Emilia sat on her bed and looked at her sword, a silver sword with a few blue orbs on the handle.
It was still surprising that Zack gave her such an important item to her.
*Knock knock *
"Emilia~ I'm coming in." Zack said as he then pushed the door open. He looked at the girl, who was no longer the tiny brat he first saw. She was growing taller and often teased him about catching up to him, and between you and Zack he was scared that she will grow taller than him. She also lost most of her baby fats. But one thing which always remained same was...
"Your hair is still a chaos isn't it?" Zack laughed making Emilia pout.
The girl brought her hands on her hair and glared. "Its not my fault that my hair is super wavy at the ends."
"Hahahahha" Zack laughed, crossing his arms on his chest. "I'm sure if the Devil Fruit users touch your hair it'll make them weak since it reminds them of waves."
Emilia placed the sword on her bed and she stood up as she continued glaring, hands made into a fist. "Claire told me my hair is pretty." She fought back.
"That because Claire always had a bad taste." The older main continued to tease the young girl, who was slowly turning red in frustration.
Hearing that Emilia smirked. "I can see that." She huffed,placing her hands on her hips. "Especially since she choose you as her fianceé."
Even though Zack growled, inside he was quite happy. It still made his heart beat faster with joy knowing he would marry Claire. After much hesitation and pushes from Emilia, he finally proposed. You have no idea how much he cried when she said 'yes'.
"Anyways.." the girl said. "Did you come in my room to tease me?" She questioned,smiling softly.
"No..." Zack said as she walked towards her and sat on her bed. "Its finally tomorrow...your test."
"Yes." Emilia nodded. "I may end up with you guys or Vice Admiral Tsuru's team."
"Oh yeahhh.." Zack sweat dropped. Vice-Admiral Tsuru's team always consisted of women plus the older women showed interest in Emilia when she previously came on the ship to have a talk with Garp. "But I hope you will join us"
"Oya! Emilia exclaimed." Are you getting sentimental now?" Emilia teased. Before she smiled softly.
"But I guess.. I hope that too."
...
"You will under go only two tests" The instructor said.
Emilia looked around. There were probably around 100 people on the field but undoubtedly she was the youngest.
People around her sneered and others smirked in confidence when she saw her. Why was this tiny girl who didnt even look like she was in her teens doing here. Emilia didnt like this at all. She clenched her fist keeping her emotions in check. I'll show them.
"The first test involves running. You will be running around this field 5 time which totals up to 15 kilometres." The instructor said as he pointed at the field behind him. "Within 45 minutes. Failure to do accomplish that will lead to direct elimination."
This made people gasp. This task was totally close to impossible! But that the same time who ones who do complete it show that they are not normal.
"Second round is simply to check your strength. Here people will fight against each other until only one person remains." In other words,its just like a tournament. "There are two reasons for this. One is to simply eliminate people who are fast but have no strength even though usually people who are also fast are also strong. Other is to see where you will be placed. The First half of Grand Line or The New World."
"Is there any questions?" The instructor asked. "If not we will begin shortly."
"Excuse me!" A voice started making all the examines including Emilia turn towards the voice. There stood a middle aged man,on hand in the air. "Are small kids even allowed to enter the test?"
Emilia's eyes twitched as the man turned towards her , lips pulled into a smirk.
The examiner understanding what the examinee was implying turned his head towards Emilia and nodded in assurances. "As long as the examinee is 13 or older, its fine. Personally I believe in the end age still doesn't matter much as long as you have the strength,skill or intelligence."
"But~ " The examinee continued,in a singing voice. "That girl doesn't even look like she is 10. I mean look at how small she is!" The comments made people around him laugh,some even adding remarks of their own.
Having enough Emilia turned towards the man with a glare. The examinee still smirking "Oh is the baby mad? Are you going to cry? Make sure you-"
"Enough!" The examiner interrupted. "If you continue with this useless talk we may ask you to leave. If that is clear we will begin. You now may go towards there." He pointed towards the corner of the fields where a white line was drawn on the ground.
"Ready?" Another examine shouted in a loud voice. "GO!"
Emilia ran and she did not mess around. Covering her legs in haki she sprinted and leaving all other examinee to dust and with no surprise ended up completing the task first, will 30 minutes more to spare.
And as petty as it may sound she sat near the finish line, giving a smug smile at the examinee who made fun of her.
Soon the other examinee crossed the line one by one and completed trail. Of 100 examines now only 32 remained.
After that everyone was separated into a duo, each match examined by one examiner marine.
