The Marine

Despite it already getting dark, seeing the arrested captain from six years before forced Bill to want to observe some more. After all, regardless of the man’s innocence back then he had definitely not been related to Shiki.

Standing in a shadowy corner of the bar, Bill watched as Hollandaise poured drink after drink, adept in his movements, but also somewhat shaken when a few notable pirates came to be served.

“Aye, what can I get for ya m.mateys?” he said, speaking much more clearly than he had years before but with a slight tremble in his voice.

There were six pirates who had come in front of them, and Bill recognized them as members of the ‘Simon Pirates’.

Though their leader ‘Simon’ was not with them there was the large hammerhead Fish-Man Gad the “Whirling Tide”, his three women, along with two normal sized human men called "Crimson Lotus" Zabal and "Blue-Winged” Din.

Each of these pirates had bounties of 30m Beli, which made them notable characters in the East Blue, but more than that, each man had an epithet which signified that they were known even in [Marineford].

Bill watched as Hollandaise poured their drinks with a nearly toothless smile, and when the pirates left, he waited another couple minutes before making his move.

With Bill’s level of Haki, he wasn’t worried about being discovered by anyone except Shiki, and even though he could sense the relative strengths of the hundreds of pirates in the bar, he wasn’t sure if Shiki could avoid his detection or not.

Considering this, he softly made his way behind the bar – making sure not to touch a hair on a single person’s head – before snatching Hollandaise back with a speed that would have broken the older man’s spine had he not prevented it.

Standing behind a stack of beer barrels, Bill had his big hand over the older man’s mouth and after motioning for him to not yell, slowly removed it.

“Lad?” questioned Hollandaise looking upwards, cutting Bill off from speaking.

“Imagine seeing you here...” replied Bill, momentarily forgetting that in his loose shirt and ripped Amigo Pirate trousers, he looked like nothing more than a pirate.

But this realization only hit him when Hollandaise said ruefully: “So you’s become a pirate… I was hopen I’d never have to see the day” and before Bill could interject, the older man shook his head and continued: “But lad, why join up with Shiki? The mans a monster and you could have gone wid any number of ofer crews…”

Seeing the real sorrow in Hollandaise’s eyes threw Bill for a loop. They had only known each other for a few days, but not only was he remembered, the [Wanted] man also seemed to remember conversations they had back then.

“Listen” said Bill, now cutting off Hollandaise before continuing: “I’m still a Marine. A Marine Commodore. I’m here in disguise due to the attacks in the East Blue.

Do you know what’s happening down there?”

Looking relieved and then shrugging slightly Hollandaise replied that he had heard things from the bar, but besides that, a worker of his station wouldn’t know anything.

After that, the two spoke for several minutes, and with Bill using [Thought Reading] he believed that Hollandaise was more or less a trustworthy person who had been delt a raw hand. Broaching the subject of the escape, Bill offered Hollandaise to come with him.

To his surprise though, while the almost toothless man said that he couldn’t go himself, he knew a number of workers – all people who had been kidnapped – who would absolutely love to escape if it were possible.

Pressing why he couldn’t join them, Hollandaise simply answered: “I’z a [Wanted] man. Even though I’z innocent, I’z can’t go back down to da sea or I’z get arrested again.”

Shaking his head Bill told him that he wouldn’t be arrested and that his crime for stealing a ship would be forgiven if he helped these people escape, but still, the older man said no and reminded Bill that he wasn’t actually [Wanted] for stealing a ship, but because of a ‘1,000-year-old little girl’ who he had run into those years ago.

It took several back and forths for Bill to finally convince Hollandaise to come, even giving his word that he would not allow injustice in his case.

By now they had spoken for over an hour, it was dark outside, and thinking he needed to go the last thing he asked was where a couple thousand people could be hidden over the course of a day.

Thankfully, being vital to the operations of the bar, Hollandaise knew which warehouses would be used and given that he also wanted to escape with hundreds of workers, made it relatively easy for them to hide the townspeople without being caught.

Nodding along, the additional people didn’t matter that much to Bill. He would tie ships together if he had to, and so the last thing he told Hollandaise before leaving was to gather up enough sails and sew them together to act as parachutes.

