Skills Do Not Discriminate

Garneth stayed nearby, sharpening his blade and to his surprise he looked over and saw Zesiro doing the same. This brought a small smile to Garneth's face. Zesiro was indeed learning quickly. Swords are a swordsman's life. To risk them so recklessly would be a great shame to a samurai of old. Your swords should be treasured and sharpened at all times. Don't let them grow dull.

Nonetheless Garneth kept working on his own sword while keeping a careful eye on Zesiro. Garneth stood up and began to leave. They stayed in a hidden cave off to the side of the town. It was a long ways off from the town thankfully. The towns people still didn't appreciate Zesiro. They still saw him as some sort of a monster. Garneth didn't understand why because, of course, he had talked to the so-called 'monster' and he would defend him.

If he knew doing so would do any good. People just had such craziness mixed into themselves. They wouldn't change their minds. People were just too set in their way. It was just impossible to try and change people's minds. They get so set in their way they refused to accept certain things as truth.

A sigh escaped from his mouth and he realized that Zesiro would always be alone on this island. He needed to get off of this ship. The Marines may find some use with Zesiro, but Garneth wasn't well-liked amongst them so he couldn't get a hold of them. He still had some contact with a few pirates from his days, but not enough to make them come around and pick up a young kid. He would just have to let the young kid manage his own life. Zesiro could become a Marine as long as he remained true to the path of the sword Garneth would approve of it. The man had plenty of talent surrounding his own skills.

"I'm going to the village now," Garnet stated as he stood himself up and began to relax. "Do you want anything?" he asked he picked up his real sword and quickly sheathed it. His swords rested on his side like a samurai. Zesiro shook his head as he returned back to the training with his swords. Garneth was proud of the boy, he was certain that one day Zesiro would without a doubt manage to become a very talented swordsman even by Marine standards. He would just have to get off of this god forsaken island.

The village was pretty simple and boring. The huts were simple wooden shacks which had a few interesting windows and colorful decorations to it. Of course, Garneth didn't like it here that much. They weren't a huge fan of his, not because he was taking care of Zesiro, he has refused to tell them about it. Even when they ask if he had seen him Garneth just lied about it. And he would continue to do so.

The few towns people who were still around seemed to want to ignore Garneth. They knew about his past as a decent pirate, but he was a good fighter who would often times protect the town whenever trouble arose. If pirates or other enemies arrived on the island Garneth was always taking up the lead to take down his opponent. Still that didn't make him any more likeable, he was a pirate.

He paid in full. Getting a few loaves of bread for fairly cheap. The island didn't have too high of prices, but they were even lower for Garneth. They just wanted him out of their shops as soon as possible so they just lowered their prices slightly to get him out so he wouldn't try and barter with them. Garneth didn't mind. He got it and he left.

He paused pretty early on and looked to the side. He heard a few interesting things, but there was one or two things he still needed to learn a bit more about. "Excuse me, sir," Garneth stated as he walked over to one of the nearby people, "I heard you mention something about a Marine ship coming?"

The man Garneth was talking to was another member of basically the island watch. He had fought alongside with Garneth for a long time. They had tackled enemy pirates many, many times. He was a much younger boy probably about 21 only, but he was strong. He wanted to be a Marine, so it wasn't surprising if he knew that a Marine ship was coming.

"Yeah," stated the younger man, Jacobs, he was a kind and nice enough person. He didn't like pirates, but Garneth never got an exactly hateful feel from him. He seemed like a kind enough person so Garneth was fine with however he wanted to act. Jacobs was kind of a nice guy. "Apparently they want to increase their numbers so they are going out trying to find some new people to join them. And coming here to do so."

There was a small bit of silence between them. Nobody had told Garneth about this. He had been left out of the loop about this and he assumed it wasn't something that just happened a few minutes ago.

Jacobs sighed and explained for himself, "you seem to have become rather busy lately so we decided not to inform you. Its not like we even know where you live any more you move around so often. We visited a couple of your houses, but they were all empty. Besides we didn't expect you tomorrow as you don't usually come into town on Sundays."

Of course, just like they didn't trust him Garneth didn't fully trust them. He had heard a lot of their planning to take him down so he had always stayed a bit careful around them never attacking them at all. Garneth moved out and headed to the beach. It was a nice place to rest and relax around. It was all swell.

However, Garneth definitely wouldn't be able to relax today. He would have to prepare for the Marine invasion, cover his cave's opening and collect a bit of food. Allow Zesiro to spend the rest of the day off in order compensate for the extra work which would inevitably occur tomorrow. When Garneth returned to the cave he found the kid still training.

"Zesiro, we're having a lockdown tomorrow," Garneth stated simply as he began fixing up the cavern. "So take the rest of the day off. We're going to be training a lot tomorrow in order to pass the time."

