The Marine

Having rescued four out of the ten missing Marines, Bill could only grimace at yet more casualties.

He had long understood that losses in a world filled with superpowers and monsters was impossible to avoid, but had trained hard over the last two years, just so his people would never again be subject to the level of loses they had taken on Hannabal Island and Foodvalten.

Due to his mastery of Life Return he had never taken a single day off and had worked his Special Operators nearly as hard.

His personal strength was remarkable, the Marines under him were well trained, well equipped, and well supported, but even so, he couldn’t stop the ‘Flying Pirate’ from effectively killing a squad of his men right from under his nose.

Checking the locations of one straggler after another had given Bill a pretty good view of the ‘Hidden Land in the Clouds’. These islands were simply amazing, he thought, but knew there was a dark history lurking just below the surface.

For every scenic waterfall or picturesque lake, for every beautiful snow-tipped mountain or cherry blossom tree out there in the distance, there were ruined temples, ruined palaces, and even entire towns found desolate of all human life.

Something bad had happened here, and thinking this, he landed at the crash site with a wounded female Marine in his arms.

This woman, a native of Jail Island, was the last of the single pings found with his location devices. The rest were either dead or had lost their clothing, either way, there was nothing more he could do.

Walking inside the submarine with her in his arms, he laid her on one of the medical cots before checking the bridge display one more time.

There were two groups, one with four pings and the other with over thirty, and he figured he knew exactly who each of them was.

First, he thought that Yoko had saved the bulk of the Minks who went overboard with her during the fall. Knowing that she had trained Moon Step to a proficient level and, recalling the rough direction that everyone had been thrown from the falling submarine, he knew it was likely that she had saved many of them.

If that had been the case, then the others were obviously his lost Instructors and probably two of the teenagers Yoko had snuck onboard.

Both groups were on different islands, but his choice was obvious. Yoko would be fine, if she was in real danger, he would naturally know it as he still held a part of her enhanced soul in check.

As he left the crash site, speeding off into the air towards the four pings, Yoko was brought to a unique portion of the Trooper Monkey’s forest.

Followed on all sides by hundreds of Monkey Mink, Monkey Troopers, and Del Kong’s she was being led to an area by the golden Monkey Trooper, but suddenly stopped, feeling a sense of danger ahead.

Looking around Yoko’s actions brought the entire army to a halt, but she was quickly assured that they were near their destination.

Speaking in ‘o-o ah-ahs’ the golden Monkey Trooper could naturally not speak human language, but Yoko and the Minks could clearly understand him when he said: “Mistress, your wise vigilance knows no bounds! But this danger that you’re sensing is exactly the area that your most humble servants must traverse to gain their [Oaths].”

Thinking that the word ‘Oaths’ was wrong, Yoko told Rafiki to explain what he meant, and by demonstration, the golden Trooper Monkey drew out his pair of nunchakus.

Looking at his nunchakus dearly, he said: “Mistress, every young [Monkey Cadet] must go and find their own weapon and make their [Oaths].

Only by making such a vow can a [Monkey Cadet] emerge as a [Monkey Trooper].”

Then in a blur of activity Rafiki spun his nunchakus around himself in a dazzling motion but finished as quickly as he started with the pair of weapons tucked back in a rough leather belt.

“And this is the way you find your weapons, what, are they just lying on the ground?” Giving a laugh to this, Yoko noticed that Rafiki wasn’t laughing, and so stopped and waited for his answer.

“Sometimes on the ground, Noble Mistress…” He started by saying, then finished with: “but most of the time, they are found in the trees.”

Nodding her head, Yoko then began to ask Rafiki about the weapons found in the area. Despite telling her it was improper to do so, Rafiki did tell her as much as he could remember, and by the time he was done they had come to a clear-cut border within the forest.

Looking across the empty expanse, what seemed to be a normal continuation of the forest to the naked eye, caused her senses to go in overdrive.

Focusing on the trees, the grasses, the vines, and the other vegetation, Yoko saw the shocking truth.

