Aokiji silently lowered his head, eting the gaze of soone looking up at him.
"Ah, young man."
He raised an eyebrow slightly and spoke softly, "Eavesdropping on soone talking to themselves isn't a good habit, you know."
"I've been standing here the whole ti without moving. You're the one who climbed over the railing and ended up next to , okay?"
Nao spread his hands innocently. "I'm a blooming young man; I'm not particularly interested in an uncle's self-pity to the point of eavesdropping, right?"
Only twenty-eight years old, and already being called an uncle?
Aokiji remained silent, then shook his head helplessly after a while:
"It's not exactly self-pity. It's just that the things I've been holding onto suddenly seem aningless..." He paused, "How should I explain this to you... Young man, is there sothing you've always been committed to?"
"Of course, and quite a few."
Nao thought for a mont and said seriously, "For example, I insist on training twenty hours a day, soaking my feet in hot water after a bath, and drinking a glass of warm milk before bed..."
"I'm not talking about those things..." Aokiji rubbed his temples, suddenly feeling a headache.
Gion was right; this kid is more polite than anyone to strangers, but once familiar, he starts spouting nonsense, making it hard to distinguish truth from lies.
Training twenty hours a day? Who in this world does that...
"I an beliefs."
Aokiji reorganized his thoughts and looked at Nao. "Like justice. Young man, after you graduate, the word 'justice' will be inscribed on your cape. What do you think about these two characters?"
This statent was quite direct.
Being a transmigrator, and considering Aokiji's recent aura of depression and laziness, Nao calculated the tiline and easily associated it with the Ohara incident from nearly half a year ago.
After that event, Aokiji must have been in tornt, and his original belief in 'passionate justice' gradually faded, slowly shifting towards 'lazy justice'.
"Translate it into simplified form and then look at it."
He thought for a mont, then pouted. "There's not much to say about that, Vice Admiral. Everyone has their own path of justice; as long as you stick to it, that's enough."
"But that's precisely the problem, young man..." Aokiji looked up at the night sky. Tonight's darkness was particularly deep, with a crescent moon like a hook and only a few sparse stars dotting the boundless sky.
"For example, right now, you're like that star."
He pointed to one of them and said to Nao, "Even though you're trying hard to persist, the light you emit is still minimal. The surrounding darkness remains so deep that it's bottomless. If it were you, what would you do at this mont?"
This question was directed at Nao, but it also seed like he was asking himself.
"Keep going."
Nao almost didn't hesitate and said matter-of-factly, "If you have a bit of heat, emit a bit of light. Even if it's just a firefly, it can still do its best in the darkness without waiting for a torch."
Aokiji was slightly stunned. He looked at the young man for a while, then smiled bitterly:
"...Does that little bit of light really matter?"
"Of course."
Nao also pointed to the sparse stars. "And another thing, you're mistaken. Those stars are actually much larger than the sun. The reason they appear small to us is because we're too far away to see them clearly."
"But... for the planets around them, that beam of light is dazzling and bright enough to illuminate and warm the entire world."
Is that so?
Aokiji looked up, squinting at the distant stars.
For so reason, he thought of the civilians he had saved over the years, the pirates he had killed, and a few months ago, Saul who died in front of him, and Nico Robin who fled in tears...
"Didn't you just ask about my view on justice?"
Nao's voice ca again:
"Doing my utmost to make this dark world a bit brighter, even if it's just reducing the darkness by the size of a firefly. That's the path of justice I follow."
Aokiji withdrew his gaze from the night sky and looked at Nao in a daze.
"But I think things aren't as pessimistic as that, right?"
"At least our Marines have so many like-minded people. Even the smallest fireflies, when gathered together, can illuminate a large area."
The young man's eyes t his, and he suddenly giggled mischievously:
"Of course, people's dreams should be grand. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe my little firefly will flutter up and beco a star."
"And then, suddenly, with a bang, emit a light brighter than the sun, sweeping away all the surrounding darkness?"
"..."
Aokiji looked at Nao silently for a long ti, suddenly feeling that Teacher Zephyr's decision half a month ago to have him oversee this assessnt was absolutely correct.
After a mont, he suddenly laughed: "What an arrogant brat. Young man, it seems your ambition has been exposed."
Nao blinked and smiled shyly.
"However, turning from a firefly into the sun isn't that easy."
Aokiji leisurely looked up, gazing at the unreachable Milky Way, and smiled:
"Before expecting your little firefly to illuminate the world, let , a star that's almost touching the sky, continue to move forward and see if I can emit a greater light..."
...
Two days later, the warship that had crossed the entire Calm Belt finally returned to Marineford.
There were no adverse weather conditions along the way, but there was a sowhat amusing incident.
A pirate crew that had just entered the Grand Line from the East Blue for less than two months, upon seeing the warship coming from the Calm Belt, initially planned to flee.
But the captain, with a bounty of 13 million Berries and nad "Black Wolf" Tejerk, sohow mustered the courage to ignore his perceptive subordinates' advice and loudly ordered, "Who do you think I am? Let's go!"
The outco was predictable.
There was no need for Aokiji, Gion, or any of the high-ranking officers to act. Even the accompanying instructors didn't move. Nao directly swam ahead of his eager companions and, in just over ten minutes, easily subdued the entire pirate crew.
In addition to earning a small amount of rit, he also advanced the progress of the blood of sinners needed to upgrade the Yone's Twin Swords from (278/1000) to (430/1000).
Another unexpected surprise, quite satisfying.
Upon arriving at headquarters,
Aokiji t with Zephyr at the port, relinquishing his temporary chief instructor position and completing the handover.
Zephyr was very pleased with the performance of this batch of elite camp disciples during the practical assessnt.
The outstanding performance of several top-ranking individuals, especially Nao's astonishing display, made him look at them in a new light.
After leading the new recruits back to the elite camp, Zephyr directly announced the final rankings of this assessnt in front of everyone—
PS: Read Advance Chapters at spatreon/c/ReadJin
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