Morning, Wolves Peak entrance

"Hey, you're Leo right? James told me about you" a man with green lumberjack jacket greeted Leo. As Leo approached the guy he could make out the figure obscured behind the early morning mist, the man was tall and muscular, almost burly, he left his chin unshaven and he was carrying an axe on his shoulder. He looks nice enough although from the tan skin, ragged look and the square chin he could look intimidating easily.

He extended his hand from his leaning position against the Wolves Peak entrance sign "Yeah, I'm Leo, how are you doing" Leo said shaking his hand with the man's rough jagged hands. "Good, good, I see you brought your own axe, that's good…my name's Danny by the way" The guy said while squeezing Leo's hand hard, Leo didn't know if it was intentional or it was simply because the man was strong. "Nice to meet ya…uhm… are we the only ones?" Leo asked trying hard not to cringe as he felt his hand getting crushed. Leo was afraid that if he was the only one, he'd have to have the trees chopped down by himself, which would be quite an achievement.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so…not many people in this village know haki and it's better to let them stay that way" said the lumberjack while lighting his cigarette, offering Leo some which he refused. Then Danny looked around before motioning Leo to follow him into the misty back wood.

"What does chopping down trees have anything to do with haki?" Leo asked as the two made their way down a trail to the forest with Danny leading the way. As they got deeper into the woods Leo couldn't help but reminisce about the time he spent with his friends here. Usually they just camp out and explore the woods as it seems to have a mystical quality about them. But most of all they spar here, as you see, his friends are just as much as a martial art maniac as him and Leo couldn't wait until he practice his haki on them. And if they did decide to explore the woods they'd always get lost and stumble into weird things, on the last 'exploration the group encountered a walking bear picking some mushrooms. Until now Leo could not decide whether it was real or a result of eating some kind of shrooms his friends had assured him to be safe. No matter how long he's been exploring the woods he never think he's ever for even once see the other edge of it.

"It means everything! You can't touch one without haki" Danny said without moving his eyes from the trail in front of him not realizing that he's interrupted Leo's daydream. "What?" That was the only thing Leo's mouth could blurt out at the supposed answer to his previous question. "James hasn't told you about that?" Danny asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "About what?" asked Leo. "The trees, they're protected by haki, strong ones, I guess you already know the Blackwood trees are known for its solid but flexible material. It's said to be one of the best materials for ships, be it Pirate galleons or Marine battleships. People from around the world wanted the woods for their ships. Because of that, years ago the trees faced extinction but before that happens the Royal Guards located a colony of the last remaining Blackwood trees on this mountain, then to protect the trees they placed their haki on the trees which last no more than a year, that's why every year the guards come here and renew the haki" Danny explained "and the haki's going to wear out soon, so it's the best time of the year to sell us some Blackwood woods"

"So what we're about to do…it is not legal?" Leo was growing worried, he doesn't want to ruin his future by getting caught tearing down one of the rarest trees on earth. He can't believe the doctor let him work with this guy! Did the doctor lose a bet to this guy?

"Kind of…that's why we're going to do it discretely and anyway the place where we're going to do it is secluded enough nobody's going to catch us" Danny said with an incredible laid-back tone as if nothing could go wrong with this.

"I'm only doing this because the doctor told me to, alright, if I got caught I'd put all the blame on you!" Leo said, Danny looked back at the tense Leo and he smoked his cigarette while smirking "good enough for me" replied the laidback guy. He looks like he's getting a thrill out of this!

"Wait…how do you put your own haki in other objects? The person doing it has got to be really strong to make it last every year" Leo finally said after some minutes of walking, searching for something he knew he'd missed, now he's found the question he'd meant to ask him. Yes, they've got to be strong as Leo even at this stage still finds it difficult to maintain his Ten and these guys upped the ante by placing and maintaining their haki in objects for a year, it made Leo wonder whether there was 'mastering the haki' for him or anybody else.

"Not now, but you're going to learn it soon" Danny said, while rubbing his palm in the curious Leo's dirty blond hair.

An hour later

The two men have finally arrived at Danny's previously mentioned place. It was faster than what Leo had expected from something 'secluded enough'. Soon he found himself standing in front of what he thought at first was a black wall. "Holy Gylfen! Look at this tree, this has got to be 10 feet in diameter!" Leo's eyes caught a white 'X' mark on its bark. "Tell me we're not going to chop this thing"

"Sorry kid" Leo just stared at Danny disbelievingly. How could the doctor entrust him with something like this? Chopping down a Blackwood tree? The kind of tree that's reputed to be the sturdiest, hardest, strongest tree to be harvested around here. He's never even chopped a single tree before and now here he was standing in front of what seemed to be one of the biggest Blackwood tree he's ever seen in his life and this unbelievable guy told him he'd be chopping this tree down.

