would grant if he gave me a couple of minutes to check.

after ten minutes of flipping through my devil fruit encyclopedia, I could finally spot a drawing that was identical to the devil fruit, which was in Wilson's hands by then

The hito-hito no (human-human fruit), model three-eyed human. And so I explained to him that if he ate this fruit, he would become smarter. And that he would also gain the ability to shape-shift into a form similar to my own, except that he would have three eyes and the added ability to hear the voice of inanimate objects and animals.

Wilson didn't think about it too much, as he shoved it whole inside his mouth after only several seconds of hesitation. He then spent the next five minutes spitting and rinsing his mouth with water, juice, and even whisky in a vain attempt to wash away the foul aftertaste left in his mouth by the fruit, while I just laughed watching his antics.

However once he was done with that, he stood still with a look of concentration on his face. Suddenly, his gigantic body shrank as his fur was absorbed into his body, along with the lower pair of his hands, and a large tear appeared on his forehead as it slowly changed shape as well, finally taking the form of a closed eye. And with a final grunt, he finally opened the three of his eyes, completing the transformation, turning into the Caucasian-looking, three-eyed human that was currently sitting leisurely in front of me, as I was lost in my thoughts reminiscing the happenings of the last four months.

I had also considered that event as a signal that it was finally time for me to leave this island and finally set sail to the unknown.

And so I had spent the next month building a simple carvel ship with a small cabinet on its deck, while also teaching Wilson proper human etiquette and how to speak correctly, he could only talk in small weird sentences at first like "Wilson, smash!". But he was improving quickly, and he could finally speak appropriately by the end of the month, leading to the situation I was currently in.

However, my thought process was interrupted as I heard my name being called with a gruff voice that I knew belonged to none else but Wilson.

"what is it, Wilson?" I said as I raised my head and opened my eyes to look my friend in the eye.

"you stopped playing," answered Wilson, seemingly very annoyed, as he gestured at my guitar while looking at me like I was some idiot for asking such a question.

"you goddamned gorilla, you actually interrupted my thought process for such a reason?!," I said as I stood up while pointing my index finger at him accusingly.

"you stopped when you reached the best part. What kind of asshole does that?!" Wilson said as he too stood up and grabbed the collars of my tank top vest with his large hands.

"in the first place what kind of gorilla sits around a campfire to listen to music while drinking alcohol?!, why don't you go eat a banana and jerk yourself off in the forest or something if you're bored?!, your ancestors are probably crying in shame in the afterlife right now!" I said as I punched him in the face and sent him sliding several meters backward.

"Now you've done it, you little bastard," Wilson said as he reared his fist backward and started charging at me.

-0-

I didn't stand idly while waiting for Wilson to reach me as I raised my leg to send a flying slash in his direction. Wilson, however, was many things, but a sitting duck he was not. Just as the flying slash was about to contact his body, he vanished, leaving nothing but a dissected after image behind.

Feeling my senses flare, I turned around and punched only for my fist to meet Wilson's own as he appeared behind my back after disappearing.

That's right, Wilson just used soru. It seems that as I was training myself in using the marine's six powers, this damned gorilla with strangely refined tastes was observing my training and copying it on his own. However, what frustrated me was that even though I was better than him in using kami-e and leg-based powers, he was also better than me in using both the Tekkai and Shigan techniques.

We continued to push each other using our fists for several seconds with no clear winner, and then we both jumped backward while preparing for the next engagement.

As I charged in Wilson's direction, he just smiled smugly and sent a flying slash in my direction.

"you fucking copy gorilla is copying others all you can do?!." I said as I continued to charge in his direction. However, unlike Wilson, who dodged my rankyaku slash using soru, I opted to tank it instead.

I backhanded the slash with my left prosthetic hand as it came close enough for me to reach, and after a half-second of struggle, I sent it flying to the side, cutting everything in its path.

That, however, proved to be a mistake as a half-second was all the time Wilson needed to close the distance between us with a swift application of the soru technique. As he appeared in front of me, fist reared and ready to be unleashed. I only had time to lower my stance, cross my arms across my head and chest, and activate Tekkai as I was sent flying backward.

