The Marine

Narrowly avoiding tragedy, an island had been spotted after nearly a half a day after the Marines and Merveillians had been tossed off Shiki’s flying islands.

Compelled to give perch to many of the sick, elderly, and children who could not keep holding themselves up, Yoko had extended the [Compliance Tree] out to both side which resulted the large makeshift sled having huge heavy wings that forced Bill to exert himself even more.

Had it not been for the fact that he was forced to keep pace with the Merveillians, perhaps Bill could have stayed airborne for longer by going faster but holding up tons of weight represented by hundreds of people, a rough-cut timber sled, and a ‘magical’ quarterstaff had almost forced him to make a sea landing.

Thankfully though, that hadn’t been the case and when Bill had spotted a tiny spec far on the horizon he made a B-line towards it.

The single spec turned into an odd-shaped island that was small in size as far as Paradise islands went, flying closer Bill could somewhat make out a town and even a small harbor holding a dozen or more ships.

Satisfied that he had finally caught a break, as the flock of nearly 1500 refugees and Marines made their way closer Bill roared out: “Alright! Just a short distance now, Jump!”

When he said this, the several hundred Merveillians on the [Compliance Tree] feebly started gliding again, and Yoko withdrew the staff before throwing it down to the island below.

Pointing her finger upwards, a supernatural scene could be viewed across the island.

Extending its roots far down, the [Compliance Tree] then expanded to either side and shot upwards into the sky. As it did so the two leaves grew to enormous lengths, until the former quarterstaff was nearly as large as a young [Adam Tree].

Caught by the two leaves, feathered humans by the hundreds bounced slightly, sore from the long flight but otherwise safe, then after a short period they were lowered to a clearing not too far away from the town.

Landing just a moment after the last of the Merveillians had touched down, Bill let go of the sled railings and for the first time complimented her new weapon, thinking it amazing that a [Martial Tree] could have been turned into such a unique existence.

Looking around, Bill decided not to rush the people – thinking that in the worst-case scenario he would hunt a sea king for dinner – and for the next hour people either stood talking or sat down to rest.

They were all content until large amounts of noises in the bushes caused the entire group to go quiet and focus all at once.

Fighting with Shiki and using [Moon Step] for nearly half a day had caused Bill to be weary, but not so weary that he couldn’t go to the head of the crowd and meet with whoever was coming.

And when those people who were coming were all dressed in dirty linens while carrying muskets, axes, sabers, cutlasses, and bludgeons, he wasn’t so weary that he and his Marines could not lay waste to the unfortunate pirate host.

During the proceeding quick interrogations Bill had learned that the first intrepid souls had simply come to see the treasure that created the giant two leafed beanstalk, but once they discovered the giant crowd of people, they had reported back to their crews that instead of finding the giant stalk, what they found was a large group with hundreds of exotic women.

That was when most of the others joined in, the lure to score ‘easy’ booty too hard to pass up.

The ‘booty’ expected by the pirates was both literal and metaphorical, and that more than anything else had sealed their fates since Bill found sexual crimes to be the most wicked sort.

Besides the revelation on why they had come, Bill learned that the nearby town was called [Mock Town] and that it was a regional pirate haven. Having learned this information, he started considering what to do and finally decided that since he couldn’t possibly take an entire town prisoner at this point, he would just see to it that the worst of the offenders were dealt with.

So, late in the afternoon on the same day that the Marines and refugees were thrown off Merveille, Bill found himself with Toma and twenty other adult Marines standing in front of a crowd of some two hundred pirates, and raising his voice asked a series of questions.

“Who has the worst reputation here?” he asked, and despite getting no verbal answers, Bill read enough thoughts to immediately point out about twenty men.

Having proven to these selected personnel that he was able read thoughts, the Marines didn’t ask questions but immediately started pulling those selected, moving them out of sight, and summarily executing them.

During this final interrogation the primary executioner was Masterson, who had looked at Bill in both fear and awe upon discovering that the teenage Captain he had followed those years before had developed a skill so potentially insidious.

It was only after considering the current circumstances and shared history between them that Masterson decided to follow instructions to the letter – if Bill pointed a man out for death, Masterson would be the executioner and think nothing of it.

Not knowing that his [Head Instructor] had started heading down a wrong path, Bill ran down a list of questions and in the end, barely forty of the original attackers had survived the culling. Looking the ragtag bunch over, Bill gave them a choice.

They could either escape with their lives by running to the other end of the island, or they could be pressed into Marine service for a period of 8 years.

Their preferences were split down the middle and Bill kept his word by letting those who ran continue living. For the others, they were now confidants and gave him a clear understanding of the political situation on the island.

The condition of [Mock Town] was exactly why the [World Government] had so much support from moderately well-off islands.

The island was a brutal anarchy where life was cheap and might equaled right, and in such circumstances even Bill, who firmly believed in democratic systems of government, would rather choose monarchy over anarchy.

By the time the impromptu trial was over with it was almost nightfall and everyone was tired, deciding that they couldn’t bear to go any further, Bill had Yoko use the [Compliant Tree] to extend a leaf over the ground so at least they wouldn’t be bitten by crawling bugs during the night.

Throughout that hard night, many elderly people succumbed to exhaustion on top of their inherent sicknesses.

But during this dark period at least some light was shining on the company when it was discovered that the little red-headed girl, Xiao, was still holding on to the single IQ plant she had found a few days earlier.

Naturally, she didn’t want to part from her treasure, but Bill convinced her that his father could replicate any plant and that by giving the flower to him she would be saving everyone who was sick as long as they made it back home in time.

And ‘home’ was obviously [New Haven], Bill simply didn’t have anywhere else in mind to send the refugees and would not pawn the people off without assurances that he would probably not be able to find.

