Laughing heartily, Teach left the blacksmith shop with a pouch full of Berries jingling in his hand.
He visited the few shops in town next.
Under the fearful gazes of the townspeople, he quickly purchased some daily necessities and replenished his supply of grain and vegetables before hurrying back to the dock.
After storing everything inside his wooden hut, Teach headed to the shore.
He stripped down to his shorts, revealing his lean, powerful body.
Then, gripping his three-clawed gauntlet, he leaped into the sea.
It was still afternoon, and he planned to hunt a Sea Beast for dinner.
He trained every night, and without enough food, his body would never be able to sustain such intense exercise.
At only twelve years old, Teach was already 1.9 meters tall and powerfully built.
When dressed in his usual grey trousers and black shirt, he looked like a bear standing on two legs from a distance.
Even his face was…
No, his face was still normal—for now.
As the saying went, a person’s face reflected their heart.
As Teach grew and changed on the inside, his appearance was gradually changing as well.
He radiated a rugged masculinity, though his fierce features made it obvious at a glance that he was no good man.
Teach moved through the water with surprising agility.
Fish constantly swam past him, but none of them were his target.
He activated the Observation Haki he had awakened several years earlier and searched the surrounding waters for large marine creatures.
He was looking for a Sea Beast.
As for the much larger Sea Kings, he might have dared to fight one on land.
In the water, however, he knew better.
He still had a grand ambition to fulfill and had no intention of dying so young.
“Gurgle, gurgle…” Teach exhaled a stream of bubbles and changed course.
There was a Sea Beast two nautical miles to his left.
His luck was good.
Sea Beasts and Sea Kings rarely ventured this close to the island.
Gripping his claw gauntlet, Teach kicked his legs powerfully and shot through the water.
“Snort!” A five-meter-long Sea Beast with a pig’s snout and the body of a fish swam leisurely ahead.
Teach approached it from behind.
Once he was within a hundred meters, he suddenly accelerated.
His movements churned the water, alerting the pig-snouted Sea Beast.
It frantically tried to turn, but it was already too late.
“Slash!” Teach’s claw gauntlet tore three wounds across its body.
Blood gushed out, staining the surrounding water red.
“Snort!” The Sea Beast shrieked in pain, thrashed its tail, and opened its enormous mouth to bite him.
Teach kicked upward, narrowly avoiding its sharp teeth.
He twisted his body and latched onto the creature’s back.
“Slash!
Slash!” Teach drove his claws into the Sea Beast again and again, drawing a fresh gush of blood with every strike.
The creature screamed and struggled desperately, twisting its body in an attempt to throw him off.
Teach hooked one hand into a bleeding wound to secure himself while continuing to stab with the other.
Gradually, the Sea Beast stopped struggling and began to sink.
Teach released it, grabbed its tail, and swam toward the surface.
“Splash!” “Huff…
Huff…” The moment his head broke through the surface, Teach gasped for air.
He had held his breath for far too long.
Had the Sea Beast survived much longer, he would have been forced to give up.
“Zehahaha!
I’m going to feast tonight!” Laughing, Teach dragged the Sea Beast back toward the dock.
“Monster…
He really is a monster.” “Keep your voice down.
Just stay away from him.” It was already evening.
Several fishermen returning from sea spotted Teach hauling the Sea Beast and whispered among themselves.
They believed he was too far away to hear them, but all five of Teach’s senses were exceptionally sharp.
His lips curled into a smile.
Still carrying the Sea Beast, he walked directly toward the men who had been talking about him.
“Bang!” He kicked one of them into the sea.
An arrogant grin spread across his face.
“How dare trash like you talk about me?” The fisherman surfaced, coughing up blood as he struggled to stay afloat.
He did not dare raise his head to meet Teach’s gaze.
“Hmph.” Seeing that the man had cowered, Teach lost interest and left him alone.
He had initially considered killing him outright.
Teach carried the Sea Beast back to his hut, drew his claw gauntlet, and skillfully butchered it.
He had not eaten enough at noon, and after wrestling with the Sea Beast all afternoon, he was starving.
He quickly lit a fire and prepared both a pot and a grill.
Before long, a pot of meat soup simmered beside slabs of roasted meat.
Teach drank the soup and ate the roasted meat while preparing the remaining cuts.
By the time darkness fell, nothing remained of the five-meter-long Sea Beast but its skeleton.
Teach lay on his bed and rubbed his greatly swollen belly.
“That was satisfying!” He remained there for a long time with his eyes closed, but sleep never came.
He was still full of energy.
“Damn it.
Will I never know what it feels like to sleep?” Teach cursed under his breath.
“Sigh…” He sat up.
His swollen stomach had already returned to normal.
This body truly was abnormal.
Not long after the strange memories appeared in his mind, he awakened the ability they called Observation Haki.
Then there was his immense strength, his height of 1.9 meters at only twelve years old, and his bear-like physique.
Years of training had covered his body in dense muscle.
Most unusual of all was his special body structure, which allowed him to consume more than one Devil Fruit.
He, Marshall D.
Teach, was destined for greatness.
One day, he would rule the seas!
Teach stopped fantasizing about the future, touched his flat stomach, and stepped outside.
He hoisted the large stone beside his hut onto his shoulders and began performing deep squats and jumps beneath the moonlight.
The night was long for Teach, and the dock was already deserted.
“One, two, three…
five hundred.” “Whew…” He released a long breath, picked up a nearby water jar, and drank half of it in a single gulp.
“Time for the next exercise.” Teach set down the stone and took out several strips of dark red cloth, carefully wrapping them around his hands.
“Bang!
Bang!
Bang!” He struck a thick tree with punch after punch.
The trunk was already covered in marks from his previous training sessions.
Every blow was delivered with all his strength, sending splinters flying.
“Bang!” “Crack!” His final punch snapped the tree in half.
Blood had already seeped through the cloth wrapped around his hands.
Teach slowly unwound it, grinned, and shook out his aching fingers.
“I can’t keep using trees for training.
I’ve already ruined all the ones nearby.” Feeling the pain in his hands, he sighed.
“If this pain were doubled, how unbearable would it be?” Then he suddenly laughed.
“I haven’t even met Whitebeard yet, and the Dark-Dark Fruit is nowhere in sight.
Why am I worrying about that now?” Perhaps the deserted dock made him feel lonely at night, but Teach always talked to himself while training.
He disliked loneliness, yet he was also remarkably patient.
Merely imagining his future was enough to fill him with fighting spirit.
Only overwhelming strength could support his ambitions.
Money, beautiful women, power, and battles against powerful opponents—every one of them filled him with excitement.
“Zehahaha!
The night is still long, and my ambitions reach far beyond this!” Teach found the large stone again, wrapped it securely in a fishing net, and tied the rope around his body.
“Splash!” Dragging the stone behind him, he jumped into the sea.
He relied on Observation Haki instead of his eyes as he swam through the dark water, pulling the heavy stone behind him.
Teach savored the feeling of swimming, knowing that every time he entered the sea brought him closer to the day when he would no longer be able to do so.
He was determined to obtain that Devil Fruit in the future.
It would become the cornerstone of his ambition.