A/N: Hi, I hope Santa was nice to you and left you some nice presents under the tree.

I was able to finish my chapter faster than expected so I publish it a little early.

For 2023, I would try to maintain a rhythm of two chapters per week. The goal is to avoid weeks without publication.

Don't forget the discord " :/ / discord .gg / sWu3vJhU" (Remember to remove the spaces for the link. The site doesn't allow me to post links...)

I wish you all a happy end of 2022 and a good beginning of 2023.

POV Sergeant Koby D-6

The wake-up call was difficult for the young sergeant, the recent events, the announcements of the World Government, the scheduled execution of Portgas D. Ace, and the future war that is coming made Koby's nights very agitated.

Obviously, he was not the only one to be in this case, it was not even 6.00 am to believe the big clock at the back of the dormitory that some of his comrades' beds were already empty. Some of the soldiers were sitting on their beds, staring at the floor or the ceiling, big dark circles under their eyes. The morale of the troops seemed to be declining as the day of execution approached.

After a long yawn, Koby looked down at the bed below him to see if its occupant was still there. The man with the long blond hair was sleeping soundly and nothing seemed to disturb his sleep.

Koby took a deep breath then blew, a little jealous of his comrade who managed to spend a good night. After climbing down the ladder that connected his bunk bed to the floor, Koby went to his closet to get ready for Vice Admiral Garp's training. The few days of rest he had following Lieutenant Degurechaff's arrival had allowed him to rest his body.

"I'm going to get sore again," Koby complained with a grimace.

Having finished his toilet and preparing himself, the young sergeant turned again towards his comrade who was still sleeping. In order not to be late, it was necessary at all costs that his comrade could wake up now. He then placed himself in front of the bed and whispered in Hermep's ear: "Hermep, Hermep, we have to wake up, we are going to arrive late to the training."

His comrade replied with a grunt before turning his back to continue his night's sleep.

Koby smiled mischievously before moving closer to Hermep again, trying to imitate the Vice-Admiral's voice as best he could: "Sergeant, you dare to be late for my training, I'm going to give you a taste of my fist of love.

The tactic seemed to work because his comrade got up suddenly in a panic on his bed, getting on his knees to beg his forgiveness.

"It's not funny Koby, I almost had a heart attack, you know very well that the Vice-Admiral's fists terrify me" Hermep complained while watching Koby laughing.

It was only after a few minutes of letting Hermep get ready that they left the dorms. Training started at 8 am. Getting up so early allowed the soldiers to go to breakfast and have a full stomach before starting Vice Admiral Garp's exercises.

One day, Hermep preferred to sleep rather than fill his stomach. The result was a trip to the infirmary in less than two hours. Since that day, he has not missed a single meal, even though waking up in the morning was difficult.

When they arrived at the dining hall, they noticed that many of the tables were already occupied by soldiers having lunch.

After collecting their food, the two sergeants sat down at the place they had found. During their meal, they discussed everything and anything. Until Hermep quietly approached in a low voice.

I didn't see her at first, but there's Lieutenant Degurechaff by the window behind you.

Turning around as quietly as possible, he spotted the Lieutenant sipping what appeared to be warm chocolate with a newspaper in her other hand. She seemed very focused on her reading.

"Anyway," Hermep continued, "she's been freaking me out since her evaluation. Did you know that Kram would be in the infirmary for at least a month? The injuries she would have inflicted on him were more serious than they looked. I feel sorry for the poor soldiers who will be under her command one day...

Koby continued to stare at the girl who was bathed in the rays of the rising sun. It was as if she gave off some kind of mystical aura. In a way, it was fascinating.

"I think she must have been overwhelmed by stress," Koby replied, trying to convince his friend as well as himself. "With so many soldiers and officers she must have put too much pressure on herself. As proof, the other two battles went well.

"Koby, did you see her smile when she was stabbing Kram? And her eyes? It was as if she didn't even consider him as a human being. She had the look of a killer. Koby this girl is dangerous, she is a monster in a little girl's body."

"I have no choice Hermep, Fleet Admiral Sengoku asked me to keep an eye on her, I'm not going to disobey him. I recognize that her behavior was questionable, but there was nothing similar after that."

