10 Zephyr's Camp [I]
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Marineford
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If one was at Marineford and at Zephyr's camp, then one would be able to see both men and women training with blood, sweat and tears coming from their bodies.
It was well known that anyone that trained under Zephyr at his camp was a skilled Marine and likely to be going places.
And of course, such a spot was wanted by many people, including the rich who wished to use the name of Zephyr as to profit, unfortunately for them, no amount of money could ever sway the former Admiral.
Thus only the truly best could get in. Unfortunately for Vincent, this left him as the only Marine his age training at the camp.
Vincent was the youngest at fourteen and was the youngest ever to enter into Zephyr's camp. After he was Hina who was eighteen and Smoker who was twenty. Though, apparently, there was a boy who was sixteen last year that resigned from the Marines, therefore also Zephyr's camp for unknown reasons.
Vincent wondered who he was, that someone would resign from the Marines despite being in Zephyr's camp, especially at the young age of sixteen.
It would have helped to have someone his age, as after Smoker there were people whose ages were varying in the twenties, thirties and some even in their forties.
In the thirties and forties were mainly Commodores or Rear Admirals, as Vice Admirals were mostly too busy catching Pirates rather than training. This was also true for Commodores and Rear Admirals but to a lesser extent.
But, even to a lesser extent, whenever Zephyr called for training, the majority of those present, which Vincent quickly found out to be everyone, as nobody dared to be absent, were in their twenties and unfamiliar faces to Vincent.
While they were unfamiliar faces to Vincent, there was nothing wrong with making friends and finding out information would always help.
To Vincent's surprise, there was going to be an Admiral Coronation for Borsalino, Kuzan and Sakazuki, and it would be taking place within two years, as it was required many of the Marines in high positions to attend, thus taking a long time to plan.
Vincent also heard about the Flevance Incident, on how the Amber Lead Syndrome broke out last year and was now threatening to infect bordering countries.
Of course, he knew the truth. The Amber Lead Syndrome was real and just as dangerous as they said, but it wasn't contagious in any way. Just hereditary and the result of greed.
He would try to do something, but, at the same time, he feared his actions. If he were to change what would happen, then his knowledge of the future would become less useful, however, he also felt that he had a duty to make sure that things went differently.
And, in the end, even if Vincent didn't do anything, Law would survive, it was just that Corazon wouldn't. And so, Vincent decided not to do anything at least not until the whole Vergo Incident.
But for now. Training began.
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Vincent
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Zephyr's voice was loud and commanding. And looking around, there is nobody I can see that looks familiar to me. I mean, since Smoker looked different, I guess everyone else probably does as well.
I've also been checking the titles of other people, and by my guess, Smoker and Hina do not have official Marine ranks yet.
As whenever I check the profile of other Marines, they do have their Marine ranks in their names, I wonder if they also do have in their titles? I'm not sure if Hold counts since his title wasn't a position.
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PROFILE OF MARINE COMMODORE 'STATE'
Status: Sick (-50 Debuff on all Stats)
Title:
Strength: 345 (-50 Debuff) = 295
Agility: 320 (-50 Debuff) = 270
Vitality: 233 (-50 Debuff) = 183
Stamina: 256 (-50 Debuff) = 206
Charisma: 56
Intellect: 166
Spirit: >100
Armament Haki: Tier 0
Observation Haki: Tier 2
Total Stats: 1276 (1476 without Debuff)
PROFILE OF MARINE REAR-ADMIRAL 'LANA'
BLOCKED: Your overall attributes are less than a 1/4 of hers.
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First off about the profile of Commodore State, I didn't even know you could get debuffs. Probably, since I never got sick. And for Rear-Admiral Lana's profile to be blocked would mean that her total stats have to at minimum be over 3704.
Is there truly that large of a difference?
I mean, how much does Haki play here?
Before I can continue, Zephyr begins our training, "Alright, everyone, go find a partner and begin training!"
It's not anything fancy he gets us to do. Instead, he gets us to fight against each other, however, it seems that by watching our battles he is easily able to identify what is wrong with our style of attack and defence.
I say this because he demonstrated this to me extensively. It's not my fault! My grandfather just never bothered to actually teach me how to keep a proper stance.
Just push in with all your strength, and will! The key words to success, by the Marine Hero himself!
I wonder who I'm fighting, hopefully, it's someone young, they're always easier and closer to my age, and based on nothing more than my profile and my superior stats, I beat them, as well as the fact that some of them go easy on me due to seeing me as a kid.
But, the main reason is that the majority of them are unable to keep up physically, though, someone with almost half my stats beat me since he was being tricky.
He was about twenty or something, I didn't check his profile after I knocked him out... Regardless, I wonder who I'm fighting, I've fought about everyone except for the Commodores and Rear-Admirals.
Hopefully, Zephyr doesn't---
"Vincent, you and Lana can fight together for this one!"
