The Marine

Holding on to a heart-shaped silver locket, an auburn-haired girl asked in a confused voice: “Bill, are these words?”

Nodding his head yes, he answered: “It says [To Thine Own Self Be True], it’s a line from a very famous play.”

Looking at the locket, Yoko started laughing and replied: “I didn’t know you knew about stuff like that, what’s it about?”

Giving a laugh to this also, Bill first thought just how little he had played in this world, but then assured the thirteen-year-old that he knew many plays, and even songs!

“The play would be hard to explain…” Bill said, then paused before continuing: “But the line comes after a man gives his son advice, he tells him that above everything else, he should be true to himself.”

Yoko: “Oh, well, what happens after that?”

“Uh…” Bill said thinking how to sum up Hamlet before saying: “The father then breaks every piece of advice he gave his son, schemes a bunch, and at the end of the play just about every major character dies.”

“That’s horrible!” said Yoko chuckling, and as the girl started putting the locket on, Bill continued to speak.

“Well, the moral to the story is that revenge hurts everyone involved and that while you can get away with some bad things for a period of time, they will catch back up to you.

So… it has to be horrible.”

Seeing Yoko struggle with the clip, he told her to turn around and helped her fasten it.

“This locket isn’t a normal birthday present.” He said to her after she put it on.

When he said this, she naturally asked, ‘How come?’ and he said he’d show her.

Walking out of the Marine Headquarters on New Haven, where they lived together in separate rooms that were originally planned as offices, Bill took Yoko to a place that overlooked the water.

It was a beautiful park and picnic area that was popular with many of the island’s residents and being on the third level of the island gave it an expansive view of the ocean.

This place was suitable for the demonstration that Bill had in mind, and when they got to the place, he looked at the birthday girl.

“That locket has a very secret function. You can’t tell anyone about it.”

Seeing the confusion in her eyes, he nodded his head and pulled out a very similar heart-shaped object. Its only difference being that it didn’t have any etchings.

“Look here.” he said, then showing the heart in his hands he twisted it once diagonally.

Once the heart was realigned the casing fell away and revealed a crystalline lens. Seeing that Yoko was looking carefully, Bill said slowly: “Now, you see this button?” he gestured to the back of the heart.

With her nod, he pointed towards the water below and pressed the button.

When he did so, light seemed to gather around the crystal lens for a split second before firing off a laser that super-heated the water below.

There wasn’t some massive explosion with fire, but steam bellowed from the water such that it even the strong island wind couldn’t disperse it all before it reached the two people high above.

“Wah!?”

Seeing her reaction, Bill laughed at first but then became serious.

“Like I said, it’s a secret. Don’t tell anyone and only use it when you have no other choice.”

Looking at the water, then at him, Yoko tugged on the locket around her neck and asked: “This one has a laser like that?!”

“Yeah.” He said, and continued: “And it’s strong, it even hurt me when I tested it.”

This wasn’t an exaggeration; Bill had tested it on himself and came out with a 2nd degree burn. Even if he could heal from such a wound quickly, he knew most other people would be incinerated.

“Bill, I didn’t know you could make things like this! How much have you been hiding?!”

Hearing this, he laughed harder and answered: “I’d like to say I did, but I ordered these from Dr. Vegapunk.

Just remember, keep this a secret and also that you only have one shot.”

After saying this, he revealed the locket in his hands, it had been reduced to silvery fragments.

The truth was, even though these were one-use items Bill saw enormous potential in them. However, despite his best efforts he hadn’t been able to get any meetings with the Doctor.

Sentomaru claimed that Vegapunk had made a breakthrough with Bartholomew Kuma and that even with the Satellites he had no idea when Vegapunk would leave the lab.

It had taken Bill a lot of coercion to just get Sentomaru to talk to Vegapunk himself about the gift idea, but in the end, Vegapunk had came through and the gift was better than Bill could have imagined.

He couldn’t help but be interested in lasers now, but as their funds were dwindling Bill didn’t have another year to dedicate to research and development.

Looking up at him with a wide smile, the thirteen-year-old said her thanks and Bill replied: “Well, you only turn thirteen once, I wanted to get you something special.”

Nodding her head to this, she suddenly became shy. As if she had a request but didn’t want to voice it after being given her gift.

Bill knew what she wanted; she had been talking about it since he met her nearly five years before.

“Look.” He said to her and pulled a booklet out of his back pocket.

“I know you had your heart set on learning Moon Step, but you’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you this is a better way.”

