The Marine

“And I should just hit it?”

Seeing Olga nod her head yes, Bill looked up and around, ignoring her ‘che-che-che’ taunts claiming that he was ‘afraid to do so’.

Obviously, he was indifferent to any danger affecting himself, having regular used tens of thousands of tons of pressure during his workouts made him quite adept at manipulating his body safely.  

However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about the crew.

Looking around, Bill wondered to himself where would be the best place to strike, but all he could see was the dome-like stomach, and besides intestines, there was nothing else of note.

‘Let’s start with a light tap, then we’ll go from there…’ was what he settled on, and with a notion he looked down at a fist covered in a light-gray sheen.

Bill [Armament Haki] was weak, so weak in fact that it didn’t make sense for him to be able to use it consciously. But his souls were unique, and though it was like an atrophied muscle, he was so used to projecting his spirit into reality that he was able to use it the same way that anyone else with the ability could.

And thankfully he could because it was needed.

With his raw strength, Bill could punch his way through Lord Bonbori’s flesh. He could use his hands like knives and, given his small size by comparison, he could exit the Island Eater probably without it even knowing he cut it open.

But that wasn’t what he needed. He needed the Island Eater to get an upset stomach and throw them up.

That’s where his Armament Haki came in.

Though it was weaker than he’d like it to be, he didn’t need to suppress any devil fruit abilities, nor strengthen his own power, he only needed to be able to affect a wider area.

With the backdrop of sailors tightening the furled sailed, and with the inside of the ship a swarm of activity as the Marines were nailing down everything, Bill gently jumped off the deck of the Frontier Run, before blasting upwards.

Those sailors on the deck stopped working, and looking up through the darkness they first heard a dull ‘boom’ and then saw the rough outline of round crater form.

Then, they and everything else inside the Island Eater heard a wail, and holding her ears, Olga cried “Ho-hoo-hooo?! Holy Moly! Bill! Lord Bonbori is crying! He’s saying how much his stomach hurts!”

Looking down back at the ship, Bill heard what Olga said through the wails of the monster and thought with a rare, stupefied expression: ‘SHE CAN UNDERSTAND IT?!’

As Bill was about to lose his mind over the revelation that Olga could somehow understand Lord Bonbori, Yoko found herself considering what seemed to be a very serious matter.

Spinning the shrunken [Compliance Tree] on her hand she was in her treehouse palace and sitting on top of a ‘chair’ of vines, she looked down at Roule who was redrawing his map of [Monkey Island] adding ‘contour lines’ that he had just recently learned about.

In a corner, a little bit further away from where Roule was drawing his maps, there was Akisu who was perfecting what he called the [Multi-Tasking Turbo Trousers].

These ‘Trousers’ looked like cargo pants but had a number of gadgets like…

Extendable hands (which had the tendency to pull the pants down to the ankles when used), a multi-tool Swiss Army Knife (which had the tendency to cut the pants up when extracted), a built-in umbrella (which always seemed to open outwards, and then had the tendency to collapse down), and finally the voice-activated flashlight (which turned on from an improper place, and for which Yoko had given Akisu a beating the first time he ‘flashed’ her).

In fact, in regard to those ‘trousers’, Yoko thought that their only solid point was the ‘inflatable cushion’ which she considered quite good for Akisu because it could protect him both from a fall or from being hit and flung far away.

As for the others in her crew, she didn’t know exactly where they were, but had a good idea.

Rapanui and Carrot were probably together fighting EvoBeasts in the Martial Forest, Adele was probably on New Haven working with Carol – those two had become best friends and both had taken interests in medicine, wanting to become Doctors wanting to find the so-called ‘All-Cure’.

The rest of her crew, be it the Howler Monkey Minks, the former human Chore Boys, or even the red gorilla Scarlet; they were almost certainly still on [I.N.F.E.R.N.O Haven] either training or doing various tasks.

Naturally strong-willed, decisive, and independent, Yoko had the makings of a leader from the time she was very young.

Back then she always played what she wanted to play and didn’t feel the need to go along with the group. Most times, that meant the other kids came to her to play, but when they didn’t? she didn’t care!

Set in her ways, until her father was killed by pirates, she had lived a fun and carefree life – ready to play fair with others as long as she was giving orders, she mainly only did what she wanted to do.

This had made her on the one hand independent, but on the other hand, selfish.

Even after her father was killed, and when she proclaimed herself the be the protector of the island, she was still selfish and monopolized time with Boss.

And while no one blamed her, as she was a small child of 7 years old when her father was murdered, her inclination to be the islands protector turned more and more harsh as she would bully the other kids whenever it suited her – even going so far as to threaten them with Boss.

