One Piece: The Template System-Chapter 127: Water 7 -13

The Time Chamber - The White Void

The endless white expanse of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber felt completely different now. Just moments ago, it had been a quiet, sterile pocket dimension where time stood still. Now, the very atmosphere was suffocating, thick with a pressure so dense it felt like trying to breathe underwater.

Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp stood in the center of the void. He was no longer the gray-haired, complaining grandfather with bad knees. Thanks to Ben’s Age of Gods alchemy, the Elixir of Restoration had rolled back the clock. His hair was jet black. His muscles bulged against the seams of his Marine suit, dense as bedrock and radiating an overwhelming, monstrous heat.

This was the Hero of the Marines. The Demon of God Valley. The man who had cornered Gol D. Roger.

Prime Garp.

He rolled his broad shoulders, his joints popping like cannon fire. A feral, impossibly wide grin stretched across his unlined face.

"Well then," Garp’s voice boomed, rich, deep, and vibrating with terrifying excitement. "So... who wants a Fist of Love first?"

For the pirates known as the Straw Hats—a crew that had just declared war on the World Government and annihilated CP9—the natural reaction to a challenge was usually to charge forward.

But not Luffy. And not Ace.

Step. Step.

In perfect, horrified synchronization, the two brothers instinctively took a step backward.

Their eyes were wide, completely devoid of their usual battle-crazed bravado. Their pupils were dilated. In that fraction of a second, they weren’t the 500-million-berry Captain or the Second Division Commander of Whitebeard. They were seven-year-old boys again, staring into the abyss of a jungle filled with tigers, bottomless ravines, and the terrifying silhouette of a man tying them to balloons.

The PTSD was real. It was visceral. It was hardwired into their DNA.

Garp watched them retreat. His wide grin morphed into a dark, mocking sneer.

"Oho?" Garp tilted his head, his eyes flashing red under the brim of his invisible aura. "Taking a step back? What happened to all that big talk in the cafeteria? You want to become great pirates, right? You want to rule the seas? Then get ready to fight a real Marine, you soft little brats!"

Before the final syllable even left his mouth, Garp disappeared.

It wasn’t Soru. Soru was a technique to rapidly kick the ground ten times in the blink of an eye to move at blinding speeds. Garp didn’t need a technique. He just pushed off the ground once.

The white tiles beneath his boots instantly vaporized, a crater appearing purely from the kinetic force of his launch.

Luffy and Ace’s Observation Haki screamed in their minds, but their bodies simply couldn’t keep up with the physical reality of a prime legend. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Gah—!"

Garp materialized directly in front of them. He extended both of his massive, calloused hands. His left hand clamped onto Luffy’s entire face, his thick fingers wrapping around the rubber boy’s skull. His right hand mirrored the motion, completely engulfing Ace’s face.

"Rule number one of the sea!" Garp roared. "Never take your eyes off the enemy!"

He pivoted on his heel, his torso twisting with the torque of a hurricane. He used the momentum to hurl both brothers in completely opposite directions.

FWOOSH!

Luffy and Ace were launched like artillery shells. They flew through the air so fast they created mach cones. Luffy skipped across the white tiles like a skipping stone, bouncing violently before embedding himself face-first into the impenetrable floor. Ace crashed into the ground a hundred meters away.

Zoro’s eyes snapped wide open. He didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his bandana from his arm, tying it tightly around his head. Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri flashed into his hands, and Wado Ichimonji found its place between his teeth.

"This old man is no joke," Zoro growled around his blade, his demonic aura flaring to life.

Sanji lit a cigarette, but he bit down on the filter so hard he nearly bit it in half. "He’s too fast. We can’t let him single anyone out!" His right leg burst into the white-hot flames of Diable Jambe.

Behind them, four imposing figures stood ready. Dory, Brogy, Kashii, and Oimo drew their weapons. They were still in their shrunken, human-sized forms from the ship ride.

"I can restore your true size," Ben offered, raising his hand.

