The Marine

“Try to run and I’ll bop you again! Yeah, you! I’m talkin’ to you, old gray hair”!

Sitting on the shoulder of an 18-foot-tall Del Kong, Yoko leaned over and pointed at a gray-haired mustachioed man who, despite a frail appearance held a non-consequential bounty.

WANTED Dead or Alive: ‘Fortune Teller’ Moyas, 13,000,000 Beli.

This old man was just one in a long long string of arrests made by Yoko over the course of her 3 week stay at Sabaody Archipelago, and wasn’t nearly the largest.

Bounties under her belt included the likes of Opera Pirates and their leader Lazarus who was worth 38m Beli. There was the Dance Pirates which had a total bounty of 45m Beli, and ‘Whistling’ Palin, an animal dealer who was worth 16.5m Beli alone.

For all of that success, and it was a pure success as she hadn’t lost a single member of her crew nor had any of them been greatly harmed, Yoko had even managed to corner and capture the famous ‘Furious Medicine’ Dwanger – WANTED Dead or Alive, 50m Beli.

This traveling doctors’ approach was to cure patients with medicine that would cause them to fall into a great rage. Believing that anger was the cure for all ailments, he had run amok across half the Grand Line, spreading madness where he went.

After the fallout of the Summit War which had seen many of those experienced Marines slaughtered, after the sudden appearance of countless powerful pirates from who-knew-where, the amount of harm this single traveling doctor had done was not to be underestimated.

Of course, most of the pirates she had run into were small fry those too dumb or not connected enough to have heard about the ‘Marine crackdown’ – though not even many of the connected pirates realized that the ‘crackdown’ was coming from a single 17-year-old Marine Captain and her crew of mostly Minks and monstrous animals.

Marching her column of prisoners into base GR 66, a blonde headed teenage boy came running towards her. He had a huge backpack on and after going around and studying the prisoners, he called out: “Akisu, this one won’t show his face!” and answering him was another teenage boy, who holding a controller said: “Alright, hold on…” and proceeded to push some buttons, which made the restraints forcibly turn the man’s head to side.

“Whatcha got Roule?” called over Yoko – who had by now jumped off the shoulder of the Del Kong and headed their way.

“Oh, it’s a big fish, a big fish this time!” said the Mapmaker and Navigator of Yoko’s crew, a boy of peerless skill in both judging distance and falling over his own two feet.

Seeing the others looking at him expectantly, Roule pulled out a WANTED Poster from his big backpack, reading:

WANTED Dead or Alive: ‘Godspeed’ Fasti, 3,300,000 Beli.

Naturally, this 3.3m Beli bounty wasn’t what made Fasti a ‘big fish’, as Roule explained to Yoko and Akisu, as well as Rapanui and Carrot who were walking over to see what the fuss was about: “This guy is a member of the Bounty Pirates, and get this, the Bounty Pirates are worth more than 400m Beli!”

“Great!” laughed Yoko.

“Woah!” called out Akisu.

“How much food can we buy with that?!” exclaimed Carrot.

“… And who’s the Captain?” asked Rapanui, the only serious one of the group.

Quickly motioning some of the Howler Monkey Mink Marines to start leading the prisoners into the base, Yoko turned her attention back on Roule who began to explain…

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

Watching the group of teenage Marines from a tall tower window, Zephyr thought to himself that Yoko Ox could be a Marine Hero in the making.

Though more violent than he was at her age, she was also stronger, and in truth he saw a lot of Monkey D. Garp in the girl.

That was somewhat bittersweet.

‘They grow up with such passion for Justice, only to be kicked down when they see what they’re really fighting for…’ is what the old man thought.

While attending to his other business, he had been watching over Yoko for the past 3 weeks and when he wasn’t, he had Ain do it for him.

He did this even though he knew that Yoko didn’t like Ain whatsoever, and didn’t much care about him either, but that was irrelevant.

Zephyr had spent a lifetime in the Marines, and a good part of that lifetime had been caring about and training the next generation. For him, watching over the young and antagonistic Marine Yoko while he simultaneously contacting dozens of Marine officers who loved him and would walk through fire for him was no different.

After all, despite everything that had happened, despite the pain he had suffered physically and the heartache of that great betrayal, Zephyr was himself a true Marine.

He loved the organization and loved its best principles.

He hated that the organization had strayed, and he hated that it went so far as to keep secrets from its own people… secrets that would get Marines killed for not knowing about them.

