Life with the Marines

Chapter Two: Miscalculations


15th JAN

CHIEF OF NAVAL PERSONNEL

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL

BASIC SKILLS EXAMINATION

NAME:Monkey D. Luffy

1.Buoyancy is the measure of a ship's _.

Mystery ability.

2. Your ship will need a month to get to the next island, but you only have supplies for the next two weeks. (Read below to see the exact quantity of supplies). Explain how you ration the food between your 20 crew members (answer in kg). You may use the time table given to help you.

Half of the food would be for me and the other half for my 20 crewmembers, but if their ration contains meat then I wouldn't give them anything.

As for the amount of food per day, a wise man once said 'if you are hungry, eat.' I would follow this profound advice. One should never wait to eat.

3.You are at the helm of a sloop-rigged sailing vessel under sail on the port tack, on a beam reach, with all appropriate sails set and properly trimmed. You are instructed to "head up quickly". To utilize your sails to assist with the turn, you should _

…What are we talking about?

4. Who(if any) is the most important member in a marine ship?

The musician.

5.Turn over the page. Use the map printed at the back and the compass that was given to you at the beginning of the exam to find the distance (and degrees) between Point A and Point B.

The two dots look pretty close to me.

I think both dots are at the same temperature as the rest of the room, I'm not sure of the exact degrees though.

6.Name all four Blues.

North Blue, East Blue, South Blue and I don't remember the other one.

7.The average height of the surface of the sea for all stages of the tide over a 19 year period is called:

Mystery height

8. In combat, if two enemy ships are blocking you at the bow and stern of your ship, what strategy do you choose to defeat (or escape from) them? Expand upon any specific military formation if mentioned.

I go and kick their ass!


Marine Ensign Baki stared blankly at the piece of paper in front of him.

Is this for real?

He took out his glasses, cleaned them and put them back on. Surely enough, the words were still there. Could it be that the kid answered like this on purpose? To piss me off or something? Baki dismissed the idea, there was no way anyone could fake this answers. He looked at the paper again.

For a moment, the Ensign didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

It had started as a normal morning for Baki, waking up at 5 AM, practicing some drills, signing some papers and secretly playing card games with his subordinates. Then as quiet as death , his direct superior had come (thus interrupting his secret poker session) and handed him the accursed piece of paper, telling him he had 2 hours to correct the exam. Just as he was about to leave he added ´recruitment exam. Garp's grandson.´

The last statement had sparked some interest in Baki. It had been motif of gossip for the last few days that Garp's grandson was going to take a recruitment examination, with a fight and everything! Whenever they were out of ear sight, marines speculated what kind of monster Garp's grandson would be like. There is a theory approved by most marines from the lower ranks that says the stronger you become, the bigger eccentricities you develop to balance out the added pressure of your power. Garp, and to an extent his other grandson Ace, fit uncannily well with this stereotype, so one could only imagine what thing may come out of that family.

For this various reasons, Baki had initially been excited to correct the exam.

Ah, ignorance is bliss.

Now the Ensign was stuck in a moral dilemma: Obviously was it any other person, he would have already torn the exam to pieces and told the poor soul to never go close to the sea again, even if his grandma was drowning. But no, this was no ordinary person. This was Monkey D. Garp's grandson, and he had a feeling that if he told Garp what he really thought about his grandson's intelligence, the punch he would earn would rip the space-time continuum and reach his ancestors. If he got lucky.

So thanks to good old nepotism (and life preservation instincts) Baki had to obviously be benevolent with this Luffy kid. But where to start? Not only did the little rascal lack knowledge of sailing endorsement, tides and survival, he just lacked common sense, pure and simple. Baki looked at the paper again.

Well, he almost got the Blues question right…

The Ensign sighed, this were going to be the longest 2 hours of his life.


So far, today was being a good day for Luffy.

While most of the day has been boring, what with arriving safely to the 77th Branch Base and then that super boring exam, now his day seemed to be improving quickly.

