The Marine

Despite having a ‘eureka’ moment in regard to his two souls and Haki, Bill’s situation hadn’t dramatically improved in an instant.

Opening his eyes to such a wide-scale attack, he was instantly forced to fight the avalanche of swords off or be buried underneath.

Having lost the supernatural awareness provided by his passive [Observation Haki] Bill was made to rely on sheer instinct and strength to fight off a countless blades stabbing down at him.

But despite putting in max effort and still being slightly worse off than before, if Bill had the mind to think in this moment, it would have been a grateful thought. Because at least now he did have to fight against Shiki’s Devil Fruit pushing his own body around at the same time he had was dealing with this attack.

Unlike before when he would Nullify Devil Fruits, Bill’s body was not completely blackened but instead had splotches here and there.

Even those splotches were merely dark spots, only the whites of his eyes were pitch black.

It wasn’t much, but his Haki was enough to protect his own body and focus completely on the task at hand. Punching this way and that way, Bill’s fists moved faster than the speed of sound and after every hit he destroyed car-size pieces of Shiki’s attack.

After what seemed like a long time of punching, there were no huge masses of swords left, and breathing heavily through the dark dusty air, Bill realized that he had turned the entire geographic area into a giant dust cloud!

What more, now that things had settled down, he realized that during the entire time that he was fighting off Shiki’s technique the pirate himself hadn’t shown himself!

Alarmed by this realization Bill ran at top speed, jumped into the air, and exiting the several-miles wide dust cloud was alarmed by what he seen.

The floating islands of Merveille, some twenty in all, were arranging themselves in an irregular “ / \ ” shaped pattern around New Haven.

Looking wide eyed, Bill knew his people were still fighting on the island and a thousand possibilities ran through his mind, but the most pressing thought was: ‘He’s going to dump the beasts on the island!’

Adjusting his eyes and looking around Bill didn’t need his Observation Haki to find Shiki because in the mass of land floating on the horizon, only one single island was out of place.

It was Shiki’s main island headquarters, the largest single island in Merveille and below it there was Golden Lion moving his arms like he was orchestrating a symphony.

For all of the negative things that Bill could say about the Golden Lion, even he would have to admit that the pirate’s proficiency with his Devil Fruit stood at the highest heights in the entire world.

Shiki had developed his power to such a degree that he was able to exert force over dozens of miles across an entire archipelago; having those many islands permanently float thousands of feet above sea level whether he was awake or asleep.

He had been able to use his ability after being imprisoned for years and then cutting his own two legs off, when Bill had cut off his arms, and even when Bill’s many punches had broken just about every bone in his body!

After being punched miles into the distance not even the floating armada had been stirred!

It was outstanding, but with his level of control, Shiki only needed to touch something once and unless he was defeated that ‘touch’ would last forever!

But now, it would be different.

Because now Shiki’s power wasn’t pushing Bill around. Before Bill had to punch and kick through Shiki’s Devil Fruit empowered resistance, his entire range of movements had been like wading through sticky mud and that had caused a great reduction in what he could do.

After all, Bill thought as he briefly eyed his target, he could bench press a mountain – what biological life form could possibly resist that amount of raw power?!

With renewed confidence in himself, Bill pushed forward towards his target.

Though his speed was now unfettered, Shiki had grown somewhat accustomed to being slower thanks to Bill’s intermittent uses of [Time Warp] and knowing that his [Lion Menace: Firmament Sword] had failed, the old pirate turned just in time to dodge a shoulder tackle.

Instantly drawing his twin blades, Bill was cut on his forearms and shoulders, but sticking to Shiki he aimed to overcome the old pirates [Future Sight] through sheer tenacity.

And it worked.

Despite getting cut up, Bill’s suit was now in tatters and his Coat of Justice even showed a small bit of red blood, Bill only needed to land one good body shot to cripple the older man’s movements.

When that hit landed, Bill pushed harder before the SIQ could do its work.

In the slugging match that followed, the islands began to shake and move slightly off course. The floating armada fell to the sea below – destroying every ship but killing no pirates since they were already on New Haven.

Shiki was clearly at a disadvantage and for the first time thought his plan very well may end at this insignificant backwater of a place.

Unable to run away, and fuming with anger that the young Marine in front of him could heal himself without the use of a Devil Fruit, Shiki roared out: “Why are you fighting for them?! They are merely stepping stones! It is the strength of will, the unyielding resolve, that separates the wheat from the chaff!

If they do not grow, they won’t survive anyways!”

Ignoring Shiki’s ramblings, Bill didn’t answer and fighting in the air he kneed the floating pirate in the chest, grabbed one of the wooden spokes sticking out of Shiki’s head, and hit the murderous pirate on the side of the temple.

No ‘moves’ as such were used in the following exchange, only the methodical breaking down of one superhuman by the other.

After nearly an hour of this methodical breakdown, now breathing heavily, Bill was not in great shape, but Shiki was destroyed.

Finally able to get a firm hold on the flying pirate, Bill held Shiki in a chokehold and said breathlessly: *huff huff* “Lower the islands slowly or…” *huff* “I’ll drop us into the ocean!”

*Ji ha-ha-ha*

Laughing slowly through a crushed jaw, breathing through a crushed nose, and seeing through two eye sockets that were broken inward, Shiki nevertheless laughed.

The [SIQ] was a miraculous drug, but even it had limits.

And finally, those limits had been reached with Shiki’s body no longer resembling a human in anything but vague outline.

