[Kaienreki Calendar 1502, June]
After Koushirou left, Ina and Lupin went on and tidied up the room and stored their belongings in the different pieces of furniture.
A short while later another student of Koushirou's delivered the masks to the room, by knocking and placing them on the floor before the closed door.
They were simple featureless white masks that only had a gap for the eyes and mouth.
Simple, but functional.
'Finally I can train for real again!', Lupin sighed in his heart, as they finally settled down again.
…
[Kaienreki Calendar 1502, September]
Since the day they had arrived at the dojo, three months had passed.
The world had experienced some great incidents, the Buster Call on Ohara being the biggest and most impactful. At this point Nico Robin already had a bounty of 79 000 000 berry placed on her head, simply for being the last person to know how to read the Poneglyphs.
Lupin knew her backstory and truly found her to be pitiful, having lost everything and everyone dear to her. She wouldn't be able to trust anyone for more than two decades until she would meet Luffy and the other Strawhats. And that is only if he decided not to interfere too much with the canon, otherwise the butterfly effect could very well, prevent their meeting.
Sadly for Nico Robin, Lupin did not care about the canon and would simply act according to his will. Still should the chance reveal itself, he wouldn't mind giving the 'demon child' a helping hand and maybe even get her help in finding Laugh Tale.
Lupin may not be interested in the 'treasure' per se, but even he had a basic curiosity about what One Piece really was. Maybe going there and taking a look in the future wouldn't be a bad idea.
Another relatively important thing that happened was Shiki The Golden Lion's escape from Impel Down, with him being the first one to ever escape the underwater prison.
He represented a major stain on the World Government's reputation, which was probably why he had decided to hide away on his flying island, not willing to risk retaliation from the Marines.
Aside from that, Lupin had made major progress in his training, having realized that the opportunity to train in peace wasn't easy to come by after the visit from CP5.
He trained like an absolute madman, not stepping away from the weights without literally being unable to even move from all the tears in his muscles and ligaments. At one point he had even started to sweat blood. Without his healing factor, he probably wouldn't have survived his training without some very heavy injuries and even some permanent ailments.
But it had worked, his training had yielded great results.
His physical strength had nearly doubled in only three months, he was now able to lift ten whole tons.
He had also trained his Haki simultaneously, activating his Observation Haki basically everytime he could and using Armament Haki on parts of his body that wouldn't negatively affect his training, like the soles of his feet, his back or his forehead.
This proved very effective, also it seemed his anger, at the World Government forcing him to leave his home and trying to restrict his freedom, had strengthened his resolve and thus also his Haki.
He had also used the Rokushiki in his physical conditioning as he had planned, which led to a major improvement in his Soru and Geppo.
Lupin was finally able to combine them into Kamisoru, a three-dimensional movement technique that Rob Lucci had also used. That alone was probably worth more than all his other improvements.
Koushirou had also taken one day each week to train him on a one-on-one basis, in the same private training field where his weights were placed.
Due to his experience in Haki, he had learned Sword Will on the very first day.
Sword Will was the name Lupin had given the technique, where the sword only cut according to the wielders intentions. Meaning he could swing his weapon at a thin leaf and leave no mark on it.
The rest of the days were mostly just spent improving on his already existing skills and occasionally sparring with Koushirou. Of course their spars were held on a secluded spot on the shore, so they wouldn't alarm the other inhabitants of the dojo with their clash.
Though they even held back their full strength in the spars on the beach, fighting more for experience's sake and to get Lupin used to faster battles, where accuracy and judgement was key.
Lupin's improvement was drastic and at this point he decided it was time for him to test his strength in real battles, so he decided to hunt down Sea Kings living near the island.
Also Koushirou's wife was pregnant and really close to the delivery date, so they had decided to stop their spars for a while until the baby was born, as his teacher spent most of his time at her side.
With the use of his Observation Haki, the range of which had increased to roughly a kilometer in radius, it was relatively easy to find strong presences underwater.
He had already tested his mobility underwater with the Rokushiki, which thanks to his massive physical strength and perfect body control was still pretty decent.
So here he was, using Kamisoru and Observation Haki to search the surrounding ocean of the island for Sea Kings.
Right now, he was moving around only a few centimeters above the surface of the sea.
Before long he found a strong presence several dozen meters below the surface, its strength ranging a little under Koushirou's, so Lupin thought that it shouldn't be a problem for him to hunt down the massive creature, considering it lacked the intelligence of a human.
Rising into the air with a few jumps, he spun around to dive headfirst into the water giving himself a boost with Kamisoru to build up speed.
Shortly before he touched the sea surface, he had sent a wind blade at it to stir it up and reduce the resistance due to the surface tension of the liquid.
