With a moan I slowly opened my eyes from under the protective sheets that covered me from head to toe, slowly coming back into the realm of the living, roused from the clutches of the deep sleep I had been held in for the last nine hours.
With another exhale I shoved the warm blanket off of my face and couldn't help but groan slightly once the sun's rays fell upon my eyes and fully awakened my tired body and mind.
Flexing my muscles once I shook of the last remnants of sleep that had still clung to my body, though in the same action left my body tired and hungry for energy, which I would need to take care of soon with a hearty breakfast. Still, I slumped backwards once again with another groan as was common for me.
It had always taken me a little while to awaken, especially when I had worked my body to the limit, like I had done the last few weeks.
'Has it really been three weeks already since we came here? The time ran by so bloody fast, it's not even funny…' I thought while I finally found the resolve to stand up and with one swift turn of my ass swung my legs over the side of the bed, where I sat for another few seconds to regain my bearings.
After standing up and disappearing in the bathroom for a few minutes I came back out and dressed myself in the training clothes we had all been provided. It consisted of nothing but a wide pair of trousers, coloured in something that once must have been black but had faded more into the direction of grey/white, and a loose Gi with seams of the same material, probably cotton, to fasten it in place in order to cover our upper bodies. Shoes though were not something we were given. Not that I cared much anyway.
After throwing on my clothes I opened the door to my small room, held in the traditional Japanese style if I had to venture a guess, with its only furniture being my bed, a small table near the window and a closet filled with clothes of the same design as the one I was currently wearing.
Closing the door behind me I went down the floor into the direction of the mess hall. While I did so I passively registered from the corner of my eyes the groggy forms of the other children, who live here besides myself, opening their doors and while yawning joined me on my way to get some breakfast.
'I wonder what we'll be taught today. Hopefully something new, though I doubt it somehow.' I thought while absentmindedly filling my bowl with oatmeal and some fruits like apples and berries, yes you heard right, oatmeal. That shit was a curse on the whole world it seems…
Besides the food here, we were literally provided anything we needed in order to grow into our best forms possible. I knew oatmeal provided quite the good energy but was it really too much to ask for some variety? At least they had provided us with some fruits besides that for breakfast.
Admittedly, we really didn't need anything else besides the food to survive, and yet it came as a pleasant surprise to me when we were given books and material to study from for our free time, which made me rather happy as only training became rather dull after some time.
'Well, dull so far that we haven't yet learned how to actually employ the Rokushiki. All we've been doing is strengthening our muscles and work on our endurance and flexibility…' Which irked me a little, even though I knew it was a basic requirement and thus, necessary.
I just really wanted to jump on air and shit like that! Who can blame me for impatience when confronted with all that, hmm? Nobody, thought so.
Anyway, while we had been training I had obviously gotten to know some of the kids that were training alongside me, besides Rob whom I knew already. Still, none really stood out in my opinion. Maybe it's just my harsh judgement but I truly think none of them were all that special. Thus, I didn't spend much time with the other kids in my free time and rather preferred the company of myself and my books. After all, I really didn't need some babbling children in those rare periods after training where I could just relax and work a little on my devilfruit and/or read a nice book for a change.
Rob on the other hand was a different story. He preferred to mingle amongst the other children and swiftly became friends with a guy named Bruno. A rather large fellow for a kid with weird protrusions for a hairstyle that reminded me eerily of horns belonging to a cow or sheep, which rang a bell in my head, as weird as that was for me.
Who would have thought that the thing I remembered, after nearly 40 years of not reading or watching One Piece, would be the weird hairstyle of a guy named Bruno who, you guessed it, was trashed like an empty soda can beneath Luffy's foot.
This made one thing very clear to me, and I couldn't help but facepalm at the idiocy of my memory and its forgetfulness, namely that Rob was actually Rob Lucci of the CP9, also known as douchebag extraordinaire, if I remember correctly.
Obviously, this meant that the rest of the CP9 would sooner or later join us in our training here on the island, though I don't really remember who else there was besides Bruno and Lucci. Though I think there was a chick amongst them but who cares. I'll see soon enough anyways.
But I digress. The point I was trying to make is that I'm the classical loner while Rob isn't. Not yet at least. Who knows if that will change in the future. After all, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Standing up, I took my now empty plate of breakfast and stowed it near the trashcan after which I strolled out of the hall, followed by a few more children. It was close to trainings begin and none of us was eager to come late to it. Believe me, you really don't wanna do that to yourself.