Chapter 53: Bim, Bam, Boom...

And then three whole weeks passed like that.

Edam slowly learn the names of each of his new fellow comrades and became acquainted with them.

First of all, there were of course the two cute and golden-haired fiancées of Zaz.

Cyera and Kyara, they were sent by their parents to follow Zaz and learn about the world and eventually developped their relationship.

Was it really necessary though ? I mean no need to be an idiot to realize that they were already focused on him.

Anyway, Cyera the big sister was the calm one, she was normaly someone of a few words and also had the particularity of being more developped than her sister (in all sort of ways).

Kyara was in contrast the wild one and the most talkative, a living chatterbox, she would blurt out everything that came to her mind but she always radiate a certain aura of cheerfulness around her.

It didn't took Edam a long time to befriend them... in fact they even became friend on the day they were presented.

After this he met the four turtle brothers, they revealed that they were like that in appearance because each of them (after a certain event that they didn't revealed) ate devil fruits.

The eldest brother and leader of them all was named Leo. He was rather easy to get along with, he was calm and easy going. His devil fruit's was named Roc-Roc fruit, a certain kind of bird.

Then came Donny the intellect one, and the one with the caracteristics of a Chameleon, well no need to say what a chameleon do right ? Anyway he was a bit tough to befriend at first but when he learned that Edam too like to read books and comics, the glass in-between shattered instantly as they kept talking and talking.

And then came Mikey, the stupid one and the one and only turtle Cat, a really fast and agile cat that is... and well just like state before he was pretty stupid, but he was really funny. With him laughter and nice atmosphere was always present.

Then lastly...sigh... came Raffe the Aligator-like turtle. He was the rebel who was always disobeying the order of Leo but he also boast the most powerfull defense of this entire island and an exceptional fleshly power... or so he thought... until he met Edam.

...

*Flashback*

...

On the second weeks during a training session...

On a certain arena...

A small sneer was plastered on the face of a monster of about 2 meter standing straight like a small mountain as he looked down at his fellow comrades laying down on the ground unconscious.

The 2 meters tall monster was in fact Raffe who was in his "Gigalo" form as he called it. ( A/N:Just imagine a godzilla of about two meters tall...weird...?)

Since the first day of the training camp Raffe was considered the strongest after his brother Leo and after Zaz even though he never accept his losses against Zaz.

But Raffe really did had the strenght to boast that he was strong, because...no one except the two mentioned earlier could take him down one on one.

This realization made him become quite overconfident in himself causing him to sometimes mess with the others and even come to nearly bully them although he didn't seemed to realize it.

Even his brother Leo had some difficulties to keep him under control causing the two of them have some bout with between themselves.

The atmosphere in the class even began to change because of that.

"..."

Seeing this Vaughn decided to change the schedule a bit, instead of studying they were gone to a certain training ground where they could fight to their heart content.

When they reach the place there were already some people there fighting.

When some of them saw Vaughn, differents kinds of murmures could be heard.

"Shit, it's Vaughn-sensei..."

"Whoa it's the vice-admiral Vaughn, some rumors say that he's the best friend of the Admiral Aokiji is it true...?"

"Yeah, some even said that he is strong enough to fight an Admiral to standstill."

"They say that he is the coldest but also handsomest Navy's vice-admiral, rank number one on the "Handsome, Beauty" newspaper."

Meanwhile some of them were already set on fighting Raffe to settle some old debts with him.

"It's him ! he extorted money from my friend..."

"That turtle stole my cake the other day..."

"He insult me the other day..."

"He..."

There were different kind of people of different ages complaining about Raffe's behavior.

And as not everyone had the same schedule, anyone could come at their break to settle their grudges or just to exchange some pointers.

...

Looking at that indifferently Vaughn said "If some of you have some grudge or whatnot against anyone then settle it right now." He said in his usual calm voice while he watch everything indifferently.

Then a dozen of fights took place...

...

And this came to this current scene of Raffe crushing his opponents one by one easily seemingly without putting any efforts at all.

After this show of power Vaughn frosty gaze swept at everyone present and said indifferently. "In this world, only the strongests have the right to talk out loud... and although you are formed to be marines it doesn't change this fact..."

"To climbed the ranks you will have to work harder than anyone to be an officer at least, and to surpassed that you will have to go face-to-face against the worst scumbags that this world has to offer...so if you can only do this much..." He didn't continued and kept quiet. It was already a miracle that he would spout out so much words, though it was quite hard to say if it was to encourage them or to broke them even more.

Different kinds of reactions could be made out.

Some were frustrated as they realized their own weakness while some were in contrary boosted while another one, being Raffe began to mock his opponents.

"Heh...that's right, you should give up, you don't have a chance~..." Raffe said in a ironic and mocking tone and added.

