The Marine

As Yoko began on a journey to arrest every pirate on Sabaody Archipelago, not even meeting Zephyr as Captain Leipon planned before she jumped into action, Bill unaware labored night-and-day for an entire week to prep and stage the Colossus-Class vessel for its repairs.

During that time the Marines were put to work in aiding him in shifts.

Moving like ants inside the giant underdeck of Gran Tesoro they demonstrated that while combat training was not ignored by the Procurement Department, the technical skills belonging to the Science Division were never totally put on the back burner.

For Bill, the Departments goal was never to set out and create a standing elite army.

He believed that any recruit who didn’t sign the 20-year extension would serve the Marines and World Government best by learning skills necessary for thriving in civilian life.

This view of his, which was derided as senseless by Nelson and Sasha before, had gained undivided support after the attack by Shiki.

Because no matter what, it didn’t take a genius to understand that developing the highly prized islands that Shiki had taken for himself was the actual cash cow for the Department, even more than the various projects they had started across the East Blue.

In the view of every Officer of the Procurement Department, New Haven Archipelago was a virtual Kingdom waiting to be built and profited off of.

After all, there was no civilian or World Government force that could rightfully claim the island. As it stood, the ‘Oklahoma’ sized piece of land, with all it’s precious minerals and unique resources, belonged solely to the Department.

Having studied the blueprints on his way to Gran Tesoro, Bill more or less knew what to expect but was surprised by the level of competence that the maintenance crew of the city sized ship.

‘Well, they are a little jumpy…’ he had thought when watching them work in teams with his Marines.

There were a couple hundred of them, which Bill thought was on the high side due to the fact that Gran Tesoro had a steady occupancy rate of about 70,000 individuals – which itself was only slightly less than its counterpart on Earth, ‘Las Vegas’.

And obviously it wasn’t as if the entire cities maintenance crew was helping stage the repairs, which made him wonder just how many workers Gran Tesoro employed.

Besides the repairs that were going according to schedule, Bill had enough of the gold dust he found everywhere and when he saw it on one of his men, he ordered the rooms be cleaned.

Which did help, but even now as he looked at Borodo directing a group of forklifts he focused his eyes and found dust sprinkled around the former thief’s neck.

From the blueprints Bill could learn a lot about Gran Tesoro but couldn’t figure out just how much money the casino-city must bring in for there to be gold residue simply everywhere.

Besides the minor annoyance of the gold dust, repairing a portion of the hull on a city-sized ship at sea was simply a marvel of engineering, and Bill reckoned that only Vegapunk would have been able to envision such a thing.

Basically the plan detailed using the bubble-shield technology that Vegapunk had pioneered and required either a massive amount of submersed infrastructure or a person capable of lifting a mountain since he would have to literally ‘rock the boat’ at certain points.

This made Bill wonder if Vegapunk knew just how strong he was, and if so, how he knew that given the fact that Bill had never once ‘flaunted’ his strength. Of course, he didn’t hide his abilities and so didn’t mind too much, but he didn’t like the feeling he had that Vegapunk may have manipulated him.

After all, Akainu had been promoted to Fleet Admiral just before they had arrived in the South Blue – could Vegapunk have known that when he told Bill about the job?

Shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head, knowing there was nothing he could do now, Bill got back to work.

It would take the crew of the Frontier Run a few more days of staging before the Marines would be largely free of work duties and Bill alone would be the main driver of operations.

During that time, Yoko found herself with a troupe of Howler Monkey Mink Marines and her 4 tamed Del Kong smashing pirate crews one after another and hauling them back to GR-66 where the Marine Base was located.

“What a spectacle!” she shouted out loud.

Sitting on the shoulder of a Del Kong who was leading a long procession of beaten and arrested pirates, with her [Compliance Tree] extended to the length of a quarterstaff, Yoko whistled at the sight.

“There’s simply a countless number of these scoundrels! Hey, Rap, how long do you think it’ll take us to work our way down to Grove 1?”

Walking slightly behind the leading Del Kong, Rapanui held on to a javelin and was looking side to side warily.

Even if Yoko herself found it to be a great thing, the rest of the human crew were wide-eyed and stunned when they learned that the Marines had lost control of the first 55 Groves of Sabaody.

And if that wasn’t shocking enough, the Marines had lost control of most of the Archipelago even though the leader of Base GR-66 was actually a Rear Admiral!

‘How could that be possible?’ Rapanui and the other humans on Yoko’s crew thought.

Rapanui’s confusion could be explained easily. The former Chore Boys of the Procurement Department had only ever been exposed to higher ranking members of the Marines in the persons of Bill and Aramaki – both of whom were ‘only’ Commodores, and neither of which were HQ Commodores!

If they were Commodores, wouldn’t that mean that a Marine Rear Admiral was even more powerful than them?

But even still, Base GR-66 seemed unable to handle Groves as nearby as an hour walk away.

