11 Promotion

Percy returned home after settling Zed's situation and reporting back to admiral Sengoku. He finally got a day off and spend his free time sleeping. He never thought that he would be sleeping, but here he was, snoring like a toddler. When he woke up, he took a quick shower and went into the mess hall lazily and noticed that people around him were giving him the side eye.

[Weird] Percy thought as he activated his haki. He was too lazy to look at everyone around him and constantly turn his head and stare at all these marines. And besides, he never met these people in his life. [Why are they staring at me?]

When Percy when to get his food, the server look at him and asked him

"Do I know you son?"

Percy looked at the man serving his food and responded

"No?"

The server nodded his head and whispered to his friend,

"Must be someone new, I thought that we were done recruiting for the year though." The friend shrugged his shoulders and hurried Percy along. *...* Percy looked at the two incredulously,

[I've been in the Marines for 3 years, I've been training with 2 of the most powerful people in the navy, how do they not know who I am... ohhhhh.] Percy quickly realized that he never set foot in Marineford. Ever since he transmigrated, he was training with Zed on a different island and then traveled with Garp afterward. He hardly spent actual time in headquarters building any relationships with the marines.

[I wonder if Kong and Sengoku noticed, or even if they care. Oh well its not like I care either way. The navy is just a means for me to get stronger. As soon as the revolutionaries or something better comes along I'm outta here.]

As Percy was thinking about this and eating his food by himself he was approached by a tall man wearing a rear admiral's uniform.

"My name is rear admiral Julius. I am here on behalf of admiral Sengoku, he wants to meet you ensign Percy."

"Yes sir!" Percy said and he saluted the vice admiral. He knew there were times to be casual and there were times not to be.

He followed the vice admiral to Sengoku's office where he was greeted with Sengoku and vice admiral Tsuru.

"Percy how are you today?" Sengoku asked while shaking Percy's hand.

"Very good sir." as Percy returned the gesture, he was nervous because he was never in the company of Sengoku as well as Tsuru. These were two of the smartest people in the navy and he never knew what scheme they were hatching at his expense.

"You can go now Julius" Sengoku said while staring at Percy. Julius nodded and walked away shutting the door. "Now where was I." Sengoku sat back down and Tsuru did as well. "We would like the thank you for saving admiral Zed's wife and son from those nasty pirates, without your assistance, I fear the worst would have happened to the navy."

[you have no idea] "No problem sir" I said out loud to the both of them.

Tsuru continued for Sengoku, "we think it's time for your promotion from ensign, it's been too long for you to remain in the same rank and we both know your too strong for that position right now."

Percy remained quiet as they were talking waiting for them to get to the point.

"We think it's best to promote you to directly to vice admiral, but there is some resistance from the world government, a jump from ensign to vice admiral is unheard of after all."

Percy nodded his head in understanding. He too would have his apprehension if not for the devil fruit he was wielding.

Sengoku continued "therefore, it was proposed that we will promote you to rear admiral, only if you defeat someone of similar rank first. Are you okay with that?"

Percy was silent for a moment before he asked "is that person going to have a devil fruit and no haki, because if so, then it's not going to be pretty for that person? Vice admiral Garp informed me that the basic requirement for vice admiral is at least some form of haki so if my opponent doesn't have any haki at all and a devil fruit; then I'm sorry but I will crush him" Percy said with a serious face.

Tsuru and Sengoku were speechless for a moment before they both started to laugh out loud.

"WUWUWUWUWU" Tsuru laughed and Percy was speechless for the first time in a while. He never heard Tsuru laugh before.

"You're right of course Percy" Tsuru remarked as she was clearing up the tears covering her eyes. "Your opponent trained his devil fruit for over a decade and he has haki at least some form of it. In fact, he is up for promotion. This will be his evaluation as well. If he performs well against you, he will make vice admiral, good luck."

Percy was startled. "Who is it?" Percy asked wondering who could it be, no one he knew from the original canon was in the marines yet, there were still several years left until Zed starting training the canon admirals and vice admirals.

