Transformation

The next day, Zephyr, who had drunk to his heart's content with Sengoku and the others the night before, got up early and came to inspect the training grounds as usual.

The Marine Academy's training grounds were enormous. He habitually looked toward the area that was usually the most crowded, but only saw a scattered few students, all of them female.

Zephyr's expression darkened. They must have finished training too early yesterday. Those brats took the chance to go out and fool around, and now they're probably still snoring away in their dorms.

It seemed he could not set such a precedent again. They were still young—how could they slack off at a time like this?! How could they possibly sleep?!

Just as Zephyr was thinking about putting them through a round of devilish training once everyone had arrived, a burst of shouting reached him.

"Ninety-nine, one hundred! Sakazuki, you beast!"

"Gigue's getting faster and faster too! Go, Gigue!"

"Borsalino, what are you doing?! Damn! Is he asleep!?"

Zephyr froze for a moment and looked toward the voices. Sakazuki's former "private corner" was packed with people. He counted them, and along with the few girls in the center of the grounds, every student had actually arrived!

There were simply too many people, so Zephyr could only tell from their cheers that Gigue and the other two were among them. Even Kizaru, who always liked to arrive at the last possible moment, was there.

Curious, he suppressed his presence and silently moved behind Momonga.

Momonga did not notice Zephyr behind him at all. He was craning his neck, his face flushed red as he cheered Gigue on.

In the open space at the center of the crowd, Gigue, Kizaru, and Akainu were lying shirtless on the ground, each holding a large barbell and doing bench presses.

Ginny stood to one side with a stopwatch, but her eyes never left Gigue. It was hard to say whether she would be able to stop the watch accurately later.

Seeing this, Zephyr's irritation instantly vanished, and he was even rather pleased.

He did not know what had happened, but seeing the students getting along so well was a delight to his eyes.

However, the moment his gaze landed on Kizaru, he immediately scolded him out of habit.

"Borsalino, you're slacking off again! Did you smear glue on that barbell? Is it stuck to your stomach?!"

Kizaru, who had been spacing out on the ground for quite some time, shuddered when he heard Zephyr's voice. He instinctively thrust the barbell upward twice, but quickly wilted again.

Zephyr's shout also made everyone else notice him, and they all turned to look his way.

"Ahem."

Zephyr coughed twice. It's all that little brat Borsalino's fault. I wanted to watch a little longer!

Now that he had been "exposed," Zephyr's next move caught every student by surprise. He put away his stern expression and said with a smile,

"Carry on. It's still early, and haven't they yet decided a winner?"

Then he took the lead in shouting,

"Put some strength into it! Whoever wins, I'll approve double their allowance for this month!"

That reward was not particularly tempting to Gigue or Sakazuki. One of them was not short on money, while the other was focused entirely on the competition.

Only Kizaru reacted differently. The moment he heard that, his eyes gleamed with gold, and he finally found some motivation as he began pumping the barbell furiously.

However, he had slacked off for far too long. After only a few presses, Ginny clicked the stopwatch and cheered,

"The competition is over! Brother Gigue, you're amazing! You tied with Sakazuki for first place!"

Kizaru, who had taken second place—meaning last place—collapsed onto the ground like a frostbitten eggplant and complained miserably,

"Teacher Zephyr, why didn't you say that earlier?! All that effort for nothing!"

Zephyr rolled his eyes at him. The opportunity had been handed to him, so who could he blame for failing to seize it?

The three men on the ground got up one after another. Ginny immediately draped a coat over Gigue's shoulders, drawing envious looks from the male students.

Akainu picked up his own coat and put it on, covering his muscular upper body.

Quite a few female students actually liked Akainu's type of strong, rugged man, but he looked far too fierce. Not a single girl dared approach him.

Of course, Akainu did not care about such things. As he buttoned up his coat, he said,

"Gigue, your body is very strong. Much stronger than that guy Borsalino's."

Gigue shivered. Why did Akainu always make everything sound so weird?

Still, Gigue admired Akainu. His own physical talent was among the very best to begin with. After all, he carried the bloodline of the Figarland Family, and his body had undergone special modifications. Akainu's talent was not low either, but compared to Gigue's, it still fell far short.

The tied result was entirely due to Akainu's usual hard work.

Kizaru sat cross-legged on the ground, sighing nonstop. He was still regretting the loss of that double allowance.

Akainu understood Kizaru quite well and comforted him considerately.

"Borsalino, even if you had gone all out from the start, it would have been difficult for you to beat Gigue and me at this. Don't dwell on it too much."

"..."

Kizaru looked at Akainu speechlessly and complained,

"Sakazuki, are you comforting me or putting me down?"

"Of course I'm comforting you."

"Pfft!"

Hearing their exchange, Ginny could not help bursting into laughter. She took Gigue's hand and said,

"Brother Gigue, those two are really interesting!"

It was not just Ginny. Even the students watching nearby laughed at Akainu and Kizaru. They suddenly realized that these two people they had once regarded as monsters had such lovable sides to them.

After everyone had been dismissed yesterday, the generous Gigue had directly treated all the students to a lavish meal. They were all young, and after sitting together and having a few drinks, they quickly loosened up.

The students Akainu had beaten up badly even used the alcohol for courage and apologized to Akainu and Kizaru in person.

Ginny had been the most explosive of all. Her appetite was astonishing, but her tolerance for alcohol was the complete opposite. She got drunk after only a few drinks. At the time, she had wrapped herself around Gigue like a little snake and said things that made her want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into whenever she remembered them now.

On the way back, she even told Kuma that if she ever got drunk again, he should use his ability to pop the alcohol out of her body. Otherwise, she would truly be too ashamed to face anyone.

When she met Gigue at the training grounds today, her face was still rosy red. Fortunately, Gigue never got the chance to bring up what had happened last night, because Akainu immediately pulled him off to compete.

Yet that only left Ginny a little disappointed, as though all those words she had said had gone to waste.

A young girl's thoughts were always so complicated. Ginny looked up at Gigue's profile, her gaze gradually growing hazy.

It was not until Zephyr called everyone to assemble that she came back to her senses. Reluctantly releasing Gigue, she ran off to join the few girlfriends she had just met.