Leo was walking around to catch some breath and get it all in when he found five Blackwood trees' stumps around the area where the sunshine reached the canopy of the dense forest.

"I suppose this is your doing?"

"Yep, did them last year and the year before" Danny said while swinging his axe, practicing, making sure that he still knew how to do it right. Leo just nodded, this guy's a monster!

Danny clapped his hands as he finished warming up "Alright let's do this thing!"

"Let's see what you got here" Danny took Leo's axe and he measured it and tested its sharpness.

"It's good enough, now I'm going to teach you how to get us some woods alright?"

"First of all you're going to have to decide where you want the tree to be felled, you don't want it to drop right on top of your head, that's why you must do two cuts when you want to fell a tree" Danny moved, facing the tree now, hands firmly on the axe.

"See, here's the right position, you don't want the axe to hit you if it somehow 'bounced' back or didn't hit its target. Position yourself as far away from the axe head, it'll generate more power to your swing but don't overdo it or you'll tire your forearm quickly"

"The direction that I'm facing right now will be the direction where this thing will fall, no matter where you decide to do the face cut if you do it right the direction you're facing will always be the place where it'll fall, this doesn't mean you can fell a tree anywhere you want, no, you must fell it in a clear ground, no twigs, no rocks, no trees, no nothing" then Danny moved around the tree to face the opposite direction of his 'face cut'.

"This is the back cut, when you do the face cut earlier just make sure that you only chop halfway across the stump so there'll be room for the back cut and also always make sure you cut it higher than the face cut, the back cut is the last cut you do and you chop it until the tree starts to lose its balance, when that happens watch it closely and quickly get the hell out of there, and make sure the wind's not blowing your way too"

"So…any questions?" after several seconds Leo shook his head as it seemed fairly basic to him, there seemed to be no special technique or something. Just the usual tree chops that he often sees his neighbors do. Only this tree is 10 times bigger than the 'ordinary' trees he saw his neighbor chopping.

"You'll be cutting down this tree and that one over there and I'll be cutting other trees somewhere else…don't overdo it alright" Danny said as he began to walk away from the dumbstruck Leo. Wa…wait a sec, what did he just say?

"Wait! We're not going to do it together?" shouted Leo

"It ain't gonna be a training if I help you sonny! I'll be back to bring you your lunch don't you worry" he shouted back.

"Crap! How do I know he's not just slacking off or setting me up?" Leo thought for a second "Well…if the doc trusts me with him then he must not be that bad…better get started" Leo murmured as he gripped the axe and proceeded to swing it.

On the first try Leo amassed his pure strength without haki and swung at the tree in front of him and with his power he managed to make a slight cut on the bark of the tree, the same could not be said for his forearms however as they received the force of the hit, the rumor was true, he felt like he was thumping on a metal, the wood's really solid and he knew if he keeps doing it he'll run out of energy before he could make it half way to the center.

Then on his second attempt he used his full strength plus his haki, when he sensed his haki at its maximum capacity (Ren) has accumulated around him he swung the axe. It was better than the first try but still he was disappointed because despite of doing his best it still didn't cut as deep as he'd expected. "This won't cut it" he doubted that it even reached past the bark. It was as if there's another layer of wood protecting it, making it even sturdier…more solid. But Leo remembered what the doctor said last night. Think of this as a training. Well Danny will probably tolerate it since this is my first time, I'll surely improve thought Leo.

Hours later the sun was right above Leo's head, in the midst of the unusually summer heat Leo couldn't help but sweat profusely. He was still chopping at the same tree, at the same spot and he almost made it halfway but his breathing has become erratic. "This is tiring…3 hours and I only made it half way…and my haki is exhausting fast…I don't even have the energy to keep it from flowing out of me…" he murmured to himself as he looked at his blistered palms, these blisters are the worst. He might be tired but he's still aware of his surrounding, that's why he immediately jerked his head to whatever it was that made a cracking noise from the opposite side of the forest.

"Hey…I came to bring you your lunch" Leo relaxed, it was Danny with a big box wrapped in a plastic bag in his hand. How he came up with that Leo didn't know, he was sure Danny didn't go all the way back to Wolves Peak just to grab him his lunch.

Danny approached the tree Leo has been working on and walked around it "3 hours and halfway huh? That's quite slow, even for a beginner…" Danny said straight to the point as he sat on one of the stumps nearby.

"I don't know how you or other people do it but this is the best my haki can do…I think I'm done for the day Danny" He said while opening the white box, filled with a couple of bread, with slices of smoked beef and mustard. It's one of his favorites menu, the doctor must have told him that.

"No, Leo, I've seen your haki and I know you can do more than this, problem is you're not focusing all your energy in the part where it should be" said Danny, Leo motioned him to go on between his munching of his lunch.

