Chapter 18: On the Eve of the Trial

Pirate World, Marineford, Military Academy.

It has been over three weeks since the last incident, and the day of the trial that Zavia had been looking forward to was only 3 days away.

During these three weeks, it was not without incident. During this period, Zavia's name spread throughout the entire military academy like a plague. Of course, as mentioned above, like a plague, that is, notoriety.

Of course, David Maris, Ross's father, also learned about the duel between Zavia and Ross because of this.

At first David was furious that his own son was provoked to a duel, and in front of so many students at that. Not to mention that his son lost in the end? Most importantly, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Garp and Admiral Zephyr were there! In an instant, he felt that his son had completely lost face for him, and he angrily threatened on the spot to beat this little bastard to death. In the end, he was persuaded by his many subordinates and his wife.

Although Ross escaped a disaster because of this, Zavia didn't have such good luck. Every day after that, there were people constantly coming to cause him trouble. Of course, they were all "kindly" "invited" back by Zavia. Although they kept coming back inexhaustibly.

Although Zavia was a little annoyed by this, there were also some benefits—it allowed his reputation to spread more widely, just not a good reputation.

***

Inside the Fleet Admiral's Office In addition to Sengoku who was handling documents and Garp who came from time to time to mock Sengoku, there was another big shot here today.

This big shot had a tall figure, wearing a white suit vest and a dark blue shirt. There was also a green eye cover on his forehead, and his eyes looked very lacking in sleep.

He was one of the Marine Headquarters' strongest fighting powers--Kuzan, codenamed Aokiji!

"It must have been hard on you, Kuzan." Sitting in his office chair, Sengoku looked at Kuzan with a smile.

"Not hard, Fleet Admiral Sengoku." In the face of Sengoku's concern, Kuzan also replied with a smile. But that kind of smile didn't look very good.

"Hmm? What's wrong, Kuzan, did you have any troubles with this mission?" Noticing this, Sengoku stood up and walked over to Kuzan's side to ask concernedly.

"Could it be...Koros?"

"..."

Kuzan did not give any response to the Koros that Sengoku mentioned. And the expression on his face became even more ugly.

"I see... Sit down, Kuzan. There are no outsiders here. Tell us what you saw and heard during the mission."

Seeing that Kuzan did not answer, Sengoku sighed lightly and invited Kuzan to sit on the sofa to tell about the process of the mission. Garp, who was sitting on the sofa, also straightened his posture, not as frivolous as usual.

Perhaps this behavior seemed very strange to outsiders. After all, how could a fleet admiral be so close with an admiral? But if you consider Sengoku's appreciation for Kuzan, it still makes some sense.

"Alright... Let me start with when I arrived in the waters near Raijin Island..." Kuzan hesitated for a while before slowly opening his mouth.

***

"Ha~~~, It's so boring as expected."

In the library, Zavia yawned with a book about animals and herbs in his hand. His eyes were full of boredom.

Closing the book, Zavia put the book back in its original place, stretched, and then slowly walked out of the library. On the eve of the trial, Zavia's whole person looked very relaxed, without any tension at all. His eyes looked towards the drill grounds. He saw many people training harder over there.

Seeing this scene, Zavia couldn't help shaking his head. He suddenly thought of the scene before major exams came in his previous life, when everyone was desperately studying with no longer a trace of their usual cheerfulness on their faces.

Without lingering for long, Zavia turned around and left the front door of the library, heading for the training room.

The so-called training room was originally a treatment that only officially accepted disciples could enjoy, used for personal combat move development and daily training.

But Zavia was not anyone's disciple. So why did he have access? Even Zavia himself was not very clear about this answer.

Zavia only remembered being held back by Sengoku and Garp after the last time. After receiving two hours of mental education in Sengoku's office, Zephyr suddenly proposed to give Zavia a separate training room to use.

This proposal shocked both Sengoku and Garp to some extent, while Zavia alone had a confused expression.

Arriving at the door of his training room, Zavia pushed open the lustrous black door emitting a metallic luster.

Squeak————

The door made a very unpleasant sound, and there was a very rough trail on the ground along the opening of the door.

Once inside, Zavia looked at the black walls all around, uneven, and seemingly quite hard.

And that was indeed the case. The entire training room was made of sea prism stone, absolutely ensuring quality.

The reason why this room was given to Zavia to use as a training room had to do with his own mastery of moves. Zavia still clearly remembered the first time he used Yamato in front of Sengoku, Garp and Zephyr.

At that time, Zavia just lightly swung Yamato at the air. With a clear sword cry, a spatial rift emerged out of thin air. Then under the three rather shocked gazes, Zavia walked into it and reappeared 5 meters away at the front.