His first reason for content was the written exam, although, as mentioned before, it had been mind-numbingly boring Luffy was very satisfied with how he had answered those exam questions. Yes, he was sure he was going to pass.

Another factor that tipped the scale from 'bad day' towards 'good day' was that after he had finished his written test, he had encountered his grandpa. While this was usually not a reason for content in the least, this particular conversation had been satisfying.

"Luffy? Oi Luffy! Turn around!" Luffy, who had been busy investigating the depths of his nose, hastily turned around to see his grandfather's face peering at him.

"Hi grandpa!"

Luffy didn't really know what to say next. While the young man admired his grandfather, he had always felt somewhat intimidated by him. Obviously, being left alone in the jungle at night at the tender age of four could make you fear someone, but even without that, Garp still possessed a booming presence that made even someone like Luffy pale in comparison.

"Don't just stand there looking at me brat! How did the exam go?" Garp gave his grandson a good-natured pat on the back that almost sent the boy toppling over.

"Very good, I think I'll pass—"

"Really?" Garp interrupted " Wahahahah what a surprise! You know Luffy; your grandpa over here was never very good with written exams, hard to believe I know." Garp ruffled Luffy's hair somewhat brusquely before adding "I'm sure one day you'll surpass me, boy."

While most people's ego would feel bruised at the prospect of being outshined, Garp was not most people. In fact, he was seriously thrilled about Luffy and Ace surpassing him and was happily waiting for that day to come.

Luffy squirmed uncomfortably under his grandfather's steel grip. To be honest with himself, while he was determined on surpassing Garp and everyone in the marine at that, he still found the notion of surpassing his grandfather somewhat disconcerting and very, very distant.

"But I digress Luffy," Garp continued "What I came to tell you was that you have to be at 6 in the base's campus for your match against Captain Asagao- ."

"Fight? What fight?"Garp stared at Luufy as if the boy had grown another head.

PUNCH.

"The mock battle to evaluate your skills stupid! Did you really come here thinking you'd only take a written exam, you dimwit?"

"… do I really have to answer that?"

Garp's ears turned red and for a moment, he looked like he might as well go and give the wall a hard nice punch. Not like that was something out of the norm. After a few tense seconds, he finally relaxed.

"Anyways," The Vice Admiral waved his hand dismissively, " you still have six hours before the fight but make sure you aren't late. Also, there'll be a bunch of commodores judging you, so use everything I've taught you son!" With that, Garp turned away, leaving a very confused Luffy.

Luffy blinked and, after a few seconds, he started laughing. Despite it being too much information to take in all at once, the 18- year-old had to admit the idea of fighting a Captain sounded rad.

Now, ten minutes after this very enlightening conversation with Garp, Luffy had just casually walked into the third reason for his happiness: the marine lunchroom.

Well, he hadn't exactly casually walked intothe cafeteria; he had been following the smell of meat the second he had walked out of the exam, but that was beside the point.

The cafeteria was big, crowded and buffet-style. Just like he liked it. Luffy quickly gravitated to the meat section, where he was met with some very tempting, juicy Sea King meat in display.

For some reason, he got a flashback of Ace commenting that eating meat for breakfast wasn't exactly normal, his eyebrow raised in that typical incredulous expression of his, but Luffy shrugged it off. His big brother could eat whatever he wanted for breakfast, Luffy was going to eat this Sea King meat and that was that. Besides, this was his second breakfast anyways.

Also, he had to be at his best when he fought against that Captain dude in the evening, and nothing put anyone in better shape than eating meat. Only wearing an afro could put you in better shape. Luffy made a mental note to look for an afro before fighting.

Without any more contemplation, Luffy set out to raid the lunchroom.


With an unceremonious burp, Luffy finished his 'breakfast'. He had to admit he was slightly disappointed; he had eaten all the meat in the whole buffet and he was still hungry. Clearly, these marines had a serious problem with food quantity.

Deciding that being starved like this wasn't acceptable, Luffy quickly stood up and decided to look for more food. Scanning the room for some lost scrap of meat he realized the room was almost empty. It seems that while Luffy had eaten his humble, small breakfast, the people had left the lunchroom and now, in their place, were cooks and waiters, who were picking up the dirty plates of the customers and whatnot.

