The Marine

Seeing a slab floating away from one of the ships, Bill focused his eyes and saw a wild looking red headed man.

‘Eldoraggo?’ Bill thought, only recognizing the man thanks to a trio of former pirates who had joined the Department years ago. Knowing the pirate had a Devil Fruit, when he opened his mouth and emitted a yellow aura, Bill took to the air.

-ZZZZ *HAAHHHH!*

The Devil Fruit of Eldoraggo was the ‘Shout Shout’ Fruit, using soundwaves he could create energy beams similar to lasers. But given that they were sound based, they were naturally easier to deflect, and with a humph of his own, Bill met the beam head on with a shout of his own.

[SEISMIC PUNCH!]

Directly punching the sound wave, the point of Bill’s knuckle flashed a white light, and the beam was dissipated through sheer force.

With half of Bill’s soul occupied he couldn’t utilize [Armament Haki], but that didn’t matter as he favored the supernatural abilities of [Observation Haki] to detect movements, read thoughts, mask his presence, and warp time anyways.

With his mindset on the day-to-day utility of [Observation Haki], the ability to [Nullify] Devil Fruit abilities had naturally taken a back seat. Even now, confident in his own natural strength Bill figured he didn’t need to [Nullify].

After dissipating the beam, he stayed in the air in front of New Haven.

Bill used [Moon Step] so masterfully that not many people in the world would be able to see his legs kicking, with hundreds of eyes on him, the Marines of his Department were inspired by their Commodore who seemed to be standing still in midair.

This inspiration was not shared by the pirates, whatever they were doing on their ships, and Eldoraggo looked at Bill with a fierce scowl from his lion’s maw, huffed with his sharp teeth showing, and charged again.

Having allowed the wild man to use his ability once had already been more than enough and seeing him charging again Bill reached behind his back and drew his war hammer.

Without saying a word, Bill judged the weapons weight, quickly adjusted his grip, and threw the piece so fast that a sonic boom was heard across the island and ships above.

Only a few people present could see the hammer as it moved so fast that the air turned liquid around it, and definitely Eldoraggo would have been skewered to death had one of those people not been the Flying Pirate himself.

But in the moment of the wild man’s death, moving at a speed that Bill had not known Shiki to have, the leader of the horde attacking New Haven intervened and with two twin blades he deflected the hammer to the side.

Jihahahaha!

While Shiki’s mad laughter could be heard for miles around, Nelson was running from one gunnery deck to the next.

Getting to his seventh gun deck, he found the Gunnery Crew looking up and focused on Bill, and seeing this he flew into a rage yelling:

“Blast it you foolish knaves!” Getting startled reactions, Nelson didn’t wait for them to respond and continued to berate them with reddened cheeks: “By the fires of hell if you don’t get those cannons pointed upwards then I’ll have you regretting the day you were born!”

“S..Sir!” one of the men saluted, and in a trembling voice quickly pointed out that the cannon was raised as high as it would go.

“You blithering fool!” Nelson spate as he spoke, and being a large man himself, towered over the gunnery officer as he berated him: “How will that cannon reach those targets?! Get it pointed up higher, NOW!”

With this said, Nelson turned to rush to the next gunnery deck, but was stopped a step short when the man stumbled that the shooting platform would break from recoil if they adjusted it higher.

And this was true, as the fortresses King Cannon platforms had not been designed for vertical shooting, but in Nelson’s opinion the man in front of him must have soft brains.

“You son of a gun dare to speak back?!!” he roared and continued: “If you don’t get that cannon facing upwards, you’d better be ready for it to face down when that bastard Shiki destroys this fortress!

And if that happens, and if I don’t see this station fire, you’d be better off going down with it! Have I made myself clear?!”

Getting a frightened ‘yes sir’ Nelson turned and one by one ran to the remaining gun decks.

As for Bill, looking up at the laughing Shiki who now wore a permanent scowl, he instantly noticed how the Flying Pirate had changed.

Green skin and green tinted yellow hair, bulging muscular arms with a pulsating neck, and even regrown legs, the man looked like a monster.

“Did ya think I wouldn’t find that spy you left on my island, eh?” Shiki asked loud enough to be heard by the surrounding area.

But Bill wouldn’t answer this, looking up at a man who now physically personified the monster that he was mentally had made Bill certain that they were well past talking.