He loved so many of the people in the Marines whom he had seen develop over decades and loved their heroic stance against the ever-growing turmoil in the world.

He hated that the turmoil had changed so many of those into the worst versions of themselves.

In his eyes, weathered by nearly 70 years of hardship and laughter, he could see it clearly, but in fact, Zephyr knew it wasn’t all their fault.

Because even before the Summit War, he had felt a ruthless change brewing in himself.

The more people suffered the crueler they became, but now, Zephyr thought, that cruelty was infecting the entire Marine organization, and he truly feared what the future held now that the [Red Dog] was the Fleet Admiral…

In his younger years, Zephyr had believed in the concept of Idealistic Justice.

For him, it was always the case that he would try and capture instead of kill criminals. For him, it was always that he would smile and speak with his chin-held-high, no matter the pain he had suffered.

For him, it was always the case that the good guy would win, and the bad guy would lose. Karma and the universe demanded it.

He did, and believed in, all of these things because he thought that the ideal world was possible, and even if it wasn’t possible now, the road to that utopia he was through the upright and Just actions of the Marines.

Naturally, for him, it started with the Marines.

This wasn’t because Zephyr didn’t know about the other powers of the World Government, far from it, having spent over 50 years in the organization had made him more familiar with the World Government than perhaps any other ‘outsider’ in the world.

But though the Gods’ Army was powerful, and though Cipher Pol was deadly and efficient, the fact was that it was impossible for those 2 bodies to keep the [Levely] united.

That job, the job of keeping those 170 nations of the world together, fell to the Marines.

Naturally, deterrence and fear held some sway for the nations of the world, after all, the Marines were the single largest power in each and every Sea on the globe – excluding the New World.

But it wasn’t ‘merely’ the fear of having Marine battleships on your coast which made so many nations join the World Government, in fact that was a relatively small part of it.

The truth was that by joining the World Government, nations large and small automatically gained a degree of protection while not having to really change the way they ruled.

If an island was a 500-year-old Dynastic Kingdom? Fine!

If an island was a Democracy? No problem!

If an island was a Tyranny? Handle it yourself!

As long as the country or kingdom paid its tribute and kept its wars to a reasonable, geographically contained, level then the World Government was hands off.

Nations unaffiliated with the World Government had no such protections, even to the degree that if a World Government-affiliated Kingdom attacked an island, and even if it was clearly the aggressor, the unaffiliated Kingdom had to be very careful with how it defended itself lest the Marines step in on the side of their invader.

Even if this seemed unfair, the fact was that these benefits held this vast archipelago world together.

Zephyr liked the framework of the World Government, even if he didn’t like war, but he wasn’t so naive to believe that he could stop all wars in his lifetime.

In his early days, his thought was just to persuade every island to join the World Government. Naturally this would not end all conflict, but it would seriously put a lid on the amount of suffering in the world.

‘But it didn’t work…’ he thought to himself as he moved away from the window and to a large oak desk.

Some too stubborn some too proud, each island had its own reasons, but Zephyr had found that getting islands to join the World Government was difficult.

So difficult, in fact, that he had given up the idea.

Grimacing to himself, he didn’t know what made him think of his first major disappointment… but before he could think of those times, he heard a knock at his door.

“Come in.” he said strongly despite the light in his eyes somewhat fading, and when the door opened, Ain walked in carrying a handful of files.

“We have had a lot of replies, but few from any truly powerful people.” Said Ain stoically as she handed Zephyr the stack of papers.

These papers were all replies from Marine Captains and Lieutenants who were willing to stand with him for a proposal that would completely remove the Marine presence from the New World and focus all efforts on securing peace in the Four Blue’s and Paradise.

With the World-Wide Draft still ongoing, it was crucial to file this petition as soon as possible, but Zephyr, knowing his former protégé, knew that Akainu would hold these minor Captains opinions as dust in the wind.

Looking through the list of replies, Zephyr couldn’t help but say: “I’ll reach out to Momonga and Yamakagi again… they seemed opened to the idea.”

This was painful for the old instructor, who could name over twenty Vice Admirals and three Admirals to the list of those Marines who would call him ‘teacher’ even to this day.

Sakazuki, Borsalino, Kuzan, Momonga, Doberman, Onigumo, Comil, Yamakaji, Strawberry, Hina, and Smoker… the list went on, but few of them had been willing to even discuss the idea deeply.

