Battleship graveyard, Marineford
On a designated section of the Island. The land was littered with broken ships that once sailed the seas and embodied justice, now resting as rubble and memories of an old era.
"Why are we here old man?" Ramos asked.
"Don't call me old man brat! You will address me as sensei or Vice-Admiral Garp, got it!" He spat out, hovering his fist near the child's head.
"...Yes sensei," he grumbled. "
"The reason I brought you here is that you'd be wasting your time learning from instructors at the academy. I have expressions with impatient cadets like you, so I'll train you personally. " He smirked menacingly.
"Why are you doing that weird smile sensei?" He stepped back, "Why do you have a pile of cannon balls next to you!"
"First lesson. Dodge as many as you can without dying. "
The so-called hero of the Marines was a psychopath. He really threw canons at me like baseballs, each explosion got closer to engulfing my body as he moved around the wreckage of ships as he continued his manic attack.
"Oi! Stop running around and face it like a man!"
"You're insane!"
"This will make you stronger brat!"
"Yeah, if I survive it."
After an hour of constantly escaping death, he ran out of cannons and just grinned at my dishevelled form, my Cadet clothes were burnt and smelled like powder, dry blood on my knees and debris coated me like lotion.
"You're insane old man." I breathed out.
"Bang!" He slammed his fist on my head, and my body instantly crumbled to the ground, bumps adorned my scalp.
"Ughh–that's abuse."
"It's called a love tap." He justified, "Get up, we still have a lot more to do."
"I regret everything. "
The rest of the day was spent with me doing push-ups, sit-ups and laps around Marineford until my body gave up completely. And we ended the torture with a sparring match which consisted of me getting pummelled after every futile strike. I lay on the ground, staring at the sunset as my body refused to move, pain coursing all over me.
"You did well on your first day. We still have a long way to go." He sat next to me, chewing on rice crackers.
"I can barely move anything. "
"Good, that means you're growing stronger."
"..."
That was the first of many days of hellish training. Garp was a monster but he was my only hope of protecting Ace.