The Marine School of Justice was located in the northeast corner of Marineford.
It was a massive academy with more than enough space, fully equipped facilities, and many instructors led by Zephyr himself.
Although each class never exceeded two hundred students, every single one of them was a young, outstanding talent selected from marine bases across the world and from within Marine Headquarters itself.
When Aren went out yesterday to look for a rental room, he had already made sure to find out exactly where the Marine School of Justice was. That was why he specifically chose a room as close to the academy as possible.
Strictly speaking, Aren did not actually need to rent his own place.
Every trainee at the academy was provided with a dormitory, and the dorms were fully furnished. They did not need to prepare anything themselves.
But in Aren's view...
Once you clock out, you are off work, and there is no need to live at your workplace.
And for now, the Marine School of Justice was his workplace.
It was seven thirty in the morning. After efficiently cleaning up what was left of the alarm clock and the table he had shredded earlier, Aren got changed.
He had a habit of exercising every day, so he put on the white tracksuit he had bought last night while exploring the town and familiarizing himself with the surroundings, then headed toward the academy's training grounds.
The streets of Marineford's little town were already lively at this hour. Many shopkeepers had opened for business, and even soldiers from Marine Headquarters had begun their day's work.
The training grounds of the Marine School of Justice, however, were completely empty.
Aren's workout routine was simple. Ten kilometers of running, three hundred pull-ups on the horizontal bar, and one hundred rounds of one hundred meter frog jumps.
While he was running his ten kilometers, he noticed a few instructors standing at the edge of the training field, watching.
By the time he finished his three hundred pull-ups, trainees had begun to arrive one after another and were gathering on the field.
When he completed his one hundred back and forth sets of hundred meter frog jumps, the grounds were already full of trainees doing their own warm-ups and exercises.
"Everyone, form up!"
Just as Aren finished his usual morning training, one of the instructors who had been pretending not to pay attention suddenly shouted from a distance.
Immediately, every trainee stopped what they were doing and rushed into formation.
Only Aren walked slowly, falling naturally to the back.
The instructors glanced at him but did not urge him to hurry. Instead, one of them stepped forward and called out to the gathered trainees.
"My name is Dunbar. I am the instructor in charge of your morning training. I arrived at the field at seven twenty, and at that time, I saw only one person already training on his own. Aren."
His voice cracked across the grounds like a whip.
"No one achieves success by slacking. Only diligence, only working harder than everyone else, leads to success.
"Right beside you, Aren is a textbook example. I waited until he finished his personal training before calling assembly, because I wanted to see exactly what kind of training he was doing. When I arrived, he was already running. After that, he ran at least seven more kilometers, then did three hundred pull-ups, and one hundred back and forth sets of hundred meter frog jumps. That is his own routine.
"And what about you?
"Forget the ones who only just showed up. Even among those who came earlier, the ones who did their own warm-up only ran two kilometers before starting to stretch and wait for assembly. If Zephyr-sensei were standing here right now, he would be very disappointed.
"Last night, when you willingly accepted punishment, it made him proud. He saw in you the determination to become stronger and to give it your all.
"But today, you have already forgotten what you were like last night. You have forgotten that right beside you is a special recruit who could fight Zephyr-sensei head on. You have forgotten that he should be your example, the goal you strive to learn from and surpass, not someone whose existence you simply adapt to and ignore."
Every trainee lowered their head as they listened to Instructor Dunbar.
Some of them had noticed Aren training alone earlier, but they had not thought too much of it. Who would have guessed he had arrived that early? They assumed he could not have been there much longer than they had.
Shame.
All the trainees of the Marine School of Justice present, except Jero, had experienced being knocked down by Aren in an instant yesterday. They were elites chosen from their respective bases and posted to Headquarters. Their pride and refusal to accept defeat were unusually strong, and now that pride burned into raw embarrassment.
Even Jero, standing in the front row because of his short height, had a face flushed as red as a tomato and fists clenched tight.
He was one of those Dunbar had mentioned, the ones who had stopped after running two kilometers. As someone who had worked alongside Aren at the 88th Base, he knew Aren had a habit of early morning training.
Yet even knowing that...
He had still relied on the instructors' training schedule and forgotten that he also needed to put in effort on his own.
"Good. I can see your sense of shame. That means there is still hope for you."
Instructor Dunbar swept his gaze across them, pausing slightly on Jero as he raised his voice.
Then he looked toward Aren, who had just walked over, and shouted, "Aren, fall in!"
Aren took out his pocket watch, checked the time, then looked up at Dunbar. "It is only five past eight, Instructor Dunbar."
"I know what time it is," Dunbar replied.
Aren adjusted his glasses slightly and met his eyes. "I start work at nine. There are still fifty-five minutes before my shift begins."
With that, he turned and continued walking toward the exit of the training grounds.
His back looked exactly the same as it had when he walked away yesterday.
He left behind a field full of people staring at him in dazed silence, their minds completely blanked out by his words.
...