Chapter 48: Challenge
Zephyr had not actually fallen asleep.
He lay on the floor with his eyes half closed, watching Axel the entire time.
From what he had seen, the boy's physical foundation really was terrible. Forcing too much at the start would be pointless. Axel's body was still in the middle of its growth period. If Zephyr pushed too hard too early, the training could leave behind lasting damage instead of forging real strength.
Unfortunately for him, that concern was slightly misplaced.
Whenever Axel's body suffered serious harm, his automatic [reflection] would instinctively draw on surrounding energy to protect him. It would not erase pain or exhaustion, but it would prevent the kind of long term wear and tear Zephyr was worried about.
Still, Zephyr did not know that.
Three hours later, he judged the time was enough.
Any longer and the training would stop being productive. It would only grind the boy down for no gain.
"That's enough for today."
He got to his feet, opened the door, and shut the vents in the ceiling. Fresh air from the corridor rushed in at once.
Axel sprawled on the floor and dragged it into his lungs like a man crawling back from death.
Zephyr strode over, grabbed him with one hand as if hauling up a sack, and headed straight for the infirmary.
When he reached it, he tossed Axel inside and said to the stunned medical staff, "Check this brat properly. Then treat him."
After that, he stood off to the side and watched.
He had told himself this was all for one reason only. He wanted to train Axel well enough to slap Garp across the face with the result. But that was only part of it.
The real reason was simpler.
He valued potential.
This age of pirates would not be ended by one monster alone. The Marines needed a constant stream of powerful newcomers, people strong enough to hold back the tide and eventually crush it. Training one future Admiral was worth more than raising ten thousand average soldiers.
That was why Zephyr had devoted himself to teaching in the first place.
He had pinned his hopes on the next generation.
And over the years, he had truly come to treat his students like family.
A few minutes later, one of the medics approached him with the results.
"We have checked everything. Aside from physical exhaustion, there is no damage."
Zephyr frowned.
Not out of anger. Out of curiosity.
He had seen Axel in that room. The boy had struggled just to breathe. His muscles should have been strained at the very least. Yet the medical equipment showed nothing beyond exhaustion.
The machines were not wrong. The medics were not wrong.
That meant the problem was Axel himself.
Zephyr glanced at him, then jerked his chin toward the door.
"Come outside."
Once they were in the corridor, he got straight to the point.
"What exactly is your ability?"
Axel had already decided there was no point hiding it from him. Future training would be easier if Zephyr understood at least the basics.
"It controls the direction of energy."
Zephyr repeated it under his breath.
"The direction of energy…"
The concept alone was strange enough, but it still did not explain the state of Axel's body.
"What does that have to do with you coming out of that room without damage?"
Axel answered honestly. "My ability forms a kind of [reflection]. It automatically rejects anything harmful to my body. That includes force, and it includes the strain created during training."
Zephyr rubbed at his forehead.
Then he said the exact thing Axel had feared.
"In that case, starting tomorrow, you can train longer."
Axel's eyelid twitched. "Longer?"
"Of course longer." Zephyr looked almost pleased. "Since you have such a convenient ability and do not need to worry about ruining your body, it would be a waste not to squeeze every bit of use out of it."
For a second, Axel felt as if a thousand Sea Kings had started stampeding through his skull.
He had thought revealing it might make training more efficient.
Instead, he had handed Zephyr a perfect excuse to become even more merciless.
He could only comfort himself the hard way.
Training meant growth.
Growth meant strength.
And strength was the one thing he could not afford to lack.
After Zephyr left, Axel was taken to his assigned dormitory.
It was a single room.
He barely noticed any of it.
The moment he reached the bed, he collapsed face first onto it and lost all interest in the world.
[Reflection] could protect him from damage, but it could not remove fatigue. Exhaustion was the body's own warning signal. In that regard, he still had to endure everything like anyone else.
The next morning, sunlight poured through the window.
Or at least, it tried to.
Before it could reach Axel directly, it bent away and landed beside the bed instead. The light had been reflected off him without his noticing.
When he finally woke up, the sun was already high.
Judging by the angle, it was well past nine.
Training should have started long ago.
A soft knocking still came from the door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
It sounded weak, almost pitiful.
Axel frowned, still half asleep, then understood.
While he had been sleeping, the knocking had been bounced away by [reflection], just like the sunlight. No wonder it had not woken him.
He did not rush.
There was no point.
First he washed his face. Then he straightened his clothes. Only then did he walk to the door and open it.
Outside stood a recruit in training uniform. The young man let out a visible breath of relief the second he saw Axel.
Zephyr had ordered him to fetch the late recruit. He had been pounding on this door for nearly an hour already. If the guard downstairs had not confirmed Axel was still inside, he would have assumed the boy had vanished.
"Teacher Zephyr has been waiting," the recruit said in a hurry. "Please get to the training grounds at once."
Axel nodded and headed off without wasting more time.
By the time he arrived, Zephyr had already been standing there for a while.
He looked at Axel once and said flatly, "Late. Your extra training time will increase accordingly."
Axel accepted it without argument and moved aside.
He already knew arguing would change nothing.
As for why Zephyr had called everyone together, the answer became clear soon enough.
The students had chosen their representatives.
Brian.
Simon.
Binz.
Since Zephyr only trained one recruit personally, the one standing in that position had to be the strongest. Binz had joined later than most of them, but his Devil Fruit had already pushed him near the top of the camp.
Aside from Binz, the other two knew almost nothing about Axel.
Brian, especially, looked annoyed.
He was in his early twenties, broad shouldered, full of the kind of restless pride young soldiers often carried. Axel's late arrival had clearly gotten under his skin. The fact that Axel had a face delicate enough to soften some of that irritation only made it stranger, not smaller.
When Zephyr finally spoke, his voice cut cleanly across the grounds.
"The challenge begins."
The four stepped into the center while the others ringed them in a wide circle.
Then, just as quickly, Simon and Binz withdrew and stepped back out to join the crowd.
Which left Brian standing alone in front of Axel.
So that was how it was.
First up... was him.
.....
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