1529, Age of the Sea Calendar
Grand Line — Marineford, Trainee Barracks
Tenjin woke up to silence.
His eyes cracked open slowly.
Morning light had already spilled across the room, warm and far too bright, cutting through the thin curtains in long bands that stretched over the floor and across his bed.
Tenjin stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Then his eyes shifted lazily toward the window.
Then toward the empty bed across from his.
Then toward the wall clock.
And froze.
A heartbeat passed.
Another.
Then—
Tenjin shot upright so fast the blanket flew clean off him.
"No."
His voice came out half-strangled.
He looked at the clock again as if it might somehow fix itself.
It did not.
"No, no, no, no, no."
He threw himself out of bed in a tangle of limbs, nearly slipping on the floor before catching himself on the bedpost. His training clothes were grabbed in a frantic blur and dragged on with none of the dignity expected of a Marine trainee. A sleeve went on wrong. He fixed it. His shirt caught at the shoulder. He yanked it down. One boot refused to cooperate and he jammed his foot into it anyway.
His mind raced.
'First day.'
'My first day.'
'How did I oversleep on my first day?'
He turned sharply toward Kujaku's empty side of the room.
'That woman.'
She was gone.
No attempt to wake him.
Tenjin stared at the bed for a full second with a dead, offended expression.
Then clicked his tongue, grabbed the rest of his things, and ran.
Marineford — Main Training Grounds
---
Marineford's training grounds were already alive.
The wide fields stretched beneath the morning sky like a military town unto themselves, training rings, sparring circles, obstacle lanes, firing ranges, weighted posts, and ranks of trainees moving under shouted orders. The air carried the scent of sweat, dust, iron, and sea wind. Everywhere one looked, there was motion.
Marines running.
Marines shouting.
Marines falling and getting back up again.
It was not the sort of place where lateness went unnoticed.
And at the center of one of the training fields stood the newest class of high-potential trainees.
Koby.
Helmeppo.
Hibari.
Kujaku.
Prince Grus.
All of the trainees were already there.
All except one.
Tenjin came sprinting into view from the edge of the field, breathing hard, boots kicking dust behind him as he ran with all the urgency of a man who knew he was very, very late and had no good explanation for it.
But before he could even call out his arrival, his eyes landed on the group ahead.
And what he saw made him stop.
Prince Grus stood directly in front of Koby, smiling down at him with the easy confidence of someone who had spent his whole life speaking from a position above others.
Koby, meanwhile, stood stiffly, clearly trying to hold his ground without escalating the situation.
Prince Grus tilted his head, voice smooth and dismissive.
"You really do look exactly how I imagined," he said. "A little too earnest. A little too serious. Like someone who thinks effort alone can close the distance between himself and real talent."
Koby's brows drew together, but he didn't step back.
"I'm here to get stronger," he said.
Prince Grus's smile widened slightly.
"Of course you are."
There was something deliberately provoking in the way he said it.
Helmeppo looked uncomfortable, standing just off to the side as if deciding whether or not he should intervene. Hibari's expression had hardened with quiet disapproval. Kujaku, on the other hand, watched the exchange with mild interest, amused rather than alarmed.
Koby tried to keep his composure.
"We're all here for the same reason."
Prince Grus let out a quiet laugh.
"No," he said. "We are not."
That was enough.
Tenjin's irritation, already simmering from oversleeping, finally found a target.
He strode forward.
"Oi."
The single word cut across the field sharply enough that everyone turned.
Prince Grus glanced over his shoulder.
Koby blinked. "Tenjin?"
Tenjin came to a stop a few steps away, chest still rising from the run, expression flat and openly annoyed.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Prince Grus raised a brow. "What does it look like?"
"It looks like you're trying to make yourself feel bigger by picking on someone smaller than you."
A small silence followed that.
Helmeppo's eyes widened slightly.
Koby, predictably, looked more worried than relieved.
Prince Grus turned fully now, studying Tenjin.