With coiling green muscles on his arms and legs, a wide bulging green chest, and two hands the size of tree trunks, Shiki had morphed into something more akin to an Ork.

But now, it was all over.

It seemed the stage of his madness had ended, and looking forward, no longer struggling he said to Bill: “Heh, Marine, in the future you will learn that sacrifices must be made for the world's survival. We need to have a [Strong World], forged in the fires of adversity, to withstand the oncoming storm.

The calamity lo-” “Lower the islands, then we can talk” Bill said, cutting Shiki off. He wasn’t particularly interested in the ramblings of a monster.

*Ji ha-ha-ha*

With another broken laugh, the green light reignited Shiki’s eyes and he responded: “Heh, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.”

As soon as these words left Shiki’s mouth, he made a sound that was not quite a laugh and burst into renewed action.

Raising his arms, the island surrounding New Haven did indeed fall to the ocean below, but the main island of Merveille started to tilt and fly forward.

“Stop!” Bill hollered, but being momentarily overwhelmed by the sight in front of him gave Shiki all the time he needed, and he roared: “Yes, I fall fighting, fighting still!”

Feeling himself stabbed diagonally in the sides by twin blades which had ago long fallen towards the sea below, Bill’s saw red and with a grunt used his left hand to rip up a wooden spoke from Shiki’s skull, and with his right hand pounded down on the exposed white brain matter.

With a flash of light caused by the sheer force Bill put in his strike, Shiki’s head turned into an inside-out meat dumpling and the old pirate died instantly.

With his death, the old pirate’s power finally dissipated, but far from excited by his victory, Bill looked on horrified by what the madman had done.

Tilted on its side, the main island of Merveille was headed for a direct collision course with New Haven!

Quickly looking around, and then behind him, Bill saw that Shiki had even sent the island they had been fighting on before forward.

In his death throes Shiki’s trajectory was a little off and so rushing to the bottom of the island in front of him, Bill told himself: ‘It’ll miss, it’ll miss!’

Half hoping, half praying.

But no matter what, the main island would not be missing its target, and if it crashed into New Haven, everything was be lost. No one would be able to survive such a cataclysmic event.

If Shiki had been at the top of the world in terms of his Devil Fruit, it was needless to say that Bill was at the top of the world when it came to using the Moon Step technique.

He had been able to fight in midair for hours on end. He had been able to resist Shiki’s pushes and pulls while using the Moon Step technique and even still had some left in the tank after the battle was won.

But now, getting to the rocky bottom of the falling island, Bill put his hands on the stone and was unsure of himself.

The main island of Merveille was larger than Hawai’i from Bill’s previous life. Its size was at least 8,000sq km, and even if he could lift a small mountain on land, attempting to lift so much more than that in midair was obviously impossible.

Thrown by Shiki in a low arc, each second was precious and using Moon Step to his fullest Bill strained but didn’t seem to change anything besides digging his hands into the bedrock.

As the seconds passed, with barely a minute left before the island crashed down, Bill didn’t have time to consider the reactions of the people on New Haven but kept repeating to himself: ‘Come on, come on, come on!’

Trying to lift with his hands, his arms, and his shoulders, each second passed like an eternity and ripped at his heart.

Because no matter what, he had steeled himself to alter the course of the falling island or fall beneath it himself.

So, his heart ripped not only because of the people on the island who he cared about, but it ripped for the fact that subconsciously his life began to flash before his eyes.

He had been through this similar scenario before, but back then in the hospital bed, he had been at peace and had accepted that it was his time to go.

Now he was not at peace, and while his earthly body fought the result, a burst of Haki covered his arms, shoulders, and legs.

Pushing on the island like Atlas lifting the heavens, with twin blades still stabbed through his sides, Bills nose burst forth with a torrent of blood as his Armament-blackened feet cracked reality itself beneath them.

During his second life, Bill had of course been fascinated with having superhuman abilities. It was impossible for a man who had grown up reading comics about superheroes to not have that simple joy when he had discovered that he too could be like them.

Due to this fascination, Bill had always been very detailed about what he could or could not do. Like a gamer who enjoyed watching a number go up, as a child he would time himself running down the fortress of Vallipo, he would time himself swimming laps.

As he grew older, he would time himself for the Meditative Pushup, and still did so as he entered his teenage years and trained with Aramaki and his friends.

Bill had not been one of those naturally born superhumans that existed in this world, but he wasn’t far from it.

And all thanks to his heritage and strong spirit, besides when he had been shot and mastered [Life Return], this had always been enough.

But now, put in a position where he was bound to die, those numbers and milestones didn’t figure into the equations of what he could do.

He had to, no he needed to, no he WOULD lift this island.

With a torrent of blood pouring from his nose, and barely thirty seconds left before the island crashed into New Haven, another strong step downwards caused the sky to break apart like cobblestones.

With that kick, he burst a blood vessel in his eye. With another kick downwards his other eye began to bleed.

Being crushed between the weight of an island and his own Haki, no matter what Bill would not fall, and through every kick another piece of him broke.

His shoulders were broken, his legs were crushed, and his ligaments tore, but the island had stopped falling.

With his vision gone in one eye and blurry in the other, Bill just kept pushing forward until not even his Haki could sustain him, and giving one final heave that turned the bones in his arms to splinters, Bill stood there hung in space, before crashing down to the sea below.

He didn’t see it, but the falling island cleared the tall backside of New Haven with room to spare.