The Marine

Monkey Island was a strange part of New Haven, it contained the martial forest – where the very leaves and grasses grew like sharpened blades and brushing against nearly any flower could be fatal.

With its colonies of kung-fu frogs, death squirrels, killer weasels, and land gators, it was as wild as any island Shiki had ever sucked up into the sky.

But for all its dangers it was made unique thanks to Yoko’s presence.

Home of the Del Kongs, Martial Monkeys, Blue Gorillas, and other monkey-like monsters, her presence alone had united these otherwise wild tribes of apes.

And with these, even the Monkey and Ape Mink Marines had taken the island as their ‘home away from home’ – reveling in the martial forest that greatly suited their combative instincts as natural born fighters.

For Yoko herself if New Haven was her first home, then Monkey Island was her first home once removed.

And for her part, she had listened to Bill and stayed out of any trouble during the investigation by staying in the Martial Forest.

But now, after weeks of interrogations, it seemed like there was bound to be trouble.

After all, what the higher ups were really looking for was not merely evidence against Bill in the case of the assassination – the Revolutionary Army had already taken credit for that and there were tens of thousands of witnesses for it – what they were looking for was what ‘anchors’ William ‘Blackstone Bill’ Ox had.

It was to see what tied him down.

They were looking for anything that showed that he had some other reason to stay in line and never rebel, a reason beyond merely his reputation as a good Marine.

In this respect, Bill was a strange case.

Sure, he had parents and siblings, but his immediate family were hardly things that could tie him down.

His father, Aramaki Ox, himself was about to become a Marine Admiral and his mother, Dina Ox, had gone to live on [Amazon Lily] with her two daughters.

In the real-world governing of superhumans, there were levels that the authorities had to deal with.

For men and women at the level of ‘Captain’ or even ‘Rear Admiral’, while they also were superhuman, their level of strength wasn’t enough for Marineford to care much about. They would be documented and then generally left to their own devices.

But once individuals were found to be stronger, from roughly the level of Vice Admiral and higher, naturally the authorities had to take account of them. One way or another.

For those natural-born monsters, Marineford used the institution of ‘Chore Boys’ to mold young minds into proud Marines and law-abiding citizens.

For those adults who had eaten powerful Devil Fruits, Marineford would use any number of ‘benefits’ – even those not strictly legal, such as the need for revenge or lust and greed in most cases.

But for those superhumans like Bill Ox or Monkey D. Garp, those who had no desire for greed or lust or revenge or even status, the World Government had to be very wary of them.

And so, even though neither Tensie nor Kizaru knew about Onigumo’s actions, they wouldn’t have punished or even thought negatively of the man.

But that was before they knew exactly what they were dealing with.

Because for Yoko, being the leader of the monkeys – or Monkey Queen – was no mere meaningless title. Even with her Devil Fruit mostly sealed she was much more of a ‘typical’ superhuman than Bill ever was.

When he was the age of 17, Bill may have been somewhat stronger than Yoko was in her sealed state thanks to his mastery of Life Return.

He may have been a better trained fighter thanks to his mastery of the Art of 5 Limbs.

But that didn’t mean he would have certainly beaten her in a fight.

Yoko was incredibly more decisive than Bill when it came to violence. She always hit first, and she didn’t believe in a fair fight.

Where there were deep disagreements, she believed that her [Compliance Stick] was a better negotiation tool than any arguments. If a person wasn’t a part of her family, or troop, she could even be downright cruel – believing that her honor and family’s safety was at stake whenever an outsider was acting unruly.

Many of these attributes of hers could be attributed to growing up on an island that was frequently raided by Pirates, and by the murder of her father by those same pirate raids.

And had she never met Bill, had never been adopted into his family or taken part in his ventures on the sea, perhaps she would have just been like any other strong-willed woman of the Grand Line.

But she had been, and even with her Devil Fruit sealed by Bill, the girl had benefitted from elixirs given to her by Aramaki and a training regimen as complete as any Marine Academy’s – including learning two the Six Powers, Iron Body and Moon Step.

With her strong will and taking advantage of all these things, she was a superhuman of no small strength.

All of these things were unknown to the forces which had come from Marineford. Besides the older officers of the Department there had been hardly any mention of any others.

