Chapter 31 - First Round

Not long after Terumi's group arrived in their dugout, a couple of other groups started arriving as well, and soon all of the dugouts were filled.

Once the final team arrived, Sengoku stood up from his seat and spoke loudly.

"Today we'll be conducting the Marine Trainee Inspection Tournament. As you all know, in recent years the pirates have been getting more and more out of hand. Now more than ever, we need strong and righteous Marines who can help us defend the peace! If you prove yourself a talent in today's events, you will be approved for field training deployed at one of our Grand Line bases. Do your best, hold nothing back, show us the fruits of your labor!"

"Whooo!"

The trainees in every dugout cheered in excitement under Sengoku's encouragement, except for that of the elite camp.

Terumi and his classmates were fully focused on the approaching combat. While he was focused, he felt a gaze on him.

Terumi looked up to see Garp looking at him. Smiling, Terumi sent him a wave and a confident thumbs up. Garp grinned upon seeing that and nodded.

A Marine wearing a Justice coat and a Commodore sash announcing his rank walked up to the Arena stage.

"I am Commodore Craven. I will be the proctor for today's matches. The first match is Charles from Alpha Camp versus Razor from Delta Camp. Please come up to the stage!"

Terumi watched as the two combatants left their dugout and jumped onto the stage. Charles had a slim build and held a rapier. Razor had a large build and wielded a large battle axe.

'Hmm, let's see how this goes. What are the levels of the trainees from other camps?'

Craven eyes the two candidates and seeing that they're ready, he explains the rules of the match.

"No lethal hits, the match ends when one participant concedes, rings out, or becomes unable to continue. Begin!"

Right when the match started, Charles dashed forward and aimed a stab directly at Razor's shoulder.

Razor raises his axe and deflects the attack. He then sends a kick at Charles' stomach.

Charles spun to the side and dodged the kick, as he did, he swung his rapier and caused a shallow slash on Razor's leg.

Razor grunted, shirking off the pain.

Charles had a confident smirk seeing his previous attack connect. Charles then started sidestepping quickly around Razor, sending stabs at Razor from his blind spot. Razor struggled to defend, resulting in small cuts all over his body.

"This fight looks over."

Ain commented, sitting a few seats away from Terumi.

Terumi, Hina, and Gion turned over to look at Ain and then back at the fight. Terumi covered his mouth with his hand and thought to himself.

'I wouldn't be so sure. Aside from the first cut on his leg that looked like it nicked an artery, the rest of the cuts are superficial at best.'

Charles started speeding up his attacks as he gains confidence from his successful offensive.

Then, right when Charles took advantage of a small open in Razor's defense to deliver a stab right toward Razor's side, Razor raised his arm and leaned backward, dodging the stab.

"Now it's over."

Terumi said.

Razor clamped the rapier down with his arm and trapped it between his arm and his chest. Then, Razor swiftly turned, dragging Charle's arm that held the rapier along with him and breaking Charle's balance.

Taking advantage of that fact, Razor slammed Charles right in the face with the broad side of his axe. Charles gets sent flying back and knocked unconscious.

"That's it! Razor is the winner!"

Craven raised his arm and called the match.

"Yeah!!!"

Razor lifted his axe in the air in celebration.

Ain had a disappointed look on her face, having predicted wrongly.

"Why did he rush like that? He would have won if he kept the pace slow."

Seeing Ain pout, Gion chuckled and explained.

"Yes he would have, but he got impatient seeing his attacks connect. Razor kept a cool head the entire time and carefully dodged enough to avoid any serious wounds. Aside from the cut on his leg, all of the other wounds are superficial and he's barely bleeding. It was a very well set up bait."

Terumi and Hina nodded at Gion's explanation. Terumi then looked back up to the stage.

'That was a decent fight, but the level is nowhere near where we're at. I doubt I'll have any challenge until I get matched up against someone from our camp.'

Clearing the stage, Craven then announced the next match.

