The Marine

Following closely behind two Marine vessels, Zephyr stood on the bow of his fat-bellied galleon with his arms crossed, thinking about what he had to do.

His stance to abandon the New World was met with support from several dozen lower-ranked veteran Marine Officers, particularly those who served in the Summit War under him, but as grateful as he was to have their support, they weren’t what he needed to move the needle.

Having faced rejection both nicely and harshly by several of his former trainees, trainees who were powerful and now had authoritative Commissions from the World Government, the former Admiral was grasping at straws.

The strongest Lieutenants he had pulled to his side were Ain, Shuzo, and Binz – and they were excellent Marines – but they lacked a level of strength to influence the fence-sitters who thought that he was right but didn’t want to step out of line with the new Fleet Admiral.

As for influencing Marineford itself, Zephyr had no legs to stand on.

He himself was a man in his 70’s and didn’t have many years left in this world, he knew that Sakazuki respected him, but that respect was not nearly enough to call off his planned crusade into the New World.

After the execution of his grandson and subsequent retirement, Zephyr didn’t believe he could rely on Garp, and truly, he didn’t believe it would change anything even if Garp did support his stance.

Like him, Garp was an old man… and reputation only carried so much weight with the brass.

Long gone were the days that either he or Garp could lead Marines into battle and inspire the world with their Justice.

Standing there on his ship, following behind a stoically sailing Marine Battleship and small-sized Marine Frigate which was positively jumping with activity and singing sea shanties that he could hear from a half mile away, Zephyr knew that he needed to rope in a figure who could stand up tall even in the face of Marineford – a Marine who could inspire the rank and file like he and Garp had once done.

And out of all the young Marines that he had ever come into contact with, William ‘Bill’ Ox was Marine that stood out to him.

Of course, there were other young Marines that Zephyr recognized.

Garp’s protégé, Koby, had not long ago been given the epithet of ‘Hero’ for his defense of civilians and the defeat of the former Rocks’ Pirate, Ochoku.

The [Incident at Rocky Port] was an important event, but it was one that proved that Koby would not be the Marine that Zephyr was looking for. Firstly, because it showed that Koby was actively pursuing Justice in the New World, and secondly, because the incident saw the rise of a new Warlord: Trafalgar Law.

Zephyr hated the Warlord system, he didn’t hate Koby as a person for working with Law, but it did leave a bad taste in the old Marines mouth.

Besides Koby, there were a few other young Marines – but all had certain flaws.

Not all of them were character flaws, but many of them were, and besides having a good character, Zephyr needed the young Marine to have a certain level of strength.

And this all led back to the youth that he had met in the New World, the young Marine who he had spent time with on Jail Island.

The young Marine who had been strong enough to throw him off his ship…

In fact, Zephyr had tried to contact Bill several times but kept getting the run-around from Egghead Island.

With Bill’s Commission from the Science Division, except for a few in Marineford itself, it wasn’t easy for others in the Marine organization to even know about him, much less get in contact with him without going through the official channels from Egghead Island.

This was one thing that shocked Zephyr when he heard about ‘The Sheriff’ Ranse McGrew.

That young Marine hero was known not only for defeating the Beast Wave in the East Blue, but also for meeting dozens of local leaders across the Blue for the previous several years.

And when Zephyr tried to contact him and got the same run-around that he had gotten when trying to contact Bill, the old Marine put two-and-two together and realized that very probably Ranse McGrew worked under Bill Ox!

This made Zephyr realize that alongside Sasha Zima and Ricky Occhiali, both of whom were exceptional by themselves, Bill Ox may have a slew of talent working under him that had gone overlooked for almost 10 years!

Added to the fact that they were all so young, mere youngsters who hadn’t even reached their potential in Zephyrs’ eyes, the old Marine had to actively tamp down his expectations.

Thinking this, the days passed with Zephyr following behind the Marine ships, contacting various people via Communications Snail, chatting with Ain and the rest of his crew, and generally keeping his head on his shoulders.

And that worked until after nearly another week, the ships spotted land and transmissions from the M.S.S Salamander indicated that they had reached the waters of New Haven.

Standing on the bow of his ship with Ain and Binz behind him the first thing Zephyr saw was the islands and could just make out tall mountain peaks in the distance.

The second thing Zephyr saw was a few communities along the shore, which were quickly overshadowed by the massive floating city of gold, Gran Tesoro.

With how Gran Tesoro had been anchored, it blocked the initial view of New Haven proper, making the third thing that Zephyr saw being a large Marine fortress…

As the White Tiger slowly sailed its way into New Haven’s natural harbor, the old Marine adjusted his eyes to see in the distance, looking up to the island that lay behind the fortress, and was stunned.

