The One-Slash Superman of the One Piece World

Garp's ship had been docked at the Marine G-10 base in the Kingdom of Neil for nearly half a month.

Early one morning…

On a training ground somewhere within the base, Garp stood off to the side, watching Yorichi Tsugikuni and Kuzan sparring in close combat.

Though there hadn't been any missions lately, Garp wasn't taking it easy. Instead, he'd been diligently training both Kuzan and Yorichi.

Over these past weeks, Yorichi's Observation Haki and Armament Haki had both improved further. Half a month ago, his Observation Haki could only sense an opponent's general attack direction. But now, even without relying on his Transparent World ability, Yorichi could track nearly every move his opponent made.

While he was still far from reaching the level of predicting the future, when he combined Observation Haki with the Transparent World, he could effortlessly anticipate Kuzan's attack trajectories.

As for Armament Haki, Yorichi's progress had been remarkable. Previously, he could only coat the blade edge of his bamboo sword with Armament Haki. But now, he was able to cover the entire length of the shinai.

The area he could imbue with Haki had grown significantly. Given more time, Yorichi was confident he'd eventually be able to cover his entire body.

Regarding the strength of his Armament Haki, Yorichi couldn't say for certain, as there was no standardized way to measure it.

However, there was one undeniable fact: even a solid steel pillar as thick as a man's arm could be sliced clean through with a single strike from Yorichi's bamboo sword once he infused it with Armament Haki.

Garp had made a rough assessment of Yorichi's Doriki score, estimating it at around 7,000.

In terms of pure Haki prowess, if he had to compare, Garp believed that Yorichi might already surpass Zoro as he appeared two years later in the Sabaody Archipelago.

In the middle of the open ground, Yorichi and Kuzan continued their sparring session. After mastering both the Six Powers and dual-color Haki, Yorichi's strength had undergone a tremendous leap forward.

Combined with his already exceptional swordsmanship and the aid of the Transparent World, Yorichi was utterly dominating Kuzan in their physical sparring sessions.

At this moment, Kuzan gripped his ice staff in both hands. Bruises and splotches of blue and purple already marred his skin. As Yorichi's Armament Haki grew stronger, Kuzan's former tactic of relying solely on his Devil Fruit abilities to avoid injury was no longer sufficient. Lately, he'd been accumulating more and more injuries with each passing day.

Still, when Kuzan truly unleashed his full strength, his combat power was far superior to Yorichi's. Whenever he felt like he couldn't hold out any longer, Kuzan would simply use his Devil Fruit powers to help Yorichi "cool down" for a moment and buy himself some breathing room.

"Smack!" On the open ground, Yorichi suddenly leapt backward, narrowly evading a downward swing from Kuzan. He then swept his shinai horizontally against Kuzan's ice staff, pulling it downward with tremendous force. The impact made Kuzan stagger forward in an unsteady lurch.

Sensing danger, Kuzan immediately transformed his body into a cloud of icy mist, vanishing from his original spot. In the blink of an eye, he reconstituted his body about a meter away.

In that same instant, Yorichi sprang forward and lashed out with a powerful kick aimed precisely at the spot where Kuzan had just been standing, dispersing the lingering ice mist with the force of his strike.

"Hey, hey, hey, Kuzan! Are you cheating again?!"

Yorichi lowered his leg after kicking at empty air, landing firmly back on the ground. He stared at Kuzan, who had retreated more than a meter, and complained in exasperation.

This kind of scenario had happened more times than he could count. Despite the agreement that they were only sparring with physical techniques, that bastard Kuzan kept resorting to his Devil Fruit powers in the middle of practice.

Yorichi's attack speed was lightning fast, with seamless transitions between strikes. By now, Kuzan's half-baked mastery of Shave was no longer enough to evade Yorichi's attacks.

Even when Kuzan tried using Shave, he couldn't dodge fast enough. However, as long as he could predict Yorichi's attack direction, he could still use his Devil Fruit abilities to slip away before the blow landed.