With the scouting done, Bill rushed back to the town and met briefly with Masterson and Toma – who were also helping to get the people ready to leave – and then headed back to the shipwreck.

Not burdened by being potentially identified at night, with a sonic boom Bill took off at a speed which dwarfed his previous efforts and quickly made his way across the floating islands until he was seeing the dim lights of the [Iron Wardens] moving back and forth.

Nearing closer it seemed the beast attacks and resumed, albeit to a lesser degree, and the first thing he did was to clear the area.

Moving like a hurricane, Bill drew the war hammer from his waist and overcame one monster after another. In many cases he moved faster than the monstrous animals could react, but in every case, he only used one swing, obliterating the creatures thoroughly.

Flinging corpses into the forest after each hit, when he was done, he didn’t think twice about the Marines huddled behind ditches and barricades and simply hollered: “For now, all clear!” before moving inside the crashed submarine.

On his return there were no great cheers or celebrations, everyone was too tired for that, but a squad of Special Operators stood in the control room and saluted him.

Even though he could tell a lot from the scene outside, he asked how things were holding up and was answered with a weary report.

Apparently, the beasts hadn’t waited for long after the death of the local overlord and it was almost solely thanks to Adelle and the [Iron Wardens] that the submarine hadn’t been overrun.

Of course, their rifles could hurt the beasts, but except for the 50cal autocannons on the flying machines it was impossible for bullets to stop the monsters dead in their tracks.

Using teams of marksmen to aim for eyes, noses, gills, and whatever other sensitive organs, the bulk of the killing had been reduced to a grueling close-quarters melee with spears and makeshift polearms as the weapons of choice.

Nodding to this explanation, Bill decided he would reward the teenage girl, who at fifteen should technically still be a Chore Boy – if not for various other factors that resulted in her current rank.

But now was not the time for it, and quickly ordering all abled bodied Marines to gather, Bill told them all about what he had found that day, and their current objective.

“For tonight” he finished by saying “I’ll stand watch, and everyone gets plenty of sleep. In the morning we’ll pack up as much gear as I can carry and head over to the village.”

The next three days would be hard even for him, but that was fine because one key thing that Shiki hadn’t taken account of. That was, Bill decided to partially bury the submarine, and as long as the [Mind] stayed operational, they would have a way to track [Merveille] no matter where it flew.

That night was spent between putting together a makeshift vehicle and sitting on top of the submarine with a pile of stones. Throwing the stones whenever he sensed auras in the bushes, Bill worried about Yoko but had his hands tied.

The command room showed that there wasn’t any loss of signals from her group but leaving her in a monster-infested forest at night was hard for him to do.

Like this daybreak quickly came and spending an hour or so afterwards to partially bury the submarine wreckage he woke his people up and activated the [Iron Wardens].

Carrying someone using [Moon Step] was multiple times more difficult than using it individually. Even for Bill, who was perhaps the most skilled user of the [Moon Step] technique in the world, getting a couple dozen people off the ground was not easy.

So, given this reality, how was he to move over a thousand villagers from Merveille village to the harbor on Merveille’s main island in just two days?

The answer was somewhat simple, but somewhat ingenious.

Rotating his shoulders and shaking his legs, Bill watched as the thirty plus Marines loaded themselves in a large makeshift sled. The sled was about the size of a school bus, but despite its weight, Bill figured with a running start he could use its momentum to his advantage.

“Everyone ready?!” he called out, and getting a number of nervous “Yes, Sir’s” he just laughed and said: “Alright! Hold on tight!”

With these words, Bill took up the sleds handlebars and despite taking off slowly, he quickly sped up until he was the fastest rickshaw runner to have ever worked in that dangerous occupation.

With the Marines in the sled blasted by hard winds, they automatically huddled to the floor and so did not see when the large sled pulled slowly off the ground.

“IF ONLY I HAD A RED NOSE! HAHA!” Bill yelled jokingly once he was sure his plan would work, but for the terrified Marines inside the sled, they either didn’t hear him or didn’t care about anything at that moment.

Even for a person of Bill’s strength and speed, lifting so much weight off the ground in a stable way had been a serious challenge. However, now airborne and moving at great speeds, using [Moon Step] had become much easier.

