Conquering The World With One Piece

Right after activating my armament Haki, Tsuru raised her eyebrows and stopped rushing into me.

"I thought for sure that Momousagi was exaggerating her son's talent… but here you are…"

Not many things could surprise this master tactician, but the 16-year-old boy in front of her was now giving off a pressure that could threaten her.

"Seeing is believing huh."

Noticing a little bit of an arrogant smirk forming on the boy's face, Whoosh… Tsuru dashed in with even more strength.

I watched Tsuru approach in the distance, doing nothing but facing her attack head on with my pure strength.

BOOOM…! Our fists collided and caused a massive shockwave across the entire Marine base.

The turbulent winds itself caused the rest of the Marine recruits to be sent flying off the courtyard. Luckily for the screaming recruits, Hina was able to bind all of them safely with her powers.

After our fists were done colliding for a long moment… Bahm… I was pummeled deep into the ground. It was hard to believe that someone as frail looking as Tsuru could outs me in strength.

"Wahhh… W-What monsters!"

"I-It looks like the old lady won though!"

Hina took a drag of her cigarette and said, "Don't bother guessing who won. This fight is beyond the scope of Hina too!"

At that moment, I flew up from the ground, unhurt. I wiped the dust off my Marine uniform and glanced at the figure of Tsuru.

"As expected of someone from your generation of Marines. Such dominating strength!"

Tsuru shook her head and replied, "Perhaps we'll be replaced and forgotten soon because of people like you…"

Our gazes lingered a little longer on each other before we both charged in. Our fists collided once again, but this time… Tekkai… My entire body hardened to the level of iron, making me remain unfazed by her blow.

Tsuru's eyes widened in surprise at the proficiency of my Tekkai, but she didn't have much time to ponder over it. Swah… I got the advantage and sent one blow after another towards her, pushing her into the defensive. She kept losing solid ground in front of my advanced Kenbunshoku Haki.

… Meanwhile, Nami was going around and collecting money from their gambling bets. The Marine recruits clenched their jaw in anguish and gave away all their meagre earnings. Watching the destruction from afar, they knew they'd been set up.

Tashigi laid eyes on the battle too, falling onto her knees with deep thought. 'What a joke? And here I was trying to spar and show off my skills to that man…'

The fight between Tsuru and me continued for a few more moments, when… Tsuru stepped back away from me.

"Gasp, Gasp… Not bad but take a look at your arms, young man!"

I inspected my arms with a c.o.c.ked head. Seeing that they were perfectly fine, I glanced back at Tsuru with suspicion, until… Wosshu, she flicked her fingers with a sly smile on her face.

All of a sudden, my hands became washed and flat, effectively rendering them useless in battle. I dropped my jaws in shock on how her powers were able to affect my lightning body. Tsuru must have used her Wash-Wash fruit powers, imbued with Haki, to do this.

Taking advantage of my condition, Boom… Tsuru kicked me into a distant wall.

'Gasp, Gasp… Damn, how did her attack ger past my defenses?!'

Lightning started writhing from my body, resulting in my hands drying back to normal. Being a little resentful from how much that last attack hurt, I was on the verge of unleashing my lightning powers upon her…

Fortunately, in the end, I was able to calm myself and retract my lightning. If we both started displaying our cards, the island may be in for some destruction. While I was holding back my lightning powers, Tsuru's reputation assured she was saving moves of her own.

Tsuru may have had a similar line of thinking, and she stopped our spar.

"My age does not allow me to fight this intensely for such long durations anymore. We'll stop this now... Go train on your own and come to me for advice if you want."

I nodded and finally took the time to gander at my surroundings. Past the broken structures and pale Marines, my attention fell onto Tashigi into the distance. Buzz, I teleported in front of her.

"What's with the slack face…" I asked.

"O-Oh, Leo, h-how'd you get here?"

Tashigi got up from the ground in a fl.u.s.ter, almost tripping herself a few more times. I stayed in silence and waited for her to recover her bearings.

Tashigi gave a tight-lipped smile and looked down on the ground. "Hey, Leo… Do you still think that I'm capable of achieving my dreams… even after seeing how weak I am compared to you?"

"Back where I came from, there's a saying that a man's only worth the extent of his ambitions. So, just follow your dream and that weakness can be removed! Pick up your sword and come at me!"