Even though she was never serious about those threats, looking back, she now could see how in time her inclination to be a protector may have eventually turned her into a tyrant.

That fate was changed when Bill finally came back to the island.

Yoko loved Bill deeply, and how could she not?

At the time she didn’t realize it, but looking back now, him taking a 9-year-old willful girl with him out to sea was an incredible burden. But he had done so, and not only had he never treated her like a burden, but he had also given her an example to live by.

Because of him, Yoko understood what a good leader… no, not just a leader, she corrected herself, but what a good person was. It was also because of him that she didn’t forget that there were good people in this world too.

In a quick motion, Yoko stuck the pencil-sized [Compliance Tree] in her hair to make a bun, and then reached for the locket that Bill had given her years before.

[To Thine Own Self Be True].

Reading that line for the millionth time, she couldn’t help but get somewhat agitated.

It had been almost five months since Bill had left her in the [New Haven], and while she had gotten over it, and even did as he bid her to do by attending classes and not skipping, she could not get over the fact that he hadn’t called her yesterday.

That was because yesterday was her 16th birthday!

Knowing Bill as much as she did, she wasn’t mad that he didn’t call her via Communication Snail, she was anxious.

Bill had never forgotten to call her, and it was just a fact that he called her to talk more than he called even Grandpa Aramaki, or anyone else for that matter!

And the more she thought about it, the more her heart was telling her to act.

Never one to be plagued by doubts, the only thing she was sitting there for was deliberating on how she would act.

By now, she figured, Bill and the others would have gotten to the South Blue, and naturally, she couldn’t swim.

Her [Moon Step] was very good, but not nearly good enough for her to cross the [Grand Line] and the [Calm Belt] with, so that only left her with her ship, the small-sized frigate she named the [Nimbus].

Her ship was just that, her ship. It was assigned to her by Bill after being refitted and even fortified by Aramaki, and thanks to all of that she knew it was currently sitting in New Haven’s natural harbor.

Rubbing her fingers around the heart shaped locket, Yoko sat like that for almost 30 minutes before jumping off her ‘chair’ and calling over to the two boys, she said: “Hey, let’s go patrol around for a little bit!”

“Patrol around?” asked Akisu, half looking up from a pair of dismantled Turbo Trousers.

While he asked, Roule, who was almost as willful as Yoko, looked up from his maps and said with a no-nonsense tone: “Unless you want to sneak out, I don’t think Captain Zima is going to let us go out to sea. You know how dangerous it’s been lately.” “Yeah, it’s even been in the papers!” echoed Akisu, referring to the increased Pirate activity happening all around the world after the Summit War.

“What’s more, it’s not worth sneaking out…” Roule continued, knowing Yoko well enough after being around her for a couple of years at this point: “We’ll get in trouble and be banned from even coming here to [Monkey Island], besides, once the others are done their training, we’ll probably start going out to sea again anyways.”

Strictly speaking, all the former Chore Boys and Howler Monkey Minks had been trained well enough to be regular Marines but since Yoko was delegated to attending classes, they also were put on [Inferno Haven] to become stronger.

The effects were obvious, too, because though there had never been any ‘rankings’ done in the Procurement Department, it wouldn’t be a boast to call the Nimbus the 3rd strongest Crew in their company!

Yoko still may not be the match of Sasha or Ranse, being only just turned 16 as she was, but she also wasn’t greatly weaker than them in anything besides Haki.

Well, she was greatly weaker than Ranse if he had Fia to back him up… but Yoko didn’t count that because that would be a two versus one scenario.

Besides that, her Lieutenants could hold their own, too.

In the same vein as herself, Rapanui and Carrot matched up well against Masterson and Toma – even if they couldn’t win outright, they were strong enough to not easily lose.

Adele had eaten the ‘Honey Badger’ Devil Fruit and with Boss they were tenacious if nothing else.

Now, it had to be known that Yoko’s Crew didn’t have any [Beetleborgs], the Procurement Departments elite Special Operators, and the reason for that was simple.

What actually made Yoko’s current crew so powerful was the fact that she had 60 Howler Monkey Minks who followed her – and each and every one of them had trained themselves enough to master the powerful Mink [Sulong] form.

Even putting aside Scarlet, the giant red gorilla who was Shiki’s #3 fighter, the Howler Monkey Mink Marines were a force that were akin to a wave that only the most powerful of people could endure.

To master this form, they had trained like fanatics.

At first it was to please her, which she still thought was both weird and yet completely natural at the same time, but then it was to outdo the Monkey Troopers and Del Kong who had also sworn their loyalty to her.

Yoko’s ship wasn’t large, but her ape and monkey followers were many – making each Crew position on the Nimbus a real premium.