"No need, Magician!" Dory laughed, gripping his Uru-metal sword with both hands. "If we fight a human with the bodies of mountains, we will rely only on our raw physical strength!"

"Gebabababa! He speaks the truth!" Brogy added, hefting his axe. "We are here to forge our Haki in the fires of a true warrior! A smaller target means we must be sharper!"

Their Haki was foundational—basic Armament to coat their weapons and rudimentary Observation to track prey. But staring down a human who radiated this much power made their blood boil with the absolute desire to grow stronger.

Ben stood back, watching the scene unfold with a calm, analytical eye. He adjusted his glasses and took a few steps forward, raising his voice so it carried across the vast white space.

"Garp-san!" Ben called out.

Garp turned his head, cracking his knuckles. "What is it, Magician? You want to surrender your crew?"

"Hardly," Ben smiled smoothly. "I just wanted to lay down the ground rules for this training session. This pocket dimension is designed for one thing: breaking limits. So... don’t hold back."

"You can beat them until every bone is dust," Ben stated casually. "You can beat them until they are sitting right on the doorstep of death. Don’t worry about permanent damage. As long as their hearts are beating, I can revert them back to absolute full health in seconds."

A terrifying silence followed that statement.

The Straw Hats and the Giants paled.

Garp, however, stopped. He stared at Ben. Then, slowly, his shoulders began to shake.

"Bwa... Bwahahaha!"

Garp threw his head back and laughed. It was a joyous, terrifying sound. He cracked his knuckles again, his neck bulging. The idea of beating his grandsons to a pulp without having to worry about accidentally killing them was an old man’s dream come true.

"I like you, Magician!" Garp roared. "Alright, brats! You heard the man! The training wheels are officially off!"

"GEAAAAR... THIRD!"

A massive shadow fell over Garp.

Luffy had recovered from the throw. He had bitten into his thumb, blowing a massive amount of air into his bones. His right arm expanded to the size of a giant’s, casting a huge silhouette over the white void.

But Luffy didn’t stop there. He gritted his teeth, forcing his Haki outward. The massive, ballooned fist suddenly darkened, taking on the metallic, obsidian sheen of basic Armament Haki.

"Gomu Gomu no... ELEPHANT GUN!"

Luffy swung the colossal, blackened fist downward, aiming to crush his grandfather flat against the tiles. The air pressure alone forced Sanji and Zoro to brace themselves.

Garp didn’t dodge. He didn’t even look up until the fist was inches from his face.

He simply pulled his right arm back. His fist didn’t turn black. It didn’t expand. He didn’t even use a named technique. He just threw a standard, old-fashioned punch straight up into the descending monolith.

KRA-KOOOOOOM!

The collision between Garp’s bare, normal-sized knuckles and Luffy’s Haki-coated Gear 3 fist defied all logic.

A shockwave of pure, condensed force erupted from the point of impact. But the clash didn’t hold. Garp’s fist acted like a needle piercing a balloon, though it didn’t pop it—it completely overpowered the kinetic energy.

The shockwave rippled back up Luffy’s giant arm.

"GYAAAH!" Luffy screamed as the bones in his arm groaned under the pressure. The recoil was so immense it ripped him off his feet, sending the rubber boy flying backward into the white sky like a deflating balloon, completely neutralized in a single exchange.

"My turn, old man!"

Ace was suddenly in the air, descending from the right flank. He was enraged, his body wreathed in the white-hot flames he had awakened on Banaro Island. His hands were coated in Armament Haki.

"HIKEN!" (Fire Fist)

Ace thrust his fist forward. A colossal pillar of super-heated fire, large enough to engulf a battleship, roared toward Garp, incinerating the very air in the Time Chamber.

Garp merely turned his head.

"Too flashy, Ace," Garp grunted.

Garp threw a punch at empty space. He didn’t aim at Ace. He just punched the air in front of the incoming inferno.

