NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: Training
Days with the Heart Pirates were good. Everyone more or less accepted me after I beat their asses on my first day. Pirates respect strength.
The Heart Pirates were often depicted as weaker compared to other crews in the show. But their strength was in their naval warfare.
I mean, this is a crew that survived (maybe) an ambush by the Blackbeard Pirates, with Blackbeard himself present. If that isn't impressive, I don't know what is.
Their training was also unique. They'd each grab large boulders, tie them to their waists, and swim underwater. Law was just there to save anyone unlucky enough to drown. Sometimes he would also practice some predetermined tactics with the crew.
Even though my fighting style was completely different, I joined their training once. And that gave me a great idea—using water pressure in my training.
In "One Piece," pushing past your limits seemed to increase your strength exponentially. I had improved a lot after my fight with those bandits. My movements were faster, my senses sharper, and my sword deadlier.
My sword style didn't rely on brute force like Zoro's, so I have kinda neglected the upper body training for sometime. I tried the min/maxing thing, but sometimes you just need overwhelming power to beat your opponents. I would've won against the bandit leader much faster if my sword had more power behind it.
So, I took my training underwater. At 50 meters deep, almost 5 atm of pressure pushed on me from every direction. That's when I started practicing. From basic slashes and stabs to advanced techniques like 'Quick Slash'. It was tough. The first time I tried to pull off 'Quick Slash' underwater, I nearly stabbed myself with my own sword.
But I pushed through, gritting my teeth and pushing my body to its limits. Every swing my sword became faster, every swing my sword became heavier, every swing my body became lighter. It was hard, painful and suffocating. But I was getting better. At the end of the week, I could even ignore the water pressure. So, I started to go deeper.
Having a good doctor onboard made it possible to continue. Law finally understood why I wanted health insurance. Although he was not exactly happy, he couldn't go back on his word. Ah, free medical care was the best!
By the end of the month, the ship was repaired. But the crew decided to stay for another two weeks. The weather was rough, and the North was unforgiving. Most of us were locals, so the cold didn't bother us much, but the sea was a different matter. No one was arrogant enough to challenge the sea. Men lived and died by its will.
We planned to continue through the North Blue for another year before reaching Reverse Mountain to start our journey through the Grand Line. There was little mentioned about the Heart Pirates' journey in the series, which made it even more exciting for me. So many things to explore, so many sword styles to learn, and so much of the world to see.
I felt as if my heart would explode from the excitement as our submarine submerged underwater.