Chapter 24: Doriki
In the end, Sengoku won.
Under the Fleet Admiral's iron pressure, Garp was forced back to work, grumbling the entire time as though he were the victim in all this. Sengoku, meanwhile, looked just as exhausted. After sending Garp away, he arranged Axel's next steps and handed him over to the proper people.
To be honest, Sengoku had also wanted to keep Axel close and observe him more carefully.
There were things he wanted to discuss with Garp. There were also things he wanted to confirm for himself.
But as Fleet Admiral, Sengoku's time belonged to the entire sea, not to one child.
More importantly, Axel himself had refused.
The reason was very simple.
Sengoku kept a goat.
Yes, Axel knew the goat had a job. It shredded documents, and Sengoku's habit of keeping it around was partly tied to painful memories of Corazon. Still, that was not the point. The point was that Sengoku clearly had a soft spot for cute things, and Axel had no intention of finding out whether that soft spot might extend to raising him like a granddaughter.
Especially when Sengoku's eyes sometimes looked a little too... strange.
Better safe than humiliated.
So Axel was led away by a young Marine officer and brought to the town near the fortress.
After Admiral Zephyr's family had been murdered, the Marines had become far more serious about the safety of their families. Because of that, Marineford had developed a special residential town meant for relatives of Marine personnel, a protected place close to headquarters.
Of course, not every Marine family could live directly on the island. Space was limited, so only those with sufficient rank or importance were given a home there. The rest were settled on nearby islands, close enough for help to arrive quickly if anything ever happened.
The young Marine led Axel to a modest house.
"I'll come pick you up at eight tomorrow morning for class," he said gently. "Rest well tonight."
He clearly liked Axel quite a bit. After all, he had been told that this child was Vice Admiral Garp's grandson. That alone guaranteed a certain amount of kindness, and Axel's appearance did the rest.
After opening the door, the man left him to settle in.
The room itself was not large.
A bed, a table, a chair, and a few basic necessities. That was all. Compared to Garp's status, the place could almost be called cramped. But considering Garp's personality, Axel suspected the old man either requested something simple or simply did not care enough to ask for more.
Still, the place was spotless.
Someone clearly cleaned it regularly, even if Garp barely spent time there.
Axel lay down on the bed.
The mattress was soft enough that he should have fallen asleep immediately.
But he could not.
His thoughts wandered back to Mount Colubo.
To Luffy.
Ace.
Sabo.
Back on the warship, with Garp constantly making trouble and Marines surrounding him, Axel had not had the chance to feel it properly. But now, alone in the quiet room, the absence hit him hard.
The space felt too empty.
He closed his eyes and forced those thoughts aside, telling himself that thinking too much would not help anything.
Eventually, he drifted into a light, restless sleep.
The next morning, Axel woke up early.
The unfamiliar room had already ruined any chance of sleeping in, so after opening his eyes, he immediately began running mental calculations to warm up his brain.
The knock on the door came right on time.
When the clock in the room struck eight, the young Marine returned and led him out.
They walked through a street lined with somewhat old fashioned buildings, then moved farther and farther away from the bustling parts of town until they reached a surprisingly secluded area.
Axel looked at the man suspiciously.
A school?
In a place like this?
Sensing his confusion, the young Marine smiled awkwardly and explained, "You need to take a placement test before you're formally assigned. Just go inside."
Then he pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Axel.
"I drew the route back too, just in case you forget. Even on Marineford, a little girl shouldn't walk around carelessly alone."
Axel opened his mouth to correct him.
But the man had already hurried off.
He looked down at the map in his hand and sighed.
Well, it was still a kind gesture, even if it came wrapped in an insult to his dignity.
He slipped the paper into his pocket anyway. Not because he needed it. During the walk over, he had already memorized the entire route, including the direct path back to the fortress. With his continued mental training, his memory and processing speed were far beyond what they used to be.
As he stepped forward, Axel murmured to himself, "The Marines really are the Marines."
On the way here, he had seen many young soldiers like that Marine. Kind, upright, serious, and ordinary in a way pirates never were.
That was why the Marines were called the Marines.
The vast majority of them really did believe in justice, and because of that, they projected an image of order and righteousness.
Pirates, by contrast, were pirates because most of them were greedy, violent, and cruel. The moment ordinary people heard the word pirate, the first thing they thought of was fear.
Of course, that did not mean the Marines were pure.
Far from it.
There were countless officers within the institution who had been warped by hatred, ambition, or extreme beliefs, twisting justice into something ugly.
Pseudo justice.
That was the true poison at the heart of the organization.
Axel stepped inside.
At the reception area, a middle aged man stood leaning lazily against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He wore plain black casual clothes rather than any formal uniform, and his posture was so relaxed that Axel almost thought he had wandered into the wrong place.
The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
There was no one else there.
For a second, Axel even wondered if the man had simply arrived after classes had already started and was pretending to belong there.
Then the man looked up and said, "Come here. We're testing your Doriki first."
He pushed open a side door and motioned Axel into a smaller room.
"Doriki?" Axel repeated.
He remembered that well enough. It was the CP9 measurement used to quantify combat power. He had not expected the Marines to use something similar here too.
The man gave a short explanation.
"All new students take the test. The result helps determine which class they'll be placed in. The better your score, the better the environment you'll be given, so use your full strength. It affects your future."
Then he stepped aside and pointed to a black sphere inside the room.
"Kick that with everything you've got."
Axel had originally intended to use vector manipulation to boost the strike.
But the moment he focused, he felt a wave of mental fatigue.
He had already been training his calculations since early morning.
Did I overdo it?
After a moment, he gave up on using his power.
It's just school. It's not that serious.
So instead, he planted his foot and kicked with all the physical strength he could muster.
His leg tingled slightly from the impact.
Then he looked at the sphere.
Nothing appeared.
Axel glanced at the man with clear suspicion.
The examiner spoke calmly.
"The scale is from 0 to 999. It takes a moment to display. Wait."
A few seconds later, the black sphere flashed.
The man read the result.
"Doriki value is..."
He paused.
Then stared.
"...Zero?"
Axel lowered his head slightly.
That was embarrassing.
An ordinary Marine soldier could reach a Doriki of ten. Even a somewhat frail child should at least register something. Yet he had somehow managed to produce a result that did not even reach one.
The middle aged man coughed lightly, probably to cover the surprise on his face.
Then he took out a pen and wrote the number down.
"State your family background and position."
Axel looked up.
"My what?"
The man explained in the same calm tone, "Talent is only one factor. Family contribution, position, and standing are also considered in class placement. Better resources go to those with greater value to the organization."
Axel nodded slowly.
So even here, competition never disappeared.
It was still the Marines, not paradise.
If a child was exceptionally talented, that was one thing. If a family also had rank, influence, or valuable service, then naturally that child would be given a better environment.
Reasonable, in a cold institutional sort of way.
Axel thought for a moment, then answered, "My grandfather is Vice Admiral Garp."
The pen dropped from the man's hand.
He stared at Axel.
"Garp?"
Axel nodded.
"Yes."
The man bent down, picked the pen back up, and slowly wrote the information on the form.
Then his whole attitude shifted.
After a brief silence, he handed Axel a map and an identification card.
"Report here at two this afternoon," he said. "This is your route and your ID."
Axel took both and nodded.
"Understood."
The man looked at him for another second, clearly still trying to reconcile the image of Vice Admiral Garp's grandson with a Doriki score of zero.
Then, without another word, he turned and walked out.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]