The word cook lit up and small light bulb in Luffy's head. I bet the kitchen is still full of food! Without a moment of hesitation Luffy quickly followed a short, stocky waitress exiting the room, to what the rubber boy assumed had to be the kitchen.

If the mouth-watering smell that suddenly invaded his nose was anything to go by, his guess had been right for once and the room he found himself in was really the kitchen. Luffy's mouth watered.

The kitchen was a circus of waiters walking in and out of the kitchen, professional cooks going around testing each plate and unlucky trainees washing the dishes. Steam was everywhere and the sound of vegetables being chopped was heard in the background. All in all, the place was warm, damp and noisy. Luffy liked it.

Throwing discretion out the window, the young man looked around curiously until he felt a hand grabbing him. His heart dropped. Crap! The marine-to-be turned around slowly, his hands becoming sweaty… only to be shoved an impressive stack of dirty dishes.

A bit confused, Luffy walked around the kitchen until he found a counter to drop the plates at.

CRASH!

Oops. Pieces of broken dishes flied throughout the kitchen. While most of the piercing noise had been drowned by the chaos of the kitchen, Luffy felt several cold eyes looking at him. Fortunately a grim looking trainee approached the crime scene to clean the mess. Luffy took this as his cue to leave.

But as he made his way past the cooks something in front of him made him forget about his plan to leave the kitchen.

There, in front of his very eyes, was a huge oven containing one of the most delicious looking pieces of meat he had ever seen. The glorious thing was big and shiny and best of all, almost completely cooked. Furtively looking around to make sure no one was watching, the rubber man quickly opened the oven in front of him and leaned in, intent on getting the piece of meat. He was about to grab the meat, but the aroma was so intoxicating he couldn't help but stay there, smelling it.

Luffy stayed that way for a few blissful minutes, half leaning inside the oven, smelling the meat in content. That is, until he felt a suspicious heat in his recently bought marine shirt. Luffy felt his stomach do a flip. He slowly looked down at his chest and his suspicions were confirmed.

His shirt was on fire.


In another part of the base, Garp was engaged in a fascinating conversation.

"…. And I finally beat my donut-eating record! 345 donuts, did you hear that, eh Asagao?"

His former subordinate nodded absentmindedly.

"Well, anyways," Garp continued, disregarding the other man's blatant disinterest "what I wanted to tell you is don't go soft on my grandson eh? He's a tough one! Wahahaha!"

Asagao opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a Petty Officer slamming the door open.

"Vice Admiral, Captain, you have to go back to your respective ships as soon as possible!" The Officer straightened, trying to regain his composure.

"What?"Garp asked, "Why?"

"I'm afraid we are dealing with a fire right now, Sir."


Baki's day just continued on getting worse and worse.

Stupid budget cuts, can't even afford some damn extinguishers! He grabbed another bucket of water and threw it at the growing fire, which by now had spread out from the kitchen and was starting to burn the cafeteria.

Baki had been told this whole mess was started by some waiter whose shirt caught on fire. It seems the moron ripped his shirt off and threw it at the floor, which happened to be made of wood. Baki coughed, the smoke damaging his lungs.

Some people also told him that afterwards, the little troublemaker run off, saying he had to look for an afro or something weird like that. They sure hire crazies these days.

Baki filled another bucket with water. He heard some marines casually, talking, as if there wasn't a potentially hazardous fire in front of them. He tried to listen to the conversation. Huh. It seems that the guests of honor; Monkey D. Garp and his idiot grandson, Captain Asagao and the three commodores, were told to leave to their respective ships immediately, leaving this mess to the Marines that were actually from the 77th Branch Base. Lucky them. He thought bitterly.

At least, Baki had managed to discreetly throw Luffy's exam in the fire, now he just had to come up with an excuse for what was he doing in the kitchen while correcting an exam and that would be one less problem to deal with. Baki started sweating, the heat rising by the moment.