Besides the sickness, that night Bill assuaged Yoko’s pain about leaving Boss behind. The girl had been strong throughout the day but once night fell, her demeanor reverted back to the teenage girl that she was, and he promised her that they would not leave Boss behind for good. Only they had to help these people now.

After that rough night had passed, the excitement from the previous day turned into concern for the future, but Bill could neither be excited nor concerned. He had nearly 1500 hungry mouths to feed and on such a ticking clock he could only move forwards.

Together with his Marines and newly pressed recruits, a bold tactic was agreed upon where part of the Marines would stay with the people, part would go secure foodstuffs and store them on a few selected ships, and to distract the town, Bill would create a [Marine] flag and fly it over the tallest building near the center of town – which doubled as the most famous bar in town.

This was done early in the morning when most pirates were still tending hangovers, but eventually word got around and one group after another came, many of which tried to fight and were thoroughly beaten.

But these small timers were not who Bill was aiming for. Mock Town was a different sort of Pirate Town compared to Hannabal due to its characteristic of venerating captains with high level bounties and due to this a hierarchy was established.

After seeing Bill beat up a number of people, by noon a crowd of at least 800 pirate men and women had surround Bill on all sides but no one else attacked because it was assumed that the big wigs would come and settle him soon.

Waiting for some of their ‘big wig’ leaders to come out, Bill leaned against the building’s wall with his eyes shut and heard all sorts of voices.

‘This fool looking to die?’

‘Who the hell does he think he is?’

‘Boss what’re we waiting for!’

Such a large crowd was bound to attract attention, and just past noon some of a number of pirates with bounties ranging from 10 to 35m Beli started showing themselves.

There was Swashbucklin' Sally, Wanted Dead or Alive, 32m Beli.

Not to mention the tyrannical Mad Dog MacGillicutty, Wanted Dead or Alive, 40m Beli.

And who in the crowd wouldn’t recognize the Captain One-Eyed McGuffin, Cersei Blunderbuss, or even the old scallywag himself, Cap’n Steve?

Because Bill didn’t want to directly destroy the town, he waited and waited until either the crowd held nearly every pirate in the town, or the time had come to start moving the refugees onto the pre-arranged ‘requisitioned’ ships.

With his eyes still closed and thinking about where they were, the objectively beautiful Swashbucklin’ Sally started threatening him, and the idea struck Bill as to why Shiki had been so close to this place.

‘He’s recruiting more Division!’

It was known that Shiki had recruited many famous pirates inside the [East Blue], and instead of flying around, Bill thought that the [Flying Pirate] had probably done so by visiting one Pirate Haven after the next.

Opening his eyes when the female pirate’s thoughts were to draw her saber and cut him down, Bill moved faster than anyone in the crowd could comprehend.

With his left hand holding the back of the women’s collar, and his right hand holding the back of her trousers, Bill made an exaggerated motion when he launched the young women directly over the surrounding buildings and into the distance.

This action only momentarily stunned the crowd, but animated by indignation or something else, they found some sense of courage and rushed the big man standing in front of the Marine flag.

Seeing that there was no more stalling, Bill just huffed and again disappeared from the eyes of the riffraff.

With legs powerful enough to jump off the air itself while holding up tons of weight, and doing so for hours at a time, Bill zipped through the crowd of hundreds of pirates in only a few seconds.

It was in times like these that Bill reminded himself of just how powerful people in this world could become. Even at the age of 23, Bill was sure that simple numbers no longer mattered to him.

And appearing back beside the wall, Bill looked on at the hundreds of bodies laying on the ground and reminded himself that if it was possible for him, it would be possible for others.

Sighing to himself again, Bill figured this would be enough to halt even the fiercest pirates left in town, and jumping through the air he made his way back to the crowd and started escorting them to the harbor.

In the end, he was proven correct.

Although the crowd received quick glances from windows here and there, not a peep was made while they got onto the ships that had been confiscated.

Due to their lack of experienced manpower, Bill had selected three pirate Merchantmen as the vessels they were taking. Each ship was large enough to hold roughly 500 crewmembers, and although they were dumpy, Bill didn’t need them to last for very long.

Standing on the bow of a ship which had a naked lady as the figurehead, Bill’s flagship led the way.

“Commodore, I found some pretty good navigation tools but most importantly there was an Eternal Pose to Water 7!”

Looking over at the boy who came to speak with him, Bill smiled and said: “Good work, Roule, we’ll have to rely on you to bring us home.”

He was flattering the [Chore Boy], but not as much as an unacquainted person would suspect. [Roule Render] may have only been thirteen, but he was an absolute genius of Navigation and Cartography – in drawing maps he even surpassed the much more experienced Borodo.

With three ships, Bill had separated his personnel as best as he could. Of course, the new recruits stayed with him, but it wasn’t a mistake that Roule found himself taking Yoko’s traditional spot beside Bill.

Like this, the small convoy made its way to Water 7, without any Communication Snails to know about the outside it surprised Bill that they never passed a single Marine or merchant vessel.

On the third week of sailing, sitting in the captains’ quarters, a soft knock was heard on his door and after calling the person in, Bill found that it was Rapanui.

“Commodore.” The boy saluted, and when Bill replied: “At ease.” Rapanui continued: “The lookouts think something’s flying over us.”

Frowning to this, Bill nodded and got up instantly.

Walking onto the ships deck, a number of kids were running around playing hard with their mothers shouting for them to calm down and looking in the direction that Rapanui was pointing, Bill narrowed his eyes and focused.

Seeing a large brown sparrow, Bill focused on the thin man riding the bird and thought ‘I’ll be…’

It was someone that he hadn’t seen in over a decade, and despite having an account to settle with them, it was someone he didn’t wish to see now.

Clicking his tongue, he just thought in aggravation: ‘Itomimizu and Chuchun.’