Donquixote Rosinante / Zephyr

"My Justice? The strongest! I believe in the Justice of the strongest!"

Atlas pondered for a moment, then looked seriously at the plaque reading "Imposing Justice" behind Sengoku.

"If you seek peace through struggle, peace survives; if you seek peace through compromise, peace perishes! Only fists can end this chaotic era."

Atlas spoke in a ringing voice. He did not care what these four big figures thought, merely expressing his truest thoughts. Actually, Atlas was not afraid; the Marines were a highly inclusive faction, and as long as one believed in Justice, it was accepted.

"Alright, I roughly understand. Go back and sort out your internal affairs first."

"Yes!"

Hearing the dismissal, Atlas decisively walked out the door and considerately pulled it tightly shut.

"Tsuru, Kuzan, what do you think of this kid?"

"Atlas? Without a doubt, he is someone with an extremely firm conviction, and his belief in strength and pursuit of Justice are not a bit inferior to anyone present, coupled with Garp's affirmation of his cultivation talent..."

Vice Admiral Tsuru paused slightly, continuing, "His future growth will be no less than the three of Kuzan, perhaps even stronger!"

"Perhaps the Great Pirate Era can really be ended in his hands!"

Vice Admiral Tsuru finally said half-jokingly.

"Kuzan, what about you?"

"Well, this is a Marine with strong convictions. His Justice isn't as overly absolute as Sakazuki's. I actually want to have him come onto my ship after graduation!"

Kuzan also extremely approved of Atlas, though whether it was to find a laborer was anyone's guess.

"That won't do, old man plans to have him come onto my ship to teach him personally."

Hearing this, Garp on the side immediately couldn't sit still and couldn't help voicing his objection.

"It's hard to imagine, Atlas is seventeen right now, but the strength of his physique is already comparable to that of an ordinary Headquarters Rear Admiral. And looking at his file, his proficiency in Observation Haki doesn't seem low either. With his talent, the moment he comes out of the training camp, he can instantly become an important fighting force for the Marines!"

Sengoku casually picked up Atlas's file from the desk and said somewhat incredulously. You must know that even the three of Kuzan did not possess such terrifying strength at this age, especially in physical talent. In Sengoku's cognition, only that monster Big Mom could compare.

Atlas on the other side naturally did not know these big figures' evaluations of him, and walked on his own toward his assigned dormitory. The various supplies he had just collected were still sitting in the room, unorganized.

"####..."

Humming a song that others could not understand, Atlas searched for the dormitory he was supposed to move into.

Looking at the room number on the door, Atlas confirmed this was his dormitory. In fact, he had been to the dorm once after reporting in earlier, but he had simply dropped off his things with Smoker and left, without taking a careful look at the specific condition of the room.

Pushing the door open, he found a simple four-person dormitory with two sets of bunk beds, one against the window and the other near the door.

However, Atlas stepped inside and half-doubted whether he had gone to the wrong room because he saw the floor littered with debris, and it somehow looked a bit familiar. The entire room was in a complete mess, and sitting leaning against the bed frame where Atlas had originally placed his things was an arrogant-looking, immensely haughty young man (appearing to be around twenty-five or twenty-six). Smoker was not in the dorm, having no-one knew where to mess around.

As for the bunk near the door, only the top bed was empty, while kneeling on the bottom mattress was a blonde youth. His appearance could be described as delicate, yet between his brows there was always an unresolvable melancholy, and his body looked somewhat frail.

"Hi! Hello! Bam!" Seeing Atlas walk in, the blonde youth seemed to want to get up and say hello, but whether because he forgot he was on a lower bunk or for some other reason, he nearly flipped the upper bunk's wooden board right off with a direct headbutt.

Meanwhile, the young man occupying Atlas's bed seemed to treat Atlas and the blonde youth as complete air, leaning against the head of the bed with an expression of cold indifference (acting cool).

"Hey! That's my bed, and furthermore, you threw my things down, didn't you?"

Atlas was not about to spoil him, walking straight up to the arrogant youth to demand an explanation.

"Ah! So what, it's mine now."

This fellow didn't even lift his head, completely ignoring Atlas's existence.

"Hey! Fellow over there, I'm going to tidy up this brat now, can you help me block the noise?"

Atlas didn't bother arguing with an idiot, intending to directly make a move to teach him a lesson since it was rare to encounter someone to practice on.

As for why he asked that blonde youth to help him cover for it, that was naturally because Atlas knew his Devil Fruit ability could perfectly conceal the traces of Atlas making a move!

Chapter 29: Donquixote Rosinante

"Ah? Oh! Okay."

The blonde youth was momentarily stunned, given that Atlas talked about fighting so casually, and judging by his tone, it sounded as though he knew him?

"Calm: Soundproof Wall!"

