The Marine

“Amazing!”

“Astonishing!”

“Woah! Look at that Fia!”

Looking at the sight in front of him, Bill had to agree with his crew.

From a distance, Water 7 looked even more impressive than Marineford due to its water display.

As the six members of the Procurement Department looked at the giant fountain with awe, something caught Bill’s eye from the side.

“Look at that!” he said, pointing at something that looked impossible.

“Awesome…” Even Sasha seemed impressed by the sight of an old-timey cast iron train crossing over the water.

“How do you think it works, Bill?” asked Fia, also in amazement.

Looking at the train even more than the giant fountain city, Bill answered curiously: “There must be railing held up by something, pontoons perhaps? Or else, it’s an illusion and the train is on very flat land that we can’t see from this distance.”

This sight made the Engineering side of his brain work in overdrive and unknowingly opened up doors that contained those strange ideas that he would have never even considered before.

As the two ships inched towards the port, the gawking had to stop while the small crew operated their vessel to a safe stop.

In most ports around the world Marine ships were given priority and Water 7 was no different. No sooner than when Frontier Run came to a stop and dropped their ramp, port supervisors greeted them warmly and asked if they had any specific business to conduct.

Bill was the first off of the ship and with his best smile he greeted them back by saying: “Nothing official, we’ve just captured some pirates and are looking to pawn off their ship before we deal with the criminals.”

Mentioning this, Bill noticed the port administrators began to eye the pirate brig, and so he continued to say: “This is our first time to your city, and I’d really appreciate if you could point my crew to a shipyard that deals in this sort of thing.”

The administrators looked away from the ship, perhaps not finding it interesting enough to make their own bid and pointed Bill towards the most famous shipyard in the city. Who they said was the most likely purchaser but also warned the young Marine that the price would be lower than normal.

It was a small thing, but Bill appreciated when one of the administrators told him that he reckoned the ship to be worth in the ballpark of 5m Beli.

After giving his thanks, Bill saw the two men off and turned to his crew. After pulling straws was decided that Sasha would have to stay on board to watch the ship and captives.

Despite their dire financial situation Bill had given everyone their pay, and as he went to negotiate with the shipyard, they were going to buy some of the things they needed.

Ranse would go with Miyagi and Ricky would go with Fia, and they would meet back at the ship by dinner.

Waving them off, Bill set off alone.

He walked quick but took the long way up the ramps, he was fascinated by the Bulls that pulled the boats and the various other unique buildings.

As he passed an odd-looking building called Blueno’s Bar he was half temped to get himself a quick drink, but then thought it better to not spend the money.

While Bill had paid the crew, he had not paid himself and even now still wore his Marine Recruit uniform under his Coat of Justice.

Going up the ramps he saw the currents quicken and was fascinated by the cities design. It was certainly pretty, but Bill wondered how the place was engineered.

‘How often does erosion shift these foundations?’ was one of the many questions he had asked himself as he looked from side to side.

Still, he didn’t idle around, and it wasn’t long before he was staring down the Galley-La Company Headquarters.

Stopping at the entrance of a massive shipyard, Bill was impressed.

Bill thought this shipyard was comparable to the ones on Vallipo and considering Vallipo had more or less full control over several wooded islands as well as the financial backing of the Marines, that made this shipyard even more impressive.

Walking towards the front door, he heard a commotion and stepped out of the way as a blue-haired man burst out the door came out shouting: “Ice for brains!” and “Bakaberg!”

Apparently not taking any notice of the Marine, the tall skinny legged man stormed off and left the shipyard.

To Bill this seemed like a personal matter, and even if he was a Marine, he wasn’t a busybody, so walking through the front door he found a large space and a blonde-haired lady sitting behind a reception desk.

Walking to the desk, he saw the lady eye his Captain badge then pushing her glasses up said cordially: “Can I help you?”

Nodding his head, Bill smiled and said he ‘hoped so’ and then produced a couple sheets of paper before continuing: “My crew has captured a pirate ship and we’re looking to pawn it off. I’ve been told your shipyard will make bids on these sorts of ships, and I’ve brought the details.”

Saying this, he handed the blonde-haired receptionist the report Ranse had made, then after giving it a once over the lady looked at Bill and his Captains badge again before saying stoically: “We offer fair prices, but one of our shipwrights will need to assess the craft.”

As she spoke, the lady pulled out a form from behind the desk and finished by saying: “We’ll just need your name, the name of the original owner, and the time of acquisition.”

After Bill gave the necessary information, the receptionist called for a man named Kaku, and as they waited, she seemed to have a lot of questions.

Nothing she asked was particularly important, but one thing that caught Bill of guard was that this lady recognized his Captains badge to be pertaining to the Science Division.

After several minutes of this, Bill couldn’t help but to ask: “I’m sorry, what was your name Ms.…?”

In response to this standard question, the receptionist pushed up her glasses and replied seriously: “Is this sexual harassment?”

Hearing this Bill’s face shrank, and his eyes narrowed.

He had never pursued any woman in this life, and that fact mixed with the ridiculous suggestion that he would harass a woman made him reply with a frown: “Don’t flatter yourself, now what’s your name?”

