The Marine

“Should I shoot it?”

Standing on the main deck of their ship, the crew watched as a very large beetle buzzed erratically around them. Fia had turned her wrist into a cannon and followed the creature around waiting for Bill’s orders.

This thing hadn’t attacked yet, but for the last several minutes had been getting closer and closer with its mock charges.

Considering this beetle was larger than a horse they naturally couldn’t allow it to ram the ship and so Bill answered: “The next time it charges just fire close to it, we’ll try to scare it off first.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Fia did just that. As the beetle charged again, she fired off a round directly to its side, missing by about a hand’s distance.

Unfortunately, instead of scaring the creature off the thing saw red. Seeing that it had no intentions of stopping a ram this time Bill vaulted off the deck of the ship and in a flash yelled:

“Terra THUMP!”

Bill never consciously named his attacks, they just seemed to be what he needed. In this case the ‘thump’ was heard instantly followed by the beetle then crashing down into the water.

Using the Moon Step to hover in the air, Bill watched as the beetle made its way to the surface and looked up at him with a spiderwebbed carapace.

Then bobbing up and down the beetle quickly breached the water’s surface and took back off towards the spot where Yoko’s secret base should be.

Seeing this, Bill went back to the ship and told the others to bring the vessel around the island while he went to follow the bug. The crew more or less knew the layout of the island from a picture he had drawn of it, and so they agreed.

When he left, he placed Ranse in command.

Following after the bug, Bill landed on the outlooks edge and saw the beetle laying down on a sort of bird’s nest mix of thin sticks and green leaves.

Bill wouldn’t kill the thing if there wasn’t need to, so he decided to take a few more steps to get a better understanding of the former hideout when he heard small feet running and a familiar, but different voice yell out.

“Boss?!”

Seeing the familiar brown-haired girl run towards the big beetle in a panic Bill first felt excited to see her, but then a bit embarrassed.

He immediately noticed that she was wearing her dads Coat of Justice, which except for its dirtiness wasn’t too remarkable, but more importantly she was running up to the bug like she knew it. That seemed dangerous, but Bill wouldn’t stop her until he asked Captain Ryudo about it later.

The beetle kept on sleeping despite Yoko prancing around it, and after a few seconds Bill spoke out: “You named this beetle?”

Turning her head with a screech, Bill smiled because he had caught her off-guard. He had expected this kind of reaction, but her reaction after that caught him completely off-guard.

Bill could see the gears turning behind her eyes in the seconds after he called out to her, the longer she looked the whiter her face became.

After several moments of this, he waved and spoke again: “Hi, Yoko. I told you I’d be back. I seen this guy fly to your hideout and thought I’d better take a look…” then pausing for another second he continued: “Is everything OK?”

Still looking at him dumbfounded, Yoko looked at Bill and whispered: “B…B…Bill?”

Seeing a young girl act like this wouldn’t take a genius to realize something was wrong, and so kneeling down a bit, Bill asked again: “Yoko, what’s wrong? You can talk to me… remember when I said I’d be here for you?”

Unbeknownst to him, this was perhaps the worst thing he could had said as the girl broke down into tears and ran away saying: “GO AWAY BILL! GO AWAY!”

Seeing the girl who looked like she could be his sister in another life run into the caves, Bills heart hurt, and his face sank deeply. He didn’t know what had happened, but he would get answers.

Waffling for a few seconds, he decided to go after her.

Yoko should be ten- or eleven-years old Bill reasoned. Whereas older kids and adults may sometimes need their space to calm down, younger kids typically needed some emotional support unless they were hysteric or being too ornery.

Following her into the maze-like cave system the sounds of her feet and muffled tears echoed off the walls and down hallways almost too narrow for him to walk.

He never lost his own sense of direction, but the cave walls played with his sense of hearing enough for him to quickly realize he wouldn’t be able to catch her unless he was willing to start destroying walls.

Deciding to just stop, he shouted out: “Yoko! I don’t understand why’re running from me! You have to tell me so I can!”

Hearing that she was still running off, Bill just sighed and shouted again: “Ok then! When you’re ready I’ll be here, alright?!

Meet me back in town, I’m happy to see you again!”

In this kind of situation, he naturally wouldn’t think twice about being corny, and so he spelled out his feelings.

After this, there was still no response and so he sped his way out of the cave system, ending up in the tunnels entrance Yoko had brought him two years ago.

His first destination was Ryudo’s house, he wanted to ask the man what was going on but was shocked to find nothing but a burned-out foundation where the old timey manor home once stood.  

Looking around before he stepped into the foundation area, Bill found the old blackened remains where the kitchen, storage, and outhouse had once been. Green grass and weeds covered the remains which had clearly been picked over.

Moving around to the side of the yard, he couldn’t really tell if there had been any struggle. There were no cannon marks or signs of some superhuman person kicking the ground up.

Inside the burned-out house there was likewise nothing that could be determined. There was no tables, beds, couches, or furniture of any kind. The stone foundation was intact, and he could navigate where he was in the house thanks to that, but even the flooring was gone.

Deciding he wouldn’t get anything else from here, Bill walked back towards the front of the house and looked across the beautiful view that encompassed the natural crescent-moon harbor.

Jumping up high he could see the ship moving slowly off to the side of the island, he had warned the others about the islands coral reefs and apparently Ranse was being cautious. Turning his head in the opposite direction he could see the islands large windmill and noticed that the small river channels he had dug had been worked on.

