The Marine

Pulling alongside [Mad Treasures] steel ship 35 Marines had arranged themselves on deck, armed with their bolt action rifles and hatchets.

Ready to be a part of the operation, they were at first halted by Bill.

Not one to try and take everything under singular control, in these tight spaces he knew there was no need to have any sailor under him be put in harm’s way.

They weren’t attacking a large city nor where there any enemy present his equal in might. First, they were just investigating a single ship and so he would naturally be the tip of the spear for such a job.

Jumping through the air and landing on board a wrecked ship deck, Bill was almost awed by the fact that there was still so much treasure lying around everywhere.

For a ship that had been tossed around and set on fire it was odd just to see gold coins, emerald necklaces, ruby bracelets, diamond rings, ornate crowns of all kinds, and even swords with jeweled encrusted hilts.

But there they were, and reaching down he picked up a gold coin, looked briefly at it, and wondered where the thing had come from because whatever the case was, he was sure it was solid gold.

Shaking his head side to side, he moved like a shadow and searched the inside of the ship.

The interior took on an appearance like a ship from WW1, there were watertight bulkheads – which no doubt had saved the ship from flooding during the battle – and even a coal furnace like what was used on the [M.S.S. Salamander].

There was also a pump mechanism which counteracted the flooding after Mad Treasure had plugged up the holes with his chains, because even though the lower levels of the ship were wet and stunk like stomach acid, they weren’t underwater like Bill would have imagined.

Taking only a few minutes to scour the interior of the ship, Bill finally got to the Captains Quarters.

The office itself was as well fortified as any Bill had ever seen, but with his strength he broke the iron bulkhead with a simple push, before almost being blasted by a shotgun-like door trap which pointed up from the deck below.

The trap was laid perfectly and almost any thief would have had their legs blown off, but for he – who was faster than a bullet – it was just a novelty.

Walking into the Captains Quarters, Bill found what looked like a large treasure vault.

With a wide-open area in the middle of the room, and with lockboxes on the sides of the wall, Bill thought that there must have been 200m Beli alone in solid gold coins and jewelry, the value of the weapons scattered around could easily double that figure once they were appraised.

And appraised they would be.

After the destruction of New Haven, and with the delayed payout for Shiki’s 1b Beli bounty, Bill was yet again in a situation where money was scarce.

Or rather now, he had ‘been’ in a situation where money was scarce, because he estimated the value of movable wealth on ‘Mad Treasures’ ship to be at minimum 300m Beli, not including the weaponry or whatever else they found in the criminals lockboxes.

After ensuring that there were no people in the Captains Quarters, the last thing Bill did was to look around for traps.

After triggering three traps, all of which were nasty ones which used poison of some type, he ripped open a lockbox that smelled faintly of O-zone and found an almost-gold round apple which had a corkscrew stem and stereotypical swirls all over it.

Looking at it’s designs, Bill was somewhat surprised to have never seen the Devil Fruit in the illustrated books he had read.

Which meant, that probably, he was holding a Logia.

His quick reasoning for this was simply that out of all the Devil Fruits in existence, besides the Mythical Zoan, information pertaining to the Logia were the highest held secrets.

Putting the fruit in his inner coat pocket, Bill had the urge to search through more of the lockboxes but since he didn’t smell anything – not even faintly – he decided to hurry after Mad Treasure and rescue Borodo.

Relatively sure the ship was secured and upon leaving the office he gave the ‘all’s clear’ order to his men and continued to say: “The ship is deserted, recover anything of value you see!”

Then thinking about the Devil Fruit in his pocket, he said for good measure: “If you run across any Devil Fruit, do not immediately eat it. You will have preferred treatment in being selected for it once we determine what power the Fruit contains.”

Had Bill said those words to a group of Marines from anywhere except the East Blue, where [Devil Fruits] were so rare that many people didn’t believe in them, the sailors may have openly objected.

It was well-known that the discoverer of a Devil Fruit had first dibs, whether to eat it or sell it for a bonus, this was one thing that even the World Government couldn’t fight against.

