A year passed.
Ao swiftly dodged the strike from the pipe with a blindfold on as he jumped from another attack from another pipe.
"Gomu Gomu no PISTOL!" Luffy said as he used his Devil fruit power to try and hit Luffy.
"Like I said Luffy, You are too slow, Sabo your attack's have no strength behind them and ace, Your attacks have no technique behind them." Ao said as he jumped over Luffy's pistol.
"Return!" Luffy said as he arm bent upwards and returned towards the original direction it came from.
"Nice move Luffy." Ao said as he stepped on Luffy's arm, and side stepped his return attack.
"How can you see with a blind fold!!??" Ace said as he rushed as Ao with his pipe in hand. Ao threw a gut punch at Ace and hit him, throwing him meters away.
"Observation haki." Ao simply replied to Ace.
"Ace!" Sabo said as he rushed at Ace and lifted him up, he muttered something to ace as the both of them had a grin on their faces.
"Gomu Gomu no Double pistol." Luffy extended both of his arms back with a fist, He pulled them forward with very high force as Ao ducked under them.
"Nice try Luffy but if I do this..." Ao said as he caught and pulled both of Luffy's down to the ground, Luffy lost his balance and was pulled towards Ao.
"You will come right to me." Ao said as he coated his arm with invisible armament and put it In front of him so that Luffy would hit Himself.
Luffy was pulled back by the inertia of his arms returning and managed to be unharmed.
"Now Ace." Sabo said as he threw a bunch of rocks at Ao at very rapid speeds. Many rocks around him, the large amount of rocks clouded his haki.
"Hayahhh!" Ace and Sabo Said while swinging their poles at Ao, Ao listened to Their movements and swiftly stepped to the side while still being Hit slightly by the pole of Ace.
"I got you, We won!!" Ace said as he celebrated their victory. Ao removed the blindfold covering his eyes.
"Ah, You guys finally won. You guys have been training like crazy for the past Year." Ao said as he scratched his head.
"You guys are getting closer and closer to being able to use haki on command." Ao said to his three younger brothers as he smiled.
"Yup!" Luffy said with a large smile.
Ao was proud with how far Luffy had come in the past Year, The boy's fruit was not strong unawakened but Luffy's creativity allowed it to be much stronger in its unawakened form.
Luffy's attacks were faster than before and Were much stronger although they didn't compare to Ace and Sabo's, and Luffy's partial awakening of haki and fist Training made his punches many times stronger.
"You guys should go train by yourselves now." Ao said as he walked away from the area with Akuryo in his hands, His mastery over the sword wasn't something great and amazing but it could be someday with training.
"Okay, Bye!" The three of them said as they started doing their own training.
For Ace, It was training in his techniques, for Sabo, It was training his strength and speed and For Luffy, it was both.
***
Ao mediated peacefully in a field of grass as he felt everything around him, the leaves shaking, the wind blowing from one direction to another, his heart beat and every single vein inside his body pumping blood.
He breathed in and out as he tightly gripped the handle of Akuryo. The blade was coated in a thin layer of haki, emitting a dark blue aura.
"Ha!" Ao said as he slashed at a tree 50 meters ahead of himself.
A purple slash was released from the blade as it swiftly travelled to the location of the tree and cleanly sliced it in half, A few trees behind it also collapsed as the flying slash cut through them.
"I call that... Atomic slash."