Ravian woke up feeling like every joint in his body had been individually beaten with a cannonball. Which, knowing Garp, wasn't even an exaggeration.
He tried to sit up.
Regretted it instantly.
His muscles screamed like he owed them money.
"Never again… I'm never training with that man again," he whispered into his pillow.
From outside, Ace's voice echoed through the clearing.
"Ravian! You alive?!"
"No," Ravian croaked.
Sabo peeked into the hut with a sympathetic smile. "We're all sore, but you look the worst. Garp really threw you around."
"That wasn't training," Ravian groaned. "That was attempted murder disguised as exercise."
Luffy burst inside with all the delicacy of a rampaging boar.
"Ravian! Breakfast! Mira made fish!"
"I can't move," Ravian muttered.
Luffy blinked at him. "Why?"
"Because your grandpa used me as a skipping stone."
Luffy just laughed like it was the greatest compliment ever.
Eventually, Ravian got himself standing. Slowly. Painfully.
His knees shook with every step as he made his way to the clearing, where the remnants of yesterday's chaos were still visible—cracked earth, broken trees, a crater shaped suspiciously like his body.
Mira handed him a bowl of food when he arrived.
"You look like you fought a sea king," she said calmly.
"I think the sea king would've been gentler," Ravian replied.
Ace dropped beside him, rolling his sore shoulder. "Garp got you worse than us."
"He literally used me as an example of what not to do," Ravian said.
Sabo chuckled weakly. "You did dodge a lot, though. Your instincts kept kicking in."
Ravian blinked.
Right—Perception Trace.
Even now, faint pulses of awareness flickered at the edges of his senses.
Like his body was still expecting Garp to drop from the sky at any moment.
He shivered.
"Relax," Ace said. "Garp's gone today. He said something about paperwork."
Ravian slumped with relief so heavy it nearly knocked him over.
No ambushes.
No surprise punches.
No death-by-boulder.
For one peaceful morning… he could breathe.
After breakfast, the four of them wandered around the forest.
Ravian stretched his aching arms, groaning. "I'm one wrong movement away from dying."
Ace smirked. "You'll toughen up."
"I don't want to toughen up. I want to survive."
Sabo lightly nudged Ravian with his elbow. "You are surviving. Better than yesterday."
Luffy pointed ahead suddenly. "Look! Wild boar!"
Ravian stiffened. "No. Absolutely not. My body cannot handle another fight."
The boar snorted aggressively.
It charged.
Luffy charged back, laughing.
Ace and Sabo followed with wide grins.
Ravian stood frozen for a full second.
His instincts flared again—those faint, ghostlike lines tracing the boar's path before it even moved.
Without thinking, he stepped aside just as the boar barreled past him.
Ace shouted, "Nice dodge!"
"That wasn't skill," Ravian said breathlessly. "That was panic."
The boar kept running—straight into a tree because Luffy yelled at it.
Sabo sighed. "He scared it more than it scared him."
Ravian dropped onto a fallen log, exhausted all over again.
Even without Garp, trouble followed this trio like a curse.
He knew it.
He felt it.
He was trapped in it.
But… something tugged inside him too.
A strange feeling.
A warmth.
Almost like he was syncing with them more each day.
Not because he wanted to be a fighter.
But because being near them demanded it.
The system chimed faintly in his mind.
[Synchronization: 4.1%]
[Instinct Flow — Stabilizing]
Ravian sighed.
"That old man broke my body," he muttered, "but now my instincts won't turn off…"
Ace flopped beside him. "Get used to it. Training with us means pain."
Sabo nodded. "And chaos."
Luffy grinned brightly. "And fun!"
Ravian buried his face in his hands.
He was doomed.