In fact, some of them, like Onigumo and Doberman, had mildly reprimanded him saying that abandoning the New World would show the entire world the weakness of the Marines, instead of projecting strength, such a move would be catastrophic.

Though he didn’t show it on his face, Zephyr had been so disheartened by the response that he was almost at his wits end.

He knew full well that Akainu planned a massive crusade in the New World after the end of the World-Wide Draft.

And he knew full well that even if that Hail-Mary knockout blow succeeded, the rest of the world would have been deprived of Marine protection and would have to pay the corresponding price.

And that was if it worked… which Zephyr didn’t believe it would.

After all, the strength of the Pirate Emperors was such that if even 2 of them allied, it would be devastating.

Hadn’t this just been shown during the Whitebeard War?

Sure, the Marines had proven to have a stronger foundation, more numerous battleships and stronger mid-level combatants, but for the top-level fighters? They had proven to be far behind.

If fact, the entire Marine organization was only about ‘even’ with Whitebeard and his Allies when it came to top-level guys.

So how could they possibly battle against Big MOM, ‘Red Hair’ Shanks, Kaidou, and the newest emperor, Blackbeard all at once.

‘And that’s not even factoring in Rogers’ other demon spawn, ‘Buggy the Clown!’ thought Zephyr with distress when he thought about that mad clown who was rumored to have taken [Dracule Mihawk] and [Crocodile] under his control.

Individually these were all people that even he, a former Admiral, would struggle against or lose to, so how could it be possible that the Marines would battle them all?!

Having sat there in silence for a long moment, Ain was the first to break the tension when she said: “Z-Sensei, there is some other news that isn’t in these reports.”

“Oh?” answered Zephyr, looking at her and motioning for her to continue.

“It seems that the girl you’re having me watch is about to attempt to subdue the Bounty Pirates, who have been spending their time in Grove 1...”

The rest didn’t need to be said, Grove 1 was the location of the [Human Auction House] and the main port where Celestial Dragons would dock at when vacationing at Sabaody Archipelago.

For her to go there, for any Marine to go there without an entire division as support, was incredibly dangerous.

This danger was even more prevalent after the attack on a World Noble by the Straw Hats almost 2 years before.

Not only had the World Nobles started coming with more Gods’ Army soldiers as bodyguards, but there was also more of a presence of Cipher Pol, and the Human Auction House had gone more extreme in an attempt to stabilize its business.

‘Celestial Dragons…’ thought Zephyr, before locking eyes with Ain and saying: “Go with them. Keep the girl out of trouble by any means necessary...” pausing for a second, Zephyr then added: “take Bins with you.”

Nodding to his orders, before Ain left, she reported one more thing: “There’s also been a sighting of a steam-powered Marine Battleship sailing from the Northeast, using standard Communication Snail methods we have determined the Captain of the vessel to be Sasha Zima.

By her current speed and heading, she’ll be here in 2 days.”

Thinking about that name, Zephyr sighed.

Sasha was a recruit he remembered clearly. She was someone who had great talent but never should have been authorized to attend Marineford’s Marine Academy.

His reasons for this were many, and at the time, he hadn’t treated her fairly because he didn’t believe it was fair for her or her friend to even be there.

But that was almost 9 years ago, and seeing that she was still in the Marines, Science Division or not, Zephyr regretted his actions.

But what was in the past was the past, and breathing heavily, the old Marine just nodded his head and said: “I’ll meet with her when she arrives. Just keep Yoko Ox out of trouble…”

Saluting and following his orders, Ain didn’t question anything, and left to do just that.

Truthfully Zephyr did care about Yoko’s safety, that was no lie. In her he did see the future.

But that was for the future, in the meantime, whenever Zephyr thought about the young Marine a vision came to mind.

That vision was naturally Bill Ox, that young Marine he had met those years ago. One who could battle against the like of ‘Diamond’ Jozu and even physically throw a former Admiral off his own ship while not even being 20 years old.

And if the reports could be believed, barely 22 years old at the time, Bill ‘Blackstone’ Ox put the ‘Flying Pirate’ Shiki in the ground for good.

This was one person Zephyr had tried to personally contact but was unable to. Apparently, the young Science Division Commodore was doing an important job in the South Blue and was unreachable to even Vegapunk.

This was frustrating, but not unheard of.

Besides, Zephyr knew…

‘As long Yoko Ox is here, there’s a chance.’

For the future, but as well as for the present. Zephyr was willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the teenage Marine safe.