"Finger, you're being awfully enthusiastic today. What do you want from me?"
Gustave set the dragon history textbook aside, tore open the bag of spicy potato chips, and asked with genuine curiosity while crunching away.
As a chef who'd dealt with his share of overeager customers and business partners, Gustave had learned to recognize when someone was buttering him up. While Finger was naturally outgoing, today's performance felt unusually familiar and calculated. There was definitely an agenda here.
"Haha, so you saw right through me, Big Brother!" Finger rubbed his hands together nervously.
"Just tell me what's on your mind. I'll consider it."
"Well, it's like this, Foreign Aid Big Brother. Even though Junior Brother seems like he's hardly been away, I can sense he's changed dramatically—especially his strength. I'm certain Junior Brother's true power must be incredible now, and that's obviously thanks to your guidance."
Finger paused, gathering his courage. "So I wanted to ask... could you possibly teach me a few techniques?"
Gustave stopped mid-chew, studying Finger with newfound intensity. The sudden shift in atmosphere made the room feel several degrees cooler.
"Did I say something wrong?" Finger asked nervously.
"Finger, why do you want to become stronger?"
The question hit like a physical blow. Finger's confident expression crumbled as he fell silent, his face cycling through a range of emotions—pain, regret, determination. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.
"Revenge."
Gustave's memories of the Dragon Raja series were somewhat fuzzy, but he recalled enough about Finger's backstory. The man's repeated academic failures and declining bloodline ranking were connected to some catastrophic incident years ago—the Arctic Sea incident, if he remembered correctly.
The details remained unclear, but that disaster had decimated a Cassel Academy investigation team, representing their worst losses in decades. Only one and a half people survived: Finger and Schneider. The "half" referred to Schneider's condition—the incident left him crippled and dependent on his breathing apparatus for survival.
As for Finger, the trauma transformed him from a promising A-grade hybrid into someone who seemed to have given up entirely on life, content to eat snacks and waste away in academic limbo.
After a long moment of consideration, Gustave spoke: "I can help."
Finger had been bracing for rejection. The unexpected acceptance nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Wait, don't celebrate yet."
Gustave's interruption was like a bucket of cold water. Finger looked at him with renewed anxiety.
"If you want to become stronger, if you want to learn what we know, that's fine. But I won't be your teacher—Chu Zihang will."
How could Gustave teach anyone? Chu Zihang had reached his current level through self-study and Po's patient instruction. Every training session saw Po as the primary sparring partner while Gustave either napped nearby or entertained himself with other activities. The chef's role had been more supportive than instructional.
"Junior Brother would teach me?"
"Don't underestimate Zihang. He's stronger than you realize—he mastered everything I could have taught him and more. In terms of raw combat power, he's nearly caught up with your Principal Anjou. And I mean Anjou at full power."
"Junior Brother is really that strong now?" Finger struggled to process this information.
After all, Anjou was widely considered the most powerful known hybrid in existence, a survivor from a previous era. In his normal state, the principal was already formidable—he'd single-handedly subdued all Japanese hybrid bloodlines, forcing them to become a Cassel Academy branch. If existing hybrids were ranked by power, Anjou would undoubtedly occupy the top tier, with at least one full grade separating him from even Vice-Principal Flammel.
Finger had never witnessed Anjou at full strength, but he knew it would rival Gustave's dragon-slaying capabilities. Now Gustave claimed Chu Zihang was approaching that level? The concept was almost incomprehensible.
"Why would I lie to you? If you don't believe me, we can have Zihang demonstrate when he returns."
"No, no! I absolutely believe you, Foreign Aid Big Brother!"
How could Finger dare express doubt? What if Gustave took offense and decided to demonstrate his power directly on him?
"Relax, I'm not in the habit of lying," Gustave said, patting Finger's shoulder reassuringly.
In truth, Gustave hadn't exaggerated much. While Chu Zihang might not surpass Anjou in raw power, the comparison was complicated by different fighting philosophies. Chu Zihang's main disadvantages were limited combat experience and shorter burst capability. In a direct confrontation with Anjou, success would depend on avoiding the principal's terrifying time-manipulation Word Spirit: Time Zero. Neutralize that advantage, and Chu Zihang's odds would improve dramatically.
Physically, Chu Zihang now possessed a body that could genuinely rival a dragon's—far superior to Anjou's more human physique. Add his youth advantage and the One Piece world's emphasis on prolonged combat, and the dynamic shifted further. Battles in that world routinely lasted days or weeks. Force Anjou into an extended engagement, and the older hybrid would eventually falter.
Anjou's strength lay in explosive power—maximizing force output for devastating short-term attacks. Most hybrids in the Dragon World followed similar patterns.
But dragon slaying required the sustained high-level performance characteristic of the One Piece world. Dragons possessed incredible durability; fail to kill them quickly, and they'd tear you apart. Endurance was everything.
However, the Dragon Raja World's technological advantages couldn't be ignored. Weapons like the Sword of Damocles—a space-based kinetic strike system—had proven capable of eliminating Dragon Kings.
Such weapons had significant limitations, though: extensive preparation time and targeting difficulties. Dragons were notoriously fast and evasive. Without someone to pin them down, even the most powerful weapons became useless.
This was where Chu Zihang's One Piece training became invaluable. He possessed dragon-level physical capabilities and endurance, plus the ability to fly using Geppo. Combined with his hybrid dragon bloodline, he was essentially a dragon himself—but one that fought for humanity.
The differences remained notable: Chu Zihang lacked a dragon's massive size and couldn't wield Word Spirits with their natural fluency. But these limitations seemed minor compared to his advantages. After all, dragons didn't know the Six Powers or Haki.
As the old saying went, to defeat dragons, one must become a dragon. Chu Zihang was exactly that—humanity's dragon!
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