The Marine

Stirring awake, Bill felt a sense of disorientation like he hadn’t felt since his first days waking up in this new world that he now called home.

Like then, he wasn’t sure about the passage of time but each time he’d fade out he would awaken slightly more aware, until eventually he could start to feel himself being held down with ten injection sites scattered up and down his body.

If the first thing he felt was his own mind returning, then the next thing was the absolute rush of whatever being delivered to him through those injections.

Like barren ground being doused with water, or like flowers when they finally feel the sun’s morning light, every cell inside of Bill’s body opened up and greedily absorbed the potent energy of whatever they had injected into him.

Coupled with this refreshing sense of life, Bill was hit with a wave of mindboggling pain wherever his body was restored and so using Life Return to it’s fullest he stemmed the flow of ambrosia and began the slow process of repairing his body inch by painful inch.

With shoulders that were demolished into powder, broken arms from his fingers to his elbows, legs that had been shattered into splinters, barely a piece of his body remained whole.

Even most of his blood vessels had burst!

But though his body was in worse condition that before, this wasn’t something he hadn’t experienced before and with the power of whatever life-saving fluid they had injected into him, Bill not only put his body back together but even greatly strengthened it.

Of course, there were considerations that made him not use the abundant energy to create an ‘indestructible’ skeleton, or ‘eternal’ veins.

After all, Bill knew full well that everything was a tradeoff, and he’d rather have a powerful but flexible skeleton over one where he hoped would never meet its match.

He’d rather have veins and muscles that were durable, elastic, and capable of even more growth rather than betting it all on the powerful fluid he was being injected with now.

More than anything though, Bill thought that if he had really attempted to make his body purely almighty, but failed and got hurt, he may never be able to heal himself!

For him, even if having an almighty body was the dream, he figured that it was better for him to actually earn it by growing his resilience over time with hard work and effort.

Like before, Bill still didn’t touch his brain too much, and besides rebuilding his busted eye from a cellular level, the so-called ‘wet ware’ inside his head was only slightly more resilient than a normal strong persons.

Well, only slightly stronger by already superhuman standards – every part of Bill’s body had long since surpassed that of a normal humans, and this included his ability to regulate the chemicals that caused fear, panic, joy, lust, and numerous other mental states.

For Bill, and for people like him, emotions always existed but their levels of emotions could be more easily managed by their willpower.

After an unknown period of time, he was ready to start breathing again and with a heave he sat up, breathed deep, and pulled the IV’s out of his body.

Still inside the dark cocoon of Aramaki’s Lotus Bulb, Bill didn’t panic but directly stood up, and in doing so the iron-like petals meant to protect him shredded away like paper.

Standing still for several moments, Bill was rushed with a torrent of sensory information, but while he could have easily worked through other senses going crazy, one thing that caused him to pause was that the vision in his shattered left was seeing in the infrared spectrum of light!

Bill obviously did not know the structure of an eyeball but having used his less damaged eye as the base, he thought he had recreated it completely.

But apparently not!

He stood there, naked and moving his hand back and forth over his left eye and could simultaneously see the regular, visible spectrum as well as the overlay of infrared information.

Detecting sources of heat radiating off the lights and plants, differences in the temperature of every surface, and other characteristics that are normally invisible to the human eye, took him some effort to remain calm.

Whatever he had done, Bill figured he somehow strengthened the photoreceptor wavelength that his eye could detect, and now standing there, he tried to adjust it.

This process took him a while, but eventually he was able to alter his left eye from seeing ‘normally’ to seeing in the infrared spectrum.

Huffing in aggravation, Bill looked around the room which looked like a woodland wonderland and knew that it was his father.

Sickened by the sudden realization that the energy source he had used to rebuild his body was that dreadful Elixir, Bill just tried not to think about it as he went ahead to search for something to cover himself up with.

Without having his Observation Haki, he couldn’t erase his presence and found it to be frustrating since he knew he needed to see the post battle situation.

With no clothing at hand, he ripped off the iron-like lotus petal and wrapped it around him like a bath towel, then left the hospital room.

Most of the people still taking refuge in the laboratory were either elderly or young mothers with newborns, and seeing Bill in his current near-naked condition made one group laugh and the other turn different shades of red.

With his current state breaking the ice, everyone was happy to see him, and deflecting one question after another, Bill made jokes about needing to get some clothes on and so kept moving.

