Chapter 21: Volume 1 Chapter 21

A confused crowd was making their way to the four transport ships docked at the harbour. Some looked back at what had been their homes for the past few years, the background was noisy as they remembered as Cadets fought for lives on the training ground. 

“Blue team this way,” an instructor yelled. As he directed the newly formed blue team to board the ship on the ship furthest away from the entrance.

‘Another turning point’ Ezra thought as he recalled his master's teachings “It is said that some events in our lives are the turning points that determine who we truly are”

All the Officers were already familiar with one another as they whispered amongst themselves while hurrying to the ship. Unlike the other groups where the Officers tried to flatter their Captains, no one in the Blue team approached Ezra.

The voyage was even quieter than expected, Every single Officer sat silently as they watched the ship cut through the waves. The information received from the crew of the ship was that the island was a day away, which meant a night will have to be spent on board the ship.

Ezra was not too bothered at the moment, he was currently making plans on how best to use his team, what could be achieved within the limited amount of time, what they could work on to improve as a team. Even though Ezra was lost in thought he was still aware of his surroundings, this was a skill he had picked up during his placement with Vice Admiral Aokiji.

“Have you not heard; our team captain is bad luck. 22 students went on a placement with him, yet he returned alone. The others who did not lose their lives in battle could not continue as officers and were discharged” one officer said to another. 

“We need to be careful, so we don’t end up like the others” a second officer added.

Ezra who was initially clueless to the rumours could only sigh. ‘Things are not going to start smoothly’ he thought.

Morning soon arrived and all the officers were now staring at the island. The island was unique, it was previously used as a base for marine troops in training in the West Blue before the academy was initiated. It had been divided into 4 sections: North had a mountainous terrain, the ground was rocky with very little vegetation. East had an abundance of grassland, crops could be seen sprouting in different directions all over the fields. The west was covered in tall trees, the canopies of trees blocked the light from reaching the floor. The south side of the island led to the beach, trees were scattered all over the sandy beach.

“Team Captain Ezra, in the middle of the south section you will find a villa, walls and a guard’s outpost has been built to ensure your safety. You will have to organise your team on how to man those defences. In the storage room, you will find 20 rifles and bullets.” An instructor from the academy said as he made his way on the ship after handing the keys to the villa to Ezra. The ship left the docks heading back to sea, leaving the young officers behind on the island all alone.

“Everyone, gather round,” Ezra said

Even though they felt Ezra was bad luck due to their military training, they knew it was a punishable offence to disobey a command from a higher-ranking officer. Plus no one knew if they were under surveillance, it would be stupid to miss this chance due to disobeying a captain with bad luck.

“Firstly, I don’t know who started the rumours about me, all I want to say is don't speak ill about the marines who died in the line of duty. Everyone went out to battle knowing what the risks were, I hope that all of you here are prepared also for those risks. With this opportunity we have been given, you should know the dangers we will have to face will be on an equal scale.

Secondly, starting from now everyone has to carry a bottle of seawater on their person at all times. During training, you are not allowed to be more than 7m from my position. At the accommodation, various barrels of water will be placed in each area so you can do as you like.

Thirdly, training never fails. For the next 6 months, we will train and spar until combat becomes second nature to you. Each of you will know and understand your comrade’s attacks and patterns and will learn to support each other.” Ezra announced.

Ok number call, 1… 2… 3…15…19…20

“Very good, I was once on Vice-Admiral Aokiji’s battleship, you all must have heard. The elite marines were given similar codenames. Remember those numbers. From now on, your codenames are those numbers also. Let us have a walk to see what the south section has for us. Are there any questions?” Ezra asked

“Captain Ezra is this codename not too simple, I was Apprentice 002 in the combat class, and now I am No. 20 how is that fair.” No. 20 mentioned

“Listen to me the codenames have nothing to do with your strength or fighting capacity. This is just for ease when allocating tasks. Thank you for informing me, No. 20 as Apprentice 002 means you should have a high attacking power, you will now be the Vice-captain of this team.” Ezra already knew he had to assign someone as his vice to make managing the team a lot easier, and allow for trust development. “Does anyone else have anything else to say regarding this matter?”

