Her actions might not have seemed particularly attractive to someone else, but not to Ricky. Sasha was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Of course, one could say that there weren't many girls his age in Vallipo, but that wasn't the only reason.
Watching Sasha prepare, Ricky glimpsed what he saw almost every day when they were together. Her confidence was evident in every movement. She was strong, attentive, and witty, and her attractiveness only added to the charm.
Ricky couldn't say it out loud, but Sasha was the one force that could make him give up a peaceful life. Of course, he loved his other friends too. Bill was a good person, reliable as a rock, always ready to help. Rance could be funny and was always up to something. Even Fia was great; she knew a bit about everything and loved to cook.
But none of them were like Sasha, Ricky thought, as he heard the approaching footsteps of the Instructors.
The sound was clearly audible in the room, and all the cadets started bustling about. By the time the doors opened and the lights came on, two rows of fifteen recruits stood at attention.
Looking around, Ricky thought about the Rankings and how they should be updated soon. Drake and Saga had left a few months ago, and now the order was as follows:
1: Ain
2: Shuzo3: Beans…
26: Ricchio Occhiali28: Sasha Zima
Sasha was more skilled with a sword than Ain, but the top three positions were practically unreachable at the moment.
The Rankings were determined by a points system, and although they never spoke about it, Ricky knew that Sasha understood that the dream of becoming a Vice Admiral was unreachable.
From Ricky's perspective, their best-case scenario was to achieve the rank of Captain — but there was no guarantee they would even make it into the top 20 by the end of the year.
Standing at attention, Instructor Zephyr entered the room, and Ricky felt all the gazes in the room turn towards him, despite no one moving.
Z was the Chief Instructor at the Marineford Academy. He was always present during evaluations and sometimes offered assistance, but he had never been the one to conduct the morning inspection before.
Passing by the cadets one by one, Zephyr stopped at one unfortunate soul and looked her over from head to toe: "Cadet 28, why is your hair not tied back?"
Ricky wanted to look, but he couldn't see clearly. Although they slept in the same room, the boys and girls' bunks were in separate areas.
Listening closely, Ricky heard Sasha reply in a voice dark as tinted glass: "My hair tie broke in my sleep."
With a "click-click" sound, Zephyr continued: "Cadet 28, they provide shoelaces and hair ties for free at the commissary, don't they?"
Sasha: "Yes, Instructor, but since it broke while I was sleeping and not at the commissary, I had no way to acquire another. Does that confuse you?"
When she said this, a few cadets snickered, but Ricky wanted to sigh. Not because of the Chief Instructor, but because of Sasha, who escalated a situation she couldn't win.
As Ricky expected, Zephyr didn't take it as a joke that could be ignored.
"Cadet 28, I understand your predicament, and don't worry, we'll resolve this together when I give you a nice haircut after breakfast. "Does something about this confuse you?"
Ricky couldn't see her face, but he knew it must have been expressing something very unpleasant. However, all he heard was a firmer response: "No."
Ricky couldn't see, but it seemed the big man was surprised by the girl's sharp response. When Zephyr replied, there was a sharpness in his voice: "What did you say, Cadet 28?"
"I said no, Chief Instructor Zephyr."
Perhaps deciding that a haircut would suffice, Zephyr continued the inspection and didn't pay her any further attention.
After all, Zephyr was a more or less fair Marine.
When the inspection was over, the cadets went to the dining hall, and Ricky took a seat next to Sasha.
She looked serious but didn't complain. As for Ricky himself, he knew they weren't being treated quite fairly... but that was the way of the world, he reasoned. They were talented, but were always placed in situations where they couldn't prove themselves.
For example, Sasha was almost always pitted against a top-ranked cadet. First it was Drake, then Saga, and now Ain. And he was nearly always up against Beans or Shuzo, and most of the time he wasn't allowed to use his swords. Considering they were always ranked at the bottom, how was it that they constantly faced cadets from the top 10?
"Well..." he thought.
Firstly, neither of them had Devil Fruits, which could have played an important role, but more likely Ricky thought, "We didn't sign an extended service contract."
Among all the cadets of the Marineford Academy, only he and Sasha hadn't mastered any of the Six Powers, and therefore they only had a six-year contract. There wasn't any particular reason why they hadn't learned these techniques, but Ricky had the Tempest Arts and Wave Step, which were enough for him, and Sasha tended to train only in the art of angular and multifaceted swordsmanship.
Sitting down for breakfast, Ricky looked at Sasha and asked, "Did you hear what we're doing today?"