At six in the morning, the sky slowly began to brighten, leaving faint orange streaks on the eastern horizon. White mist still covered the land, vaguely, as if shrouded in a silvery-gray veil, lending a solemn atmosphere to the morning.
At the Marineford Military Academy, precisely on the parade ground, three hundred Military School Students gradually lined up and gathered. The sound of footsteps and quiet murmurs began to break the morning silence.
In the corner of the parade ground, Sephiroth sheathed his sword, Autumn Leaf Sword, hanging it back at his waist. He let out a long sigh, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Phew! It took two hours to swing the sword ten thousand times, I still need three thousand more. I can only make up for it tonight..." he muttered to himself, a hint of grumbling mixed with determination.
As Sephiroth walked towards his class formation, he saw Tokikake—Kaji, the lecherous-faced one—casually approaching Gion with a wide, smiling expression.
"Good morning, Gion! I like you, be my girlfriend!" Tokikake exclaimed cheerfully, completely unfazed by yesterday's rejection.
Seeing the utterly lecherous smiling face in front of her, the long-legged 'older sister's' eyes twitched slightly, and she unconsciously blurted out, "Sorry, I refuse!"
Class One: (Silence...) The expressions of the other students who heard this showed a mixture of surprise, amusement, and a little pity for Tokikake's persistent, never-give-up fate.
"Hey! Good morning, everyone!"
Suddenly, Zephyr's spirited yet cold voice pierced the silence, as he appeared on the parade ground with an innocent smile on his face. Three hundred Military School Students unconsciously felt a chill creep up their spines. They knew that smile meant disaster.
"Now... all of you, run around the parade ground two hundred times. Anyone who doesn't finish within an hour has to run another hundred times!"
"(Cursing inwardly)!"
Although the Military School Students cursed Zephyr fiercely in their hearts, they still ran like mad. This wasn't just a normal run, it was a struggle against their own limits.
After yesterday's theoretical explanation of the Six Styles, many Military School Students began to try using the 'Soru' technique while running to speed up. As a result, the atmosphere was somewhat chaotic and frequent pile-ups occurred because they couldn't perfectly control their speed and stops. However, the medical team was always waiting nearby. As soon as a casualty collapsed and couldn't continue, they would immediately be taken away for treatment, ready as if on a battlefield.
This made Sephiroth wonder if this long-distance physical training was also aimed at training resistance to blows and assisting in the development of Tekkai, one of the Six Styles techniques that hardens the body like iron. A clever strategic thought, if true.
After completing the exhausting long-distance run, they were given an hour for breakfast and a short break, a brief respite before the next torture.
Then...
"2000 push-ups!"
...
"Single rope climb, back and forth 100 times!"
...
"Frog jumps, 100 laps!"
...
In short, the old geezer Zephyr didn't treat the three hundred Military School Students as human beings at all. The excessively heavy training constantly drained their physical potential to the very last limit, pushing them beyond what they thought they were capable of.
All this time, Zephyr kept shouting that those who couldn't continue could choose to give up, pack their bags, and leave. He guaranteed he wouldn't hold them back, an offer that sounded tempting yet full of challenge.
Most of the Military School Students, even though some had trained to the point of fainting and being carried away by the medical team, did not choose to give up. After all, as long as they could survive this year, they would be on the path to success and promotion in the Marines. The dream of becoming an officer was much stronger than physical pain.
However, there were always those who couldn't grit their teeth and endure!
"Instructor Zephyr, I protest! Your training methods are too cruel and completely unreasonable!"
A two-meter-tall man fell to the ground with a thud. The prolonged frog jumps made his legs weak and slightly shaky, unable to support his body anymore. His voice was very dry and hoarse when he spoke, but he still tried his best to express what was in his heart.
"Protest?... Cruel?... Unreasonable?"
Hearing this, Zephyr slowly walked towards the strongman. He lowered his head and stared at him with a sharp gaze that pierced through his sunglasses.
"You are a frog in a well. Do you know how many monsters there are among the Pirates in the New World? Some people have various unimaginable Devil Fruit abilities, and destroying cities and countries is nothing to them," Zephyr spoke, his voice containing accumulated anger.
"Some people are natural destroyers, possessing innate Busoshoku Haki, with extraordinarily strong power. Weapons and explosives can't even scratch them," Zephyr raised his head and observed the Military School Students with his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. "Those monsters are inherently unreasonable existences!"