"I, I...I'm-..." the poor guy was going to say something but,

"You are no one, and has no way to become someone..."

"...You're worth... Heh~... wait were you worth something again, hahaha..." Raffe laughed out loud giving no care to all the disgusted gaze that were coming his ways.

"That's...mean..." Ciera and Kyara said at the same time, feeling bad for the guy on the ground.

Right now Raffe didn't even look like a ten-years old turtle at all but just look like a plain vilain asshole from a comics looking for a beating.

"Yeah..." Zaz said with pity in his gaze. Just as he was about to say something, his shoulder was held by someone.

Turning slightly to look at who it was, it was in fact Leo the big brother.

Zaz frowned a bit when he saw him and said.

"Your brother is going a bit too far Leo..."

At this Leo replied. "I know..." he replied and then looked at the arena.

"Raffe...!"

"Hum...?" Raffe turned to him and narrowed his eyes. "What...?"

"That's enough... come back..." Leo said in a commanding voice and a really serious face, not really pleasing to Raffe's ears.

"Huhhh...? I don't want to and why should I listen to you exactly...?" Raffe yelled a bit at this sentence.

"Because I am the leader, father said it..." Leo looked at his brother right in the eyes fiercely.

"Fuc* you, I'm a better leader than you Leo..." He screamed in anger and added. "And why should I even listen to Father's orders, he's already-..."

He was going to say something wrong like thoroughly wrong as,

When Leo heard those words, his two turtle eyes suddenly shrink look like the eyes of an eagle while a huge pair of wings slowly began to appear behind his back from under his turtle shell extending slowly horizontaly.

The two wings were about one meter and half wide with each feathers being brown colored while some other feathers being white colored.

Right now Leo really looked graceful a true angel turtle or something like that but most of all he now looked really frightening.

"Heh... come on I will beat you this time..." Raffe as a response didn't back down and even had a confident sneer on his face.

"Humph, you never beat me up until now..."

"He-, Hey you two calm down we shouldn't fight..." Donny went between them and said trying to calm them down while Mikey followed behind and said. "Do...do you two want... a pizza...maybe...?" He asked quite fearfully.

He never like it when his two older brother fought because after the fight, the two of them wouldn't speak to the other for a long time. Although Leo would sometimes tolerate Raffe's behavior, he could be quite unforgiving for certain matters and those words from Raffe were the most taboo to speak of.

"You two be quite, I will beat some sense into his head..." Leo said as his wings flapped once then twice and then when the third flapped was coming and just when he was going to burst forward, an nonchalent and yawning voice rang out.

"Yawn... you're just a crocodile, what the hell are you so proud about...?"

The voice was completely calm and serene with a tint of someone who just woke up seemingly uncaring about what he had just said to Raffe.

When the voice sounded out, everyone were looking for it but didn't found it until Zaz's voice rang out.

"Hey what are doing up there...?" As he too was challenge by someone earlier he too didn't see Edam jump up there.

"I was sleeping a bit, I don't have a grudge with him so... what was the point to watch it..." Obviously the voice actually belong to Edam who was until now sleeping on the branch of a tall tree to pass the time.

He was sleeping peacefully till he heard the two brothers's argument waking him up slowly.

Having seen Raffe behavior's during those few weeks, it didn't took him long to put up the pieces together.

And the result was...

He didn't like this kind of behavior.

Though Vaughn just said that only the strongest could speak out loud which was kind of true, it didn't mean that you should just trample on anyone when you feel like it.

No one deserve to be humiliated like that...althought it was a settling of accounts, you could laugh at your opponent's weakness but humiliate him and his future.

This training camp is first of all a place to learn one's mistakes and weakness with the other people by making friends, opponents and why not rivals... The goal was to learn, not for this current situation to happened.

Anyway hearing Edam calling him a "crocodile" instead of an Aligator pissed Raffe off.

"Who the fuck do you think you are to talk here...!" Raffe looked at Edam in anger.

"Hum ? Who I am to talk ? Vaughn-sensei said it earlier didn't he...?"

Edam looked at him with an innocent and curious face as if Raffe's question didn't make any senses while in fact it was his question that brought confusion to everyone but Zaz who smiled wrily while muttering softly under his breath. "Show off..."

"Huh...?" Raffe didn't understood his meaning as Edam just brush it off with a. "Anyway, what about a little duel then ?" he askes with a small smile.

"..." Raffe didn't say anything and observed him.

He had to admit that Edam was maybe the most intriguing guy in the class right now. Ever since he arrived Zaz would always be found around him.

One of the only guys who could beat him up was actually following this newcomer like a follower or something like that without even blinking at all.

One has to know that Zaz could fight against three of the turtles brothers at the same time.

