Volume 1 Chapter 14

A month sailing the sea can be very tiring and boring for young apprentices, especially when the highest rank on board looks to always be taking a nap.

The Vice-Admiral had the power of the Hie Hie no MI (Ice Ice Fruit), a logia type devil fruit that allows the user to create, control and transform into ice at will, making them a Freezing Human.

Every day over the past month, as part of his training Ezra was required to practice his body transformation skill in the presence of the captain. The struggle against the natural restriction of the Hie Hie no Mi (Ice Ice Fruit) served as a catalyst for unearthing Ezra's hidden potential. He could feel his control and manipulation of seawater improving daily.

An assembly was called on the deck. The crew were surprised, it had been a month since they ventured out from the West Blue Academy and now an important meeting was happening. This brought about a sense of unease as seamen made their way to the deck.

"We have finally found the tail of the Skull criminal organisation; we have received our orders from HQ to begin the operation to capture them by all means necessary. For this, we will need everyone to carry their weight around here. The mentors assigned to the apprentices will return to their original posts. Apprentice Ezra and Apprentice Bellmere you both will be temporarily promoted to 3rd Class Petty Officers and will be in charge of the apprentices, while the rest of you will be promoted to Seaman First Class "Vice-Admiral Aokiji announced.

"Lieutenant Commander Gion, I am promoting you to Commander, your orders are to proceed to East Blue Oykot Kingdom. New information has just been received from a spy planted in Oykot kingdom. The Kingdom has been taken over by a criminal organisation, which have some nasty pirates as backers. Make the necessary battle preparations." After saying this Vice Admiral Aokiji took out a green coloured bicycle from the captain's cabin. He sat on the red seat, before riding off the ship.

The rest of the crew were not alarmed, this was something they had seen before, but the apprentices who had only seen a few devil fruit users, they could not help but scream in shock. Some apprentices ran to the bow of the ship, ready to rescue the Vice Admiral who mistakenly rode off the ship. Only to find him riding on the water, a strip of ice had formed underneath the bicycle as he road along.

As the second-highest rank on the ship, with the Vice-Admiral being absent, Commander Gion gave the order "All hands on deck, to the Oykot Kingdom in East Blue. Bellmere and Ezra come with me."

"What do you know of the four seas?" she said as they walked to the captain's cabin.

She rolled out a sea map containing detailed information on the four seas, information like this was only available to marines.

West Blue and North Blue could be seen on the left, East Blue and South Blue on the right. What separated both areas was a massive continent approximately located on the prime meridian known as the Red Line. There was also another line indicated on the map called the Grand Line.

"Because of the Red Line going across the continent, it has become difficult to travel between the seas. For marines, there is no such difficulty, what this map does not show you are the secrets we as marines have in these seas.

The Grand Line is an ocean current located on the equator of the world, as you can see from the map, it splits the North and East sea to the top and West and South sea to the bottom. On either side of this unique current is two areas of the ocean which is termed Calm Belt." She said while giving the lecture on the seas.

"The calm belt is as the name implies. There are no sea currents making it impossible to sail through that part of the ocean, in addition to this, this area is a nest for sea kings. I bet you are wondering what secrets marine hold regarding this area; all I can tell you for now is that our ships are very different from other ships. The materials and technology used in building the marine ships are too advanced for your little minds to comprehend." She added.

Ezra, like a sponge, absorbed all the information he could, especially when he heard that there were sea-kings in the calm belt, Ezra could not help but take note of that in his mind.

"The skull criminal organisation is a notorious bunch; they are infamous in the East Blue. Vice Admiral Aokiji will be facing the pirates backing the organisation in battle. This should buy us time in taking them out. Many good soldiers will lose their lives in this battle; You should prepare yourself for what is to come and relay this information to the other apprentices. Dismissed".

"Yes Ma'am!" Ezra and Bellmere replied before solemnly heading out of the cabin.

After days of travel, the ship drew closer and closer to the Red Line. According to the seamen gossips on deck, the Red Line was 10,000 meters deep from the ocean level on top to a place called fish-man island where merfolk lived at the bottom.

This was another area of interest for Ezra, he could not help but ask questions to various seamen about this information trying to confirm its validity.

At the same time, the Red Line is high enough above sea level to be considered indestructible and impassable without using the proper entrances.

The ship approached a part of the Red Line which had a silver gate with the symbol and letters Marine written on it. This was one of the secrets of the marines in these seas, this place was known as the marine corridor, it is a tunnel-like junction built into the Red Line connecting the four seas. This allowed marines to send ships from any part of the four seas.

A marine battalion was resident at this location as guards, they dealt with all the relevant documentation, clearances, and access to any of the seas. It did not take long for the procedures to be completed and the journey to resume.

The ship made its way past the huge open double doors heading into the red-walled underground tunnel, the current slowly moving the ship forward.

"Hoist the sails" Commander Gion ordered. Seamen got to work folding, pulling, and securing the white sails. The ship continued forward being carried by the current.

Ezra was amazed that such construction took place inside the majestic continent. He and the other apprentices looked ahead with great expectation.

"The ship is in position, Shut the West sea gate!" someone yelled over the communication device. As soon as the voice was heard, the sounds of mechanical movements could be heard as gears cranked in place. The current from the West sea beneath the ship stopped and the seawater in the underground tunnel became calm.

"Open the East sea gate!" the same voice was heard again. After another mechanical sound was heard the flow of the sea had changed direction causing the ship to veer to the right.

"Turn the ship starboard, release the sails" Commander Gion yelled across the deck.

Riding the current, the ship came out of a similar-looking guarded gate, making their arrival into the East Blue.

Ring Ring

Commander Gion pulled out a small grey den den mushi with the words marine on its shell from her coat. The apprentice had heard of this species of telepathic snails used for vocal and/or visual communication throughout the world, but seeing one was intriguing.

"Yes sir, ok I will see to it" she replied ending the call.

"The Vice Admiral has just received new information from HQ, the order from the top is to use whatever force we have to stop the threat in Oykot kingdom. Prepare for battle!" she yelled.