The trees grew like great iron pillars, the grass was like tiny needles sticking up out of the ground and the vines were barbed wire. Leaves grew down like blades of various lengths and ferns were like great curved scythes.

“Everything’s a weapon?” she asked no one in particular but was answered with an affirmative ‘yes’ and then a follow up.

“Mistress, your [Oath] is there too. Can’t you feel it waiting for you?”

Hearing the golden Monkey Trooper say this a few of the Monkey Minks tried to speak up, but Yoko raised her hand to silence them.

“An Oath weapon, huh?

Well, you monkey’s here do have some strange traditions, but what the heck? I’ll give it a try! Now, you said anything over there is a weapon?”

Getting a head nod from Rafiki, Yoko pressed by asking: “What about the trees, are even the trees weapons?”

“Yes Mistress.” Started the golden Monkey Trooper, before adding: “But the trees in this forest do not last long. Our forefathers say that since they want to grow fast, but are bound to bear a great burden, over time they cannot support themselves and so collapse...”

Despite never being called the smartest girl in New Haven, Yoko had spent enough time with Bill to see the metaphor behind this story.

Indicating that she understood, Yoko didn’t look back but said loud enough for the monkey army to hear: “Here I go then!” and she walked forwards into the forest of blades, head up and confident.

By the time that Yoko was headed into the forest, Bill was nearing the location that his displays had shown.

Flying over a snowy mountain, the first thing that came into view was an expansive lake surrounded by greenery. Landing on the ground for a moment, Bill looked at the horizon and saw a small town or perhaps a large village.

No matter which, this sign of life was both exciting and confusing for the Marine Commodore.

On one hand, he was happy to see life like this on an island where he had seen one scene of destruction after another, but on the other hand, it was confusing how this small town could possibly remain untouched when there were hordes of monsters so nearby.

With a huff, he decided that standing there wasn’t going to solve anything and so erasing his presence he launched himself back into.

Nearing closer and closer more details came into view.

Firstly, there was a kind of ‘no mans land’ surrounding the village that took the form of a line of weirdly green trees that emitted a pungent odor that he could smell from miles away.

They had thick trunks but tiny patches of leaves, and maybe he would have spent more time looking at them if the run-down state of the small town had not taken his immediate attention.

To call the town a ‘dump’ would have been wrong, the buildings looked mostly tidy but very old and with cracks all along walls, roofs, and getting even nearer he could tell that some of the stone walkways had even been torn out, replaced only by brown dirt.

But like with the trees before, Bill’s eyes were turned away from the state of decaying buildings and focused on the inhabitants he saw walking hither and tither.

Despite having feathers growing down the length of their arms, to him the most notable feature was how malnourished they all looked.

Old women and young girls of various ages, each of them with bones showing through their skins. They looked happy enough, but now hovering over the town he could make out dark splotches and sores marking some of their bodies.

Just as he was about to land, a strange movement from the side of his eye forced him to stop, and then he saw the largest Communication Snail he had ever seen.

The creature seemed to be monitoring the townspeople as whenever it passed the faces of the old women would light up into bright smiles. The young children were harder to force however, and so Bill watched as the old women quickly shuffled them around out of view.

Narrowing his eyes at the sight, Bill flew over the town a few more times with his presence erased until he figured he had the layout mapped out clearly inside his mind.

With that done, his first action was to find the four pings, and after stealthily looking into a few detached homes, he finally found Carrot and Rapanui sitting in a living room as a small girl and her mom argued back and forth down the hall.

Masterson and Toma were not there and deciding to stay hidden Bill didn’t interrupt them and instead listened to the heart of the argument.

After a period of several minutes, he had learned much from this heated exchange between mother and daughter. Apparently, the girl had been found and saved by the group but bringing them back to her house had brought a significant amount of danger.

More than the danger though was apparently a sickness that the girl’s grandmother had contracted, and starved as she was, her condition naturally only became worse and worse.

The little girl yelled that the men she had brought home would go and find food, and that she had found the IQ Plant to heal her grandma, but the mom in tears hit the child and said that if she had thought about the danger that she had brought on their family then she wouldn’t have been so strong willed.