The situation was like that, Zaz could fight against Donny, Mikey, and Raffe to a standstill but not when Leo was added in the addition as they were nigh equal.

Leo's devil fruit was surely the most powerful of the brothers even more when he used it at its maximum, it's power wasn't just about flying around...not at all.

Zaz compensate his disadvantage of being unable to fight by his Haki mastery because of course, as a minks and as Zephyr's grandson Zaz was taught Haki since he since he was five or so.

So if someone as powerful was following Edam like this...

He wasn't stupid enough to accept it just to lose miserably in front of everyone.

...

Looking at his hesitation, Edam couldn't help but laughed softly as he suggested.

"Haha...How about that then, we will compete and fight in what you excelled in the most, that is your defense and your strenght right ?" Edam looked at Raffe reptillian scales.

Now Raffe and everyone present were really stunned-stricken, for the simple and good reason that no one but really no one of the same generation had ever defeated Raffe in a contest of strenght.

Even Zaz or Leo have to play clever when they faced him to place the right punches on him as his defense was that high.

But now, this small monkey actually dare to look down on the very things that made up his whole pride ?

Unforgivable...!

Since when did a monkey dare to mock an Aligator...?

"Alright...I accept, but it is as you said you can't resort to your speed..."

With that in mind, Raffe couldn't help but accept the challenge in a feat of anger.

"No problem..." Edam replied with a smile.

The little monkey then jumped off the tree as Leo and his brothers tried to persuade him otherwise. They didn't know how strong Edam was and they wouldn't really have stopped him if it was a normal match but now...

"Hey this isn't a joke Edam... Raffe's strenght isn't a joking matter." Leo looked at him.

"Thanks for the advice dude..." Though he thank him, who know if he really listened to it.

"Hey Zaz, stop him, he's your bestfriend no ?" Leo asked worringly.

"Hum...well your brother made a small mistake..." Zaz said watching Edam.

"...?..."

"He...he's not really fighting against a monkey but...more like a gorilla..."

This brought even more confusions.

Edam then went to the arena's ring to stand right in front of Raffe's monster like in comparison to his own tiny height.

Edam expression was unusualy calm for the onlookers.

"He isn't even scared or just pressured..."

"Yeah, false bravado ? maybe...?"

"No I don't think so..."

...

"You can begin the count down sensei..." Edam said to Vaughn-sensei who then began.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

"Go ahead..." Vaughn said calmly...

Hearing this Raffe's reptilians-like eyes turned into slits as he charge on Edam like a mad bull.

Each of his steps were making the ground tremble.

Lifting his enormous reptilians-like fist, he gathered the maximum of his strenght in this one fist to make sure to crush Edam like a puny fly and prove to everyone who was the boss...

It was the plan, and it should have succeed and put Edam into a lot of pressure, at least in his opinion...but,

Instead of despair, Edam's eyes seemed to illuminate a bright but pale yellow light as a small and very faint smile could be seen on his face.

Unknowingly or more like unnoticed by everyone around him mostly because they were too focused on Raffe's extreme momentum, an imperceptible blue light was shining faintly around him encompassing his entire body for a moment. Only Vaughn seem to see it...

Edam slowly clenched his right into a fist while taking a step forward with his left leg and swung his right fist forward neither slow nor fast at about the same speed as Raffe.

"Swish...!"

Both of the fists then connected with one another while,

A "...Crack...!" like sound was first heard, followed by a powerfull and terrible...

"...BOOOOMM...!!!"

Following the "Boom" the silhouette of a massive monster was seen flying backward like a broken cat on a whole ten meters before crashing down on the ground miserably.

...

Turtle brothers "..."

The twins "..."

The onlookers "..."

...

'What the hell has happened...?!' It was the only think that were in their minds right now.

This shock between the two monsters... yeah not one monster but two monsters, they were even tempt to say a baby monster and an adult monster ...anyway... was earth shattering...! litteraly...

The arena's ground was a mess as a small crater with a diameter of one meter could be seen on it, ressembling a spider web proving the power that was display there.

At the center the small silhouette of Edam could be made out as he stood there with a small smile looking at his opponent flying like a butterfly.

...

After a little shock the turtle brothers rushed to Raffe to see how he was and the result was awful...

Every scales that were covering and protecting his fist at all time were crushed and broken into countless pieces.

Raffe was however not unconscious but like more awakened than never before.

The pain that he should have felt was nowhere to be seen, instead there was now something new in his eyes, as if all of his pride and arrogance was gone with this fight.

...

"Like I've said only the strongest have the right to talk out loud, that was the advice for everyone." Vaughn said and added.

"As for you Raffe... Just remember that there is always a taller mountain..."

...

*End of Flashback*

...

And since that day Raffe would come to challenge Edam everyday although he would lose everyday too.

...