Chapter 4

West blue, Ishiria island, roku town

After being taken in as old man Bais disciple no name had been introduced to a for now relatively lax training regime to build the basis for the following steps of the teachings. It started with stretching slightly to warm up the muscles before being sent to run circles around town. Now, no name was kind of used to jogging and the occasional sprinting to escape from pursuers but what he wasn't prepared for was to have to sprint all the time. Naturally his stamina didn't hold for long. When he stopped to catch his breath and take a little break from out of nowhere a small pebble appeared and smacked him straight in the face, and that happened everytime he stopped, no matter how well he tried to avoid other people. He had the strong feeling that his master had something to do with it but he had no clue how that would be possible so he didn't keep thinking about it and instead started running again.

After he returned no name was shown how to properly stretch his legs and upper body and boy was that a torture. After a 30 minutes strechting regime he was lead into the kitchen and shown how to prepare a simple breakfast. Obviously he messed up pretty badly, never even having touched a frying pan before. He hoped that he would improve in that department in the future but had the feeling that he had no talent for it.

After the breakfast they sat down and started studying how to write. When he was asked what his name was, so old man Bai could write the kanji down for him to copy and study, and no name told old man Bai that he was called no name by everyone since his parents never gave him a name he was greeted by a small smile from his master. When he asked why he was smiling at his misfortune old man Bais only reply was: "Misfortune? No, certainly not. it is an opportunity to create yourself after your own sense of self from the bottom up. Now, what would you like your name to be?"

With a pondering look on his face no name was taken outside into the backyard of the small house, ending the language study session for now.

"You can keep thinking about your soon-to-be name later. Now, look around you and tell me what you see." Old man Bai said while looking at no name.

No name looked around and took in his surroundings. "Well, a small garden with a few flowers, a sandtrack, a few wooden puppets, a few trees and a small stretch of grass. Am I missing anything?" no name asked while looking back at old man Bai.

"There is only one thing you didn't list and that's alright because you couldn't. All the things you told me about represent something and demand something in return for you using them. Or maybe it is more me that is demanding something but who cares about semantics." Old man Bai said while waving his hand next to his face in a shooing motion.

"This place will be our dojo, our training and studying grounds. Once you set foot onto it I expect absolute discipline as if you were to step onto an actual battlefield. Of course you don't know how to do that yet but that is alright. You will learn, one way or the other." Old man Bai told no name while murmuring the last few words more to himself, though no name still heard them and frowned a little, not really getting what his master meant by it.

"Why though? I mean isn't it just a little backyard? Why does it matter?"

"Besides it being tradition? Hmm, tell me. Imagine you were to step onto a battlefield, what would be the biggest hindrance to your survival?" Old man Bai asked his student while sitting down alongside his student while observing his precious flowers that he had so painstakingly brought up over the years.

"Uhm, I don't know how to fight?" No name answered while not understanding his masters point. Wasn't it obvious?

"If you don't know how to fight then how come you punched the guy in the alley on instinct alone without hesitation back there? Go on, guess again."

"Uhm, my height? I'm pretty small for an opponent." no name said while looking himself up and down and comparing him to his master.

"Better, and somewhat true, but not the point I was trying to make. In this world height is only a deciding factor in the lower echelons of strength. Do you know how tall Red haired Shanks, one of the four emperors of the sea is? 2 meters. Compared to Whitebeard it's not even worth mentioning. Any more guesses?" Old man Bai asked smiling at his student.

"Hmm, no clue. I have no weapons? No, that can't be it. Errr, I don't know, sorry."

"That's quite alright shorty. I didn't think you would get the answer right away anyways." He said with a shuckle.

"Than what was the point in asking me?" no name asked his master while gnashing his teeth with a slight tick to his eyebrow.

"In my opinion finding the answer to a question yourself instead of looking for someone to answer it for you is always more fruitful in the longrun for your selfdevelopment. Do you get my point?"

"Uhm, maybe? I don't know."

"No matter. You are still young. Plenty of time to find out if you share my opinion on the matter." He said with a grin.

"Now, back to the original question. Where was I? Oh yes. The only really important thing in a fight is this right here." Old man Bai said while poking no name into his c.h.e.s.t.

"What? I don't get it." no name said, confusion written all over his face.

"Yourself boy. In a battle YOU are your worst enemy. From now on, as soon as you enter this dojo you start training in self-discipline. Contain your emotions and weaponize them. Practise this every day and you are a step closer to learning about haki."

"Haki? What's that?" no name asked, still a little shaken from his masters words. Something inside of him had responded to his masters words and it felt right to him.

"Ehh, you'll learn about that soon enough. Now get up. I'll show you the first basic stance you'll learn for a while." Old man Bai said while standing up and stepping into the dojo. As soon as he did all kindness vanished from his face, replaced by a blank, battle hardened visage that sent a shiver down no names spine. Steeling himself he took a deep breath and stepped up onto the lawn as well, officially beginning his martial path.