Inside the classroom.
After seeing the silver-haired teenager return to his original seat, Gion giggled and joked,
"Wow! Little bro Sephiroth, I didn't expect you to be so amazing! You really stunned me, sis!"
"Uh!? Just... just a fluke!"
Sephiroth forced a smile. He noticed the strange looks from the people around him, as if they were all saying, "We all agreed to be academic slackers, but you secretly started to outperform us like a 'juan' (a Chinese internet slang meaning to over-compete)!"
He scratched his head with a smile and thought to himself that maybe next time he should score lower and just pass the exam...
"Wayne... 26 points!"
After handing out the last test paper, Shusui's smile became even more obvious. He rumbled in a deep voice,
"Now, I'm going to assign the content for the next class. Listen up, you all!
Since the test paper is out of 100 points, for every point you're short, you have to run around the playground ten times...
Now... start running on the playground for me!!!"
Whoosh!
All the cadets in the military academy were in an uproar and let out wails one after another.
"Oh my god! 1000 laps. When will I finish running..."
"This will kill someone! We've already gone through such cruel training this morning..."
...
Amid the noisy and chaotic voices, Shusui raised his right hand and slammed it heavily on the table, making a loud "bang".
"Shut up, you all!
You guys, it's okay if you're not smart. But if your strength is also poor, how can you become naval officers in the future?
Do you really think Marineford Military Academy is a place for you to gain some credentials and just coast through a year comfortably before getting a lieutenant or colonel rank?
Let me tell you, there's no way!
Whether it's physical training or your grades in other courses, they all determine the rank you'll get when you graduate. If you just muddle through here for a year, the best you can get is a warrant officer.
If you don't want to suffer, then get out of the military academy for me, or go to the infirmary and take a sick leave for a year!"
Shusui's words woke everyone up like a splash of cold water. They all stopped complaining, stood up from their seats, and walked out of the classroom towards the playground.
Forget about getting low scores! They even have to be punished. It's really harsh!... The silver-haired teenager watched Smoker and the others walk out of the classroom dejectedly and immediately made this decision in his heart.
Soon, everyone in the classroom left one after another, leaving only Sephiroth.
He walked to the side of the podium and asked the long-armed giant,
"Instructor Shusui, they've all gone to run. What should I do?"
Hearing this, Shusui gently stroked his chin and muttered,
"You? Well... you got a full score, so you don't have to be punished by running... Go play by yourself!
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon is for the running punishment. There are no other classes scheduled."
"Instructor Shusui, can I apply for something from you?"
"What do you want to apply for?"
"
"Low-purity Sea Prism Stone single handcuffs... Of course, I'll pay for them," Sephiroth said tentatively.
"Low-purity Sea Prism Stone handcuffs?
We in the Navy only have the highest-purity ones...
What do you want that stuff for, anyway?" Shusui asked suspiciously.
"Hehe! Of course, it's for better physical training!
Low-purity Sea Prism Stone handcuffs can suppress Devil Fruit users, preventing them from using their powers and leaving them in a state of weakness. But it can also be used to better temper the body..."
Hearing this explanation, Shusui suddenly widened his eyes and said in surprise:
"Hey! I think this method works! How did you come up with it...?"
"Ah, well... I once wore high-purity Sea Prism Stone on myself. But that stuff weakens one's physical strength too much, and its practical effect isn't that good..."
Sephiroth forced a smile and quickly came up with an excuse.
He couldn't very well say that he remembered the physical training method from the 'Kaido's Addiction - Quitting and Ore - Mining Center' of the famous master Kaido. Could he?
Some time ago, the vampire fruit's super recovery ability allowed Sephiroth to train without any scruples. He didn't have to worry about muscle strains, excessive physical exhaustion, and other problems. As a result, his strength advanced by leaps and bounds.
However, he now realized that he seemed to have entered a bottleneck in his strength. No matter how much he trained, the strength and speed of his body didn't improve as significantly as before.
