"But it's too early to worry about that. We're heading out to sea tomorrow, and we don't even know who our target is."
Outside, Arudo pressed his huge face against the window and spoke in a booming voice.
Mingde glanced at Loa in surprise. "Didn't you go get the assignment today?"
"Huh? Wasn't Teacher Zephyr assigning it directly? I picked up the new Warship this afternoon, then came back and went to sleep." Loa scratched his face. Then he saw Mingde's and Arudo's expressions change, and his heart sank. "Wait, did I do something wrong?"
"No, not at all." Mingde waved his hands hurriedly. Even if you had, we wouldn't dare blame you. You'd beat us to death!
Arudo explained, "You haven't been here long, Loa, so you might not know. Normally, whoever's carrying out a field assignment gets it from the Vice Admiral stationed at Marine Headquarters that month. The difficulty varies. The easiest might involve a pirate crew with a bounty of just 1,000 Beli. But if Teacher Zephyr assigns a mission himself, the target pirates' bounty starts at a hundred million!"
That reminded Arudo of the one time he had carried out a field mission personally assigned by Zephyr. He had truly believed he would die at sea and had already closed his eyes to await death.
Fortunately, the Jerome Brothers had arrived in time to help. Together, the three of them had driven off the enemy, and Arudo had survived.
Loa had always thought the Elite Camp was close-knit because Zephyr had taught them well.
But he had forgotten how precious the bonds between comrades were in the world of One Piece, where killing and being killed were facts of life.
That unity had been forged, again and again, on the brink of death.
"I thought