Life on the Battleship

For next 4 weeks, Percy and his men were going from island to island ensuring peace in the New world. No one called for his assistance, partly because they could handle it, parley because he was not strong enough yet.

He took that as a sign to improve on his strength, so while sailing, he was working on haki training. Mornings were filled with rokushiki training while the rest of the day was left to him trying to improve on his haki. He could already turn his body black, a sign that his mastery of armament haki has reached the intermediate rank; but, he could not past the advanced hurdle.

Percy was slowly but surely getting the feel for the emission technique that Zed always talked about. How his haki could leave the body for a short, invisible burst and attack Percy could barely do now and was working on making it more consistent.

He was using his soldiers as training dummies by having them stand a short distance away from him while he tried to push them away with haki.

As of right now, Percy could use emission 4 out 10 times, but he was not satisfied. He needed to be more consistent if he wanted to reach Shiki and Sengoku's level. Their battle and his embarrassment left a deep impression on the young vice admiral, he never felt so useless before in his life. As he trained, he was constantly reminded of how Shiki easily threw mountains at him while coating himself in haki. He also remembered how Sengoku deflected those attacks like he was swatting a fly.

This was something he was hoping to reach one day, so he practiced, in hopes of getting his revenge on Shiki.

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Percy ran his crew differently from other marine battleships. He was not like other commanders who required absolute obedience from his subordinates, he always thought that two heads are better than one.

Percy always stressed to his men that since they're in the New world, they need to get stronger, or they will die in the hands of pirates or bandits. Some of his men took their leader's words seriously, while others scoffed at him thinking that they were plenty strong already.

"Vice admiral, all I need to do is get a devil fruit and I'll be as strong as you" one of the marine captains said as he looked at his leader. "After all, devil fruits determine who's strong and who's not in the world after all, HAHAHAHA."

Percy looked at the captain and sighed,

[He knows nothing. Wait until he meets a true monster like Rayleigh or Roger and then he'll change his mind.]

Percy turned around and the captain had an ugly expression on his face,

[cocky little s*it, just because you have a powerful ability doesn't mean you can teach me how to do my job. Just wait until I eat a devil fruit, then you'll regret talking to me like that.]

Many similar thoughts were going through the lower level officers aboard Percy's ship. He was just too young; being only 20 years old and one of the youngest vice admirals in the history of the marines.

Percy also never entered marine politics, he never had to. Most of the officers on his ship had to engage in some form of politics to get to their positions, either by back room dealings or trading in favors with world government officials. Percy was excluded from this for one very big reason... his devil fruit. He was insulated from darkness in the navy because he had support not just from Sengoku, Garp, and Zed, but Kong as well. When so many bigshots were protecting Percy in the background, how could anyone try to approach him?

Therefore, many rear admirals, commodores, and even some vice admirals thought that Percy got to his position solely because of luck. Luck that he eaten one of the most power devil fruits in the world, luck that he got trained by one admiral and a vice admiral who turned down the admiral position. Luck that the higher ups took a fondness for Percy and wanted to develop his skills for the future of the marines.

What many of those who were jealous failed to realize was that Percy never stopped training. Even if he seemed to stop training his body or rokushiki, he was training his devil fruit powers trying to learn more about what darkness means and how to utilize it. He practiced haki daily, something that other vice admirals, even more so rear admirals fail to do.

They failed to see the hard work Percy put in, they only saw the results, causing them to think that Percy didn't know how the navy really operated.

But they would never tell him that, after all, he did have a lot of major powers supporting him from the shadows.

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While Percy was in the New world waiting for his next battle, there was a storm brewing in Marineford.

Vice admiral Pickle Faras, second son of the Faras family was walking towards the fleet admiral's office with a determined look on his face.

He opened the door and instead of waiting for instructions he started speaking,

"Fleet admiral Kong, you need to have a talk with admiral Zed."

Kong who was in the middle of a conversation with another vice admiral, stopped and looked at Pickle, "vice admiral Jafask, if you would excuse us" as his eyes glimmered dangerously at Pickle.

Jafask nodded and saluted, as he left he glanced at Pickle, frowned and shut the door behind him.

Kong put down his glasses, "what's the problem now Vice Admiral Faras" Kong said while emphasizing Pickle's title.

Pickle realized then that he interrupted the fleet admiral's meeting, but he could not back down now.

"As you know, one of my cousins, Bastt just joined the marines recently. He was assigned to Zed's ship where he would be learning how to be a proper soldier."

Kong nodded as he read about it in a report, the Faras family is one of the major families in the marines having members from captain to vice admiral, they even had 2 admirals in their families' history. Now, they expanded their influence to cover the navy as well as part of the world government. Kong knew that dealing with the Faras family is not something he can take lightly.

"I did, and what seems to be the problem?"

"Admiral Zed made him a chore boy! A chore boy! Never in the long history of our Faras family did someone do chore duties. It is our nature as Faras members to lead marines in the pursuit of peace, not clean the deck!"

Kong was silent for a moment, before rubbing his eyes together, he could feel a headache coming.

[Maybe I should steal commodore Orange from Percy. She can help me in these situations.]

*sigh* "Let me speak with Zed and see what's going on."

"You do that" Pickle said as he had a proud expression on his face.

Kong raised his eyebrows, "excuse me?"

"N-nothing sir. P-please speak with him and let him know our position as the Faras family is not to be taking lightly." Pickle said as color was draining his face. He could act all high and mighty in front of others all he wants, but he knew that his family could not deal with a fleet admiral, not yet.

As Pickle left his room, Kong picked up the den den mushi

*puropuropuro puropuropuro puropuropuro* the snail started, Kong waited a couple seconds before the other side answered

*katcha* "Ah... Kong, how are you. ZAZAZAZAZA"

Kong sighed as he squinted his eyes again,

[does he even realize how much s*it was caused by his actions? I really need to think about hiring Orange.]

"Did you put Bastt Faras on chore boy duty?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You do realize that his family is THE Faras' right?"

"And?"

"Why?"

"Because on his second day on my ship he started to order my men around and made them do his duties for him. When we attacked pirates, he hid behind a couple of commanders and said that they should fight for him and their families will be compensated if they die."

Kong was silent as Zed went on, "another time, he delayed our departure by 3 hours because he was too hung over and was seen coming out of a brothel. Because of that, we lost track of the pirates we were chasing. I was so pissed that I made him a chore boy and threatened that anyone who helps him out will be kicked out of the marines."

As Kong was listening to Zed talk, black lines were appearing on his forehead,

[piece of shit. Maybe I should just kick him out myself. I need to talk to the Faras patriarch, this is going to get messy.]

Kong hung up the phone and pondered his options, he could kick him out and tell the Faras patriarch the facts, but that may embarrass him too much. He could have Bastt killed, he did it before, but it could backfire on him. One thing is for sure though, he needed to get Bastt off of Zed's ship or the admiral may killing the young man himself.

He made another call, recall Zed back to Marineford; I need to talk to him. Also, get me commodore Orange, I may require her help too.