The Marine

After her conflict with Ain, Yoko looked like she had eaten a rotten egg.

Without Haki she hadn’t any way to counter Ain’s Devil Fruit, and because she obviously couldn’t defeat the older woman without being touched, her loss was inevitable.

Spurred on by her defeat, and without knowing that for as long as Bill suppressed her Devil Fruit she would never be able to use Haki, she began to organize the Marines of GR-66 into a pirate-hunting force to not only dish out Justice, but to also train herself.

Told not to interfere, neither Catacombo or Ain tried to stop Yoko in her pirate hunts and Zephyr curiously watched how the scion of that impressive young man he met those years ago would react to the nest of corruption that was Sabaody Archipelago.

*************************************************************

Halfway around the world in the East Blue, Ranse woke up with a series of knocks on his bedroom door.

Getting out of bed quietly, so as not to wake Fia up, he smoothly put on his overalls, his jeans, his overshirt, his boots, his Coat of Justice, his revolver, and finally his cowboy hat, before tiptoeing out of the room.

“What’s the situation, Partner?” he asked Pearson who had an alarmed look on his face.

Talking fast, the former Ruluka Island soldier stammered out: “Rans.no -Captain McGrew! We have Marineford on the line, and I… and I think it’s the Fleet Admiral himself, you have to hurry!”

Hearing this, Ranse raised his eyebrow and put his hat on a little bit tighter before saying: “And they’re looking for me?”

“Yes, they asked for you by name, now come on, let me hurry and send you to your office!” responded Pearson impatiently, immediately opening up a hole on the wall which led directly to Ranse’s office.

Seeing his pal acting like this, Ranse just laughed and said, ‘no need’ and instead of stepping in Pearson’s portal, he started walking to his office.

Naturally it was not a good idea to keep Marineford waiting, Ranse had enough common sense to know that very well.

But what was worse, he figured, was to talk to Marineford without considering any facts at all – one major question was why they would be contacting him at all, instead of Bill.

‘Probably because of the papers…’ he thought as his long strides carried him through his own headquarters. After all that had happened during the Beast Wave he was proclaimed as the ‘Hero of the East Blue’ and was given the moniker of ‘Sheriff’.

And while he had a laugh when he first read those things, back a year and a half ago, he would have never guessed that his real heavy lifting was just starting.

After the attack of Shiki on New Haven, material support from the home island had obviously dried up overnight which had put Ranse in a huge predicament.

One had to understand that the Procurement Department had been constantly growing in the East Blue, word of mouth alone spread their industrious works to make them the most sought-after construction business on the sea.

And because of that, while did cash flow in, it put an unbelievable strain on their newly formed supply lines and infrastructure – forcing him to personally make final decisions in many cases where Bill wasn’t readily available.

After a year and a half things had settled down, operations had been streamlined and focusing on cleaning up the Gray Terminal in Goa Kingdom had yielded great results, though it undeniably skewed their recruitment.

Almost all from the lowest levels of society, the young men and women from Goa Kingdom were poor, they were rough, they were largely uneducated, and they didn’t have any great respect for authority.

But there was nothing that could be done about it, Ranse reasoned as he walked through the giant headquarters, they had built just on the opposite side of the mountains the surrounded the Gray Terminal.

They were simply the most ‘local’ population, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that now 70% of all new recruits to the Procurement Department came from Goa Kingdom alone.

They weren’t nearly as skilled as the soldiers they had recruited from Ruluka Island, but that was only natural since the men and women from Goa Kingdom weren’t soldiers to start with!

By the time Ranse had made it to his office, perhaps only 8 minutes had passed and that was enough for him to collect himself.

Sitting at his desk, he breathed heavily, picked up the Communication Snail and spoke: “Good mornin’ this Captain Ranse McGrew, Science Division, Procurement Department speaking.

What can I do you for, Fleet Admiral?”

After a short pause, the cigar that the snail had in it’s mouth shifted and replied: “Ranse McGrew, after reviewing your service history it has been decided that from now on you will address yourself as Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral.

For the sake of upholding Justice across the world you and a selected crew of your choice are to report to New Marineford within the next 6 months to receive your next commission.

Have I made myself clear?”

Hearing what the Fleet Admiral had said, Ranse was caught off guard for the first time in a long time and uncharacteristically missed his target when he asked in the form of a question: “Ah… gotcha partn… ah, but I mean, Sir… the work I’ve been doing in the East Blue is vital… so, ah, has it already been decided?”

As soon as he blurted out that nonsense response, Ranse wanted to slap himself.

During the last several years he had met with almost every major Royal family in the East Blue, he had attended the largest noble parties and most solemn ceremonies that the East Blue sea had to offer, and never once had he been flustered into making a fool out of himself.

But what could he do? Which Marine hadn’t heard about Admiral Akainu’s force of personality? And ‘knowing’ and ‘experiencing’ were not the same, as this short interaction had demonstrated.