Dodging around some large freakish birds, Bill made sure the sled stayed level but zigzagged hither and tither until he was eventually home free.

It took slightly longer since he wasn’t willing to really let loose but eventually the Marines arrived at the village, landing somewhat roughly but otherwise just fine.

“EW, What is that SMELL!??” shouted Adelle, holding her nose, and making a sick face.

Finding it amusing, Bill still explained that the village was surrounded by [Daft Green] trees and while it smelled bad, at least they wouldn’t be subjected to further monster attacks.

With that explained, the Marines started to move systematically off to the side of the village – moving the few Marines too wounded to walk in simple stretchers – but otherwise just staying out of sight while the word of escape was being spread around.

Seeing them to relative safety, Bill picked up the sled again and went towards where he suspected Yoko to be, and to his surprise found the teenage girl surrounded sitting on what could only be called a throne by dozens of monkeys and scores more in the bush.

Landing down without any attempt to conceal himself, he looked around and then glared at Yoko who was gawking over at him.

She was dressed more or less the same as she had been, but now was decorated with flower necklaces and wristbands as she had leisurely relaxed on twisted vines. Her hair was tied up into a bun, which Bill had never seen her wear, but more than anything he sensed that the stick in her hair was extraordinarily dangerous.

No sooner than he had landed, he sensed a golden monkey rush at him, carrying two pairs of nunchakus of all things.

Spinning the weapons in a blur, Bill almost rolled his but before he gave the creature a backhand which would undoubtedly obliterate it, he heard Yoko cry desperately: “Don’t hurt him!”

Now actually rolling his eyes and, putting two and two together, Bill himself moved in a blur – slapping one pair of nunchakus, grabbing the monkey by the shoulder, and then tossing the creature far into the forest behind him.

“Bill!” Yoko cried in the human tongue, but then realizing something, she quickly began to ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ towards the monstrous monkeys all surrounding her.

The monkey Minks started to do the same and finding it comical, Bill said: “Hanuman, didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on her?! What the heck’s going on here?”

With the older monkey Mink called out, and giving an embarrassed smile, Yoko laughed and jumped off the vines. Running over to Bill, she first gave him a hug and then proceeded to tell him all about what had happened after they had been separated.

“Let me get this straight.” Said he after listening to what she had to say.

“You became the leader of this forest, found a [Devil Fruit], used that [Devil Fruit] to create a quarterstaff that can extend who-knows-how-far, and have been sitting around eating fruits and sampling meats from around the island?”

Nodding in excited agreement, Yoko then pulled the stick out of her hair and willed it to extend. Now holding on to a full-sized quarter staff, she swirled it around and then made it extend further and further until it was longer than the trees were tall.

Finishing her display with an “exactly!” Bill couldn’t help but to be surprised.

If she had done all of this in one single day, maybe he really had been holding her back. Heck, given a decade she may really be ‘equal to the heavens.’

He wouldn’t tell her this though, and shaking his head, he laughed but then told her that it was time to leave.

“But I can’t leave my people!” she said offended at the suggestion.

But clearly, for Bill, having Boss around was already one too many monstrous animals, so he told her flatly that they couldn’t come – only offering that he would be returning to the islands later.

When she was still obstinate, he pulled a trump card and mentioned the beetle who was still at Shiki’s headquarters, and then waited as she somewhat tearfully and somewhat arrogantly told the assembled monkeys that she had to go ‘for now’.

“And remember my children!” she spoke in the monkey’s language: “The octopi meat was the best, but don’t hunt them to extinction!”

 After that, she told the sore Rafiki that he had to stay to protect the others, and then was ready to leave with Bill on the sled.

Unlike with the human Marines, when Bill took off the Minks and Yoko were whooping and laughing as if they were on a rollercoaster, and hearing this, he laughed too before putting some more power into it.

That day if someone was to closely observe the distance between the floating islands of [Merveille] they would have seen a large man pulling a buss sized sled through the air at incredible speed.

And after finally arriving back at the village, if Shiki had been more wary of the Marine’s disguised as Amigo Pirates, he would have seen the tell-tale signs of a mass migration of people.

As for Bill, that night he made sure to get some sleep. Knowing that the next two days were bound to be more eventful than the previous two day been.