Back to the present, after closing the door again, Zavia took out Yamato from his spatial bag.

Holding Yamato in his hand, Zavia felt a sense of familiarity, a strange feeling that would only appear when Zavia held Yamato in his hand.

"Alright, let's continue my training. First, the classic..." Zavia murmured to himself. He placed Yamato horizontally at his waist. His eyes became cold.

Zheng!

In an instant, the right hand placed on the hilt swung Yamato out. A clear sword cry spread out, and a sword energy hidden in space flew out. The air it passed fluctuated continuously.

Then 10 meters ahead, the sword energy suddenly exploded, with dozens of sword energies close to a hundred in number slashing at the void in deep blue.

"Full Swing Dimension Slash. It took me nearly 2 weeks to finally master it."

Looking at the exploded deep blue sword energies in the distance, Zavia nodded in satisfaction.

Full Swing Dimension Slash was a minor killing move of Vergil's in Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition. If Dimension Slash was just an ordinary dozen or so slashes, then Full Swing Dimension Slash, also known as the Perfect Dimension Slash, would be the terrifying dozens, potentially reaching hundreds at full power!

Don't think this is too exaggerated. Although according to the pissing traits of games, there definitely wouldn't be such an effect. But here was reality, not the game world.

Plus Zavia had obtained and inherited Vergil's abilities and moves, which were then enhanced by the Legacy power. So having such an effect was actually quite normal.

Ever since Zavia obtained Vergil's abilities, he had always wanted to try out many things. It's just that imagining it felt nice but reality was cruel. Up till now, Zavia had only gotten Vergil's Yamato and a minor killing move Dimension Slash.

During this time, Zavia only had three kinds of abilities: swordsmanship, martial arts, and spatial power.

His swordsmanship was Vergil's sword moves, with typical representatives being the Dimension Slash and Rapid Slash. Martial arts was the Rokushiki taught by Garp, and spatial power was the Spatial Core.

Although Zavia's swordsmanship originated from Vergil's, there was still one crucial, core move that Zavia couldn't use, which was Dimension Slash: Dystopia.

That's right, Dimension Slash: Dystopia. The skills and abilities Zavia obtained from the Legacy power only included all Vergil's sword moves and the minor killing move Dimension Slash, but not Dimension Slash: Dystopia.

Why Zavia couldn't use Dimension Slash: Dystopia, he didn't know. After all, according to previous statements, Zavia had inherited almost all of Vergil's moves, so logically Dimension Slash: Dystopia should be usable too.

But the facts were just so. Zavia couldn't use Dimension Slash: Dystopia. At the same time, since he had inherited everything from Vergil, there were still some abilities Zavia couldn't wield.

That would be magic power, Summoned Swords, Devil Trigger, and two other weapons, Force Edge and Beowulf.

Zavia didn't have any of those few things. Speaking of magic power, ever since Zavia came to the Pirate World, almost two months had passed, yet he did not sense anything similar to magic power at all, not even one bit.

Facing these bug-like issues, Zavia had suspected at first whether the Legacy power he obtained was defective. Early on when these abnormalities appeared, Zavia had wanted to try out these abilities, but unfortunately he couldn't no matter how much he wanted to.

So when Zephyr said he would give Zavia a separate training room for him to use, Zavia suddenly lit up. He could utilize this training room to conduct experiments, after all Zavia still didn't want to reveal that he was an outsider. He could only get by for now using the spatial fruit ability lie.

But for how long he could fool them depended entirely on Zavia's own capabilities. Although the average IQ wasn't high in the Pirate World, sooner or later he would still be seen through.

Back to the present, although Zavia said he wanted to use this training room for secret training, he wasn't in a hurry. After all, it had been almost two months and he still hadn't sensed anything. Blindly training at random would only make Zavia become like a headless fly.

So he started from the most basic ability—Dimension Slash.

Zavia didn't need any training for simply charging up Dimension Slashes. This move was like imprinted into Zavia's bones, extremely skilled.

What was difficult was the Full Swing Dimension Slash. Zavia had originally thought this move would also be easy and smooth.

Yet the truth was, he was wrong. The timing needed to unleash Full Swing Dimension Slash was extremely difficult to grasp. Even with Zavia exploiting his Legacy power's ability to rapidly adapt as a golden finger, it still took him two weeks.

"With Full Swing Dimension Slash grasped like this, there are still lots of questions though." Sheathing Yamato after unleashing another Full Swing Dimension Slash, Zavia murmured to himself. Currently, he had too many, too many questions, but unfortunately no one was around to answer them.

Still not thinking of anything after wracking his brains for a while, Zavia sat down cross-legged, placing Yamato in front of him and closing his eyes to meditate.