The Marine

Hanging up the Snail, Bill had a bad look about him.

He had been told by Commodore Kibin to release Onigumo immediately, and while he was not to turn himself in at this time, that there would be Court Martial at a later date.

Bill had no doubt that he would beat whatever charges there were, Onigumo had attacked him after all, he was not even that upset that Onigumo was to be freed, no, he was more upset about something different.

This was because, looking over the paperwork handed in to him there were 82 transfer applicants.

Bill had tried to speak out however Kibin didn’t want to hear anything he had said, to say nothing about authorizing the applications, the Commodore had droned on about how Bill could count himself lucky to not immediately be discharged.

Thinking to himself, he knew he could not let these men go back on that ship and regretted his assured confidence that had allowed him to make the offer.

But what was done, was done. Leaving them would not only go against his word it would be potentially sending them to disaster.

They were now his responsibility and sitting there at his desk there were only two options.

First, he could force Onigumo to sign the papers.

This was the most satisfying option, already annoyed by Marineford, roughing up the Vice Admiral would be gratifying. However, he knew that if he did that then the Court Martial would be harder to beat.

Second, he had to call his father.

Although to his family he was only nineteen, and he knew that his parents would offer him unconditional support, it felt bad to a man of his mental age to have to rely on familial help whenever something went wrong.

It also didn’t help his conscience when he thought about how little he contacted his parents to just say ‘hi’. Even his little sisters, who would have turned three years old not too long ago, Bill knew he had neglected them all.

He hadn’t done any of this on purpose, it was just that his workload had been progressively heavier with each new responsibility he had taken on himself.

Thinking this, Bill found it unbearable to be the kind of person who only calls with bad news and tapping the top of his desk he decided to first try and think of how to approach Onigumo.

He didn’t have long to think. He was ordered to release the Vice Admiral immediately but matter how he thought about it there was no way he would get the man to transfer over the Marines without incurring a loss.

The reason was simply that for as long as Bill took violence off the table, he was only left with intimidation. But would a Vice Admiral be easily intimidated? No, he didn’t think so.

Tapping on his desk, he sat in thought for another half hour before he rearranged his desk and stood up.

Walking out of his office and down the steps of building he heard Nelson call for him but just shrugged him off with a stern: “Not now.”

The main Marine office building had crude cells built into the far side of the complex and that’s where Bill was headed.

It didn’t take much time for his long legs to cross the hundred meter or so distance and arrive at the cells, and there sat Onigumo on his knees, tied up in ropes and chains.

Currently there was no seastone available and so the best Bill could do was to wrap the man up like a caterpillar. This seemed practical but looking at the now-awaken Vice Admiral he could tell the man didn’t think it was funny.

The Vice Admiral didn’t look at Bill until the cell was unlocked and he lifted him to his feet. This time he didn’t threaten but the hatred in his eyes was evident.

“Have you calmed down?” Bill asked trying to make it seem like nothing was too wrong. He obviously would not mention that he was being ordered to release the man or that he was going to be Court Martialed this incident.

Only getting a grunt in reply, Bill asked: “Are you going to attack me again if I undo your bindings?”

This time there was no reply and, unless this man was an idiot, Bill didn’t think he’d try anything again, so turning him around he opened the padlocks and undid the binding.

Standing in the cell, the Vice Admiral rotated his shoulder and said: “The consequence of obstructing Justice is capital punishment. I hope you find yourself ready to answer for your crimes.”

Shaking his head, Bill looked down at the man and said clearly: “You attacked me and lost, stop crying about it.”

When this was said, ozone filtered into the room. Using his Haki to nullify the ability the situation resulted the same as earlier, except now Onigumo didn’t attack when Bill spoke again.

“Do you not understand that you have committed a criminal act in attacking an Officer of the Marines?”

When he said this, Onigumo didn’t respond and tried to turn and leave, but Bill didn’t let him.

Putting a large hand on his shoulder Bill turned him around and continued: “I demand compensation.”

First looking at the hand on his shoulder, then at Bill, Onigumo asked his own question: “A Marine Officer? Boy, I am a Vice Admiral. By detaining me here you have insulted the organization. You have made the organization appear weak and that means you’ve degraded Justice around the world.

You demand compensation? We’ll see how demands are treated once I reach my ship.”

To this point, the dialogue had gone just about as Bill planned it, though he didn’t expect the Vice Admiral to bring reputation of the Marines into this. He didn’t agree with the ‘reputation is everything’ mindset but, even if he did, there no one had seen the man lose besides close subordinates.

