0400 hours.
Dong. Dong. Dong.
The heavy bells of Marineford echoed across the fortress.
The next instant—
BOOM!
The battered iron door did not open.
It detonated.
The warped frame burst apart as two thick iron plates were hurled inward by violent wind pressure, grazing KING's ears before embedding themselves into the side wall.
Dust exploded into the air.
A broad, muscular figure strode through the wreckage.
"KING! Wake up!"
Vice Admiral Garp's voice thundered through the room, shaking dust from the rafters.
"I was so excited last night I didn't sleep a wink! Special training begins now!"
KING's heart seized.
Then—
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP —!!!
The Emperor Engine roared at full output.
The pounding echoed through the empty room. Pebbles on the floor vibrated in rhythmic tremors.
Garp listened to the war-drum rhythm and broke into a huge grin.
"Good! That momentum! Already at peak condition before training even starts?!"
He cracked his knuckles.
"That's the readiness I like to see!"
His gaze lifted toward the wall.
KING was still hanging there, twisted in an unnatural posture, completely motionless.
Garp paused half a second.
Then he slapped his thigh with explosive delight.
"He's applying pressure to himself!"
"He trained in that position all night?!"
His eyes shone like a man discovering a new continent.
"Using an inverted posture to force blood flow toward the brain… accelerating neural response before combat training?!"
KING said nothing.
If he could, he would have called the police.
"Come down!" Garp waved.
Come down?
That was like asking someone afraid of heights to jump from ten thousand meters without a parachute.
KING struggled to keep his expression intact and issued the most humble command of his life:
Release your fingers.
Just release them.
Let gravity do the rest.
However—
the instant his brain issued the command, his body responded faster than thought.
WHOOSH—!
A tearing sound split the air.
Garp saw only a blur.
A violent gust blasted past him, whipping his white hair backward and distorting his face under the wind pressure.
When his vision stabilized, KING was already standing in front of him.
KING's legs trembled slightly. His stomach churned. His brain felt scrambled.
But to Garp—
his smile vanished, replaced by absolute seriousness.
"That movement…"
"There was no starting motion."
"No muscle preload."
"That wasn't acceleration — it was instantaneous displacement produced by explosive physical force."
"Even at full speed, I can track a Rokushiki Soru step. Just now, all I saw was an afterimage."
He studied KING intensely.
"And after such high-speed movement… your expression didn't change. Your heartbeat stabilized even further."
"This level of bodily control surpasses ninety percent of Vice Admirals."
Garp gripped KING's shoulder.
KING's muscles were rigid from terror.
"With your muscles this tight, you can't wait to start!" Garp laughed, dragging him outside. "Let's show those greenhorns what real training looks like!"
Marine Headquarters — First Training Ground
Dawn broke. Cold wind swept across the open field.
The enormous training ground was already packed. Marines crowded the walls, craning for a view.
"Did you hear? That new monster rookie is sparring with Vice Admiral Garp."
"That's Hero Garp… and this is day one treatment?"
"Treatment? That's execution! The last rookie trained by Garp spent three days in the infirmary!"
Outside the crowd, Koby stood on tiptoe, glasses fogging.
"Helmeppo, do you think Mr. King will be okay?" he asked anxiously.
Helmeppo swallowed hard.
"That's the man who drove Colonel Jimmy insane… Monster versus monster. That's the world of the strong."
The crowd parted automatically.
Garp strode into the arena.
KING followed, expressionless.
No words were exchanged.
Garp stopped and pointed toward the specially constructed track encircling the base.
He raised one finger.
"Warm-up first."
"One hundred laps."
Silence swallowed the arena.
One lap was one kilometer.
One hundred laps.
Even seasoned giants of the Marines would hesitate.
This wasn't warm-up.
It was annihilation.
Thousands of eyes fixed on KING.
He didn't blink.
(Run? Are you insane? If I run, my organs will liquefy and redecorate the track!)
"What? Not enough?" Garp raised an eyebrow.
KING remained motionless.
He wasn't protesting.
He was afraid to move.
But if he didn't…
Garp would help him move.
KING sighed inwardly and focused on his right foot.
Slow.
It must be slow.
Just lift your foot slightly.
Take one small step.
Like an old lady crossing the street.
He rehearsed the motion mentally, then issued the command:
Move.
BOOOOOOM —!!!
A catastrophic explosion erupted at the center of the training ground.
The sound struck like artillery fire.
Front-row soldiers were instantly deafened, clutching their ears as pain stabbed their eardrums.
This was not a footstep.
It was the detonation of compressed air from explosive kinetic force.
The granite surface beneath KING's foot exploded outward within a five-meter radius.
A visible white shock ring blasted outward along the ground.
Debris and air pressure slammed into the crowd like a bulldozer.
"WHOOOA—!"
Koby and Helmeppo were thrown backward, tumbling across the dirt.
When the dust cleared—
a crater several meters wide scarred the starting point.
KING was gone.
"W-where did he go?!"
Koby adjusted his crooked glasses, pointing shakily into the distance.
On the far horizon—
a tiny figure.
KING stood several kilometers away.
He wanted to cry.
He really wanted to cry.
He had only tried to take one step.
This wasn't getting stronger.
This was self-destruction.
The training ground fell silent.
Wind howled across the ruined stone.
Then—
"Hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!"
Garp's booming laughter shattered the stillness.
He stood at the crater's edge, laughing until tears streamed down his face.
"Good lad! So that's your attitude?!"
He wiped his eyes, gaze blazing.
"You think jogging wastes time — so you demonstrated efficiency instead?!"
"With nothing but leg strength, you crossed several kilometers in an instant! Even my Observation Haki barely caught the afterimage!"
"This isn't a Devil Fruit ability…"
"This is the ultimate expression of physical power!"
"GOOD! VERY GOOD!"
Garp tore off his jacket, revealing a torso crisscrossed with battle scars.
He turned and roared toward the distant artillery training battery:
"Bring the special training shells used for anti-warship drills!"
"All of them!"
"One hundred rounds!"
The messenger froze in terror.
"Vice Admiral Garp… those shells are lethal!"
Garp grinned, teeth flashing with feral excitement.
"He won't die!"
"This kid hasn't even shown his true strength yet!"
He pointed toward the distant figure.
"Target — KING!"