Sabo

*Yawnnnnnnnnnnnn*

I yawned as I stretched my muscles, letting out a pleasant sigh as all my bones cracked, realising all the tension built up in them

I shot out of my bed, smiling as I felt well rested and comfortable in my new room. I was full of energy.

'All it really lacks is some colour' I thought, taking note of the gray walls that reminded me of the mines. I repressed a shudder, thinking of the mines and reminded myself to ask around for some paint.

I made my way outside, after all there wasn't much else to do in that room, maybe I should get some board games? I made my way to my favourite place, the cafeteria with the slightly scrunched up note resting on the palm of my hand.

I arrived at the cafeteria, familiarising myself with its layout. It was certainly bigger than the other one which was on the ship, but that's to be expected. I followed the advice from the paper, ordering a large chicken and rice bowl with some potatoes and a large glass of water to wash it down. Oh! And a banana, can't forget the banana(don't take this out of context).

As I was making my way to the table, I couldn't help but notice a familiar face, Hack. His bright green skin along with his blue hair made it hard to miss him, he was literally a walking traffic light.

I took a special interest in Hack(no, not like that), he had so much potential, he was a fishmen with a strong, proportionate body compared to most fishmen mutations. Sadly they did him dirty, making him lose to Barto without a sweat. With the proper training and having him learn haki, he had the potential to be Jinbe's equal. He was already strong and had the proper mindset and discipline to get stronger. It was something I hoped to change, I wanted the revolutionary army to actually have a fighting chance against the world government, which I didn't think they did in the current timeline.

I took a seat next to him, and he looked at me for a moment before his eyes widened slightly.

"Your..."

"Hollow D August, nice to meet you" I said, bowing my head as a sign of respect. It was always good to respect your elders.

He stroked his beard in thought, "Yes, I remember you, you were that Slave who helped fight the guards, am I correct?"

I nodded my head, "I ended up managing to klll 3 of the guards. Also...I wanted to apologise for what I said, It was in the heat of the moment and I don't want any bad blood between us."

"Think nothing of it. I was also partially in the wrong believing a slave couldn't fight back...the blame is mutual..." He said sincerely, sadness flashing in his eyes for a moment.

"Your preconceived notions are mostly right, I'm sure it's rare, almost unbelievable to see a 10 year slave child killing people. After all, most of the children my age end up breaking" I said, before moving onto a safer topic, "I was going to apologise earlier but I couldn't find you on the ship."

"I'm a fishmen you see..." He said, his finned hands pointing towards his spotted skin, "I went back to base ahead of time, I have an important job of training the youngsters here. Speaking of that, will you be joining us today? Your movements were good from what I observed, and you seem fully healed up. You'd be a good addition to our training."

"Hmmm…." I trailed off thought for a moment, putting my fingers to my chin. "Probably not, I've trained in much harsher conditions, and I don't want to waste my time here improving at a snail's pace, if anything it would be detrimental for my growth" I explained.

I clenched my fists, finding myself eager to finally let loose in this environment, "Now that my body is fully healed up, and I have the proper resources, I wanna go all out."

Hack looked at me with some interest then sighed, "You're just like that brat..."

"Hm?" I tilted my head in confusion, feigning ignorance, "Who?"

"His name is Sabo, the same age as you. He is considered a prodigy of the army, many higher up members have high hopes for him. But his attitude is something...left to be desired. Dealing with the 2 of you would be a nightmare..." He grunted in response.

"Any idea where I could find him?" I inquired. My legs were already shaking in anticipation.

"Yeah, during the training sessions he is usually Eastward, down by the rocky hills"

"Hmmm...I have no idea where that is, but I could use a little exploring"

I quickly finished my meal and got ready to leave, remembering to take my banana with me.

"Thanks Hack, also piece of advice, a building is only as strong as its foundation" I said mysteriously before leaving, leaving Hack confused to ponder on my advice.

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It took some time but I eventually found the place Hack described. It was off to the side, out of the view of others who had prying eyes. The place was nice, the ground was flat aside from a few rocks, which was perfect for training and the place was quiet aside from a few grunts every second.

'Looks like I found him' I thought as I turned the corner, my eyes locking onto the blonde kid doing push ups. He was wearing his signature suit, and his hat was off to the side sitting in the shade under the cliff. If that wasn't enough to confirm it was him, his left eye sported a pale jagged scar which I recognised immediately.

"Hey! You're Sabo right?" I shouted at him, trying my best to look friendly, and he momentarily looked up at me before gaining an annoyed look.

"What?" He asked in irritation, pushing his arms up as he completed a pushup, "Did Hack tell you to fetch me to do his little dancing routine? I've already said I'm not doing it"

"Quite the opposite actually, Hacks 'little dances' would only halt my progress as well. He told me about you, how you're pretty strong for your age. So you wanna fight?" I said bluntly. He was a kid at heart and eager to fight, so this would be the best way to become friends.

He finally stopped his pushups, jumping up and wiping the sweat off his face. His annoyed look had immediately done a 180 and changed to a wide smile that sported his face, showing off his nearly full set of teeth.

"So you wanna fight? He said with a wide grin, "That's all you had to say!"