This state of affairs put the human Marines who followed Yoko ill at ease but was a virtual blessing to the ‘natural born fighter’ Minks, the barely tame Del Kongs, to say nothing of their fearless auburn-haired leader!

Putting all of that in the back of his mind, Rapanui glanced up at Yoko before replying: “That depends on where the others are going to strike… if it’s us by ourselves then I don’t know... it seems like this place breeds new pirates as quick as we catch them.”

Hearing him say this, Yoko just laughed and said: “Nah you worry too much! Even if that old JiJi doesn’t do anything, we’ll capture all the pirates here by alone and bring all the Beli back to New Haven, won’t Big Sis be shocked then?!”

Naturally, the ‘old man’ Yoko was referring to was Zephyr.

Even if she didn’t care much about anything besides capturing the pirates, she could at least use her eyes and saw that the former Admiral was gathering a massive fleet.

Already anchored offshore of Grove-66 were 15 fat-bellied galleons, and she didn’t need to be a math-wiz to understand that number of galleons represented roughly 7,000 Marines in total!

This number, recognizing the fact that it was 2,000 more Marines than the entire Procurement Department had, made Yoko dislike Zephyr even more because he was just letting the pirate scum run right under his nose!

At this point, no one in the Department outside of the core Officers knew about the fortune that Bill had seized from Mad Treasure, and due to this, Rapanui simply nodded with Yoko’s assumption that Captain Zima would be pleased with the bounties they were collecting.

Walking for some time more, the main tower of the Marine Base came into view, and marching with another 150 pirates in tow, Yoko naturally garnered attention.

Over the last two and a half weeks she and her crew had captured almost 600 pirates, and whereas the first time they had come back with their haul they were wildly cheered, now the Marines stationed there looked on with dark eyes.

Firstly, Yoko’s crew of non-human Marines was already something that stood out, and even though most Marines were not ‘humanists’, by and large they all thought there was something ‘off’ about a crew containing Monkey Minks, ferocious wild gorillas, and a giant fire-breathing flying beetle to boot!

Basically, with just a look they thought Yoko’s crew was nothing but trouble.

But more than that, despite all of her hard work, the Marine Base was simply running out of room to store the prisoners and it was these men who had to deal with it!

Among the Marines watching Yoko’s latest procession of prisoners was Rear Admiral Catacombo himself. Standing beside a woman that Yoko would have recognized instantly, Catacombo was sweating slightly with a hard look on his face.

But whether she didn’t notice, or didn’t care, Yoko continued to stroll into the base before shouting at the line of pirates: “Alright now, all you villains get in line and sit down!” swirling her quarterstaff and turning to the crowd of Marines which were gathering she continued: “There are as many pirates on this island as there are stars in the sky! Next time you should have all come with me and we’ll get even more, ah well, you can’t have all of the bounties, but you’ll gain experience with us!”

Saying that, she pointed her thumb behind her, which made many of the Marines irritated – after all, these were men and women who had served during the Summit War and had been on the front line fighting the newest wave of pirates for a year and a half now.

“Hey, who is this midget think she’s talking to?!” yelled one of the Marines, a large man who had a giant saber on his back and the insignia for [Special Operator, First Class] on his coat sleeve.

Even if this no-named Marine was the first to call out, similar sentiments were held by many. By and large, they questioned angrily where this 17-year-old girl got the right to talk down at them.

Were they members of her freak crew? No!

In their minds, she was only causing more work for them!

So, once the big man spoke up first, suddenly a chorus of complaints and insults started being thrown at Yoko, until eventually – which was actually quite soon – she couldn’t take it anymore.

Spinning the [Compliance Tree] around, she stabbed it into the ground and let it take root, then, jumping on one of the leaves she raised up a slow pace, until she was eye-to-eye with the big Marine who first stepped forward.

“To shrink from pirates, ha!

You dare to criticize me? Well, look at yourselfs FIRST!” emphasizing the ‘F’ sound Yoko purposefully mispronounced words when it suited her, and continued with the [Compliance Tree] slowly growing taller:

“You sail the seas, masters of your mighty ships, you walk the lands, masters of all kinds of weapons and techniques, yet quiver at the thought of battling these mere scoundrels!

Where is your fiery spirit, where is your unquenchable thirst for Justice?”

When the word ‘Justice’ was spoken, the Marines quieted down, but Yoko didn’t stop.

Jumping down from the Compliance Tree, she landed in front of the big man with the saber on his back, and with her arms on her sides she scoffed at him: “I think you’re just scared! I think you only speak up against me because you think I’m weak, well?”

Looking almost directly up, the five-foot-tall girl looked up at the over seven-foot-tall man, and when his eyes naturally drifted over to the Del Kongs – which were not only ferocious looking but also much larger than he was, she cut him off before he could talk.

“Kong’ers stay out of it!”

Hearing her say this, the four Del Kong sat down with a thud, and Yoko eyed the man, practically asking: “Well then?”