"how about that for copying people, you puny little shit?!." he said smugly while watching me as I rebalanced myself while mid-air and stopped my momentum using geppo.

Hearing that, I used Ggeppo to float above his head and look down on him with a disdain-filled smile since he could only use Geppo to do a triple jump in the air before falling to the ground.

Looking at this scene and understanding my meaning. Wilson gnashed his teeth in frustration at the reminder, morphed back into his complete gorilla form, and sent a hail of compressed air bullets in my direction with all four of his arms using the Shigan technique.

I used a mixture of geppo and soru to fly in a zigzag pattern to close the distance between us since I couldn't do the same with Shigan while dodging his compressed air bullets. Once I was close enough above his head, I flipped myself in the air and sent an axe kick aiming for the top of Wilson's head, which he received by crossing his arms above his head.

A small crater formed under Wilson's feet, along with a big Shockwave, with us as the center, Sending all kinds of sticks, rocks, and leaves flying in all directions.

We continued to push each other for a good second until his defense gave in as the force of my kick finally overwhelmed the strength of arms thanks to the centrifugal power it had accumulated and a more advantageous position.

My foot landed on the top of his head, Bending his torso forward, sending him crashing into the ground head first and deepening the crater beneath him in the process.

My victory, however, was short-lived as one of his arms snaked its way into my ankle and slammed me into the ground, causing both of us to crash into the crater together at the same time.

It didn't take long for the both of us to try standing up and facing each other once more, but it seemed we had both chosen the exact second to do so as we just stood there staring at each other.

The stalemate, however, was broken quickly as I cracked first and threw my head backward and laughed at the top of my lungs, only to be joined by Wilson, who did the same. And so we both headed back to the campfire and resumed and relaxation session, not needing to communicate any words to understand each other.

"So how about it Wilson, are you really ready to leave this island behind and join me in exploring the sea?" I asked as I poured the both of us a cup of whisky and reached for my guitar to start playing it softly.

"humph, why ask a question you already know the answers to? You, humans, are truly strange creatures." He snorted while sipping at his whisky.

"hah, that we are, but that's not why I asked, just wanted to make sure you really know what you're getting yourself into. You could die for you know?, heck even I could die, there are all kinds of monsters out there that could make the both of us seem like nothing more than children." I said gravely while making eye contact to emphasize my point.

"and that's exactly why I want to go, this island is too small and boring for me now that I know what's out there, so you either take me with you or I find a way to leave this island myself," he said as he broke eye contact and turned his head to gaze at the sea longingly.

'that's right, this guy is also a battle maniac just like me, isn't he' I thought as I also turned to gaze at the sea for several seconds of silent thought.

"it's not like I don't want to take you with me, it's the opposite in fact I was just making sure, anyway it's getting quite dark so let's call it a day for now and start our preparation to set sail in two weeks time or so," I said while yawning as I stood up and made my way towards my tent, only hearing a grunt of confirmation coming from Wilson's direction.

-0-

third-person point of view:

as he stood amidst the trees, he shrieked victoriously while savagely beating his chest with his lower hands balled into fists as his upper hands held the two halves of his dead enemy. He felt strangely empty inside as he thought about the events of his life that had led him to this moment.

He was the alpha of his pack, and now after easily defeating this once insurmountable foe, he finally became the strongest predator of this small world.

But things were not always like this. even though he was the strongest now, he had not been born that way, but he had earned it with hard work and dedication instead.

He was born into a pack of four-armed silver gorillas, and even though he was born into a species that was one of the two strongest in this small world, the other being the giant tigers, he was tiny and weak compared to others of the same pack.

And so he was abandoned, his pack choosing not to waste precious recourses on what seemed like a lost cause to them and instead channel these recourses towards other gorilla cups that were bigger and stronger, thus having a better chance of survival reaching adulthood.

He, however, did not give up on himself even if his pack did. And so, he chose to struggle and rebel against his fate instead of simply succumbing to it and silently waiting for death.

And so struggle he did. Every day posed a new challenge for him: securing food to avoiding predators, and finding shelter when the weather soured.

Whether it was rooted, fruit peels left behind by other animals, and even tree bark when nothing else was to be had. He ate everything he could find.

