The Marine

“What the…”

Standing in the hold of a large Battleship, Bill looked over the fusion reactor he had ordered in confusion.

The machine was in pieces, not broken up, but it seemed to have been completely disassembled down to its smallest parts. This was a problem because even though Bill had graduated with a degree in engineering, it was definitely not in engineering Energy Systems.

Behind him stood the Vice Admiral who had made the shipment. The man had been inexplicably short tempered from the moment Bill came to the port.

Bill wasn’t sure if the man was upset that he had to wait, being that Bill was in the tunnels when the Battleship arrived, or if it was something else.

Whatever it was, one thing Bill did know was that this Vice Admiral had a Devil Fruit and the wraith behind him had been flickering since he arrived at the docks.

This was not normal; he had spent enough time around Smoker and then Fia to know that the flickering from imaginary to real space only happened when the ability was about to be used.

Could this Vice Admiral really be thinking about attacking him because he was made to wait? Impossible, Bill thought.

But no matter what, he wouldn’t doubt his third eye and so as Bill walked around the containers and boxes carrying the pieces of his reactor and refiner, he kept notice to where this Vice Admiral Onigumo was.

Vice Admiral Onigumo: “Everything is here. What are you looking for, Captain?”

Looking over his shoulder, Bill shrugged and said: “I’m just letting it sink in that they gave me a disassembled nuclear reactor.”

First of all, Bill had never seen the reactor he needed, but this thing was so large he would need a space the size of a high-school gym to set it up…

‘If I can even set it up.’ He thought.

As he did this, Onigumo spoke in a threatening tone: “Everything is here. Nothing has been moved in or out of this hold. Everything remains how the Science Division put it. Do you doubt this, Captain?”

Looking down at the Vice Admiral, who was a tall man but still half a foot shorter than he, Bill was annoyed but figured that the man wouldn’t be there long.

Perhaps he wouldn’t usually have been annoyed at all, but as the Vice Admiral spoke the wraith behind him flickered faster, and that made him think that the man was threatening him for no good reason.

 “Well, I don’t think you stole anything if that’s what you’re asking.” He said in the nicest voice he could, but he almost regretted it when the man replied: “Good, then get this junk off my ship. If you have any issues take it up with Vegapunk or his big lackey.”

It had to be known that despite heading his own Department, Bill spoke to Sentomaru on at least a monthly basis. He spoke to Sentomaru more than he did his parents and often received advice on his commission.

“His name is Sentomaru, and he’s a good man.” Said Bill, who was now eyeing the helmeted Vice Admiral.

When he said this, the man formed a wicked smile and replied: “heh, but you knew who I was talking about.”

Hearing this, Bill simply told the Vice Admiral that he would have his people come and start offloading, and then added that he could go wait in his quarters.

As soon as he said it, Bill regretted escalating whatever was going on. He had just told a Vice Admiral to go wait in his room, and apparently Onigumo caught on to this and said with a dark smile: “No, no. I’ll help you get started now.”

Leaning over to a stack of packaged tubes, Bill saw the man’s wraith turning more in the direction of reality and saw the man’s Coat of Justice sleeve bulge.

Moving on instinct, Bill crossed the length of the area in an instant and held Onigumo by the wrist.

Whatever the space was that held those entities, whether they were wraiths, devils, or angels, in Bill’s third eye he saw it as an ocean of oil.

Its darkness was only broken by bubbly shapes of obscure light that stretched taking the forms of spinning wheel, eyeballs, wings, or other metaphorical objects.

He called that place Chaos for that reason, even though he didn’t know if that word was appropriate.

And so, as Bill held Onigumo’s wrist in real space, and his third eye urged the creation of stone walls to hold that oily ocean back, Bill barely noticed that he was coated in a black silhouette.

The bulge in his coat and sneer on the Vice Admirals face vanished, and it didn’t take but a split second for him to realize that his wrist was no longer under his control.

When Bill urged the barrier between imaginary and real space, he didn’t quite realize that he was compelling reality to reassert itself around him.

Likewise, he didn’t quite realize that he had grabbed the Vice Admiral with just enough strength to completely restrain him.

“What do you think you’re doing Captain?!” shouted the Vice Admiral, doing his best to keep his composure after losing connection with his ability.

“Let me just escort you to your quarters, Vice Admiral.” Said Bill, politely but firmly.

After he said this, Bill started walking the man towards the large doorway and only responded when he was ‘ordered’ to stop.

He had to remind the Vice Admiral that despite the difference in rank, Onigumo was only there as a courier and that duty didn’t give him command authority over a Science Division operation.

After he walked the Vice Admiral safely into his quarters, Bill ignored the threat that he would be reported for ‘striking a superior officer’ and immediately got to work.

The job had to be done quickly, but also absolutely nothing could be damaged and so Bill only brought in Borodo, Masterson, and a few other strong individuals to help with carrying out the crates.

Over the past month, as Bill had been tearing up the bottom of the harbor, they had been too busy cutting the stone and so overlooked the building of port loading cranes. So now they had to lift everything by hand.

This was fine for the most part, Bill could had lifted the whole Battleship if he really had to, but the fusion reactor was large and was so delicate that he couldn’t risk just heaving up and walking it to the shore.

The solution was given by Borodo, who besides being an expert navigator was a very resourceful mechanic. Whereby they would secure ropes around the huge crates and while Bill lifted, they would make sure it didn’t tilt to one side or the other.

This worked, and they made it off the ship in one piece but were then faced with how to transport the thing into the tunnels where the power would be generated.

But with the sky clear, Bill didn’t want the Vice Admiral around for any longer and decided to tell the man the job was done.

