The next day, Ryu reported to Commodore Brannew. Upon seeing Brannew's green hair, he was taken aback—not for any other reason but because he recognized the major. Though he didn't know his name before, he had seen him in the anime.
Yes, he was the Navy's only official secretary who presided over the meeting to set the bounty on Luffy after Luffy's first reward, famously dubbed the "Meeting King" by fans.
"Commodore, hello! I'm the new recruit Ryu assigned to your team!" Ryu saluted respectfully.
Brannew put down the documents, smiling as he said, "I know you, the recruit who graduated early. I'm surprised you were assigned to me, but every few years, a few exceptional individuals emerge in the Navy."
Ryu wasn't sure how to respond to Brannew's comments.
"You still need to participate in regular group training, even though I know it might not be very meaningful for you. However, I can give you the privilege of choosing how to train during group sessions, but you must participate. It's a necessary process for you to integrate into the Navy! You can freely allocate your time outside of that," Brannew clarified, clearly aware of Ryu's situation.
"Alright, Major!" Ryu nodded in agreement.
He hadn't begun his intermediate physical training yet, so he didn't mind the physical exercises.
Brannew looked at Ryu with some surprise. He thought Ryu might not like collective physical training, which is why he had confronted the new recruits' instructor, ultimately graduating early.
"Also, I heard you've applied for a mission at sea. I need to explain that my work rarely requires going out to sea, so the soldiers under me mostly have no sea missions. Instead, they usually deal with administrative tasks. However, considering your situation, if you're assigned to another sea mission, it can still count toward my task quota!" Brannew smiled at Ryu, showing goodwill.
This was a response to Ryu agreeing to participate in training earlier.
"Thank you, Major!" Ryu understood this was an act of goodwill and expressed his gratitude with a bow.
"Alright, go participate in your training; I'll contact you directly if I need you!" Brannew waved him off.
Meanwhile, at the supply office:
"This is the pirate hunter Smoker mentioned, right? Hina doesn't like him!" A sexy woman with light pink, center-parted long hair and purple-tinted sunglasses said, holding Ryu's request for a sea mission, her expression unwavering.
"Yes, Rear Admiral Hina!" The staff member gazed at the woman with admiration.
"Even so, his potential is still significant, and he has a sense of justice!" At that moment, Lieutenant Tarlin, who had fought Ryu, entered, greeting Hina before speaking.
"Is that so? Looks like Hina needs to reassess him. Let's assign him to Hina's ship; she'll be going out to sea soon!" Read Admiral Hina nodded at Tarlin and instructed the staff.
The staff member quickly nodded, promptly handling the necessary paperwork, and soon someone would notify Ryu of the time to board the ship and prepare.
While Ryu was training, he was unaware that someone had taken notice of him. At that moment, he was training with weighted gear, completely absorbed in his exercises.
"Is that guy really a private?" a Marine soldier training alongside Ryu asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, I heard that because of his strength, he was allowed to graduate early from the recruit camp!" another soldier whispered, seemingly afraid of being overheard by Ryu.
"Seriously? Why doesn't this monster go to the officer recruit camp?" another soldier asked, confused.
"Come on, not just anyone can enter there! Although Ryu is strong, it's only compared to us, and besides, he's older. The officer camp trains them from a young age!" a more informed soldier replied mysteriously.
But all of this was unrelated to Ryu, who was focused on his training, at least in the Marine headquarters, the training equipment was plentiful, allowing Ryu's physical skills to improve rapidly.
"Private Ryu, your sea mission has been scheduled for next week, at 8 a.m. Please gather at the port!" After the morning training ended, a communications soldier found Ryu to inform him about the mission.
"So soon!?" The news came as a pleasant surprise. Though he didn't yet know what the mission would entail, being able to go out to sea meant encountering pirates, and there were plenty of bountiful pirates in the Grand Line.
For the following days, Ryu began training like crazy; he didn't want to encounter a bounty criminal at sea and find himself lacking in strength. His training intensity was so high that the soldiers training alongside him were frightened, even Major Brannew had advised him a few times to take a break.
A week later, when Ryu arrived at the port and saw Major Tina on the warship, he felt a bit strange.
