Chapter 14 – Training.

Chapter 14 – Training.

[Chapter Size: 2626 Words]

Monkey D. Luffy POV

Onboard a stolen Marine ship in the vast expanse of the East Blue.

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The following day, Luffy woke up peacefully and decided to attend to some unfinished business while still in bed. There was one thing he hadn't explored the previous day, something he hadn't found a moment for amidst all the excitement of recruiting his first crew member. This was the crew system, an option that had become available after acquiring his first nakama.

Opening the system, he navigated to the crew option, and a screen appeared:

-------Crew-------

[Monkey D. Luffy] – (Captain)

Devil Fruits: Moa Moa no Mi - D / Eikon Eikon no Mi, Model: Chaos Ifrit - D

Vitality – S

Strength – B

Defense – A

Speed - C

Spirit – B

Haoshoku Haki – [Locked]

Voice of All Things – [Locked]

(– As a member of your crew, all your talents are increased by 100%)

----------------------

[Yamato] - (Vice Captain)

Devil Fruits: Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Okuchi no Makami - B

Vitality – S

Strength – A

Defense – S

Speed - B

Spirit – A

Swordsmanship - B

Kenbunshoku Haki – D

Busoshoku Haki - C

Haoshoku Haki - D

(– As a member of your crew, all your talents are increased by 100%)

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[Shirahoshi] (No specific role)

Devil Fruits: None

Vitality – S

Strength – E

Defense – D

Speed - E

Spirit – S

Poseidon – [Locked]

Haoshoku Haki – [Locked]

(– As a member of your crew, all your talents are increased by 100%)

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[Megalo] (Mascot)

Devil Fruits: None

Vitality – C

Strength – C

Defense – D

Speed - D

Spirit – D

(– As a member of your crew, all your talents are increased by 100%)

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[Zoro] (Swordsman)

Devil Fruits: None

Vitality – D

Strength – C

Defense – D

Speed - C

Spirit – C

Swordsmanship (Santoryu) - C

"I've added 100 kilograms to each with my multiplication. You'll follow a training regimen that I'll provide with physical exercises. As you get accustomed to the weights, I'll double them using the power of my Devil Fruit. You'll also be under the influence of three times the learning speed I've already applied to you, so make the most of it," I said and looked at Shirahoshi.

"Take these weights, Shirahoshi. You'll start with 20 kilograms, and later, I'll increase them, understood?" I told her.

"Yes, Luffy-Sama!"

Now, he turned to Yamato.

"Yamato, you'll train with me under the pressure of gravity and weights," he said to her.

"Yes, you can count on me!" She replied with a confident smile.

"Yamato and I have the most powerful bodies here due to our lineage, so I'll train with her under the highest pressure I can withstand," Luffy quickly reasoned.

They quickly began their set and exercise routine. Luffy couldn't help but notice the beautiful daughter of Kaido in front of him as they trained.

"She's stronger than I am, so I've strengthened her with some multiplied weights while I do my push-ups in ten times gravity, which is my current limit," Luffy thought as he continued the exercises.

After a whole morning of training, they finally had a break to rest, and Luffy gave Megalo a break to join them for lunch.

Everyone was quite tired.

"Wow, that was worse than any training I've ever had, but I'm satisfied. I can already feel some results!" Zoro, who was eating while lying down due to the paralysis from training, commented with a slight smile.

"It's really invigorating!" Yamato said, as she had been training with both the added pressure and the weights Luffy gave her, feeling better than any other training she had experienced in Wano.

"I'm so tired!" Shirahoshi didn't stop complaining, along with a broken Bepo beside her.

Lami and Kuina remained silent, but they were equally tired.

Despite everyone being satisfied with the results they could already feel after just a few hours of training, Luffy let them rest because, as their first training, it's good to let their bodies start getting used to it. They still had plenty of time to train before entering the Grand Line.

Seeing this, Luffy grabbed a beach chair from the sailors and lay down to rest. His body was equally tired, and he ended up taking a nap at that moment. He woke up when someone shouted his name in distress.

"LUFFY-SAMA!!!" Shirahoshi cried out to him.

Luffy opened his eyes and saw the mermaid who was asking for help.

On her end, there were two men holding swords and threatening her on the ship.

"Hehehe. I never thought I'd see a mermaid here in the East Blue!"