Walking onto the main deck of the Battleship the air was tense, and none of the men met Bill’s eye.

He could tell that they didn’t meet his eyes out of spite, he could tell that these men were afraid.

Afraid of what? Well, if he reconsidered the possibility that Onigumo hadn’t been particularly upset with being made to wait then it was possible that the Vice Admiral was severe over any small matter.

Bill could easily tell that none of the Lieutenants or the higher ranked Officers had Devil Fruit abilities. It was possible that the Vice Admiral was a proverbial monster among men.

Groaning in his mind, Bill knew he’d have to file his own report on this matter.

The Marines gave a lot of executive power to Officers who had control over bases and ships. This power included disciplinary actions without the need for any third party.

On one hand, Bill understood the logistical nightmare involved in having a third party intercede in every disciplinary actions.

On the other hand, what Bill was looking at now seemed to indicate that the Vice Admiral abused his authority. If not literally, then he did by intimidation.

Clearly feeling ill at ease, Bill went to the Captains quarters and let himself in. Onigumo sat there behind a desk while he polished a cutlass.

He was using what looked like spider arms, but the ends of what should be legs seemed to operate as hands.

“Vice Admiral, the job is done.” Said Bill.

Not looking up from his saber, Onigumo acknowledged Bill by asking: “Do you doubt Justice, Captain Ox?”

Confused by this sort of question, Bill didn’t walk closer to the man but responded: “I believe that people get what they deserve, and that bad decisions lead to bad outcomes.”

Onigumo: “Is that so? Then what about the bad decision to strike a superior Officer, what bad outcome would that lead to?”

Narrowing his eyes, Bill saw the Vice Admirals sneering face as he looked up from the blade, but he didn’t take the bait and said back: “The job is done, Vice Admiral. Thank you for your efforts but you can go now.”

Turning to go, Bill heard the chair move and smelling ozone strongly in the air he blocked Chaos from manifesting in the room.

Turning back around in a split second, he saw Onigumo standing halfway to him looking irate.

“You! …. Insolent! ….”

Seeing the look of hatred on the mans face, Bill was taken aback from this entire situation. Clearly this person was not fit for authority, much less to be the leader of men.

Thinking this, Bill decided that he should be detained but clearly understood that he had no authority to do so. He needed the man to attack him, which looked like a distinct possibility, as insane as it was.

“Vice Admiral, you need to go sit back in your chair. I will see your vessel smoothly out of port as a thank you.”

Speaking clearly, Bill stood wearing his normal Marine outfit. He had bought a single suit but would only wear it with his Coat of Justice on occasion and he was conscious that he looked no different than he did as a regular Recruit.

He didn’t know for sure but suspected that the Vice Admiral with bloodshot eyes only saw a new Recruit when he grunted: “Shave!”

Appearing in front of Bill, the Vice Admiral swung his sword down diagonally but was only met with the blade being back handed.

As the slash cut through the air and timber in the room Onigumo didn’t waste time in grunting again: “Finger Gun!”

At this close range, Bill couldn’t dodge and Onigumo’s fingertip inserted in his chest.

There was no blood drawn, Bill simply could not bleed from such a small wound, and before the Vice Admiral launched another attack his left wrist was caught by Bill’s left hand.

Then in one motion, Bill pulled hard with his left and swung with a right cross.

Even without preparing his body for combat, the force of the punch shook the Battleship and shattered windows in the room.

Not letting go of the Vice Admirals wrist, the man instantly dropped the saber and slumped to the floor.

Bill could easily read the man’s body and seeing that there was no conscious left, he threw him over his shoulder and walked out of the office carrying him.

He was met by the sight of eighty Marines holding matchlocks and with more coming up from below deck he spoke out loud enough all could hear it.

“The Vice Admiral is being placed under arrest for attempted murder.

You men will lay down your arms and stay onboard this vessel until Marineford has been appraised of the situation.

Any individual who fails to do this will be seen as an accessory to the crime of attempted murder.”

Whether it was because these men were afraid of being accomplices to a crime they didn’t do, or whether it was because Bill spoke to them under the sun and was silhouetted in black, or whether it was because he held Onigumo over his shoulder, or whether it was all of these things, one by one they set down their weapons and raised their hands over their heads.

“You’ve made the correct decision.”

After he said this, Bill saw the dejected looks on their faces and walked to the ramp before his nature got the best of him.

With a huff, he turned around and said loudly: “I feel like I ought to mention, you there!” he pointed to a Marine with an Ensign insignia: “How many Marines are on this ship?”

?: “Uh… That is… Sir… 148 men in total. 42 Special Operators, 12 Culin… “Thank you, that’s enough.” Bill said cutting him off.

“It turns out that the Science Divisions Procurements Department is expanding personnel, we are looking for exactly 148 men. If these transfers are to happen, the sooner I am given the paperwork the better.”

Turning around again, Bill took a few more steps to the ramp before remembering something important: “Ah, right. Ensign!” He said to the man who spoke to last time.

“Come to my office, I forgot that there was a box of unfilled forms I needed to deliver. Apparently, the Vice Admiral here kept his files sparse.”

When Bill said this, he turned around to leave and heard a few of the Marines sink to the floor. He heard ragged breathing and words of disbelief.

The truth was, for this men to be transferred he would have to get either Onigumo’s signature or be authorized by Marineford.

Bill truly did not understand what had happened today, but he did remember one of his earliest memories in this world. One where Aramaki had assaulted Rear Admiral Lacroix for scaring him, one where Lacroix had come to apologize for doing nothing wrong.

Bill was banking that like his father who was worth more than Lacroix, he would be worth more than Onigumo.