"Remember we won't intervene unless one of the participants say "give up" or unless we see injuries which might kill you. We are here to select only the strong, be it physically or mentally."
All of Emilia's match was short, all those training in Goa Kingdom plus the hard training of Garp's and Bogard's for the past 4 years made her strong than she already was.
"I give up!"
Emilia stood up, leaving the man below her on the ground and then looked towards the man who made fun of her earlier. The man was mercilessly kicking and stomping the guy who was given no chance to utter the words 'give up'.
And this made Emilia frown.
...
"Okay! The last two remaining are Kusota" Emilia finally knew that bastard's name " and ...Start!"
Immediately Emilia jumped back making sure there was a distance between them. "Before we actually start fighting, I have a question." Emilia said carefully assessing the man's movements so that he would not be able to do any surprise attacks.
"What is it?" The man smirked,hands brought up placing on his hips. He was underestimating her!
"Your previous opponents." Emilia started. "Why were you making them suffer so much? You made sure they could not talk by breaking their jaws so they could not surrender. Then you proceeded to beat them up until you got bored."
Emilia then hardened her arms and legs using haki as the man walked towards her in a slow pace. "I can't imagine a guy like you being a marine."
And at once the man sped up, surprising Emilia and punched at her directing at her face. Fortunately the girl brought her hand up blocking with with her haki.
"Because if you are a marine you got power." The man whispered so that the conversation could only be heard by the two of them. "When power you are able to do anything. And with my strength I'm pretty confident I will be achieve a high rank."
Emilia felt uncomfortable, very uncomfortable with how the man in front of her was. He seemed to ooze out evil and malice.
"And when that happens, I'll be rich and have any woman I want. Of course not because of my pay but rather other things...you know" The man smirked. "Through kidnapping, human trafficking and ra-"
Emilia threw a punch but then Kusota dodged it. Then man continued to speak. "And you know I'll never be arrested. Why? Because I'll have the power and can call off any search and silence any suspicions."
Emilia ran in front of him swiftly and before be could react she jumped and kicked his face.
The blow made the man fly making the people watching gasps.
"You little shit!" The man shouted as he propped himself up. His nose was bleeding, it probably broke. "You know what?! I'll start by beating you to pulp" he shouted, as wobbled standing up.
His ego was definitely hurt.
"And when this is all over. I'll go after the people you care about next." Kusota said,hand wiping the blood of his nose. "And do all those things to them and make sure you will never see or hear from them again." He hissed.
People I care about? Emilia thought. He mind immediately went to Luffy ,Ace, Makino, Dadan, Claire and Zack.
To those people who have nothing but kind to her.
Her eyes narrowed. And seeing the girl react to his taunts, the man started laughing. "HAHAHA How you like that now?! You-"
But before he could even finish his sentence Emilia was literally in front of him.
"Wha-"
Emilia then directly brought her hands up and punched him on his jaws making him fall down from the impact. "If I remember correctly that's how you dislocated the jaws right?" The girl spoke coldly.
"Strup oup!" The man tried speaking but words weren't coming out correct confirming that his jaws were indeed dislocated.
Emilia walked towards the fallen man and kicked him on his stomach making the man throw up blood. She tilted her head. "Huh? I thought you were going to beat me to pulp"
"I'll kirl you!" The man continued dispute his injury. "I'll marke sure do kirll evryon asroticated wirth you tdo!"
Emilia mind went to Sabo. Her precious friend was killed. And now if she let go of this man here, he might do the same to others... to Luffy and Ace. This man was strong, even Blue Jam didn't seem much of a threat compared to him.
This man had the power to kill Luffy and Ace.
And she might not be there by their saide to protect them due to her marine duties.
Emilia's eyes narrowed furthered and walked towards him. This ...this man is a threat,that means she should kill him right now !
" Candidate Emilia" The marine watching shouted. "The match is over. Candidate Kusota might die if you continue."
"Shut up..." Emilia said in a soft voice. And immediately after that other candidates and also some examinee immediately fell down. The girl used conquers haki!
Standing near the man, Emilia kick him making him now lie on his stomach. She won't let Sabo's incident repeat! She wont let any of the people precious to her get killed, even if it means killing other people.
Sitting near the guy, she held the man's hand and pulled it backwards immediately making a breaking sound.
"Ahhhh!" The man shouted in pain. "please..please.. please stop! I'll do anything-" The man stopped.
