The Marine

If Acier and Olga had been surprised that Bill still had the [Pure Gold] after everything that had happened, then Bill was surprised by how willing the father and daughter were to relinquish any ownership over the immortal metal.

After all, even if Olga only had the mind of a ‘mature’ 6-year-old and even if Acier had lost his ‘best self’ after living with the dinosaurs for 200 years, it was impossible for them not to understand the value of Pure Gold.

But as the saying went; ‘every coin has two sides’ and ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’, and as the two had suffered so much due to the Pure Gold, Bill didn’t press too hard when they both said that they wanted nothing to do with it.

So, after a mere three days being inside Lord Bonbori’s stomach, and after having patched up as much as they possibly could on Gran Tesoro – pulling hundreds of people out of the rubble – the process of dealing with the destroyed ships had to be started.

Naturally, it was thanks to Bill and the Science Division Marines that Gran Tesoro could be mended as fast as it was.

Seen as authority figures from both tourists and former debt slaves alike, the Marines had been able to organize effectively enough to not only keep criminality low but to also use the vast population as a labor source, using the cities own tools and equipment to chop up and strap down unstable buildings.

Dealing with the destroyed ships in comparison to the city would be both easier and harder.

Easier since most ships would be tossed over into stomach acid.

Harder since most ships would have to be searched before being disposed of.

But this process was something that had to be done, and was something that Nelson, Miyagi, Borodo, and Foxy were absolutely adamant over.

“Now that we’re here, we shouldn’t let anything go to waste…” said Borodo seriously.

“Blimey! Don’t you know that those ships carried some of the wealthiest people in the world?! Who knows what we’ll find inside!” Snapped Nelson at the proposal to throw the ships overboard.

“Fufufu, there’s goods to be had, no doubt about that!” laughed Foxy with Beli in his eyes.

“We-gara should scavenge as much food and medicine as possible first.” Reasoned Miyagi.

With his lieutenants in his ear, Bill agreed and putting Miyagi and Nelson in charge of that operation and took Borodo and Foxy with him to secure Gran Tesoro’s Treasure Vault.

Located directly under the Pleasure Palace, with Borodo and Foxy behind him, Bill opened the massive golden vault doors and stood in wonder at the sheer amount of wealth inside.

Gild Tesoro’s vault would give Scrooge McDuck a heart attack and glancing around at the turned-over room that had literal hills of golden Beli coins, Bill thought that it was no wonder that Gran Tesoro was said to have 20% of the entire worlds’ wealth!

*fu*

*fufu!*

*Fufu!!*

*Fufufu!!!*

Turning to look at the split headed old pirate, Bill thought that seeing so much wealth must have fried Foxy’s brain.

Even Borodo was just standing there opened-mouthed!

“Alright… calm down… we need to start sorting this out and see what we have…” said Bill seriously, and though it wasn’t the first time, the realization of what he had done hit him again.

And it must have hit Foxy and Borodo too, because no one in their sane mind would believe that the World Government would let them ‘get away’ with Gran Tesoro.

Even factoring out the gold throughout the city, just this one treasure vault probably held more hard cash than existed in the entire East Blue!

Walking inside the vault slowly, the entire area had been turned over, and boxes which held Beli notes had been dumped over and lay broken over piles of scattered gold coins.

Throughout the entire area, there was only one location that wasn’t devastated, and it was a large cage which drew Bill’s eye.

A cage with black bars really stood out in the sea of gold, and walking over, Bill was shocked to see that this cage, which was about 4ft taller than he and about 20ft long, was actually made of Seastone!

With even the floor and ceiling of the cage made out of seastone, Bill marveled at how much this cage would have cost – it’s purity would factor in a lot, but even if it was a low-grade seastone, this cage alone could be worth hundreds of millions of Beli!

Even the cages’ locking mechanism was seastone!

Seeing this, Bill was legitimately impressed because he knew firsthand how hard it was to shape seastone. Practically anything over 45% pure had to be produced in Vegapunks labs because the mineral itself was as hard as diamond.

Thinking this, Bill suspected that the cages lock was of lower grade – strong but not unbreakable – and putting his hands on the door’s bars, he covered his arms in Haki and was about to pull hard.

But suddenly, hearing Foxy and Borodo from behind him talking, he had another idea.

“Hey Borodo, come take a look!” he called, and sure enough, the former East Blue thief came over and after checking out the cage and lock whistled.