And it wasn’t just him.

Ain breathed heavily, Binz clicked his tongue, and several of the Marines on the White Tiger stopped what they were doing.

Because there in the distance, even with the naked eye, the highest level of the island radiated with strange activity.

Although it was still daytime, bubble shields could be seen popping in and out of existence and arcs of electricity could be noticed passing through several tall structures.

With a drydock with four medium-sized Marine Frigates being worked on and an apparently wealthy town that could be clearly seen on the other side of the beach, Zephyr couldn’t help but think that he had underestimated the young Marine who he wanted to contact…

Talking without looking back, Zephyr said: “Ain, go and find out whatever information you can on the island of New Haven…” he wanted to add that he should have known about a technological island so close to Sabaody Archipelago, but the words didn’t come out.

Because standing there on the docks that they would anchor at, Zephyr saw Marines running to-and-fro, and at the center of the activity was a man who dwarfed the rest.

‘Bill…’ Zephyr thought to himself.

Knowing it wouldn’t be long now, the old Marine started issuing orders to his own people.

No matter what, he had to make a good impression. If he failed now, Zephyr did not know what he would do...

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

Standing on the dock, Bill watched expectantly as the Salamander and Flying Nimbus sailed into port but slowly turned stone-faced when he saw the ruckus Monkey Minks singing their shanties and Boss the Beetle flying around the ship in circles.

If those fools had been doing that the entire trip home, Bill thought he’d genuinely have no face left to show any higher-ranking Marine Officer…

After only several minutes, from behind the two ships a third could be seen.

A large fat-bellied galleon with a White Tiger figurehead.

Bill knew this was Zephyr’s flagship, and waiting there at the dock, he stood ready to welcome his own people back and greet the new arrival.

Zephyr would be formally the first Marine outside of the Procurements Department to visit New Haven, and Bill would put his best foot forward.

After all, first impressions were the strongest.

So, standing straight, Bill waited for the ships to dock.

First, he saw Sasha and Ricky, to which he saluted and smiled – telling them that he was nice to see them and that it had been a long half a year.

And they agreed to that, with Sasha adding that they had much to talk about.

Second was Yoko, who quickly saluted before coming to give him a big bear hug. Acting cute and nice because she knew he was mad with her, Bill told her to dismiss her crew and go back home – he’d deal with her later.

But before seeing the crew off, Bill pulled Roule and Akisu aside and told them both to write a detailed report on what had happened and how they ended up on Sabaody.

When Yoko gave them evil eyes, he gave her evil eyes, forcing the girl to turn around and act like nothing happened.

Finally, there was Zephyr.

Standing on the dock with Nelson and a squad of Marines slightly behind him, Bill watched the old Marine walk down the ramp with his two Lieutenants behind him.

Meeting the old man face to face, Bill spoke first: “It’s nice to see you Sir…” calling Zephyr ‘sir’ mostly due to his age, but also because he did respect the old man.

Not done there though, after giving a perfect Marine salute to Zephyr, Bill turned to the others and said with a smile: “Rear Admiral Ain, Captain Binz, it’s good to see you two still in fine health.”

This prompted smiles from the trio, and naturally Zephyr responded first with his own salute before saying: “Where have the years gone? It’s nice to see you too!”

Following him was Ain and then Binz, each of which mirrored the same sentiment.

Nodding his head after Binz spoke, Bill continued: “You’ve had a long journey here, I’ve made preparations for your men to stay in our barracks and for your officers to stay in private rooms, Admiral Zephyr, allow my Commander, Nelson Royale, and his men to show your men to their accommodations while I take you to the residences we’ve prepared.”

Getting a positive result from this suggestion, Bill waited for Zephyr to deliver his instructions to his crew and then started personally leading the group of four to their arrangements.

Situated near the Procurements Department main headquarters, not far from the harbor-fortress, a hotel was constructed primarily for the purpose of accommodating envoys and foreign merchants.

Naturally, having been little used, the hotel wasn’t something that they expected to earn money from any time soon but it was seen by Bill as a necessity.

Because he knew eventually that New Haven would be a major hub of trade in this part of the Gran Line, and while he would not personally meet with the foreign merchants who needed to obtain licenses to freely trade inside the archipelago, those people needed somewhere to stay while negotiating whatever contracts needed to be made.

Walking only slightly in front of Zephyr in order to lead the way, Bill and the old man spoke about recent events and the uptick in pirate activity around the world while the others were looking around and being quiet.

“I know in the East Blue that the Worldwide Draft has already brought in tens of thousands of new recruits, the number of raw materials needed to cloth them alone is staggering…” saying this Bill shook his head, and then added: “… but I guess Marineford knows what it’s doing… I’ll tell you though, even from the trivial reports I’m getting it seems there’s no peaceful place left.”