This feeling was indescribable, but he could sense some kind of constraint. He felt that only by breaking through that limit could he take his strength to the next level.
Therefore, he came up with this idea.
Although he usually did physical training in the shallow sea area, this was extremely dangerous!
Once, he was hit by a big wave on the beach and entered a state of weakness. If it hadn't been for the shallow water and the ebb tide, and if he hadn't used up a lot of his stored lifespan to gain enough strength to lift his upper body, he would have been drowned in the water that was only more than thirty centimeters deep...
"Your idea is very valuable. I'll definitely tell the Admirals Zefa about it and see if he can get the Navy's Scientific Research Department to urgently make a batch...
Anyway, they've been researching Sea Prism Stone lately and have even successfully come up with a way for warships to deceive the Sea Kings. I'm sure they'll be interested in your idea."
Shusui laughed heartily and patted Sephiroth on the shoulder, then turned around and left the classroom.
On this day, due to the high-intensity exercise, a large number of people ended up lying in the military school's infirmary...
...
Just seven days later, the low-purity Sea Prism Stone handcuffs that Sephiroth had applied for were quickly developed and mass-produced by the Navy's Scientific Research Department under the urging of the Admirals Zefa.
That day, Zephyr cheerfully distributed a pair of low-purity Seastone handcuffs to all the ability users in the military academy and instructed them to wear them during physical training!
Then...
After a morning of physical training, Sephiroth, Smoker, Tina... and other Devil Fruit users all flopped down, feeling like they were half-dead.
On the military academy's playground.
"That old geezer Zephyr, what the hell was he thinking when he came up with such a torturous method..."
Smoker was lying on his back on the ground like a dried fish. After he pried open the buckle of the Seastone handcuffs on his left hand with his hand, his hands trembled like leaves in the wind as he lit a cigar for himself.
"Tina feels so terrible!
I feel like I'm gonna keel over..."
Tina, with long pink hair, was on all fours like a duck, gasping heavily. The sweat had soaked the hair on her forehead.
"How about having a cigar to relax..."
As he said this, Smoker glanced at Tina, took out a cigar from his body and handed it over. After hesitating for a moment, Tina looked suspicious and said:
"Can this really help you relax?"
"Of course! Whenever I'm tired or listless, I'll have one..."
So, under Smoker's temptation, Tina began to give it a try...
Sephiroth listened to the curses of those Devil Fruit users on the playground.
After some thought, he decided he mustn't let them know he was the one who first came up with the idea of the low-purity Seastone handcuffs. Otherwise, he'd get beaten up by everyone!
...
Train, study, train... Day after day. Occasionally, he would have sword duels with Shiokaze (Gion). To make the most of every day, Sephiroth compressed his sleeping time to four hours...
His life in the military academy was busy but fulfilling. Especially after the appearance of the low-purity Seastone handcuffs, the difficulty of physical training skyrocketed. He often felt like giving up.
Fortunately, after removing the Seastone handcuffs, the injuries and fatigue on his body always recovered quickly, allowing him to keep his body in the best state every day.
Under the long-term extreme physical exertion, his already awakened Armament Haki was gradually increasing in both quality and quantity...
On the other hand, Tezzolo officially established Umbrella Corporation on Sabaody Archipelago with the continuous funds he provided, recruiting a large number of people and conducting the arms business in full swing.
Vaguely, Umbrella Corporation was showing the momentum of becoming the largest arms dealer on Sabaody Archipelago, and Tezzolo had all kinds of interactions with people in both the white and black sectors.
To ensure the company's early capital chain, Sephiroth would go to Sabaody Archipelago every week when he had a holiday to look for pirates with bounties under 100 million berries, both to gain practical combat experience and to make money.
During this period, he also encountered two Devil Fruit users, Zoan-type Cat-Cat Fruit, Leopard Model, Paramecia-type Net-Net Fruit.
Just a pity that he might have been out of luck, or perhaps the fruit types he brought didn't match. He didn't obtain the Rebirth Devil Fruit.