After all, imposing a strict rule that the Marine who finds a Devil Fruit had to give it up would cause mutiny or desertion in many situations.

And in short, the World Government and Marines would rather to keep the men and women who ate the Devil Fruits to continue working for them more than they would like to hunt them down for breaking a ‘rule’.

But for these East Blue new recruits, Bill’s words seemed reasonable enough and after throwing hooks over they pulled the two ships side by side.

Finally, using wooden ladders, they ascended to the enemy ships deck and, like Bill, were surprised to see piles of treasure laying all around.

While the Marines went to work ‘recovering’ Mad Treasures wealth, Bill went to his office to gather Acier.

Evidently, Olga had been crying but Bill didn’t ask when he told the chemist that it was time to go.

Nodding his head, Acier asked Olga if she wait for him just a little longer, and wiping her eyes she responded: “I’m a 200-year-old women, don’t you think I know how to wait?”

Answering his daughter with a “ah, yes, I’m sure you do.” Acier turned to Bill and said he was ready.

Carrying the fat chemist on his back, Bill jumped a couple hundred feet in the air, over the stomach acid and to the shore before softly landing.

Looking around, Acier was the first to talk, lamenting that Alchemi Island was dead, Bill couldn’t disagree.

Though vegetation would never ‘die’ due to the effects of [Pure Gold], the 3rd stomach bubbled acid and those acidic bubbles had popped over the land, now after so many years they had succeeded in digesting almost everything besides the stone and metallic structures.

Walking a few steps, they could easily see a large stone stairway like before, but with nobody guarding it, Acier sighed, and said: “Commodore, this is it.”

Nodding his head, Bill didn’t respond to the man verbally.

He had trust that Borodo would be fine, his cybernetic arm could pack a punch and even fire off six laser beams, but after experiencing so much death in his time in the navy, Bill couldn’t be content until his people were all by his side.

Not knowing what Bill was thinking, Acier continued: “I... uh… I wanted to thank you again. Not only for saving my life, but for reuniting me with her… Olga’s been through a lot over the years and I… I just really am grateful.”

Nodding his head, this time Bill did speak, and responding with a deep voice said: “I’m sorry the two of you had to go through what you did, but trust me, it’s almost over now.”

By the time he finished, they were walking up the steps, and Acier – not out of breath due to his strong legs – answered: “I do trust you, and that’s why… that’s why… I want you to have the [Pure Gold]!”

Shaking his head, Bill was about to tell him that he never wanted the so-called treasure, but hearing something from just inside the building, he rushed up the stairs – leaving only a gust of wind as a reply to Acier’s offer.

Entering the building through a long tunnel, Bill saw 15 bodies lying here and there, all pierced by numerous arrows.

From what Nelson had reported to him, Mad Treasure should have had about 50 remaining men after leaving behind his Lieutenants to ambush him at the temple.

Since there was nobody on the ship, that could only mean that they had all come onshore.

‘To think that the lunatic left 30% of his remaining crew to die like this…’ Bill thought and moving over to one of the very few people still living, he broke the arrows sticking out of her back and adjusted the woman to lay in just a way where she may live.

There were a couple others slightly groaning, and Bill did what he could for them even though it wasn’t much.

Naturally, if they survived all of these people would be arrested for murder, and probably hanged given the scale of destruction on the Marine Battleship that he had witnessed, but trying to do his best, Bill told himself that he wasn’t an executioner.

He was a soldier, and that meant sometimes he had to kill, but he never took life lightly.

By the time Bill moved the third survivor, Acier caught up and watching him run over to a bit of wall, Bill saw the chemist reach into a hole and then heard a click.

“That’s it, the trap is disarmed.” Said the man, not barely looking at the dead.

Nodding, Bill told Acier to ‘lead the way’ and the fat chemist did just that.

Sometimes he pressed on a solid part of the wall, but as they moved forward, passing more and more dead bodies, Acier disarmed one trap after another until they finally heard shouting.

“Hurry the fuck up! Do you want to die?!” Bill heard Mad Treasures voice, but before he thought anything, he heard a familiar voice say in desperation: “This is a musical trap! I don’t know what song is meant to be played here, you’ve been searching for this score, don’t you have any ideas?!”

