Chapter 47: The Wealth of the Human Body
What greeted Axel on the other side of the door left him staring for a full second.
He had expected something special.
A private training chamber. Strange equipment. Some terrifying Marine Headquarters machine designed to crush recruits into proper soldiers.
Instead, what stood before him was just an empty room.
Bare walls. Bare floor. Bare ceiling.
Nothing else.
Axel slowly turned to look at Zephyr.
"This is it?"
Zephyr's answer was simple.
"Yes."
He could tell exactly what Axel was thinking, so he spoke before the boy could ask again.
"This is your training room. You do not need fancy equipment, and you do not need complicated methods. From now on, your job is simple. Build your body."
He lifted a finger.
"Frog jumps. Situps. Pushups. Squats. Running in place. Anything that strengthens your body. I do not care what you choose."
Axel said nothing.
That part, at least, made sense.
His body really was too weak.
Up until now, most of what passed for his physical strength had been a lie polished by his ability. If he lost the support of vector manipulation, he immediately dropped from dangerous to fragile. In a real battle, that gap could get him killed.
And the stronger his body became, the greater the force he could produce with every movement.
That mattered.
Force created resistance. Resistance created reaction. Reaction could be redirected. Once those forces were folded back into his attacks through vector control, his strength would rise far faster than ordinary training alone should allow.
So yes, physical training mattered.
It mattered a lot.
Axel quietly waited for the rest.
Zephyr looked him straight in the eye.
"One condition."
Axel's expression tightened slightly.
"You are not allowed to use your ability while training in here. Not once. The moment you rely on it, the entire point of this room disappears."
Axel nodded.
That, too, was reasonable.
What Zephyr wanted was not the fake stamina his ability could create. He wanted Axel's real body dragged out into the light and beaten into shape.
Seeing his response, Zephyr stepped back and shut the door behind them.
The moment it closed, faint cracks opened across the ceiling.
They were narrow and striped, almost like hidden vents sliding open in neat lines. A low buzzing sound filled the room.
Then Axel felt it.
Dizziness hit first.
Then nausea.
Then weakness.
His chest tightened. His breathing turned rough. His limbs felt as though someone had drained the strength out of them with a single pull.
His vision blurred slightly.
"What... is this?"
Zephyr crossed his arms and leaned against the wall as if none of this concerned him.
"The oxygen concentration in normal air is about twenty one percent. In this room, it is ten."
Axel's pupils contracted.
So that was it.
No wonder his body was reacting like this.
Zephyr went on in his usual steady tone.
"When oxygen is reduced, the body weakens. If you can adapt to that weakness and keep moving anyway, your body will be forced to dig deeper. That pressure brings out more of its latent potential."
Axel tried to answer, but even that felt troublesome. Every breath seemed too thin. No matter how much air he dragged into his lungs, it was not enough.
His body swayed.
Then his knees gave out and he dropped to the floor.
Instinctively, he used vector manipulation to support himself, just enough to keep from collapsing face first. His consciousness was already growing fuzzy, but the calculations needed for that one small adjustment were still manageable.
Zephyr noticed immediately.
"Did you forget what I just said?"
His voice was not loud, but it landed like a slap.
"If you fall, then you fall. No ability."
Axel clenched his teeth.
Even now, Zephyr could tell.
Normally, very few people would have noticed anything. But Axel's body was in such a miserable state that the unnatural balance gave him away instantly.
He exhaled hard, cut off the calculation, and dropped fully to the ground.
The impact jarred his bones.
At that moment, Axel truly understood how miserable his physical foundation still was.
Without his ability, he was pitifully weak.
Zephyr watched him from the wall, then began speaking in the same calm tone he used when giving lessons.
"In this world, there are three main paths to strength."
Axel lay on the floor, breathing hard, listening.
"First, Devil Fruits. You know that one already. Once eaten, they grant a special power. Paramecia, Zoan, Logia. Every type gives its user a natural advantage. Among the three paths, it is the easiest way to gain immediate power."
He paused.
"Second, Haki."
The word pulled Axel's attention a little sharper.
"Logia users are troublesome because their bodies can become elements. Without Seastone, seawater, or Haki, they are almost impossible to deal with. But Haki is not something floating in the sky waiting to be picked up. A solid body is the foundation for it."
Then came the last point.
"Third... physical strength."
Zephyr's gaze deepened a little.
"The most important of the three."
He pushed himself off the wall and stood properly.
"The potential of the human body is enormous. Most people only ever scratch the surface of it. A truly strong person does not necessarily rely on a Devil Fruit. Nor does he necessarily awaken Haki early. But every top tier fighter, without exception, possesses a body forged through training."
Axel remained silent, but inwardly he agreed.
Completely.
Zephyr continued, his voice growing heavier.
"Remember this, brat. The human body is a treasure. The greatest asset you own."
His eyes shifted slightly, and for the first time, a trace of genuine distaste entered them.
"Do not become like one of my idiot students. Relying too much on ability. Leaning too hard on shortcuts. When he meets someone of equal standing, that habit will only come back to ruin him."
Axel understood immediately.
Borsalino.
Or rather, Kizaru.
Though even thinking it was a little unfair. Kizaru's physical skill was not weak by any normal standard. A man who could exchange blows with Rayleigh was no joke.
But this was Zephyr speaking.
Compared to the strongest monsters at sea, anything short of overwhelming was weakness.
Zephyr yawned, all the weight in his lecture suddenly evaporating.
"Well, telling you all this is probably a waste. You would not understand it deeply yet anyway."
Then, with absolutely no dignity at all, he walked to the side of the room, lay down on the floor, and rested one arm behind his head.
"I am going to sleep."
Axel stared at him.
A vein nearly popped in his forehead.
"You are kidding."
Zephyr closed his eyes.
"I already told you what matters. Figure out how to train inside this room by yourself."
He clicked his tongue lightly.
"Pretending to be strict and serious all day in front of the others is exhausting. Sometimes I really envy that bastard Garp."
Axel lay there in the thin air, breathing like a dying fish, while the man who had dragged him in here began taking a nap right in front of him.
"That bastard..."
Axel cursed him in his heart several times over.
Still, anger changed nothing.
He had to solve this himself.
First, breathing.
His chest felt tight because he was instinctively trying to inhale more air than the room could give him. The harder he breathed, the more panicked his body became. The more panicked it became, the more useless every breath felt.
So he tried to slow down.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale slower.
Exhale longer.
It lasted only a few seconds before his lungs protested violently. His chest tightened again, and he had to return to rough, desperate breathing.
His body could not adapt that fast.
Even knowing the right method did not mean he could force the result.
Axel grimaced and pressed a hand to the floor.
If he used his ability, he could probably gather the surrounding oxygen toward himself. Or at least manipulate the flow just enough to ease the strain. The solution came to him instantly, neat and efficient.
Then he crushed the thought himself.
No.
That was exactly the trap.
The whole point of this room was to stop him from hiding behind vector manipulation. The moment he gave in and used it, all of this would become meaningless.
His breathing stayed ragged.
Sweat gathered across his forehead.
His arms felt heavy. His legs even worse. Every part of him wanted to lie still and wait for the training to end. But Axel understood one thing very clearly.
If he let himself keep thinking like that, then Zephyr would be right.
His body would remain the weak link forever.
Axel slowly dragged one knee underneath himself.
His vision swam.
His palm pressed harder against the floor.
Then, trembling, short of breath, and dizzy enough to black out at any second, he forced himself up a little higher.
No abilities.
No shortcuts.
Just his own body.
He had to start here.
.....
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