The Marine

Sitting down on a bench, Bill thumbed through the Moon Step manual.

He had gotten it nearly four months ago, and despite his best efforts, he could at best get the feeling of stomping in water when he kicked the air.

Of course, this meant he was on his way to mastering it, but the skill required for this technique was truly amazing and the final steps were the hardest.

One thing that had helped was these days Bill hadn’t much of any responsibilities. His routine was to eat, train, eat, read, eat, train, eat, read, and then sleep. On the days he could, he would spar with Sentomaru. The man could be annoying, Bill thought, but he was as helpful as he could be.

He still had four months before any classes restarted, and by now he had thumbed through the introductory books for the research fields he was going into.

The content in these books were dry, but sound, as this world had the scientific method and proof of concepts.

‘Well, obviously they’d be sound’ Bill laughed to himself. After all, in many ways the things here were more advanced than anything he’d thought possible on Earth.

He’d get to that in the future, so for now he focused on the Science Unit’s training guides.

The unit was broken up into three branches, but Bill only found Procurements to be genuinely interesting. This was because, out in the field, you couldn’t simply ‘pick up’ any unknown thing.

While the Science Division studied the world’s many strange biomes and lifeforms; it was Procurements who had to collect and transport the samples safely. Each unknown substance had its own collection protocols, every unknown kind species had its own safety detainment systems.

These ranged from putting flowers in rubber bags to suspending animals in Life-Gel hibernation pods.

Then besides that, there was also underwater samples that needed to be collected, this was primarily done by submarine, though Bill was shocked to read that there were human divers in this world capable of swimming to the bottom of most parts of the ocean with nothing but diving bells.

Bill knew he was a great swimmer, but the idea of going down a few kilometers underwater unprotected made him shudder.

But then, he thought, he could control his entire body. Could he prevent the bends?

This was something he’d never be in a hurry to try out. Bill thought maybe he could expel the excess nitrogen from his body, but also knew, that a single mistake would kill him.

‘Hopefully that never happens’ he decided to just think and forget about it.

Getting up from the bench, Bill walked back to the middle of the arena.

In the Moon Walk manuscript, it detailed other uses for the technique like running on water or using it on the ground to greatly increase speed. There was also the suggestion of using both legs to get a better ‘grip’ on the air – sort of like a bunny hop.

But for Bill, these were all half measures. He wanted to master the technique using one leg. This method was harder but obviously superior due to the fact it would allow him to make erratic changes in direction.

At the moment, he was unable to close gap between he and Sentomaru when they fought. Because of this, he was unable to utilize the more powerful aspect of the Art of 9 Limbs.

Without headbutts, elbow strikes, and shin kicks Bill was stuck with only half his arsenal against the Captain.

With these thoughts, Bill knew what his goal was and started stomping. According to the manuscript, he needed to stomp the same space six times in an instant to get lift from one leg.

Of course, ‘in an instant’ was the key phrase. At first, despite everything he’d seen he thought that it was impossible, but after these few months he could now do the thing three times.

After a few stomps, he gave a light stretch, he was just about to jump into action when he heard a lady’s voice.

“Oi! Lieutenant!”

Turning his head, he recognized the face right away. It was a girl who had short brown hair and carried around a cutlass. She was a part of the Marine Science Unit as a recruit, and like the great majority of people there, she had been transferred from the regular navy.

Waving his hand, he hollered back, then seeing this, she jogged over and gave him a salute.

He didn’t laugh at this formality. Even though he was still in cadet training on the Science Division side, in terms of the MSU he was an officer, albeit a low ranking one due to his zero experience.

“You don’t need to salute when the situation isn’t formal, what do you need Marron?”

Hearing this, the girl didn’t stop saluting and replied promptly: “Sir! The situation is formal, Captain Sentomaru is calling for you!”

Hearing this, Bill raised an eyebrow and asked: “Is it urgent, or do you know what he wants?”

“No Sir! Captain Sentomaru told me to tell you to come when you were done here!”

Nodding his head to this, Bill looked at the girl and told her he’d be coming after a few minutes, he then went to the locker room to get his cloths.

After walking out of the locker room in a fresh uniform, he saw Marron still standing there, and went towards her.