Tashigi smiled and her eyes become more determined. She picked up her sword and charged at the towering figure in front of her.

**

About a month later… a few days before Tsuru left…

Hina, Nami, and I were sitting down in a large field and having lunch. Some distance away from us, Tsuru was helping Tashigi train.

"Wow, are you are leaving for the Marines headquarters in 3 months, Captain Hina?!"

"Yes, I was selected just yesterday."

"I want to go and explore the Grand Line too!" Nami's eyes sparkled, and she fantasized about leaving already.

"Haha, be patient! We'll get there soon enough… I mean you're still a 14-year-old brat who needs permission from her mom." I patted Nami, who just stuck out her tongue at me.

Boom!

At that moment, Tashigi was sent flying away from a kick by Tsuru.

"Hum, it's surprising that you have improved so much in one month. But you still need to work much harder for your lack of talent! Get up now!"

Tashigi gritted her teeth at Tsuru's words and tried her best to rise back to her feet. I teleported next to her and perceived her condition.

These days, I'd been training Tashigi to bring her skills up. While I could not teach her any sword skills, it wasn't too hard for me to train her combat senses and physical abilities.

I mean I would have equipped something like 'Dracule Mihawk's sword skills' to teach her too, but the system didn't permit it saying that "Advanced sword techniques have the wielder's own unique spirit integrated into them, preventing the user from learning or using those techiniques."

With a shake of the head, I pulled up Tashigi's staggering body right into my embrace.

"L-Leo… W-Wha, w-what…" Tashigi's whole face turned red, and her heart raced.

I reached my hand out and took out the glasses off her face.

"You get too clumsy while fighting with your glasses on. For now, I'm going to be holding onto them until you get used to fighting without them."

"A-Ah, t-thank you!"

Then, I leaned in close to her and whispered into her ears. "By the way, you look really cute without your glasses as well"

Puff! A steam of air came out from Tashigi's red ears, and she fainted into my embrace. Tsuru had no choice but to cut her some slack in training now.

…

When I was back, Nami was baring her teeth at me.

"Do you have nothing better to do than flirt with innocent girls?"

"What are you talking about?! I still need to punish you for using your cuteness to get so much free stuff from the other recruits!" I glared back at her and we both charged at each other.

Kyah…! Nami screamed as I pulled her into my embrace.

"Huff, Huff… Hmph, it's going to be 100,000 Berrys for every kiss!"

Watching this love scene take place in front of them, Tsuru and Hina sighed loudly.

"Kids these days have become too much. Hina surprised!"

"Hmm… At least my nephew seems to have good choice in women…"

…

Later, Tsuru decided to call it quits for the training today. She instructed Nami to come with her to learn more about naval strategy. She had high hopes to pass on some of her skills to Nami. At the same time, she asked me to go and patch Tashigi's training injuries up.

Currently, I was in Tashigi's room, sitting right beside her bed. After bandaging her injuries, I inspected the room with a quizzical smile on my face. It was like a room of a proper nerd, a sword-nerd to be exact. Multiple swords hung from her walls along with their description and origins in a well-organized manner.

"Wow, my senior petty officer sure loves her swords!"

Tashigi's lips pursed up into a sulk. She clutched my hand with hers and pinched it.

"Don't call me senior, I know you've a higher position!"

"Geez, okay! I won't call you that, senior!"

Tashigi pinched harder before she gave up with a pout. Then, she blushed a little and said, "Hey, Leo! I was about to leave for Loguetown because I thought I'll have better training there… b-but p-please let me stay here and train under you. I k-know I'm hard to train but I can help you with ever-"

I clutched Tashigi's hands tighter and said, "That's fine! I look forward to working with you, Tashigi."

We both held our hands together and gently smiled at each other in silence for a long time…

**

Back in the New World… Momousagi and Chaton were inspecting traces of the revolutionary forces.

Presently, Momousagi started to bite her nails and walk around in circles. "Oh, no! We've got to get back to Marine base now! I've to go back and make a call!"

"What's wrong, pretty lady? Did you have bad premonition?"

Momousagi did not reply and headed back to the ship.

Chaton's eyes narrowed in concentration, and he thought, 'Momousagi's premonitions are the strongest I've seen. Dragon himself or one of the Yonko must be on the move for her to be agitated this much. Sigh… better forget our mission here.'