Back at the house, Arthur pulled out the wooden box where he kept all his money.
Counting in the day’s two sales, the total came to exactly 102,000 Berries.
He stared at the pile, his face darkening.
“Once I hand over rent tomorrow…
I’ll be down to 2,000 Berries.”
Right then, Cooper wandered in from outside and pressed his head gently against Arthur’s back.
The message was clear enough.
It wanted food.
“Unbelievable…”
Arthur pulled out 2,000 Berries, dropped the rest back into the box, and snapped the lid shut.
“If they’d just treat me like a normal resident instead of some undocumented drifter, I wouldn’t be paying double rent.”
The going rate for rent was 50,000 Berries a month.
Since Arthur had no official citizenship registered anywhere in the Goa Kingdom, the village chief charged him twice the usual amount.
“Come on, Cooper.
Let’s eat, then we train.”
Arthur let out a heavy breath.
He’d brought down a solid haul of game that morning, expecting today to be a good one.
Then the bandits had wrecked nearly all of it.
What remained was maybe twenty or thirty pounds — barely enough to feed the two of them.
With the last 2,000 Berries stuffed in his pocket, Arthur cleaned what meat he’d salvaged out in the yard and set it over a fire to roast.
About ten minutes later, the smell of cooking meat drifted through the air.
Arthur and Cooper settled against the fence in the yard, watching the endless stretch of golden rapeseed blossoms glow under the afternoon sun.
“I cleared this whole field myself, you know…”
Arthur took another bite.
“And now look at it — grown back thicker than before.”
His mind wandered back over the last decade.
Hunt.
Sell the meat.
Train.
Repeat.
Day in, day out.
Year after year.
His body had long since hit the ceiling of what plain physical training could give him.
For the last six months, there’d been no progress at all.
And yet—
he kept at it anyway.
This was a world where the World Economic Journal printed stories of pirate raids, attacks, and wars almost daily.
Arthur had always carried a quiet fear of being cut down by some nobody pirate before he ever amounted to anything.
But now…
he doubted that fear still held much weight.
When he’d thrown punches at Monkey D.
Dragon earlier, he’d caught the flicker of concern cross the man’s face.
That alone told him something important.
Against regular people, there probably weren’t many who could stand against him.
Arthur reached over and scratched the top of Cooper’s pale head.
“What do you think, Cooper?”
“Maybe it’s about time we changed how we’re living.”
“If we just stay rooted here forever…”
“We’re never going to get any stronger.”
“Cooper.”
The eagle bobbed its head happily between bites of roasted meat, nodding along.
Dragon showing up felt like the start of something new.
Arthur, knowing the story of One Piece as well as he did, had never planned on making the Marines his lifelong path.
But…
he did want to get his hands on the Six Powers — Rokushiki.
It would give him a real foundation, something to push past the wall he’d already hit.
Enlisting looked like the quickest route to that kind of knowledge.
And besides…
Dragon just happened to land on this very island.
Arthur had always had a soft spot for Luffy.
Crossing paths with Luffy’s father wasn’t exactly a bad place to start.
“First things first.”
“Training.”
That night…
Gunfire rattled through the mountains.
Dragon led his Marines through the forest, clearing out every last bandit hiding near the village.
Late in the evening, Arthur and Cooper finally trudged home after another grueling training session.
The moment Arthur pushed open the gate—
he spotted a familiar shape standing in the courtyard.
“Colonel Dragon?”
Dragon stood there under the moonlight in his white coat of Justice, looking as though he’d been waiting a good while.
Arthur stood at 189 centimeters.
Even so—
he still had to tilt his head up a touch to meet Dragon’s eyes.
“The bandits are dealt with.”
Dragon said evenly.
“Before I came here, I stopped by the village chief’s place.”
“Turns out you don’t exist in any official record within the Goa Kingdom.”
Arthur walked right past him, as if he’d already guessed the purpose of the visit.
“What’s a Headquarters Colonel doing at my front door?”
He already knew the answer.
What he’d shown earlier wasn’t strength a normal fourteen-year-old should have.
Of course Dragon had come looking.
This could be my opening, Arthur thought.
Enlist, pick up Rokushiki…
then move on.
Join — but not stay forever.
His body had already plateaued from training alone.
If he wanted to keep climbing—
he needed a different path.
Dragon was just about to respond—
when something else grabbed his attention.
His gaze drifted toward a brightly lit house nearby.
Through the window of the village chief’s bedroom, two tangled shadows moved against the curtain.
Dragon froze mid-sentence.
“…”
Then he pointed awkwardly toward the house.
“You…”
“You actually live next door to that?”
Unmistakable sounds carried from inside.
Even Dragon—
barely twenty-three—
couldn’t stop the color rising in his face.
