The open-air training ground.
The evening glow dyed the entire open area orange-red.
The Marines who had been doing basic stretches around the perimeter all very tacitly stopped what they were doing and retreated to the edge of the safety line a hundred meters away.
In the center of the field, two figures, one tall and one short, stood facing each other.
"Ha—!"
The ten-year-old Hancock let out a clear, sharp cry, her legs forcefully pushing off the ground as her petite body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
The unique physical combat power generation technique of Amazon Lily was displayed by her to its fullest extent. Her right fist swung through the air in an extremely standard arc, and even a faint but genuinely present layer of Armament Haki covered the pale surface of her fist!
For a ten-year-old child, this was already a monstrous display.
This powerful, heavy punch headed straight for Kane's face.
However, Kane didn't even take off the Admiral coat draped over his shoulders, his left hand still casually tucked in his pants pocket.
Only at the last 0.1 second before the fist was about to graze the tip of his nose did he leisurely withdraw his right hand, raise a single index finger, and gently tap it against Hancock's incoming fist.
Tap.
A crisp impact sound rang out.
Hancock felt as if her fist had smashed into a mountain forged from fine steel.
The recoil traveled up her arm, numbing half her body and abruptly halting her charging momentum.
Before she could adjust her balance, Kane's index finger curled naturally, his middle finger hooking his thumb, and delivered a flick right to her smooth forehead.
Thud!
The small body flew backward at three times the speed she had come in, tumbling five or six times across the sandy ground before finally landing face-first in a muddy pit, covered in dirt.
"Your power delivery is too scattered, your stance is too unstable, and your Armament Haki is as thin as paper," Kane mercilessly critiqued.
In the mud pit, Hancock coughed violently twice, spat out the sand in her mouth, and struggled to push herself up with her hands.
Her pale face was smeared with mud, a large red swelling right in the center of her forehead. Her sapphire-blue eyes burned with flames of humiliation and unwillingness, her teeth clenched tightly. She didn't even let out a single cry of pain.
"Again!"
The little girl charged once more.
The result was predictable.
A second forehead flick. A third forehead flick...
Ten minutes later, Hancock lay sprawled in the mud in a starfish shape, her chest heaving violently, completely drained of even the strength to move a single finger.
Nearby, Sandersonia and Marigold, who had long since exhausted themselves from running, clung to each other, watching their eldest sister get beaten one-sidedly, crying and wailing in fright.
The Marines outside the field broke out in a cold sweat.
Even though they were long accustomed to their base commander's inhumane methods, watching such a pretty little girl get repeatedly flicked away like a sandbag still made their scalps tingle.
This Admiral truly didn't hold back at all—he went all out!
"Practical sparring session concluded." Kane glanced at the pocket watch on his wrist, his tone devoid of any fluctuation. "Next is the physical endurance segment. There are high and low wooden stakes over there. Get up and practice extreme evasion. Fall once, and all three of you will sleep in the pigsty tonight."
"Bastard!" Hancock croaked hoarsely.
"Thanks for the compliment. Now get up there." Kane remained unmoved.
The next half hour could be described as the darkest hell the three sisters had ever experienced in their lives.
In Kane's training dictionary, the phrase "showing mercy to the fairer sex" simply did not exist.
On the fifteen-meter-high wooden stakes.
Hancock's legs were trembling uncontrollably. Her brain had nearly shut down from extreme oxygen deprivation, sustained only by a stubborn pride that screamed, "I absolutely cannot lose to this bastard of a man."
Beneath the stakes lay solid bluestone slabs.
Kane stood below, idly playing with a few pebbles the size of his fingertips, occasionally flicking one with his finger.
"Whoosh—"
A pebble cut through the air, grazing past Hancock's shoulder.
She instinctively dodged backward and to the side. But the moment her right foot aimed for the next stake, her overworked muscles completely gave out.
Her ankle buckled, and she stepped into empty air.
A sudden sense of weightlessness assaulted her.
"Ah!" She closed her eyes and cried out instinctively.
Falling fifteen meters onto bluestone without any protection would definitely break several bones!
Standing below, Kane frowned slightly.
This girl had reached her physical limit.
He raised his right hand, index and middle fingers pressed together, and made a gentle upward flicking motion toward mid-air.
Natural Logia Storm Fruit power, activate.
A gentle whirlwind swept up from the ground. The airflow rose from below, precisely catching Hancock's falling body. The strong yet supple wind force neutralized all gravitational acceleration, like a pair of broad, steady hands catching her firmly.
Hancock only felt her body lighten; the expected sharp pain never came.
She opened her eyes shakily.
She was suspended half a meter above the ground, enveloped in a warm current of air. Slowly, the airflow dissipated, and her feet landed steadily on solid ground.
She looked up.
Kane stood a few steps away, silhouetted against the setting sun's glow. His white Justice Coat fluttered sharply in the wind, his profile rugged and perfect.
He was looking down, writing something on a clipboard, seemingly not even glancing her way.
Hancock's mind went completely blank for a moment.
Just now... did he save me?
Hancock stared at Kane's outline, gilded by the sunset, and her heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
'Actually... he's not that bad,' the ten-year-old girl muttered quietly in her heart.
'Elder Nyon said that true powerhouses are always the strictest when teaching the younger generation! He's doing all this to force out my potential; he's concerned about me!'
A ten-year-old girl's capacity for mental fabrication is truly terrifying.
In just a few seconds, Hancock had completed a perfect "Stockholm syndrome" logical loop in her mind.
Her small face began to flush, and a strange, unprecedented emotion quietly spread within her heart.
"What are you looking at?"
Kane finished his notes and looked up, directly meeting Hancock's fixed, almost shy gaze.
He found the look utterly baffling, while simultaneously running another calculation rapidly through his mind:
'Close call! If she fell from fifteen meters with her current physique, she'd definitely break a bone. Going to the infirmary for a cast, bone setting, and special medicine—the whole process would cost tens of thousands of Berry! Can't do a losing deal!'
Their thought processes at that moment were completely on two different wavelengths.
"N-nothing!" Hancock abruptly turned her face away.
She let out a proud huff, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her chin high.
"Don't think I'll thank you just because you caught me! I'm just... just not in good form today! Once I master Haki, I'll beat you up sooner or later!"
Though her words remained tough, her ears, red enough to drip blood, completely betrayed the fluster in her heart.
Kane looked even more bewildered at this suddenly bashful little girl.
"Crazy."
Kane muttered, tossing the record board to the officer beside him.
"Energy depleted, training ends here for today. Take her to shower, then scram to the cafeteria to eat."
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