Sorry, I Hit a Little Too Hard Last Night

In the afternoon, everyone had half a day of free time.

Rayne did not waste a moment. He left the Elite Training Camp grounds and headed straight for Marineford's residential district. The luggage bag he had brought from Loguetown had merely been a rag bundle hastily put together to fool Garp. Aside from a few old clothes, there was nothing inside.

Since he would be living here for a year, he needed to prepare some necessities that would improve his quality of life.

Marineford's residential district was even more prosperous than he had imagined. The streets were clean and orderly, with shops lining both sides and an air of peace and stability everywhere. He entered a department store and, with practiced ease, bought brand-new towels, toiletries, soap, and a set of soft cotton pajamas.

After finishing his shopping, he decided to satisfy his stomach.

Following the scent of food drifting through the air, Rayne found a clean, elegant-looking Western restaurant on a bustling commercial street.

"This is the place."

He pushed open the door and, guided by a waiter, took a seat by the window.

"Sir, what would you like to order?"

Without even looking at the menu, Rayne asked the waiter, "What is your most popular signature dish?"

"That would undoubtedly be our pan-seared Sea King tenderloin with black pepper sauce, made from the most tender cut of a small Sea King caught from the Calm Belt this morning."

"I'll have that." Rayne did not hesitate. "And a cream of mushroom soup and rum ice cream."

I'll splurge for once. Consider it a celebration for... getting assigned to the Elite Class.

Before long, accompanied by a sizzling sound, a steaming hot plate of steak was brought over.

It was a perfectly golden slab of meat the size of an adult's palm, covered in a rich black pepper sauce. The aroma of butter and garlic mingled with the scent of meat, aggressively flooding Rayne's nostrils.

He cut off a small piece and placed it in his mouth.

The meat was so tender that it barely needed chewing. Its rich juices mixed with the slightly spicy black pepper sauce and exploded across his taste buds in an instant!

"Ah..."

Rayne let out a satisfied sigh of bliss.

Now this is food fit for a human being! He was moved to tears inside. Compared to this, what I ate at noon was practically sewer sludge!

After devouring everything, Rayne leaned back in his chair in satisfaction, savoring this long-lost feeling of happiness.

"Hello, sir. Your total comes to fifty-two thousand Beli." The waiter smiled and handed him the bill.

The smile on Rayne's face stiffened slightly.

"F... fifty-two thousand?" Looking at the number on the bill, he felt his heart bleed. "One meal costs nearly as much as an ordinary family in Loguetown spends in a month?!"

Without changing expression, he slipped a hand into his clothes. In reality, he was taking out several bills from his Storage Ring to pay, while frantically calculating in his mind.

The money I took from those pirates I dealt with outside the execution platform adds up to a few million Beli. By East Blue standards, I'm definitely rich. But with prices here where one meal costs fifty thousand... this little bit of money won't survive me eating like this every day!

Carrying his newly purchased daily necessities, Rayne headed toward the dormitory building, filled with endless dreams of future "financial freedom" and "food freedom."

When he pushed open the door, the choking smell of smoke from yesterday was gone. The room was still a complete mess, but at least the air was much fresher.

Smoker was working out in the dormitory, shirtless and drenched in sweat. Supporting himself on a single finger, he was doing push-ups again and again!

The wooden floor beneath him was already creaking under the strain of that terrifying strength.

Every time he pushed himself up, he let out a suppressed growl through clenched teeth, as if he were venting all his frustration and confusion through training.

Rayne completely ignored his exaggerated display.

He took out clean towels and toiletries from his luggage, then meticulously began organizing his bed and cabinet. He made his small section of the room clearly distinct from the trash-heap-like environment on Smoker's side.

To Smoker, Rayne's indifference was the greatest provocation.

He suddenly sprang up from the floor, crossed his arms over his chest, leaned against the rail of his messy bed, and stared hard at Rayne.

After a long silence, Smoker finally could not hold back any longer and spoke first. "One hundred and one Doriki. Are you treating me like an idiot?"

Without turning around, Rayne continued making his bed. "The test was difficult. I just got lucky and barely passed."

That answer made the corner of Smoker's eye twitch violently.

Suppressing the anger that was about to erupt, he changed his approach and probed, "Lucky? Then tell me, someone who can even hit a Logia user comes to a new recruit training camp. Don't you think that's a bit beneath you?"

Rayne quickly glanced at Smoker's expression. It held only confusion and unwillingness regarding his strength, without the slightest sign that Smoker had recognized him.

Looks like he hasn't realized I'm the executioner who executed Roger. That discovery completely put Rayne at ease. Good. If he's merely curious about my strength, it'll be much easier to fool him.

He slowly turned around, putting on an age-appropriate expression of faint distress and helplessness. With a sigh, he sat down on the bed.

"You felt it too?" Rayne's voice carried just the right amount of confusion. "I don't know why either, but my strength... can be very unstable sometimes. Most of the time, I'm just an ordinary person, but occasionally... I suddenly erupt with power that even I can't control."

Looking at Smoker's face, which was written all over with Are you fucking kidding me?, he continued his serious nonsense. "Vice Admiral Tsuru sent me here because perhaps... she hoped Chief Instructor Zephyr could help me solve this instability problem."

"As for that punch last night..." An incomparably "sincere" apologetic smile appeared on Rayne's face. "Maybe my unstable state acted up again. Sorry, I hit a little too hard."