The sheer physical force of the punch compressed the atmosphere, creating a concentrated, localized hurricane. The wind pressure blasted forward like a solid wall, colliding with the Fire Fist. The gale was so overwhelmingly powerful that it physically tore the flames apart, scattering the white-hot fire into harmless embers that blew back in Ace’s face.

"He punched the fire out?!" Ace gasped, blinded for a fraction of a second.

"Never lose sight!"

Garp’s voice came from directly above him.

Ace looked up, his eyes widening. Garp had used the cover of the extinguished flames to jump higher than Ace’s trajectory.

Garp brought a double-axe handle blow down on the back of Ace’s neck.

BAM!

Ace was driven straight down into the floor like a nail hit by a sledgehammer. The white tiles spider-webbed into a massive crater around his unconscious, twitching body.

"Two down," Garp laughed, landing gracefully on the edge of the crater. "Who’s next?!"

"ALL OF US!" Zoro roared.

"Let’s slice this old gorilla up!" Sanji yelled.

The crew attacked. It was a coordinated swarm.

Zoro unleashed a massive 108 Pound Phoenix flying slash from the left.

Sanji spun into the air, bringing down a flaming Collier Shoot from the right.

Chopper roared, transformed into Monster Point, swinging a massive, building-sized palm at Garp’s back.

Usopp stood at a distance, rapidly firing a barrage of explosive and net arrows. Nami summoned a dense thundercloud right over Garp’s head, dropping a localized lightning strike, while Vivi launched sonic blasts from her Vibranium spear.

Garp just cracked his neck.

He moved. It was a dance of absolute violence.

He ducked beneath Zoro’s flying slash, letting it cut harmlessly into the void. He sidestepped Sanji’s flaming kick, catching the cook by the ankle as he passed, spinning him around like a ragdoll, and throwing him directly into the path of Chopper’s incoming massive palm.

THUD! Sanji and Monster Chopper collided, a tangle of fur and suits tumbling to the floor.

Garp snatched Usopp’s trick arrows out of the air with his bare hands. He threw them back faster than they were shot. The explosive arrows detonated at Usopp and Nami’s feet, blasting them backward in a cloud of smoke.

Vivi’s sonic blast hit him, but Garp’s raw durability completely ignored the frequency; he simply stepped forward and flicked the princess on the forehead, instantly knocking her out.

"QUACK!"

From the sky, Caroo dove in, his Iron Duck power armor gleaming. He engaged his jet boosters, unleashing a brave barrage of mini-missiles and lasers. The explosions engulfed Garp.

The smoke cleared. Garp was standing there, his Haki-coated chest completely unbothered, looking at the high-tech duck in utter bewilderment.

Instead of punching the bird, Garp casually reached out with blinding speed and caught Caroo mid-flight by the mechanical beak. He popped open the suit’s visor with a flick of his thumb, reached into his infinite pouch, and shoved a violently red, spicy chili rice cracker into Caroo’s mouth.

Caroo’s eyes watered instantly. "QUAAAAACK!" The duck went flying backward in a spiral, squawking uncontrollably as steam blew out of his beak, completely incapacitated by the spice.

The lightning bolt struck Garp dead on. Smoke rose from his shoulders, but he didn’t even flinch. He just looked at the two descending Giants.

Dory’s sword and Brogy’s axe came down. Though human-sized, the sheer weight and Haki behind the strikes fell with the force of an avalanche.

Garp raised both hands. His fists turned jet black with Armament Haki.

CLANG!

He punched the edge of the descending sword with his left hand, and the flat of the axe with his right. The impact rang out like a church bell, stopping the titans dead in their tracks.

"You’ve got spirit!" Garp laughed, flexing his arms and shoving the Giants backward so hard they tumbled over each other. "But you lack scale! Let me show you the pinnacle of the fist!"

Garp leaped high into the white void of the Time Chamber. He pulled his right arm back. The space around his fist began to distort, violently warping as a swirling sphere of black and red lightning gathered around his knuckles. The sheer atmospheric pressure made it hard to breathe.

"Galaxy..."