Arthur didn’t even bother glancing over.
He’d long since gotten used to it.
“So…”
He smirked.
“The great Colonel Dragon’s got an interest in that sort of thing?”
Dragon’s face went red instantly.
“I-I do not!”
“You’re blushing, Colonel.”
Arthur grinned wider.
“If I spent my days daydreaming about women, I’d never have trained this hard.”
“A bit of Berries, and I could head down to the tavern and have a fine night myself.”
Dragon suddenly had the strange sense that the fourteen-year-old in front of him was somehow the more seasoned of the two.
He coughed, trying to regain some footing.
Arthur wasn’t finished.
“You’re Vice Admiral Garp’s son.”
“Don’t tell me the old man never dragged you somewhere…
educational.”
Privately, Arthur couldn’t help being impressed by the apparent potency of deer kidney and a pair of stag testicles.
They really did seem to work wonders.
Especially in a world where every living thing ran stronger than the norm.
Dragon flustered.
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Of course I’ve…
done that sort of thing before!”
Arthur leaned in, voice low.
“…Colonel.”
“You’re still a virgin, aren’t you.”
Dragon’s face turned a deep shade of crimson.
His expression said everything words couldn’t.
“So Luffy’s mother hasn’t entered the picture yet, huh…”
Arthur clicked his tongue.
Beside him, Cooper strutted past Dragon and called out pointedly:
“Cooper.”
Somehow, the bird’s tone landed exactly the same jab Arthur had been making.
Dragon stood rooted in the courtyard, quietly reevaluating his entire existence.
By the time Arthur and Cooper had finished their meal and were lazily picking bits of meat from their teeth by the window…
Dragon had finally pulled himself together.
“There’s exactly one reason I came here.”
“Oh?”
Arthur played dumb.
“And what would that be?”
Dragon’s expression turned serious again.
“Six years back…”
“The Rocks Pirates were brought down at God Valley.”
“But the scattered remnants have started regrouping.”
“They’re spreading their reach across the seas again.”
“Whatever brief calm the world enjoyed — it’s over.”
“Pirates are once more dragging countless innocent people into suffering.”
“A fresh era of conflict is starting.”
“The Marines need strong people.”
“So…”
“You understand why I’m standing here?”
Arthur’s fists tightened.
Finally.
He’s making the offer himself.
Saves me the trouble of asking.
“I’ll join.”
Arthur looked him dead in the eye.
“But there’s one condition.”
Dragon blinked.
“Name it.”
“I want to learn Rokushiki.”
Arthur slung an arm around Cooper’s neck.
“And Cooper’s coming too.”
“Cooper?!”
The eagle let out a startled cry.
Truthfully, it didn’t care where they ended up.
Wherever Arthur went, that was home enough.
Dragon broke into laughter.
“Ha ha ha!”
“Not a problem at all.”
“With talent like yours, I’ll personally teach you Rokushiki.”
“As for the eagle…”
“It can enlist too.”
Then his face turned solemn again.
“That said…”
“You won’t get much time to train.”
“The latest batch Instructor Zephyr trained has already shipped out to the front.”
“There are a couple of monsters in that bunch.”
Dragon wasn’t entirely sure himself whether putting Arthur in that league was a compliment or just a guess.
Only time would tell for certain.
Arthur went quiet.
A short training window…
then straight into actual combat?
Not exactly the ideal setup.
But really, the choice in front of him was simple.
Stay on this island for good…
or enlist and step straight into the coming storm.
If he stayed…
life could probably be comfortable enough, for the rest of his days.
He wasn’t bad-looking, after all.
Honestly, fairly handsome.
The girls working the village tavern flirted with him every time he passed.
If he wanted that life…
he could settle down, raise a family, live out his days in peace.
About an hour ticked by.
Dragon watched as Arthur mulled it over in increasingly strange poses.
Sprawled across the windowsill at one point.
Perched on the roof the next.
Then absentmindedly hugging Cooper while swinging his legs back and forth.
Eventually…
Dragon’s patience ran dry.
“Made up your mind yet?”
Arthur glanced over.
“Colonel…”
“Can an eagle actually learn Rokushiki?”
That, more than anything, mattered to him.
If Cooper could grow stronger too…
then Arthur would always have a companion at his side he could fully trust.
Dragon nodded, confident.
“When it tried pushing back against my wind earlier with nothing but its wings…”
“I knew right then.”
“That bird’s got real potential.”
Arthur smiled.
“Then it’s decided.”
“I’m joining the Marines.”
“Name’s Arthur.”
“Looking forward to your guidance, Colonel.”
Just then—
another loud moan drifted over from the chief’s house.
“Ahh~ Chief!”
“What’s gotten into you tonight?”
“You’re incredible!”
Arthur only grinned.
