“My, my... talk about a rude awakening.” Aokiji scratched his had while glancing down at me, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be woken up my electrical shocks. We were both stood outside on a balcony, looking down on where the fish-man plaza was. It would be more fortunate to leave this place, but we still have an arrogant noble to carry with us. “What was it that you needed?”

“Isn’t it kind of your job to be awake?” I had to point it out to him, which isn’t something an Ensign should be saying about their admiral. “Anyway, I was thinking that maybe it was time after this that I get on with things by myself. As you can see; I’ve spent two years training and I think I’m more than experienced enough to do it!”

“Really?” Aokiji’s expression looked quite patronising, I didn’t know that it took two years to decipher those puzzling expressions he had. “You’ve been on one mission in total, even if it was a big one like this one, you can’t just become a higher rank from it. Besides, if you’re on your own I fear for people’s safety.”

“I’m being a good marine, there’s nothing bad about it!” Before it became another discussion of expectations, I brought up my next agenda! “Never-mind, what I wanted to propose for such a thing was that I would get a crew of some sort, you know, to have some responsibility.”

Aokiji sighed at my words, he totally didn’t believe any of it. “What makes you think that adults will want to have a captain who is a child? You also aren’t that reliable when it comes to responsibility.”

He’s made a lot of good points, and I’m losing because of that. Damn it, I guess underestimating him is sort of hard not to do with all his laziness.

“Here’s a proposal! What if I find children who are also marines and they work alongside me and then we become a crew? That sounds like a bargain.” Well, the issue with my proposal is as simple as finding the children who would want to be apart of my crew.

“Sure, good luck finding the children.” Aokiji spoke, although it’s not there, I feel as if he said that in a mocking tone. I’m not sure if he’s saying I am too unfriendly for that to be true or that no children are in the marines at this point.

Another argument was sure to break out, but I suppose ‘luckily’, a fish-man guard was thrown out onto the balcony and over my head! He was going to fall outside, but luckily for him Aokiji managed to catch him with his ice!

“I’m pretty sure it’s flying fish season.” I jokingly spoke, however Aokiji hastily made his way back inside towards where the Celestial Dragon was and I followed after him! However, we were met with an... odd sight to be honest. It wasn’t any sort of fish-man or anything, but instead it was a red-head human girl from what I can see. She doesn’t look to be older than me...

“Who are you?” Aokiji questioned, the girl was stood in a yellow t-shirt and on it was a picture of an anchor, she also wore some blue shorts. Her style reminds me a lot of Luffy’s. However, she didn’t have any distinct fish-man qualities and her skin was quite pale, it looked as if she was a human! She didn’t appear to respond to Aokiji and just gazed at him... with red eyes. Is that a trait of fish-men? “I see... from your familiar appearance, you must be the famed Chiaka, are you not?”

She didn’t respond to Aokiji in any way, she didn’t even more an inch, her muscles looked completely relaxed as well. I think the better question is not the race, but: is that even a child?

“Aokiji, what’s that?” I decided to ask, he seemed to be keeping a heavy eye on her.

“Chiaka is a famed child who is said to have been of noble descent, possessing blood red eyes and hair. However, because of their illegitimacy by being born a slave as well, they were to be killed along with their mother. It was said they were killed, but it appears that they are clearly not.” Aokiji seemed to be very informed about this person, I wonder if there’s a reason for that.

“Well, she’s here to kill the Celestial Dragon, isn’t she? Must have a lot of malice in her.” I reasoned. However, I’m not really interested in fighting her if that is the case, if the world noble dies then I’m sure a lot of people will be happy. Then again, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of shit from it as well. This girl isn’t going to spare us any harm either, is she? So, I guess my only option here is... fighting. “Well, step aside Aokiji, I’m sure I can take on a child.”

I ignored any remark Aokiji tried to make and stood in front of him, the girl was still quite relaxed despite being in the presence of an admiral. Seriously, she’s kind of giving me the creeps now. Guess I’ll start off easy.

“Hibana!” Setting my hand into the form of a finger gun, I fired lightning towards the girl, however what was frightening was that... she dodged them. She walked forward and cocked her heads to the left and right, treating it like a fly. Does she... possess Haki? Well, there’s a simple way to test.

I ran up towards her, to make sure she couldn’t predict anything without Haki I waited until I was right up until her face to attack her! She stood relaxed, as if she knew what was coming next, is she some sort of all-seeing person? “Rakurai!

