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Chapter 39
Garp answered Guina's question.
"This method requires both of you to blindfold yourselves and spar offensively. At first, you rely on sound to locate your opponent. Once you're proficient, you focus your willpower to visualize in your mind what the other person will do next. If training alone, it's the same—blindfold yourself and have someone attack you. That works too."
"For daily training, you need to constantly concentrate your willpower and imagine what will happen in the next moment."
At that moment, Nami asked timidly:
"Teacher… may I ask weakly… is there a simpler way to train Armament Haki?"
Garp paused for a second, then chuckled and lightly flicked Nami's forehead, saying softly with a smile:
"There are no shortcuts in training. Your body is still too weak right now. What you need to do at this stage is properly strengthen that little frame of yours. Otherwise your strength won't keep up with Guina's, and your Observation Haki progress will be even slower. You can't become the one dragging everyone down."
Hearing that, Nami playfully stuck out her tongue, but in her heart she silently made a firm decision: she would train hard with the weights and absolutely not drag Guina down.
Garp continued:
"You can train both types of Haki together during sparring. I'll watch from the side. Once you two get somewhat proficient, I won't need to stay here with you anymore."
"Yes, Teacher!"
Immediately after, the two girls blindfolded themselves and stood facing each other, each holding a wooden sword, fully on guard.
At first, neither could find the other's position and swung wildly. After two and a half hours, both were sweating lightly and slowly started to get the feel of it. They began clashing swords—this scene looked like two little kids fighting, which made old man Garp watching from the side laugh with delight.
As the sky gradually darkened, Guina and Nami found their rhythm and began serious sparring—though honestly, it was mostly Nami getting one-sidedly beaten. Guina's current strength was already somewhat stronger than Zoro's.
Even so, despite her arms and cheeks being swollen red, Nami never once cried out to stop—she kept gritting her teeth and enduring. Seeing this, Garp felt a touch of gratification and could only speak softly:
"Rest for now. It's time to replenish your energy. I hope that punk kid has food ready."
With that, he strode out of the training room first—perhaps unwilling to watch what came next.
Hearing him, Nami immediately collapsed to the floor, panting heavily, taking a long time to recover.
Seeing this, Guina quickly stepped forward to support her. Looking at the red swellings on Nami's body, Guina's own eyes reddened. She spoke gently to Nami:
"You don't have to push yourself so hard with fighting. Leave the combat to us. I'll talk to Teacher and ask him to lower the intensity for you, okay?"
"No… no need. I'm fine. I just need to get used to it. I'm your crewmate too—I want to protect myself and not drag you two down. Also… I don't want to disappoint Teacher. I can keep going. You have to believe in me."
Guina's heart ached seeing Nami force a weak smile, but since she insisted, Guina didn't push further. She simply supported Nami and slowly walked toward the ship's dining area.
When they arrived at the dining room, they found Jepack had already prepared food for them—though he wasn't there. He'd probably gone back to sleep.
After finishing the food, they drank the system-made energy drink. They immediately felt their stamina and mental state recover significantly—their eyes lit up.
Once full, they returned to the training room, blindfolded themselves again, and continued training.
This routine continued for a full week. By then, Nami had gradually caught up to Guina's deliberately slowed-down pace. Garp had already stopped constantly supervising them in the training room starting from the third day.
The ship's journey gradually brought the silhouette of the island where Windmill Village was located into view. That day, Jepack unusually wasn't sleeping on the lookout platform—he was lying in his personal deck chair.
Upon seeing the island, he shouted toward the training room where Garp was:
"Old man Garp! Your destination has arrived!"
Hearing Jepack's call, Garp told Nami and Guina to keep training, then walked out onto the deck. Looking at the distant giant windmill, a happy smile appeared on his face.
Standing beside him, Jepack—who fully understood the meaning of that smile—curled his lip and teased:
"Hey old man, why are you showing such a creepy smile? Careful—you might scare the villagers on the island."
"Shut up, you stinky brat. I'll rip that filthy mouth of yours off someday! I'm in a good mood right now—I won't bother arguing with you."
"So… what exactly did you come here for, Garp?"
Jepack asked Garp with a cheeky grin. Although he already knew the answer perfectly well, he still wanted to hear Garp say the secret himself—to make sure his safety would be guaranteed if he set foot on this village.
Garp glanced at Jepack, instantly seeing through his desire to go ashore, and spoke calmly:
"Since you want to know, I'll tell you. This old man came here to see his grandson!"
Jepack put on a surprised expression and said:
"The world-famous Revolutionary Army leader Monkey D. Dragon actually has a child—and he's been hidden away on an unknown little island in the East Blue without anyone knowing!"
During their drinking sessions on the ship, Jepack had already talked with Garp about Monkey D. Dragon. Garp hadn't hidden anything and directly told him Dragon was his son. So now Jepack was deliberately making the same fake-surprised face as before.
"Cut the fake act. You clearly don't care about anything—pretending to be surprised like that really isn't convincing at all, kid Jepack."
"This is just me playing along with you, old man! Hahaha!"
Jepack said with an awkward laugh.
"This old man is about to go ashore. Are you guys going to leave right away? Or will you come with me to the island? Let me tell you first—this old man won't be sailing with your ship anymore after this. Navy HQ is urging me to return and resume duty. So after seeing my grandson here, I'll head straight back. The rest of my two disciples' training will be up to you."
"We should stay on the island for a few days anyway. We've used up a lot of supplies these past days and need to restock. Also… I want to see what my grandson looks like—the one with a Navy Hero grandfather and Revolutionary Army leader father. As for Nami and Guina, don't worry. They're my crewmates too—I'll definitely teach them better than you old man ever could. If you get the chance to see them again next time, you'll be shocked!"
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