 So, by using the directions given to him and having used his Observation Haki to stay on course, when Vice Admiral Onigumo dropped down on Monkey Island he landed in the middle of Yoko’s ‘Court’.

Immediately met with the howls and cries of monstrous apes, Onigumo looked up at a throne made of vines and flowers.

There, lounging on the vines was an auburn-haired teenage girl wearing a Coat of Justice.

Pretty, if a little short, the girl was eating a peach while looking sideways at him – and this took the Vice Admiral aback.

Nobody, not even the Leader of the Procurements Department had so dismissively regarded him. Onigumo was a veteran Vice Admiral who had been in many battles, and in the second that he realized that Yoko didn’t plan on dropping down and saluting him, his temper flared.

Of course, he would not drag the girl down off the vines in this situation – he had been explicit orders to not do anything like that because with Kizaru and Tensie wanted to test Bill, they hadn’t come to actually fight – but looking around and seeing the Martial Monkeys, Del Kongs, and other creatures that were obviously not Marines, he had another idea.

An idea that he thought could put Bill in his place.

“Smells like simians…” Onigumo said in disgust while he looked into the trees, but before he could continue, he was cut off by a laugh and retort.

“All I smell is a spider, though?” then turning her head in his direction, Yoko continued while looking down at him: “… a particularly ugly spider too, but don’t worry, we don’t squash spiders… except when they don’t scurry away!”

That last part she had said with a smile and another laugh though her eyes were still looking down.

This time though her laugh was joined by a couple dozen monkeys, and for Onigumo he had already heard enough to rage, and looking up still, he said harshly: “You’re still sitting up there? Why haven’t you come down and given me a salute proper for my rank, didn’t that boy train you better? Has being around these beasts gone to your head?”

Then, gritting his teeth, he said: “Are you even a Marine, or are you rebelling?!”

For the overwhelming majority of Marines, this sort of accusation and threat by a Vice Admiral would have their backs soaked in sweat.

But superhumans were themselves different, Marine or not, often what made a superhuman ‘super’ was their Will. And like Yoko who had her quirks, so did Onigumo.

For him, he could not stand it when his authority was in question. He could not stand to lose face in front of anyone, but especially those younger and weaker than him.

But to this, the girl did not know, nor would she have cared if she did know.

Yoko hated Onigumo and only a very small number of people could have stopped her when she stopped lounging, turned to fully face the Vice Admiral, and responded thus:

“Salute you?

How could I salute a deceiver and a chicken? And as for my training, huh, training is the only reason why this lady hasn’t plucked off a couple of your legs and chased you off her island.”

By now, Onigumo was looking at Yoko with black eyes and even if he didn’t intend it at first, he could not let a 17-year-old Marine talk to him as such.

So, in a deep voice, he simply replied: “I’ll give you one chance. Come down now and present yourself. Kneel and surrender yourself into my custody for punishment if you do not- “Stop talking out of your spinner!”

Now, jumping up with her feet on the vine throne, while Onigumo was calm like a spider in its net, she was like a chimpanzee whirled up into a frenzy.

And as she talked loudly, more and more monkeys came around to see what was going on…

“You’re a liar! You lied on Bill because you were too weak, and because you’re a coward you had to go to the Fleet Admiral help!

And because of you we had to go to Marineford, and because we went to Marineford, Bill had to ferry that traitor Vergo across the New World!

So, how could I salute you? How could I ever show you any respect? This lady doesn’t understand why Bill didn’t break your back when he first saw you… do you know how many people died because of your lies?!”

By now there were at least fifty apes of all kinds who had come to see what was happening, including a trio of Del Kongs.

And for Yoko, remembering the massacre of Marines at Foodvalten by [Vice Admiral Vergo] – a massacre that she had to clean up because she had her clones, and everyone else was so badly hurt – her eyes were turning red from grief.

Of course, she had seen dead people before that. ‘Little East Blue Island’ was frequently raided by pirates, and death was not so uncommon.

But never had she seen death to such a degree until that time, and the memory of pulling the bloody bodies of people she knew down from the ratlines was enough to make her both cry and rage.

And so, as she swore at Onigumo, and then thought she saw him curl his lip up into a smile, she snatched the [Compliance Staff] out of her hair and extending it into a pole, she yelled: “Beat this Bastard!”

