Before the morning mist had completely cleared, Rhett took the three sisters to an abandoned shipyard on the edge of the Sabaody Archipelago.
It was far from the busy streets, with tall mangroves forming a natural barrier around it.
"No basic lessons today. I've found that you have big problems." Rhett snapped his fingers, and the blood mist enveloped the entire area. "Since you call me big brother, you can't embarrass me."
Hancock, keenly sensing the seriousness in Rhett's tone, unconsciously straightened her back.
Rhett adjusted his clothes. "So, Corporal Hancock, Corporal Sandersonia, Corporal Marigold."
Hancock couldn't help but swallow. "Brother Rhett, we're ready."
"Call me General."
"Yes, General Rhett."
"Good!!! Special training begins!!!"
The mist enveloped the three little ones.
"Mist World: Phantom Realm."
The blood mist suddenly condensed into three pig-headed humanoid figures wearing bubble hoods, carrying Rhett's strong personal emotions.
It's okay, Rhett did it on purpose, pure malice.
The Celestial Dragons, holding branding irons, let out piercing, sinister laughs: "You lowly ones should kneel!"
"Ahhh!" Marigold screamed, her snake hair exploding instantly.
Hancock immediately stood in front of her sister, but her legs trembled uncontrollably.
Hancock bit her lower lip hard.
They thought back to their days as slaves in Mary Geoise.
She saw Rhett standing in the distance, his eyes uncharacteristically serious.
"Sister!" Sandersonia suddenly charged forward, her fist coated in Armament Haki swinging at the illusion, but she couldn't land the blow. The phantom kicked her over, sending her stumbling to the ground, tears streaming down her face against her will.
"Celestial Dragons aren't scary. I know them very well. Go ahead, I've got your back." Rhett's voice came from all around, gentle but confident, just like when he had saved them.
Rhett had thought this through carefully.
First, Rhett had already killed a Celestial Dragon in front of the three little ones, giving them a foundation to build on. That was the crucial first step from zero to one.
Second, their bodies were now in good condition. Severe conditions required strong medicine.
Between her sisters' sobs, General Rhett's encouraging words, and the Celestial Dragons' triumphant laughter,
Hancock felt a nameless fire burning in her heart. Her mind flashed back to the day they were branded with the slave mark.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
"Perfume Femur!"
Her Haki-infused kick struck the phantom's face square on. The bubble hood shattered with a crack.
Hancock was stunned. She couldn't believe she had actually landed a hit.
As she watched the Celestial Dragon phantom fall,
"In martial arts—well, in life—the most important thing is to have an unobstructed will." Rhett said to the three little ones. "When you see someone who's a thorn in your side, you just have to kill them. Then your heart will be at peace, your heart will be clean, and your strength will naturally increase."
God Valley Celestial Dragons: So?????
"Good." Rhett nodded. "Remember that feeling. Anger is more powerful than fear. Now, let's increase the difficulty."
The phantoms suddenly multiplied into dozens, surrounding the three sisters.
Marigold sat瘫 on the ground, tears flowing: "There are too many... we can't fight them all..."
Seeing that the three little ones were about to break down,
Rhett moved. He suddenly appeared in the middle of them, the blood mist turning into thin threads connecting to each phantom: "Watch closely!"
All the phantoms suddenly transformed, revealing their true forms—each was a skeletal Celestial Dragon with golden chains around their necks, crawling on the ground like dogs.
"They're just good-for-nothings living off their ancestors' legacy." Rhett stomped on the nearest phantom, crushing it. "Without their privileges, they couldn't even beat you."
A phantom in the form of a vicious dog lunged at Hancock, but that single kick seemed to have drained all her courage.
She instinctively closed her eyes, but heard a yipe of pain. When she opened them, Rhett was choking the dog with one hand: "Even my blood-mist creations can be made solid. What are you afraid of?"
Looks like there's still a long way to go.
When the training paused, the three sisters collapsed in the shade of a tree.
Rhett brought out three glasses of chilled juice.
"Brother Rhett..." Hancock asked quietly, "why the sudden..."
"Because you're going back to Amazon Lily." Rhett looked out at the sea. "It's safe there, but the outside world..." He didn't finish, but Hancock understood what he meant.
"Fear is your greatest enemy."
Rhett knew that the world of One Piece was a purely idealistic one.
Rhett didn't know how Hancock had awakened her Conqueror's Haki under the shadow of the Celestial Dragons' terror, but he was certain it hadn't been complete.
That was also why Hancock had developed such a strong liking for Luffy after learning he had punched a Celestial Dragon. At that time, Luffy was Hancock's hero, the sunlight in her closed-off heart.
Sandersonia suddenly grabbed Rhett's sleeve. "Can we... can we really become strong? Strong enough to never be afraid of them again?"
Rhett patted Sandersonia's head. "Whether you're afraid of them or not doesn't depend on your strength, but on your heart."
The afternoon training session was even harsher.
The blood mist constructed a complete replica of Mary Geoise's hall. The three sisters were chained in place. Celestial Dragon phantoms raised red-hot branding irons: "This time, we'll brand it on your faces..."
"No!!!" Marigold broke down crying.
Sandersonia struggled frantically, her wrists bleeding from the chains.
Hancock watched the approaching phantoms and suddenly noticed her vision turning blood-red. She saw her sisters' terrified faces, saw the glowing branding irons in the phantoms' hands, and finally saw—her own trembling hands.
"I... I don't want..." Her voice was very soft, yet it shook the entire space. "...to be afraid anymore!!!"
"Boom—"
Conqueror's Haki erupted like a tsunami, shattering all the phantoms in an instant!
The ground of the entire training ground cracked with spiderweb-like fissures, and the distant mangroves outside the mist swayed violently.
But Rhett smiled. "Well done, little Hancock."
Outside, all was calm. Hancock's current Conqueror's Haki purity wasn't enough to break through Rhett's mist.
Sandersonia and Marigold stared at their sister in shock.
When everything settled, Hancock sat瘫 on the ground, drenched in sweat. She then noticed that her fingernails had dug deep into her palms, drawing blood.
But she was smiling, more freely than ever before: "So... they really are that weak."
Rhett walked over and popped a candy into her mouth. "That's how it is when you release Conqueror's Haki for the first time. You have a headache, right?"
Sandersonia threw her arms around her sister. "That was amazing! That was definitely Conqueror's Haki!" Marigold's snake hair danced happily, coiling around Hancock's wrist.
In the following days, Rhett didn't let Hancock enter the mist. He trained the remaining two little ones separately.
With Hancock as their role model, a few days later, even though they still hadn't awakened their own Conqueror's Haki, they had gained the courage to fight back and struggle to the end.
"Remember this feeling. Congratulations, you've graduated." Rhett took out three differently styled masks. These weren't the ones he had gotten from his trip to Mary Geoise.
"What do you do with fear...?" Rhett asked.
The three sisters answered in unison: "Turn it into anger!"
Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!
The three little ones covered their heads, looking at Rhett with teary eyes.
"Rely on reason. Don't let anger cloud your mind. I don't want you trapped in fear, but don't go stupidly trying to kill Celestial Dragons on your own, got it?"