He closed the distance between us in a burst of speed, momentarily catching me off guard, but I quickly regained my focus and watched his movements carefully.

I crouched down in a fighting stance, narrowly ducking under his kick and sending one back of my own.

*SWOSH*

My kick swept through the air, creating a swoosh noise as Sabo, who had a shocked look on his face, just barely managed to jump over it.

Slightly correcting my form and tensing my muscles, I pressed the attack, meeting him while he was in the air, sending out a punch to his stomach. Sabo, seeing this, adjusted his form in midair and managed to send a kick of his own to counter my punch.

'Powerful...But I trained my fists by punching stone, this is nothing' I thought, my fists clashing against his shoes, leaving smudges of dirt on it.

He backflipped off of my foot, twirling in the air while covering a large amount of distance, positioning himself before landing.

"You're like a little bunny rabbit, hopping all over the place. Are you actually gonna fight?" I mocked while wiping the dirt off my fist.

He only grinned in response, not taking the bait.

'Goddamn battle junkie, but I cant say im not enjoying this'

This time I decided to be the aggressor, putting my hands to the side and tensing my legs. I pushed off with my toes, immediately closing the distance between me and sabo, who only stood still at my pressure.

My hands settled into a boxing stance, sending out 2 quick jabs. He tilted his head to the side, dodging the first jab and doing the same with my second.

'So not only is he strong but he is also fast' I analysed, constantly pushing Sabo back with my barrage of jabs. He had no problems dodging, in fact he seemed quite happy he was getting pushed this much, but I obviously had a plan.

I sped up my onslaught of attacks,ignoring the exertion of my muscles, mixing in different types of punches and even kicks to not give sabo anytime to breathe. In a normal fight this was bad, as it would lead to exhaustion quicker, but in this scenario I used the environment to my advantage.

I sent another straight punch at Sabo,forcing him back as he just barely managed. Under my onslaught he retreated even further...all the way to the edge of a rock. He tripped on the rock, falling backwards as I raised my fist my back, ready to end this with a single punch.

"Wha-" He barely managed to register he was falling, but his muscle memory helped him as his arms instinctively covered and protected his face from the punch.

He hit the ground with a thud, but immediately recovered, shooting up off the ground with some impressive agility. He inspected his damaged arms which had the beginnings of bruises on them, then looked at me.

"You're pretty strong, much stronger than the other kids, they can barely last an exchange with me, smart as well... Since I don't have my weapon I'll have to use this..."

He put his fist out as his fingers slowly separated in 3 sections. My eyes widened in shock as I realised what this was.

'Ryusoken...but how has he developed this early? And without haki?' I questioned, observing his hand, until I finally noticed something.

'So he's using a bastard version of tekkai on his fingers? What a monster...' I thought, noticing his muscles tensing up around his fingers.

He took my moment of distraction as a sign of weakness, as he began running at me.

I steeled myself, clenching my fist as hard as I could and hoped it would be enough. If he wanted to meet me head on then so be it, I was never one to run away from a challenge, I thrived off them.

"You want a head on battle? I'll indulge you" I shouted.

"Fist vs Claw, which will win?" He said excitedly as we both got closer, and then we clashed.

*BOOM*

Small bursts of air were blown in all directions as our most powerful attacks connected. My punch was perfect, thrown with my whole body in perfect form, but it still couldn't overpower Sabo's claw, we were even. I gritted my teeth in pain, feeling his claws dig into the space between my knuckles. This was just a friendly spar, but I refused to lose.

"RAHHHH" I screamed as I pushed my weight forward, putting more power into my attack.

"MUDA" He screamed back as his claws dug further into my bones, making them creak slightly.

[A/N: Yes I did a JoJo reference]

That was his mistake, I thrived off of pain. I spent a year in nothing but pain and only came out stronger in both mind and body. Pain was so familiar to me by now that my middle name should be Nagato. I pushed through even more, putting everything into my attack as It finally escaped the dragon's claw and connected with the dragon itself.

*SLUMP*

He dropped to the floor unconscious, and I couldn't hide my shock at the turn of events. This was just meant to be a friendly spar, but it somehow ended up descended into a serious one. Looks like we both were eager for a proper fight. I was satisfied.

I looked at my first, which was covered in blood and looked again at Sabo who was slumped on the floor unconscious.

"Damn, what a monster..."

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Another 10 minutes passed before Sabo woke up again. I was injured, but It was nothing severe and could be easily treated, so I just kept pressure on my fist to stop the blood from running. I also didn't want to leave a 11 year old knocked out kid alone, that would be bad.

"Ughh..." He groaned as he touched his nose. "What happened?" He asked, looking towards me.

I raised my fist in response, showing the dried up blood stuck to it, "I won"

"So I lost, huh..." He said dejectedly, fiddling with his tie.

"Hey! Don't be such a negative thinker. You may have lost, but didnt you gain so much more? Firstly you got a training partner your own age who will fight and help you grow, and you also got a friend"

"A...friend?" He asked confused.

"Of course! We just beat the shit out of each other, surely we're friends?" I said like it was obvious.

"Haha, yeah! My name's Sabo, though you already knew that" He said, then proceeded to put his fist out.

"August, Hollow D August" I replied, bumping his bloody fist with my own.