"Next, Smoker from the Elite Camp vs Vargus from Bravo Camp!"

Smoker sighed and lit a cigar before stepping out of the dugout. Zephyr gave Smoker a smack on the back to encourage him.

"Don't lose."

"Yeah yeah, I got it."

"Smoker-san, show them what they're up against."

Terumi softly said, but Smoker could clearly hear it.

"Hmph."

Smoker jumped up to the stage and on the opposite side stood Vargus from Bravo Camp wielding a pistol.

Seeing the combatants ready, Craven raised his hand.

"You know the rules. Begin!"

Vargus immediately raised his pistol and fired upon the commencement of the match.

Smoker didn't bother to dodge and walked calmly towards Vargus. The bullets simply phased through him, causing Vargus to panic.

"Logia? Just my luck."

Vargus saw that his attacks had no effect, but he did not surrender just yet. Vargus kept his distance and started aiming his shots at several lethal points on Smoker's body with pinpoint accuracy. The bullets were replaced with rubber, so even if he did connect it would not be fatal.

Annoyed by the constant attacks, Smoker decided he had let Vargus show off enough and Soru'd right in front of him, sending a straight punch at his face.

Vargus could not react to Smoker's speed, and he was swiftly knocked out.

"Winner, Smoker from the Elite Camp!"

No one from the Elite Camp dugout cheered, as it was an obvious outcome. The crowd, however, quite enjoyed Smoker's dominant display.

After Smoker's match, several more matches from various camps took place, but they were overall about the same level as the first fight.

Occasionally, someone from the Elite Camp would be called up, but they all beat their opponents easily.

"Next up, we have Terumi from the Elite Camp versus Vyron from Alpha Camp!"

Terumi grasped Asahi in hand, took Ama off from his neck, and passed her over to Hina for her to hold.

"Watch her for me. I'll be right back."

Hina nodded and accepted Ama happily into her arms. Ama perked up slightly and woke up.

"Huh, you slept through everything else today and now you decide to wake up? Well, at least take a good look at my match then."

Ama mewed in agreement and sat on Hina's lap.

"Terumi, are you not going to take them off?"

Hina said as Terumi thought for a second before shaking his head.

"It's fine."

Terumi turned and leaped up to the platform. Soon after him, a large man also arrived on the Arena platform opposite Terumi.

Vyron wielded two knuckleduster gauntlets as his weapons. He had a large and muscular build, yet Terumi could tell that his size did not impede his movement.

'Close range fighter huh? I can deal with that.'

"Combatants, are you ready?"

Terumi and Vyron both nodded toward Craven.

"You know the rules, begin!"

Terumi didn't make the first move after the match started. It's become a courtesy for the Elite Camp members to at least let their opponents show their skills first.

Seeing Terumi set on not making the first move, Vyron huffed in annoyance.

"Don't think that you Elite Camp members can easily win every match. If you underestimate me, you'll regret it."

Vyron then transformed into a human-black bear hybrid.

"A Devil Fruit user. Zoan?"

"That's right, I ate the Kuma-Kuma no Mi, Model: Black Bear. Be careful or you might ruin your camp's clean record."

Vyron said with a smirk.

Terumi smiled wryly and prepared himself, placing his hand on Asahi's handle while it's still sheathed.

"Okay, let's see what you can do."

Terumi unsheathed Asahi swiftly and sent a giant flying slash at Vyron.

Vyron punched the air blade multiple times, crushing it easily. Immediately after, however, Vyron could not find Terumi's figure anywhere. Vyron looked left and right to try to find Terumi before looking up to see Terumi directly high above him.

"Not bad, let's see if you can deal with this then."

Terumi sent two more flying slashes and used Kamisori to reach the ground behind Vyron.

Directly after touching down, Terumi dashed forward and sent a swift stab at Vyron's chest.

Vyron could barely react and used his gauntlets to block Terumi's stab.