"When you swing your axe, which part of your body do you think will contribute the most to the power of your swing? Your legs? Your eyes? Your arms?" Danny gave the boy a side glance as he picked up Danny's axe and positioned himself in the opposite of the direction, from which Leo's been trying to chop down the tree since forever. Danny smiled when he saw Leo's bright green eyes light up.

"Yes, you should focus all your haki on your arm, this is a technique called as 'Gyo', it might sound simple but to maintain all of your haki together in just one part of your body requires a high level of Ten, otherwise it'd not be effective, you follow me Leo? The art of haki is expandable, you can use your haki for everything that's why creativity is a great asset for haki practitioners" to which Leo just nodded, Danny walked to the other side of the tree and swung his axe at it. The axe hit it spot on with a loud crack sound and he could see the huge force being absorbed by Danny's strong forearms, and the next thing Leo knew there was already a hug gaping hole making up the 'back cut'. Leo almost choked on the food he forgot was still in his mouth caused by the graphic display of the sheer impact of Danny's swing. The flutter of birds escaping the impact could be heard around the forest and he could have sworn he felt the wave of the swing just now. "You see it Leo?" asked Danny, after resting the head of the axe firmly on a nearby stump. Leo just nodded in awe, mouth still full of food. It's got to take some serious skill to make a major cut like that and not bring the tree down with the force.

After a quick trip to the nearby stream to rest and refill their water bottles the pair decided that it'd be best for Leo to take some rest, so they called it a day. Leo was surprised when he found out that in the 3 hours that it took him to finish the face cut Danny was already chopping his part of the tree into several circular logs. Seeing how tall the tree was (150 ft or so) he was surprised when the 10.1' feet tall Danny carried two of the logs on his shoulder all by himself, he never thought the man was that strong. Sure the man is quite burly and is slightly above North Blue men's average height which is 9.4' feet high but even a strong North Blue man would have had a hard time carrying the wood let alone chopping it down. Take Leo for example, he was only able to drag one of the logs, thanks to his already tired arms.

After accompanying Danny placing all the wood near his isolated cabin located deeper within the forest, both men proceeded back to Wolves Peak. Danny said he was going to meet his 'client' who ordered 3 of the woods in the town, a woman from Water Seven, a faraway island in the Grand Line. He admitted that his illegal logging activity was just a 'seasonal' job he said the demand for materials for ships was higher than ever these days and he also told Leo it's partly because it's been a long time since the last time he came back to his hometown. He unsurprisingly also told Leo that he was his father's crew back in the days and told him a few stories about the adventures he's had with his dad. A little bit inspired by it Leo expressed his interest about becoming an adventurer aka a pirate himself but Danny scolded him, saying that his father did not sacrifice his life for Leo to ends up like him and that Leo should be grateful that he's what he is right now, an educated boy in North Blue.

Now back in the Wolves Peak entrance, both men bid their goodbyes. But minutes later Leo had to turn back to the town after remembering that this morning the doctor had requested him to shop for some ingredients. It seems like exhaustion and Danny's exciting adventure stories made him forget about his errand. Now that he was alone and no adventure story to distract him he felt his exhaustion growing even worse with his shoulders, hands and forearms sore. He'd never felt like this since years.

Several minutes later after Leo had finished buying the ingredients the doc needed in Wolves Peak Leo went to the Upper Market Street famous for its hangout café. To his dismay he realized he only had a little pocket money left so he could only order some cokes. As he sat there in the bar he got a few weird looks from the patrons. Then he realized all the distinct looking Blackwood saw dust around his unbuttoned shirts and black fatigue so he grabbed his coke and the doctor's ingredients, and left immediately afraid of somebody getting wise and reports him to the authority. Let that one experience of beating up a guard in a bar brawl be the first and last experience of him fighting the authority because it was messy, thousands of beli of fine just to get him away from jail.

As he quickened his pace he saw Danny with a mid-aged woman coming from a fancy bar down the street. The pair had a little chat before they parted. The blonde woman walked in his direction, as she got nearer he could make out her pointy nose and smiley mouth, the woman looks weird enough and not someone he'd have guessed involved in black market stuff.

"I'd say those folks are quite a crazy bunch" Danny said shrugging the back of his head "she needs strong sleepers for building tracks!" explained Danny. "Can't they make it out of other woods?" Leo asked, feeling a bit upset because all his hard work and effort, and him risking going to jail were done just so somebody could build a railway. "It's the crazy thing about them, they're building railways across the sea from island to island over there, can you believe it? Even for Grand Line standard this is crazy". Leo sighed "I don't know… I'm going home now, see you tomorrow" Leo said, feeling really tired now he just wanted to crash in his comfy bed and sleep all night long.