Garp and Rick arrived at the training ground.

 

The one stooge that the Vice-admiral ordered was finishing the preparations for the exercise to come.

 

“Everything is ready, sir!”

 

“Good, go back to your post”

 

The marine said: “Sir, yes, sir!” and left.

 

Garp turned to Rick.

 

“First thing first I’ll test your stamina. You have one hour to do 50 laps. Begin running! NOW!”

 

Rick started running around the field. It was the size of a soccer field, so about 290 m for a perimeter. 

An average adult man's speed is 10km/h.

For 50 laps with a constant speed it would take about 1hour and 30 minutes to complete the task.

For a 10 year old kid doing so under one hour was impossible.

 

‘ He’s insane, even a normal adult would not be able to do 50 laps in one hour! I’m a 10 years old kid, what does he expect ?! ’

 

After his tenth lap Rick could see Garp lounging on a chair, a cup of hot coffee in one hand and a cookie in the other.

 

“Hurry up kid, you got 40 left to go and you’ve been running for 25 minutes already. If you don’t speed up you’ll fail and no cookie for you.”

 

‘You damn monster!’ screaming internally Rick.

He picked up the pace, his past 18 months of training showing.

At the one hour mark, Rick was exhausted, he failed to finish the 50 laps.

 

‘He went as far as 38, not bad.’

 

Garp was looking at Rick with satisfaction.

A kid just did what most of the adults joining the marines could not.

 

‘He sure has stamina. Hehehe I’m going to enjoy breaki.. I mean raising him.Yes, raising him. Hehehe.’

 

The vice-admiral approached his new recruit.

 

“ You failed kid.”

“Sir! I’m sorry, sir!”

“Don’t be sorry yet kid. You’ll have time to be sorry after your punishment!”

 

Garp looked at Rick with a crooked smile, making him, for the first time since he came into his world, fear for his life.

 

‘Joining the marines was perhaps NOT the best idea I had.’

 

“On top of not having cookies kid, you get to finish the laps you didn’t do and do another three set of 50. Take a 15 minutes break between each set. As for the time limit, you have until sunset.”

 

Having given his order Garp left the training grounds, soon after a marine came from where Garp went and went to Rick.

 

“Vice-admiral Garp ordered me to watch your progress kid. You have 10 minutes left on your break”

 

‘I’m gonna die, I’m really gonna die’.

 

~~~~

 

One week.

 

It took Rick one week to finally do the 50 laps in one hour.

The marines in the barracks were so bored that on the third day, they came watching him “run” .

 

Yes “run” because for Rick, what he was doing wasn’t running, it was torture. It was suffering.

 

When the marines started to make bets about him either quitting or the time he’ll take to complete the task, Rick saw red.

 

‘Keep it up you bastards, one day, one day I’m going to pay you all back. With interest.’

 

On the fifth day Garp came by to do some inspection.

Rick’s heart was full of joy.

 

‘HAHAHA YOU MOFOS! Who’s laughing now, huh? Who’s gonna get trashed by Garp, huh? Mwhahahahaha”.

 

This feeling of elation lasted 10 seconds.

It lasted until Garp went to the betting booth and betted himself.

 

The joy that Rick was feeling turned into pure rage and hatred.

 

‘Screw all of you! I’m gonna finish this task before the end of the week, I’ll make every single one of you cry like a little bitch’, I swear!’

 

Rick kept his words and on the seventh day’s morning succeeded.

 

His fellow marines were effectively crying. They lost their pay for the month. Half of them bet that Rick would quit, the other that he would take two weeks to do it.

 

Rick could see some of them passed out on the ground, too shocked about Rick’s success maybe, or the loss of a significant amount of money.

 

The only one who wasn’t in this state was Garp.

Nope, the old man was laughing, happy as a kid the morning of christmas.

 

Rick was laying on his back, breathing hard when Garp came to him.

 

“I knew you could do it in a week kid!” He was laughing.

 

“Thanks to you I made shit-load of money, hehehe.”

 

‘What the… You won?! Of all the people, it was You!’

 

Rick nearly passed out too from anger. The man who he wanted the most to lose won.

 

“Good job kid, really. Not many can do what you did when they started in the marine, and even less at your age. You can be proud of yourself.”

 

All Rick wanted to do was to jump on the old man and beat him to death. Even beyond, he wanted to beat him until all his frustration went away.

Unfortunately he was too exhausted to move a finger.

 

“Sir. Thank you, Sir.”

 

“Here, take it you earned it”.

 

Garp was handing him one of those chocolate cookies he promised him.

 

Rock took it and put it in his mouth.

‘He may be a sadist , but at least he’s a good ma...’

 

Rick couldn’t finish his thought as he fainted.

 

‘The kid passed out of exhaustion, he really gave everything, hehehe.’

“Oi, one of you, take the kid to rest.”

“Sir, yes ,sir!”

As a marine came forward to pick Rick up, Garp went away.

‘I really found a diamond in the rough. I can’t wait to polish him.’

Garp was wrong though.

Rick didn’t pass out of exhaustion like he thought.

Nope.

Rick passed out of frustration.

As it was not chocolate in the cookie but raisins.