Ben’s eyes went wide. "Brace yourselves! He’s not holding back!"

Ben dropped his casual stance and instantly tapped into his Momo Yaoyorozu template and Dumbledore magic simultaneously. "Protego Maxima! Vibranium Wall!"

A massive, multi-layered magical dome reinforced with thick, raw Vibranium plating erupted over the entire crew.

"...IMPACT!"

Garp punched the air below him.

A shockwave of pure, unadulterated destruction, resembling a meteor strike, slammed into the shield. The impact was apocalyptic. The Vibranium screamed under the kinetic load. The magical barrier cracked in a thousand places. The entire Hyperbolic Time Chamber shook violently, the white void rippling under the stress of the legendary Marine Hero’s signature attack.

The shield shattered. The resulting shockwave blew Ben, the Giants, and the remaining Straw Hats off their feet, scattering them like bowling pins across the floor.

Silence descended on the void.

It had taken exactly forty-five seconds.

The entire Straw Hat Pirate crew, the conquerors of Enies Lobby, lay scattered across the cracked white tiles. Groans of pain echoed softly. Broken bones, shattered pride, and complete defeat. Garp had literally eaten them for breakfast without taking a single scratch.

Garp landed, dusting off his hands. "Well, that was a light stretch. Disappointing."

"Impressive," a calm voice echoed.

Garp turned.

Ben stood at the edge of the battlefield. He didn’t look worried. He raised his hands, and his eyes glowed with an intense, ancient light.

He tapped into the Medea template, weaving her Age of Gods magic with the systemic healing properties he had mastered.

"Golden Fleece: Restoration Aura."

A shower of brilliant, warm golden light erupted from Ben’s hands, raining down over the entire battlefield. The moment the light touched the fallen pirates and giants, the effects were miraculous.

Bones snapped back into place. Bruises faded from purple to yellow to nothing. Stamina reserves instantly refilled.

Luffy gasped, sitting up. Ace groaned, cracking his neck. Zoro and Sanji stood up, looking at their hands in disbelief. Within ten seconds, the entire crew was back to 100% health, as if the fight had never happened.

Garp raised an eyebrow, genuinely amazed. "Bwahahaha! Now that is a handy trick! We can do this all day!"

"We can," Ben said, slipping his wand back into his sleeve. "But before they go again... it’s my turn."

Ben cracked his neck and stepped forward, walking into the center of the arena.

Garp scoffed, crossing his arms. "You? I thought you were a backliner, Magician. A tactician. You sit on a chair and heal people. You want to brawl with me?"

"I am a tactician," Ben smiled, coming to a halt twenty paces from Garp. "But mostly because my crew needed me to be. I haven’t had the opportunity to fight at my absolute full power Until now."

Ben took off his suit jacket, tossing it into his spatial inventory. He rolled up the sleeves of his blue shirt.

"But in here? In a dimension that can’t break? Against a man who can take a hit?" Ben’s eyes darkened, a terrifying, heavy aura beginning to bleed from his body. "I’m going all out."

"Show me," Garp grinned, falling into a loose boxing stance.

Ben closed his eyes.

VMMMMMM.

The air in the Time Chamber didn’t just vibrate; it shrieked. A terrifying, oppressive pressure erupted from Ben. It was dense, heavy, and radiated absolute dominance.

Conqueror’s Haki.

The blast of Haki washed over the void. The weaker crew members—Nami, Vivi, Caroo, Usopp, and Chopper—instantly fell to their knees, gasping for air as the sheer weight of Ben’s spirit pressed down on them.

"He has it too?!" Zoro gasped, struggling against the pressure. "The color of the Supreme King..."

Garp’s eyes widened. "Oho? The Magician is a King?"

Ben opened his eyes. They were glowing a blinding, brilliant gold.

From his skin, a thick, radiant golden energy began to extrude. It materialized into solid matter, weaving itself into a massive, jagged, and heavily armored carapace. The golden armor covered his arms, his chest, and his legs, forming spiked gauntlets and heavy boots.