"I would have warned you Koby."

They quickly finished their meal without saying a word and made their way to the training grounds where Vice Admiral Garp was to be waiting.

As they left the dining hall, Koby noticed that the Lieutenant had already left to join the training grounds.

A little later.

"Well you brats, I guess you were all looking forward to getting back to my training?" asked Garp, laughing.

"Yes sir!" they all answered together.

Koby, Hermep and Lieutenant Degurechaff were lined up in front of the Vice Admiral, listening to the rest of the program. They had exchanged their usual clothes for more comfortable ones. The two men had opted for the usual sportswear: a pair of lighter shoes than the ones they usually wore, and black cloth pants. They didn't wear shirts or t-shirts, preferring to remain shirtless because it allowed their bodies to cool down more quickly in contact with the air.

The lieutenant had taken back some elements of her old uniform, we could recognize the green pants as well as the high boots that she used before. As for the top, she wore a light white shirt with short sleeves.

The training day started with 100 laps of the field, 500 push-ups, and to finish the warm-up 500 pull-ups. The exercises were much simpler than usual, probably to spare the Lieutenant who had just arrived and started training.

To everyone's surprise, the girl did not seem to be exhausted at all by the exercises. Her breathing seemed normal without any sign of exhaustion.

It seemed so easy for her that she finished the warm-up session before everyone else.

"Tell me boys, how does it feel to be beaten by a little girl?" teased Garp like a child.

Koby didn't respond to the provocation but saw the lieutenant's gaze flashing. If her gaze could kill, Vice Admiral Garp would have disintegrated on the spot.

A few minutes passed before Hermep and Koby finished their warm-up.

Now that you're all awake, I'd like you to show your new comrade what my training can do in real combat.

As they nodded, they both walked to the center of the field and waited for the signal to start.

Out of the corner of his eye, Koby noticed that the blonde girl had taken out a small notebook and a pencil.

"Don't forget the rules boys, you have 5 minutes to win the fight. The loser will have to go around the island a thousand times with the bag of shame on his back."

As he finished his sentence Garp pointed to the horrible bag filled with cannonballs. It must have weighed about 150 kilos. On the bag, the Vice Admiral had written "Wimp" in large letters.

Koby hated that bag, he doesn't know how many times he had to go around the island with the bag on his back and in front of all his colleagues.

The worst situation was not when he could lose, but when their fight ended in a tie. Forcing the one who was not carrying the bag to wait for his comrade to finish before he could take over. Many times, their training caused them to stay up very late, leaving little time for their bodies to rest.

Koby and Hermep leered at each other, neither of them wanting to go around the island with the damn bag.

"Get started!" yelled Garp to make himself heard.

Once the Vice Admiral gave the signal, the two sergeants yelled, "Soru," and in the blink of an eye, they joined each other in the center of the training area and violently hit each other in the face once they were close with their fists. The impact was so powerful that both fighters lost their balance because of their momentum.

Koby got up and looked directly at his opponent. He then saw Hermep running at him because he had managed to get up before him. To avoid the next blow from his opponent, the young man with pink hair decided to take height by using "Geppo". He knew that his opponent had not yet mastered this technique, and had great difficulty in aerial combat. To keep his advantage and take advantage of the height, Koby combined his Geppo with several "Rankyaku" which allowed him to send several wind blades toward his opponent.

Six blades were thrown at Hermep, leaving him little room to escape. He could dodge half of them but seeing that the remaining three would be unavoidable, he used "Tekkai" which allowed him to strengthen his body and take the blows.

Koby could guess that his last attack had not been completely ineffective because small traces of blood were visible at his feet, making the young sergeant proud. After all, it proved that he had improved. "And now Hermep, what are you going to do?

After catching his breath, the bespectacled man looked at his opponent. He congratulated him, "Well done Koby, your Rankyaku has improved dramatically, but unfortunately it is still insufficient to defeat me." At the end of his sentence, Hermep disappeared instantly thanks to Soru.

Looking around for his opponent, Koby heard a voice from behind him shouting, "Rankyaku". When he turned around in the direction of the voice, he dodged the wind blade that was coming straight at him. Hermep repeated the attack about ten times to make Koby come down from his height to the ground.

