The Marine

Sailing into Lougetown, Bill finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It had been a week since the arrest of Krieg and his men, and what seemed to be an ‘easy’ 37m Beli had turned out to be one of the most tedious jobs of his life.

During the last week nobody in the crew besides Yoko had slept for more than five hours at a time.

There turned out to be 271 pirates on Krieg’s dreadnought, over seventy percent of those were dying of dehydration or scurvy. Frontier Run’s holding cell could fit in at most a hundred fifty bodies, but even getting close to that number would have killed half of the sick pirates.

So, the only solution Bill had seen was the put the healthiest pirates in the holding cell while the sick pirates were tied together on the main deck.

Of course, his crew of seven could not care for the needs of over two hundred so they had to become jailers who would take crews of pirates around and observe as they fed and cleaned their comrade’s filth.

 To make matters worse, the two most dangerous pirates seemed to have had a falling out and hated each other’s guts. Due to this, Bill could not keep them in the same holding cell and had to walk around with the Man-Demon Gin tied up behind him.

Due to their proximity, Bill had spoken a lot to the man. Though, these were mostly one-sided conversations he had learned quite a bit over the week.

Apparently, this Gin had followed Krieg since he was a teenager. For a long time, he respected Krieg and feared the larger man’s power but over time this had faded.

‘Krieg is a big fish in a small pond’ was Gin’s estimation, and further that because he was a big fish, he had become stupid and lazy.

When Bill asked why Gin didn’t just leave, the man had grunted that he had to see the crew to safety after their defeat by the Straw Hats.

It wasn’t headline news that pirate crews would fight one another, but surely when two large crews fought that should appear in the paper Bill thought.

When pressed about this, Gin didn’t have much to say about it except the Straw Hats had prevented Krieg from stealing the Baratie. He also seemed to have respect cooks because as Gin spoke respectfully about the Straw Hats cook, a man he called Sanji, he also showed respect for Fia who had prepared hundreds of light meals a day for the last week.

Of course, Bill had written all of this down in reports. He also questioned both men why they had fought and got roughly the same story. Gin wanted to land on one of the islands they were passing for supplies and to repair the ship, Krieg wanted to get to safer waters first.

Apparently, it wasn’t the Straw Hats that the pirate ‘Admiral’ was afraid of. It was a swordsmen they had run into some weeks before. They called the man Dracule Mihawk and said he was a Warlord.

Bill had been shocked when Krieg claimed the man worked for the Marines, and after a lot of scrutiny he believed the pirate enough to ask Sasha and the others.

Both he and Ranse were floored when Sasha and Ricky told them about the Seven Warlords of the Sea and described the perks those notorious pirates received. They also emphasized just how powerful these pirates were and even said they were considered the third greatest power in the world.

After a lot of discussion, Bill wrote this down in the report too and was determined to purchase a Communication Snail as soon as possible, he needed to speak with his father and get a better grasp of that situation.

It did not take a genius to see how such a system could be abused. The fact they would give Pardons to those pirate’s associates was simply madness in the eyes of Bill and Ranse.

Dismissing these thoughts, Bill and the others navigated the ship to port and after they were docked Ricky ran to the Marine base.

271 pirates were a lot to just dump on the streets, so they would follow the local Captains orders in this situation, and it didn’t take like to get a response as Bill eyed smoke closing in fast to their location.

Behind the carpet of smoke was Ricky and dozens of Marines, seeing this Bill adjusted his Coat of Justice and waited as the smoke came over the railings and materialized in the form of a white-haired cigar smoking man.

Looking past Bill, which wasn’t easy considering his size, the smoking Marine Captain scowled as he looked at the prisoners.

His eyes stopped on Krieg, and still scowling he said: “I’m going to personally throw you in jail.”

After his declaration he finally acknowledged Bill and after looking him up and down said: “The names Smoker, the White Hunter. Good work on apprehending these criminals, my boys and I will take it from here.”

Having said this, Smoker stepped forward to act and forced Bill to put his hand up to stop him, before the other Captain could speak Bill said clearly: “It’s nice to meet you Captain Smoker, my name is Captain William Ox, and I have every intention of turning these pirates over to you.

But first, do you have the transfer paperwork?”

This was standard practice; this paperwork was to show who exactly had been caught and it was how Bill would get paid for the bounties.

Smoker now scowled at Bill, but relenting said: “My subordinate will be here shortly with the proper paperwork.”

Nodding his head in appreciation, Bill replied: “Excellent, let’s just wait for him. I’d rather do things by the book.”

Agreeing with this, Smoker said ‘ok’ and started inspecting the pirates. Ricky made it back to the ship quickly and it wasn’t long before Smoker’s men caught up.

Filing on Frontier Run’s deck was about fifty Marines, including one short-haired swordswoman who came over to Bill and Smoker.

“Captain! Here are your documents!”

 Looking at his subordinate, Smoker said gruffly: “Tashigi, this is Captain Ox. Work with him on the transfer documents. There are four major bounties among these men. They are: Ideaman the Planner, Pearl the Iron Wall, Gin the Man-Demon, and ‘Foul-Play’ Don Krieg.”

