Chapter 90: Who are you?

…

Spandam's smile grew before he spoke. "I was tasked by the higher up to test some recruits here to eventually integrate them into our Cypher poll…"

"Hah…?" Gion at the sides lifted a brow and said with her hands on her hips. "How about you go and find it elsewhere?" It wasn't a question at all.

Spandam frowned but didn't retort, the woman in front of him wasn't something he could confront head-on, without mentioning that Tsuru was beside her too.

"This, this a direct order of the five elders…" He said solemnly.

"Uh-huh, and how do you plan to test them?" Tsuru asked.

"Heh, a small fight should be more than sufficient…" Spandam smirked before adding. "We heard that the Marine Academy is doing well recently and with good seedling in the training camp, especially that Northern regiment, that's why I brought some of my best agents to proceed with the tests."

"We hope to take a look at those northern students if this isn't too much of course…" Spandam forced a faint smile out.

His goal in coming here was to assess those new seedlings potential, and perhaps recruit a few talents in their ranks, but the thing is, although everyone was praising this Marine academies training camp, he didn't believe a single but of those rumors.

Yes, there were now multiples rumors going on around that the new students from the training camp were extremely talented, and that they were going to be the new golden age of this century.

And Spandam was truly unconvinced, those rumors were too exaggerated in his opinion, heck one of those said that one of the new captains who is one of the youngest and strongest marines to have ever been recruited, could already rival the strongest Vice-admirals.

How is that possible right? Vice-admirals aren't people that one can deal with just like that… and you're saying that a youngster of about fourteen, fifteen years old could rival one? Bullish*t...

Such a young recruit would have been perfect for his CP9 in case those rumors were true, but he perfectly knew that taking this new captain was all but a dream, there was no way that the Marine would let someone like that go to their Cypher Poll.

And so…

"The new students below the rank of lieutenant would do too…" Spandam nodded his head with an annoying smile.

Tsuru maintained her silence for a while before nodding.

"If you so wish, but I will warn you that, most of those youngsters aren't fit to be a CP9's agents at all…" When she said that she took a faint glance at the guy with a pigeon on his shoulder.

Gion then spoke thereafter.

"Oh, and you won't get any of them you hear me? Till we get a proper handwritten order from them, you're not getting any of them anytime soon…"

"What?! Bu- but…!"

"However…" Gion smiled amusingly and added. "This should be fun to watch…"

She then ordered some guys to go and convoke some students here.

Time flew and they eventually arrived.

The group was composed of only four top students being…

Shion, Zaz, a giant guy named Minus, and Kuina.

They were then told what they were tasked to do.

*Meanwhile not that far away*

Edam took a peek at his crew members but didn't say a thing and kept quiet as his broom swayed swiftly.

"Arara… this should be an interesting match, don't you think…?" A lazy voice sounded near Edam as the latter leisurely lifted his head to look at the owner of the voice.

What came in his sight was an incredibly tall, slim, yet muscular man dressed in a white buttoned-up vest with a standing collar over a long-sleeved navy blue shirt, with matching white trousers and black dress shoes. He has black, curly hair cut to chin length that fans out at the tips, tanned skin, and an altogether lean, long build.

The man was currently lying down on the grass underneath a tree shade in a remote corner with a sleep mask on his forehead, with an expression of someone who would fall asleep anytime.

It was quite hard to say that this man was a very important person and one of the strongest men in the world.

"Oh, Uncle Kuz- cough cough, I mean Admiral Aokiji what are you doing here…?!" He completely forgot that he was punished right now. However he of course tone his voice down to avoid drawing attention toward himself.

"Sigh, I already recognized you kid…"

"Hah?"

"Don't "Hah" me…" Kuzan wore a grimace on his face.

"Tch, so you found out…" Edam replied and continued his job calmly as he asked.

"Anyway, what are you doing here? You're not just here to look at this show is it?" He glanced at the man.

"No, the weather is especially beautiful today, so I want to enjoy my sleeping time here."

Edam lifted his head to look at the weather. "Hmm, true you should go to the beach indeed…"

"Nah, I will melt under the sun…"

"As if…" Edam's face twitched and he added.

"... Wait, do you even have time to watch this show? I thought that Admirals were supposed to take care of a lot of things no?"

"..." Kuzan looked at him and then glanced at the matches that were beginning…

"...Anyway, how is training going on?"

