17 Marines and CP-9 [I]
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Marineford Arena [Section 4]
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Short, light brown hair and wearing the uniform of a chore boy, he was quicker than anyone would've thought.
His opponent was well over twice his size, granted, he was quite short himself, about 1.5 meters tall and his opponent was near 3.3 meters.
For those watching, they all had their eyes on the taller Marine who wore a mix of Marine clothes and casual which didn't fit well with each other.
It was from their viewpoint and it most often true that size translated to strength.
After all, many of the Marines in the higher echelon were large than those below them in rank.
Then there were exceptions, such as Giants, though that could be attributed more due to their own species, but, their strength was regardless immense.
So it would be true for this as well, no?
Especially when one fighter was so small.
It would be, if not that the boy had with a single punch to the stomach defeated his opponent double his size.
"No way... He managed to take down Warrant Officer Dai..."
"His name, why does it sound so familiar?"
"He was a Lieutenant Junior Grade officer that was demoted for embezzling funds."
"So tall, is he even under 25?"
"He is. By a few years actually, he's 22."
As the conversation continued, there was one question that was asked, that everyone wanted to know the answer to.
"Say, what's the boy's name there?"
With that, the announcer declared the winner, "The winner of this match is Chore Boy---"
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CP-9
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One hour had passed since Laskey had begun looking for Kalifa, unfortunately, he had to yet to find her.
He had heard that the Food Court was still closed, something about having to make the sure evidence wasn't tainted or something.
Sounded like something that would come out of CP-9, it was obviously an excuse, or at least, it was very likely to be one.
Well, he didn't care. Some people survived in this world by learning not to poke their heads in where they shouldn't.
Plus, Laskey had to find Kalifa, not mind himself with other details. On another note, Laskey had, fortunately, found Lucci and Kaku while looking for his daughter.
Asking them to be on the lookout, Laskey quickly disappeared, continuing to look, deciding not to ask the Marineford staff, yet.
Marines and CP-9 didn't have the best relationship.
Especially those Marines who were against the 'Dark Justice' they held, whether it be by one person or the whole group.
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Rob Lucci
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It was rather annoying that he was asked to find Kalifa. Well, it was to be on the lookout, but, Lucci had a way of interpreting things to be a command.
Thus he began to look. Having trained with Kalifa, he knew a bit about her, and though their conversation was rather minimal on their journey to Marineford, he believed he knew enough.
Though it wasn't enough to be exactly pinpoint and completely correct that he chose not to tell Laskey.
Kalifa had during the whole time on the ship to Marineford, wanted to do three things.
The first was to have some ice cream. CP-9 headquarters didn't have any and the Marineford Food Court did, though, it was also closed.
The second was to watch the fights, though Kalifa was having doubts whether or not to fight, Kaku was as well, though he knew both of them were strong enough to do so, and they were as well already in Section 2.
The third and last was to visit the Marineford Library, Kalifa was known by everyone to be very bookish, though unfortunately, it seemed that the Marineford Library was closed for people at his authority. In fact, he doubted that even the current chief of CP-9, Spandine would be able to access it, though he could be wrong.
Both the first and third options couldn't be done, thus, Lucci began to run from arena to arena.
He watched some fights momentarily as to look for Kalifa in the crowd, but couldn't find her.
Continuing, he began to watch fight after fight, though they weren't interesting, he figured that he should for any case.
It was on his way that he bumped into someone he had met quite some time ago.
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Commodore Hold
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Walking around Marineford, Commodore Hold was also viewing the fights between the younger generations of Marines.
As interested as he was, he was more focused on thinking on how the current generation of CP-9 would do.
He had met with them briefly when Commodore State was bringing them into Marineford.
Spandine was different from what he had heard, or at least what Commodore State told him in the past.
It was probably due to the difference in rank and protection from Instructor Zephyr he had now compared to the past.
Laskey seemed normal for a member of CP-9, that was probably due to him having a daughter.
There was also the other person, strange sunglasses and dark orange hair. He didn't speak much.
As for the younger generation, Spandine had bragged about Jabra being among the strongest even for CP-9 standards.
But, Hold had felt that Lucci would soon surpass him.
There was something about his eyes, they didn't belong to someone as young as he was.
And he didn't think he would see those same eyes so soon.
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Rob Lucci
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Lucci looked up to the middle-aged Marine who wore the Marine Cloak on it with inscribed kanji for 'Justice'.
He was tall, taller than he was. Lucci had seen taller, but, they didn't seem as tall in perspective, almost as if the Commodore had the sort of presence that enemies ran from in just seeing him.
"Lucci, right?" He asked.