Like this, it didn’t take him long to reach his personal chambers within the laboratory, see that someone else had been in there, probably Yoko he figured from the cloths strewn around the place, then change into his normal blue checkered suit.

One had to admit that there was wisdom in the saying ‘the cloths make the man’ because when Bill stepped out of his chambers dressed in his blue checkered suit and Coat of Justice, whereas before those who saw him approached him to talk, now the vast majority of the people admired him from a distance.

Walking briskly to the entrance of the laboratory, he stopped some Marines from interrupting him and headed on his way until he was finally out.

From the highest level of New Haven, he was afforded a wide view.

Though he didn’t show it on his face, as by now a somewhat large crowd had formed, seeing everything gone turned his guts into water.

“C… Commodore!” shouted one of the men in the crowd, and as if his shout gave the others permission to speak, the people began to call his name.

Some in the crowd began shouting requests and needs, and within just a few moments Bill was swamped by not only the burden of everything he had worked for being lost, but the burden of supporting these people who looked to him for answers.

Initially not making eye contact with anyone; several uniformed Marines, including Nelson and Toma, rushed to his sides and even began to use their bodies as a barricade between Bill and the crowd.

It was this action that pulled Bill back to reality, and raising his hand he shook his head to Nelson.

With this, the several Marines broke their line and turned sideways to look at him, and the crowd quieted to hear him speak.

And he said: “I’m sorry, I’ve just woken up and wanted to see the outcome of the attack…” Then pausing for what seemed like a long time, he continued: “… Commander Nelson, how long was I out?”

Answering without missing a beat, Nelson spoke loud enough to be heard by all those around: “It’s been 12 days since the attack” then he added somewhat slyly: “You’ve been in a coma all this time, I know I can speak for everyone here, it’s good to have you back Commodore.”

These words reminded the people, who had obviously been told of Bill’s deeds by the Marines, what he had been through and for that moment they forgot their own problems and started cheering:

‘Bill!’

‘He’s a Hero!’

‘That’s our Big Captain!’

‘Welcome back Commodore!’

‘Bill!’

Raising his hand to say something else, the man himself wore a troubled smile, but was immediately interrupted by a loud noise and several people jumping out of what could only be describe as a ‘[Flowercopter]’

The first in the line of people jumping out of helicopter made of stems and rotating flower petals was naturally Yoko, who tackling Bill with surprising force began to tear up and say: “Hey! it took you long enough!”

Behind her was most of the Marine teenagers and last but not least was his father.

Not having seen Aramaki since his Court Martial, as soon as Bill was done with Yoko he gave the older Ox a bear hug, which broadened smiles throughout the crowd.

At a time like this in front of so many people Bill would naturally not condemn the fact that his father had used the [Elixir of Life] on him against his will, and due to that, there would never be a good time to say it.

After breaking their embrace, Aramaki told Bill that he needed to follow him, and nodding his head to this, Bill told the crowd that they would celebrate that night.

Twelve days after the loss of so many defenders the people were still sad but no longer depressed and to his proclamation another round of cheers sounded out.

Giving one final wave to the crowd, Bill followed behind Aramaki and beside Nelson and when they made it into the small communications office, Bill spoke up first: “So, how’d the Execution go?”

Getting a ‘tsk’ from the side, Bill ignored Nelson and waited for Aramaki to speak, who said in a serious tone: “The world has changed over these last couple of weeks… and I think it’s only going to get worse.”

After saying this, Aramaki then told Bill a story that was of utter devastation.

Bill had known about the heavy Marine losses due to Nelson’s contacts at Marineford, but apparently those figures didn’t tell the whole story since the actions against Whitebeard were not the only major cause of casualties during the last year or so.

In fact, in raw numbers, the [Summit War] only caused about 70% of the losses taken by Marine forces during the that period of time.

For the rest?

‘Vultures’ was what Aramaki called them, though they had names such as [Big Mom], [Kaido], [Germa 66], and many others.

Of course, during the war organized violence against Marine assets was less in absolute terms, the problem was that once Kaido moved to secure some allied-government island, Marine forces had to be diverted and that allowed individual pirate crews a level of ‘freedom’ not seen in a generation.

That unchecked chaos had caused untold amounts of suffering across the world!

Oddly enough, Aramaki claimed, it seemed like the East Blue was the least affected sea in the entire world despite losing several archipelagos to the Beast Wave.

Having heard the general outlook of the situation facing the Marines, Bill still had two questions.