"..." Edam paused and looked at him with narrow eyes. "Hey you can't just change subjects like that… but well, it's going fine, I think… "

"Hoh, show me…"

"Sigh, I'm busy and a lot of people are around right now…" After his training with Aokiji, their relationship could be said to be that of a Master-disciple, Senior-Junior, and even friends.

"My, my, just do it would you?"

"Sigh…" Edam sighed and paused again, with one hand he held his broom while his other hand moved in front of his chest.

Strands of lights started to slowly twirl in the palm of his hand to form a golden yellow ball of lights which then started to furiously condense into a smaller marble.

Swoosh… Zing~ zing~ zing~... A small and sharp sound accompanied the ball creation before it quieted down.

And then, there were no swirling lights anymore, only a condensed marble of lights… Edam looked at it for a few seconds and then his eyes flashed a faint light, as the marble started to change again and…

The ball floated down as he grabbed it between his fingers like any marble and even played with it a bit before casually throwing it at the Admiral.

"Here…"

Aokiji caught it and started to inspect it for a few minutes. It was quite hard to know what was going on in his head.

"Hoh... well done, not bad at all, your control got better..." What was once an energy ball was now completely solidified into a solid marble.

"Hehe, thanks…" Edam smirked as he took his broom back. It did feel good to be praised by an Admiral.

"But can you use it in actual combat?"

"I used it mostly for a defense to create a strong barrier, but I could use it in a fight, I think..." Edam replied as if he wasn't sure.

"But… do you have another training perhaps to increase my control?"

"Hmm… I don't know… just make… you know 'instant sculptures'…"

"Oh…"

"It's quite hard to instantly make it with details, the more details you will have the more control you will have I guess…"

 Yeah, this should be a good training I guess."

...

"Let's begin!"

"...?" Edam looked at the voice's direction and saw that the "show" was starting.

There weren't a first, then second and so on, the fights were all at the same time.

The little giant was up against the bull-haired-like guy, Kuina against the woman, Shion against the youngest, and Mickey against the pigeon man.

As Edam looked at their opponents, he couldn't help but feel that something felt strange…

Kuzan who was near saw his face and then said.

"Those people are from the Cypher Pol organization, precisely they are the CP9, a secret branch. Unlike the eight official Cipher Police groups, CP9 members are not centered on intelligence gathering, but instead the assassination of anyone perceived as a threat to the Government."

"Oh…"

"They are quite good, they all practice Rokushiki's arts apart from their leader there…" With that, he took a glance at Spandam standing on the sides before closing his eyes.

After hearing what Aokiji said, Edam completely stopped what he was doing and watched the battles with interest. 

His eyes darted to the pigeon man whose gaze met his too for a brief instant, before...

"Kyah!" *Bang!*

"...?" Turning to look at the noise, Edam's face twitched as he saw a girl falling miserably not far away from the battle arena.

"Ahh, my glasses, where are they?" A blue-haired girl.

She was searching for her glasses helplessly, and because everyone present was focused on the fights, no one paid attention to her at all.

As Edam knew her rather well, he walked up to her, taking her glasses and handing it to her.

"Here…"

"Ah? Ah, thank you, thank you sir- Eda-?!" When she lifted her eyes to look at him, she nearly shouted out but Edam had already put a hand on her mouth.

"Hey, shush, you will disturb their fights."

...

*Meanwhile on a certain island…*

"Hmph…!" A beautiful black haired girl suddenly puffed her cheeks as she coldly looked at a hotpot in her hands.

"...? Sis what is it, you don't like today's hotpot?" A green-haired girl asked worryingly.

"You're sick again?" An orange-haired girl asked with worry.

The black-haired girl shook her head gently and said.

"I don't know, something is pissings me off but I don't know what…" 

The green-haired girl and orange-haired girl suddenly looked at each other and tilted their heads with question marks all over their faces.

…

*Back to Marineford*

"Hey, shush, you will disturb their fights."

The girl was shockingly Kuina's exact replica, she was called Tashigi. If it wasn't for her glasses and for the fact that Kuina was already not that far away to fight, people would be bound to confuse them both so much they look like twins.

"E-Edam what are you doing here?" Tashigi asked in a quiet voice.

"Tch, that damn meanie Buddha sanctioned me... But don't go and say it to everyone alright…?"