There was a moment of silence as Zesiro looked back at his hand and thought about it. "No," he stated as he returned to training, "I'll just train twice as hard. I don't need a break."

There was a smile which broke across Garneth's face as he slowly nodded. He was a big fan of this kind of action, a constant drive for training is amazing and it has gone the way of the dinosaur lately, nobody cared for training. Garneth mentioned that Jacobs was strong, but in terms of training he was nowhere near Zesiro's level, but nobody wanted to credit Zesiro with his training and instead focused on his race.

"Learn your swords and live by them," stated Garneth as he stepped forward and stood behind Zesiro watching the young kid train with the same intensity as a man whose passion had survived decades of training and fighting. It was amazing to see a kid tackle swordsmanship training the same way an expert does with the same passion too.

"Your swords are your family," stated Garneth as he lowered himself down next to Zesiro's side and watched him. Zesiro smoothly transferred his attacks through a chain going from a vicious barrage of two sword style attacks to single sword styles, even mixing in kicks and punches when he felt he was too off balanced for a sword attack, but had enough room to launch a kick.

"Just like family you shall learn their inner workings," Garneth explained eying up his prodigies amazing job well done. It was a good job indeed. "Their weight, their sharpness, how they will be used. You'll learn how to fight with them. Their strengths and their weaknesses. Whirlpool Slices." Garneth tossed a bit of wood into the air and immediately Zesiro went after the wood, spinning around and launching into a massive swirl and spinning cuts, which sliced the wood in two.

"Crab Grab," commanded Garneth as he threw a chunk of wood into the air. Zesiro jumped up and chased after the wood and he placed one of sword on both sides of the wood and suddenly snapped his swords together to easily snap the wood in two.

"Cascading Cuts," Garneth stepped back and revealed a nearly tree-like structure behind him and let the kid charge it. Zesiro stopped right in front of it before he began to launch into a series of upwards cuts. Each razor blade of his sword sliced into a different level of the wood and began to bring it down within its blizzards of sharp cuts.

This went on a for a few more hours as Garneth continued to smooth out Zesiro's rough edges, correcting any mistakes he made. And Zesiro had, but there were nothing that couldn't be fixed. And that was why Garneth loved teaching him.

Nonetheless Garneth called off training for the rest of the day. He had his own work to do and he would indeed appreciate Zesiro being in a good mood tomorrow, explaining to the young fishman about why Garneth hated the Marines. And he didn't want to be viewed in any sort of negative light just yet by the young swordsman.

So Garneth retreated into the cave vowing to wait tomorrow through doing nothing, except training with his young prodigy regardless of what Zesiro did today.

Zesiro did seem to take Garneth's words to heart and had left the cave and took to taking a quick dip into the nearby ocean. He was relaxing peacefully letting his sore and tired muscles finish their stretching in the nice cool waves of the deep blue waters. He had left his two swords aside and in the cave, both perfectly sheathed and on top of the fire place's mantle.

The two swords were given to Garneth by Zesiro's parents or that how the story went. Zesiro didn't know anything about his parents and to be honest from Zesiro's many questions aimed towards Garneth, Garneth wasn't in the mood to tell him about this tale. Who had his own parents been? Given the swords Zesiro would undoubtedly call them brave warriors, but what had they been fighting for? What had they died defending?

Of course, Garneth knew these answers and more, but it still pained him to talk about. The tale of their legacy was thick and riddled with problems that a young boy shouldn't have to face so early on. Zesiro's pirates were Garneth's crewmates, his nakama, for those days he had spent on a pirate ship.

The captain held no prejudice towards Fishman and urged his crew to do the same. When Garneth first joined he did actually harbor some unprovoked hatred for Fishmen, just basic human urges Garneth now supposed, humans hate anything different from them. He had been taught that Fishman were lesser humans. However, seeing both his mother and father wield the same weapons he did angered Garneth one day.

And so they fought and so he lost.

His stubborn pride refused to bend and he constantly re-challenged them again and again. Zesiro's parents both considered this worthwhile practice and accepted Garneth's challenges again and again. Soon all three of them began spinning tales about how they would become the number one swordsman.

The win-lose ratio of their fights soon became muddled, about even as all three exchanged a furious blows of swords. They rejoiced when Mihawk finally fell to Roronoa Zoro, but they had their own rivals by now. Each other. They fought constantly their respect for each other grew as well as their own pride in the ability to call each other 'nakama'.

Nowadays looking back Garneth realized how foolish he had been to consider any person a 'lesser human'. They were strong swordsman, skilled just like a sword is fine. As long as somebody lived by the sword they all deserved the title of swordsman.

The Things That We Inherit