Talking about that kid, if what he was hearing from the gossipers was right, it seems he wouldn't get to see his fight with Asagao after all. For security and time reasons, his fight would be in the training area of Asagao's humongous ship instead of the branch base's arena. Stupid fire, he had actually wanted to see the fight. Hell, he had even placed bets.

Curiously though, everyone was throwing a huge fit because Garp's grandson had mysteriously disappeared. The Ensign coughed again.

I shouldn't have got out of bed today.

Looming over a damp, dark janitor's room, Luffy raised his fist in success.

"I knew there had to be an afro somewhere!"

The afro in question was very worn and an offensive shade of pink, but Luffy decided to let it slide. It had been too difficult to find it in the first place to care about small technicalities. After running away from the fire he had started (burnt rubber was not a pretty thing) and killing some time by looking throughout the whole base for an afro, it had been by pure luck he came across this quirky janitor closet, which also seemed to have hidden amongst its depths a nail clipper, a rubber duck, a thong and a small colony of baby Den Den Mushis.

Coughing as a result of all the smoke he had inhaled, Luffy grabbed the afro and started running, he was pretty sure his fight was supposed to start at any moment. Making his way past a row of rooms he didn't really know about, Luffy realized that there wasn't anyone around. Ah yeah, the fire… well it wasn't my fault the floor was stupid enough to catch on fire!

After more than half an hour running around lost, Luffy finally reached the building's exit. He inhaled happily the fresh air; the smoke had managed to reach much of the base. Luffy veered through some buildings until he found the training grounds, but they were empty too. Luffy looked around in confusion.

Not one to waste time, the rubber boy climbed to the roof of the nearest building, in hope of seeing anything. Fortunately, the base was right next to the sea, and the docked ships could be easily seen. In fact, was that his grandfather? What is he doing there?

Well, he will find it out.

After adjusting his afro, Luffy stretched his arms until they reached the ship. Feeling up the ship until he got the right grip, Luffy slingshot his way to the ship.

Disregarding decorum, Garp let out a loud yawn in front of all the high ranking marines sitting next to him. To top his insomnia episode, he had had to wake up 5 a.m. to take the ship and now, to top it off, he had had to run away from a silly little fire. What idiot manages to get his shirt on fire anyways? Fortunately, he was now sitting in his privileged seat in Asagao's training- campus-turned-battling arena (with all the seats the thing almost looks like a stadium), and now perhaps he could take a nap...but no. Luffy's battle would start in any moment.

Where is the brat anyways?

While Asagao's and Garp's crewmembers started to fill their respective seats, some stools away from Garp, his other grandson, Ace, had just happened to arrive. But Ace had no intention of alerting his grandfather of his presence. The young man winced at the mere thought of how the grandfather-grandson meeting would go.

PUNCH. " Wahahahah! Ace, my boy! Not in your best shape are ya?"

"… Hi, old man."

PUNCH. " What is that about old man?!"

"…"

Indeed, Ace didn't plan to miss his little brother's fight because of a head concussion; especially after all it had taken him to get there.

Lacking a rank as imposing as Garp's, it had taken Ace a lot coaxing to be allowed to leave his post to watch his little brother get recruited. Not to mention that while usual, this particular process for recruiting marines was not exactly allowed, so not everyone was allowed to watch-

Ace's train of thought was interrupted when his vision suddenly went black and he fell asleep, dropping in his seat with a loud thump.

His 'nap' didn't last much though; Ace soon woke up to the sound of screams and gasps. Why are people shouting? Somewhat disoriented, the young man looked up only to see a flash of—is that pink?— landing ungracefully in the middle of the arena.

It took him a few moments to realize that that thing was actually his brother. Ace blinked in confusion. What the hell is he wearing in his head? And why is he half burnt?! That Luffy! Only thing he knows is how to get in trouble!

Ace momentarily set apart these thoughts when he saw his brother start making weird hand gestures.

"Oi!" He shouted, "Is the guy I gotta fight here?"

Ace could practically feel Garp's outrage.

