Chapter 27: The First Lesson
Seeing Axel fall silent, Ain seemed to think her explanation had worked.
A small, smug smile appeared on her face, one full of childish satisfaction, as if she had just successfully talked a stubborn friend out of doing something foolish.
Then she folded her arms and said, "You must be wondering why someone as strong as Lieutenant Alvis would choose to teach children like us."
Axel glanced at her.
He was, in fact, curious.
In theory, even an elite class in Marine Headquarters should not need a Marine lieutenant personally standing at the front of the room every day.
So he asked, "Why?"
Ain answered without hesitation.
"He requested it himself."
Her smile faded a little as she spoke.
"After what happened, he felt like his own strength had already reached its limit. The helplessness of that day never left him." She lowered her voice. "So he placed his hopes on the next generation and volunteered to become an instructor."
That matched what Alvis himself had implied.
Those without talent could never catch up.
No matter how desperately they struggled, some people were simply born farther ahead.
Cruel.
But not entirely wrong.
In the world of One Piece, talent really did decide too much.
Without a Devil Fruit, monstrous physical gifts, overwhelming Haki potential, or absurd luck, most people could struggle their whole lives and still never reach the heights of true monsters.
And Marine Headquarters training was already brutal enough to break ordinary people.
Soldiers ran until they coughed blood.
Climbed suspended ropes high between buildings, where a fall could leave them crippled.
Fought until collapse.
Ran hundreds of laps, only to be told to run more if they failed to finish in time.
Yet even with all of that, most ordinary Marine soldiers remained little more than nameless obstacles on the battlefield.
Marineford had already proven that much.
Axel understood why Alvis had become like this.
Still, understanding did not mean agreeing.
When Ain saw him stay quiet, she waved a hand in front of his face.
"What are you thinking about?"
Axel blinked and came back to himself.
"Nothing."
Ain narrowed her eyes immediately.
"Liar."
Then, perhaps worried he still had not accepted what she said, she added with unusual seriousness, "Anyway, don't blame Alvis sensei, okay?"
Axel looked at her for a moment, then nodded.
"I understand."
Only then did Ain seem satisfied.
"Good. Because the ones in the wrong are the pirates."
She smiled and walked out of the classroom.
Axel remained where he was.
The pirates are in the wrong?
No.
Not entirely.
In the end, weakness itself was the real original sin in this world.
If Alvis had possessed enough strength back then, he could have protected his family. He could have upheld the justice in his heart. He would not have needed to pin all his hopes on children who had not even entered a battlefield yet.
That thought stayed with Axel as he stood and walked out of the school.
A number of students were already training on the grounds outside, running laps, stretching, and going through basic drills. But Axel had no intention of joining them.
Once Alvis had declared class over, that was the end of it.
Why would he stay here doing children's exercises that would not help him at all?
He would rather go home, train his calculations, and collapse in bed once his brain hit its limit.
So he left.
The next day, Axel arrived even earlier than before.
Unlike yesterday, the classroom was already lively when he entered. More students had clearly learned their lesson after Binz's punishment, and several had shown up ahead of time.
A few even seemed interested in getting closer to him.
Axel ignored them all.
The reason was very simple.
One of the boys had awkwardly tried to confess that he "liked" him earlier that morning.
It had hit Axel like an invisible knife straight through the heart.
After that, he had chosen the safest response available: lie down on his desk and pretend the rest of the human race did not exist.
"Hey."
A voice sounded beside him.
"This is my seat."
Axel lifted his head.
Standing there was the strangely dressed boy from yesterday.
Binz.
The other students nearby subtly moved away from him, as if they were instinctively wary. Whether it was because of his odd appearance, his reputation, or the fact that even Alvis treated him differently, Axel could not tell.
Seeing that Axel had not moved yet, Binz repeated himself.
"This seat. It's mine."
Since Binz had never entered the classroom yesterday, Axel genuinely had not known the seat belonged to anyone. He had assumed it was simply unclaimed.
"Oh."
He started to get up.
But before he could, Binz suddenly said, "It's fine. You can keep it."
Axel paused.
Binz's face turned red for some reason as he looked away and added awkwardly, "Can we be friends?"
