Her Wanderlust Odyssey

Don't Underestimate Me.

"Sakura, since you've decided to leave Tsuru-chan's crew and are now a vice-admiral, I have assigned a crew and warship for you. You can patrol around Paradise and the New World, so I won't assign you a Marine branch."

Sengoku's words repeated in her head. I know that I should be excited to have a crew now, but why am I so nervous? It might be because this will be the first time that I'm gonna be the person with the highest-ranking on board! "Woah! Look at this beautiful warship! This is actually my ship now," Sakura exclaimed. She could already hear people on the deck talking and working, they were probably prepping the ship to sail.

Using Geppo, Sakura landing on the railing of the warship, and all of a sudden, all eyes were on her. Whispers started floating around. "That's the vice-admiral we got? Why her?"

"I heard that she's the troublemaker of the Marines."

"Is she even qualified to be a vice-admiral?"

"She probably bribed the higher-ups to promote her."

"I wish we got another vice-admiral."

Sakura sighed in frustration. "You know I can hear you all right? Look, it's up to you whether you want to respect me, but like it or not, this is now my warship and you have to follow orders from your superior. If you have a problem with me being your superior, then write your name down on a clipboard, I'll duel you all myself if I have to. Underestimate me all you want, but all I have to do... is prove you all wrong."

=~+~=

As a clipboard was passed around, Sakura went to explore the warship. When she came back, she stared at the long list of names written on the clipboard. "Wow, that's a lot of names. Well then, since so many of you signed up, raise your hand if you didn't write your name down." Hm, only like ten people trust me? How sad. "Okay! Now, let's head down to an arena. Keep in mind that you're allowed to use any weapon, or you can choose to use none at all, and I will also use your weapon of choice."

=~+~=

"Now that everyone's here, let's start! As you can see, another Vice-Admiral is here to referee. This is my old superior Tsuru-san! Hm, who's first? Sano Tadashi! Your up!"

"Heh, I choose my fists," he smirked as he cracked his knuckles. He was radiating an aura of cockiness. The moment Tsuru-san signaled to start the duel, he pulled back his right arm to land a punch. Sakura turned and dogged. She grabbed his arm, pulled him forward, and elbowed him in the shoulder, making him fall on his back. He tried to get up, but Sakura put her legs on his chest, wrapped them around his arm, and pulled his arm back. Tadashi started to use his other hand to get out of this desperate situation, but she pushed down her legs onto that arm. She didn't show signs of stopping and was going to break his arm. "Ow! Ow!" he yelled, tapping the ground.

"Sano Tadashi has tapped out. Sakura wins this round," Tsuru-san announced. Some of the crew was in shock that she was able to defeat a man that was almost double her size.

"Next up is Nakagawa Kenji!" Sakura called out.

"I-I'm going to use a bokken," he hesitated.

"Alright," she picked up the wooden training katana, "Let's start then shall we?" Tsuru-san signaled to start and Keji just stood at the ready position. Is he gonna go on offense or defense? Sakura pondered. He started to circle around her and she followed, keeping her distance from his range. She pounced forward at him. All of a sudden Sakura jumped back, parrying the attack from Keji. He tried to attack me before I could land the attack! She smirked. "Nice attack, you've got more potential than 'Mr.Muscle' over there." She pointed at Tadashi with her bokken with a smile. "Kidding." Keji tried to attack Sakura while she was 'distracted'. As he pulled his arms above his head with the bokken, leaving his whole body vulnerable, she quickly turned and pointed the bokken at his neck below his chin. "Checkmate." 

Sakura continued to go down the list and fought her crew. Some people choose to opt-out of the duel after seeing how capable she was and how she stayed true to her words. She finally made it to the end of the list and one person was left: Miyata Hiroshi.

"I choose to use a spear." He immediately started to run towards her when Tsuru-san signaled to start. All of a sudden, he used Geppo to decrease the distance between them and to give him the height advantage. Sakura also used Geppo to level out the playing field. She struck her wooden spear. Hiroshi started to prepare to parry that attack, but suddenly she disappeared using Soru and only her spear hurled right at him. He smacked it away, looking around to see where she went. He halted. Almost instantly, he realized something and turned around.

The spear that he smacked away never hit the ground.

Before he could react, Sakura's bokken was aimed at his forehead, right between his eyebrows. "Sakura has also won the final round," Tsuru-san announced.

=~+~=

"We apologize for misjudging you Sakura-sama!" the entire crew bowed to apologize.

"No, it's alright, I was expecting people to disagree with me being their superior since I'm the troublemaker of the Marines," she remarked. "Well, I was going to eventually assess all of your skills so, in a way, I was killing two birds with one stone. I know it's a little early to declare this but, I have decided that my right-hand man will be Miyata Hiroshi." He stepped out from the crowd and bowed.

"I would be honored to be the right-hand man of such a Vice-Admiral but may I ask why?"

"There's no need to be so formal, you guys can just call me Sakura-san! Well, Hiroshi, you're powerful on your own, all you need is more training. You seem to have a desire to protect the crew and to fight for what's right. You also don't look down on others or yourself, and you know your strengths and your weaknesses," she assured. "You also seem more responsible than me so... anyway, let's prepare to set sail! It'll be our first patrol as me as your superior!"

[End of the short story Her New Family]