But it wasn’t just armor. Ben’s very physiology changed. He grew. The Thomas Andre template pushed his height, expanding his musculature until he towered at exactly the same imposing height as Prime Garp.

Ben stood there, clad in radiant golden armor, a brawler of biblical proportions, his Conqueror’s Haki clashing violently with Garp’s own invisible, monstrous aura. The space between them crackled with black and red lightning.

The Straw Hats and Giants stared in absolute shock. The quiet, calculating, wand-waving Magician was gone. In his place stood a golden juggernaut.

"I’m ready," Ben’s voice was deeper, resonating through the armor.

Garp’s grin turned entirely predatory. "Bring it on, Goldie!"

They vanished simultaneously.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

They met in the dead center of the arena. Ben’s golden, armored fist collided squarely with Garp’s Haki-coated bare knuckle.

The shockwave tore the tiles beneath them into microscopic dust. A crater fifty meters wide formed instantly. The sheer kinetic backlash blew Luffy and Ace off their feet.

"He matched him!" Sanji yelled over the roaring wind.

But Ben didn’t match him for long.

They began exchanging blows at a speed that blurred vision. It was a pure, unadulterated slugfest. No dodging, no magic. Just fist against fist.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

First exchange. Ben drove a golden hook into Garp’s ribs. Garp didn’t flinch, returning a straight jab that rattled Ben’s teeth inside his helmet.

Second exchange. Ben used Ruler’s Authority to invisibly pull Garp forward, accelerating his own uppercut. Garp simply leaned into the pull, delivering a headbutt that sent sparks flying from the golden armor.

Third exchange. Garp’s speed increased. He was reading Ben’s movements. Ben had the raw stats of a National Level Hunter, and basic Armament to back it up, but Garp possessed seventy years of absolute, pinnacle-tier martial arts mastery.

Fourth exchange. Ben swung a massive overhand right. Garp slipped underneath it effortlessly, stepping perfectly into Ben’s guard.

Fifth exchange.

"Too slow!" Garp roared.

Garp’s fist, coated in an advanced, flowing Armament Haki that Ben hadn’t yet mastered, slammed directly into the center of Ben’s golden chest plate.

CRACK.

The sound of shattering metal echoed loudly. The indestructible golden armor of the Goliath cracked, spider-webbing outward from the impact point.

The force penetrated the armor. Ben’s eyes went wide. He coughed up a spray of blood that splattered against the inside of his visor.

Ben was launched backward, tearing a trench through the white floor for a hundred meters before finally digging his armored boots into the ground to stop his momentum.

He knelt on one knee, panting heavily. The golden chest plate was caved in, shards of energy falling away into the void.

"Ben!" Luffy yelled, terrified.

Garp stood in the center of the crater, completely unharmed, rolling his shoulder. "Not bad, kid. You’ve got the raw power of a monster, and your spirit is heavy. But your technique is sloppy. You fight like a brawler who’s never met someone stronger than him."

Ben wiped the blood from his chin, a slow, strained grin spreading across his face.

"You’re right," Ben wheezed, standing up. "I rely on the stats. Good to know where the ceiling is."

Ben raised his hand over his broken chest. He didn’t drop the armor. The golden light flashed, knitting his ribs back together and repairing the shattered armor plate instantly.

Ben stood tall, back to 100%. He took a deep breath, the golden aura flaring anew.

"Round two," Ben announced.

He didn’t charge alone this time. He looked over at the crew. They were all standing, fully healed, their eyes locked on the Marine Hero. The fear of his initial blitz was gone, replaced by the sheer stubbornness of the Straw Hat crew.

"Listen up!" Ben roared, his voice echoing in the void. "New objective! We aren’t trying to beat him!"

The crew looked. Garp was standing in a wide, rooted stance.

Ben said. "The goal of this training is simple. We swarm him. We coordinate. We hit him until we land one solid hit. That is the win condition!"

Luffy pounded his fists together. "One hit?! I can make him take ten!"