Upon sending the lightning strike to her torso, her eyes dilated, making it clear that she didn’t expect it at all. She was sent back quite a bit and even fell down on the floor! However, she stood up and there was quite a scar on her torso from the attack.

So, it’s not Haki clearly, then what is she using to determine my attacks?

She clenched her fist and made what looked to be a karate punch, oddly she did it a fair distance away from me. It hit me at that point what she was using, both in sense that I knew how she dodged my attacks and that her attack hit me.

I was sent back as well an even went down on the ground! It proved quite a painful experience to get up as well.

She’s using fish-man karate, a style which was introduced by Jinbe late on in One Piece, what she just did now was release a shock-wave via the water vapour in the air. It also explains how she dodged my attacks, although it amazes me that a child like her can even do it.

She’s sensing the lightning breaking down the water vapour and reacting accordingly, she could fight me with her eyes closed if I’m honest. She couldn’t react to my rakurai merely because my body didn’t expose how I was going to attack and it was too fast when she realized the change in potential energy.

Again, I have to ask... is that a god-damn child?

“It appears she’s quite the formidable opponent, is she not?” Aokiji commented, it appears that we both have quite the effect on one another.

“I could beat her, but that is to say if I’m fast enough.” I murmured, it is clear now that my way to win is to focus on speed, my current forte. This girl has enough skill to beat me into oblivion, and frankly if she uses that again and beats me while I’m down, I’ve lost. If I can however be faster than her attacking me, I can win. This is essentially a double edged sword for the both of us.

“So... what’s your name, it can’t be Chiaka, can it? That is probably some kind of code-name for you.” I tried to begin conversation to distract her, it appears she had a similar idea as well.

“Valdis. What’s yours? It can’t be Ensign, can it?” I suppose she got that from my cloak, and it seems we both understand the decisive factor here. It’s fair game, if I use anything that isn’t up-close she’ll dodge it and attack me, and it’s kinda the opposite for her.

“Maris. So, I heard you’ve got quite the history.” It was after my words that silence began to overtake us, we both glared at one another and waited for the other to make the move. So, who made the first move? Me, of course, who else? If she went first, I’m doomed, I have to make it there as fast as I can!

I transformed into lightning and rushed over in front of her as fast as I could, when I reached her I transformed my body back, all except my right hand and prepared to attack her with Rakurai! However, it appears her idea wasn’t long-range, she also went for a close encounter plan and from where I’ve seen it before, it looks like she’s using Samegawa Seiken... and I’m screwed if that hits me. It wasn’t as fortunate as I had hoped, because the transformation to my body made it so that we are at equal speeds and because of that and the distance we are from one another is parallel... we’re both in for a hit.

I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but both of us suffered quite a blow, enough to send both of us to the ground crying in agony of how painful it was.

“My god, how can that hurt so much?” I exclaimed, holding my stomach in an attempt to contain the pain.

“Damn you, I was so close to getting that damn noble!” She still was quite determined despite being in so much pain, Aokiji walked up to us with a perplexed look.

“What?” Me and red-head somehow asked the same thing, Aokiji sighed and folded his arms yet again!

“Chiaka, you are under arrest for the assault and attempted murder of world nobles.” Aokiji spoke, he took out some pretty nifty hand-cuffs from his jacket. However, now that he mentions it, I think I have a way to begin things with a crew.

“Wait!” Despite the pain, I managed to stand up, Valdis knelt and looked at the both of us with fury. “If she joins me as an Ensign and crew-mate, working for the Marines, can she be exonerated for all her crimes?”

“What?” Both Aokiji and Valdis gave me confused glares, Aokiji then began thinking about it.

“I suppose if she agreed to the deal and we sorted it out back at marineford, there wouldn’t be any issues with it. It’s similar to Shichibukai, and since she is thought dead it will be easier to deal with it.” We both turned to her, she meagrely smiled at the both of us.

“So, if I join you I don’t get arrested and killed?” She understood the terms of the deal, that’s a good sign. “Nope, go to hell.”

“Well... if you join me, then eventually we can become our own crew and work together without the supervision of prats like him and do whatever the hell we want.” I reasoned with her, Aokiji raised his index finger to try and intervene.

“Oh, if you put it like that, it doesn’t sound that bad.” Valdis began considering it, eventually smirking after a few seconds.

“Wait-”

“Then it’s settled, you’ll join me and Aokiji will exonerate you of all crimes back at headquarters.” We both turned towards Aokiji who looked confused and exasperated. He merely nodded, I suppose he found out that he wouldn’t win against the both of us in an argument