Instead, looking past Shiki, Bill studied the floating ships and islands that were beginning to surround New Haven on all sides.

‘They aren’t all pirates’ was the first thing he thought, though it didn’t matter because the minute they resolved to attack Marines was the minute that they turned into criminals.

And for the islands, they were gigantic, and Bill actually feared that if he waited any longer Shiki could just drop them on him. Even if he personally could survive, he didn’t have that kind of strength needed to protect New Haven from two dozen islands flying at it.

So, looking back to Shiki, who was talking nonsense about a ‘Strong World’, Bill said with a serious tone:

[Time Warp!]

Slowing down time by half, Bill shot towards Shiki at a speed that to outside observers defied logic – even compared to the floating islands scattered across the midday sky.

One second, he was there – everyone could see him.

The next second he was in front of Shiki and launching him in the distance with a single punch.

But as Bill stopped slowing time, with Yoko and the Marines wildly cheering, he had a series look on his face.

Because in that fraction of a second Shiki had been able to react.

And if before when Bill’s fist bit into Shiki it felt like biting a soggy biscuit, now Bill’s fist felt like it had bitten hardtack.

Instantly deciding that the best course of action was to press his attack, Bill casually backhanded Eldoraggo hard enough to send the wild man flying off the floating slab and hurling down to the harbor below.

Not looking twice at him falling, Bill rushed to Shiki, and not slowing time delivered another series of blows calling out:

[Big Brawler!]

Each hit felt like he was punching a rugged piece of iron, and it was only after the first few swings until Shiki steadied himself and started sending slashes back with his twin blades.

[Cherry Slash Attack!] he roared with a face full of hate and rage.

Put on the defensive for the first time, Bill was secretly astounded by Shiki’s power.

Hadn’t it just been barely three months before when he had cut this man’s arms off?!

Though Bill didn’t have precognition, his eyesight was faultless and since speed was still on his side he dodged the blades left and right until Shiki’s attack ended.

Seeing his first named moved fail, Shiki sucked in and roared out: “COMMENCE BOMBARDMENT!”

About to look back, Bill heard Shiki start his next attack when he shouted: [Yellow Roar Whirlpool!]

Watching Bill fighting more and more fiercely, Yoko knew the safety of the island was up to her.

In her mind, the idea that Bill was invincible and been present from the time she was very little, and seeing now Bill wasn’t able to instantly defeat that pirate, she knew she couldn’t interfere to help him.

Until now though, she had been at a loss at what to do.

Of course, she could use Moon Step to reach the ships but even with her speed she figured it impossible to crush so many vessels at once.

Then she heard Shiki’s roar.

And then, she had an idea that got her excited.

Yoko did not have precognition; in fact, she had no conscious way to use Haki, and could not willfully use Haki for as long as Bill suppressed her spirit.

But what she did have was a mind that lent itself very well to battle, and hearing Shiki’s roar she immediately answered in a way that not even Bill could have done.

Rushing to the edge of the overlook, she shouted [Cloud Jump!] and jumping through the air she willed the [Compliance Tree] to extend both down and up.

In a split instant, as the first of the hundreds of ships began their aerial bombardment of New Haven, the sky was blotted out over the island by two giant green leaves!

Under the shelter of the martial tree that Yoko had fed the [Length Length] Fruit; pirates, Marines, and residents alike looked astonished at the miraculous sight.

But for Yoko, this wasn’t magical, it was only a means to an end, and after the [Compliance Tree] had sucked up thousands of cannonballs she willed it to shrink and threw it towards the furthest point on New Haven.

When it landed and embedded itself in the ground, she gave it a look, pointing behind her and a leaf extended towards the fortress.

All of this had happened in under twenty seconds, far too fast for any cannon crew to reload.

And seeing the leaf now extended in front of the fortress, Yoko yelled: “Get On! Jump! Now!” and was promptly listened to by over two hundred Special Operators who had been trained to follow orders.

Armed with 30-06 caliber Rivet Rifles, tactical axes, ropes, grenades, and other important kit, the men and women of the Procurement Department grit their teeth and charged into the fray.

Pleased by this, Yoko even saw several former Foxy Pirate members jump onto the extended leaf but was outraged when Foxy himself hadn’t done so.

