Graduation from the academy.

"Sakazuki, you're the captain, it's up to you to decide." John took the initiative to speak to Sakazuki.

"Continue, of course."

Sakazuki's answer was decisive and clear, he said in a cold voice: "If we retreat when we face such a setback, what kind of Marines are we then, since the pirates are strong, then we should be even stronger, only then we can kill all the pirates."

John gave a thumbs up, Sakazuki's faith and will were indeed extraordinarily strong, even he was very impressed with it.

Even in such a dangerous situation, he didn't see Sakazuki panic in the slightest, only no one else could compare to him in that, even John himself had to admit that he had been really nervous before.

"Then let's get down to business."

This time, the incident greatly affected John and the others, but there were no casualties and the crowd quickly calmed down.

The next few days passed quietly, and not once did they encounter pirates at sea. It wasn't until they were repairing one of the islands on their way that they ran into pirates who were sacking the village.

The captain had a bounty of forty million baileys and was killed by Sakazuki and Vitesse.

From that moment on, the month-long practical exam was considered completely over, and John and his group began to return to Marineford.

"I told you that you have a chance to win only if you are in my group, and look at your group - a complete failure."

Borsalino boasted to John with a smug expression and taunted him.

John looked at Borsalino indifferently and said nothing, it was true, their group had really lost.

After returning to Marineford, the results of the two groups were compared, and in the end, John and his group lost.

I don't know if it was their bad luck or the luck of the Borsalino group, but in total they only faced a few pirate crews, and once with the Roger Pirates, who nearly wiped them out.

But it was in the Borsalino group that more pirates were destroyed than theirs, and, even more strangely, they met a pirate with a bounty of over 150 million bailey, which Borsalino and Dragon were able to destroy.

With this pirate, whose bounty exceeded 100 million, there was no need for a rivalry between the two sides, John and his group were completely defeated.

John found it amusing to remember Sakazuki's ugly expression and Vitesse's displeased look.

Sakazuki was a good and strong man, and the fact that their group lost under him upset him; as for Vitesse, it was pure anger that they had lost and he had not been given points for the test.

After the end of the exam, Zephyr gave them three days off, and as soon as the weekend began, Sakazuki disappeared, and John, on reflection, realized that Sakazuki must have found a place to go to practice alone.

Instead, it was Borsalino, who had been bragging to John for the past two days, causing John to be stunned.

"Did you say enough? If you've said enough, back off, I need to practice." John dismissed Borsalino unceremoniously.

Borsalino was dissatisfied: "Don't you want to hear about the meeting at sea, it was an exciting journey, I tell you...".

"Shut up, I don't want to hear about it, just leave me alone for a while, okay?" John growled angrily.

"Crap"

Borsalino said contemptuously, "John, why are you now a training maniac like Sakazuki, all you know all day long is to train and train, don't you care?"

"Does it bother you?"

John asked a rhetorical question that really offended Borsalino.

"I can't communicate with you anymore, I'm going to find Dragon."

This exam showed John the difference between himself and the legends, and now, like Sakazuki, he was so engrossed in training that he didn't have time to continue interacting with Borsalino.

It was the best time to study, so he could ask Zephyr any questions, but after he graduated from the academy in a few months, where could he find such a good learning environment?

It was sometimes difficult for John to understand why Borsalino was lazy, because Sakazuki always worked hard.

But this guy, Borsalino, who was lazy, was no weaker than Sakazuki.

It was a question that John really couldn't understand, so perhaps there was only one word that could be used to explain it.

Natural talent!

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, the day of John's academy graduation and graduation arrived.

On this day, the year-long student life came to an end, and Zephyr, as a teacher, personally distributed the students for this semester.

Zephyr had to decide which Marine unit each of them would go to.

As graduation approached, many tried to use connections to have Zephyr put them into good divisions, but unfortunately, Zephyr was very blunt and didn't give a face to anyone.

After graduation, forty cadets of this class are no longer staff recruits. Since they are students of the elite class, they naturally do not start out as ordinary sailors of the first rank, and each of them is assigned a rank.

Forty men, all with the lowest rank of lieutenant, and the two with the highest rank, Sakazuki and Borsalino, both captains at Marine Headquarters.

It was the first time in history that a man who had just graduated from a naval academy was promoted to the rank of captain, but this time it was unanimously approved by the top management, the promotion was unheard of.

The rank of captain at the headquarters of the fleet was almost equivalent to the rank of head of the branch in the four seas and it was quite possible to become a branch commander, so you can imagine how rare this promotion was.

However, this did not surprise John: Sakazuki and Borsalino were two people who were as strong as commodores or even rear admirals, and becoming a captain in the navy was ideal.

John knew that in the future there would be examples of naval officers rising to the rank of admiral, and this would be truly amazing.

In this world's Marines, strength is the most decisive factor in determining rank, and even so-called seniority should take a back seat to absolute strength.

In addition to Sakazuki, several more people became lieutenants, with Dragon taking the rank of commander, and three midshipmen - John, Vitesse and another with the ability of a zoan.

In the end, those who remained at the fleet headquarters were a total of twenty-one people, each of whom was assigned to a separate unit, and the remaining nineteen were distributed to various Grand Line naval bases, which began with the letter G.