Marineford! Zephyr Takes a Disciple

Lying on the crude wooden bed, Loa silently called upon his cheat and opened his status panel.

Name: Christopher Loa

Energy Stage: Second Stage, Level Zero

Energy Value: /400

Magic Power: 500/500

Magic Power Recovery Speed: 00/s

"Sure enough, once I reached the second stage, ordinary food provided a pitifully small amount of energy."

Looking at the large blank on the Energy Value line, Loa could only feel helpless. He had secretly opened the panel once in the cafeteria earlier, intending to test whether others could see it. Instead, the "1" displayed on it had stunned him on the spot.

After eating his fill, Loa opened the panel again and despairingly discovered that the "1" had turned into a blank. Then, on the way to the infirmary, he kept eating so many huge meat bones before his Energy Value finally became blank. It was already this difficult to improve at merely level zero—what would things look like in the future?

"Do I need to eat high-grade ingredients from now on? But this is the world of One Piece, not Toriko. Where am I supposed to find high-grade ingredients?!"

Closing the panel, Loa rubbed his head in frustration.

Two days later, in the afternoon,

After taking seasickness medicine, Loa lay in the cabin dozing when a burst of commotion suddenly woke him.

He put on his shoes and staggered toward the door. Just as he was about to open it, before his hand even reached the handle, someone pulled the cabin door open. Caught off guard, Loa stumbled, his legs giving out as he pitched forward. But a pair of large hands immediately caught his shoulders and helped him steady himself.

Loa looked up and weakly greeted him, "Good afternoon, Vice Admiral Momonga."

"Your seasickness is getting worse and worse." Momonga looked sternly at the pale-faced Loa. In this condition, Loa could not even stand steadily, let alone fight.

"Yeah. I'm afraid I'll have to find a garrison assignment in the future." Loa forced his face into an ugly smile.

"Those matters are still far off. We'll talk about them later; the Fleet Admiral will make arrangements. But starting today, you can finally be free, because we've arrived at Marineford."

At those words, Loa's eyes lit up. He looked past Momonga's shoulder and, sure enough, the enormous military fortress had appeared at the meeting point of sea and sky. Even from this distance, the striking characters for "Marines" on the front of the fortress were still clearly visible.

This was one of the Grand Line's three great powers—the Marine Headquarters!

"Finally... finally, we're here!" Loa could not help bursting into tears. The past few days had been pure torture. The ship doctor's medicine had become less and less effective, and Loa had been so dizzy he could not even eat. More than once, he had wanted to return to the isolated island and stop suffering like this.

But that was an unrealistic wish. Momonga would not order the ship to turn back just because he got seasick.

Now, these torturous days had finally come to an end!

Seeing Loa like this, Vice Admiral Momonga's eyes reddened as well. He pulled Loa over to the railing, pointed at the massive fortress, and said excitedly, "Yes, we're here. Take one last look!"

Loa: ""

"Lord Momonga, I'm not dead yet..."

No matter what, it was a fact that Loa had finally been freed.

Amid a burst of cheers, the warship docked steadily at the harbor. Loa refused to let the Marines carry him down on a stretcher. Who knew whether that thing would count as a means of transportation too?

Supporting himself on the gangway, trembling with every step, Loa descended from the warship. The instant his feet touched solid ground, he immediately became full of vigor, as though he had been injected with adrenaline. A vast chill burst forth uncontrollably.

"I, Hu Hansan, am back! Hahahaha!"

Because Loa had been seriously ill, Momonga had let him disembark first. Walking behind Loa, he instinctively leaped backward onto the deck the moment Loa released that icy aura.

Only after jumping back onto the ship did he suddenly realize that he seemed to have made the wrong choice. The Marines around Loa were shivering violently, their faces turning blue as they froze stiffly in place.

"Loa!" Vice Admiral Momonga's eyes blazed as he roared. His figure abruptly vanished from where he stood, and the next second, he had already appeared before Loa.