"If I don't make you train to the death, make you surpass human limits, who among you can honestly pound their chest and say you can defeat those monster Pirates?"
Zephyr directed his gaze at all the students, his voice booming. "Do you know where this is? This is Marine Headquarters, representing justice! The Marine Academy you've entered is where the Marines educate super elites, the future hope of the Marines! Do you want me to coddle you like ancestors, spoil you, and turn you into useless people, destroying the future of the Marines?"
"Who will uphold justice in the future? Relying on a bunch of cowards who can't even endure training?"
Zephyr's series of piercing reprimands made the large man lying on the ground feel extremely ashamed. His face flushed with guilt.
"I was wrong, Instructor Zephyr!"
As he said this, the large man gritted his teeth, rose to his feet with trembling legs, and continued the unfinished frog jumps, ignoring the burning pain in his muscles.
"I said, if any of you can't continue, you can quit! But... you are not allowed to question my training plan! Understood?" Zephyr asked, his voice slightly threatening.
"Understood!"
Listening to the scattered and uneven response, Zephyr's face showed dissatisfaction, and he shouted, "Louder, I can't hear you!"
Hearing this, all the Military School Students strained their voices and shouted in response, "UNDERSTOOD!!!" The shout filled the field, full of obedience and despair.
No matter how enthusiastically they shouted, towards midday, when training ended, most of them were still like dead dogs, staggering towards the dining hall, just wanting to fill their stomachs and collapse.
"Sephiroth, aren't you tired?"
A somewhat familiar female voice entered his ears.
"Ah!" Sephiroth was slightly startled, then turned to see Gion walking beside him, a surprised expression on his face.
"With such a terrifying volume of training, my body is almost broken, how could I not be tired?" Sephiroth tried to sound normal, but he knew Gion wasn't easily fooled.
"In my Kenbunshoku Haki perception, your breathing isn't disturbed at all..." Gion observed Sephiroth from head to toe, her expression slightly suspicious, as if trying to pry into the secret behind his physical endurance.
"..."
Sephiroth twitched the corner of his mouth, somewhat unsure how to explain the unreasonable power he possessed. Should he tell her that he relied on sacrificing his lifespan to quickly recover his physical strength and injuries...? In the end, he could only brush it off casually with a sentence.
"I'm a Zoan Devil Fruit user."
"I see..." The long-legged 'older sister' immediately nodded in understanding. That information made sense in the world of One Piece.
Zoan users often had extremely strong recovery and vitality. After their fruit awakened, no matter how severe their injuries, as long as they didn't die, they could fully recover after a short while and return full of energy. Therefore, many martial artists chose to eat Zoan Devil Fruits to break through their talent limits and become tougher.
After a short midday break, the Military School Students dragged their exhausted bodies into the classroom. Some were even practically crawling.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling...!
As the class bell rang, Vice Admiral Tsuru, wearing the characteristic white justice coat of the Marines, entered with a textbook in her hand and stood at the podium.
After observing the listless students below the podium, she said in a calm but authoritative tone, "Today, I am responsible for teaching you military theory. When you become warship commanders in the future, this course will be very useful to you. If you use strategy and tactics appropriately, you can even defeat enemies far stronger than you at sea."
"This is a course that requires you to use your brains for in-depth research and learning. I hope you listen carefully..." Tsuru knew the challenge before her.
Vice Admiral Tsuru's explanation of military theory was excellent, easy to understand, and incorporated many examples of actual naval battles. Sephiroth even heard an absurd story analyzing how Garp, using his Fist Meteor Shower, defeated all 20 enemy Pirate fleets in a naval battle with pure brute force alone. Of course, Garp was a negative example in terms of strategy, but that fight was a successful case—successful due to overwhelming power.
Scribble, scribble...
Unbeknownst to her, below the podium, except for Sephiroth, Kong Ming, Hina, and a few other students who were still listening attentively, many students were already fast asleep. Even those who weren't asleep were mostly lost in their own thoughts, bored by the dry material.
Vice Admiral Tsuru said nothing about this, but continued to teach the few students who were listening carefully. Tactics and strategy were indeed unpopular in this era where strength was paramount and educational levels were low. Many people fought by relying on brute force and leading charges, believing in destroying everything with absolute power. The best example was Garp, the Marine Hero.
The initial purpose of offering military strategy courses to Military School Students was merely to give them a general understanding of conventional tactics and strategies, so that they weren't completely ignorant of them. When truly facing war, the formulation of specific plans would be left to specially trained staff officers.
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