To get away from Hermep and to catch his breath, Koby used the Soru technique in a random direction to surprise his opponent. Once his opponent was located, he used the same technique again to fight hand-to-hand. The exchange of blows lasted a few minutes without either of the two rivals being able to take the ascendancy over the other.

Koby went back into the air to place himself above Hermep.

"Let's see Koby, you've already tried this combination" the blond-haired man pointed out with a sneer.

But instead of using Rankyaku, Koby used a combination of two techniques: Soru and Tekkai in the direction of Hermep who was caught completely off guard as Koby charged at Hermep with great speed and with a fully reinforced body. The damage from such a blow would be too great if he took such a blow. Dodging would be a waste of time, and strengthening his body with Tekkai would take too long, he could only grit his teeth and hope to be able to withstand his opponent's attack.

Koby was only a few meters away from his objective when Garp intervened:

"Stop, that's enough time is up!"

Being disturbed by the announcement of his superior, Koby crashed a meter next to Hermep.

POV Tanya Degurechaff

During the whole fight, Tanya had noted in her small notebook the techniques that could be useful to her in the future by imagining some combinations of attacks with the abilities she already had. The most interesting one was the "Rankyaku" if she could do the same thing but sending mage blades instead of wind blades it would allow her to fill a big gap in her attack set: the ranged fight.

Tekkai would be interesting on the defensive side because although her magic shield was very effective, it had already shown its limits regarding its protection. People with intangible body thanks to their demon fruit was a real problem.

Geppo was the least interesting technique in combat from what she had seen, but she wanted to learn this technique at all costs to be able to fly again one day. The feeling of being high up in the sky, hiding in the clouds, feeling the cold wind on her face as she flew through the clouds.

"Interesting isn't it?" asked Garp, looking at the girl still taking notes in her notebook. "It's the result of a very hard and diligent body training. These techniques need a strong body to be used properly and safely for their user."

"If it's the same type of training as the warm-up, I could do it without any problem, even if you make the exercise much harder."

With the body strengthening, the different exercises were so simple, as easy as taking a short walk on flat ground.

"It's good to be young..." laughed Garp with tears in his eyes."Very well, I am willing to teach you the Soru technique but only on one condition."

"And what was that condition?

"If you manage to understand and master this technique, I want you to train with and without your body ability."

Tanya looked at the old man in disbelief, how could this person, she of all people she had met so far have guessed? This world made no sense to her with its giants, these demon fruits, its geography, so how on earth could a little girl with enhanced strength make a mark?

"Are you wondering how I knew?" the Vice Admiral asked, amused by the girl's reaction. "It comes down to one word: experience."

Before he could answer anything, Garp turned to Koby and Hermep, who had remained planted in the middle of the training field.

"Seeing as neither of you were able to gain an advantage over the other, you know what you boys have left to do?"

As if in response to his request, both boys let out long sighs. And, seeing the lack of spirit in the young men, Garp advanced toward them, showing his right fist.

"Shall I use my 'Fist of love' again to give you motivation?"

Seeing the serious look on their superior's face, Koby and Hermep left in the direction of the harbor while taking the bag.

Once the departure of her "classmates", Garp came back to Tanya explaining how he had understood that the girl was cheating during the exercises.

"Getting back to your abilities, it was pretty easy to guess that they didn't come from your brute strength. You could fool others easily, but not me. When you were warming up with the others, I watched you a lot, your breathing, the way your body moved, the shape of your muscles during the effort nothing was natural. As proof, your muscles seem to be used much more to hold this simple notebook than during the exercises".

Tanya was stunned by the revelations of the old man, behind his airs of simple-mindedness hid a perceptive man and he showed a great perception.

What exactly did the Vice Admiral know about her other abilities? Had he managed to understand the source of her power? Questions that would remain unanswered as the man turned his back on her and walked to the center of the training grounds next door.

The one her comrades had used earlier had been too damaged by the fight. Everywhere on the ground were small trenches a few inches thick created by the Rankyaku technique. The center of the ground, where once there was a perfectly smooth floor, had been left as a huge crater by Koby's latest attack.

"As I was telling you earlier, I'm going to show you how to use Soru, I think this is a good introduction."