"Don’t get cocky!" Zoro drew his swords, his eye gleaming. "But one hit... yeah. We can do that."

Garp laughed, beckoning them forward with his fingers. "Come on, then! Make me bleed, brats!"

---

What followed was an agonizing, relentless marathon of suffering and perseverance.

It was a cycle of pure violence.

The Straw Hats and the Giants threw themselves at the Marine Hero. They coordinated attacks that would have obliterated fleets.

Luffy and Ace tag-teamed him, combining Gear 3 with Fire Emperor blasts. Garp simply punched through the fire and swatted them both away.

Zoro and Sanji synchronized their ultimate strikes, aiming for Garp’s blind spots. Garp blocked Zoro’s swords with his bare forearms and kicked Sanji out of the air simultaneously.

The Giants brought down their weapons in tandem. Garp caught the Uru-sword with one hand, caught the Uru-axe with the other, and threw the weapons back at them, knocking them flat.

Ben, using his golden armor, acted as the main tank, absorbing the brunt of Garp’s devastating blows so the others could find openings. He was repeatedly battered, his armor shattered dozens of times, only to be instantly repaired by his own magic.

Whenever the crew was wiped out, lying broken on the floor, Ben would cast the Golden Fleece: Restoration Aura.

The golden rain would fall. Bones would knit. Lungs would fill with air.

"Get up!" Ben would shout, coughing blood before healing himself. "Again!"

And they got up. Again. And again. And again.

One hour passed. Then two. Then four.

The mental toll of experiencing near-death, being healed, and instantly returning to the meat grinder was immense. But under that unimaginable pressure, their latent potentials began to crackle and spark.

Zoro’s Haki grew denser, learning how to flow it into his blades rather than just coat them. Sanji’s Diable Jambe burned hotter, shifting from orange to a blinding white. Luffy’s movements became more fluid, his basic Observation Haki forcing him to predict Garp’s ungodly speed just to survive a few seconds longer. Ace learned to fight without relying on his intangibility, treating his body as a weapon.

Even the Giants began to refine their raw strength, learning to focus their wild swings into precise, Haki-laced strikes.

But despite their rapid evolution, despite the endless healing, despite the flawless coordination...

Six hours later.

BAM!

Ben was sent flying, his golden armor shattering completely. Luffy and Ace were embedded in the floor. Zoro and Sanji were unconscious. The Giants were laid out flat, groaning.

Ben didn’t cast the healing spell. He lay on his back, staring at the white sky, his chest heaving, utterly exhausted. The mental fatigue of maintaining the magic and fighting a legend for six continuous hours had finally drained his reserves.

He slowly lifted his head to look at the center of the battlefield.

Monkey D. Garp stood amidst the destruction. His black suit was shredded, his tie was gone, and he was sweating lightly. He was breathing a little harder than before.

But Ben looked at his feet.

Garp’s boots were planted firmly in the center of the crater. Over the course of six agonizing hours, facing the combined, continuous assault of twelve monsters...

He hadn’t taken a single step backward.

Garp looked down at his ruined suit, then at the groaning bodies of his grandsons and their crew. He let out a long, heavy breath, finally relaxing his stance.

The terrifying, demonic aura of the Marine Hero faded, replaced by a stern, but immensely proud expression.

"Alright," Garp’s voice echoed in the quiet void. "That’s enough."

He walked over to Ben, offering a massive hand. Ben took it, allowing the older man to pull him to his feet.

Garp looked around at the defeated crew.

"You’re a stubborn bunch of idiots," Garp said, a genuine smile breaking across his face. "Your technique is trash. Your Haki is unrefined. And you rely too much on your tricks."

Garp cracked his knuckles one last time.

"But your spirit... your spirit is exactly what it needs to be."

Garp crossed his arms, looking down at Luffy and Ace, who were struggling to push themselves up from the rubble.

"Now I know exactly what you all are capable of," Garp announced, his voice carrying the weight of a master teacher. "The warm-up is over. Now... I will start actually training you."