At the seaside, Beckman was already there waiting for everyone: "Why are there only two of you? Where is Ace?"
Shanks replied: "Ace is coming to terms with his heritage. Give him some time. Let's train these two first today."
He continued: "Hera wants to learn Observation Haki. Teach her using a sniper's method first. I'm taking Luffy to train." With that, Shanks took Luffy to the other side.
On this side, Beckman asked Hera: "Kid, for a sniper, do you think Observation Haki is more important or Armament Haki?"
Hera answered: "Observation Haki, of course. Otherwise, how can you ensure a hit?"
Beckman shook his head.
"Then Armament Haki?"
Beckman shook his head and said: "Both are important. Observation Haki concerns your accuracy, while Armament Haki concerns the damage of your bullets. Having damage but not being able to hit anyone, or being able to hit someone but having no damage, is useless for a sniper."
Hera stuck out her tongue: "Since both are important, why even ask me? You're a mean-spirited uncle."
Beckman said: "I just wanted to use this method to make you remember better. As my disciple, you can't be lopsided in your skills."
Hera said: "It's not that I don't value Armament Haki, I just have other training plans. Opportunities to train with a sniper as strong as you are too rare, so I want to focus on training Observation Haki."
Beckman said: "Since you know what you're doing, let's begin."
Saying that, he took out a pile of targets and threw them, sticking them into various spots in the distance.
"Next, start hitting these targets. Let me see your shooting skills first."
"Zafkiel." With the appearance of her spirit dress, the dual pistols, Hour Hand and minute hand, appeared in Hera's hands.
With a few casual shots, she hit all the targets, but the impact points were all over the place.
Beckman sighed upon seeing this: "Just as I expected, your accuracy is too low, and you shoot too carelessly. That's not a good habit."
"Besides, your bullets should be energy bullets from your devil fruit, right? Having no ammo limit is a good thing, but it also makes you disregard the importance of every shot. Trying to overwhelm enemies with quantity and just caring about hitting them without aiming for weak points won't work."
Beckman then gave a demonstration. He also fired a few quick shots, and a mark appeared in the center of every target.
"You're still lacking a lot of things. Come back to me for the next step once you can hit all the bullseyes within two seconds."
After finishing, Beckman said as he walked away: "Don't worry about the targets being destroyed; I've infused them with Armament Haki. Fire away." Then he went to the tavern to drink.
Hera stayed on the beach and began her shooting practice.
After a while, Ace also arrived at the beach. Hera pointed to where Shanks was training Luffy, and Ace walked over.
Ace said to Shanks: "I want to become stronger. Can you teach me?"
Shanks looked at the young Ace. In him, he seemed to see his younger self; back then, he had asked Roger the same thing. Now, it was his turn to teach Roger's child.
"Of course. I will teach you everything Captain Roger taught me."
Time flies during training; in the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
During that year, in her free time from training, Hera often played with the Red Hair Pirates' little diva, Uta, and they held various competitions.
However, Hera, who possessed the power of time, always won more often, which made Uta a bit indignant.
Uta had never seen another child her age in the Red Hair Pirates, so she became very close to Hera. In less than a year, the two became best friends who shared everything.
Over the course of the year, Hera went from hitting stationary targets to moving targets, and finally to being blindfolded, relying on her perception to sense the presence of enemies.
Her sniping skills improved by more than just a level. Although the Observation Haki she longed for hadn't awakened yet, she could already hit invisible enemies by relying on her perception.
Luffy and Ace's physical constitutions had improved, with their speed and strength seeing certain increases. Especially their resilience; now, Hera's punches no longer hurt them.
Besides physical training, Ace also began practicing swordsmanship and could now proficiently release Conqueror's Haki. Hera also tried to learn while Shanks was teaching Ace, but she could never grasp the essentials, feeling as if something was still missing for her awakening.
Luffy, on the other hand, began learning Taijutsu and further developed his devil fruit abilities.
The three youngsters gained a lot during this year of training. Of course, it wasn't as if nothing happened during the year; during a mid-year break, the Bandit King arrived at Makino's tavern.
But obviously, the Bandit King didn't have the strength to kill 56 Emperor of the Sea. After insulting Shanks, he was easily defeated by the three youngsters and turned into fuel for Hera.
As for the Sea King that had eaten one of Shanks's arms, during one of Hera's blindfolded training sessions, Beckman sensed its presence and got a little serious.
It must be said that the meat of the Sea King was indeed delicious when roasted. Inadvertently, Beckman helped their Captain avoid a crisis of losing an arm.
Additionally, the Red Hair Pirates weren't idle during their year of rest, but after one voyage, the expressions of Shanks and the others turned grim, and the ship's little diva, Uta, disappeared.
Hera kept asking about Uta's whereabouts, but Red Hair didn't tell her, only saying she had gone to a place where she could realize her musical dreams.
Hera said dissatisfiedly: "Stupid Red Hair, Uta is still so small. No matter the reason, you shouldn't just abandon her. I'm going to beat you up sooner or later."
Shanks just smiled and patted Hera's head: "Is that so? I'll be waiting for that day to come."
Soon, the day of parting arrived. After spending a year together, the three youngsters were full of reluctance to see Shanks go.