The Marine

Using his bare hands to break up a massive iron gear, Bill thought about the past several months.

Color of Observation

Color of Armament

Color of the Conqueror

These were the three broad outlines Aramaki had given Bill for the ways Haki manifested itself.

His father had called them ‘colors’ in lieu of any better description. As in the same way that no two people quite saw ‘red’ the same, likewise no two people quite used Haki in the same manner.

‘In general,’ Bill thought of what his dad had said while worked: ‘Haki takes the form of Presence, Fortitude, and Compulsion.

All beings have these abilities, whether or not they lay dormant and never appear, because they are the fundamental to all life.’

He went on to explain that in the past Haki was called psychic power, but these days it was called Haki due to it being a more accurate description of spiritual power affecting the users’ surroundings.

Psychic powers, as Aramaki explained, were different despite also using spiritual energies because unlike Haki which was the natural sense that all living creatures had, psychic powers could be wholly separate from anything in nature.

One of his examples of this was Fortune Telling, which according to Aramaki was unreliable but still a very real ability some people had.

All of this made Bill wonder about what other potential psychic powers there could be, but after a while he put this to the back of his mind and continued to work.

Cracking off one large piece of iron at a time, he broke them up into hand-sized chunks before throwing them onto his pile of rubble.

After three months of working, the wreckage of Clockwork Island had turned into numerous large scrap-iron hills and the rock and dirt had been displaced to form a protected harbor.

Standing up straight and looking around, it was unfortunate, but the island was doomed to wash away.

There was nothing he could do about it, the fall having completely smashed the islands foundation, even now he could feel the ground soggier than what it was when he arrived.

But there was still time, he reckoned, though because of this he had to remake certain plans.

Primarily, this was the plan to use the Victory as a sort of boathouse while the new town was being constructed.

This made sense initially due to the galleons large size, but now, he needed the Victory here to tow as much material as possible.

The ship couldn’t be stripped down, but even with the weight of the huge towers on its deck Bill and the others calculated it could hold some nine-hundred tons.

This was about three times as much as the largest wooden galleons on Earth could carry, and the ship could have held a lot more if they had more time to properly refit it.

But time was running out.

It had been roughly five months since Bear King destroyed the island, and Bill guessed that it only had a couple more years until the whole base was under water.

Finishing up his last piece of iron for the time being, Bill went down to the campsite.

Masterson and the trio had been sent away to gather an extra month’s supply of provisions and so that only left Yoko, Carol, the old teacher, and Nelson.

It was midday and the girls were being tutored, over the months Yoko had developed nearly the same routine Bill had when he was young.

This was impressive, but he always cautioned her that strength wasn’t everything and that she should live and enjoy life.

He didn’t feel hypocritical by giving this advice, after all, even if Bill had followed a stricter routine when he was young, he had already lived a full life once before.

But the girl was determined, she even wanted to use a hammer because as she put it “that would be fun”.

Bill had tried his best to lessen the girls hate for pirates, and to some extent he had. Though the truth was that change happened internally, and besides being present there was little else he could do.

Carol had taken mostly to learning from the old engineer and even from Bill from time to time. Yoko had pressured her into exercising together but that didn’t seem to be her interest.

Then there was Nelson.

He had to give it to the man, even after three months Nelson still threatened and swore to the high heavens that Bill would get what was coming to him.

Now that the man had lost just over a hundred pounds, he was still far from walking on his own two feet, but at least now he could move the sponge stick easier when Bill threw him in the water.

Walking over to the man who was laid back on a wheelbarrow Bill spoke in an upbeat manner: “Good afternoon, Nelson. Ready to go for a walk?”

Starring into the horizon Nelson didn’t react initially, but once Bill moved forwards, he said: “Listen, I’m going to offer you a one-time deal. The best deal you’re ever going to get.”

Stopping in his tracks, Bill lifted an eyebrow and Nelson continued to speak: “I’ll forgive you for all of the way’s you’ve humiliated me, the ways you’ve bullied and beat me, the ways you’ve starved me.

If only you give me back my ship, recruit me a crew, and send me on my way.”

Then looking over slowly from the horizon to Bill’s face, Nelson said venomously: “If you don’t, I’m going to ruin you.”

When he said this, Bill just sighed and shook his head before saying: “Nelson, there’s an old saying the ‘hatred poisons the vessel that holds it’.”

Then walking around Bill grabbed Nelson from behind, which was easier now due to the weight loss by Nelson making it not so likely that his own weight would break his bones, and the fact that Bill had been essentially body building for three months.

With an ‘umph’ Bill lifted Nelson up and continued to speak: “You think I’m humiliating you, but I’m actually saving your life.”

As he spoke, he wabbled Nelson around and the former Commodore was trained enough to move his legs.

“Why do you think I’m doing this?”

*huff* *huff*

Nelson: “Because you’re a sick deranged individual! You’re *huff* thinking *huff* this is funnnnyyy!”

Hearing this, Bill set Nelson down easily and walked around to face him.

Then looking him in the eye, Bill shook his head and said: “No. I don’t think this is funny. I think this is sad, and I believe you are better than this.”

Then putting a hand on his shoulder, he continued: “But you will never get better until you, yourself, believe that you’re worth more than…” Bill gestured to the man’s huge gut “this.”

Walking back around him, Bill lifted the man back up and after what seemed like a long time of silence, he heard Nelson say quietly: “What do you, an eighteen-year-old boy who has everything, possibly know?”

It had been a long time since Bill had his physical age mentioned to him. Whether it was Captain Maynard, Hina, Smoker, or Vegapunk everyone had all treated him as an adult.