Emilia then held his other hand. "Huh? But that wasn't what you said to me earlier"
"Candidate Emilia. I repeat! Stop immediately. Forget passing the test you will be placed behind bars!" An examiner who was on the ground shouted,still a bit too weak to stand up.
Emilia did hear him but choose to ignore him. She grabbed his hands ,with intentions of breaking them , when suddenly a presence came near her immediately and held her hand.
Emilia stopped immediately. Not because she wanted to but because she could sense the level in between the person and her were far too wide.
"Admiral Akainu!"
"Medics!" The examiner called and a group of people in marine uniform came rushing in directly towards Kusota. Emilia simply stood up and gave space for the medic. In front for great power she had no choice but to be docile.
One of the examiner stood up and walked towards Akainu and saluted. "What brings the Admiral here?"
Akainu turned his head and looked at Emilia making her eyes widened in recognition. This man...this man is the one who will be killing Ace..!
" I came here to recruit her on the team." Akainu simply said. Emilia stood there in shock. She could attack him right her, right now!... but then it wont be of any use since she is far too weak.
"I apologize." The examiner said. "But seeing what had happened in front of us, we wont be able to pass candidate ignored all of our warnings and almost killed a candidate"
"She knocked out almost every one here and right now she is simply a child." Akainu said. "She has the potential to get stronger and will be a wonderful asset to the marine in the future. I say we should pass her."
The examiner clenched his fist. This girl is far too dangerous "But-"
"I said." Akainu's voice thundered as everything went silent. "We will pass her. Make sure she is assigned to my team."
With that the man turn and walked away.
...
Emilia walked back to Garp's ship ,head held down. Even though she didn't look , she could feel the people of the ship stare at her return. There was no doubt they were informed of Emilia's action.
"Emilia-" Garp said faking a smile, noticing the girls angered expression. He could lecture her later because right now the girl didn't look like she would want to deal with any of that.
"I'm sorry, Garp-san." The girl said in a low voice and bowed towards Garp in apology. "I want to be alone for a bit." With that she walked away towards her room.
No one spoke for a whole before Zack started walking towards Emilia's room. "I'll talk with her,Vice admiral."
Zack stood in front of her room and took in a deep inhale,knocked and walked inside. He looked at the girl who still had her head down and then closed the door behind him.
"The man you attacked-" Zack said. The girl in front noticeably stiffened uncomfortably. "He didn't die. But then on of his arms will no longer be functional. He might also not be able to talk properly ever again." Zack explained, looking at Emilia with a sad expression.
She must be feeling guilty. Zack's thoughts were immediately stopped when he saw the girls shoulder shake. She was crying "Emilia calm down-"
"Hahahhaha" the girl laughed. "That's what he deserves.."
Zack took a step back. "What do you mean...The man almost died because of you."
Emilia finally raised her head. "That man was evil...He had no right to be a marine."
"But you were about to be the same thing... You would have killed someone if Admiral Akainu didn't intervene." Zack repeated his point again.
"Maybe he shouldn't have intervened."
When Emilia said those words,something within Zack finally snapped. " We are talking about a human life here, Emilia!"
Emilia's eyes widened. This was the first time she had seen Zack shout.
"You can't take life for granted. And if you do kill a person, even if that person is evil, or you belong in the marine, where we have to serve justice... Once you kill someone you are simply a murderer ! You're hands will forever be dyed red."
"Then what was I supposed to do?!" The young girl shouted back. "Was I simply going to accept that man. That man who was already telling his motives of human trafficking! Rape! And corruption?!"
"Should I have just let that happen...? " Emilia let out an shaky exhale. "He threatened to kill people...people who are precious to me..."
Zack watched as Emilia's eyes filled with tears. This girl...She..
"He threatened that he would kill Ace...Luffy and Grandpa ... Dadan and Makino..." Zack didn't know most of the names being said but he guessed those were the people she cared for.
"He threatened to kill Claire." Emilia noticed that she now started crying. "And you, Zack! I couldn't let that pass.. I don't want to lose anyone precious to me anymore..!"
Anymore... Zack registered those words , his head hanging low.
Zack walked slowly towards the girl. She was scared.. She was afraid and didn't know how to deal with the situation... She just didn't want to lose anyone..
Zack then kneeled down and pulled Emilia into a hug. "Its fine... No one will hurt anyone of us now..I'm fine...it's fine.."
Zack continued to hug Emilia, The girl slowly lifted her hands then on his shirt then slowly holding it tightly as sobs slowly started turning into wailing.
She was just scared...and confused.