Just as the lady was about to respond, a voice came from behind which set Bill’s danger sensor into high gear.

“Is there a problem…

Kalifa? …”

Turning his head back quick, Bill saw a dark-haired man with a bird on his shoulder. Standing at about seven foot tall he was a serious looking individual.

The couple seconds felt a lot longer, and the man broke the silence as he expertly used ventriloquy through the bird.

“… Idiot Marine”

As someone who had mastered Life Return, Bill could naturally throw his voice in supernatural ways, and he could likewise notice when others did the same.

At this moment he didn’t have the mind to notice how expertly the bird moved, instead, eyeing the dangerous man Bill responded seriously with his mouth shut: “Very funny.”

He had spoken through his nose, and it didn’t sound much different than it did his mouth.

In the man’s eyes Bill saw at once startlement, confusion, and then hate. Although Bill towered over this man by two feet, his instincts urged caution and as he primed himself for whatever he heard Kalifa give an ‘Ahem’.

The receptionist walked around the table and stood by the dark-haired man before saying: “Pardon me, sometimes I get worked up. I understand now that you didn’t mean anything by your question Captain Ox.”

Then gesturing her arm to the man, she continued: “This is Rob Lucci, a foreman for the shipyard. He can’t speak normally.”

Bill wanted to say that the man could definitely speak normally, but as soon as she finished a blonde-headed big nosed man walked through the door.

“Ah, here’s Kaku.” Said the receptionist, although Bill still hadn’t altered his posture away from Lucci.

As the man walked towards them, Lucci spoke through the bird: “I’m here to see Iceberg, is he free?”

And after given the OK, he simply left.

Watching his back as he walked away, Bill felt he had been too lax in his training recently. The high-minded side of his brain understood that he had gained much during his time with Vegapunk, but his heart didn’t like the fact that he could potentially lose to a shipyard worker.

With the threat gone, Bill turned to the others and conversed somewhat casually, of course after the accusation Kalifa had made, he would never be able to speak comfortably around her.

The rest of the process was not too long, the man Kaku was called ‘Mountain Wind’ and he jumped from the shipyard to the port and made his way back again in less than forty-five minutes.

During that time Kalifa tried to ask Bill more questions but he politely stonewalled her, having gotten the impression that the lady was a little too curious.

After Kaku got back he made the estimation at 7m Beli, and they decided a slightly higher sales price than what Ranse and Bill had estimated.

Leaving the building with 3m Beli, Bill thought about buying a suit but again decided against it.

With what he had in hand, the departments funds barely amounted to 15m Beli. They still needed a home base, a laboratory, and while Frontier Run was a fine ship, they would need many more seastone haul vessels.

There was a lot to do but walking back to the ship Bill figured that they weren’t doing so bad after just a few months at sea.

With the pirate ship pawned off, Bill and Sasha waited for the others to get back and it wasn’t long before they were pulling out of port.

None of the crew had gotten even close to a million Beli for their first payment, and Bill was slightly impressed to see how well his old group of friends could economize despite having grown up in more or less affluent conditions.

Ranse had gotten a few bolts of cloth and sewing equipment, which he was using to both make a coat with and a lanyard to hold the jagged seastone [Deputy] badge Bill had given him.

This made Bill feel partly glad but also partly sad. On one hand he put a lot of work into the rugged thing, but on the other hand the gift was just a joke and wasn’t supposed to have any deeper meaning.

Fia and Sasha had gotten feminine productions that would make life on the high sea a bit more tolerable, Ricky bought himself an encyclopedia, and Miyagi purchased several dried plants which he said may help him finish his ‘miracle medicine’.

Bill had asked about this medicine the Mink had in mind and was told that the goal was to ‘heal all wounds.’ Had this been said on Earth Bill would have made a negative comment, but in this world, he thought it may very well be possible to create a panacea.

Enies Lobby was quite close to Water 7, following the route of the sea train it was just a two-day sail before the crew had arrived and handed off their captives.

The pay was immediate, and it showed just how profitable pirate hunting could be as by offloading three Wanted men it raised the departments funds to what amounted to a small personal fortune of 43m Beli.

This amount wasn’t enough to purchase any seastone haul ship, the cheapest of which were small cruiser-like vessels that went for around 50m Beli, but it would be enough to hire the engineers he had in mind to start his productions.

The crew didn’t stay for longer than a few hours at the judicial island before moving on. By now Bill figured they were quite close to Little East Blue and after following the Eternal Pose for two weeks more, standing on the deck of Frontier Run he saw the familiar island in the distance.

This wasn’t going to be a long stay, he thought. They would resupply here before crossing the Calm Belt into the East Blue. From there they would stop at Lougetown to get their hands on a Pose aiming for Clockwork Island.

Thinking this, Bill rested his hands on the ships railing, then looking towards the island he saw a black shadow rise out of what should be Yoko’s secret base.

Seeing where the shadow came from, he narrowed his eyes and looked closer, what was flying towards their ship was a very large beetle.

Reaching his hand down towards his waist, Bill took his hammer in hand and waited.