9 The Crucible

The next day, all Marine recruits were called early in the morning, long before the sun began to rise. Quite a few of them ended up complaining, as they weren't used to the severe lack of sleep. Little did they know their problems were just beginning.

As they stood in the main hall of the training center, Zephyr had stood in front of them, glancing at them with a stern expression.

" Good morning, you lousy punks. I see you all slept well." Zephyr spoke. " Before we go any further, there is something I want you all to understand, what is a marine? What is our duty to this world? And why do we do it? That's something a lot of you should ask yourself long before even thinking about joining the Marines. Well, let me tell you. The duty of the Marines is to maintain law and order throughout the world while eliminating any and every existence that disrupts the peace. In most cases these days, our number one enemy is Pirates, but there are factions out there looking to see the world government toppled. Make sure you carve these words into your hearts! Anyone in the world can run away when facing the undefeatable. But not us! If you run, then the lives of everyone beside you and behind you are in danger. Regardless of who your opponents is a marine never runs away! Understand?!"

" Yes, Sir!"

" The word carved on my back, Justice, carries with it a weight that you could never imagine. You'll understand it someday, but before that, let the training beginning!

The word Justice, a motto used amongst the Marines is there is absolute justice, meaning the complete and utter eradication of evil by whatever means necessary. Markus does not approve of this justice; he like quite a few varying marines has his own view of justice. He calls it his Moral justice, meaning he would never do something that would compromise his moral code.

He wouldn't succumb to the weight that was the world government but shatter its image completely. And that meant enduring another hell.

The first start in the recruits training was a twenty-Kilometer sprint around the training grounds, a task that doesn't seem too impossible to the recruits, except they have to do in thirty minutes. Those who fail will not eat that day.

Everyone starts out strong, the thought of not being able to eat was a strong motivator even in the minds of the most basic of recruits. But slowly, those not in the top start to fall behind.

Brago finishes first in the run, completing the course in just a few minutes, finishing with a time of five minutes and twenty-three seconds. Markus himself finished at five minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Just a few seconds behind.

" Damn it! You fast bastard." Markus cursed.

The rest of the recruits were astonished by how fast those two were. They watched as Markus and Brago lamped them time and time again, and yet they showed no signs of being tired or fatigued and one word crept through the minds of everyone there.

" Monsters."

" Come on, runts pick it up, you're almost out of time!" Zephyr shouted.

The remaining recruits continued running to the best of their ability, unfortunately for them, they did not share the same conditioning that Markus and Brago had, as the next recruit to finish the course came in at around thirty-five minutes.

Markus couldn't help but notice this woman, she was one of the same recruits that arrived within thirty minutes the day before, in their first trial. A young woman, with curly black hair, and a mole just under her mouth, and though he didn't see it before she had a black spider tattooed onto her left thigh.

She was bent over, gasping heavily to try and catch her breath. " Damn!"

" What are you three standing around for, let's go! Pus-up position! Let's go! Get to Pushing!" Zephyr shouted.

" YES, SIR!"

The rest of the morning was filled with the recruits performing multiple strenuous tasks including Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lifting weights, and more. Many many more.

By the time the sun started to rise, and it was time for breakfast, almost every single one of the recruits were spent and deprived of energy. Unfortunately, the only two who were allowed to eat breakfast were Markus and Brago, as they had been the ones to finish the running course in the timely manner that Zephyr had set.

" A bowl of rice and a piece of fish. Not much to go on." Markus muttered.

" But I'll take it." Brago stated. He was already fast at work in digging into his foot, shoveling it into his mouth large spoonfuls at a time.

Markus sat down next to the man and was getting ready to eat himself, when he saw the young lady from earlier and a young man, obviously much younger than he was staring at him and Brago. In fact, a lot of people were.

Markus then started scratching his head. " Ah man." Markus put his bowl down and slid it over to the two of them. " Here, you guys eat this." Markus told the two of them.

Their faces both lit up slightly, especially the younger boy.

" You sure?" He asked.

" Of course, take it. Besides, I'm used to not eating. And you two will need your energy if you're going to survive." Markus told the two of them.

" Thank you." The young man said to Markus, he took the piece of fish and started gnawing on it like a mad man, while the woman simply nodded and started eating the rice.

" Thank you." She muttered.

It didn't take long for the two of them to finish and while such a gesture would normally be one praised, here it would not.

" HEY! HEY! DID I SAY THEY COULD EAT?!" Zephyr was not happy. He stormed into the mess hall and grabbed Markus out of his chair.

" NO SIR!"

" THEN WHY THE HELL, DID YOU GIVE THEM YOUR FOOD?! HUH?!"

" Because it was the right thing to do, sir. They needed it more than I did." Markus told the man.

" Oh, they did? Well, guess what? Since you seem to be so full of energy, take off. And don't come back until, you burn off that excess energy!"

" YES, SIR!"

Markus left the mess hall, and started running around the training grounds, all the while cursing himself for having a heart.

" Let that be a lesson, I make the rules here, you will obey them." Zephyr told the recruits.

..........

A little later and came the time for combat training.

" Recruit Markus, Fall in!" Zephyr shouted.

After having ran for what felt like hours, Markus was finally called back to the group.

" How ya feeling, boy?"

" Like a million Berries." Markus told the man, in truth, he was tired.

" Good! Then you're up first!" Zephyr exclaimed. " Since it's the first day, I need to get a full grasp of your abilities, your combat skills, your strengths, your weaknesses, everything I can to fully decide what method of combat would best suit you." Zephyr explained.

While Zephyr continued his explanation, the young woman from earlier approached Markus and tapped his shoulder.

" Hey."

Markus turned around and looked at the woman. " Hey, what's up?" He whispered.

" Thanks for the food. I appreciate it. The name's Gion." The woman said to the man.

" Heh. No problem, but we best save the talking for later, lest old man Z kill us both." Markus told the woman.

" Yeah, right."

As soon as they finished talking, Zephyr was finished explaining his training program. A

group of Marine instructors stepped forward to challenge the recruits. And true to his word, Markus was up first.

Markus stepped towards the instructor and assumed his stance. He wasn't a very artistic fighter, choosing to be a much more heavy-handed brawler, but that didn't mean Markus was sloppy.

" Come on, let's see what you can do." The man said to Markus.

Markus raised his left hand out and placed his right hand, his strong arm near his chin, in a standard boxing stance.

The marine instructor rushed Markus viciously. This was still intended to be brutal. He lashed out at Markus multiple times, and each time Markus deflected the attack with his steady hand. And then just as the Marine was getting comfortable, in an instance, he saw a flash of Markus right hand before suddenly finding himself face down on the ground.

Markus had struck the man hard on his chin, reducing his legs to string.

" We done?" Markus asked.

Zephyr nodded. Not much he could do in this instance, perhaps he should have fought the boy himself. But then again, what did he expect to happen.

" Alright, next up!"

The process repeated itself many times, as all three hundred recruits would have to engage an officer at some point.

Markus and Brago both surprised the class by defeating their instructors each with ease. Following them in example was Gion, who after a lengthy and drawn-out fight, had managed to defeat her opponent as well. There were a couple of other good fights, one in particular included the youngest of the group, the kid with the white hair, who revealed himself to have a devil fruit that allowed him to turn into smoke.

After the fighting was done, the recruits were arranged into groups. Groups one, two, and three. They were placed in strongest to weakest order.

The strongest group consisted of Markus, Brago, Gion, the young man named Smoker, and a man named shuzo. Though shuzo was shaped a little... Odd.