It was something he’d like to go and see, but only after he met with Fabre and got some answers.

Kicking down hard, he zoomed through the air until finally arriving at the Mayors house. On the way he noticed the island’s vegetation looked more overgrown than before but everything else seemed how it was.

The mayor of Little East Blue island didn’t have an office, so Bill knocked on the door and hearing footsteps waited.

 Seeing Fabre open the door, the first thing Bill thought was the man had grown gray over the last two years.

For the Mayors part, when he saw Bill, his eyes widened, and he then smiled and welcomed the young Marine inside his home.

Bill accepted the invitation but standing at nine feet tall he had to crouch to get inside the door and had to walk slightly bent over until they reached the Mayors living room where a seat just big enough for him to sit comfortably was.

As he sat down the Mayor started: “It’s nice to see you again, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it though! Are you just passing through… or?”

Bill wasn’t one to be rude for no reason but given Yoko’s reaction and the burned-out house he asked directly: “Fabre, what happened to Captain Ryudo’s house? And I saw Yoko earlier and she ran from me, just what’s going on?”

Hearing this, Fabre took off his hat and reached over grabbing a large pipe and said: “The Captain was killed during a pirate attack.”

Speaking as he packed the thing, he didn’t look in Bill’s direction and continued: “The attack happened just over a year and a half ago…”

As the old Mayor continued to prepare his pipe, he spoke about the incident saying that the pirates had gone unseen until they were on the highest level of the island. As the citizens evacuated to the caves Ryudo had fought the pirates off in the open.

“There were just too many of them, Ryudo was a strong man… and he held them off for long enough for the rest of us to get away, but in the end…”

“In the end you all left him to die alone.” Bill said cutting him off.

His was a statement, and not a question.

Seeming to understand this, the old Mayor didn’t deny it and after taking a puff on his pipe said: “You were right. We should had created a militia and trained them, without that, Ryudo was the only one on the island who knew how to fight… and he paid the price for our mistake.”

As the Mayor spoke, Bill heard small feet enter the house but didn’t react to them. Instead looking at the old man said evenly: “You don’t need training to know to protect your home. Or training to know not to leave a person behind.”

Nodding his head as to say he agreed, Fabre replied: “The training we lacked made us scared… I wish I had a better answer, but had we known… I mean, had I known… well it wouldn’t have happened like that.”

He took another puff then continued: “It’s history now, there’s barely a hundred of us left on the island, and only five are kids.

After the Captains death the people who could just left. It’s just too unsafe… though now we haven’t had a pirate attack in eight months or so. It’s a cruel thing, losing those young people protected our lives for now but doomed our islands future.”

Hearing the old man say this Bill wanted to shout and tell him that if he only had the virtue of courage to start with these would not be problems. He wanted to say that the Mayor was responsible for the attacks to start with. He wanted to say that the feckless islanders were not worth the man who died protecting them.

But as he sat there looking at the old Mayor, Bill knew the man understood it all.

Perhaps because he didn’t respond right away the old Mayor spoke again: “I am really sorry about Ryudo, I know you had gotten close to him. I have done my best to protect Yoko, although the beetle has probably already replaced me on that front too.” Finishing his sentence, the Mayor let out a self-deprecating laugh.

After this, Bill didn’t want to stay but needed some of his questions answered. First, he asked about the beetle.

“Oh, Boss? Well, we found the thing about six months ago. It was smaller then but was acting erratic. Yoko was able to calm it down and it’s been peaceful ever since.”

Then, finally, Bill asked why Yoko would have run from him when he saw her in the hideout.

“Ahh…” said the Mayor before continuing: “It’s not fair, and she knows it, but Bill she was waiting for you to come that night.”

Fabre went on to say that after Ryudo had dropped her off with him, the little girl was positive that Bill would be there. Bill had promised to be there when she needed him, and he could fly, so to the ten-year-old, Bill would naturally come.

When he never showed up, and her dad had died, Fabre said that she turned a lot of anger towards him.

“I tried to explain to her, and I think she knows… but she’s been through a lot.”

Breathing deep, Bill said he understood and heard small feet run from the house.

Excusing himself, Bill stood up and followed after the sound. He may had lost her in the caves but in this environment, it was impossible for him to not catch up.

As he called for her, she kept running, until she arrived at a wide willow tree where Bill himself had once taken refuge.

Stopping at the tree she turned around and looked at him, her eyes a mixture of confusion and anger.

“Why didn’t you come?!

You said would!”

Stopping a little distance away, Bill looked at the orphan girl like he would have one of his own kids. The change from her looking like a potential sister to a potential child having unknowingly taken place.

He spoke slow and deeply: “I’m sorry, I just didn’t know…”

Yoko: “But didn’t you say I could count on you?!”

“… I’m sorry, I just didn’t know.”

Yoko: “But can’t you fly? Can’t you hear good? Can’t you…!”

“… I’m sorry, I just didn’t know.”

After this, her tears turned to anger as the eleven-year-old screamed: “Is that all you can say?!”

Seeing her look at him with that expression, Bill said again: “… I’m really sorry, I really just didn’t know. I would have come no matter what. I just didn’t know.”

Hearing him say this again, the girls anger melted, and she started crying again, but this time instead of running away she ran to Bill.

Crouching down, he gave her a hug and waited until she wore herself out. Then standing back up he straightened Ryudo’s old Coat of Justice and looking down at her and said:

“How about coming with me and my crew?”