“Gah! Do you think I could have known this place would be in the body of an Island Eater?!” “Well, I don’t know but without the right song the entire room will collapse on us!”

Holding his hand to stop Acier from coming closer, Bill moved as quietly as he could – using the stealth technique he saw Fia use – and ended up right at the entrance of the room.

Glancing inside he saw an organ piano, with Borodo sitting on it.

His flight jacket was torn in some places but besides the red-explosive collar, which Bill recognized instantly from Nelsons description, the Navigator seemed fine.

Wondering if he should make his move or wait a bit, Bill’s hand was forced when he heard Mad Treasure yell manically: “If you can’t do it, why should I keep you alive?!” and in one motion, as Mad Treasure reached into his pocket, Bill sped forward faster than sound and appeared behind the lunatic, and in a blink of an eye, he ‘clapped’ the villains head on both sides, instantly cracking his skull and shaking his brain.

Though the man collapsed as soon as Bill hit him, rushing with urgency, Bill rifled through Mad Treasures pockets, found the key to the explosive collar, and quickly undid the binding on Borodo’s neck.

Throwing the collar away fast there was no explosion or anything else, only Borodo and Bill standing there looking at each other for a long moment, until Borodo burst into laughter.

When he started laughing, Bill did too, and for a while they just stood there like that.

“He didn’t see that coming…” said Bill with a wry smile, to which Borodo replied laughing: “I didn’t see it! Damnit if you can move like that what took you so long!”

Not directly answering, but it wasn’t a real ‘question’ Bill just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders: “Well, sorry I’m late. Now let’s go. Our ship is down here too. The rest of the crew is as good as they can be, but let’s not keep them waiting.”

Agreeing with that, Borodo turned to leave with Bill, but Acier stood in the doorway.

Hitting another hidden panel in the wall, the chemist pulled a lever and exposed a hidden stairwell.

“Commodore, I have something I need to show you, it won’t take long I assure you.” said Acier, but Bill was already shaking his head ‘no’.

Changing tactics before Bill could speak the words, Acier continued hurriedly: “I’m not asking you to take it for yourself. Only, that with it you may be able to ensure Olga’s safety.

Bill, the piece of Pure Gold that she carries is only a small portion of the amount I created, but she can’t lose it, or her illness will return, and it will undoubtedly kill her.”

Not knowing much about medicine, Bill had never even heard of the [South Blue Emperor Fever] and so could only take Acier’s word that it was incurable.

Sighing to himself, it seemed like fate wanted him to take the ‘ultimate’ treasure, and walking down a couple flights of steps, the trio walked into a dusty laboratory.

There were full bookshelves everywhere, along with one examination table after another which had either empty vials or rare minerals that Bill could recognize.

“Did you work with a team?” asked he as they walked on, but shaking his head no, Acier explained: “My inspiration would come and go! It’s like the muse of all those old stories.”

This was the first time Bill had heard the term ‘muse’ in this new world, but he just took it for granted and eventually they reached another door.

This door was wooden, and inside there was no laboratory but just a normal-looking house.

Turning a corner, to what Bill figured was the den, there it was.

Suspended in water, glowing bright gold, Borodo gawked, Acier winced, and Bill just looked impassively.

The [Pure Gold] itself was small, maybe the size of a fist.

But that fist-sized object, he knew, could cause unending war and chaos.

Thinking about this, and not exactly knowing what he should do with it, for the first time in a long time Bill wondered what his next step should be.

“Commodore…” started Borodo, snapping Bill out of his own thoughts.

“This is… are… are we going to report this back to headquarters?”

The ‘headquarters’ Borodo was talking about was obviously Egghead Island, the Headquarters of the Science Division, and hearing this, Bill had an idea.

He didn’t know whether it was a long shot or not, but thanks to his friends comment, he came up with an action plan.

First, they would get out of the belly of this beast. Then, he had some old friends to call.

200 years ago, the [South Blue Emperor Fever] may have been incurable, but was that still the case now?

He wondered.