Chapter 83: A Lesson from the Master
The three of them arrived at the expansive training grounds of the Naval Academy. As someone who never missed a spectacle, Garp was, of course, front and center.
Strangely, the academy grounds, usually teeming with cadets, were completely empty. It seemed someone had cleared the area in advance. This provided the perfect, unobstructed arena for the clash about to unfold.
"First rule," Zephyr stated, his voice echoing in the quiet space. "Do not use your defensive technique. Otherwise, this fight is pointless." Without Conqueror's Haki infusion, he had no way to bypass Infinity.
"Don't worry, Master," Satoru replied, his easy grin returning. "I'll make sure you're thoroughly convinced by the end of this."
"Such big talk."
In the next instant, Zephyr moved. There was no wasted motion. One moment he was standing twenty feet away; the next, he was directly in front of Satoru, his right fist a mass of jet-black Armament Haki already mid-swing, aimed squarely at the boy's face. The air compressed with the force of it.
"He's not holding back at all," Garp muttered through a mouthful of rice crackers, watching intently.
He's fast, Satoru noted. But not fast enough for the Six Eyes.
Just before the fist connected, Satoru vanished. Zephyr's blow, carrying enough force to shatter a warship's hull, cratered the solid training ground earth instead.
BOOM!
A deafening impact echoed across Marineford. A massive cloud of dust and debris erupted into the air. The shockwave rattled windows in distant buildings.
The sheer force of the tremor was felt by everyone at Headquarters. Marines on duty froze, eyes wide. After the shock of Golden Lion's invasion years ago, no one assumed the HQ was impervious to attack.
"What is that?!" Fleet Admiral Sengoku, in his office, felt the tremor and immediately coated his body in Armament Haki, his Observation Haki flaring out to locate the threat.
When he sensed the familiar auras of Zephyr and Satoru clashing, he let out a long sigh, rubbing his temples. "Those two… can't they give an old man some peace?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru, sensing the same, shook her head in mild exasperation. "I would have expected this from Garp. Not from Zephyr."
The three Admirals also turned their attention toward the academy. They knew Zephyr's legendary strength intimately. Now they would get to measure the prodigy who had repelled Akainu.
Back on the field, the dust cleared around Zephyr. He turned, his single eye locking onto Satoru, who now stood casually behind him.
"Running away, boy?"
"Master, speed is a form of strength in itself," Satoru replied.
"But didn't you say you'd 'convince' me?" Zephyr goaded. "How can you do that by running?"
A sharper glint entered Satoru's blue eyes. "Alright then, Master. Don't say I made you cry later."
"If you can make this old man cry, I'll call you 'sir'," Zephyr shot back.
From the sidelines, Garp's eyes lit up. "Hey! If Z calls him 'sir', that makes me his grand-sir! Satoru! Fight hard! Make him cry!"
"Shut your mouth, you senile fool!" Zephyr barked, glaring at Garp.
"Master," Satoru's voice refocused him. "Pay attention. I'm coming."
Both master and apprentice moved simultaneously. To Garp's eyes, and to the Observation Haki of the distant Admirals, they became blurs of motion.
Two fists clad in supreme Armament Haki—one large, veteran, and weathered; one smaller, but radiating condensed, fearsome power—collided in the center of the field.
CLANG!
The sound was like two slabs of seastone crashing together. The shockwave from the impact flattened the dust still settling from the first blow.
"Your Armament Haki… you've refined it superbly, Satoru," Zephyr said, a note of genuine praise in his strained voice as he held against the immense force.
"If I want to master something, I will, Master," Satoru replied, his grin visible even through the clash.
"But you're still young!"
With a guttural roar, Zephyr's massive frame bulged. Decades of combat-honed muscle and will exerted a final, overwhelming surge of power. Satoru's feet left the ground as he was launched backward through the air.
As expected, Satoru thought, sailing backward. In pure physical strength, I'm still at a disadvantage. The difference in mass and decades of conditioning were clear.
Seeing his opening, Zephyr didn't hesitate. He leapt, a black meteor against the sky, appearing above the airborne Satoru. His leg raised, coated in Haki, poised for an axe kick that would drive his apprentice into the earth.
"No mercy at all, is there?" Satoru murmured. Then, he raised a hand, palm facing the descending Zephyr. "Reversal Technique: Red."
No projectile fired. Instead, a sphere of pure, violent repulsive force erupted from his palm. It wasn't an attack aimed at Zephyr; it was a domain of 'push' that manifested between them.
FWUMP!
The air itself seemed to recoil. Zephyr's descending form met an invisible, immovable wall of repulsion. His eyes widened in shock a fraction of a second before the force caught him fully and blasted him sideways through the air like a leaf in a typhoon.
CRASH!
He landed fifty feet away, skidding and gouging a trench in the earth before coming to a stop, half-kneeling in a small crater of his own.
Garp choked on his cracker. He hadn't seen any attack. He'd just felt a bizarre, spatial rejection, and then Zephyr was flying away.
"Master," Satoru said, landing lightly on his feet. "You seem to forget. My abilities aren't just for defense."
Zephyr pushed himself up, his expression dark. He remembered now. The reports, the briefings. Gravity and repulsion. The boy had just used the latter, and mastered it to a frightening degree of instant control.
"A troublesome power indeed," Zephyr grunted, rolling his shoulder. The repulsive force hadn't broken anything, thanks to his Haki, but it felt like his entire torso had been hit by a giant's slap.
"So, Master? Ready to concede?"
"Concede?!" Zephyr stood to his full height, dust falling from his coat. "You've got another twenty thousand years of training before you can make me concede, brat!"
As he spoke, his aura changed. The calm, disciplined intensity sharpened, condensed, and then… shifted. A palpable, chilling pressure began to emanate from the former Admiral. It wasn't Conqueror's Haki. It was something else—a deep, grim, almost ghostly ferocity forged from a lifetime of witnessing the worst the seas had to offer and fighting to contain it. It was the aura of a man who had chosen not to kill, but who knew precisely how to break anything that stood before him.
Satoru's eyes widened behind his blindfold. He was genuinely surprised. This oppressive, severe aura… coming from the man known as the 'Non-Killing' Admiral? It was a stark, terrifying reminder of the titan that lurked beneath the surface of his kind mentor. The fight, it seemed, was only just beginning.
(End of Chapter)
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