Basic Operations

The students received their test papers, each wearing a different expression.

The top students who were confident in their abilities usually chose to skim through the entire paper first. Those who knew a little but lacked confidence, on the other hand, immediately put pen to paper, afraid they wouldn't have enough time.

Morito quietly held his test paper. The questions were mainly about the choices an officer would make when faced with difficulties. There were very few questions that tested rote knowledge.

After all, the Naval Academy didn't train cannon fodder. It trained officers capable of commanding troops in battle.

There was no fixed pattern to a battlefield, and pirates wouldn't discuss their plans with you beforehand.

The questions varied in difficulty. What mattered was the choices you made.

Most questions were open-ended, with no single, fixed answer.

The goal was to train the students to think for themselves and solve problems.

"So this is the Training Camp's written exam? Pretty interesting!"

Morito glanced over a question.

A pirate ship has attacked a merchant vessel and taken its merchants hostage. Your warship is stronger than the pirates, but you can't capture them without endangering the hostages. If you were the warship's commander, what would you do?

It tested the principle that you couldn't have the best of both worlds.

If you wanted to save the hostages, you had to let the pirates go. If you wanted to capture the pirates, you had to sacrifice the hostages.

There was no fixed answer to this sort of question. It depended on the person and their character; the answers could never be exactly the same.

There was a case to be made for either saving the hostages or capturing the pirates.

It was both a free point and a deadly trap.

It all depended on what kind of person the examiner was.

Morito could almost picture how the future Three Admirals of the Marines—Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji—would answer if they were sitting the exam here.

Akainu would probably charge straight through the middle. The hostages? Dead hostages were just corpses.

Kuzan would surely prioritize saving the people and make capturing the pirates secondary.

Kizaru would save whoever he could and capture whoever he could, perfectly embodying the words "lazy dead fish."

"Questions like this are probably meant to reveal the candidates' personalities and how they handle things, right?"

Morito thought it over, then quickly wrote down his answer.

Then he moved on to the next question.

Time passed.

Gradually, more and more people put down their pens. The questions on the exam were of moderate difficulty, but quite a few students looked disappointed.

Most of them, of course, looked pleased.

They were the future pillars of the Marines, the elite among the elite. What good would they be without a few skills to their name?

The test papers were soon collected.

The Training Camp's exam papers were graded on the spot, and the results were announced immediately, with many people watching to ensure everything was fair, impartial, and open.

Whatever the Marines were like behind closed doors, they would never allow even the slightest stain on their public image.

While the exam papers were being graded, the academy didn't leave everyone sitting around. Instead, they moved straight on to the second event: the physical fitness test.

The events were numerous. They included weightlifting, the shot put, repeated side jumps, the high jump, and the hundred-meter sprint.

And most importantly, the Doriki test!

While the Training Camp students were taking the second physical fitness test, the academy staff hurriedly graded the exam papers. Four of them were sent to Zephyr's office on the top floor of the teaching building.

Zephyr had requested the papers belonging to Onigumo, Doberman, and Kazan.

The fourth paper belonged to Morito. Garp wanted to see what "choice" Morito would make, so his paper was sent over as well.

"Doberman and Onigumo are both a little too aggressive in their approach, but overall, their answers are good."

In the past, Zephyr would have had a good talk with the two of them.

Throughout his life, Zephyr had fought countless pirates, yet never killed a single enemy. He was known as the Admiral who didn't kill.

That alone said a lot about the kind of person Zephyr was.

But a few years ago, pirates had murdered Zephyr's family, and he had come to hate them.

His personality had changed drastically, too.

That was the real reason Zephyr had simply described Doberman and Onigumo's answers as "aggressive."

"Kazan was too lenient. Pirates are a pack of utterly vile scum!"

Zephyr had wanted to say, "How can you let pirates go just to save the hostages?" But when the words reached his lips, he couldn't bring himself to say them.

Suddenly!

Garp burst into a loud, "Pwahahaha!" spraying bits of doughnut everywhere.

"Why does this answer feel like Sengoku's taking the exam?"

"He's pretty clever, though!"

Garp laughed, slapped his thigh, and offered his assessment.

Zephyr narrowed his eyes and looked at the paper in Garp's hand. One of the questions asked the student to choose between "saving the hostages" and "capturing the pirates."

Zephyr's gaze shifted.

The answer written in the blank space read:

"If the pirates are vicious criminals who enjoy killing people and slaughtering villages for fun, then wipe them all out while doing everything possible to keep the hostages safe."

"If the pirates are merely thieves and have never been known to slaughter civilians, then capture them while ensuring the hostages remain completely safe."

It was practically a model answer, with not a single flaw to criticize.

It took every kind of examiner into account!

It was more or less as if he'd handed the "choice" that the candidate was supposed to make over to the examiner. Here was the answer; you pick!

Choose whichever you like, and just give me the points!

Zephyr couldn't help raising an eyebrow. This answer revealed nothing about Morito's personality.

Not that it revealed absolutely nothing. Someone capable of giving such an answer was hardly unheard of.

Zephyr immediately thought of Sengoku and Tsuru, those two old foxes.

Not only could their enemies not see through them, even their own people couldn't!

Deeply calculating and devious.

Zephyr added those two impressions to his mental picture of Morito. The boy was so young, yet already learning from the old fox Sengoku and the scheming Tsuru?

Examiners had already graded the four papers. They had been sent here for Zephyr and Garp to confirm.

Garp asked with a grin, "What do you think of this paper?"

Each paper was reviewed by multiple examiners, with at least three grading it.

Every one of the choice-based questions on Morito's paper followed the same pattern. It was impossible to find fault with any of them, so he'd received full marks.

Even the few questions testing rote knowledge had the standard answers taught in class.

The whole paper was covered in red circles!

Zephyr saw through Morito's tactics. He didn't admit it aloud, but inwardly he praised his cleverness.

Even if this paper were handed to every officer at Marine Headquarters for a joint review, they wouldn't find a single place to deduct points.

One answer took the feelings of the Hawk Faction, the Dove Faction, and the Lethargic Faction into account all at once.

That alone showed Morito's ability.

"It's only a written exam. There'll be no way to take shortcuts on the physical fitness test!"

Zephyr beckoned an aide over and told him to take the four papers away.

Garp was just there for show. He wouldn't interfere with anything Zephyr did. He simply sat off to the side, laughing, drinking tea, and eating doughnuts.

The conversation in the office died away, leaving only the soft crunch of doughnuts being chewed.

Zephyr's gaze swept past the window to the plaza below, unconsciously searching for Morito.

At that moment, Morito was doing repeated side jumps.

At the sight of his movements, Zephyr's pupils suddenly contracted.

"That speed—was that Soru?"