Terumi swiftly withdrew his attack and jumped back while sending another flying slash at Vyron's feet.

Vyron had no choice but the jump, but as soon as he did, he got hit on the back by the two flying slashes that Terumi sent earlier while he was in the air. Two large cuts appeared on Vyron's back as he grunted in pain.

Vyron landed on the ground, furious from his injuries. He roared loudly and rushed directly at Terumi.

Terumi readies Asahi and used Soru to dash directly toward Vyron, meeting him head on.

A flurry of sword slashes and punches were traded as Terumi utilized his Breath of Star sword style to send swift sudden slashes one after another. Each slash easily matched the power of Vyron's punches.

Terumi sent stabs to try to break Vyron's balance, but being a close-range fighter, he didn't fall for Terumi's traps. Next Terumi tried sending sudden slashes from awkward angles, but they too were met by the punches of Vyron's gauntlet.

Not making much progress, Terumi focused his mind fully on the fight, erasing all other presence of the crowd around him. His Rhythm Sense fueled his movements, any punch that Vyron readied was interrupted by Terumi's accurate stabs aiming at Vyron's exposed stomach once he opened up.

Vyron, seeing that he's making no headway in this fight, roared loudly with the power of the black bear, sending a soundwave to push Terumi back.

With the bought time, Vyron slammed both his fists down on the ground, crushing the stone underneath his feet and sending a shockwave across the Arena. Terumi jumped high into the sky to dodge the attack.

Taking advantage of Terumi's leap, Vyron jumped to meet him in mid-air and sent a threatening punch.

Hissss

'Breath of Water, Seventh Form: Shizuku Hamon Tsuki'

Terumi stabbed forward, directly meeting Vyron's punch, and canceled out all momentum from his attack.

Vyron showed a shocked face and Terumi used the opportunity to use Kamisori and delivered a swift kick to Vyron's stomach, sending him to the ground. The ground cracked as Vyron landed, but he did not take much damage.

'Zoan fruit users sure are tough indeed. I guess this is my current level with them on for now. That's enough. Let's end this.'

Terumi landed soon on the ground gracefully.

Vyron eyed him carefully, preparing to rush in to attack. But right before he did, he noticed Terumi do something strange.

Terumi rolled up his pants to reveal two leather bracers on his legs. Terumi unstrapped them both and then threw off the Arena towards his dugout.

Thud Thud

The two bracers made a heavy sound as they dug into the dirt.

Vyron's eyes widened seeing what Terumi had just done. Before he could express his anger, Vyron felt the air get heavy.

Vyron looked directly at Terumi and meet his intense gaze. Pure focus filled his eyes, his piercing stare felt like it was looking right through him.

Hissss

Terumi sheathed Asahi into its scabbard. The movement was smooth and seemed slow, however, Vyron could not move. Vyron's mind raced to capture each of Terumi's movements, as time slowed down for him.

'Breath of Star, Sixth Form.'

"Suisei Issen! (Comet Flash)"

BOOM

The ground under Terumi's feet cracked as he disappeared. Less than a second later, Vyron can be seen flying out of the Arena, with a slash across his chest.

"Stop! That's it! The winner is Terumi from the Elite Camp!"

The crowd was silent, unable to comprehend what they had just seen, or rather, what they didn't see. Terumi's attack was too fast for almost anyone to follow.

Soon, the silence was broken by a slow clap.

Terumi looked up to see Admiral Shubashikou clapping for him.

After that, the crowd erupted into cheer.

Terumi did a small bow towards the Admirals and waved towards the crowd before returning toward his dugout, picking back up his bracers and re-equipping them along the way.

Zephyr patted Terumi on the shoulder with a grin once he returned.

"Good job."

Terumi smiled and nodded.

'So that's what I can do removing my leg bracers. I wonder what will happen if I remove the ones on my arms as well.'

Terumi felt and gaze and followed it to his classmates, landing on Drake who had a fire in his eyes.

'Looks like I'll be able to find out soon.'