To avoid much bigger, stronger, and quicker predators than himself, he had to adapt and outsmart them. And so he learned to act stealthily, only scavenging for food at times when he knew that predators would not be awake and roaming about.

Finding safe shelter from the wrath of mother nature, however, proved to be the most complex challenge. As such, places were very few and were already occupied by other strong creatures.

So he chose to make one of his own and started to carve the bottom of a rotting tree with a sharp rock he had found earlier. And even though his progress in doing that was plodding, he did not give up, and after an entire week of hard work, his work was finally done, and his simple shelter was finally complete. It wasn't much to look at, but it was a home, a home that he made for himself with his own hands.

He continued to live in this manner for a year until he was strong enough to start climbing trees. And so he stopped eating other animals' leftovers and started to eat fresh fruits by climbing trees and picking them for himself.

And so another year had passed. Finally, having sufficient nutrition, his tiny body started to grow at an explosive rate. And he was even able to defeat some of the smaller predators that he stood no chance against before his small growth spurt.

It was at the moment when he defeated the first foe that he decided merely surviving was no longer enough for him. he would grow strong, strong enough to eat as much as he wanted, and most importantly, strong enough so that he would no longer fear anything.

And so he started training himself by looking for all kinds of predatory and dangerous creatures his size or slightly bigger to fight against.

His old pack has also moved to a clearing in the forest near his home and invited him to join them, which he refused. It's not like he was holding a grudge and refused out of spite, but he was used to living alone as he also helped the pack and cooperated with them occasionally.

And he continued his cycle of eating, fighting, and sleeping for an unknown number of years until he was at this point, carrying the corpse of the strongest predator in this small world and shrieking in a declaration of dominance.

"hey, four arms."

he suddenly heard a voice breaking him out of his thought. And as he turned his gaze towards the direction of the sound, he saw a weird small creature standing on two legs.

"let's fight" the strange small creature charged at him, and the rest was all history.

-0-

After my last fight with Wilson, we spent the last two weeks stockpiling both food and drink while scouring every inch of the carvel I had built for any holes or flaws that would lead to us drowning in the middle of the sea.

And even though I call her a carvel, she was, in fact, just the log of a freakishly large tree that I cut down and carried to the shore with Wilson's help, and then carved her to what she looks like now, she mostly looked like the small ship that silvers rayleigh was living in when he met roger, except that she was slightly larger and her sails were a patchwork of tiger hides stitched together with plant fiber rope.

She wasn't much to look at, to be sure, but she'll have to do for now as we just needed her to make one trip and deliver us to the next island.

'I can't believe it's been almost an entire year since I came to this world', I sighed while standing in front of the small ship, looking at her appreciatively.

'dying young like that and leaving my family and friends behind really sucked, I bet they were very sad about my death, especially my mom and best friend. but they'll get over eventually, I know they will, they're even more persistent than I am after all.' I think to myself again while reminiscing about my past life.

'whatever it's all in the past now and I can't really complain about my current situation, I got a second chance at life, a life in my favorite anime world to boot and I even have the chance to reach for greatness and make something out of myself.' I thought as I shook my head to clear the negative thoughts away, choosing to look the bright side instead and halting my brooding session at that point.

"I think we're as ready as we can be Wilson, it's finally time to bid this island farewell and set sail," I said as I turned my eyes to Wilson, who was double-checking our rations which we had stored inside barrels also carved from the logs of large trees.

"it's about time, I was thinking you were gonna keep us on the island checking our rations and looking for holes and flaws that don't exist until we both died of old age," he said as he got behind the small carvel and rested his hands against the ship's rear right on the side of her rudder.

"haha, come on big guy don't be like that you know it's all necessary so we don't end up drowned or starved to death in the middle of the sea." I laughed and explained as I stood next to him on the other side of the rudder.

We both started to push at the same time until our ankles became submerged in seawater, forcing Wilson to jump over to the ship's deck, leaving me to push the ship to the deeper parts of the sea on my own.

After the ship was finally in deep enough water to set sail, I also jumped over and began to check around the ship in search of any leaks. And after five minutes of waiting and not finding any, I geppoed my back to shore and started to haul our rations and luggage into the ship.

