A short while later, Mitsuhashi brought out a bowl of ramen identical to Raleigh's and placed it in front of Smoker.
"Smoker, why are you so late today?"
As soon as he saw the ramen, Smoker eagerly grabbed his chopsticks and began wolfing it down.
Only after finishing the entire large bowl did he pat his belly and say with a satisfied expression.
"We had a lot of training today. The instructors made us run ten kilometers this morning, and no one was allowed to fall behind. We had to wait for a few friends, so we ended up slowing down a bit."
"Besides," Smoker continued, "the instructors also said today is Vice Admiral Garp's lecture day. He'll be teaching us how to use the Six Powers."
"So time is tight. I need to hurry back as soon as I finish eating."
Raleigh, still sitting on his stool, wore an intrigued expression.
He realized who was sitting behind him.
'Though he's pretty weak now and he'll still... be pretty weak later,' Raleigh thought with a mental chuckle.
Smoker was the only Marine who truly pushed Luffy to his limits in the early days.
Without Dragon's intervention, Luffy's journey would have ended at Loguetown. Unfortunately, Smoker strayed onto the wrong path.
Like Borsalino, he relied too heavily on his Devil Fruit abilities, but his development direction was incorrect, and the Smoke-Smoke Fruit wasn't as naturally overpowered as Borsalino's Glint-Glint Fruit.
Moreover, he neglected to improve his Haki and physical combat skills.
By the time Luffy set sail, Smoker still hadn't learned Armament Haki and instead relied on a jitte tipped with Seastone to suppress opponents.
Puru puru puru puru.
The sound of a Den Den Mushi rang from Raleigh's chest.
Raleigh pulled the private snail from his clothes and showed a puzzled expression upon seeing the caller ID.
"Hey, Zephyr-sensei, what made you think of calling me?"
Zephyr's vigorous voice came through the receiver. "You brat, you came to Headquarters and didn't even think to greet me or have a meal together? How could you? Don't forget, I once cleaned up someone's mess in the East Blue."
Raleigh felt somewhat uneasy.
Of course, he knew what Zephyr meant.
No wonder the World Government's underhanded investigations had decreased—it turned out the traces had already been cleared by his old teacher.
However, Raleigh couldn't figure out what the old man was up to.
Nothing brings someone to the temple without a reason.
Since Zephyr mentioned the favor Raleigh owed him, he must have a request.
Zephyr wasn't the type to butter people up for no reason.
"I asked Borsalino and Fleet Admiral Kong, and they said you currently have no tasks. So, come to the military academy today. I've arranged a welcome ceremony for you."
"As the student who achieved the fastest promotion to Vice Admiral in this batch, of course, you should return to the military academy and share with your juniors how to capture pirates and how to improve your strength."
"Perfect timing—let's compare your adapted Six Powers with Garp's traditional Six Powers and see which set is more suitable for the younger generation to learn."
Hearing this, the previously confused Raleigh suddenly understood—Zephyr had been setting him up all along!
If only he had known earlier, he wouldn't have let Momonga reveal that the adaptation was his work.
He never expected a shot fired in the past to hit him now.
It seemed Zephyr was very interested in his revised techniques and deliberately chose this moment to corner him.
Raleigh didn't even consider escaping.
Since Zephyr had already confirmed with Borsalino and Kong, it meant he had blocked Raleigh's escape routes.
Unless something earth-shattering happened today, Raleigh had to attend.
"And Garp? Does that mean I have to fight that old monster?"
Raleigh couldn't quite figure it out, then turned to look at Smoker who was resting.
"Hey, kid, in your current Six Powers practical classes, do you spar with the instructors?"
Smoker, who had been squinting, grew angry at being called "kid" by a stranger.
However, as he opened his eyes and was about to retort, he swallowed his words.
He recognized the person speaking—it was the most shining star on the stage at Marineford Plaza just yesterday—Christian Raleigh!
"Vice Admiral Raleigh! My apologies! I didn't realize you were here."
Smoker was startled and quickly stood up from his stool, snapping a salute.
Raleigh waved his hand. "No need for so much formality. At Old Man Mitsuhashi's place, I'm just your academy senior and a regular customer."
Smoker finally sat down properly, though his posture was much more rigid than before.
"Reporting! In our Six Powers practical combat class, we don't actually fight with the instructors."
"The practical class is basically where instructors demonstrate by fighting each other. The actual combat training is between us students."
Raleigh nodded.
It wasn't much different from his time, except back then, there was a special feature in all practical classes: students were allowed to challenge instructors.
Each student could challenge up to five times per semester, a rule meant to check the instructors' capabilities.
However, Raleigh had been too lazy to use this privilege back then; he barely even wanted to attend the classes.
"Alright, I'll go with you later. It's been a while since I've seen Instructor Zephyr and the Marine Hero Garp anyway."
Raleigh took out some Belly from his pocket to pay.
Mitsuhashi waved his hand in refusal. "Kid, you just got promoted to Vice Admiral yesterday. This meal is on me. Come back after a week, then I'll consider whether to charge you or not."
Mitsuhashi refused the money and spoke with a serious tone.
"Fine, then I'll settle it when I come back tonight," Raleigh smiled. "Let's go, Smoker. I'll head to the academy with you."
....
"Ugh..."
"So strong... I surrender."
A student's imperfectly practiced Iron Body was shattered by his opponent's punch, leaving a clear fist mark on his chest.
Clutching his injury, he quickly lowered his head and left the arena.
Zephyr's gaze swept across the training ground.
After confirming there were no major injuries, he turned his attention back to the roster.
Although the current batch of students were all practicing the Six Powers diligently, Zephyr sometimes had to acknowledge the brutal reality of talent.
When Zephyr was on the frontlines, he had seen too many people make rapid progress in short periods, with some even leaping several levels of strength at once.
Bounties jumping from tens of millions to hundreds of millions in no time made Zephyr mistakenly believe that everyone had high potential if they worked hard enough.
It was only when he started training newcomers that Zephyr began to feel the headache.
Zephyr had taught many people, and among them were a few with exceptional talent—monsters who could learn techniques after seeing them just once.
In Sakazuki and Borsalino's batch, both of them mastered the Six Powers instantly.
Then in Kuzan's batch, on the surface, only Kuzan could learn them after seeing it once.
But Zephyr believed that Raleigh was also that kind of genius.
In Zephyr's eyes, when Raleigh performed the techniques back then, it felt like they had been honed through countless repetitions and had become muscle memory, despite Raleigh's lazy attitude.
But now, things were different.
Since Raleigh, Kuzan, Tokikake, and Gion had graduated, the Marines hadn't seen any promising seedlings for a long time.