Feeling the water around him resisting his movements while diving, he kicked off again and again using Kamisoru to approach the Sea King with enough speed to land a surprise attack.
Reaching a depth of around a hundred meters, he could only depend on his Observation Haki to sense his surroundings as there was no light and hardly any noises.
The pressure was massive, but he wasn't phased. His physical body was strong enough to endure the pressure even without the Haki he had coated his body with.
'Seeing' that the creature was only a short distance away with his Haki, he readied his blackened blade, while still in full motion, and the moment the distance had shrunk to only half a meter he swung his blade at the Sea Kings body, sending a Haki-enhanced pressurized water blade at it.
*SHING*
*ROAAOAAOAORR*
The roar of pain sent tremors into the surrounding water, but Lupin wasn't affected.
His one attack had neatly bisected the beast and the scream it uttered was the last it would voice out in this life.
'Well, that was a little anticlimactic... The Sea King was surprisingly weak. Hmm... we are in the East Blue afterall and if even Luffy could defeat the overlord of the coast of his home island with his meager strength, than I shouldn't be surprised about my easy victory. I will have to suppress my strength for the next hunts, so that I can get at least a little battle experience from this.', Lupin sighed to himself.
Lupin had forgotten that the Sea Kings, while feared by anyone who was moving by boat, also had massive differences in their strength. While their most fearsome attribute was their sheer size and ability to sink ships by attacking from underwater.
Even so, the Sea Kings in the East Blue were comparably the weakest in the world, while Lupin himself could already be considered the strongest fighter in the East Blue. Of course that excluded those people that visited the East Blue, but mainly operated on the Grand Line. Like Garp or Shanks.
Sheathing his sword, Lupin grabbed the two pieces of the Sea King and used Kamisoru to move upwards and get back to the coast. The Sea King meat would be a definite boon for his body training.
…
[Two weeks later]
Kicking off the water, Lupin pushed himself out of the way from the massive jaw that snapped shut a moment later in the place he had been before.
Using the short opening the failed attack of the Sea King had left in its attacking rhythm, he used Kamisoru again to approach the snake-like body of the creature and swung his word at it.
Leaving a shallow cut, he retreated again as the Sea King's tail swung at Lupin.
Having not used Haki offensively, but only a shallow layer to protect the blade from the stress his strength and the surrounding pressure exerted on it, he couldn't leave a deeper wound as he had limited his physical strength like he had his Haki.
The battle went on for a few minutes, all the while Lupin only ever dodged and attacked when the Sea King left himself open for a counter maneuver.
At this point the massive maritime creature had dozens of small cuts all over its body, it had even been blinded in its left eye.
Lupin had used these battles of attrition over the last few days to gather some battle experience and train his skills using the enormous water pressure surrounding him. He had long since stopped using his Haki to coat his whole body, which made every movement underwater at least two times harder.
Still, it was great practice.
Sadly, Lupin couldn't keep this up for too long, as he needed air to breathe and could only hold his breath for several short minutes.
Deciding to end the battle, Lupin strengthened the Haki-coating on his blade, giving it a deep black colour, before using his full physical strength to execute Kamisoru.
Vanishing instantly, he reappeared behind the twelve meter long Sea King, which still hadn't noticed that the fight was already over.
A moment later its head separated itself from the creature's body, while Lupin grabbed the parts with now practiced ease and started his return trip to the shore.
In the last two weeks he had done these hunts every three days which had forced him to look for Sea Kings at a rather great distance from the island.
It would take him two whole hours to return from this hunt, as the weight of his prey made it impossible to move at his highest speed.
The solution on the other hand was pretty obvious: Easing his burden by eating the Sea King.
Thanks to his beastly side, he had no problem eating raw meat and by using Seimei Kikan, like he did with every meal, it was no problem to devour the whole creature relatively quickly.
Of course he left a good piece of it for Ina to consume.
In only two weeks with this new 'Sea King'-diet, his physical training had taken another great leap forward and it showed no signs of stopping.
Another piece of news was that Kuina, Koushirou's daughter had been born yesterday. Sadly, his wife had died while giving birth to the girl.
As Lupin wasn't a great talker and rather inept at social interactions, he had just given his condolences before deciding to give the Koushirou some space to grieve.
'Life. Such a fragile thing, sigh...', the boy thought to himself, as his hand reflexively touched the pendant around his neck.
Lupin continued his musings about the paradox that is life, as he devoured his prey and moved towards Shimotsuki Island.
Of course he wasn't just wasting his time with his idle thoughts. His spiritual energy was constantly revolving around his frame under his precise control, as he used his Observation Haki and Armament to different degrees, training his control and precision over that ethereal energy.