“You think you can open it?” Asked Bill, and to his relief, Borodo nodded his head and replied as he continued to examine the lock: “Uh, yeah, it seems to be a simple tumble lock… hm…” then using his cybernetic arm, his pointer finger formed a lock-picking tool, and after fumbling around for several minutes a pop was heard and the gate opened.

Thinking to himself that Borodo really lived up to his reputation, Bill didn’t interrupt the former thief explanation when he said: “The trick to this lock is that any normal key made of iron would break inside, leaving the whole mechanism jammed. Luckily you made this artificial arm with seastone, or else it would have been impossible to get in.”

Agreeing and then nodding that he understood, Bill led the way and stepped into the cage which held multiple smaller safes.

These safes were not seastone though, and with a light pull, Bill opened them up starting from the smaller and working his way up.

The smaller safes contained important sales receipts, property Deeds, and recognitions of Sovereignty from the World Government. These papers were an insight for Bill on how governmental relations worked and he decided to study them when he had the time.

The medium sized safes were mostly empty, but going through them he found 3 Devil Fruits, and recognized each one.

The least valuable was the Zoan [Rat-Rat Fruit, Model: Porcupine]. Bill didn’t have a clear value but assumed it to be worth somewhere in the ballpark of 150m Beli. In general, he thought, Zoan’s were worth less than other Devil Fruits unless they were carnivorous models.

The next most valuable was Paramecia [Bottle-Bottle Fruit], which had been recorded in the past and was almost priceless for anyone, but especially for thieves and traders who could store large amounts of things, any 'things', inside a bottle that could be then shrunken down.

Unlike the most valuable fruit though, Bill did suspect that the Bottle-Bottle Fruit would have a number value, perhaps close to 500m Beli

And the most valuable, and one that even Bill was surprised to find, was the Mythical Zoan [Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Nemean Lion].

Not bothered about how this world knew about the ‘Nemean Lion’ in the same way that Bill had comes to terms with there being Buddha’s here, he nevertheless understood that the power of this fruit was enormous – making its user almost invulnerable to attacks.

And likewise, it’s value was incalculable.

Thinking all this through, Bill heard a gulp beside him and saw Borodo eyes the Bottle-Bottle Fruit, and with a laugh he just asked: “Do you want it?”

To this question, Borodo looked at Bill with surprise, then with serious consideration, and then asked: “But… what about my arm?”

Shrugging to this, Bill just told him that they would obviously have to make a new one and that the next arm wouldn’t be as sturdy but would be as functional.

Hearing this, Borodo thought for a minute before finally saying: “Yeah… having that ability would be a blessing for us.” And Bill agreed with that.

Before spending the several hours needed for Bill to detach Borodo’s arm, he finally moved to the largest of the safes.

Like with the medium sized safes, most of the large sized safes were empty, but what Bill found made his eyebrows raise.

There were scraps and pieces of technology that Bill didn’t immediately recognize, along with multiple large maps of the capital of the World Government, the ‘Holy Land’ they called [Mary Geoise].

These maps could hardly even be called ‘maps’ – they were more like a detailed schematic of the entire capital, everything from sewage lines to street levels, including the central palace called [Pangaea Castle].

Giving the schematic a quick look over, if this was accurate, Bill thought that this castle was the most massive building he had ever seen.

It was a single castle that was the size of Marineford!

With Borodo standing beside him, looking at the maps with him, they both couldn’t help but wonder how in the world Gild Tesoro came into possession of such a thing.

“… what we found here stays in this room…” Bill said quietly, and Borodo nodded heavily.

If the World Government would go to war over the murder of a Celestial Dragon, then Bill knew that the World Government would launch a crusade for these schematics.

Breathing heavily himself, Bill folded up the maps and set them with the pieces of technology and opening up the remaining safes produced a sword, a halberd, and a large key.

Not recognizing the sword, though Bill could tell it was good quality, he did recognize the spear.

Supreme Grade Blade: [Longinus].

The spear was about 6 and a half feet long with a brown metallic handle that attached itself to a black spearhead.

The weapon had no adornments besides a small red tassel covering the spot where the blade and handle connected, but even so, Bill couldn’t help but marvel at the workmanship.

The value of this weapon was priceless, perhaps more so than the [Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Nemean Lion], and Bill thought it was a shame that no one in his department used spears as their main weapon.