"Everything seems to be in order. now is as good a time as any and there's no need to delay any further, you go and man the rudder while I hoist the sails, keep a steady hand, and make sure we're always heading to the east," I ordered as I jumped over the mast and started to untie the ropes holding the sails.

Once I was done, the ship finally started to move. And after taking a last glance at Wilson to make sure he was keeping us going in the right direction, I moved to the brow of the ship and took out my guitar to commemorate our departure with a song.

Feeling the salty sea breeze hitting me and sending my hair flying backward and a splash of seawater impacting my face. I smiled at the pleasant feeling as I started to play my guitar in a soothing melody and sang. (author note: I recommend playing Johnny Collins - Leave Her Johnny before continuing to read)

"oh the work was hard and the wages low", I sang while gazing at the waves as they crashed against the ship's forecastle (front), splashing even more water onto my face.

"leave her johnny leave her, I guess it's time for us to go, and it's time for us to leave her." I sang again while turning around to look at the island that I had spent the last year of my life on one last time.

"oh the voyage is done and the winds don't blow, and it's time for us to leave her..." I sang with even more emotion than before. And then resolutely turned around to face the sea once again and continued to sing, not giving much attention to a certain water droplet of seawater that got stuck in my eye and chose that exact moment to slid down my face.

We continued to sail peacefully in that manner while taking turns to sleep and man the rudder to keep us in course for an entire week. We luckily didn't go through any large storm or a sea beast large enough to devour us along with our ship in one bite, but it seemed that our luck was at an end today.

The sky above our heads started to darken as numerous black clouds started to gather, and the winds raged hard enough to make our mast screech in protest as it started to bend because of the pressure.

"keep your hand at the rudder and don't let the ship stray off course no matter what happens", I ordered as I geppoed my way up the mast and started to tie the sails in preparation for the quickly approaching storm. And only heard a severe grunt of affirmation from Wilson's direction.

"keep her steady and going forward she can take it, I'll handle anything she can't," I said as I quickly took satori and stood at the brow.

I tucked satori's sheath in my belt to make sure I didn't lose it as I stabbed its blade into the deck besides for ease of access.

I then tensed my body and pointer my left prosthetic arm forward while holding its forearm with my left hand, prepared to use my arm projectile system at a moment's notice.

I stayed in that position for half an hour until what I have been waiting for finally came. As the raging wind changed its course, a giant wave made its appearance right in front of me, its towering figure seemingly preparing to engulf our small ship and devour it and us along with it.

"Brace for Impact", I shouted at Wilson and waited until we were a mere five meters distance from the wave to unleash the projectile and watched as it impacted the wave tearing a hole through it just large enough for our small ship to scale it.

And as our small ship finally scaled the wave that had already mended its self at this point, I felt the wind change course again, this time in our favor.

My mind started to process our situation at superhuman speeds, and it didn't take me too long to come up with a plan to get us out of this storm. I reacted immediately once I was done formulating my plan as I picked up satori and started to swing it quickly in the direction of the mast, sending several small flying slashes to cut the ropes and unfurl the sails.

When the wind finally hit the sails, it pushed us forward, and along with the momentum of sliding down the back of the wave our ship was riding, we advanced at a speed that would have been impossible in any other situation.

And even though the speed we were moving at and the wind pressure were very difficult for the ship to endure, it still held for an entire hour nonetheless until we were finally able to see the end of the storm.

But the storm simply had no intention of letting us go this easily. and soon, another gigantic wave formed and filled my vision. Sighing, I picked up satori and started to chant.

"sudden enlightenment is the beginning and rooting of all heavenly wisdom. and so with the root of wisdom as my sword, There is nothing I can not cut." I chanted as I raised my sword above my head, planning to unleash a vertical flying slash and bisect the wave in half.

"satori no Kakyoko (song of sudden enlightenment)", I shouted at the top of my lung, swung my sword down, and watched as a ten-meter-long slash bisected the wave right in half dissipating it and revealing the blurry and far silhouette of an island hidden behind it.

"the rest is up to you.." I said to Wilson. And that was the last thing I remember as I fell unconscious on top of the deck.