Being the first to go, Yoko jumped down from the throne of vines and swung her staff down at a speed most Rear Admirals wouldn’t have been able to react to.

But Onigumo wasn’t a veteran Vice Admiral for nothing and, deflecting the staff with a palm, he proceeded to backhand her several meters away.

As he did so, numerous other weapons came chopping down at him.

Instantly sprouting 6 arms from his back, he stopped them all and shoved off the attackers, sending most flying but before he could think a huge fist came hurling his way, making him dodge to the side.

Looking up at the Del Kong – a monstrous gorilla who could easily fight against most vice admirals, Onigumo sneered, and jumped towards it.

Using a mixture of Shave, Iron Body, and Finger Gun, Onigumo punched the gorilla hard once and then dodging to the side again hit another Del Kong twice.

Unlike the others the Del Kong didn’t go flying away but reeling back and howling in pain and anger they swung their fists down – causing Onigumo to dodge into a narrow window where the third Del Kong struck out hard!

Getting hit with a fist as large as his chest, the Vice Admiral guarded with his arms, and grunting, mumbled:

“Storm Leg: Spiders Web!”

Starting from underneath the huge monstrous arm, Onigumo used his extra arms as leverage and delivered a series of ripping kicks that tore through the Del Kongs skin and in almost an instant the ape was covered in blood and had lost the ability to fight back.

But before he could move to the other apes, Onigumo dodged his head sideways – avoiding Yoko’s staff – and tried to grab it, only to miss by a hair’s breadth.

For her part, Yoko had been beaten aside once, but that didn’t mean she’d simply let it happen twice.

Seeing that she had missed, Yoko clicked her teeth angrily and moved closer to Onigumo.

Stabbing her staff like a spear, swinging it around like a scythe, and using it as leverage to deliver kicks, she missed Onigumo time and time again.

She knew he had Observation Haki, and it grinded her gears that she couldn’t stop it.

Of course, Onigumo didn’t have powerful [Precognition], but he didn’t need it.

His body was stronger than even the Del Kongs, his speed was faster than the Monkey Troopers, and besides Yoko herself, none of the monkeys would have posed any sort of problem individually.

But there were many, and while Yoko didn’t possess Observation Haki, she did have more fighting experience than would be expected from a girl her age, and coupled with her natural talent, she anchored the attack against Onigumo that resulted in him being hit quite a few times despite his eight arms.

Of course, a lot of it was that he was not going to the ‘kill’.

Onigumo hit hard enough to hurt badly, maybe even to injure, but still controlled himself enough so that there wasn’t a massacre.

Hitting this way and that way, one after another monkey fell off to the side until after what seemed like a long time it was finally just Yoko and Onigumo.

And with his eight arms he caught her.

And no sooner than he did, there was a soft thud from behind him, and a big hand was placed on his shoulder.

“Bill!” Cried Yoko, squirming in Onigumo’s spider hands.

“He started it! I was just here, minding my own business and he came, and he insulted us!”

“He even called me a rebel!”

Hearing Yoko’s broken sentences as she squirmed, Bill wasn’t dumb and realized that she was probably at least somewhat at fault for this.

But when he heard her say that Onigumo called her a ‘rebel’ he believed her fully.

Because he knew Onigumo’s character, knowing that the Vice Admiral would lay that kind of accusation, and knowing the troubles that accusation could bring, Bill breathed heavy and gripped Onigumo’s shoulders firmly.

Bill was a man who could destroy a mountain. He had lifted an island in mid-air and pulled a metropolis across the waves over day and night.

For Onigumo, Bill’s hand on his shoulder may as well have been the weight of the heavens – and he was no Atlas.

Sweating slightly, with a terrible look on his face, when Bill said: “Drop Her…” he nonetheless did so without a second’s hesitation.

About to say something else to the Vice Admiral, suddenly Bill felt something behind him, resisting the urge to react, and then felt a hand pressed on his shoulder.

“Oh-ho-oh!” laughed Kizaru, and then, his voice changed when he said: “Follow your own advice Commodore, you should let him go now.”

Hearing the command, he was unflustered.

This was ‘apparently’ what they wanted all along.

Turning his free fist a dark gray, he slung it back with enough speed that even an Admiral would find it impossible to dodge.

After all.

All superhumans had quirks.

Even Bill.