Reaching his hands out, the girl took the manuscript and read its title.

“Iron Body?”

Interrupting her before she could continue, he added: “You’re doing really good with the Meditative Pushup, and I’d bet you could beat up most of the Marines here with your hammer. But, this technique is what the other men are learning too and so you can practice with them under Masterson when I’m not around.

If you can master this technique by the time that you’re sixteen I promise to get you Moon Walk… Ok?” he finished with that promise so hopefully the girl wouldn’t lose heart.

Yoko was driven, and in that drive was no less ambitious than Ranse or Sasha – maybe even more than them whenever she remembered her father.

But unlike those two, Yoko had a more or less regular physique.

Sure, she was impossibly strong for a thirteen-year-old girl by Earths standards, but she lacked whatever it was in this world that allowed someone to be a natural superhuman.

This didn’t predetermine her future, but it made her success that much harder, and Bill was worried that giving her Moon Step would have hurt her confidence – whether or not she would ever show it outwardly.

“This is a gift from me, but also from Grandpa Aramaki, when you see him, you’ll have to thank him. He and my mom have been bugging me on when they can meet you.”

When he said this, Bill put a big hand on her shoulder.

Standing there looking into the horizon he heard her sniff and waited until she said quietly: “Thank you, Bill.”

“Not at all, happy birthday, girly.”

After that they stood there in silence for a bit and then spoke some more about Iron Body and the day ahead of them.

Yoko said she would be going off soon to ‘hang out’ with the other kids and Bill wondered when the eight-year-old he knew had become old enough to ‘hang out’.

This was just life, he sighed, and figured he knew it better than most.

After the girl ran off to meet with her friends, he returned back to his office.

There was more to do today; Nelson would be trying to walk on his own power, Masterson would have his report on the status of both him and the Marines training under him, two King Cannon were to be installed overlooking the harbor, and finally he was waiting for either Ranse or Ricky to report back on their missions.

Over the last year and a half Bill hadn’t been simply building up New Haven, he had sent his Lieutenants off to get merchant contacts.

Ranse, Fia, and Miyagi had gone into the Grand Line while Sasha, Ricky, and Borodo had gone into the East Blue.

Islands were plentiful in every Blue, and some of the larger islands had populations in the hundreds of thousands, but what Bill needed was to get inside a few kingdoms which had populations in the millions.

So far, his Lieutenant Commanders had been reporting back bad news. Every kingdom they had gone to only wanted the presence of the Science Division if that entailed advanced weapon sales.

Bill was not against reconsidering his production line, if there was need for water treatment or even power plants then he could foresee a situation where he radically altered his business plans.

But, with that said, he wasn’t high on the idea of becoming a major arms dealer.

So far there had been five Marine branches that ordered a total of twenty King Cannon, that was good business, but it was only ever a stop gap for funding.

After all, using the technology behind the Science Division for war just seemed like a terrible waste.

And if one continued down that path Bill could easily foresee a future where there existed mindless robots fighting against the enemies of the nobility.

Bill had come to believe that the existence of Devil Fruit had limited the tyranny of those in power. Adding powerful robots into the mix could too easily shift that equation.

So, he had to be very judicious on how he decided on who got what weapons for sale. He hadn’t even showed off the Rivet Rifles to anyone outside his own Department.

Giving his papers another once over, he filed them away and got up with his to-do list for the day.

Walking downstairs, first he went to get Nelson who lived in the same office building that Bill and Yoko did, only his room was downstairs.

“Nelson! How’re we doing today?” Bill asked enthusiastically.

Looking at his rotund subordinate, he marveled at just how much weight the man had lost.

Over the last year in a half Nelson had gone from about 1,500lbs to just under 700lbs. He was still fat, still fatter than anyone Bill had ever seen, but now he at least looked human.

Nelson: “I can’t speak for you Captain Ox... -”

‘Would be better if I could.’

“- but I’m ready to get this show on the road.”

‘And you just wait until I get that Snail.’

Rather than irritating Bill how two-faced Nelson could be, it was refreshing.

Firstly, it showed that Nelson had learned to not run his mouth so freely. When he first met the ‘noble’ Marine the man simply had no filter.

Secondly, it was because no one on New Haven ever had another bad to say to Bill. They always agreed or they couched their suggestions as mere ‘alternatives’ when Bill knew full well that they were better than his own.

“Ah, don’t feel so ornery, today is a great day.”

Nelson: “Hah? Ah… no Captain, I’m not feeling ornery at all today!”

‘The bastard is doing it again.’

