chapter 25

the marine lead Arowen to a vehicle, one that Arowen didn't expect to see in this world, it was a car, more precisely a military jeep, there was a long line of these jeeps already on,

"What is that?" Arowen asked in surprise, of course, he knew what it was, in fact, his question wasn't about the car itself but that it was there in front of him in this world of one-piece, and the many implications it brought to him

"oh! that, you wouldn't know about it, it is called steam vehicle, state of the art, it is the latest invention, a true work of genius, a marvel of modern science..."

the marine answered with a look of fanaticism in his eyes, he went on explaining how they work, and it was boring as fk, Arowen wasn't interested for now, something was urging him, he felt that his time on this world was coming to an end, a strange feeling he got when he was at HR, he felt urged to learn what he could as fast as he can, and that feeling made him irritated so he got rude

"could you just shut up and lead the way"

the marine was upset, he was interrupted in the middle of his episode, remembering his mission, he just held it down and led him to one of the jeeps and they hopped on, on their way to the training ground, all along the way there was only silence and the atmosphere got awkward, but Arowen didn't give a shit, there was a knot on his stomach, he had an urging feeling that he had to hurry up, it was just a matter of time

10 minutes later, they made it to the training ground which was secluded, in there you could a bunch of marine training like crazy, they were going through hell, their training was almost as hard as the one Arowen was doing, some of them were vomiting as they trained, others had blood going out of their orifices, the sight wasn't pleasant at all, there were even a few that didn't look alive (just figure of speech) collapsed on the floor frothing at the mouth

Arowen just gave them a glance before his eyes were drawn to a large, muscular, tan-skinned man, standing around 4 meters tall, with short purple hair and a large mechanical right arm connected to the left hip with converted mast rigging. Underneath that mechanical arm is a regular-sized and pitch-black prosthetic arm. He dressed in a Marine-like coat with his Jolly Roger impressed on it, baggy trousers tucked into his boots, and a pair of triangular sunglasses, the man exuded an oppressing feeling standing in the middle of the field observing the marines training, you may already have guessed the identity of this man, this man is Zephyr a.k.a Z, a formal admiral who retired due to old age and health problems to be an instructor.

while Arowen was standing there dazed, the marine that led him here, stepped towards Z and gave him an overview, that's when Z trained his gaze on Arowen which brought him out of his daze, Arowen smiled back at him, but Z kept gazing at him with a stoic stare assessing him

'this chap is strong, he has a sturdy foundation, it may be worth it to train him to be an admiral'

suddenly Z smirked at Arowen, and took a bottle to drink from out of nowhere, and the wind started blowing his cape making him look cool, while the only thing that went through Arowens mind was

'WTF! this ain't the f-kin anime'

then Z started walking towards Arowen at a steady pace wind still blowing his cape, which is absurd, how come the world is trying to make him look cool, what is going on with the wind, can anyone explain this phenomenon, some supernatural shit is going on here

Z reached Arowen and kept the staring contest, Arowen didn't know what he was trying to achieve and just kept his smile while the wind was blowing around them, the scene was like an anime, it was fkin epic, and creepy as fk for Arowen

'what's with the fking wind'

"you got guts kid" Z said while smirking

"I know"

"you know who am i" still smirking

"I do"

"I am gonna make your life hell, you know?" still smirking

"if you think so"

"Hmm! interesting kid, come with me, those punks here are just too weak, we going to my personal training ground, there you will find a challenge"

"ok, I guess"

then Arowen followed Z and they went towards the port where they boarded a ship and sailed towards the sea, Arowen didn't know where they were heading but he got a good feeling about it and he trusted his instinct, 2 days later they made it to a big island, it had a tropical forest and huge mountains, and at the beach, there was a town

"Welcome to Zephyr land, where only the strongest of the strong can train, I can see that you are looking for a way to go beyond what you are capable of right now, your body is already stagnating and you can't go further right?"

"I guess so, there was no longer any progress in physical training, so I thought that there may be a lead in HQ"

"straight forward lad, I like that about a man, it makes you look cool, but before we go on kid, I have a question for you"

"go on"

"we in the marine as you know, we preach justice and deliver it when it is due, so what is justice for you?"

Arowen fought hard not to laugh at this cliche moment but decided to answer it nonetheless

"that's a subjective question Instructor, everyone has his own definition of justice, mine justice could well oppose yours or another person, to me there is no absolute justice in the world, it really depends on circumstances and public opinion"

"interesting, but you didn't answer my question"

"well, let me think a little ..... justice, justice, justice, it just doesn't exist"

Zephyr was shocked by his answer, it is the first time he heard someone say such a thing, everyone that has joined the marines until now has given some definition of the term, and they differed but no one really said that it just doesn't exist, Zephyr turned serious and a little angry as he asked

"then why did you join the marine, and went through all the trouble to get admitted in the elite, what are your motives?" Z finished with a hint of threat

"don't get me wrong instructor, I may not believe in what you call justice, but I believe in something else" Arowen stopped for a dramatic impact

"and what is that?" by this time Zephyr was already prepared to kill Arowen, but chose to hear what he had to say at least

"the universal law that presides over life, don't you know it instructor, the survival of the fittest, I joined the marine for strength, of course, I could've chosen other powers to get what I wanted, so why would I chose marines instead right instructor?"

Zephyr didn't humor him and kept starring at him, urging him to continue

"*sigh* instructor, we as sentient humans, have desires and sometimes they conflict creating chaos, that is why we need order, in this case it would be the marines, the marines represent order in this world" 'no matter how dodgy it is this order' "that is why I chose the marines"

Zephy relaxed by this point, he could understand his motives now somehow

"so if I got things right, you joined the Marines to get stronger, and because we are good"

"I guess you could put it that way"

"that I can accept, but what I can't accept is that justice doesn't exist, the pirates are a disease in our world and they must be eradicated, THAT . IS . JUSTICE"

"why is that though?"

"Are you defending them?" Z glared at Arowen

"no I just want to understand why you think so, you can think of me as an intellectual trying to understand the how and why of things"

"simple, they pillage, steal, destroy and rape among many other evil deeds"

"you got a point there, but are they the only ones though"(a reference to the celestial dragons)

"what do you mean?"

"ahh let's forget about that, so are you going to teach me or not"

"if you promise that you will not go against the marines"

"then I pledge that as long as I am in this world I will not go against the marines until I leave it" and then something strange happened to Arowen he felt a chain around him, and he knew that he must hold on to his pledge otherwise something bad gonna happen and he didn't want to know what

'once I leave this world that's another matter even if I return this pledge would be ineffective'

"But you have to teach me haki and the rokushiki"

"you gonna live hell hahahahahahahah"

'well that was easy'