In the sky above a certain area of the Grand Line, seagulls flew past from time to time. The sun was bright, the sea breeze gentle, presenting a scene of fine weather.
At this moment, a Navy warship was sailing through these waters.
On the deck, a burly figure was incessantly doing push-ups, sweat dripping down his face and fur.
Lying on top of him was another figure.
"You didn't do that last rep properly, so it doesn't count! That was number nine hundred and sixty-four!"
Kyle's calm voice rang out. He was still lying down, wearing his sunglasses, only this time his location wasn't a deck chair but on top of Chopper's back.
As Kyle had roughly anticipated, Chopper's body didn't need a full month to recover. It only took about ten days for him to be mostly healed.
Now, it was the seventh day since Chopper's body had fully recovered, and also the seventh day of his training.
A pet was a pet, but combat strength was still necessary.
He didn't have the conditions here to train a Kung Fu Panda, but training a Master Shifu was no problem!
It had also been over half a month since they left Drum Island. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they should be back at Navy Headquarters in a couple of days.
Upon hearing Kyle's words, Chopper, beneath him, didn't react much. Or rather, at that moment, he simply didn't have the strength to react to anything else.
He could only rely on his willpower to persevere, again and again, to achieve the goal of one thousand standard push-ups.
"Nine hundred and seventy-one... nine hundred and seventy-nine... nine hundred and ninety..."
"One thousand!!"
After Chopper silently counted the final number in his heart, he could hold on no longer. His body went limp and he collapsed toward the deck.
The instant Chopper finished the thousandth push-up, Kyle vanished from his back and reappeared on the other side.
Looking at Chopper, who was lying spread-eagled on the deck, gasping for air, a smile appeared on Kyle's lips.
"Not bad!"
Kyle wasn't being insincere. Chopper's current strength might not be much, but his willpower was remarkably strong, almost comparable to Zoro's. This was quite different from the situation Chopper had displayed in the original story.
But this wasn't really surprising.
Although they were both Chopper, the growth trajectories were vastly different.
When shaping a person's character, the influence of the surrounding environment is crucial.
The 'environment' here refers not only to one's living conditions but also to the cultural and social environment.
If the people you interact with are different, then the influence you receive will naturally be different as well.
Kyle walked into the cabin and emerged a while later carrying a tray with three drinks on it.
He came before Chopper. Catching the scent of the fruit tea, Chopper's blue nose twitched involuntarily, and his tightly shut eyes immediately flew open.
He instantly locked onto the fruit tea in Kyle's hand, and a gleam of light burst forth in his eyes.
"Here!"
Kyle held out a drink towards him. A mysterious surge of strength seemed to inject itself into Chopper's already sore and limp body. He immediately sat up and took the drink from Kyle.
"Arigato!"
Chopper put his mouth to the straw and took a sip of the drink. A look of delight immediately appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, Kyle continued walking toward Sabo, who was sitting on the other side of the ship, on the railing.
When he was a short distance behind Sabo, Kyle deliberately lightened his footsteps, causing his own sounds to vanish completely.
He came up behind Sabo. He didn't hand him the drink, nor did he speak. Instead, he reached out his hand and swung a palm strike toward Sabo.
Just as his palm was about to hit Sabo, his head suddenly dipped down, brushing past Kyle's hand.
"Hm?!"
Kyle's tone carried a hint of surprise.
"After all these days of hard work, you really have improved a little."
"What did you expect?!"
Sabo's voice carried a smile as he slowly turned his head.
The next second, his smiling face suddenly froze, and his pupils shrank slightly.
Because at that moment, another palm had already appeared in front of his eyes, less than 0.01 centimeters from his face.
Smack!!
Sabo was sent flying by the slap and landed on the deck ten meters away.
"I only said you'd made a little progress, why are you so happy?"
Kyle said calmly, at the same time tossing the other drink toward Sabo.
The drink flew through the air in a perfectly horizontal trajectory, not a single drop of its contents spilling out.
Sabo caught the drink and, after taking a sip, couldn't help but purse his lips at Kyle, but in the end, he said nothing.
There was no helping it. Even though his strength had recently been improving by leaps and bounds, the gap between him and Kyle was still far too great.
For the time being, Kyle was still someone he couldn't afford to provoke.
If he were stubborn now, his fate later would likely be getting beaten up.
But—
He couldn't beat Kyle, but could he possibly not beat those foolish little brothers of his back at Navy Headquarters?
He refused to believe that Luffy and the others had increased their strength as much as he had during this time.
Having eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and learned from Kyle's experience, his current strength was several levels higher than when he'd first set out to sea.
Moreover, by leveraging the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he had developed his Observation Haki to an enormous extent.
The characteristic of a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user is that almost no one can match them in the breadth of their Observation Haki.
Even though he'd only had the fruit for a short while, after receiving Kyle's teachings, his Observation Haki could now easily cover a fairly large island.
This wasn't solely the function of Observation Haki, but the effect of combining Observation Haki with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The breadth was sufficient now, so he needed to focus more on depth.
To move toward seeing the future!
After some time, seeing the future was naturally still far off, but his Observation Haki's perception had grown stronger. Combined with his Rumble-Rumble Fruit speed, he was absolutely confident those foolish little brothers couldn't even touch him.
He was really looking forward to returning to Navy Headquarters and giving those little brothers a huge surprise.
When that time came, he just hoped they wouldn't be crying for their mom and dad after he beat them!
However, he wasn't the only one with such confidence.
—
At the Navy Headquarters, Marineford, in the mountains behind the base.
*Thump, thump, thump—*
A series of dull sounds could be heard, and a chain of vibrations rippled through the void.
Countless figures were constantly moving around, jointly besieging the old man radiating immense heroic spirit at the center.
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