The Marine

Looking at New Haven’s tall mountain peaks far on the horizon Bill couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

5 days, that’s all the time it took for Bonbori to cross the South Blue, to cross the Calm Belt, and to very nearly cross Paradise.

It was a journey that Bill had thought would take almost six months, reduced to almost nothing.

‘This is what the first people to fly across the Atlantic must have felt…’ Bill thought to himself.

Without having to rely on the winds or care about the choppiness of the water, Bill suddenly thought about how air travel had cut that journey across the Atlantic Ocean from 30 days down to about 7 hours.

This made him reconsider the viability of airplanes, a thought that hadn’t crossed his mind in some time.

But in any the case, Bonbori had gotten too close to New Haven for Bill’s comfort, and it didn’t align with his plan.

Figuring out what to actually do with the city had taken days of consideration since Bill had only been able to freely discuss it with Nelson, and talking between themselves, became clear that they would probably not be allowed to keep it.

After all, Gran Tesoro held roughly 20% of the world’s gold wealth, and even if Marineford didn’t step in, then the World Government surely would.

Add to the fact that the assassination of a Celestial Dragon had occurred – news of the attack should have already been spread by those who had escaped – there was no way that they would be able to ‘sneak’ the floating city to New Haven.

In one regard at least, Bill and Nelson were relieved since Revolutionary Army had claimed responsibility for the assassination in front of tens of thousands of people – and even if he didn’t know for sure yet, Bill figured that Sabo’s bounty would probably soon exceed 1,000,000,000 Beli.

But, with that said, neither of them would look a gift horse in the mouth, and so making it look believable how they got the city inside Paradise became top priority.

And, almost arriving at the same answer at the same time, they decided that if the story was already going to be unbelievable then they should go all the way.

So, how did they end up in possession of the city? And how did they have it in an entirely different ocean?

The answers for these questions would be something for the entire world to see, and thinking so, Bill shouted while pointing in a direction opposite of New Haven: “GO 4 HOURS THAT WAY, AND YOUR JOB IS DONE!”

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Hearing someone screaming bloody murder before bursting through his door, Jonathan gave his wife a look of helplessness before quickly taking his hands off her hips and turned to see his oldest subordinate stumble into his office:

“VICE ADMIRAL, VICE ADMIRAL! YOU HAVE TO COME QUICK!”

Besides being slightly irritated that he was interrupted from being intimate with his wife, Jonathan wasn’t mad, he knew his subordinates well enough to know that it must be a serious matter for them to act out.

And these days, Jonathan gravely thought, serious matters happened all too often.

“Calm down, Drake!” he started, and seeing that the Lieutenant Commander was still panicking, Jonathan grabbed the Marine by his shoulders and started yelling: “CALM DOWN, MAN! IS THE ISLAND SINKING?!”

“Y..ye…YES SIR! IT MAY BE!” Shouted the Lieutenant Commander, who surprised Jonathan and his wife, but continued quickly: “An Island Eater has been spotted, it’s almost directly offshore!”

When he said this, as if on cue, the sirens of Marine Base G-8 started blaring and wide-eyed, Jonathan looked back at his wife before running with Drake to the battlements to see what was going on.

Hearing dozens of hurried reports coming over [Communication Snails] from various Marine Gunner Officers, Jonathan ordered for all 108 cannons belonging to Base G-8 to be loaded at once and it was only after cresting the battlements did he finally see ‘it’.

And ‘it’ almost took his breath away.

Seeing the giant Island Eater from its side the veteran Vice Admiral quickly estimated that the Island Eater was merely 25 kilometers offshore.

And swallowing hard, Jonathan knew that distance was nothing for the animal which was itself was at least 20 kilometers long!

Naturally, after a lifetime spent in the Marines, Jonathan knew such leviathans existed but had never heard of any beasts of this scale in any place besides the Calm Belt.

Wondering if he could possibly stop such an animal – or at least alter its course – the veteran Vice Admiral held a steel gaze and was about to issue orders when suddenly the creature began to heave.

Bobbing up and down, causing tidal waves that would have sunk even the largest of Marine Battleships, thankfully it was just far enough away from the island where all it did was cause a show that the Marines there would never, ever, forget.

Heaving and heaving, waves splashing and splashing, the Marines watched wide-eyed to see that the giant coughed out what looked like a golden nugget from so far away.

Launching it high into the air, only Jonathan and a few others could clearly see what was happening at that distance, and what they saw made them gawk as much as the common soldiery.

A golden city flew out of the island eaters’ mouth, a kilometer up in the air at least, and a figure so small that only a very few could see it flew around and seemed to carry it on his back.

‘Is that a man?!’ thought Jonathan, open-mouthed and wondering just what he was watching.

For such fine details, besides those Marine Gunners who were looking through spyglasses, Jonathan was the only person there who could see a man in a white coat put the giant golden city on his back as he seemed to hover in the air for a moment.

After that moment, the island eater seemed to immediately go back under, almost looking afraid or sick, and the man seemed to control the city as it fell down into the water.

With the ocean positively roiling from all the movement, Jonathan dared not send any ships to investigate, and only stood there with his hands on the railing of the battlement as he watched the white-coat figure heft two enormous chains out of the water and start pulling the golden city away.

It was only after several minutes when he finally turned turn to Drake and his wife Jessica, and asked: “That… that floating city was Gran Tesoro…”

Then turning back to look at the floating city that was moving away from G-8, Jonathan spoke deeply: “Lieutenant Commander, ready two of our fastest Frigates to set sail!”

Nodding his head, Drake replied with a ‘Yes Sir’ and ran to do so, then, alone with his wife, Jessica asked: “What now?”

Still breathing heavily, Jonathan adjusted his Coat of Justice and said: “I need to report this at once… and without another word, started running to his office.”