"So you're Captain Tenjin."
Tenjin did not answer the obvious statement.
Prince Grus continued.
"The famous one."
Still nothing.
Tenjin's eyes narrowed a fraction.
"Leave him alone scum."
Prince Grus gave a faint, incredulous smile, as though he found Tenjin's tone more amusing than threatening.
"And if I don't?"
Tenjin stared at him for a second.
Then said simply, "Then I'll make you."
A murmur passed through the surrounding trainees.
Prince Grus's smile disappeared.
He stepped forward without warning and threw a punch.
It was a clean punch too. Fast, direct, and thrown with the confidence of someone who expected it to land.
But his fist went straight through Tenjin's face.
Just a momentary split of bark, petals, leaves, and shifting wood, Tenjin's head parting and reforming around the blow before settling back into place untouched.
Prince Grus's eyes widened.
Tenjin gave him a smug look.
"That won't work on me. I'm a Logia."
Then he punched him.
Prince Grus barely had time to react before Tenjin's fist connected with his jaw and sent him sliding backward across the dirt, boots carving deep lines through the ground before he finally steadied himself.
Dust rose around him.
For a moment nobody moved.
Then—
Prince Grus smiled.
Not mockingly this time.
Genuinely.
As if something in him had finally become interested.
He rolled his shoulders once and adjusted his stance.
"Good," he said. "I was beginning to wonder if all the noise around you was exaggerated."
Tenjin stepped forward again.
"I was wondering the same about you."
Prince Grus's smile sharpened.
The air tightened.
And then—
"Enough."
Gion's voice cut through the field like a blade.
Neither of them had even noticed her move.
One moment she had been several paces away.
The next, she was between them.
Tenjin stopped.
Prince Grus did too.
Gion looked at Prince Grus first.
"Prince Grus."
Her tone alone made him stand straighter.
"If you want to pick fights, I can personally arrange one for you after sunset. You may not enjoy the opponent."
Prince Grus clicked his tongue, but said nothing.
Then she turned to Tenjin.
The pause she gave him was long enough to be painful.
"Why," she asked, "are you late?"
Tenjin opened his mouth immediately.
"I—"
And then realized he had absolutely nothing.
His eyes shifted once toward the sky, once toward the barracks, and then back to her.
"There was… a delay."
Gion's stare did not change.
Tenjin tried again.
"I was… making sure I was mentally prepared."
Helmeppo closed his eyes.
Hibari looked away.
Koby looked like he wanted to help but knew he could not.
Kujaku was visibly holding back laughter.
Gion folded her arms.
"You overslept."
Tenjin hesitated.
"…Yes."
She nodded once.
Then pointed to the outer perimeter of the field.
"You will run laps around this entire training ground for the duration of the session."
Tenjin blinked.
"The whole session?"
"Yes."
He looked at the size of the field.
Then back at her.
And somehow knew asking again would only worsen things.
"…Understood."
He turned and started jogging toward the edge of the field.
As he passed by Kujaku, he slowed just enough to look at her with a deeply unimpressed expression.
"Why didn't you wake me?"
Kujaku turned her head toward him, eyes bright with amusement.
"Because," she said lightly, "you looked so cute while sleeping that I couldn't bring myself to do it."
Tenjin stared at her for one flat second.
Then clicked his tongue and kept running.
Behind him, Kujaku laughed with open amusement, clearly delighted with herself.
Tenjin did not look back.
He simply ran.
Around the field, the training session resumed. Gion began issuing orders, correcting postures, measuring footwork, and setting the pace with the kind of disciplined severity that made even breathing feel like something one ought to do properly.
But every so often, as Tenjin passed the group again and again—
Koby glanced at him apologetically.
Hibari watched with quiet sympathy.
Helmeppo tried very hard not to smirk.
Prince Grus tracked him with narrowed eyes, his earlier smile gone, replaced now by the alert interest of someone who had just found another person worth measuring himself against.
---
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