I Just Wanted to Liven Things Up

As Aequus forced a strained smile onto his face, a voice that seemed to come from the deepest depths of hell reached his ears.

"Hey, Milers, Aequus! Over here!"

Worse still, the voice had deliberately grown louder when it called Aequus's name.

Aequus stiffly turned toward the voice.

There sat Randall, beaming at the two of them.

His pearly white teeth were on full display—exactly eight of them, no more, no less.

"Oh, so the other guy is Aequus!"

"No wonder he's such a huge lump!"

"Jeez, what the hell did those two get up to..."

"..."

As he listened to the chatter around him, Aequus froze completely, and the smile vanished from his face.

He had thought he could escape this disaster, only for it to catch up with him here...

But while Aequus was miserable, Milers suddenly perked up.

For a moment, the toe-curling embarrassment eased considerably.

Exactly!

Now that's more like it!

Why should I be the only one suffering?!

This feels so much better!

Despite the pain, Milers couldn't help smiling.

This was conclusive proof of the law of conservation of smiles:

A smile never disappeared without reason. It merely moved from one person's face to another's.

Both of them stiffly collected their food, then sat down just as stiffly off to one side.

They deliberately chose a spot far away from Randall.

Randall didn't mind. His only goal had been to let everyone know who Aequus was anyway.

Neither of them knew how they managed to finish their meal.

The people nearby kept sneaking glances at them.

Some late arrivals didn't know what had happened, but before they could even look confused, a senior would immediately step in to enlighten them.

"Know what those two lumps are?

The top two recruits in this year's Elite Camp, get it?

Milers and Aequus!

Those two right there!"

"Yikes—then what happened to them..."

"Who knows what they've been through? Young people these days, honestly..."

The two mechanically shoveled their food into their stomachs, barely chewing. Without even knowing whether they were full, they fled the cafeteria.

Too terrifying...

Half an hour later, Randall finished his meal and strolled leisurely back to the dorm.

The moment he walked through the door, two resentful stares pierced him like javelins.

"Hey, how was lunch?"

Randall greeted them warmly.

Their eyes said it all: How was lunch? Don't you fucking know?

But a moment later, they heard something that utterly shattered their composure.

Randall gave an embarrassed smile and said:

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was playing a little joke on you earlier.

That stuff about insights into Armament Haki lingering in your injuries? I was just kidding.

Things felt a little gloomy back then, so I wanted to liven things up."

There was a sharp crack.

The two turned to stone on the spot and split down the middle.

Randall stepped forward and poked one, then the other.

"Well? Happy?

You can use Life Return to reduce the swelling now!"

In an instant, the stone encasing them exploded.

Their eyes burned with fury.

Happy?

Happy, my ass!

My lifelong reputation is ruined!

This is absolutely going to haunt me forever!

Liven things up?

I'll fucking liven you up!

If you didn't do this on purpose, I'll wash my hair standing on my head!

And you still have the nerve to stand here grinning at us?!

Drop dead, you bastard!

Seeing that they were too "happy" to speak, Randall said with a sigh:

"So you really did want to experience more pain. That's why you didn't use Life Return.

I knew it. Who could possibly believe something as ridiculous as insights into Armament Haki lingering in injuries?

No way!"

Beating a dead horse.jpg

At those words, both of them froze.

They could neither admit it nor deny it.

They were ready to explode!

Oh, how they hated him!

Why had they been so quick to trust this bastard?!

After killing Randall several hundred times over with their eyes, they decided to ignore the bastard.

What else could they do?

They couldn't beat him in a fight...

They immediately circulated their life energy, and the swelling on their bodies visibly subsided.

Looking human again, they lay on their beds with stony faces and played dead.

They had no choice. They simply couldn't face Randall anymore.

It was far too humiliating.

They had been crushed in both strength and intelligence.

They were practically finished!

Randall knew when to quit while he was ahead. Seeing their state, he stopped teasing them.

He lay down on his bed, thoroughly pleased with himself, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Early the next morning, at the Training Ground.

Zephyr arrived very early.

Once everyone had assembled, he said:

"Some of you performed very well in this assessment and demonstrated your full strength.

But a few of you failed to show the strength you should have!"

As he spoke, Zephyr stared straight at Cotton.

He might as well have called him out by name.

"I hope this assessment helped you identify your problems so you can correct them!

Of course, if you can't identify them yourselves, you can come to me!

The second matter is the reward for the top three in this assessment, as promised.

Randall, Milers, Aequus, step forward! Come with me!"

With that, he turned and walked away.

Randall and the other two hurried after him.

Behind them, the other recruits watched with envy.

They wanted those rewards too!

Zephyr led them all the way to an empty Training Ground.

In the center of the grounds, Zephyr folded his arms and stared at the three of them without the slightest self-consciousness.

Faced with this scene, Randall had a "What are you staring at?" right on the tip of his tongue.

Only heaven knew how much willpower it took him to swallow those words.

After watching them for a while, Zephyr spoke:

"You did very well! You didn't disappoint me! In fact, one of you even exceeded my expectations!"

As he finished, the hard lines of Zephyr's stern face suddenly softened.

In an instant, he went from a bloodied general on the battlefield to a kindly older man.

It might not have seemed like much, but Randall knew exactly how difficult that was.

It meant that even the tiniest trace of his strength was under Zephyr's absolute control.

Only then could he achieve such effortless naturalness.

At Zephyr's praise, even the normally expressionless Milers smiled.

Sure enough, nobody was unhappy to receive praise.

If they were, it was only because the wrong person was praising them.

After a few words of praise, Zephyr said with a warm smile:

"Now, over the next three months, I'll do everything I can to help you grow!

First, as usual, I need to get a sense of your current strength!"

As he spoke, he flexed his wrists.

In the quiet grounds, the crisp cracking sounds were particularly jarring.