"Huh?" Loa had not quite reacted yet. What was Momonga doing? From the looks of it, he was about to throw a punch. Hey, that black stuff on his hand was Haki, right?!

As his thoughts raced, Loa did not dodge, because he still did not understand why Momonga was attacking him.

So—

Thud!

The next instant, his entire body flew backward. He punched through the warship's outer armor and plunged headfirst into the cabin. The whole warship swayed from the impact, while the waves it kicked up surged straight toward the Marines on shore.

"My, my, what a lively scene."

Not far from the shore, a tall man wearing a white suit vest and dark blue shirt spoke expressionlessly. Then he stretched out both hands and pointed them at the crashing waves.

"Ice Time!"

As his voice fell, his hands swiftly transformed into two pillars of ice and shot out, seizing the waves.

Crack, crack.

The raging waves seemed to have been hit with a pause button. The seawater instantly solidified, forming jagged ice sculptures along the shore. The rescued Marines gave him a reverent glance before hurriedly going to help their comrades on the ship.

"Is that the kid Momonga mentioned, the one who wants to join the Marines?"

The speaker was a sturdy old man dressed in a purple suit. His hedgehog-like hair was purple as well, and he was broad-shouldered and powerfully built, the muscles all over his body packed together like tree roots. He was none other than the former Marine Admiral and current chief instructor of the Marine Headquarters' Recruit Training Camp, "Black Arm" Zephyr.

This was still an early era, so Zephyr had not yet equipped the enormous mechanical arm known as the Crusher. He merely used a simple black prosthetic arm.

Having just withdrawn his hands, Kuzan lazily pulled off the sleep mask over his forehead when he heard Zephyr's words.

"Yeah. I heard he can use freezing powers too, so I came over to take a look... but from the looks of it, he's nothing special."

"Do not let pride blind you, Kuzan." Zephyr looked sternly at his disciple. "He is still young. If he trains seriously, his future achievements will be limitless."

"My, my, Teacher is lecturing again." Kuzan spoke carelessly. "Yes, yes, Teacher Zephyr."

When Loa woke up again, it was already dark outside.

He blankly stared at the unfamiliar ceiling above him, then sprang off the hospital bed with a carp leap.

"You bastard! You dared to ambush me! I'll fight you for three hundred rounds!"

Ice crystals spilled from his mouth as Loa bared his teeth and wildly waved his arms.

"Kid, quiet down!"

A thunderous shout interrupted Loa. He turned his head and saw a purple-haired old man sitting on the bed beside him. The old man had his arms crossed and was glaring at him with obvious displeasure.

"Black Arm Zephyr!" Seeing the man's face clearly, Loa's pupils contracted, and he instinctively wanted to flee. This was the leader of the Neo Marines, a dangerous criminal who wanted to destroy the New World!

But the moment he took a step, he immediately came to his senses.

No, wait. Admiral Aokiji is still in the Marines right now, and Zephyr hasn't left the Marine Headquarters to establish the Neo Marines yet. There's no reason for me to be afraid of him!

Thinking this, Loa smiled at Zephyr. "Um, are you Mr. Zephyr?"

"Hmph!"

Zephyr snorted impatiently. "You should be calling me Teacher now, brat Loa."

"Teacher?" Loa tilted his head.

"Mr. Zephyr—Teacher Zephyr, what's going on here? When did you take me as your disciple?" Loa had originally wanted to keep calling him Mr. Zephyr, but when Zephyr glared at him, he hastily changed his form of address.

"This old man has not taken you as a disciple. But you have now joined the Recruit Training Camp, and according to the rules, you must call me Teacher." Zephyr briefly explained the reason, then said, "Of course, if you want to become my disciple, you must first strengthen your physique. A single punch from that brat Momonga knocked you unconscious for so long. You really are frail as a twig."

However, there was one thing Zephyr did not tell Loa: there were not many people in the Recruit Training Camp qualified to call him Teacher. Every one of them was among the most outstanding Marine recruits—the so-called elite camp. Ordinary recruits could only call him Admiral Zephyr or Instructor Zephyr.