Chapter 30 - Rules
The sun rose slowly above the horizon as dawn broke behind the crescent-moon walls, while new rays of light illuminated the entire Marineford!
Today, many marines gathered over the surrounding walls of the Marineford training ground, showing looks of excitement and anticipation. Because today's the day the recruits start their final graduation exam, before being assigned their worthy ranks.
Victor, Sakazuki and Borsalino had arrived early in the morning and now stood at the center of the training ground, along with the rest of recruits from the elite batch, that came to participate in this final test.
A combat exam, where all recruits would battle one-on-one, in accordance with a draw, while the loser gets eliminated, until the last one. Every two years, marines conduct this type of exercise for the elite batch, as they were to be the future who would carry forward their values. And finally, in accordance to how much the participant progress, they would be rewarded with a rank, with respect to their combat capability.
The top of the wall was designed like a modern-day sports stadium with bleacher seating to accommodate the greatest number of people in the space available. At the south center of the wall, a large screen showed a tree diagram like bracket sets filled with numbers that, at the moment, made no sense to anyone.
At the north center of the wall, luxurious seats accommodated the biggest names. Fleet admiral Kong, Admiral Sengoku, Chief instructor Zephyr, Vice admiral Garp, plus several high-ranking officials, and they all sat comfortably waiting for the program to start.
On the training ground, laid four simple battle rings, each about six square meters, while the 88 participants stood at the middle center, with a rear admiral rank officer in front of them.
"I'm a little nervous…" One of the female recruits who stood at Victor's right spoke, looking at the powerful line-up sitting over the wall, watching them.
"It's not just you, Lilly… All of us are nervous." Victor responded following her gaze.
Lilly is the daughter of one of the marine vice admirals, however no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall her name or appearance from any of the memories from One-Piece manga, and so, he presumed she to be a character that may have died before the original plot.
She was pretty, with long, black chestnut hair and hazel eyes. She wore a full black long-sleeved shirt, green leather pants and black boots up to the knees. She also wielded a beautiful, snow-white rapier that made it look like a long piece of diamond. She was four years older than him, with an outgoing personality and very friendly with almost anybody.
Victor had made many friends during the past seven months, and she was one who had become rather close, however, regardless of the many signs he had been throwing at her, he was still within the 'F' zone.
He wasn't looking for anything serious, after all, he was only 15. However, his Saiyan body had gone through puberty before he was 10, and now, his hormones had been demanding a lot, to relieve their much-accumulated desires.
"What a terrifying line up..." Following Victor's response, a lazy voice rang immediately from his left.
"What are you afraid of? Humph... We're not weak, even compared to the lot of them!" Another voice, rougher and heavier, followed the lazy one.
Letting out a sigh, Victor tailed turning his head, "Borsalino, Sakazuki… Not everybody here are like you. It's perfectly fine to be nervous, after all, this will be an important day of our lives..." He said, looking at the two men who stood to his left.
His gaze then went back to the high-ranking officials. He clenched his fists hard, and spoke loud enough that only the recruits heard, "Spare no effort, my friends. Let everyone see your potential and make your future road wider. Remember, all of us here participating are not ordinary. We are the best of the best. We are the future of Marine."
This was, of course, the character Victor had already started building. A youthful, just, and an outgoing person, who would stand by the side of his comrades and friends, no matter what.
Following Victors remark, everyone else got rid of their nervousness, followed by a more resolute and determined expression.
Suddenly, with a *Bang*, the sound of a gunshot echoed the training ground, followed by silence from all the spectators and the participants.
Movement came from the north side, where all high-ranking officials sat. Kong, the fleet admiral, stood up from his seat and walked to the walls' railing.
"Recruits!" His voice was powerful, and once again felt unscientific for Victor. Kong didn't even use a loudspeaker, and yet his words had reached his ears clearly, and without a doubt, every single other person inside and over the walls.
"SIR!" Victor, as well as the other recruits responded in unison.
It was a half an hour, short speech that followed. A lot of encouragement, nonsense, and justice. Victor showed an enthusiastic expression, however, every word that entered from one ear, left from the other immediately. Some recruits showed a similar expression like him, enthusiastic, and even blushed. Victor ignored sighing inwardly, "pitiful bunch of brainwashed idiots…" he thought.
After finishing his speech, Kong sat down. He then motioned the rear admiral rank marine who stood in front of all the recruits to explain the rules to them.
"All participants, each pick a ball from this glass bowl. Inside each ball contains a number. The number you get will be the number you represent, shown there on the large screen. All of you here will participate in a one-on-one battle. If won, the participant will advance to the next round, and of course, the latter is considered the loser and thus eliminated.
Killing is prohibited, likewise, crippling your opponent. Exhaustion or admitting defeated will be considered a loss. Each battle will go on for no longer than one hour. The official referee will determine the winner after observing the exhaustion, the injuries on your body, tactics you used, and many other things which I will not mention.
The first round of elimination will be completed in four days, and by then we would have selected the strongest 32 participants among you. Likewise, will continue again on the fifth day, to select the best among them. It will continue for a month until the best amongst you is selected."
He paused, before continuing, "Am I understood?!!"
"Yes, sir!" they all answered in unison.
"Good, now one by one come and pick a number. The matches will start immediately after the draw."
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