Momentarily struck by Sakazuki’s tone, Ranse, who was capable of fighting island-level threats, fumbled, and with that fumble the conversation ended with: “The choice has already been made. Report to New Marineford within six months or I’ll come for you myself.”

Sitting at his desk thinking about what had just happened, Ranse barely noticed that the Communication Snail reverted to normal and started sleeping, while at New Marineford the new Fleet Admiral looked at the huge mess of papers all around him.

Knowing that Sengoku had dealt with much of the direct aftermath of the Summit War didn’t make him want to burn down his office any less.

Because while Sengoku may have taken responsibility and dealt with the Five Elders, he had left an entire forest fire in the background for Sakazuki to deal with.

The Marines had taken heavy losses on all fronts, lost men and women who had served [Justice] loyally for decades, good Marines whose experience could not be simply just ‘replaced’ with numbers.

Even after the war, thanks to the mass escape of prisoners from [Impel Down] they lost an untold number of ships, cargo, and over a dozen Marines Bases across Paradise.

But despite all of that, the Marines had won the [Summit War].

They had killed Whitebeard, ended the Pirate Kings bloodline, and even put an end to the ‘Golden Age’ of Piracy.

Through his own actions they had sown dissent into the Whitebeard Pirates and even now, Sakazuki knew, the Payback War was going on in full swing as the remnant powers of the Whitebeard Pirates battled against Blackbeard and his ill-gotten crew.

Sakazuki hoped they would just all kill each other, but he wouldn’t leave it to chance.

All pirates had to die, Justice had to be disseminated across the world and people could never be allowed to forget about the authority possessed by the World Government.

Truly, what made Sakazuki the most furious was that even before the [Summit War] had broken out pirates and rogue governments alike had sought out to attack the Marines and the interests of Justice.

‘Ants, like the annoying insects that they are, can never be satisfied by the stability we’ve brought to the world. Greedy and selfish, petty and violent, barbaric and unfit for this [New Age]!’

The war had changed everyone who participated in it, and Sakazuki was no different.

This was why he had to become the New Fleet Admiral, regardless of if Aokiji, or that immediate loss of power that would result in him leaving the Marines.

He needed the authority of Fleet Admiral because he planned a counterattack, a great counteroffensive that would shake the world, one which he would personally start.

For this great counteroffensive, one like the world had never seen before, he needed to retool [New Marineford] and would do so by taking the standout Marines from all branches of the navy and organize them into an elite force.

They would become the new officer corps of the [New Marineford], and while these preparations continued, Sakazuki had already ordered all technological islands in the World Government, including Egghead Island, to start production on newly designed warships and firearms.

With a new officer corps and new weaponry, New Marineford was still missing two crucial things.

First was indicated by a stack of personnel files on his desk.

With names like ‘Pink Rabbit’ [Gion], [Aramaki] Ox, [Momonga], and others, Sakazuki was looking to fill two of the most important positions for his planned counterattack – the new Admirals!

Looking through the names, Sakazuki sneered.

In his eyes, there was truly no single candidate that could replace either he or Aokiji in terms of pure power. Aramaki Ox was the only one who came moderately close, but he had stepped down from being a Vice Admiral to a Blue Sea Commodore decades ago – a move that Sakazuki despised.

Momentarily putting the rank of Admiral aside, Sakazuki continued to replenish the lower ranking officers. Personally making one call after the next, he would not allow any person to decline their promotions, or rather, their duties.

Because very soon, he would address the second most crucial thing that the Marines needed now.

In order to replace the numbers they had lost in the Lower Blues and Paradise he would announce something that had never been done before.

He would launch a World-Wide Draft.

*************************************************************

Splashing down with a huff, Bill swam underneath Gran Tesoro in a bubble suit.

At first, he hadn’t wanted to wear the cumbersome outfit, being able to breath underwater through his skin, he didn’t see the need for it.

But that was before he realized just how much filth the floating city discarded.

Uncountable in terms of weight, it was simply tons and tons and tons of discarded bones, food, sewage, wastewater, and garbage that all flowed underneath the city resulting in a slimy cloud that hovered all around the massive hull.

This cloud had an ecosystem of its own, Bill quickly found out, as the massive number of crabs, shrimps, small fishes, and dozens of other underwater critters feasted on the bits of food and filth that made up the cloud itself.

And feasting on those smaller critters were larger ones, sharks and squids to name a few, and the food chain went all the way up to the massive sea turtles that pulled the city through the ocean.

Marking the outside hull where he saw damage, Bill worked quickly but wasn’t hurried.

By now his Marines had done the majority of their work and except for a small number keeping watch above the others had already entered the city.

If he judged correctly, he would need at most 3 weeks to finish the repairs, then he'd be on his way back to New Haven and be able to do something about the Pure Gold he had stowed away on the Frontier Run.