The blonde youth was a Paramecia Calm-Calm Fruit user who could effectively prevent the noise in this room from drawing others' attention. It could be said to be the ultimate fruit for a spy, which explained why he was later sent out to be an undercover agent.

"Don't worry, it'll be over soon." Atlas grinned to reveal a mouthful of white teeth, smiling arrogantly.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you have to be so arrogant? You really think you've got me in the bag."

Seeing that Atlas seemed to be playing for keeps, the arrogant youth momentarily struggled to maintain his persona. If he got penalized for fighting before training even started, he would get beaten to death by his Rear Admiral old man when he went back.

Yes, what he feared wasn't Atlas beating him up, but his old man's hand. Because from his perspective, Atlas looked all of seventeen or eighteen, and even if he looked quite muscular, just how strong could someone out of some East Blue backwater be? He, Grus, had lived in the Grand Line since childhood and undergone harsh military training!

Soon, Atlas used his fists to teach Grus a principle: age and strength do not correlate!

Shave!

Atlas flashed directly behind Grus, wanting to subdue this arrogant fellow in a single move.

"Tekkai!"

As the son of a Headquarters Rear Admiral, he was bound to know a trick or two of the Six Powers, except that Grus currently only knew Tekkai, which was also the relatively simplest technique among the Six Powers.

However, Grus discovered to his horror that even his Tekkai—praised by his father—was like paper under Atlas's fists.

Bam!

Grus felt a force he could not match rush toward him, actually giving him the sensation of facing his own old man. Then he fell face-first onto the ground in a dog-piling posture, simply deciding to lie there and feign unconsciousness.

"Hey, hey, hey, if you're not dead, get up and clean up my stuff."

Sensing with Observation Haking that this fellow wasn't actually knocked out, Atlas called him up with a harsh tone to put his things back in their original places.

"Heh, heh, heh, Boss, right on it, right on it! My name is Grus, what's your name, Boss?"

Grus had quite thick skin; discovering he had been seen through, he stopped feigning unconsciousness, instantly bounced up from the floor, and shamelessly acknowledged Atlas as his boss.

"Just call me Atlas."

Atlas had no recourse with such a person, considering that one does not strike a smiling face.

"Huh, and you over there, what's your name?"

Atlas asked the blonde youth. Clearly the youngest one here, Atlas insisted on acting like an elder and calling the others brats, a sight for sore eyes indeed.

"My name is Rosinante. And besides, you seem to know me. How did you know my fruit ability could help you cover the noise?"

Rosinante was a bit shy, but still mustered the courage to ask. He had assumed Atlas was sent by the World Government's Cipher Pol agency to monitor him, so he harbored some internal vigilance.

"Ah, I don't know you. I just wanted you to keep watch, and who knew your fruit ability happened to help me out." Atlas explained casually.

What he was thinking inside, however, was: Heh, not only do I know you, I also know your last name is Donquixote, that you used to be a Celestial Dragon, and that you're Vice Admiral Sengoku's adopted son. Two years from now you'll even go undercover in the Donquixote Family and backstab Doflamingo.

"Oh! Is that so?"

There was no telling whether Rosinante believed it or not, but Atlas didn't pay such trivial matters any mind.

"Big Brother Atlas, I'm back!"

Suddenly, the dormitory door was pushed open from the outside, and it was none other than that fellow Smoker.

Hearing the commotion with his sharp ears, Grus immediately slowed down his tidying speed, looked up to carefully size up Smoker, and realized this newly arrived brat was about the same age as Atlas. However, judged purely by build, his hand-to-hand combat was definitely far inferior to Atlas's. Grus instantly felt he could strut about again.

The moment Smoker pushed the door open and saw his roommates, a smile appeared on his face as he enthusiastically began to introduce himself: "Hello! My name is Smoker, from the East Blue branch, a Logia Smoke-Smoke Fruit user."

Upon hearing the word "Logia," Grus and Rosinante experienced a shock—an incomparably rare Logia Devil Fruit user! That undoubtedly made him the strongest of this batch, didn't it? They truly hadn't heard of any other Logia users.

Yet... looking at how deferential this fellow named Smoker just was to Atlas, could it be that he's already mastered Armament Haki? Grus felt somewhat puzzled inside. Having hailed from the Grand Line, his horizons naturally weren't as narrow as Smoker's, and he naturally knew about Armament Haki.

Still, Grus felt somewhat depressed. It turned out he was the weakest one in the entire dorm: two Devil Fruit users, one of whom was the troublesome Logia type, and the other a physical monster.

And here he had been thinking about establishing some prestige right off the bat and playing dormitory boss, only to find himself reduced to the dorm's general-purpose errand boy.

"Hey! Smoker brat, where did you go messing around just now?"

Seeing Smoker return so late, Atlas couldn't help his gossipy curiosity.

"Tch, ran into a troublesome recruit and had a fight with her."

"Oh!"