Shaking his head while thinking it was a pity, he put aside the spear and looked at the large key he had found and wondered where it went to…

“Commodore! Come and take a look at vis!” called Foxy from behind them and seeing the wide eyes on the Slow-Slow human, Bill and Borodo did just that.

The Treasure Vault was large, and after passing by several hills of gold, there was a large yellow box that was made of gold and took up a good portion of the wall that it was on.

“Vee size is enormous!” called Foxy, and looking around the box, Bill saw there was a large black lock.

Looking at the lock, which was clearly made of seastone, and looking at the key in his hand, Bill put the key in and turned hard, which resulted in ‘clicks’ being heard up and down the giant box and Bill realized that he was looking at a ‘lid’.

Telling the others to step back, Bill opened the lid and was met face to face with another black blade... a blade he recognized well.

Supreme Grade Blade: [Gungnir].

This was a well-known weapon because it was the only Graded Blade that was made in Wano for the Giants of Elbaf, and it was a weapon held by their King until some point in the past when it was stolen.

Slowly pulling the giant-sized spear out of the golden box, Bill looked at its black metallic blade and stone-gray handle in the same awe that he did [Longinus].

Mythologically, [Gungnir] was the spear of Odin, and looking at its size and physically feeling its aura, Bill could forgive someone for thinking that this weapon belonged to the ‘All-Father’.

It did, however, present another problem in terms of what to actually do with the thing.

Unlike the spear [Longinus] which had no proclaimed owner, this supreme weapon did belong to the Royal House of Elbaf, but Bill wondered how, or even if, he could ever get it to them.

After all, Elbaf was in the New World, and Bill had no reason to go there, nor would he ever send his Captains and Lieutenants there for a simple errand mission.

Looking at the giant weapon with Foxy and Borodo for another several minutes, Bill finally pushed it back in its case and turning to his friends said: “See what else you can find Foxy, and Borodo, let’s get that arm off…” to which they both laughed.

Naturally, Bill had told Foxy about the things he found in the cage, only keeping the schematics of [Mary Geoise] secret.

Bill wasn’t a person to keep secrets, but like the assassination of the Celestial Dragon that ‘only’ Nelson knew about, some things truly were too much and needed to be kept hidden.

For the rest of the day, and for the two days after that, the entire population of Gran Tesoro was kept working, and finally after giving Lord Bonbori a few ‘taps’ to get his attention, Bill finally made his deal known to the Island Eater.

Hovering high in the air about 500 yards away from Lord Bonbori, Bill held an Eternal Pose in one hand labeled ‘New Haven’ and the fist-size ball of Pure Gold in the other.

Shouting loudly as he pointed: “SWIM IN THAT DIRECTION, RESURFACE IN A DAY, I’LL RECHECK THE HEADING THEN!! WHEN WE GET THERE, IT’S YOURS!”

Looking into eyes that were miles in circumference and which shined in the daylight, Bill wasn’t afraid, and waited for an ear-splitting *BBBOOOOOOOONNNNBBBOOOOORRRRIIIII* rumble came the massive creature.

According to Olga this was Bonbori’s form of agreement and after it finished responding the sea king finally opened its big mouth again allowing Bill to fly back inside towards Gran Tesoro.

By now it was 6 days since the city had been swallowed, and even though food was running low, Bill had no reason to expect anything other than smooth sailing until they reached their destination.

As for what happened then, Bill wasn’t too certain, but already there had been reports of hundreds and hundreds of former debt slaves asking if they could stay with the Marines or if they could get in touch with their families, and many of the merchants asked what kind of place New Haven was.

For Bill, these were fine developments. Whether those people stayed or reconnected with their families, he would offer the support that he could.

New Haven’s main island should have been mostly built back up by now, he thought, and the introduction of thousands of residents would really help the development of the outer islands.

Waiting for Bonbori to resurface, the only main issue Bill had to worry about was the former Secure Staff.

Nearly all were debt slaves, and nearly all had asked to join the Procurement Department and work for the Marines.

In total, it was just over 1,600 of the original 1,850 who had asked to join…

The problem was that by and large these people were soldiers; like the former Ruluka Island soldiers who he had recruited years ago. Only now, Bill’s Department was large enough to recruit for specific roles and this made him think.

‘Can INFERNO Island even handle that many recruits at once… and what job could I even have them do?’