"You just met him" Sengoku said with a shit eating grin on his face. "It's rear admiral Julius. He ate the yeast-yeast fruit making him the yeast man"

Percy looked at Sengoku in disgust, "yeast?"

Sengoku looked at Percy seriously, "don't take Julius lightly, he can make yeast into a disease enter your body killing you quickly, turn into alcohol which ignites when set on fire, or enter the bloodstream and forcefully extracted by him. It's not the fruit that's useless, it's the person."

Percy started to take Julius more seriously, [Sengoku was right. that was what Oda-sama always said in the manga. Look at Luffy, the rubber fruit turned him into the pirate king].

"You have until tonight to prepare" Sengoku said as he dismissed Percy with a waive of his hands.

Percy nodded his head and left the room. He needed to consider his options,

[yeast plus haki can be a deadly combination.] Percy thought to himself. [I can't see when the yeast is entering my body, but he can see when I make my move. Fortunately, I can negate most of his attacks. It all comes down to if his haki is stronger than mine.]

*********************************************************************************************************Night quickly came and in a fighting square in Marineford two combatants were waiting to fight for their promotions. Naturally they were Percy and Julius. The judges were Kong, Sengoku, and Rosati who just came back after his trip fighting with Linlin.

"Are both of you ready?" Kong said as he looked at Percy and Julius. They both nodded their heads. There was no smiles on their faces, no joy, just looks of determination. This brought a smile to Kong's face.

"Begin!" Kong shouted.

"Kurouzu" Percy said as his hand shot out and black smoke poured out his body. Julius felt himself being attracted to Percy at this was the first time he understood why Percy's power was considered the most evil of all the devil fruits. He quickly used soru and tried to punch Percy in the stomach.

As Julius punched Percy in the stomach, he touched Percy's outstretched hand, and he felt his power grow weak, but he still connect, albeit at a much lesser degree. Percy keeled over, he never expected a hit because this was not part of the game plan, he got too cocky.

[shit, expect the unexpected dumbass] Percy said to himself as he used his powers to recover to his full strength.

Julius stared in awe are Percy recovered perfectly, he remembered that part of Percy's gift is that even though his opponent receives double damage, he can recover unbelievably quick.

Percy did not want to be hit again so he shouted

"dakuama" (dark armor) a combination he invented of tekkai and his fruit ability. He noticed that he can tank more hits if he never feels pain.

[Perfect] Percy said as he planned his next move while staring at Julius.

Julius stared at Percy and contemplated what to do next,

"Ferment!" Julius yelled and the ground around them started to bubble with what Percy started to assume is yeast.

Julius smirked and manipulated the yeast to converge on Percy, his goal was clear... get as close as possible to him, maybe enter his body.

Percy was having none of that, Percy grabbed the darkness around him and shouted

"nashi" (nothing) everything around Percy became dark; Kong squinted his eyes, he could only see Percy and that was it. Darkness surrounded him. After a brief period of time, Percy shouted,

"Liberation" Julius was seen flying out of the arena but was still relatively okay. He was bleeding, but not a lot of damage was done to him. It seemed to Kong and the others that his haki was strong enough to resist Percy's darkness.

Percy then yelled,

"dark spears" and a spears out of thin air tried to pierce Julius as he was flying in the air.

Julius saw this and he said started to geppo plus tekkai everything he could not. After he landed a safe distance away from Percy, he started to stabilize his breathing. Those attacks took a toll on his body.

[I cannot hold on for much longer, I need to finish this now before I pass out].

Julius gather his energy and formed a giant dome around the arena. He then started to compress it until it fit in the palm of his hand.

Percy started to sweat a little,

[Oy, oy that attack kinda looks like a certain bear explosion]

"Are you ready?" Julius said as he held on to his final attack.

Percy gritted his teeth and turned his head back to the judges. The three were staring back at the two with expectations on their faces. Percy sighed and summoned darkness one last time,

"Fine" he said.

"Biosorbent" yelled Julius as a massive explosion started.

[If I'm still alive after this, I'm going to kick someone's ass] Percy sighed as he raised his hands,

"Absorption."