"I'm right here"

The voice was quite but imposing, sounding as if it came from the entire arena at once. Soon enough, the owner of the voice appeared. It was a man in his middle thirties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a tanned skin that was definetly weather-beaten. He had a serious, almost grim expression.

Ah, is that Asagao guy.

Captain Asagao, chosen for this fight because he used to be a subordinate of Garp, was known for inspiring the respect—and fear- of Marines twice he age and size. (Back in the day, he had also been known for being a particularly skilled wall-repairer). Many say that his skills outstrip his current rank and Ace was genuinely curious to see him in action. Especially against Luffy. Ace was burning in anticipation—no pun intended.

Luffy stared at Asagao, who was now in front of him.

"So, can I fight you right now?"

"Yes."

Ace raised an eyebrow. That… is a really anticlimactic beginning for a fight.

They fought.

It took exactly two minutes and thirty seconds for Ace to realize Luffy was in serious trouble.

Luffy had started the fight with his classic rubber pistol, aiming towards the Captain's gut. The older brother had sensed somethingoff about Asagao the moment he dodged that first blow, but frustratingly enough, he could not pin down what exactly it was.

The next two minutes, while a blur to the untrained eye, had been surprisingly repetitive. On one hand Luffy had started throwing wild punches and kicks like the fighting machine he was, but Asagao wasn't even trying. They were almost diametrically opposite in their fighting style.

Luffy attacked recklessly, with vigor and with obviously not much thinking involved. Asagao, on the other hand, possessed a subtlety in battle that was chilling.

Whenever Luffy aimed an attack at him the man didn't even really dodge, he merely stepped aside, avoiding the attack by a hair's breadth. It was weird as hell.

Ace could sense Luffy's exasperation as he increased the speed and brute force of his attacks, Asagao not even bothering to speed up himself. The older brother noted that the man was probably not very fast either. This is really strange. There was something else that striked Ace as unnerving; Asagao had not tried to hit Luffy even once.

His thoughts came to a halt when Luffy, who had been gradually managing to get closer and closer to Asagao, finally found an opening in the man's defense: the boy had attempted a kick to the Captain's face and while Asagao had dodged, he had clearly expected the boy to pull away. But being the unpredictable creature he was, the rubber boy had quickly regained his posture and positioned his arm with the intention of landing a punch worthy of his grandfather. Everyone stiffened with anticipation and Ace could hear marines whispering about their bets or saying comments like "he got him now!"

But the atmosphere of the room dropped several degrees when Luffy had his fist gently brushed aside as if swatting a fly, followed by a swift, merciless kick on the gut that sent him flying.

Whoa!

Luffy's back collided with the ship's mast with a loud thump. Not one to give up, he decided to use the mast for some impulse and started stretching his arms.

Good idea Luffy!

Stretching his arms to the limits his Devil Fruit allowed him to, Luffy used the mast to fling himself like a slingshot, with the intention of slamming into Asagao.

He missed.


Luffy felt an intense pain as he crashed against something that could only be wood, but as soon as it came the pain was gone and he felt a cool breeze brushing his face.

Then he fell into the ocean.

Before hitting the water Luffy managed to latch to a piece of wood that had been sent flying with him. He landed with a loud splash. Damn. The water as cold and unpleasant and salty as he expected. Despite being able to float because of the aforementioned piece of wood, Luffy had gotten too wet for his comfort, his energy vanishing the more the water soaked his body.

As his body being dragged back and forth The Marine-to-be started to feel a wave of nausea going up his throat . Crap!

Luffy mustered the last of his almost totally drained energy to look up, searching for the ship. He blinked. Turning his rubber neck around in an owlish fashion Luffy made a double checked.

There was just water.

Guess I took much impulse, hehehe


TBC

A/N: First of all, a big thanks to everyone who bothered to read/review/favorite etc, this humble little story! It's very motivating, guys. Also I wanted to address a somewhat embarrassing issue: I'm embarrassed to ask someone to be my beta because I don't want to put them in an awkward situation, so if anyone wants to beta this story, please do send me a private message!