13 Meeting Future Admirals

It's been two years since Percy has been promoted to rear admiral in the marines. He was happy that he was fulfilling missions sent by Sengoku and Zed, he also did assisted Garp occasionally seeing as his devil fruit was useful against devil fruit users. Rogers' crew may not have a lot of devil fruit users, but those who had it were powerful enough to irritate Garp to no end. On top of that, Garp said that Rogers and Rayleigh was a pain in his ass.

Percy was gaining plenty of fighting experience and he believed that his haki barely reached the bottom of the admiral level. When consulting his teacher Zed about it, his instructor commented

"ZAZAZAZAZA, perhaps. In a technical term, to become an admiral a person needs to master one form of haki. For me and Rosati we mastered armament haki to just about perfect and Sengoku has mastered observation to where he can see almost 5 seconds into the future. Unless you can do that, or you unlock the color of the supreme king, then it will be difficult for you to reach admiral any time soon."

Percy knew that his teacher was right, the admirals were underappreciated, even in the manga

[they did stop Whitebeard's devil fruit during the Paramount War after all. Their haki must have been at an incredible level.]

He knew that he had very little opportunities to get major power ups because of his opponents in paradise. Percy was stuck with fighting against pirates that were under 300 million belli, for him that is too weak. His darkness fruit eliminated any real risk of being seriously injured therefore he was unable to unlock haoshoku haki at this time.

[Dammit] Percy thought as he was walking away from Kong's office. He finally just got promoted to vice admiral and was stationed in headquarters. The fleet admiral said that his task was to get stronger because he was too strong for paradise and too weak for the big wigs in the New World right now.

[Do I have to train for another couple of years in order to master haki. I'm sure I can use haoshoku as well, I transmigrated and all those who I read in novels have it *Hint *hint.]

As Percy was walking to his new office, his first officer now commodore Orange stepped up besides him.

"Sir, congratulations on your promotion" Orange said as she too was happy about her promotion.

"Thanks, are you going to eat the devil fruit or turn it in for merits?" Percy asked

On one of their adventures, to give Orange and his crew more experience, he decided to stay on the boat as they took care of the pirates. As they were finishing arresting the pirates, Orange discovered a chest at the bottom of the treasures and when she opened it she found a devil fruit. She immediately consulted with Percy about it and he said to eat it.

"There is no such thing as a useless devil fruit" Percy said. "Only useless users."

Orange considered his words but was still hesitant to consume the fruit. According to the marines, if anyone discovers a devil fruit, they can consume it or donate it to the navy for merits that can count towards a promotion. Orange was still undecisive on choosing between the two options.

"No sir, I have no decided either way." Orange said hesitantly.

"I see" Percy said, "Go into the library and find the encyclopedia of devil fruits, try to match it up and see if it matches up with something you want. If it doesn't turn it in"

It looked like a lightbulb clicked in her head and she smiled and hugged Percy,

"Thank you Thank you sir" before running in the direction of the library.

He shook his head and headed to his new office where he was met by someone he rarely interacts with.

"It's nice to see you Percy," admiral Rosati said as he was leaning on one of Percy's couches and eating what looks like rock candy. "Want some?"

"No thanks sir." Percy said as he sat down in his new chair and stared at the admiral, he never had a long talk with him. Most of the time the admiral is away dealing with Charolette Linlin or what she's calling herself now Bigmom and fighting on the front lines.

Percy stared at the candy and Rosati looked down at where he was looking and started to laugh,

"KAKAKAKAKAKA, a bad habit I picked up dealing with Linlin. Don't do what I'm doing. Any way the reason why I'm here is because there is a new batch of recruits this year and I heard there are some monsters among them."

Percy was quiet for a moment [Borsalino and Sakazuki are supposed to enter the marines this year. Makes sense.]

Rosati continued, "In addition to you getting prepared for the new world, your task will be training the new recruits with Zed."

"Is Zed retiring?" Percy inquired, he didn't think that he would quit, after his son and wife was still alive.

"No, he will still be fighting against Kaido every now and then. After all, Zed is one of the few people that can contest with that monster. But, the whole incident with his family did rile him up a bit. He wants to take things slower and start to train the next generation seeing as your getting stronger every day."

Rosati looked at Percy meaningfully, "maybe replacing Zed one day."

Percy paused for a moment before responding

"I understand, but why do I have to train the new recruits? Shouldn't I just go find another island and start haki training by myself like I did in the past?"

Rosati shook his head "advanced haki is different, it can't be just awakened like basic haki. It needs to be taught by someone. That or you need to see it done by someone else. Aimlessly practicing haki will only strengthen your foundation without advancing you one bit, you need a teacher and Zed can help you achieve your goal. And if need be, Sengoku and I will stop by Marineford to assist if necessary. You are our future after all."

"I understand sir" Percy said while saluting Rosati.

"Good, while training with Zed, you will assist him with the new recruits. Pay attention to three particular people, Borsalino, Sakazuki, and Monkey D. Dragon. Yes Dragon, he's Garp's son and he's entering the navy this year. We have high expectations for him."

"Alright I'll do that. When do they arrive?"

"Tomorrow night."

*********************************************************************************************************

Two days later Percy was standing next to Zed overlooking 150 recruits as they were standing at attention. He was peering at them and trying to remember who they were. He saw the two future admirals right away plus Dragon, but no one else he remembered.

[Is there no other good prospects?] Percy thought as Kong was speaking about the glory of the navy and how they will bring peace to the world.

After the ceremony was over, Zed took over and had them start basic training such as running, push ups, and crunches. Percy was sitting down as Sakazuki and Dragon were working at a steady pace while Borsalino was slacking off. Zed walked over and started to shout at the young recruit

"Oy! it's only the first day, don't tell me you give up already."

"Nah-sir, I don't need to train, my power allows me to escape any sticky situation." Borsalino said as he was clearly doing the bare minimum requirement.

Sakazuki rolled his eyes, "Sir! I came from the same base as Borsalino, he's always been like this, it's just that he's stronger than he looks."

"Is he now?" Zed asked with a glint in his eye.

Zed raised his hand and tried to smack the new recruit's head, but it went through. Borsalino had a wide smile on his face and said to the admiral,

"sorry sir, I ate the glint-glint fruit making me the light man. Nothing can touch me."

"ZAZAZAZAZA" Zed laughed as he raised he hand again it turned a light black before he smacked Borsalino on the back of the head.

The new recruit fell on the ground in pain and in confusion, Sakazuki was also dumbfounded.

"ZAZAZAZA, listen up young'un, no one is invincible" Zed said as he walked away. "Now start exercising for real before I make you work 4 times as hard as everyone else."

Sakazuki looked at Borsalino who stared backed at him before they started to train seriously. Meanwhile Dragon was on the sideline watching the interaction with a smile on his face

[dad was right, there are monsters out there. It was correct to leave home.]

Percy watched all of this happened and thought to himself,

[It's going to be a long 6 months...]