Hearing this, the others in the dormitory immediately pricked up their ears. A recruit whom even a Logia user found troublesome... Wait, was this year's recruit training camp really this terrifying?

Was it still early enough to quit? Grus thought with a sense of tragedy.

"Oh? Is she also a Devil Fruit user?"

Atlas asked the question everyone cared about most.

"Yeah, a Paramecia Cage-Cage Fruit user, or so she said."

"Still, she couldn't do a thing to me!"

Smoker said, lifting his chin slightly with pride.

"Relax, relax. The first roll call of the training camp is early tomorrow morning, you guys go to sleep early. I'm going to go get a supplementary workout in first."

Atlas didn't care. With his current combat strength, he was practically a human steamroller capable of plowing through the entire training camp—let alone the fact that his skeletal frame and muscle density were still growing. As long as it wasn't a top-tier Logia Devil Fruit, he had nothing to fear.

"Eh? You're going to train this late?"

Rosinante and Grus were clearly somewhat surprised, but Smoker wore a calm expression. He had personally tested Atlas's training volume; merely the warm-up routine had nearly worked him to exhaustion.

It just went to show that no one's strength comes from nowhere!

Chapter 30: Zephyr

Grand Line, Marine Headquarters Marineford.

"Beep, beep..."

A shrill whistle resounded in the skies above the recruit training camp, breaking the stillness of the night...

It was five in the morning. Most of the recruits who had just arrived at Headquarters were still fast asleep in their warm beds, while Atlas had already finished today's quota of sword-slash training exercises...

Soon, about a hundred and sixty recruits had assembled on the recruit training ground. Atlas slowly made his way over without haste, finding Smoker and the others' position to casually squeeze in.

Standing at the front of the training ground was a middle-aged man with short purple hair. His half-open lapel vaguely revealed muscular pectoral muscles, and his thick neck practically connected straight to his scalp.

Marine Recruit Training Camp Chief Instructor—Black Arm Zephyr!

Standing behind Zephyr was a burly man with a small ponytail, arms naturally dangling past his knees, and dark skin.

To Atlas's surprise, this burly man actually belonged to the Longarm Tribe, a truly rare sight indeed.

In Atlas's impression, it seemed that a Supernova from the Worst Generation of pirates a dozen years later also belonged to the Longarm Tribe.

Zephyr stood composedly in front of the somewhat restless recruits, swept a calm gaze around, and then spoke: "Quiet down! I am disappointed in you. The ones who just ran in late don't need to join—you are already eliminated!"

His voice was not particularly loud, yet it traveled clearly into the ears of every single person.

Instantly, some of the rookie recruits who had rushed over in a panic turned pale, collapsing limply and dejectedly to the ground. The Marine recruit training camp was the cradle of Marine officers; basically, anyone who graduated from here became at least a commissioned officer, and being expelled from here meant a stain that would follow them for life.

"No, please, Instructor Zephyr, give us another chance!"

Some remained unreconciled, attempting to make Zephyr soften his heart and let them off this once.

"You are soldiers, and your mission is to protect the safety of the people of the world. If you cannot even accomplish the most basic act of obeying orders, how can you talk about executing your Justice!"

Though Zephyr bore the moniker of the "Non-Killing" Admiral, he was no softhearted man; soldiers had to have ironclad discipline and obedience!

Having processed the first batch of eliminated personnel, Zephyr scanned the crowd again, his gaze finally coming to rest on Atlas as the corners of his mouth curved into an unfathomable smile: "Kanos Atlas... I truly look forward to this..."

"Attention all! I know that many of you come from the Four Seas, some even enjoyed small renown in their branches, some originate from the Grand Line, and others even have parents serving in the upper echelons of the Marines. But here with me, forget all of that! I've even taught some of your parents, so don't attempt to get any special privileges from me either!"

Zephyr looked at the expressionless crowd, paused briefly, and continued: "My name is Zephyr, and I am your Chief Instructor! I believe some of you have heard of me, but it doesn't matter if you haven't; you need only obey orders here! Do you hear me?!"

"We hear you!!!"

All the recruits roared with all their might, striving to shout at the top of their lungs, and Atlas was no exception.

"Very good. Next, your hand-to-hand combat instructor Shuzo will introduce some details regarding the recruit training period!"

Zephyr looked with satisfaction at this group of spirited young men, then took a step back, leaving the stage to the burly Longarm tribesman Shuzo to perform.

"Hello! My name is Shuzo, you can call me Officer Shuzo. I am responsible for teaching you hand-to-hand combat cultivation, and I am also Teacher Zephyr's adjutant."

"Our recruit training this time will last for three years. Of course, you are welcome to graduate early if you wish—as long as you pass Chief Instructor Zephyr's assessment." At this point, Shuzo made a small, humorous remark.

"Tomorrow, we will conduct a strength test so that we can have a more detailed understanding of you, tailor specialized training methods for you, and achieve maximum growth in the shortest possible time!"