Once in the middle of the field, Garp took a deep breath before finding himself at the girl's back. Having detected the man behind her, Tanya turned sharply but the man had disappeared again before she had time to catch a glimpse of him as he had returned to his starting point.

"You should see your face!" scoffed Garp without trying to hide his laughter.

"This technique has a lot of potential to engage an enemy, to dodge a blow, to flee, or to assassinate someone quickly in case of a commando mission."

"Mastering Soru will make it easier for you to understand Geppo" Garp resumed with a much more serious tone. "The way it works is pretty much the same as Soru, you just have to imagine climbing a staircase with very big steps. As far as Soru is concerned, the principle of this technique is not complicated, most of the time, what prevents the soldiers from mastering it quickly or even just mastering it is the body of the user. That's why a very rigorous physical training is required."

"But in this case, if I did indeed have a body-strengthening ability, why bother building up my body to use this technique if I can do it without?"

Simply because like anybody strengthening ability, I imagine that its use is not unlimited, especially when you will use these techniques repeatedly. What will you do in a fight if your strengthening technique doesn't work anymore?

The Vice Admiral was right, using the body enhancement was certainly less tiring than using the mage blade, but using it for a long time and without a computational orb has never been tested yet.

"He's right, but with this body, the easiest thing would be to strengthen my magic control abilities rather than physically strengthening myself. I wonder if I would be able to create a computational orb here?"

She jotted down in her notebook the Vice Admiral's remark and the beginning of a solution she could come up with. She also scribbled in her notebook the plans for the first computational orb she had perceived upon joining the Imperial Army. As it was an old model at the time, almost daily maintenance was required to keep the device working properly. Tanya had to disassemble and reassemble this device hundreds of times and she finally remembered the parts and their arrangement in the device. On the other hand, the Elenium Type 95 seemed out of reach, and much too complex to reproduce. The same goes for the Elenium 97, which was a less powerful derivative. She added to her list of things to do: "look for a competent blacksmith".

As far as Soru is concerned, Garp resumed while advancing towards Tanya, the trick is to take a good ten small steps on the spot and to project your body forward as if you were diving into the water. So I'll let you try it with and without your reinforcing ability.

Once the instructions were received, Tanya applied them immediately, concentrating a maximum on her steps as well as her body she launched herself. The speed developed was impressive, so much so that she did not know how to brake and ended up running into the reinforcements of the ground generating a thick cloud of dust at the arrival.

The old man, who had remained on the edge of the ground had collapsed on the ground, not being able to stop laughing at the situation. Tanya as for her had found herself the head down and the legs over the head. She got up almost immediately looking around her if a witness had attended the scene, but obviously, nobody was around the training grounds. She was breathless, Soru required a lot of concentration and mana to use. Making the making of a computational orb almost inevitable.

"I should try it without body reinforcement to see what it would do with my body."

After several attempts nothing happened, from the outside looking in, Tanya looked like a temperamental kid who had been denied a treat and was banging on the floor to show her displeasure. This gave Garp another reason to mock the girl.

"You see Lieutenant, that's what I was telling you earlier, you have to train your body or you'll find yourself in this situation in the middle of a fight, and unless the objective is to make your opponents die of laughter, you should consider my method very seriously.

On these words, Garp turned around and took the direction of the HQ, by specifying to him that it was necessary to continue the training until sunset. With a long grumble, Tanya went back to the center of the field and resumed her training.

At the end of the day, Tanya had been able to get some interesting data that she had entered into her notebook. To begin with, with her current physique, mastering the Soru was out of reach despite all her efforts during the rest of the day. Thank to the training, Tanya knew she could use the technique about 15 times with the mage blade activated before collapsing to the ground due to exhaustion. Finally, based on the little information Garp had given her about the Geppo, she was able to rise above the ground and stay in the air for a few moments which was an interesting result. But there was one problem with this technique: once in the air, she was unable to steer herself, or even come down as Koby had done during his earlier fight.

I'll ask Koby to explain how he does it, but in the meantime, I should go back to the HQ, the training is over thought Tanya while looking in the direction of the setting sun. In the distance, she could also see Koby and Hermep who were still running with the bag.