“Good to know!” Bill then chuckled and said: “Look at it this way, it won’t be long now until you don’t have to bathe in the sea!”

Bill never started off mean, but he knew how to dish it when Nelson acted a certain way.

Him throwing Nelson overboard with a stick and a sponge had long been one of the most humiliating things Nelson had to put up with.

But what was the alternative? Bill would bathe an injured or elderly person if there was no other option, but he would never give a Nelson a sponge bath because of his weight, nor would he have others do so!

Hearing this said, a black shadow covered Nelson’s face and he looked down. Bill heard him cursing under his breath, not even needing to observe his Presence.

 Pretending not to hear anything, Bill went around and picked Nelson up from behind, being careful to not break the man’s shoulders. It was easier now, but it was still dangerous, and he put him in a wheelbarrow.

Taking his subordinate to the Headquarters courtyard, while Bill could be harsh, he had never tried to turn Nelson into a freak show.

In fact, outside of the enlisted Officers, Nelson had become sort of an urban legend to the populous.

Bill hadn’t understood this, because he hadn’t understood how anyone could miss a seven-foot-wide man, but he figured it would be for the best. Thinking that when the people finally saw Nelson the man would be just a normal really fat guy.

In the courtyard Bill had set up a four-legged walker, like what elderly people used, complete with wheels on two of the legs.

He had wished Miyagi was there, but Mink had decided to roam with Ranse and Fia looking for the ingredients for his miracle medicine.

A medicine that the Goat man assured Bill was almost ready and was going to be ‘thoroughly fantastic’.

The first steps didn’t take long. With his hands on the walker, Nelson took one step then two.

After about a dozen steps he was sweating and his breathing was hard and he started to demand: “Now, Captain Ox, I don’t think you will outright lie? So where is the Snail being kept?”

Seeing the man walk made Bill smile, and he could have told him that the Snail was on the second floor but decided not to.

“Good job Nelson, I knew you could do it.”

Then taking a breath, Bill continued: “The Transponder Snail is in room 02, it’s an office with a lounge, you can’t miss it.”

Hearing this, Nelson paused with a sneer that slowly faded and after giving a loud “Tsh” he clumsily walked in a half circle and made his way to the building.

Bill kept an ear on him in case he fell but didn’t follow. Instead, he sat in the courtyard and admired the garden.

He hadn’t even known sunflowers existed in this world until this place was built. It was funny to him that he knew about Pirate Emperors, Warlords, Rebels, Admirals, kingdoms and so much more but had missed something so seemingly simple as a sunflower.

This was the problem in a world without internet, Bill thought.

He had clearly remembered a long period of his life on Earth when the only way to get information was an encyclopedia or seeing it on the evening news.

That world was fine when you didn’t know any better, but he remembered the first time he used an internet search engine.

‘It was magic.’

That’s what Bill had thought and nearing the end of his life he was amazed by just how much a person could learn from online video platforms.

There were down sides to all that information, for one, he knew that he had gotten caught up in a few rather ridiculous dramas where he had absolutely no power and so would have been better off not having known about it.

After sitting in the garden for some time, Bill stood up and made his way to the office.

He hadn’t listened in to what Nelson was doing, and so walked in the room not knowing what to expect.

There Nelson sat at the desk in the huge chair Bill had set up, his hands just barely making it to cover his face.

Giving everything a glance, he could tell that the Snail hadn’t been touched despite the several minutes his subordinate had been in the office.

“Is everything ok?” Bill asked, feeling bad now but still not knowing what to expect.

Looking up, startled, Nelson looked blank before sneering again and said: “The Snail seems to be broken. Won’t connect as far as a shout. Shoddy workmanship, I dare say.”

Bill: “Would you like me to get you a new one?”

Not seeming to expect this, Nelson looked away and said back sharply: “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But no, for now I won’t stress your already limited budget. Now don’t get sentimental, this is just what I as a noble should do.”

Although his mouth said this, Bill heard what his inner voice was screaming, and so just nodding along he said back: “Thanks, you wouldn’t believe how far in the red we are.”

The rest of the day went as planned, Yoko had a birthday party and Masterson gave his reports.

It wasn’t until the end of the night that Bill received a call from Ranse who enthusiastically told him.

“Bill, I think we got a big fish this time!

King Cobra’s advisor told me that they were excited to start a cooperation and would be willing to set up an appointment with the King, but only if the head of our Division came personally.”

Then, letting out a breadth the cowboy said: “You need to get to Alabasta Kingdom quick!”