A while later, he finally arrived back on the hidden beach, where he had left their boat a few months back. Ina was already waiting for him at the side of a bonfire.
The only thing left of his prey was a piece weighing roughly two hundred kilograms, more than enough for Ina to consume over the next few days.
He himself would not have to eat for days after his 'little' meal on the way back.
Laying down his catch beside the fire, he vanished from the campsite and reappeared at a small creak in the nearby forest, where he washed and dried himself off. Before directly transforming into his wolf form and appearing back at the campsite using Kamisoru in his beastly form.
Laying down in his usual position behind Ina, he decided to rest for a short while, just letting himself be used as a giant-sized plush toy. Even though he kept up his Haki practice, like he did most of the day.
…
[Kaienreki Calendar 1503, October]
A whole year passed like this. Lupin never stopped his torturous training, as he continued to reap enormous benefits from this routine combined with the Sea King meat he hunted for himself.
Ina herself had no healing factor, but she still pushed her limits while training. Also benefiting greatly from the Sea King meat Lupin brought back from his hunts for her.
Still, nowadays it was getting hard to find Sea Kings nearby, so Lupin had decided that it was time to adventure out into the East Blue in his hunt for the rulers of the deep sea.
His control over spiritual energy had also become near perfect after all this time, while his swordsmanship had also advanced by leaps and bounds.
Lupin had decided that it was time to finally gain more control over his Conqueror's Haki, which he had neglected these last few years as the training was very time consuming.
He also planned to learn Emission Haki and focus on some of the Rokushiki techniques he had not bothered much, like Tekkai and Kami-e. Of course he had already mastered the techniques after all the time training in them, but he wanted to go a step further and use them to invent a whole new technique.
At this point he also had to stop using the weights to train, as his physical strength had grown so much that the amount of weights he needed was ridiculous.
So he had opted for another kind of training. Having ordered a rod made out of steel weighing several hundred kilos, he used it to pierce and lift giant boulders, he had cut off from the surrounding mountains with his swords beforehand.
It was also great Haki practice, as he not only had to coat the steel rod, but also the mountain piece with Haki to keep it from crumbling, while he trained. He also often ventured into the deep sea and trained there using the surrounding water pressure.
In a short span of one year he had become several times more powerful and he didn't plan to stop there.
That was also why he now found himself on the shore, bidding goodbye to Ina and Koushirou.
"Thank you for your teachings in the sword and letting me stay in the dojo all this time, Koushirou. Also, for allowing Ina to stay until she is ready to depart on her own.", Lupin thanked the man with sincerity.
"It was and is my pleasure, Lupin. You are the most gifted student I ever had the honor to teach. Also, I want you to take the Wado Ichimonji with you. I know you prefer longswords, but you will first have to find a Meito longsword, one that can withstand your strength and Haki. The Wado Ichimonji, while only being one of the 21 Great Swords, will have no problem withstanding your power. It may even rival a Supreme Grade Sword in your hands. I know you will bring the sword and my family great glory by using it to reach the peak of swordsmanship.", these words were spoken by the young single father with great sincerity.
Koushirou was also right, as Lupin had destroyed dozens of normal swords while training over the last few months, with none of the swords being able to handle his physical strength and Haki for long. Most of the time, the moment he had withdrawn his Haki, the blade just crumbled.
Normal steel was simply not made to withstand such physical and spiritual pressure.
So Lupin saw no reason not to take the sword from Koushirou. And even though he knew that Zoro had depended on the blade again and again throughout the story, he really did not care about that. This was his life now and not a story, so he planned to do exactly what he wanted.
Taking the offered blade, Lupin answered: "I will gladly take it. And I promise to do the blade and you justice, when wielding it. Though I will return it, when I have found a Meito longsword. So make sure to train your daughter well, so she will be worthy of carrying the weapon after I bring it back. And don't let tradition get in the way of your judgement, teacher. I can feel her potential clearly."
Of course Lupin lied about seeing the potential in Kuina. He simply knew that hard work, determination and great willpower often trumped potential in this world. And Kuina, if she didn't die early like it happened in the show, would someday become a great swordsman.
Koushirou simply nodded with a thoughtful look on his face, before turning around and leaving Ina and Lupin alone to say their goodbyes.
At this point Lupin had reached a height of 155 centimeters, while Ina was only 20 centimeters taller.
As they looked into each others eyes, no words were exchanged.
As the silence extended into minutes, Lupin finally addressed her: "I will be waiting."
Before turning around and vanishing on the spot, only to reappear a dozens meters from the shore on a little raft he had built. His frame facing away from the island, while his waist-length hair waved in the air behind him.
Still, even that far away he could still hear Ina's whisper.
"I will come with you one day."