Chapter 25: Ain
After returning home, Axel rested for a short while before heading back out.
Lunch was handled through the Marine families' canteen, a large public dining hall in town where meals were provided regularly. Most children, however, still preferred going home, where their mothers cooked with ingredients bought from the nearby market. Compared to the noisy canteen, home meals obviously felt warmer.
Back inside his room, Axel unfolded the map he had received earlier and carefully checked the location, time, and classroom number again.
Then he set out ahead of schedule.
He followed the route exactly as marked on the paper and soon arrived at a place surrounded by a tall wall. The Marine emblem, the seagull, was painted prominently on the surface, and coils of wire woven with sharp thorns lined the top.
Axel stared at it for a moment.
"Is this a school," he muttered, "or a prison meant to keep students from escaping?"
He walked toward the gate.
Before he could enter, a Marine in standard uniform stepped in front of him and raised a hand.
"Identification, please."
Axel already knew what he meant, so he took out the ID card he had just received and handed it over.
The guard checked it carefully, compared it against the record in his hand, then finally returned it and stepped aside.
"You may pass."
Axel took the card back and walked through, quietly thinking to himself that the security here was ridiculously strict. This entire town was already reserved for Marine families and personnel. He was also clearly just a child. Yet even that did not exempt him from inspection.
Marineford really did not take chances.
The first thing he saw after entering was not a classroom building, but a massive training ground.
There was a circular running track, rows of basic strength training equipment, open sparring areas, and all kinds of facilities meant to harden the body rather than nurture the mind.
Axel was not surprised.
This was the Marines.
In the end, physical strength was still the most direct and most important foundation here. Strategy mattered, yes, but there was a reason only one person in the whole organization had ever been called the Great Staff Officer. Besides Tsuru, how many people could actually crush powerful pirates with intellect alone?
Very few.
Classroom 104.
That was his assignment.
Following the signs inside the main building, Axel found the room without much trouble and pushed the door open.
The classroom was almost empty.
Only one girl was already there, resting with her head on her desk.
So I really did come too early.
Axel did not bother her. He quietly moved to the back row by the window and sat down.
This seat...
Looking at the position, Axel felt a strange sense of familiarity.
The back row by the window. The classic protagonist seat.
He even remembered seeing jokes about it before, about how every main character who sat there automatically gained an extra layer of mysterious charm.
At the time, he had thought those jokes were stupid.
Now he was sitting there himself.
Ridiculous.
With nothing better to do, he casually observed the room. It was not very different from an ordinary classroom from his old world, apart from the distinct Marine emblem displayed prominently inside. His gaze drifted forward again and landed on the girl in the front row.
From this angle, all he could really see was her hair.
Sea blue.
Soft and wavy.
Even from the back, he could tell she was probably pretty.
At that moment, she yawned lightly, stretched, and slowly raised her head.
Then she turned around.
Their eyes met.
Axel instantly looked away.
He shifted his gaze toward the window with the speed of a guilty criminal.
Talking to Luffy, Ace, and Sabo had never been difficult. They were all boys. They argued, fought, laughed, and understood each other in a straightforward way. But girls...
Girls were another matter.
In his previous life, Axel had been a shut in. Even now, after coming to this world, nothing about that part of him had magically improved. He simply did not know how to act around girls in a normal, natural way.
The girl, however, only smiled.
She seemed to take his reaction as shyness rather than awkward panic, then got up and walked over.
"Are you new here?" she asked.
"Yeah," Axel replied, giving a small nod.
Now that she was closer, Axel could see her clearly.
She looked around his age, maybe a little older, still at that stage between childlike softness and the first hints of future beauty. Her eyes were bright, her lips delicate, and her figure already showed the beginning of graceful lines. Combined with that sea blue hair, she had a distinct charm that was hard to ignore.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Axel."
"Axel?" She blinked, then smiled brightly. "I'm Ain. Nice to meet you."
Ain.
The name made Axel pause for half a second.
Ain.
With that hair color and that name, it was impossible not to make the connection.
One of Zephyr's disciples.
The future user of the Return Return Fruit.
But the girl standing in front of him now felt different from the Ain in his memory. The Ain he remembered carried a colder air, more distant, more reserved, as if something in her had already been worn away by tragedy.
This Ain still looked warm.
Open.
Still untouched.
Which meant...
Axel's thoughts drifted briefly toward the timeline. If this really was Ain, then the tragedy that changed Zephyr's life had probably not happened yet. Or perhaps it was still years away. If so, then she might not even have eaten the Return Return Fruit yet.
"Is something wrong?" Ain asked curiously when she noticed him staring blankly into space.
Axel snapped out of it.
"Nothing. I was just thinking."
Ain tilted her head, then quickly seemed to realize the conversation was dying. She probably wanted to keep it going, because she immediately searched for a new topic.
Then she smiled and said, "Your hair is really pretty. And your red eyes are striking too." She hesitated just a little before adding, "Although... your name sounds like a boy's name, which is kind of strange."
Axel's lips twitched.
Here we go again.
He took a breath and replied, "Sorry. I am a boy."
Ain froze.
Then she covered her mouth in surprise.
"I'm sorry! I thought you were..."
She did not finish the sentence, but there was absolutely no need to.
Axel already knew.
A girl.
Again.
"Yeah," Axel said flatly. "I know."
Ain looked genuinely embarrassed.
"Sorry," she said again, softer this time.
Then, apparently unable to bear the awkwardness any longer, she turned and hurried back to her seat.
After that, neither of them spoke again for a while.
More students gradually began to arrive.
Some looked older, around twelve or thirteen. The younger ones seemed six or seven at most. Axel quietly estimated his own reflected appearance in the window and concluded that his body also looked around that age now. It seemed that constant training, particularly the intense development of his ability and body, had accelerated his physical growth a little compared to normal.
Soon, the classroom filled up.
The earlier quiet atmosphere disappeared and was replaced by low whispers and rustling movement. Most of the children tried to keep their voices down, but the room still grew increasingly noisy.
Axel soon noticed something else.
A fair number of students were glancing his way.
Not boldly.
Just in those small, repeated looks people used when they were curious about someone new.
Being the focus of so many quiet stares made him uncomfortable.
He had never liked being looked at like that.
Then the bell rang.
Instantly, the classroom fell silent.
A man stepped inside.
The change in atmosphere was immediate.
The students sat straighter almost unconsciously, their earlier noise vanishing so completely that it felt as though the man had brought the silence in with him.
Axel looked at him carefully.
He appeared to be in his early thirties, wearing a proper Marine uniform and cap. His face was unremarkable enough that one might forget it at a glance in a crowd, but there was one detail that stood out. A knife scar cut clearly down from beneath his right cheek toward his chin, lending his otherwise ordinary features a cold edge.
He did not look like a teacher.
He looked like a man who could kill people and then return to class immediately afterward.
The instructor's gaze moved calmly across the room, then stopped on Axel.
His eyes showed no particular warmth, surprise, or curiosity.
Only flat acknowledgment.
Then, in a cold and indifferent tone, he asked,
"Are you the new student?"
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