Somewhere in the East Blue.
A small sailboat drifting on the sea suddenly erupted with a loud burst of laughter.
"Hahahaha! Vice-Captain Rayleigh really hasn't lost his touch!"A young man wearing a straw hat and sporting bright red hair sat on the deck, clutching a newspaper with an excited expression as he read.
"Hey! Shanks! What's going on?"
Yassop, who had been eating nearby moments ago, leaned over to look at the World Economic News in Shanks' hands.
The headline prominently featured detailed reports on the establishment of the Cross Guild and the execution incident involving the Celestial Dragons.
Yassop shuddered as he took in the newspaper's.
"Shanks, your former vice-captain is really something else, daring to execute Celestial Dragons like that!"
"And he took out twenty-five of them in one go!"
"Only one survived, rescued by a Marine Rear admiral."
Shanks nodded, but his attention didn't linger long on Rayleigh or the execution scene.
Instead, his gaze shifted to the Reverse Bounty Poster beside it.
Marine Rear Admiral Michael – bounty: One billion berries.
"This... is really interesting" Shanks remarked with keen interest.
"Interesting?" Yassop immediately perked up at Shanks' tone.
"Rumor has it the Celestial Dragons left the Holy Land this time because the human trafficking rings and their allied underworld groups on Sabaody Archipelago were completely wiped out by the local Marines." Shanks pointed at Michael's face on the Reverse Bounty Poster.
"The masterminds behind this were Vice Admiral Gion and this Rear admiral Michael."
"This seems a bit too..."
Yassop was sharp enough to immediately grasp Shanks' implication.
"You're suggesting this Marine... isn't exactly playing by the rules."
"We'll have to wait and see. But one thing's certain... from now on, this man will carve out his place in these seas."
"You brats! Why are you running away?!"
"Look me in the face, you cowards!"
At the SWORD base on Sabaody Archipelago.
Garp, who hadn't shown his face before Sengoku in ages, had unexpectedly appeared here!
He wasn't wearing his Marine uniform but instead sported a loud printed beach outfit!
The members of SWORD were currently being chased and beaten by this old man in gaudy beach shorts.
Meanwhile, Michael lounged comfortably in the shade of a tree, thoroughly enjoying the sight of his dear subordinates being chased around by a shameless old man.
Indeed, after enduring Garp's training regimen, anyone would develop some... eccentric tendencies.
Dragon was proof of that and now Michael was too.
"Michael! I'll hate you forever!!"
This agonized scream came from Smoker, who was usually the most stubborn of the bunch.
Even in his smoke form, Garp caught up with a single leap and promptly buried him in the ground with a few swift moves, leaving only his head exposed.
After taking such a thorough beating, Smoker didn't even have the strength to maintain his Logia transformation anymore.
Beside him, three of his comrades were already neatly buried in identical fashion.
Hina, Shu and T-Bone.
Amidst the dust and screams, Smoker turned his head wearily to see another victim being planted into the ground next to him.
On the entire training field, only Stella remained, struggling desperately to hold her ground.
"Bwahaha! Stella! Now it's just the two of us, master and disciple! You might as well surrender!"
"You old geezer! Don't even think about burying me in the ground again!"
Normally the gentle Stella would never say something like that, but, whenever she was facing her master, she become an entirely different woman!
As she spoke, the cloud-transformed woman suddenly turned around, sending ice spikes crackling with lightning shooting towards Garp in overwhelming numbers.
Garp instantly coating both of his fists in Armament Haki.
Contrary to expectations, he didn't simply clear the field with a single Punch.
Instead, he swiftly extended his hand, swatting aside all the ice spikes shooting toward him.
This, however, spelled misery for the group buried in the dirt not far away.
Freezing and electric shocks!
The secondary damage was even more unbearable than Garp's brutal strikes.
The worst off was Rosinante.
Due to his size, he suffered the most collateral damage!
His eyes rolled back as he completely passed out.
Michael rolled his eyes, took out a small notebook, scribbled something, then called out to Garp.
"Old man Garp! That's enough for today!"
Hearing Michael's voice, Garp nodded and laughed heartily.
"Perfect timing! I was just worrying about how to discipline my disciple. What if I go too hard and she refuses to acknowledge me later?"
With that, Garp walked over to the members of the SWORD and plucked them out of the dirt one by one like radishes.
"Honestly, they did pretty well" Garp finally said something reasonable.
"Last time, they didn't even last half as long before I buried them all."
"Getting buried means you're weak! Train harder from now on!"
Michael smirked, his eyes devoid of any pity.
Ever since returning to Sabaody Archipelago, Michael had been giving the SWORD members extra training.
First, he assigned them suitable weapons.
Among the gift sent by Charlos, there were many bizarre items.
For instance, a massive jutte with a Seastone tip caught Smoker's eye immediately.
The highest-quality weapon among them, a massive blade "Garuda," one of the 21 Great Grade swords, naturally claimed by T-Bone.
As for the Devil Fruits, T-Bone felt neither suited him.
After some deliberation, Rosinante chose to eat the Gold-Gold Fruit.
Then came the truly hellish training.
Michael didn't consider himself a terrible teacher like Rayleigh.
But his teaching skills were admittedly mediocre.
This was where his connections came into play.
Aside from Gion who was stationed at Sabaody and often dropped by to "educate" the recruits, Michael also invited numerous elite Vice admirals to join in.
Like Borsalino and Kuzan.
Or Garp, who stood before them now.
Even the least likely candidate, Sakazuki, had shown up twice…
Of course, those two sessions with Sakazuki were the most brutal for Michael's subordinates.
They were practically half-cooked.
But Michael didn't blame Sakazuki.
Better injured now than dead on the battlefield.
Because the seas ahead…
Would only grow more dangerous in time.
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