With this crossing his mind, now was the moment of truth. He had a single experience seeing a lower ranked officer attacking a superior and after learning everything he had about the World Government would bet the farm on it not being an outlier situation.

“You’re going to tell them that I, a nineteen-year-old Science Division Captain nullified and defeated a Vice Admiral in one punch?”

Shaking his head, Bill continued: “Sir, putting aside your reputational damage, what do you think Headquarters will do when they hear about this?

I come from a Marine family. My father, Aramaki Ox.” Bill dropped a name he hadn’t originally intended: “Himself was a Vice Admiral and my mother was a Headquarters Captain.”

As he spoke, his Haki slowly disappeared and he finished by saying: “My office is this way, follow me.”

To his surprise, Onigumo did follow him. Truthfully Bill hadn’t a clue what he would have done otherwise.

The walk was silent, but after getting in the office, Bill pulled out two folders.

“Vice Admiral.” He started: “I can sympathize that your duty is harsh. However, the fact is that you attacked me unprovoked, and because of that I demand compensation.

Here are two acceptable terms for me to let this whole incident slide under the radar.”

Handing the two folders over, one was much thicker than the other.

That one was obviously the transfer documents, and the other was an invoice for damages to the tune of 100m Beli.

Bill had considered what would be the best monetary figure, it couldn’t be either too high or too low because he needed the Vice Admiral to neither walk out of the room nor simply pay up.

Vice Admirals on average were paid a salary of 350k Beli per month, not including the bonuses from bounties. Knowing this, Bill thought that he chose a good number all things considered.

Looking down to the two folders, Onigumo flipped through the applicant names quickly and asked those names were gathered.

There was no chance that Bill would say that they wanted to transfer, so he claimed that he had found the ships registry. It was not illegal for him to do so, as the commanding officer in the area he had the right to know who was coming and going.

Despite that it was highly irregular for such a short-term stay, not to mention invasive, and so he had to play it off by saying: “After you attacked me, the crew refused to speak to me. So, I got it then.”

After another couple minutes of Onigumo looking over the transfer applications, Bill leaned back and said casually: “I know you’re in a position, so how about this. You sign over these men I chose, and I’ll give you some Beli. That way it’ll seem like they were just a part of the delivery, or reinforcements if you will.”

Hearing this, Onigumo sat down the folders and crossed his arms. He hadn’t been nearly as chatty since Bill had knocked him out and keeping with it, he simply said: “How much.”

Bill: “20m Beli.” Bill said evenly. Out of the eighty-two Marines, only fifteen were ranked above Second Mate and less than that number were Special Operators.

There was Gunners, which Bill was grateful for. There were twenty of them in total. However, he had the suspicion they were cannon crew and not snipers.

No matter what, now that the offer was on the table, Bill watched Onigumo lean back himself and smile for the first time.

“50 Million. Nonnegotiable.”

This was a huge number for a few score of Second Mates. The average salary for a non-combat Second Mate was 15k Beli per month. This meant that at 50m Beli, Bill would be paying about five years salary for each man before they even signed up.

‘But what can I do?’ He thought.

Bill was not a saint who could never lie, he had lied plenty just today, but his word was his bond. He told those men that they could leave this Vice Admiral, and he would make it happen.

“Deal.” He said, not showing the financial hit this would incur.

After that the two big men shook hands and, after paying in cash, Bill escorted the Vice Admiral back to his Battleship.

The eighty-two men hadn’t packed at all and seemed rather surprised when Onigumo told them to get off his boat.

It ended up taking less than thirty minutes for the men to disembark, none of them having much in the way of personal items.

Seeing the last man off, Bill turned to Onigumo and spoke in his assured manner.

As they shook hands again, this time Onigumo didn’t let go, and showing a wide smile he said slowly: “Don’t think I don’t know what happened. Those men were the cowards on my crew. Each and every one of them. Not worth the cots they sleep in.”

Then letting go he added with a smile: “I wanted them gone and would have given them to you for free.”

Then, pulling a cigarette from his pants pocket he struck a match and started puffing.

Once he was done, he looked up at said: “Now they’re your problem.”

When this was said, Bill didn’t react and instead just left the boat. It was late into the night and the fusion reactor hadn’t been moved from the docks.

Masterson had set up guards to watch over it, not because anyone from the island would mess with it but he had been afraid of what Onigumo’s crew would do.

The Battleship weighed anchor as soon as Bill was off the ramp, and watching the ship pull out of port he saw the Vice Admiral mouth: ‘I’ll see you later.’

Shaking his head, Bill turned around to see eighty-two new faces look at him expectantly and he somewhat regretted that he hadn’t been more physical with the Demon Spider.