"H-hah… o-okay…" Tashigi murmured with a sweat. Edam was maybe the only one daring enough to call the Fleet-Admiral "Meanie Buddha".

Edam nodded in response. Tashigi was a quiet girl, she definitely would not go and spread the rumors.

The matches had already begun and some furious fights took place.

They all didn't speak any kind words or whatnot and only leap at each other like beasts.

The results were…

Shion had lost pretty fairly to Kaku who was the same age as them. The fight was pleasing to the eye, as both of them were rather nice.

Kuina easily won her fight against Khalifa while Minus the little giant seems to be even with the Blueno guy whose devil power was to create strange doors in the air.

Last but not least, Mickey was completely dominated by his opponent. The poor turtle cat guy couldn't land a single strike on the pigeon man who had transformed and was even surpassing his speed by a large margin.

The pigeon guy had now become a hybrid leopard!

"That guy is...dangerous…" Tashigi muttered with a worried face.

Edam smiled and said. "Good instinct, Tashigi, he is indeed dangerous, this guy has killed mercilessly his entire life for sure… he's reeking off a feeling of bloodlust… it is deeply ingrained in his bones…"

"You know those people?"

"Hah? What is that question?"

"Ah- I mean you always feel so lonely…"

"..." Am not lonely okay, it's just that I prefer nature okay?!

Not wanting to comment on that, Edam just brushed it off.

"... Someone just told me who they were… but you can tell by looking too."

"Well that man with the pigeon is called Rob Lucie, he's an infamous man known to have killed a lot of people, so you're quite right…" Tashigi explained as she repositioned her glasses.

He then glanced at Mickey. "Although Mickey is strong and fast, he is against an opponent whose specialty is to kill…, his devil fruit power doesn't help at all, it is completely suppressed, a leopard against a cat sigh…"

He then glanced at the leopard he remarked. "And that leopard is rather good too, you can see that his Rokushiki arts have reached a super good level…"

The fight between the two rapidly came to an end as with one Rankyaku from the leopard, Mickey was sent flying, and was hurt lightly but being an agility type this strike was still heavy for him. Fortunately, he used his shell to defend against it.

He found himself lying on the ground and wanted to give up.

"I-I give up I give up!"

Seeing this, for god only know, his opponent, Rob Lucci, had a sudden burst of killing intent. No one knew why though, he had seemingly wanted to kill Mickey on a whim.

With a high amount of bloodthirst, he pounced on Mickey like a predator with his right hand lifted as he struck his claws with ferocity.

But well, that was quite pretentious of him…

Without mentioning Edam who was ready to shoot forward any time…

Or Tsuru whose fingers were lifted…

Or even Aokiji who was looking at the fight half-asleep…

...He didn't have the time to touch the turtle as Gion appeared like a ghost and performed a spinning kick kicking his hand away.

Bang!!!

"That's the line now…" She wore a faint smile on her face and kicked again making him fly a few meters away.

"...!?" As for Rob Lucci, he was rather shocked inward but maintained a neutral face.

With this single confrontation he understood the difference between the both of them. That woman was way stronger than him!

…

However, he quickly composed himself…

Although it was very humiliating for him to back off against a woman, he knew that fighting was not the solution right now.

Returning to his human form, he tidied himself up and turned around to go back to his former position, but after a few meters, he suddenly thought of something.

Swing!

Suddenly turning around he unleashed a Rankyaku toward a certain direction.

"You!" Anger overtook Gion but her eyes suddenly darted toward the target of the attack. 

"...?" 

'What is he doing here…?'

Swing! The huge wind blade tore the air and left a gash in the ground.

...Bang!

Something clashed against the wind blade as the shockwave blasted a mass of dust in the air.

Everyone looked in the direction with question marks on their faces, wondering about what that man actually aimed at…

A marine hat fell to the ground as the dust eventually settled down and people saw a black-haired young man standing at the place where the Rankyaku landed.

He wore a mask that covered his mouth while In his right hand he held a strange-looking metallic black broom.

With the gashing traces left by the Rankyaku on the ground and the way the young man held his broom, it was easy to see that he actually blocked that devastating attack with his broom!

"You… who are you…"

…

It was...

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Hey, guys wassup, I would appreciate if you could point my mistakes in this chap.

My editors are currently busy with RL and can't do much so… yeah… quality will go down maybe…

Anyway, peace! ✌

Sorry there was a mistake, thanks Archlight001👍