More than ten days ago, Kuzan had already lost the ability to handle Yorichi using pure physical combat alone. As Yorichi's growth accelerated, he completely flipped the tables, overwhelming Kuzan with ease. After getting thoroughly beaten for several days in a row, Kuzan finally decided to throw caution to the wind. Whenever he felt cornered, he simply activated his Devil Fruit powers.

Over the past few days, while Kuzan's martial arts hadn't improved much, he had instead developed a brand new application for his Devil Fruit precisely the ice mist evasion he'd just performed.

Originally, Kuzan's fruit abilities focused purely on freezing and transforming into solid ice. But under the pressure of Yorichi's ever-strengthening Armament Haki, Kuzan had devised a new tactic: transforming into ice mist to evade attacks.

And honestly, this new ability was far more useful than Shave.

"This isn't cheating. I'm a Devil Fruit user. Of course I'm going to use my powers," Kuzan said with a grin.

"Besides, I'm only using it for movement. We're still training in physical combat. You could think of this new move as a more advanced version of Shave."

Laughing as he spoke, Kuzan once again dissolved into icy mist, vanishing from sight. Simultaneously, the mist surged rapidly toward Yorichi, surrounding him in a swirling cloud.

Suddenly, Kuzan's upper body materialized out of nowhere beside Yorichi, and he swung his ice staff down in a vicious strike aimed at Yorichi's head.

"Smack!" Just before the ice staff could crash into his skull, Yorichi twisted his body, shifting slightly to the side. He reversed his grip on the shinai and parried Kuzan's blow away. In the same motion, he coated his left hand in Armament Haki and lunged to grab Kuzan's face.

Whoosh 

Before Yorichi's fingers could make contact, Kuzan's body once again dissolved into a swirl of ice mist, vanishing into thin air. A heartbeat later, he reappeared directly in front of Yorichi, swinging his ice staff in a brutal arc aimed at Yorichi's abdomen.

Tekkai!

There was no time for Yorichi to dodge. He could only brace himself with Tekkai as Kuzan's staff slammed into his midsection. His shoes scraped fiercely against the ground with a loud shhhh sound as he skidded several meters backward before finally coming to a halt.

A sharp pain radiated from his stomach, making Yorichi wince and grit his teeth.

Seeing Kuzan using his Devil Fruit powers during sparring, Garp merely cracked a broad grin and made no move to intervene.

By now, Yorichi's physical combat abilities had completely surpassed Kuzan's. If Kuzan didn't use his Devil Fruit powers, he probably wouldn't last five moves against Yorichi before being defeated.

A one-sided slaughter wouldn't help Yorichi grow stronger. But now that Kuzan was incorporating his Devil Fruit abilities, he was finally a decent sparring partner for Yorichi. Besides, even when Kuzan attacked, he was still using physical techniques.

It was perfectly reasonable.

If Kuzan launched a Devil Fruit-based attack outright, Yorichi would be finished the moment he got trapped inside that swirling ice mist.

Just as Yorichi was catching his breath and preparing to speed up using his Breathing Techniques, Bogart came running across the training ground, shouting at the top of his lungs:

"Vice Admiral Garp!"

"Vice Admiral Garp!"

"Rear Admiral Roca sent me to tell you there's news! We've got word on the Roger Pirates!"

At the mention of the Roger Pirates, Garp's eyes widened. He whipped his head around, urgently calling out before Bogart could even get closer.

"You've got news on Roger?! Where are they?!"

Bogart, panting from his run, yelled back immediately:

"Zou Island! The island said to be inhabited by the Mink Tribe, Zou Island!"

Garp froze for a moment, tilting his head and staring at Bogart in confusion.

"Where the heck is that?!"

Even though Garp had served in the Marines for decades and left his mark all across the Four Seas, the Grand Line, and even the New World…

He had to admit, he genuinely had no clue what the heck Zou Island was supposed to be. He'd never even heard of it.

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