He’d heard this a hundred times before.
Dragon, meanwhile, went rigid.
Arthur laughed.
“Don’t worry about it, Colonel.”
“Women in this world don’t hold back much.”
“Honestly, I’m past being interested in the ordinary kind.”
Dragon shot him an irritated look.
“Enough.”
“I’ve traveled the seas with the old man.”
“You think I haven’t seen things?”
By then Arthur had already finished packing.
His belongings amounted to:
a box holding 100,000 Berries,
his sword,
Cooper,
and nothing else.
Looking him over more carefully, Arthur guessed Dragon stood somewhere around 2.5 meters tall.
“Before we head out…”
Dragon said.
“I want to see what you’re capable of.”
Arthur nodded.
“I couldn’t even land a hit on you earlier.”
“How do you want to do this?”
Dragon dropped into a fighting stance.
“No Devil Fruit from me.”
“Hand-to-hand, swordsmanship, whatever you’ve got—”
“Come at me with everything.”
Arthur glanced down at the sword at his hip.
“…I’ll keep it to fists.”
Dragon grinned.
“Then let’s see it.”
Arthur shut his eyes.
“Ten years…”
“One punch.”
When his eyes opened again—
even Dragon’s expression shifted.
The sheer intent radiating off the boy was enough to bead sweat on Dragon’s forehead.
The next instant—
Arthur was gone.
He reappeared right in front of Dragon.
His fist tore through the air with a thunderous crack.
Dragon’s eyes flashed.
“Just as I figured…”
“This kid’s strength is something else!”
Dragon met the punch head-on with one of his own.
BOOM!
The clash detonated across the silent night.
Neither side budged an inch.
Dead even.
Arthur frowned.
“What’s happening here?”
Dragon looked like he was straining.
“Have I actually gotten this strong?”
For the first time—
Arthur truly felt the weight of ten unbroken years of training.
His chest burned with excitement.
Barely straining at all—
he pushed harder.
Dragon went flying backward.
He tore clean through the rapeseed field and crashed straight into the village chief’s house.
CRASH!!
A woman’s scream rang out from inside.
“Aaahh!”
“Get off me!”
Dragon scrambled upright in a panic.
“S-sorry, ma’am!”
“This is a misunderstanding!”
The unconscious village chief lay sprawled nearby.
Dragon had landed right on top of the chief’s wife when he crashed through the wall.
Before he could explain himself further—
Arthur came charging straight through the dust and debris.
“Let’s keep this going!”
His blood was up.
He drove another punch toward Dragon.
He’d finally figured something out.
Straightforward hand-to-hand combat…
could actually overpower Dragon.
Arthur laughed as he kept throwing punch after punch.
Dragon blocked while studying Arthur’s wild, unrefined fighting style.
Then he murmured quietly:
“Iron Body.”
All at once—
it felt to Arthur like he’d slammed his fist into solid iron.
His punches stopped doing anything at all.
Dragon seized the opening.
His hardened fist drove upward into Arthur’s jaw.
BANG!
Arthur’s world spun.
His body went completely out of his control.
He was sent flying more than ten meters into the air.
Dragon immediately kicked off thin air with Geppo, the Moonwalk technique.
He appeared above Arthur and drove him back down into the rapeseed field with another crushing blow.
The chief’s wife watched on, horrified.
The two of them looked less like people…
and more like something else entirely.
Dragon landed and offered a polite bow.
“My apologies, ma’am.”
“We’re just running a strength evaluation.”
“Please get the chief somewhere safer.”
Arthur slowly pulled himself up.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He clutched his chest, coughing hard.
“Hey!”
“If you’re allowed to bust out Rokushiki…”
“How am I supposed to survive that?!”
Those last two hits had nearly put his lights out.
Dragon smiled.
“I’ll give you this much…”
“You’re the strongest monster I’ve come across in the East Blue.”
“I’m a Headquarters Colonel.”
“I’ve sparred with Sakazuki and Borsalino.”
“How could I possibly lose to someone who hasn’t even enlisted yet?”
Arthur’s eyes went wide.
If his raw physical strength already stood comparable to monsters like Dragon…
then ten years hadn’t been wasted after all.
He nearly felt like crying from sheer relief.
At the same time…
something else became even clearer to him.
Pure physical power alone wasn’t going to cut it.
Without Haki, Rokushiki, and real combat technique behind it…
death could still find him at any moment.
“That’s enough for tonight…”
Arthur sank down into the rapeseed flowers.
“We’ll pick this up another time.”
Dragon nodded.
“Fair enough.”
“Rest up, and we’ll continue.”
After their short exchange…
Dragon had already settled on his own verdict.
Arthur’s talent was something rare.
Once he stepped into the Marines…
he was going to turn heads.