Though he downplayed it, Bill had gotten a lot of intel from the East Blue thanks to Bascud and the PIB.

Currently, Marineford’s goal in that sea was to raise 100,000 new Marines, to build 50 more ships heavy ships, and to add 100 more smaller vessels – like Brigs and Caravels – to act as merchant escorts.

Nodding his head to Bill’s comment, Zephyr naturally agreed with this, and added ruefully that even though it was impressive what Marineford had done in a short period of time, it still was not enough to bring order to the seas because soon virtually all the veteran Marines from the Blues would be called up to go to war in the New World.

This comment made Bill feel somewhat helpless, but depending on the training they received, it was possible for those new recruits to accomplish their purpose in the Blues.

After all, if the ‘peaceful’ East Blue was raising 100,000 Marines, what about the other Blues?

But not mentioning this, Bill just slightly shrugged and claimed that he just hoped the actions in the New World didn’t mirror the Summit War…

“At least now Admirals Kizaru and Aokiji have experience fighting Pirate Emperors…” Bill sighed then quickly continued: “… if the Worldwide Draft can collect just a small handful of figures similar to them, then with their leadership, at least not all hope is lost.”

Hearing Bill say this, Zephyr suddenly stopped walking, and turning to look at the old Marine, Bill asked ‘what?’ and was surprised to hear the former Admirals response.

“You haven’t heard? Bill, Kuzan… huh, Admiral Aokiji, left the Marines… he’s… who knows where he is, but he’s not coming back.”

Hearing Zephyr say this, Bill was taken aback.

How would the Marines cope with powers in the New World while missing one of their most powerful members?

If Whitebeard’s crew and allies could drag Marineford to a bloodstained victory, what about the forces of all the Pirate Emperors combined?

Thinking through the implications of losing Aokiji, Bill talked a lot less as he took Zephyr and the others to their rooms.

He told them that they were free to move and explore the first two levels of New Haven, but not the third level, and that he’d host a dinner in the evening.

When that dinner came, unease could be felt between Zephyr, Sasha, and Ricky, but the old Marine addressed it outright.

He claimed that he had treated those two harshly, but not without reason.

Spots in Marineford Academy were scarce, and with very few exceptions all young Marines sent there had signed an extended contract – serving at least until they were 38.

This meant, in Zephyr’s view, to be admitted to the most prominent Marine Academy the cadet needed to be a lifer, otherwise, it wasn’t worth the investment.

So, seeing two cadets from the South Blue come and take away two spots from life-long Marines, Zephyr had treated them harshly.

But not unfairly, he added.

“If you were only going to be in the Marines for 6 years, and 2 or 3 of those years were spent at Marineford Academy, then you needed to be able return that investment in a short amount of time.

And the only way you were going to do that is if you were strong enough to overcome any challenge, so, that’s what I did.

I put you through challenges that seemed unfair but were meant to prepare you for what was to come. Neither of you should have been reassigned to the Science Division, you should have been assigned to a Marine Division in the Gran Line.

I’m very glad to see you still in uniform, and I’m amazed by how strong you have become, but I don’t regret doing what I did.”

Hearing what the former Admiral said, Bill shook his head, but not from disappointment.

Running training programs on INFERNO Island, he knew the costs of training recruits – and knew that to get normal humans past the level of being simply ‘fit’ was an incredibly hard task.

If he was forced to give his opinion, he would say that while he understood Zephyr’s point, at the end of the day, it wasn’t Zephyr’s decision.

It was the decision for the brass at Marineford.

If they authorized two Marines who hadn’t signed the extended contract to attend the Academy, then Zephyr should have treated them the same. If he had problems with that, he should have gone upstairs and filed a complaint.

But, for an old Instructor like Zephyr, Bill wasn’t so harsh as to call him out, and although Sasha had a few words for Zephyr’s excuse, the mood of the dinner had lifted a lot.

After all, Sasha’s and Ricky’s work in the Procurement Department almost certainly dwarfed whatever work they would have done elsewhere.

When dinner finally ended, Bill set up a meeting with Zephyr for the next day to show him the Iron Wardens.

What the old Marine saw in Bill’s laboratory blew his socks off, and doubling down that he needed Bill’s support, he was ready to support Bill himself, only to be asked a question that shook him.

Standing in front of two unique Iron Wardens, Bill suddenly asked the former Admiral: “Zephyr, you’ve been around for many decades, and you’ve been around centers of power in the World Government… and I'm new to it all, but tell me the truth, do you really think it's Justice for the Celestial Dragons to be above the law?”