Watching this scene with his presence erased, Bill didn’t immediately move to stop the mother when she hit the girl.

He could tell that these people were under pressures that made them not themselves, and undoubtedly this mother had burdens that no one in the family could understand.

After he felt that he’d seen enough, Bill slunk out of the house – not even noticed by Carrots strong nose – and relaxing his Haki he knocked three times on the door.

From inside the house, he heard a commotion followed by silence and followed by commotion again as by now Carrot must have recognized who it was.

Still, it was the weary mother who answered the door.

Even if he didn’t try to do so, standing nine feet tall and well-muscled, Bill struck an imposing figure.

Looking up at him speechless and obviously frightened, Bill smiled and spoke first: “Madam, my name is [Commodore William Ox]. I am to believe that a few of my people are here in this house and that you have earlier met my Instructors. May I come in?”

Gulping nervously, but now not so afraid, the middle-aged lady moved aside and bending over he entered the house through the front door.

Sitting on the floor since the furniture was too weak to hold his weight, Bill first thanked the woman and the girl for helping his people, and then started asking questions about the state of the town and island.

Thankfully, the mother knew about the Marines and that knowledge seemed to be just enough to get her to open up to him.

Living under the thumb of a pirate for over twenty years had been a nightmare.

“The worst thing is…” the mother said in tears, holding her daughter close: “The younger generation doesn’t know any other kind of life. Many of them even join Shiki’s crew because at least then they can eat, and for us left here, we’re slowly getting weaker with each year that goes by.”

Hearing her say this, Bill glanced sideways at Carrot – but especially at Rapanui – who had hatred in their eyes over the injustice of it all.

Most of the key members of the Procurement Department had previous ill-fate with pirates and that resulting hatred was almost always just below the surface.

He didn’t need to use [Thought Reading] to know that his woman was telling the truth, but still, asking the tough questions he asked her: “You said most of the younger generation works with Shiki for food but when I arrived here, I didn’t see any young adults, why is that?

Also, what is this sickness you’ve mentioned? I’ve never heard of [Daft Green Trees].”

Now, not crying like before, the middle-aged mother told Bill that some of the young adults would from time to time resolve themselves to go hunting, but passing the barrier almost always led to death.

“The [Daft Trees] are what protect this town from the monsters outside, but they also slowly poison us all… without the [IQ Plant] my mother and all the elderly will…”

Nodding that he understood, he naturally asked the woman about the [IQ Plant], Bill was hardened to learn that this singular cure for this poison had been monopolized by Shiki when he had taken over the islands.

The final question that Bill had for the woman was how many people lived on the island, to which she didn’t know, but said that their village had been run down to a mere couple thousand at most.

“Shiki’s headquarters would have more, but I really can’t say how many who left us are still alive…” she said sorrowfully, and for Bill his mission to stop Shiki had now become the more immediate mission to rescue the people here.

“Madam, if I could secure a way off the island, and somehow got enough [IQ Plant] to heal those who needed it, would the people here leave with me?”

Looking at the Marine wide-eyed, the woman’s face deepened and then nodded asking: “But how could we do that? We’re monitored constantly and no one can defy Shiki.”

Already thinking up a scheme, Bill told the women that he had dozens of Marines nearby and equipment to make their escapes possible.

With Carrot and Rapanui in the background saying that they’d ‘save everyone’, Bill just said: “I’ll need a few days, and in the meantime, can you spread the word around?”

He would have to go and collect Yoko, and then scope out Shiki’s headquarters while avoiding the Flying Pirate himself. Bill’s [Presence Erasing] was an amazing ability, but after testing it on Aramaki, he knew it would not work against sufficiently strong foes.

They spoke a little bit more, mostly with Bill asking about the layout of Shiki’s Headquarters, when hearing light footsteps coming near the door, Bill stood up and disappeared from the views of everyone in the room.

Watching, he saw a red headed young woman walk in the house, look at Carrot and Rapanui, and over the excited calls of the little girl yelling ‘Ever!’ ask.

“Mom, who are these people?”