Firstly, what actually happened during the execution of Portgas D. Ace.

Secondly, what was Marineford’s response going to be given that they had suffered greatly, losing so many Marines it was hard to see how they could quickly recover.

Taking his time to answer, Aramaki finally did and said: “To start with, Fire Fist was executed. Whitebeards rescue attempt failed, and the old man himself was killed on the battlefield.”

“Well, that’s good at least.” Bill said, shaking his head.

“No, it’s far from good.” Aramaki corrected him quickly, and continued: “That battle destroyed Marineford, killed several thousand of our best people who were stationed there, but more than that, it showed us that the Warlords were not willing to fight.”

Aramaki may not have been there as was planned, but he had spoken to numerous people who were, and not holding anything back, he painted an apocalyptic battle where Whitebeard and his entire allied crew assaulted Marineford.

With enough firepower to even hold the Admirals back, everything was almost lost due to an unknown factor, one which surprised Bill.

“Straw Hat Luffy was shown to possess Conquerors Haki, and we failed to take him down.”

Hearing this, Bill didn’t need an explanation from his father.

In this world of superhumans, Haki was the great divider, and those who possessed the Haki of Conquerors were bound to be exceedingly powerful.

So, in a sense, the Marines had killed one old pirate who had that indomitable spirit – but then let a pirate who was entering his prime escape.

For sure, Bill figured, Marineford would have gladly exchanged Whitebeards life for Monkey D. Luffy’s, because even he who was not focus on the ‘Law and Order’ aspect of the Marines thought it a shame that he hadn’t done more back when he encountered the Straw Hat Crew.

Of course, Bill thought to himself, that if they met again in the future Straw Hat wouldn’t be so lucky.

As for the general Marine response to the Summit War, Aramaki said he wasn’t sure but heard that big things were about to change.

It was unsatisfying but Bill thought he had enough to deal with, any changes from Marineford would naturally be passed down to him later.

After that, the three spoke about the islands added around New Haven. Over the last week Aramaki had given the entire area a very quick look and told Bill that he had removed the Daft Green and altered SIQ Flowers.

It was understood by all three men that the islands selected by Shiki were not random.

Each of the twenty-odd floating islands of Merveille had their own unique properties with abundant resources, and except for the plant life, Aramaki was clearly unable to scan such a wide area.

It would probably take decades to fully survey all the lands, and thankfully they would have them since Aramaki had driven long stone-like roots through the fallen islands and into the seabed below.

Though the islands would take a long time to fully settle, Aramaki said, these roots would prevent water from getting underneath them and eroding them away.

Thankful for this, by now the conversation between them had gone on for over two hours, and seeing it was afternoon, Bill said he needed to see that the celebration got underway.

Standing up with a laugh, Aramaki slapped Bill on his shoulder, marveled that he had grown so tall, and told him not to worry about it.

Leaving the laboratory, a faint smell of Ozone entered Bill’s nose, and looking over he saw his dad extent his hands.

Instantly, and in all directions, flowers of every color sprouted from the grown.

Larger stems and roots appeared too, small at first, but growing into pineapples, oranges, and every other kind of fruit imaginable.

With picknick tables growing straight out of the ground, Bill saw that lamppost-like trees bloomed, and florescent white lights were intermixed with pinks, blues, reds, and greens, giving the area an especially festive appearance.

It didn’t take long for this to be seen by the people all around, and with a mix of ‘ooo’s’ and ‘ahhh’s’ suddenly Yoko came out of nowhere with the other teenagers, and holding up a giant piece of Sea King, she laughed saying: “Do I have perfect timing, or what?!”

With giant bonfires starting, the meat was roasted, the fruits were picked and made into fruit punches for both kids and adults, and as more and more people came, there seemed to be a never-ending supply.

Without a care in the world, Bill talking to his father said: “I wish mom could be here.” and laughing at this, Aramaki said: “She and your sisters are at Amazon Lilly, why don’t you go and see them?!

You can’t live there, but I doubt they’d just run you off – it’s in your blood after all! Rahahaha!”

Laughing too, and shaking his head, Bill didn’t think about the future right now, instead just wondered what would happen if he paid his mom a visit.

‘Well, if I can…’ he thought to himself, and with the entire population of New Haven, celebrated a great victory over one of the most dangerous pirates alive.

[Shiki the Golden Lion] was no more, and he, [William D. Ox], had seen to that.