With a blink of an eye, the day of departure had arrived. In front of Shakky's Rip-off Bar, Bardock said his final goodbyes to everyone, leaving Hancock for last.
"Bardock, are you really not going to stay?"
"Hancock, we all have our own paths to walk. This is only a temporary farewell. As long as we keep making a name for ourselves out on the seas, I'm sure we'll run into each other again sooner rather than later."
"Here. A parting gift from me, Sandersonia, and Marigold."
Hancock handed him a heavy package. Bardock caught it, feeling the distinct shape of books inside, and scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "As expected of girls—so thoughtful! I completely forgot to pack anything like this. Can I open it now?"
"Open it on the road," she replied softly.
"Alright, then! Until we meet again, Hancock, everyone! I'm going to miss you all. Leo, Mansherry, let's roll!"
"Off we go!"
"Smooth sailing, little Bardock."
"Mansherry, make sure you come back to visit us!"
"Bardock, try not to fly straight into any more freak storms."
"Don't jinx me, I'm out of here!"
With a final wave, Bardock commanded the boat upward, rapidly soaring into the sky until they vanished into the clouds.
Watching them disappear from the horizon, Rayleigh pulled a flask from his hip and took a swig. "Well, Bardock's right. You'll cross paths again before you know it. Now then, I'm going to put you all through hell. Your current strength is still miles away from what you'll need out on these seas!"
"Rayleigh, please train us without mercy. I'm begging you!" Hancock declared, her expression instantly hardening into one of absolute resolve.
"We're begging you, too!" Sandersonia and Marigold echoed in unison.
"Don't worry, just try not to quit halfway through," Rayleigh laughed warmly. "Come on, we need to move our training elsewhere. This bar courtyard is way too small for what I have in mind."
High above the clouds, Bardock sliced through the sky, finally finding a quiet moment to open the package Hancock had given him.
"Books, just like I thought," he muttered, sliding them out. "Navigation: From Novice to Master, West Blue Sailing Guide, Drum Island Medical Compendium, The Complete Encyclopedia of Knitting: 108 Secret Patterns... wait, what's this unlabelled, hand-copied manuscript? Kuja Haki Training Methods? Oh, wow..."
Though Bardock had learned a few things about Haki from Shanks, the red-haired captain's advice was entirely based on his own instinctual experiences. Human bodies and natural talents varied wildly; sometimes the gap between two people was wider than the gap between humans and animals.
Even though Bardock had been training for a short while, he had run into several frustrating bottlenecks with no one to ask for guidance—especially with Shanks wandering aimlessly around the East Blue. Hancock's hand-copied Kuja Haki Training Methods, however, was a comprehensive, systematic guide open to all warriors of Amazon Lily. It was broader, deeply structured, and arrived right when he needed it most.
"Leo! Mansherry! Time to unwrap some presents!"
"Bardock, what is it? Is it food?"
"It's knowledge, my friends."
"Huh?"
There were two ways for Bardock to cross over into the West Blue. The first was to fly along the Red Line all the way to the South Blue, and then scale the Red Line a second time into the West Blue. The second way was to fly straight across the Red Line first, and then glide continuously above the Calm Belt until they reached the West Blue.
He ultimately chose the second option. The first route would take them directly over Marine Headquarters, and running into Borsalino (Kizaru) by sheer bad luck was not a risk he was willing to take.
The Calm Belt remained an absurd, baffling geographical anomaly—completely dead-calm, devoid of wind, and teeming with colossal Sea Kings lurking just beneath the surface. Fortunately, since they were soaring high above in the clouds, they didn't have to worry about the monsters below.
'Does every wind and storm in the Grand Line just magically die the second it hits the Calm Belt?' Bardock wondered. 'What about tsunamis? Honestly, this whole phenomenon feels like the lingering side effect of some massive Devil Fruit awakening. If humanity ever figured out how to control a power like that, natural disasters would become a thing of the past.'
"Hey, the air is moving again! Did we cross it already?"
Feeling a gentle breeze brush against his face, Bardock piloted the boat forward for a while longer until he was certain they were completely clear of the Calm Belt, then brought the hull down to the ocean surface.
"Ilusia... Ilusia... Found it! Right here. Man, that's a long way off."
Bardock flipped through his nautical charts, finally locating his homeland.
"Leo, Mansherry, let's switch to sailing from here on out. We can't stay flying in the sky forever."
"Sounds good to me!" Leo cheered.
"I don't mind either. Plus, it gives you a chance to finally practice actual navigation, Captain."
"Yeah, I definitely need to brush up on my sailing skills. But wait—what are we going to do about our physical conditioning? The Monkey King is way too small to run laps on."
"You're right, Captain! I can barely stretch my legs out without falling off the edge!" Leo agreed.
Mansherry didn't say anything, just smiling softly at Leo. She didn't care about the size of the boat; the smaller it was, the easier it was to keep her eyes glued to the little dwarf.
"I've got an idea! I figured out how to use the Nimbus to lift things upward, so I should be able to invert the gravity and press downward, too!"
A sudden spark of inspiration hit Bardock. He gathered the Flying Nimbus around his body like a heavy blanket, manipulating its shape until it formed a skin-tight cloud suit. With a mental command, he instantly applied a directed gravitational downward force to his own body.
"There! Now I've got a full-body resistance suit. Every single movement, sitting, standing, or walking, is a continuous workout. But since there's only one Nimbus, how are we supposed to share the training load? Leo, you take over the lookout duties for now while I run a few tests."
"You got it, Captain!"
Bardock restored the Nimbus to its cloud shape, then split off three ethereal tendrils. One wrapped around his own body, transforming into his weighted suit, while the other two stretched out to envelop Leo and Mansherry.
"Captain Bardock, this outfit is really pretty!" Leo and Mansherry cooed, admiring their fluffy, glowing cloud garments.
"I just hope you still think that in five seconds."
Bardock abruptly increased the downward pressure.
"Whoa! It's so heavy, Captain! The clothes got super heavy, I can't move!" Mansherry squeaked, her tiny knees buckling under the artificial weight.
Bardock instantly dialed back the intensity. "Sorry, Mansherry! I'll scale it up very gradually from now on. Just tell me the second it feels uncomfortable."
"O-Okay, Captain," she murmured, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it, Mansherry. You're still growing, and you're the ship's doctor, not a frontline fighter. The only reason I'm having you train your stamina is so you have enough physical endurance to run away safely in an emergency. So never force yourself, understand?"
"Yes, I understand, Captain!"
"Good."
Bardock went back to fine-tuning his cloud-based resistance training rig. Because the Nimbus was a singular, connected mass of energy, he couldn't apply completely independent gravity variables to three different bodies. Fortunately, he discovered that the weight scaling correlated directly to the volume of cloud wrapped around each person. He gave himself the thickest layer of cloud, giving him the highest resistance; Leo got the second-heaviest layer; and Mansherry got the lightest.
To balance sustained flight energy with an effective training stimulus, Bardock set his own pressure and Leo's pressure to an equivalent of double gravity (), while Mansherry's load was dialed down to a mild .
"Alright, let's stick with this setup for now and tweak it later."
"Captain Bardock! Pirate ship spotted ahead!" Leo yelled from the bow, pointing across the waves. "They're firing cannons at a merchant ship!"
"Haha, West Blue pirates? Let's go crash their party," Bardock grinned, pulling his hands back.
Then he paused.
Wait a minute... I'm the one steering the boat.
He glanced back at the battlefield. The pirates were in the middle of a raid, and the merchant ship was holding its ground for now, meaning there was no immediate rush. He awkwardly grabbed the steering wheel, clumsily angling the Monkey King toward the skirmish.