"Read Admiral Hina, I'm Private Ryu, reporting for duty!" he saluted.
"You know me?" Hina looked at Ryu with curiosity.
"I've heard of you from Captain Smoker; according to him, the sexy woman with the lady's cigarette must be you!" Ryu sighed.
In truth, Smoker had never mentioned Hina, but women like her in the Navy were already quite famous. Moreover, any fan of One Piece would remember the phrase associated with Hina, the barrier fruit user.
After all, her Devil Fruit ability was quite powerful, allowing her to create barriers from any part of her body to imprison enemies, with the hardness of those barriers rivaling iron.
"I don't believe Smoker would talk about me!" Although she said this, it was clear that Major Tina's mood had improved considerably.
"Looks like Smoker and Hina are still in touch, and he even talked about me since he knew I was brought by old man Garp!" After boarding the ship, Ryu thought quietly while watching Tina return to the cabin to rest.
The time spent sailing was boring. Since boarding, Ryu hadn't spoken with Tina again. Every day, aside from completing his sailor duties, he trained his Purple Mist Divine Art and challenged the Marine officers.
In fact, on the second day after boarding, Ryu had challenged all the officers on Hina's ship except for Hina herself. Although he had little experience, it was still some gain, while the ordinary soldiers were ruthlessly ignored by him for their lack of experience.
Moreover, except for Hina's aide, who needed three days to regain experience, the other officers refreshed their experience the next day. Therefore, Ryu joyfully continued to challenge them every day, and even the officers defeated by him the day before would receive new challenges the next day, causing the officers on the ship to hide whenever they saw Ryu.
"Sir, is it really okay for him to continue like this?" Tina's aide looked worried as she watched Ryu wandering around the deck alone, with no officers around, while soldiers gathered to watch.
"Tina can't really intervene since he hasn't harmed anyone!" Tina took a puff from her lady's cigarette, feeling a bit embarrassed as she spoke.
"Sigh~" The aide sighed, unsure of what to say. Perhaps due to her role as Tina's aide, Ryu only challenged her every other day, but what good was that?
"Hey~ Ryu, are the officers hiding again today?" a soldier watching the scene cheerfully greeted Ryu.
Ryu shrugged and said, "I was just looking for something to do since sailing was boring; I didn't expect to cause so much trouble for the officers. Can one of you tell them that I won't challenge them anymore so they can stop hiding?"
"Really not challenging anymore?" A sergeant unexpectedly popped out from a large wooden barrel that should have been used for holding wine, looking excited.
Ryu was startled by his sudden appearance and laughed, "Yes, really not challenging anymore. But I must say, your hiding spot is very well concealed! I searched for a long time and couldn't find you!"
"Of course! If you easily found me, how would I survive? If you're not challenging, let's go; I'll buy you a drink!" The sergeant said, laughing as he put his arm around Ryu's shoulder.
"Alright, but you have to promise to provide plenty of food and drink!" Ryu replied with a helpless smile.
He reluctantly gave up challenging them; there were only a few officers on the ship, and continually chasing them for experience was starting to make even Ryu feel embarrassed. Besides, the experience gained wasn't much, so he directly chose to abandon it.
After sailing for about ten days, the warship finally reached its destination. This time, Hina was out to hunt down the pirate "Lone Wolf" Jax, who had a bounty of 55 million.
"The opponent is very cunning, having slaughtered several villages in a small kingdom while evading the kingdom's military. Ultimately, they seized the opportunity to rob when the army left the capital, resulting in the massacre of the royal family. That's why headquarters sent me to capture Lone Wolf." Upon arriving at the target bay, Tina briefly explained the mission.
"Recent intelligence indicates that Lone Wolf is resting on a nearby small island. We'll first sink their pirate ship and then land to capture Lone Wolf!" After distributing the tasks, Tina pointed to the small island that could be faintly seen ahead.
"Ryu, Hina knows your strength is considerable, but once the battle begins, she hopes you won't act recklessly!" After the orders were given, Hina approached Ryu alone.
She understood that geniuses like him tended to do things their way, just like Smoker, but she still hoped Ryu wouldn't act recklessly, especially on her ship.
..............
Started editing the chapters now ^^
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