Nodding her head, Tashigi wrote down the names on her notepad then stepped towards Bill, looking up she extended a hand and said: “Nice to meet you Captain Ox, my name is Tashigi and if you’ll come with me, we can get these prison transfers sorted.”

Nodding his head, Bill smiled and shook her head. Turning back to Smoker he asked if he needed help, but the Captain said it wouldn’t be necessary.

By now there were a couple hundred Marines lining the docks, the news of Don Krieg having been captured already spread.

Still, Bill instructed his crew to stay on the ship and aid Smoker if asked while he went with Tashigi to their offices. Filling out the appropriate paperwork Bill handed over his report on the pirates and after walked out with 37m Beli and figured at least million of that would need to be spent restocking Frontier Run as feeding so many cut deep into their food reserves.

Leaving the branch, Bill saw Smoker and walked over to him. With a slight smile he asked if Smoker had a minute to speak and got an affirmative answer.

“Do you drink?” asked Smoker as they walked.

Laughing at this Bill said he could put them away if he had to, which was an understatement. Bill would never get drunk if he didn’t want to.

They walked to a bar quite close to the Marine branch and picked a suitable table for Bill to easily sit down at.

“So… what did you want to talk about?” ask the Captain after taking a drink.

Bill did likewise, the glass looking small in his hand then said his piece: “It’s about Pearl and Gin. They’re pirates, but I feel like they could be reformed… especially Gin.”

Grunting, Smoker and shook his head and claimed, ‘once a pirate always a pirate’. It was clear that he didn’t think much of the idea, but Bill pressed on.

“In this case we should factor in the fact that both of these men were taken in by Krieg as teenagers and molded to being who they are.  

Impressment of pirates is generally a bad idea. I agree with you there, but Gin especially has expressed regret. I’ve spent an entire week with him glued to me, and I’ve seen pirates given pardons for less.”

Scowling when he heard this, Smoker asked why Bill didn’t recruit them if he was so sure, but Bill had considered it and his reason was simple: “I think they can be reformed, but my crew is only seven people. The risk is too much, one of my seven is an eleven-year-old Chore Boy.”

Smoker didn’t think much of it but said he would interrogate the pirates and make his judgement then.

For Bill’s part that was all he wanted, next he asked if Smoker’s branch had any Eternal Pose to Clockwork Island.

Surprisingly they did, Smoker said, but he would have to return it if he wanted to use it.

This was acceptable, Bill needed to start stocking Blank Pose’s but at the cost of 1m Beli each they weren’t cheap, even if his ventures funds were now a total of 80.5m Beli.

After their drink he followed Smoker back to the branch and took the Pose and walking back to Frontier Run found only Ranse on board.

“How’d it go?” he asked as Bill stepped on the deck.

Shaking his head, Bill slightly smiled and replied: “Uhh… Fine. Captain Smoker is a bit of a hard ass but is professional enough. I talked to him about Gin and Pearl but” he shrugged his shoulders “he was lukewarm on the idea.”

Nodding his head that he understood, Ranse asked: “I understand Pearl, but I thought for sure you were going to recruit Gin, you spoke to him all week.”

Bill: “What would you have thought of that?”

Not measuring his words when it was just the two of them, Ranse said simply: “Dangerous.”

Bill: “Yep, and that’s why. Maybe if Yoko wasn’t here, we could take that risk… but now we just can’t.”

Ranse agreed and the two buddies talked as they waited for the others to get back.

As a part of Ricky’s responsibilities, Bill had given him access to one of the safes in his office. That safe would carry about 5m Beli and was set aside as ‘Liquid Funds’.

This was the money meant to be spent on supplies and other necessities. The other money was spread out in several other safes, Bill wasn’t comfortable with storing all his eggs in one basket, something he had learned from his parents on Earth.

After a couple of hours everyone had returned to the ship, and Ricky had a surprise when he shown Bill a large middle-aged looking Communication Snail.

“Excellent find! What’d it cost us?”

Looking smugly Ricky pushed his glasses up, he was wearing the swirly ones today, and said: “It was originally 5m Beli, but I talked the clerk down to 2.5.”

Hearing this Bill slapped Ricky on the shoulder, gave him a ‘good job’, and took the Snail into his office.

Communication Snails were like phones except they had to eat, they could die, and they could also get stressed and that’s why most Marines only kept them at their headquarters.

A stressed Communication Snail was one of the world animals on the planet, they would blow out like a siren nonstop until they were calmed down, which sometimes took quite a while.

Sitting down at his desk Bill could feel the ship pulling out of port. He had given Ranse the Eternal Pose and the ship would be headed towards Clockwork Island.

He was excited to finally reach the island, and he had rehearsed his sales pitch over and over again. If he could get working Engineers, the Diamond Clock would be the bases his first big sales.

But for now, Bill was thinking about something else. He wanted to know about the Warlord system and there was only one person he knew he could ask for the truth.

Dialing up the Snail, there was a *Beep* Boop *Beep* Boop *Beep*

Then the Snail took on a familiar tone and expression.

“This is Commodore Aramaki of Vallipo Archipelago. Identify yourself.”