It took a moment for Lucci to remember who it was.
He wasn't the Commodore that greeted Spandine. He was there briefly, but, unlike the one that did greet Spandine, he didn't talk to him directly.
Regardless, Lucci nodded as his answer with Hold laughing a bit.
"No answer?"
"I nodded."
Hold then asked, "Do you remember me?"
"You were there with Commodore State when he met with Chief Spandine."
"Before then?"
"No."
Hold didn't reply as he thought for a second and asked, "Do you think you can win this?"
"Unlikely. Jabra is stronger than I am, and there are likely several Marines as strong or stronger than he is."
It was sound reasoning, Hold had to admit that. He could already think of some Marines that could defeat Jabra.
Then a thought came, why doesn't he make this more... Interesting?
Smiling, Hold, knew what he could do. But, he had to ask of course.
"Have you ever heard of Haki?"
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East Blue
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"Achoo!!!" Garp sneezed loudly, somehow enough as if to move the whole ship, just as he woke up.
"Aaaahhhh! Why'd the ship move!" Ace screamed as he tripped when Garp sneezed and woke up.
"Pipe down you brat!" Garp said as he picked up Ace, "Hmmm, Bogard, why'd the ship suddenly move and wake me up?!"
Bogard simply looked at Garp in confusion, before answering, "Garp sir... You sneezed and woke yourself up..."
"Huh, I did... Ah right, I did!" Garp realized as he began to laugh, "Bwahahahahahahaha!"
"Stupid gramps, why'd you suddenly have to sneeze!" Ace began to say while still being held by Garp.
Unfortunately, he was ignored as Garp began to think, "Hmm... Someone must have been thinking about me!"
"That doesn't make any sense at all!" Ace replied, now struggling to get out of Garp's hold.
"Hmm. I wonder who it was?" Garp said to himself as he began to shake Ace out of boredom while yawning.
"Let me go!" Ace began to shout as Garp continued.
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Rob Lucci
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Hold took Rob Lucci to one of the private training areas for the Marines.
Just as he had expected, Lucci had limited knowledge of what Haki was.
Lucci had the basic grasp, in his words it was similar to Tekkai and it could allow for one to predict the attacks of another.
'We can start with that', Hold decided and though he himself was unable to use Armament Haki, he had once used it before, a sudden impulse of action, that he couldn't forget, but, couldn't replicate.
He was going to recreate the scene, create the same conditions, and well, see what would happen.
Of course, he had to begin with Observation Haki, something that he was well acquainted with, it could be said that he was the Commodore with the highest proficiency in Observation Haki.
As well as the only Commodore who had any proficiency in it.
With that, he gestured for Lucci to attack, and it began.
Then an hour or so later...
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Kaku
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As Lucci disappeared himself, Kaku began to look for Kalifa as well.
He was only ten, and so many of the Marines that saw him thought him to be a civilian's son and tried to help him find his parents to his dismay.
Looking at wherever he could, Kaku eventually decided to stop as he got hungry, and went over to the Food Court.
Thankfully, it was now open and Kaku entered with there being no guards at the doors, though several civilians with cameras taking photos.
Avoiding them, Kaku went to take whatever food he could, jumping on the tables which though looking strange, was ignored by the general people there.
Some of the Marines on duty went towards Kaku who however quickly ran away as to avoid a confrontation.
He knew he shouldn't make any trouble or attract attention to himself.
Well, making sure he wasn't caught was close enough, wasn't it?
As he began to eat some meat he had taken, he began to hear some of the civilians speak among each other, "Hey did you hear about what happened earlier?"
"King Drum fainted here didn't he?"
"A heart attack, they said. Maybe the food was poisoned?"
"Couldn't be. There was a Marine with that blonde hair that ate an apple, and the Marines even said that the food wasn't poisoned."
"That girl that ate the apple? Right, she had a little sister with the same hair and glasses, didn't she want ice cream or something?"
Kaku tensed upon hearing of the girl with blonde hair, glasses and wanting ice cream. He wasn't 100% sure, but, he had to take his chances.
Then as the civilians continued their conversation, a child with fluffy black hair and a long nose appeared.
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Vincent
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This is a really awkward situation that I'm in right now.
Currently, I'm walking around with mini-Kalifa or rather young Kalifa, looking for Laskey?
Who's Laskey!? Apparently her father, well now it's more awkward!
Also, Kalifa thinks that I'm a girl, yeah, gonna have to change that.
Not sure exactly how to tell her though, I tried making her say, 'Onii-san' though that didn't work, even after giving her some ice cream.
I'm sure, I'll figure something about, and...
Is that... Kaku!?
He looks so different!!
