The Marine

It was late into the night when he finally hung up the receiver. He had spoken to his father for several hours before connecting with the Science Division.

Although he and Sentomaru shared the same rank on paper, Sentomaru worked directly under Vegapunk and because of their close proximity often handled the day-to-day affairs of the Science Division.

Or rather, it was the case that because Dr. Vegapunk hardly ever stepped out of his laboratory, necessity required someone to run the organization that was in his name.

Standing up from his desk, Bill’s eyes had long adjusted to the dim light given off by the hanging lanterns and he decided to go sit outside.

As he walked through the packed warehouse Bill didn’t hide his presence but did stay quiet.

Silently waving at older people as they went to the restrooms to do their business in the middle of the night, the only noise that could be heard was the soft crying of hungry babies who had by chance awoken at this time.

This cohort of residents made for a strange group, but Bill didn’t mind. In some ways he felt most comfortable with the geriatrics and who didn’t like babies?

As he got to the door and walked outside Bill looked back and had to give it to the people who stayed behind. Besides a few older people who were infirm, they had worked to completely upgrade all of his original designs.

Because of their lack of resources, they had been limited, but from the plans several people had brought to him, he thought they were trying to turn the inside of the warehouse into a fully mechanical instrument.

This included tables and chairs that would fold out of the ground and apartments suspended on top of each other and rotated using a series of gears and winches.

What made all of their proposed idea even more impressive was that there were no external power source besides wound-up springs. Thinking that if he introduced steam power to them, they would surely create a steampunk island, and that made Bill laugh despite himself.

‘It’s a fun idea.’ thought he.  

But currently he didn’t have a mind for fun as he shut the door, vaulted to the roof of the warehouse, and sat down overlooking the harbor.

As he sat there, Bill tried to piece the world he lived in into something he could more easily understand.

‘For starters.’ He thought to himself.

‘The World Government is more like the Holy Roman Empire than a modern state.’

This was his largest take away from the hours speaking to him father and then requesting information from Sentomaru.

Yes, it turned out that there were four major powers in the world instead of three.

The Revolutionary Army was a real problem that was spread across every Blue, at least to some degree. The man Bill had fought was one of the most dangerous criminals in the world, comparable in prowess only to the four Pirate-Emperors.

But even after everything he had learned about the man that they called the ‘Revolutionary’ Dragon, even after knowing the names of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and their abilities, even having known that people in this world could destroy entire islands, none of that compared to the problem of the World Government.

That was, much like under the medieval Holy Roman Empire, the World Government did not strictly prevent wars from being fought between its associated vassal kingdoms.

This was a huge deal for Bill who had assumed the World Government functioned like the United States and its kingdoms were like individual states.

After all, there was no way the central government would allow Virginia to annex ‘West Virginia’ back into the state. Furthermore, there was no way any governor of Virginia would even entertain the idea in the first place.

This was not a simple matter of semantics, because that meant the political system was not mature enough to have a functioning central authority that could protect its people from the petty feuds of local aristocrats.

Even more concerning was that Bill knew if you turned the political dial far enough back very bad things would happen when you added superpowers into the mix.

The key difference between modern, medieval, and ancient systems of government was a broad acceptance of humanism. Following this process, the further you went back in history the more savage the politics became.

How would some simple-minded despot act if that person really did have god-like powers compared to the masses around him? This should be obvious!

This didn’t even require a Devil Fruit as some people were born superhuman, but it was easy to see how even a lazy aristocrat could abuse his authority given the powers one of those fruits bestowed. Hadn’t Bill just seen such a scenario with Bear King?

He even suspected the possibility that Bear King, despite being a pirate, may not be an outlier case.

Also, from what Bill understood of history on Earth, it would be impossible to convince a King who believed in some version of ‘Divine Right’ otherwise.

So not only would this world have potentially superhuman nobility, high on their own supply, it would normally be impossible to reason with them.

Due to this thought process, Bill had asked Aramaki plainly if the World Nobility believed themselves appointed by god.

To this question, Aramaki was first confused but then answered affirmatively that: “They themselves are not gods but they are descended from the gods.”

After that declaration, Bill knew the political situation was potentially very bad and started to ask specifics about the World Governments laws and how they were put in place.

He knew it was impossible, but it seemed that his father had prophesized his concerns and answered in the best ways possible.

Who made the laws of the World Government? The World Nobles

Why did the World Government allow its associated vassal kingdoms to go to war? They didn’t have the right to infringe on the liberty of otherwise sovereign kingdoms.

In fact, according to Aramaki, hunting down pirates was only one of the main duties for the Marines. The other was preventing those few wars from spreading out of control.

As much as all of this raised a red flag, Bill tried to play devil’s advocate. He told himself:

‘I have visited dozens of islands and besides Clockwork Island have never seen anyone oppressed.’

‘The nobility would know that anyone they oppress could gain superhuman abilities, and that would restrain them.’

‘I have met several high-ranking Marines and they have all been good people.’

His last reasoning was weak, and he knew it, and knowing this he refuted his other points.

‘I have never actually visited a Kingdom; I’ve only been to Marine bases and very small islands.’

‘What if only a very small percentage of people could train enough to become superhuman… then maybe the nobility wouldn’t even care about the possibility of revenge.’

‘Marines are soldiers…’ then Bill sighed before telling himself the universal truth: ‘Soldiers follow orders.’

Looking up into the sky Bill watched the several moons. Really, he told himself, this was all pointless. He had never even seen or heard of any of these scenarios floating around his head besides the single pirate who had conquered an island.

‘He arranged my induction into the navy.’ Bill interrupted himself, thinking about what Aramaki had told him when they saw each other at Marineford.

‘Shit…’ he said to himself, uncharacteristically swearing.

In Bill’s last life he had always known what to do and where to be.

He was never the leader; he was never needed to lead.

He was always proud that he had lived a simple, good, respectable, life.

And then he was unexpectedly reborn and didn’t know what to do or where to be.

He thought this must be a test.

He told himself, there had to be a reason why this happened to a man so mundane – thinking his wife would have been far better than he.

He had never admitted it to himself, but now sitting on top of a warehouse in Lougetown he could see that idea was why he had pressed himself so hard.

Why it was that he didn’t settle for the good, respectable, quiet life his father wanted for him.

Why it was he joined the Marines so easily.

Why it was he pressed himself when he fought against the devil or angle that was behind the Revolutionary Dragon.

And as he sat there, Bill told himself over and over he could not make assumptions about the world.

He could only say this because even though his beliefs told him nothing happened without a reason, he knew it was dangerous to make up such grand fate.

‘Bill.’ he told himself: ‘You are no messiah. You are a man. You were not born into this world to march at the head of an army to liberate the enslaved masses.’

Even though he couldn’t help his fantasies, he told himself again: ‘There are no enslaved masses. Slavery had been made illegal by those very World Nobles you are criticizing.’

Sitting on the roof, Bill continued to reproach himself until the sun cracked the morning sky.

He was not tired; Bill didn’t think his body would ever get tired again after he reforged it but staying on the roof as he thought about what to do next until he heard the people below start to move around.

With the sound of old people, young women, and babies below him Bill told himself that instead of chasing ghosts he should work to help the people in front of him now.

Then jumping down from the roof, he went into cafeteria and was greeted warming by everyone who saw him.

And in this moment, he knew was right. These people were his people now.

Striking up a conversation with an old lunch lady, Bill laughed as she spoke in the way old women do – always the matchmakers.

Then after breakfast he returned to his office.

And unaware of what the future would hold, got back to work.