Marine Headquarters.Training Ground No. 1.9:00 AM.
The training ground was vast and spacious, the private grounds of the camp Zephyr had established himself.
It spread wide beneath a canopy of green. Trees ringed the area, thick and lush, with birdsong drifting through the air now and then, clear and pleasant.
At this moment, seventy-one people had already gathered there.
Including Kai, every cadet had arrived and was waiting quietly.
"So why exactly did Instructor Zephyr make us report here at nine sharp?"
"Wasn't the graduation trial already over? Don't tell me we still have to go through the usual hellish training?"
"Probably not. If he called us here this seriously, it can't just be for regular drills."
"You lot really don't know? There's more to it than that."
"What, did you hear something?"
A number of cadets whispered among themselves.
A small group already knew what was coming.
Most, however, were still completely confused.
Kai was naturally one of the informed ones.
"It's already nine."
He narrowed his eyes slightly, anticipation flickering within them.
"Do you feel confident?"
Tina quietly stepped over to his side and lowered her voice.
"Confident?" Kai glanced at her, amused. "You're not seriously thinking anyone here can beat Instructor Zephyr, are you? He's a Marine Admiral."
"Even I…"
"I wouldn't say I'm confident I can defeat him."
Tina blinked. "Even you can't? Then nobody else has any hope at all."
Kai laughed softly.
She really did have a terrifying amount of faith in him.
"Just do your best."
"There's no point thinking too far ahead. We're talking about a Marine Admiral here."
"Among all the powers on this sea, Admirals stand at the absolute top."
Tina nodded slowly. "That's true."
She did not say anything more.
With a casual glance, Kai noticed that a handful of cadets had already gone tense from head to toe.
Clearly, they knew what awaited them—
a direct clash with Admiral Zephyr.
For them, the pressure was immense.
After all, Zephyr was a genuine Marine Admiral.
How terrifying was an Admiral's combat power?
That went without saying.
At the moment, the only people who seemed truly relaxed were Kai… and the cadets who still had no idea what was about to happen.
"You're really not nervous?"
Smoker could not help asking.
"What's the point of being nervous?"
Kai gave him a look. "Besides, I wasn't nervous when I fought that monster Whitebeard Jr."
Smoker instantly regretted opening his mouth.
"Damn it…"
"Why did I even try talking to this monster?"
"All it does is wreck my confidence."
Before long, the waiting finally ended.
Someone had arrived.
Only—
to everyone's surprise, it wasn't Zephyr.
It was another famous figure from Headquarters.
A tall, thin man in black, with curly hair and a deep-purple headscarf, wearing his usual lazy, half-asleep expression.
Kuzan.
"Aokiji? What is he doing here?"
Even Kai was momentarily puzzled.
The moment Kuzan appeared, the cadets immediately grew tense.
"Vice Admiral Aokiji is here."
"He's always so busy—why would he come all the way to Training Ground No. 1?"
"No idea."
The whispers spread rapidly.
After entering, Kuzan casually found a stone seat off to the side and sat down, looking every bit like he had merely wandered over on a whim.
That odd behavior only confused the cadets further.
Then the second Marine Vice Admiral arrived.
Borsalino.
The man famous for being just as infuriatingly laid-back.
"Oh? Kuzan, you're here too?"
He spotted Kuzan from a distance and raised a hand lazily.
"You came to see it too?"
Kuzan gave him one glance and instantly saw through him.
Like himself, Borsalino had not come for the cadets in general.
He had come for one person.
If this had merely been an ordinary group of recruits, neither of them would have bothered to show up.
Only that one monster was worth drawing them here.
"Even Sakazuki came."
Borsalino's eyes shifted.
In the distance stood a man in dark red, stern-faced and severe, his presence alone radiating pressure.
Sakazuki had arrived as well.
Unlike the other two, he did not greet anyone. He simply found a place, sat down, and quietly swept his sharp gaze across the gathered cadets.
Eventually, that gaze came to rest on Kai.
With all three rising monster Vice Admirals now present, the pressure on the cadets instantly skyrocketed.
Even Smoker felt his breathing tighten.
"These three… all came?"
Kai's eyes sharpened.
Of course he recognized them.
The future three pillars of the Marines.
The men who would one day become the three Admirals of the Navy.
Even now, as Vice Admirals, they already stood among the top fighters on the sea—possibly even stronger than Zephyr in his current state.
Then came someone else.
And the moment they saw him, the cadets nearly jumped out of their skin.
"W-what?!"
"Vice Admiral Garp is here too?!"
The whole group was stunned.
After Garp arrived, he headed straight toward Kuzan and Borsalino.
At once, even Borsalino's usual lazy demeanor tightened a little under the old hero's presence.
"Vice Admiral Garp, you came too."
"What, I'm not allowed to?"
Garp rolled his eyes.
Then he added casually, "Sengoku and the others came too. They're just behind me."
And just as he said—
Fleet Admiral Kong, Sengoku, and Tsuru entered together.
"Fleet Admiral Kong. Admiral Sengoku."
Even Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino greeted them immediately.
"Mm."
Kong gave a slight nod.
The gathered high-ranking Marines quietly looked over the cadets.
The invisible pressure that came with that alone was immense.
Even the Fleet Admiral had come.
This was far beyond anything the cadets had imagined.
At this point, the group gathered at Training Ground No. 1 already represented more than eighty percent of the Navy's upper leadership.
Fleet Admiral. Admiral. Hero. Vice Admirals.
They were all here.
Put simply—
these fewer than ten people could decide the direction and future of the entire Navy.
They were the authority of the Marines made flesh.
"All the top brass are here…"
"Are you kidding me?"
"What is going on today?"
"Where's Instructor Zephyr? Why isn't he here yet?"
The cadets were growing increasingly unsettled.
Even Smoker had begun sweating openly.
"I bet…"
"They're all here because of Kai."
That was the conclusion he reached.
Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Kai, who remained calm and unbothered as ever.
The comparison only made him feel worse.
"So even our mental fortitude is this far apart?"
He sighed helplessly.
At last—
Zephyr arrived.
He first swept his gaze over Kong, Garp, Sengoku, and the others.
He did not bother greeting them.
Instead, he walked directly to the center of the field.
Dozens of anxious, curious eyes fixed on him.
Finally, he came to a stop before the seventy-one cadets.
After a brief pause, Zephyr looked directly at them and spoke.
"You want to know why I ordered all of you to report to Training Ground No. 1 today?"
"I'll give you the answer now."
"The truth is…"
"our training camp has always preserved one tradition."
"Before graduation, every cadet must fight me once."
"That is the tradition this camp has upheld for years. I have never removed it."
"This…"
"is a duel between teacher and student."
"Now then…"
"Are you ready?"
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