"I didn't even know they existed; I thought it was a legend from the Grand Line!"

"Captain Buggy will surely compensate us for this!"

Seeing this, Luffy became furious and quickly used his increased speed, punching the men with an amethyst flame without giving them time to react. The two men, who didn't even see Luffy approaching like a flash, were hit and covered the area where they were with their flames. They didn't even have time to react or see what had hit them; they simply disintegrated instantly with the scorching and dangerous heat of that mysterious fire.

*BOOM*

The explosion of flames was so loud that it made the ship shake a bit.

"What is this?!" Zoro jumped off the mast quickly; he was sleeping but woke up due to Shirahoshi's crying, though he reacted much more slowly than Luffy.

I ignored Zoro and the other crew members on their way and saw Shirahoshi on the deck with a scared and crying face. Luffy sighed as he walked over to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked as he knelt beside her, gently touching her head.

"I-I-I don't know. They-they said they were going to sell me! Waaa...." She began to cry and jumped on Luffy to hug and cry on him.

At this point, everyone on the ship had gathered around due to the commotion.

"I know, but don't worry, they won't harm you anymore. I promised you that you'd be safe with me, understood?" Luffy tried to calm the young mermaid.

"Yes, thank you, Luffy-Sama. I was so scared..." She murmured, still crying.

"Anyway, where did these guys come from?" Lami asked loudly as she saw the area I had struck, destroyed, while noticing only some scraps of their clothes that hadn't disintegrated with the captain's punch. This made her think about the fate of their future enemies and caused her to break into a sweat, imagining that he wouldn't show mercy if someone hurt his crew.

"Doesn't matter who they are or if they've seen a mermaid. They have no idea even on a ship with a Marine flag?" Kuina complained.

"What?!" He shouted, and Luffy ignored him to look at the girl with a fish tail and pink hair clinging to him like a panda to a tree.

"Shirahoshi, how did these men get in here?" He finally asked the mermaid seriously, who was clinging to his neck and crying.

"I-I was looking at the view to admire the sun and the horizon, then I saw a boat next to the ship asking for help. I wanted to help those humans, and when they got on our ship, they threatened me

with their swords, so I screamed for Luffy-Sama, who helped me right away." She sobbed all of this.

*Sigh*

After sighing, Luffy turned to the group that was observing them.

"Yamato, I know you have Observation Haki. You should have known about them before anyone else. I don't want to see any intruders entering this ship so easily, understand?" I said seriously to Yamato.

"Observation Haki?" Kuina asked curiously, but Luffy ignored her and focused on Yamato's response.

"Yes, you're right. It won't happen again," she said seriously.

Yamato had indeed sensed their presence when Shirahoshi helped them onto the ship. However, since she saw that the mermaid was helping them, she didn't think it would be a problem. She took that into account only because she couldn't sense the emotions of others with her current level of Haki.

"Great, please, I'm counting on you and Megalo." I told the shark, which was still hugging Shirahoshi.

"You will always stay with Shirahoshi; don't lose sight of her again, understand?" I spoke to the shark.

"Sharky Sharky Sharky!" It said, determined and a bit remorseful for not being with its friend right now, as it was sleeping.

"Shirahoshi, I know you have a good heart, and I admire that in you. But you shouldn't trust just anyone; you know how cruel everyone can be, even humans and fish-men, right?" He said seriously to her.

"Yes, Luffy-Sama! I'm sorry; I'll call you or someone else the next time I see something unusual," she said, still crying.

"Now, get your things ready. We're very close to Orange Town now, and it won't be a peaceful visit. We'll face our first enemy pirate crew as the Straw Hat crew!" He said determined.

"Yes, Luffy-Sama!" Shirahoshi replied, feeling a bit better.

"Sharky!" Megalo said.

"Yes, Captain!" Zoro responded.

"Yes, My Luffy!" Yamato quickly put her club on her shoulder.

"Yes," Lami said, holding her sword.

"YES! I'm sorry," Bepo entered a depressed state.

Kuina didn't say anything because she wasn't an official member of the group. She really wanted to be part of this, but she still had to think about it before talking to her father.

Luffy looked at everyone, satisfied, as he pushed Shirahoshi away from him to look at the small shadow of the island on the horizon, growing larger as they approached.

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