With all of this running through her mind, Yoko just shrugged off Roule’s comment and said: “The others aren’t training with the new East Blue Recruits, and besides, I was able to get the week off because of my birthday.

We’ll just go patrolling around a little bit and come back after a few days. Now there’s not much Big Sis can say about that, is there?”

Just shrugging his shoulders, Roule responded: “We’ll see about that.” And to her next question, which was, “So are you two coming?” the two teenagers replied “Yes” without needing to be bid to do so.

“Great! I figure we’ll take a crew of 100, after all, we can’t make it seem like we’re going to fight!

Here you take this list!”

Jumping over to Akisu in a flash Yoko handed him a specific list of 4 Del Kong and 21 Monkey Troopers that she planned on taking, and he realized that despite her words, these individuals were the most powerful of the monkey subjects that followed her.

After that, she told Roule to get together the Communication Snails and provisions needed for a few weeks ‘just to be safe’, and then headed to convince Sasha to let them go.

Going over scenario after scenario in her head, when Yoko found Sasha, she saw that she was together with Ricky, and that made things a whole lot easier.

“What was hard to understand about Bill’s order that you’re not to leave the island?” was Sasha’s first response, and had it not been for the presence of Ricky, Yoko knew that it would have ended there.

But since he was there, and he was always taking her and the other former Chore Boys side, Yoko countered Sasha’s claim that she wasn’t “really” leaving the island, only wanted to “sail” around the nearby waters during her birthday vacation.

Never using the words ‘patrol’ or anything else around the swordswoman, Yoko was indeed saved when Ricky finally spoke up on her behalf.

“Just let’em go. She’s already 16 for crying out loud and keeping her on the island doesn’t make sense when you think about what we were doing at her age!”

This was Ricky’s main reason for ‘always’ taking Yoko’s side, because when he and the others were just 15, they were already in the Marines, and at least for Ranse and Fia, they were already put on active-duty ships.

Added to the fact that she could already beat him during their sparing made Ricky believe that Bill was just being a ‘mother hen’ when it came to the girl, and more than that, he thought it was detrimental to her future.

Being persuaded by Ricky more than Yoko’s pleading, Sasha told her to be back inside 8 days, and getting the go-ahead, Yoko went around to collect her scattered crew.

By that afternoon she had done so, and after being asked if they were going to wait until the morning to set sail, she said: “Nah, we’ll head out now!” Then, with a grin, she ordered Roule and the Helmsman: “We’re heading due south.”

While Yoko began sailing ‘South’, with some Monkey Marines swinging over the ratlines, others singing their sea shanties, and Boss buzzing through the air, Bill and the Frontier Run had made their way out of Lord Bonbori – which had been a scene of utter chaos and a miracle that the ship hadn’t been smashed – and by the next morning finally caught sight of his immediate destination.

Watching as they slowly entered the harbor of Base SB-T3, Bill ordered his men to start preparing the prisoners.

Base SB-CT3 was the South Blue’s 3rd Marine Cadet Training branch, and though not nearly the size of Vallipo, it was a well-fortified division that they had happened to be near when they escaped the Island Eaters belly.

Though he planned to do so soon, dealing with immediate problems, Bill hadn’t called Yoko for her birthday, and figured that he would do so in a couple more days.

Between having a third of his crew injured, hauling around 90 mostly injured prisoners, interrogating Olga on her ability to talk to the Island Eater, doing repairs, and finally come up with a solution for the Pure Gold, there hadn’t been enough time in the day for him to get around to sitting in his office.

But that would all change soon, he believed.

After all, if there was one thing Bill was great at, it was hard work and delegating tasks.

Going through the red tape at the local South Blue Marine base took time, but eventually he was able to put Mad Treasure and his killers behind bars, leaving behind the injured Marines from the burnt Battleship to act as witnesses.

Those lucky survivors would be reassigned after their testimonies, but for Bill and his crew, their destination lay at the so-called ‘Moving Country of Dreams’, or otherwise known as, [Gran Tesoro].

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

Three days later, merely two days after the reports of Mad Treasure's arrest was circulated through the South Blue Marine Corps, a shadow hovered over the brutally injured madman.

With a cracked skull and broken body, Mad Treasure could barely see even after being injected with a serum designed to get answers even from the dead.

“What happened?” asked the masked figure without pity.

Looking up through hazy eyes, Mad Treasure was all covered in sweat, and just barely whispered: “m.y…trea.sure…mar.ine…comm.o.dore…B.ill…”

Seeing that the prisoner could say no more, the masked figure snapped their fingers and bubbles appeared on the heads of every pirate in the room.

The next day, Marine doctors came to find that their prisoners had all died in their sleep during the night, but the Base Commander ordered there to be no alarm bells raised.