Jumping back to the outlook in a speed as fast as she could go, she appeared to the wide-eyed Foxy and shouted: “You too, Split-Head!” and tossed him over the side, followed closely by Porche and Hamburg.

With nearly three hundred Marines now on the leaf, Yoko used her bare feet to control the Compliance Tree and growing like a giant beanstalk the Marines found themselves looking up at a portion of massive flying armada.

The flying ships were spread over a wide area but had more or less been at the same elevation. Undoubtably even Shiki had found it hard to extend his Devil Fruit over so much.

This had afforded Yoko the opportunity she needed and using her bare feet to order the Compliance Tree to not move she was the first over one of the ships railing.

She moved like the wind and like a storm overcame them.

Without her weapon she used fist and palm, crumpling one unfortunate person after another with such reckless abandon that the normal humans in those crews could not mentally register the speed of the carnage and submissively awaited their turns to die.

Perhaps Bill would have attempted to incapacitate these people while ordering surrender. Perhaps Ranse and Sasha would have killed a few to make a point.

But for Yoko, since these robbers and bullies came to kill, naturally they had to die.

Dispatching the entire crew on merchantman in a mere minute, gun shots could be heard as Special Operators equipped with Pulse Boots launched themselves onboard other ships.

Trained to work in teams of either four or sixteen, the nearly three hundred Special Operators had broken up into dozens of groups and with semi-automatic rifles punched their own bloody holes inside the invader’s force.

With both of her arms covered in sticky blood up to the elbows, Yoko’s coat was clean as she looked over the battle and then towards the last area where she saw Bill.

Unable to find him from her vantage point, she narrowed her eyes and got back to work.

Several miles away, the battle which Yoko couldn’t see was taking place.

[Slash Sharp!]

[Slash Calamity!]

Defending one flying blade strike after the next, Bill’s Coat of Justice was slashed but he hadn’t been bloodied yet.

His skin was tougher than steel and his unique mastery of [Life Return] had given him complete control over every drop of blood, every strand of hair, and every other molecule inside him that could be consider ‘his’.

And with fists that could crack mountains, it was nearly unbelievable to him that Shiki could still have strength left.

‘No!’ Bill thought, dodging over a sideways slash, and landing a terrifying right cross on the Flying Pirates chest.

‘He’s getting stronger!’

Thanks to the control over his body, Bill could feel the forces being exerted on him and could only come to this conclusion.

Not worried yet, he nonetheless decided to hit a little harder and dodging another trio of slashes he delivered a move he was sure Shiki would feel.

[Quake Kick!]

Kicking so fast it split the air itself, when Bill’s leg connected on Shiki’s stomach a brief flash of light could be seen caused by the air molecules being squished down so quickly that they exploded from the heat.

Hit with a force of this nature, Shiki didn’t immediately go flying off as Bill expected, but instead seemed to move in slow motion as the violent energies bounced around in his ‘evolved’ body.

But, after an illogical split second of slow motion, the effect was stark and spitting up mouthfuls of reddish green blood Shiki was hurled towards a floating mountain-capped island with Bill hot on his trail.

Going over another ship’s deck, by now the fighting on the lead had been going on for nearly fifteen minutes and over twenty enemy ships lay silent. More than half were made silent by Yoko alone.

But the shock of the Compliance Tree and her swift attack would not hold the invaders idle forever and by now the fighting was getting more and more fierce.

Thinking she just had to hurry, suddenly the Communication Snail in her Coat of Justice started beeping, and answering it, Nelson was on the other line.

“What, Nelson?!” she asked when the Snail took the form of the red-cheeked Commander.

Undeterred by her intractability, Nelson spoke in his own way when he said: “Very good Bell, but now the King Cannons are ready! Now gather the soldiers and fall back!”

Thinking that this was the first good thing Nelson had ever told her, Yoko smiled a toothy grin and replied: “Alright!”

Hanging up, she began to call for the groups of Marines to jump back on the leaf. Getting most of them to do so very quickly, some were in battles which required her help.

But it wasn’t long before they were ready to fall back and the invader ships who thought they had caught a break looked in confusion when the giant leaf withdrew.

Nelson: “Fire!”

Replacing the giant leaf, fifteen lines of ominous black smoke took its place.

And hell would follow with them.