NOVEL WEB 00021. Garp has tricks.
Garp was true to his words as he led the boys around the south side of the island to each area and made them go through each obstacle course. Some of the places were easier than others, while some the boys couldn’t complete at all. Garp sent a shiver down their spines as he promised to train them so they would be able to finish all the area’s before they left.
When they finished the last training area, it was near sunset and Luffy collapsed on the ground as he said, “Grandpa! I need food.”
Garp pointed to the forest as he said, “Go find it.”
All the boys looked towards the darkening forest and could hear the sound of animals. Some sounded like they were fighting, while others sounded like they were warning other animals away. Garp smiled at the boys watching the forest as he said, “On the south side of the island you should be able to handle most of the animals with no issue. But the farther north you go, the tougher they get.”
The boys shared a glance before Marcus picked up Luffy and then ran into the forest with others. It didn’t take the boys long to find a few animals, all of which they beat up and then carried back to the stone building they were staying at. Once there, Garp took care of the animals as the boys took showers and changed clothes. Afterwards they all ate till they were full, then they passed out from exhaustion. The next morning Garp woke them up before dawn for a quick warmup routine, then he fed them breakfast.
From there it was the obstacle course challenge as Garp watched over them for the next six hours. Out of the eighteen different obstacles, the boys couldn’t complete six currently. It was the last six of each training area that were the issue. It wasn’t that they were harder than the others, they just weren’t designed for kids. Most of them required the boys to do something that just wasn’t physically feasible for them currently. Garp said that wouldn’t be an issue after he trained them properly though…
That training came after a late lunch as Garp took them near the middle of the island and the start of the inactive volcano's slope. The area around the foot of the volcano was extremely rocky without any trees or shade and the areas without rocks were covered in a soft black sand. Garp led the boys to a large sandy area of the volcano’s slope where a handful of large roundish boulders sat.
Garp patted one of the boulders as he said, “Alright, this is your new training method. You have the next four hours to push this as far up the mountain side as you can. Tomorrow they’ll be reset and you’ll need to push it past today's stopping point. Now pick one and get to it.”
Each boy moved up to one of the boulders, all of which were more than three times their height and started to roll them through the black sand. At first it wasn’t so bad, since the ground was still flat. But once the ground started to slope, all the boys ran into issues and had to consistently hold the boulder or it would roll backwards.
Over the next few hours all the boys were pushed to their physical limit as they slowly pushed the boulder inch after inch up the mountain side. Besides pushing the boulder, they also had to deal with the extreme heat, no shade and no water. While Garp watched on from a lawn chair as he sat in the shade of some trees and ate rice crackers.
Once the four hours were up and the sun started to set, Garp moved closer to the boys before he said, “That's enough for the day, you can rest now.”
While the other boys slowly slid to the edge of their boulder and let it roll back down the slope. Luffy unfortunately didn't think about what would happen before he let go…
Garp and the other boys couldn't help but burst into laughter as they watched Luffy get squashed under the boulder as it rolled over him. Luffy laid there on the ground for a few moments before he said, “I'm hungry.”
The others burst into more laughter before Garp said, “Head back to camp, I'll go get us dinner.”
Marcus and the others helped to pull Luffy out of the sand as Garp took off into the air and headed towards the sea. The boys watched him go as Luffy said, “I still want grandpa to teach me how to do that.”
“Ask him, maybe he'll teach us how.” Sabo said as they started to walk back to camp.
Ace shook his head as he said, “He'll probably say we have to join the marines to learn it.”
Marcus shrugged as he said, “We can just figure it out ourselves.”
The others all glanced at Marcus who smiled as he said, “What? It can't be that hard to do.”
Ace glanced towards where Garp went as he said, “He literally took off flying through the air.”
“Yeah, but did you notice how he did it?” Marcus asked.
“He moves his feet when he does it.” Sabo said.
Ace nodded along before he asked, “Maybe he is just kicking off the air?”
“How would he kick off the air? There is nothing to touch.” Luffy said as he waved his hand in the air as a demonstration.
“Maybe if you kick the air hard enough, it feels solid. Kinda like the wind in the hurricane we sailed through.” Marcus said.
Sabo nodded in agreement before he asked, “That actually makes sense. But how are we going to kick the air that hard?”
“If we get strong enough, we should be able to do it.” Ace said.