Of course, he acted as an adult and gave no reason to be treated as a teenager, but after hearing Nelson say this, Bill found it ridiculous himself that he would offer advice to the former Commodore who was in his late twenties.

But now that the question had been raised, the only thing he could do was answer truthfully: “What do I know? Well, I know that addictions can’t be beaten for you. An addict has to overcome themselves or there will never be change.

I also know that the root of most addictions is a sense of low self-esteem, addicts don’t change because in their hearts they don’t think they deserve better. They can’t be responsible because how can they care about anything else when they don’t care about themselves?”

Whether or not this triggered anything, Bill didn’t know but Nelson started screaming before he had even finished: “A commoner telling me that I don’t have self-esteem?!

Squehahaha!

Let me tell you something, I’m fifth in line to the throne of Frauce Kingdom!! My worth is miles beyond yours! So, what, you mastered Life Return? You mastered some of the Six Powers? You can use Haki?

You have all that and I’m still born superior to you!”

After he ranted, Nelson sweated and huffed before nearly whispering: “… This is how the world works.”

After he finished, Bill didn’t throw the man to the ground or mistreat him. After all, no matter what Nelson said it was Bill who had the power in the situation.

Bill: “You can believe that if you want to, but I read your files, Nelson.”

Step by step, the workout for Nelson was almost done but Bill kept talking.

“Look at the state you’re in now compared to where you were eleven years ago. You graduated near the top of your class in the cadet academy, you had an awesome commission which would have ensured gradual promotion through the Ranks. Even if you would never have the strength to be an Admiral, becoming Vice Admiral would not have been a farfetched dream.

But instead, you stagnated and let your addiction shape you into what you are now.”

By now the walk had finished and Bill brought the sweaty Nelson to a running pool he had carved out for him. It was clean, but salty and it had been the best he could do on this wreckage of an island.

“You chased for immortality? But did you really think that you deserved it?”

Cutting Nelson off from talking, Bill said: “Only you know that, but ask yourself, would you have lost the way you did if you could have walked around, what would have happened if you could have given orders on your own two feet instead of relying on subordinates who were both terrified and disgusted by you?”

Then leaning in closer to the naked Nelson who bobbed around the water, Bill asked: “And if you’re as superior as you claim you are, why are you not terrified and disgusted by what you’ve become?”

After this, Nelson didn’t respond, and Bill didn’t feel good having told him this.

As for Nelson’s previous threats, Bill had no concern whatsoever. Despite himself he had contacted Sentomaru and Aramaki and asked about the legal protections Nelson had been screaming about, and both of them said that kingdom nobility who entered the Marines had no such protections.

In fact, by now Bill had reconciled with the fact that Nelson would be under his care for the next nine years. Once he hit the age of thirty-eight his service contract would be over, and the man would go on his way.

At this point Bill didn’t think to differentiate kingdom and world nobles and assumed them to be in the same category. After all, kingdom nobles make up the Levely which negotiated worldwide affairs.

Fishing Nelson out, Bill airdried him with a huge hand-held fan and set him back down. He then walked around to the area Yoko and Carol were being taught mathematics, or more particularly, about buoyancy and how exactly huge ships didn’t sink.

The girls listened to various levels of interest while Bill made a few simple meals. Once lunchtime had arrived the four of them ate at a table he had constructed out of iron and stone.

He had offered Nelson to come over, but the man wasn’t in any mood. He ate a normal serving and didn’t complain for seconds.

The next month was more of the same as the past three.

Bill directed what he could via Communication Snail and his scrap iron hills turned more and more into small scrap iron mountains.

There were millions of tons of iron, so much that Bill started to calculate how much he could sell to merchants.

This would be an enormous sum of money, if he could sell it all it would be easily worth a couple billion Beli even at moderate prices.

Unfortunately, the island would sink before it could all be moved, and the price of recovery wasn’t worth it to his Department.

Furthermore, he couldn’t stay on the island to work as a porter. There were no piers for merchant ships to dock at and, even if there were, there were no cranes to lift tons of materials in any efficient manner.

Because of these realities, Bill decided to send the word out that he was selling the scrap and charging per shipload.

He would send Masterson with the Bluebird to Lougetown where the merchants would follow him back to the island. Those ships would have to pay to for the privilege and Bill would only give them a set time period for them to gather as much scrap as they could.

When he put the word out to the local News Coo, his sales pitch was.

{500k Beli! 1 Ship! 1 week! All the scrap iron you can get in your hold.}

This was an absolute steal as typically a ton of iron went for 100k Beli, and even a modest sized merchantman could hold three hundred tons of cargo.

To put this simply, the average merchantman could hold about 30m Beli worth of iron, but the owners would only have to pay 500k for it.

When he put this plan into implementation, he was not concerned about flooding the ore market because he figured that one island would not disrupt the entire East Blue, furthermore there was only a limited time when this resource would be available.

With this done, Bill continued to work as he had.

Helping Nelson walk, holding training classes with Yoko and Carol, and processing the huge gear into smaller pieces of scrap.

Before he knew it, Masterson had come with his first merchant fleet, it was a group of twelve small merchantmen.

As Bill watched them lower dinghies into the water, he waited to meet the merchants as they rushed to shore.

At first these men were surprised to see he was a Marine, but they seemed even more surprised by the literal mountains of iron he had created.

Indeed, Bill hadn’t needed to embellish and as they paid their 500k Beli, he counted this as the easiest 6m he had ever made.

And more than that, he made connections in the East Blue that he knew would last him for a lifetime.