Axel blinked once.
Then answered directly, "Sure."
"Mm..."
Binz's face somehow became even redder.
Axel felt a very bad feeling in his chest.
No.
Don't tell me.
He looked at Binz carefully, then decided to end this before it got worse.
"Let me clarify something first. I'm a man."
Binz froze.
His expression visibly collapsed for a split second.
Disappointment.
Real disappointment.
Then he recovered, coughed, and said with forced composure, "Even so, thank you for becoming my friend."
Axel's face twitched.
What do you mean, even so?
Why does that make it sound like I'm the one who's sorry?
Before Axel could say anything else, Binz had already turned and gone to sit in another empty seat toward the back.
A while later, the bell rang.
Alvis entered the room.
What immediately puzzled Axel was that the timetable said Naval History.
Which meant there should have been books.
Notes.
Teaching materials.
Instead, Alvis came in empty handed.
He stood at the front and said in a deep, serious voice, "Today's lesson is Naval History. Pay attention."
Axel narrowed his eyes.
Pay attention to what?
Then Alvis reached into his pocket and took something out.
A Den Den Mushi.
It was not an ordinary communications snail either. Judging by its design, this one clearly had image playback capability. That kind was much rarer and far more expensive than the standard ones used on ships.
Alvis placed it on the desk, took out a little feed from his pocket, and let it eat.
After chewing contentedly for a moment, the Den Den Mushi projected an image onto the blackboard.
The room went still.
It was evening in the recording.
A village.
A Marine operation.
At first, it seemed straightforward enough. Marines had been dispatched to rescue civilians from a pirate attack.
Then the image shifted.
Bodies.
The ground was covered with them.
Men.
Women.
Old people.
Children.
Everywhere Axel looked, there were corpses twisted in pain and terror. The expressions on their faces were so vivid that several students in the classroom recoiled immediately.
No one made a sound.
The recording continued.
The Marines advanced.
They had come prepared, but they had already arrived too late. The pirates had massacred most of the village before the rescue force ever entered the area.
Then, when the Marines tried to engage, the pirates did something worse.
They used the surviving civilians as shields.
The screen showed the chaos clearly.
Gunfire.
Screams.
Desperate shouts from Marines who could not attack cleanly.
Blood splashing across walls and dirt roads.
Civilians dying between both sides.
When the battle finally ended, the scene was horrifying.
Blood had pooled and mixed together in the streets.
Less than half of the Marines who had entered the village were still standing.
And none of the villagers they had come to save were alive.
Worse still, not even all of the pirates were killed.
A significant number escaped.
The classroom remained utterly silent.
There was no need for explanation.
The visual alone was enough.
This was far more effective than any lecture or history book.
Alvis quietly picked up the Den Den Mushi and put it away.
Then he spoke.
"Justice is not easy to protect."
His voice was heavy.
"Pirates are the embodiment of evil in this era."
The younger children flinched at those words, but none dared protest.
"If you want to defeat them," Alvis continued, "you must put in the effort. You must become strong enough. Otherwise, everything you claim to protect will be torn away from you."
Axel stayed seated, but his thoughts were far from calm.
He had known pirates were cruel.
He had understood that on an intellectual level.
But knowledge was one thing.
Seeing it was another.
The raw violence in the recording was far beyond the clean summaries of memory and plot. Those pirates had not been adventurous rogues or dreamers.
They had been butchers.
That image settled heavily in Axel's chest and, for the first time since coming here, strengthened a certain thought inside him.
Justice mattered.
Not the false justice of the World Government.
Not the twisted justice of extremists.
But something real.
Something that could stop scenes like that from happening.
Still, Axel also knew the truth was not as simple as Alvis presented it.
Not all pirates were evil.
Luffy was not evil.
Ace was not evil.
Sabo would never be evil.
But the overwhelming majority of pirates that ordinary people saw were exactly like the monsters in that recording.
Cruel.
Violent.
Predatory.
No wonder so many Marines grew up with extreme beliefs.
If they witnessed things like this in childhood, or had family destroyed by men under pirate flags, then how many of them could still afford to think moderately?
Very few.
That was the first real lesson Marine Headquarters had given him.
.....
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