Oh---
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FIGHT
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Soru isn't just quite as effective, especially when your opponent can use Soru better. Namely the ten seconds I use to retreat where covered in a single second by Rear Admiral Lana.
And turning around as my Observation Haki is flaring and telling me, "RUN AWAY!", which I try, before seeing a finger and everything turned black...
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Zephyr
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In a way, it was to humble and teach him.
Most of Zephyr's students were in their twenties, meaning they had only been with Zephyr for a few years at most, and thus were not as skilled as others.
Something that Vincent was taking advantage of. But, most annoying were the excuses given by his students in why they lost to a fourteen-year-old, with everything they could be said as summed into just four words, "He's just a kid!"
It was true. Vincent was only a kid. But, in a real battle, Marines would have to face even children, whether it was to kill or incapacitate, it was necessary. Still, Zephyr knew the actual reason was that his students were weaker than Vincent, and they weren't the keenest in admitting.
They weren't weaker just in strength but in Ambition, or Haki.
Vincent's Armament Haki was one thing, and in a way, it equalized the strength between himself and others of Zephyr's students. However, Observation Haki allowed for Vincent to dodge every attack with ease, even at only Tier 1, it was beyond anyone below the rank of Rear-Admiral, though in some cases, even Commodores knew how to use it.
It was due to Observation Haki that Vincent was able to win most of his battles. However, against Lana, a woman who looked to be in her early twenties, fitted with the Marine Coat the same as every other self-respecting Marine, just on the shoulder, never falling on the basis of the belief of Justice.
Also fitted with a light blue suit, with the traditional long Marine pants and a sheathed sword, and both brown eyes and hair. It wasn't enough.
Zephyr sought to teach Vincent how to become a real Marine. Never influenced by money or the words of people who promised honey, but with a bitter after taste. The Marine Instructor knew that Garp would never engrain such information into Vincent, but, still, he had seen people go the wrong paths before.
And just in case, he would make sure Vincent would lose every once in a while, otherwise, it would do nothing than inflate his ego.
This was why Zephyr chose to make Lana and Vincent fight against each other. Lana ended with an extremely light and controlled Shigan.
Vincent needed to see the distance between himself and others and sooner was better, especially since, that event, would be happening soon...
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Fleet Admiral's Office
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Not so long ago, promoted Fleet Admiral Sengoku looked at all the important notices he had. But, two stood out above others.
The first was that soon, the Marines would be having a Tournament. In about six months or so, the first ever, Youth Marine Event would begin. It was an event to highlight the new generation of Marines.
It was first suggested by a random Marine Lieutenant a few years ago, then slowly got up higher and higher until Garp himself found it, and began to immediately suggest it to Sengoku, proclaiming that Vincent would, of course, be the winner when he would join the Marines.
Sengoku was against it, seeing the Tournament was ultimately pointless and a waste of time, with Garp promoting it for the sake of increasing Vincent's renown. There was a standoff as the two great Marines argued on having it or not.
Eventually, the Tournament was on, after the reveal of Garp's grandson, or so as the media had begun to call him, 'The Next Marine Hero'.
This was as the Five Elder Stars who virtually stood at the top of the World Government saw the potential positive publicity that could be brought by such an event and the message that could be sent to the pirates.
"Behold our generation of Marines! Lead by none other than the Marine Hero's grandson! They will be the ones to end the Era of Piracy!"
As Sengoku reluctantly accepted that such a Tournament would be happening, he looked towards the second notice.
It wasn't as important as a world-wide Marine Youth Tournament, but, it was still his job to look at it. And, he was getting quite bored with it.
The Celestial Dragons, or so-called, Gods, had repeatedly been asking him to find a slave that had quite some time ago escaped from Mary Geoise. Sengoku looked at the sheet of an artist depiction as there was nobody there with a Transponder Snail to take a photo.
Still, it was enough. Judging from the picture, it was rather obviously a Fishman. He didn't care too much about, he just did his job, and that was his job as the Fleet Admiral...
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What Didn't Fit In The Author's Thought
1. Strength: If you haven't noticed, there are large differences of strength between people at Zephyr's Camp. Such as with Commodore State and Rear-Admiral Lana. The differences will only get bigger as the ranks get higher. Especially with the Admirals and Vice Admirals.
2. Profile: Just to say again, but, the profile does not take into account, Devil Fruits, Martial Arts, and other special abilities, only stats. Similar to Doriki.
3. Vincent's Place in Zephyr's Camp. Vincent is, by all means, an anomaly, he is the youngest to ever join, and strong for someone as young as he is. Due to this, Zephyr is trying to humble Vincent in case he becomes too arrogant after defeating Smoker.
4. Vincent's Presence: As to deviate from canon, Vincent's mere presence creates the 'Youth Marine Event' something that isn't canon. I did this as Vincent's existence alone creates waves in the world, and that I don't want the story to be a complete copy or a boring rewrite!
5. This story is currently taking place fifteen years before the present One Piece. So, Luffy would be about four years old.