The island had signs of being occupied previously, the south section had been split into different areas. The sandy beach that was by the docks led into a small patch of levelled green fields, this was previously used as a training ground. At the end of the training ground was a white villa which looked very basic. Behind the villa was a tall wooden fence that had battlements built-in. there was a huge forest on the other side of the fence that went on for miles.

After settling in, Ezra summoned the team to discuss training. He could see that every member had a full water bottle secured on their waist.

“Before we start talking about training, I will give you a brief idea of my powers as this will help with coming up with team tactics later on. I ate the Umi Umi no Mi (Sea Sea Fruit), I can control, manipulate and transform seawater”. As he spoke to this point he opened one of the water bottles on his waist as the seawater shot out leaving something similar to a bullet hole in the wall.

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The officers had heard about the devil fruit powers, some had been fortunate to see it during their placement but this was the first time to witness it up close.

“How many of you have undertaken shooting training before,”  Ezra asked

Only four officers raised their hands.

“That’s good, as well as your training, you 4 will be in charge of getting every other officer to an acceptable level of accuracy within these 6 months,” Ezra added. “Our schedule will be simple, one hour every morning we all will meditate using a technique I learnt in the academy, this will be followed by physical training, shooting, weapon training then sparring. Those on night watch will be exempted from sparring on the day of their duty.

No. 20 you can draw up a plan for the night watch, there are 4 posts on the battlement that needs to be manned. See to it” Ezra said, sounding more and more like Instructor Q.

Today is our first day here, I won’t ask you to do much today. I only need one hour of your time before you head out to explore the area since we will be staying here for a long time.

“Sit down where you stand, cross your legs, close your eyes. Simple as that. Forget about everything else, free your mind and listen to my instructions.” Ezra said. “Inhale until your lungs are full, hold it for 2 seconds, exhale slowly. Feel the oxygen in the air flowing through your blood, circulating in your body.” “Inhale until your lungs are full, hold it for 2 seconds, exhale slowly. Feel the energy in your body as it moves from your lungs through your body”

“Open your eyes it has been an hour already, how do you feel?” Ezra asked

The officers were slowly standing up, no one had expected that meditation would have this effect on them. They felt full of energy, excitement could not be hidden as some rejoiced in anticipation of the training to come, others just nodded to acknowledge the miraculous effect of the meditation but were not willing to fully submit to their team captain.

This was the start of a very long training session for the officers. One hour of meditating filled them up with energy, this was followed by running on the beach, lifting logs, climbing trees. After this, they all wolfed down lunch before heading back out for shooting exercises. In the evening each officer had to train with the weapon of their choice, 500 full strength attacks on a wooden puppet was the target set for this workout. Then dinner was scheduled before a sparring session against Ezra. 

Ezra was not trying to take the team on the Limit Break program, but he did push them close to their limits daily.

Time sure flies when you are busy, it had been months since the officers got to the island. Their behaviour had changed over these past months, each person had a deep respect for Ezra as he sparred with 18 people at once.

To improve on the use of his power, he had been actively using water collapse, reform and transfer during all his spars with the officers. This also exposed the officers to a different type of battle, allowing for personal growth to be experienced.

“Water Armament” “Collapse” “Transfer” ”Reform” were regular words that were vocalised over the past six months, even though the team already knew the skills being used but no one could determine where Ezra would resurface. 

No. 20 called out to gather round, protect each other's backs, while he was giving out the command, Ezra reappeared in the middle of the officers as they got into formation. He swung his pole in a circle around him, hitting all the officers on their shins, knocking them all to the ground.

“Collapse” “Transfer” ”Reform” Ezra looked at the officers all getting back up to their feet, if this was six months ago they would still be wincing in pain. 

The team slowly surrounded Ezra, the swordsmen attacked first by slashing their swords, Ezra used Partial transformation to transform areas slashed by the sword into seawater, next the hand combatant timed their attacks right after the swordsmen as they all performed synchronised kicks at Ezra.

Dodging was not too difficult for Ezra, while chaining attacks between kicks and sword slashing no one noticed the line of seawater slowly flowing on the floor in each of their directions.

“Water Shackle” Ezra called out as the water flowing on the floor took the shape of cuffs as it secured each of the officer’s legs, ending the spar.

“Individually you all have improved greatly, and your teamwork is something to be feared. I am not sure what the next part of the training will be but I hope that you all will not only do your best but will look after the person next to you.” Ezra added as the sparring session came to a close.