Marcus smirked as he said, “If we keep training the way gramps wants, I don't see why we won't become strong enough to kick air.”
The other boys nodded in agreement before Sabo said, “Maybe we should ask gramps if he has any other tricks. If we see them, maybe we'll be able to figure them out ourselves like the flying thing.”
Marcus shook his head as he said, “We still aren't sure that's exactly what he’s doing. Till we can kick the air and at least push ourselves in the air a little, this is all of us just guessing.”
“Why don't we just ask grandpa if we're right?” Luffy asked.
Ace shook his head as he said, “There is no way grandpa would tell us how.”
Sabo nodded in agreement before he said, “Plus if we’re close to figuring out how it works, he might not show us other cool tricks he can do.”
“So let's just ask him to show us everything cool he can do and then try to figure it out when he’s not around.” Marcus said.
The other boys nodded in agreement and continued chatting as they made their way back to camp. Once there the boys found Garp with a massive creature laid out on the ground which he was currently gutting. As the boys got closer Luffy licked his lips before he asked in excitement, “Grandpa! What is that thing?!”
Garp glanced up from what he was doing as he said, “This is a seaking. It’s great for eating and it will make you stronger.”
Luffy was drooling on himself as Sabo asked, “Aren’t seakings supposed to be rare?”
Garp let out a laugh as he said, “Not in the calm belt. This is their normal home and you can find them all over the place.”
“Is that what this place is called, the calm belt?” Ace asked.
“Yup, it’s one of the things that separates the seas. Almost no one comes into the calm belt though, since sea kings will normally destroy any ship that enters the place.”
“Then how come our ship wasn’t destroyed?” Marcus asked.
Garp flexed his arm covered in blood as he said, “Because your grandpa is strong. Bwahahaha!”
All the boys shared a glance, except Luffy who was still drooling as he looked at the seaking, so Marcus smacked Luffy in the back of the head as he said, “Whatever you say grandpa. Come on Luffy, let's go get cleaned up while gramps gets the food ready.”
After the boys cleaned themselves up and changed into fresh clothes, they came outside and saw the seakings body gone. Next to Garp was a massive pile of meat while before him roasted ten large pieces of meat over a bonfire. Luffy ran towards the closest piece to try and eat it, but Garp smacked him away as he said, “Wait for it to cook, I just put it on the fire.”
“But it smells done.” Luffy said in protest.
Garp pointed at the still pink flesh with blood dripping into the fire as he asked, “How does that look anywhere near done?”
Luffy sniffed again as he said, “It smells done though.”
Garp shook his head before he said, “Just sit down and I’ll give you a piece when it's ready.”
As the boys settled down around the bonfire Ace asked, “Gramps, how are you able to fly through the air like you did early?”
Garp laughed before he said, “Join the marines and I’ll teach you.”
Sabo shared a glance with Ace before he said, “I don’t know grandpa. Joining the marines just to learn how to fly doesn’t sound like a great deal to me. Maybe if the marines could do other cool stuff it might be worth it.”
“Ya grandpa, if it’s just flying it’s not worth it.” Marcus said.
Garp regarded his grandsons for a few moments before he asked, “So if the marines could do more than just fly, you would join them?”
Ace shrugged as he said, “Depends if they have more useful things like being able to fly.”
Sabo and Marcus nodded in agreement as Luffy was staring a hole through the roasting meat. Garp smiled as he said, “Fine, tomorrow after you finish the obstacle courses I’ll show you some cool stuff only the marines can do.”
“Sounds good grandpa.” The three boys said at almost the same time.
The next few hours the boys chatted with Garp and ate till they were stuffed full, even Garp had a large puffed out stomach. Garp glanced at the boys before he smiled and said, “Here, watch this.”
“Life return.”
Garp’s inflated stomach disappeared in just a few moments before he picked up another piece of meat and took a large bite. After he swallowed he asked, “What do you think? Pretty cool uh?”
Luffy seemed the most excited as he said, “Tell me how you do that, I wanna eat more too!”
Marcus shrugged as he said, “I think Luffy is the only person in the world who would want to learn that.”
As the other boys nodded in agreement Garp said, “It's not meant to help you eat more. It’s to help you heal faster. But that’s only a side effect of the whole thing, which you can only use if you master your whole body.”
“Master your whole body? What does that even mean grandpa?” Marcus asked.
Garp smiled as he said, “Join the marines and I’ll tell you.”