Even though Vice Admiral Jonathan didn’t know about the events in the South Blue, he knew that Marineford had to know what they had seen.

No matter how unbelievable it seemed.

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For the next four days hundreds of people in Paradise reported seeing a massive floating golden city that was being pulled by a man in a white coat, and almost immediately it became world-wide news thanks to the WENP.

For [Big-News Morgans] this was the kind of scoop that he knew would sell papers, and being one of the Underworld Emperors, he knew about the presence of Gran Tesoro in Paradise almost as soon as Marineford had.

“Big News, what BIG NEWS!” laughed the Albatross-human, who then continued directing his journalists: “We need better pictures, these aren’t nearly good enough!”

Throwing aside a few grainy images of Gran Tesoro, Morgans then shouted to one of his newest members, a journalist simply known as [Deuce].

“Deuce, this job is for you! Consider it your Trial by Fire! I want details, the People want DETAILS!

The People want to know where the City of Gold is headed!
The People want to know who stole it!
The People want to know how that Sea King crossed the world in a week!

And the WENP is going to give them those answers!”

Then, pausing for a split second, Morgans laughed again and said: “No, forget that last part! We’ll report right away that Sea Kings can travel around the world in days! Using… underwater shortcuts!”

Often mixing truth with lies was the World Economy News Paper way, and as Big-News Morgans saw it, it was what the people wanted!

‘People want the news, only Moreso!’ was Morgans philosophy to journalism, and it was a major reason why Bill – who frequently read newspapers – disliked the WENP.

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But while the WENP was only trying to sell papers and saw a big opportunity to do so, more serious forces were grappling with the sudden appearance of Gran Tesoro in Paradise.

Sitting behind a large oaken desk, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki put down a Communication Snail and frowned.

Turning his attention to the Marine Officers in the room, Sakazuki said harshly: “If we can’t reach the city with Snails then dispatch a member of the Tweet-Tweet Division, and why haven’t I been handed the dossier for the Marines who were present on Gran Tesoro at the time of the attack?!”

It was well known to Marineford that the reports indicated that a single man wearing a white coat was pulling the floating city across Paradise, and logically, they had reason to believe that it could be a Marine.

But as for which Marine it could be, Sakazuki was left with his hands in his pockets because whoever it was, they were not on a Commission from Marineford to be there!

But sitting in his office, Kizaru was flipping through a document and snickering to himself, drawing the ire of Sakazuki and attention of Aramaki.

As for the other couple of Marines in the office, they were across the room sending out orders to the Tweet-Tweet Division to send a ‘Flying’ Zoan Marine over to Paradise.

As if oblivious to the other men’s stares, Kizaru snickered again and said sarcastically: “My my, Aramaki-san, you didn’t mention that Bill-kun was working on the Gran Tesoro… I wonde- “WHAT?!” shouted Aramaki, cutting Kizaru off.

By now Aramaki was already set in stone to being named one of the next Admirals and had even been given his epithet of ‘Green Bull’. In fact, he was at Marineford instead of Vallipo Archipelago now to receive the promotion!

So, hearing that his son had been implicated in the scandal that had seen a Celestial Dragon assassinated, he was naturally on edge and whipping green vines across the room he grabbed the documents out of Kizaru’s hands, causing the Glint-Glint Human to smirk.

With Sakazuki yelling at Kizaru in the background, Aramaki read through the files and his face fell.

The files themselves were from the Science Division, they contained the Work Order and the dispatched Marines sent from New Haven.

All of the files were properly submitted, but Aramaki couldn’t help but be afraid for his son.

Looking over to Sakazuki, Aramaki said heavily with eyes not meeting the other man’s: “Fleet Admiral, I don’t know what happened, but I swear my son would have nothing to do with the murder of a Celestial Dragon. He’s a member of the Science Division, over the course of his entire career, he’s stayed away from all of that!”

Naturally, none of the Marines present needed to be told what Aramaki meant by saying ‘all of that’.

For Sakazuki, that was irrelevant, and holding his hand out, he motioned Aramaki to give him the files, which he did so.

Aramaki was not weak, but being a Plant Human, he wasn’t in a position to grandstand in front of a Magma Man.

He could only hope that his relationship with the Fleet Admiral helped in this critical moment, because if Sakazuki ordered Bill’s arrest, Aramaki didn’t know what he would do.

“I don’t know any of these names…” started the Fleet Admiral before pausing and correcting himself: “hm… Nelson Royale, a member of the royal family of the Frauce Kingdom… I do know this man, he graduated from Marineford Academy and should be a Commodore, we’ll have to look into how he came to serve under the Science Division.”

As for the rest, Sakazuki was at a blank, even for Aramaki’s son, he only remembered the boy from the Court Martial case revolving Vice Admiral Onigumo.

Of course, this was simply by chance. Sakazuki had not been around during the incident with Vergo due to the impending Whitebeard War, and as for the 1 billion Beli Bounty for Shiki’s head, Bounties were the least of his concerns!

At this point, Bill had a famous father and a good reputation with the Marines he had worked directly with.

But in terms of Marineford, he was a relative unknown.

In fact, ironically, most of Bill’s recognition came as a byproduct of the recognition given to [Ranse] for the defense of the East Blue.

Finished flipping through the files, Sakazuki picked up his Communication Snail and ordered for all Marine documents related to Commodore [William ‘Blackstone Bill’ Ox] to be brought to him at once, and sitting down at his desk, he lit a big cigar.

Looking at Aramaki with menace, the Fleet Admiral said in a tone that brokered no objection: “So, tell me what I don’t know about your son.”

In that moment, almost as if a great part of his life’s work had been undone, Aramaki sighed because he knew he couldn’t hide his boy anymore.