“Tsk… I don’t want to hit a little girl.” Snarled the big Marine somewhat awkwardly having been put in a spot where he had to respond with something but was still unsure about the monsters in Yoko’s crew.

As for Yoko herself, she didn’t want to hurt the man or his pride, she just wanted them to start catching pirates!

So, responding with a “don’t worry you’ll never be able to hit me” she then added: “How about this, we’ll go at it mono-e-mono! If I win then you follow us and learn how we capture pirates, and if you win, I won’t cause any more work for you!”

Hearing this offer, several Marines began cheering the big man on, and foisted into action, he didn’t even have time to regret his actions.

Because no sooner than he said ‘alright’ Yoko moved like the wind, appeared behind him, and with one swoop of her leg coupled with an over-arm throw, the man flew nearly 8 meters before dropping down with a hard ‘bump’.

From beginning to end, the ‘fight’ lasted less than 3 seconds, causing the surrounding Marines to gasp.

For Yoko’s crew, it was an obvious outcome.

After all, they all knew that she had been trained with the [Meditative Pushup] since she was eight years old, and while she hadn’t mastered Life Return, she had mastered two of the Six Powers – [Moon Step] and [Iron Body] specifically.

The fact that she had only mastered those two martial arts wasn’t due to her lack of talent either, it was simply because she didn’t need any of the other Six Powers!

She only needed the [Compliance Tree], and in a pinch, she would use Monkey Kung Fu!

Standing there with her hands on her hips, she bellowed to the gaping Marines: “Now, anyone else have any problems?” and her words caused another chorus of complaints.

“You cheated!”

“He wasn’t ready!”

“Not fair!”

And so on…

Already irritated by this group of spineless Marines, as she saw them, Yoko finally shouted: “Enough! All of you come then, no weapons, same rules, do you dare?!”

And sure enough, they did dare, first it was only a couple, then it was a dozen, then it was a score, then it was them all.

As for the pirates, the ones not too badly hurt anyway, sitting on their hands they watched in awe as the short female Marine who had captured them started tumbling over groups of grown men and women like bowling pins.

Naturally, these Marines weren’t ‘unskilled’ as such, they had been properly trained to battle pirates with muskets and cannon, but without their weapons, and against a true superhuman, their fates were sealed.

Swiping left and right, Yoko’s favorite tactic was throwing one Marine into a group of his buddies, and then knocking them all down at once.

Like this, and making sure she wasn’t actually injuring anyone, she stomped almost 150 individuals in less than 10 minutes.

Breathing lightly, looking over groups of Marine bodies laying on the ground, Yoko was about to say something when noticing a motion beside her, she dropped down, voiding her newest foe.

Standing up quickly, she somersaulted towards the [Compliance Tree] and with a smile that wasn’t smile said to the blue haired lady: “Ha! Ain, wasn’t it?

Didn’t I almost brain you the last time we met…?”

Then, willing the [Compliance Tree] to return back to the size of a quarterstaff, Yoko picked it up and said: “I haven’t forgotten that day you attacked Big Sis, so do you believe I won’t do it for real this time?”

*************************************************************

Not too far away, inside the commanders office of Base GR-66, Zephyr was flanked by several Marines.

From this group there were two things that stood out.

Firstly, each and every Marine beside Zephyr was someone that he had personally trained in the Marineford Academy.

Secondly, not one of them exceeded the rank of HQ Rear Admiral.

Sitting across from a Marine who looked like he had been beaten up, he handed him a document and said: “These are the names that have been confirmed. Pirates captured years, sometimes decades ago, pirates whose very names were erased from history… now they’re reappearing, and our sailors don’t know what they’re fighting against.”

Gritting his teeth as he said the last part, Zephyr took off his shades and rubbed his eyes before looking forward at the man sitting across from him.

“It’s already been decided, for this next round of promotions you will be promoted all the way up to Vice Admiral in one go. Now listen, I’ve tried to reason with him, but Sakazuki isn’t budging…”

The man across from Zephyr didn’t look up, only slowly flipped the pages of the document one at a time, before he finally landed on one name.

Seeing this name, he finally looked up and Zephyr nodded.

“It’s confirmed. The disaster that happened at [Impel Down] needs to be announced to the Marines at large. Old bounties must be reinstated immediately. Already scores of level 5 Prisoners have escape to the New World… and hundreds of lower-level pirates have begun infesting Paradise.

If nothing happens, I’m going to be forced to act…”

Still looking at the one name, T-Bone finally did speak.

“You’re sure he’s escaped?”

Seeing Zephyr nod his head heavily, T-Bone uncharacteristically winced, and saying that he would do what he could, he dropped the document on the desk.

Although every Marine present knew the circumstances they were facing, they were nevertheless curious as to what caused the famed T-Bone to wince.

But seeing who it was, they all understood.

The ‘Demon Heir’ Douglas Bullet.