“Did you need anything else?”

Again saluting, Marron told Bill that she was told to bring him back, and so she was going to wait for him.

Saying he understood, the two then walked to the bottom level of the base where Vegapunks lab and Sentumaru’s office was.

As they walked, the two made some small talk. Bill inquired why the girl had join the Marines, and how it happened that she was assigned to the Marine Science Unit.

The story she told was almost cliché, it was one where a town in the West Blue had been raided by pirates, in the aftermath a small girl found a cutlass in the sand and though scared picked it up and swore to use the weapon to protect.

Marron: “I didn’t even know about the Science Unit, had never heard of it one time… or even thought about technology much for that matter… but after I signed up, the recruiting officer told me about it and how they needed good people to protect the ones here building a better future.

I guess, I just couldn’t say no to that.”

Bill was willing to share information on himself, but before he got the chance, they ended up at Sentomaru’s office.

Walking into the officer first, Marron saluted and was promptly dismissed.

As she left, Bill gave her a nod before looking to Sentomaru and giving him a relaxed salute.

“Captain!”

Seeing this, the captain rolled his eyes and said: “At ease, simmer down, you aren’t on duty yet.”

Watching Bill drop the solute, Sentomaru continued casually.

“The Biology researchers need a live sample, it’s not a hazardous animal but someone needs to go collect it. It’s called a South Bird, have you ever heard of a South Bird?”

Shaking his head to this, Bill answered concisely: “No Sir, to the best of my knowledge I’ve never have. Then again, Captain, I never got off the archipelago back home.”

As if he was expecting this, Sentomaru stood up from his desk and paced a couple steps.

“The South Bird isn’t from the South Blue, Lieutenant. It’s a bird that roosts on an island in the Grand Line called Jaya.

The thing about this bird is that its head only faces the south, and that makes it interesting for the Biology class.”

Hearing about this kind of animal for the first time, Bill wondered why sailors wouldn’t have compasses using the creature. After all, the Log Pose while reliable made direct travel impossible.

Then again, he figured, direct travel would lead to the open water and through territories of the sea kings. Undoubtedly the Log Pose was the safest form of sailing.

Thinking this through for a second, Bill came to the question: “And you want me to go and collect it, Sir?”

Nodding his head in agreement Sentomaru continued: “You want to be Captain of Procurements, right? Well, I’m offering you to tag along on a mission to collect one of these birds. Get you some experience.

You won’t have any formal duties, but you would be served best to work around the ship. Getting to know how to sail is important.”

Bill agreed with this, from his time traveling from the South Blue, he had shadowed Captain Maynard and got a lot out of it.

“That sounds interesting, but how long would it take? I don’t want to miss the start of another set of classes.”

Bill was firm on this matter, he wanted to make a difference in this world. Though he knew sailing was the way for him to do so, learning how the technology here worked was top priority for now.

“Probably six month round trip, but don’t worry about it.” Sentomaru explained.

“Since you’ll be on official duty you won’t have to wait for the next class. They’ll send your work on Snail.”

Hearing this, Bill thought it was a good opportunity. At least, the introductory material on Metallurgy and Engineering seemed easy enough for him to do remotely.

Taking a seat after he got approval, Bill asked the location of the island and as Sentomaru sat back down the two went back and forth on details.

Bill was somewhat surprised that he’d be taking a regular marine warship. Sentumaru explained that the Science Division was both relatively new and relatively unknown, so they simply didn’t have their own fleet of ships.

As head of the Marine Science Unit, Sentomaru had to use his limited resources wisely. He deemed it most important to have security for the scientists.

As to cement this notion, he was Vegapunks personal bodyguard.

“Will I be the only person from the Science Unit to go?” Bill asked, but he thought he probably wouldn’t be.

Answering this, Sentomaru shook his head and said: “No, a team of researchers will be heading off with you. From the MSU you’ll have several recruits including Marron who brought you here.

This is set to be a simple mission, so there’s no need to have too many people heading out. Four researchers and eight MSU recruits including you.”

Hearing this, Bill nodded his head and stood up.

“Great, so when are we shipping out?”

Still sitting, Sentomaru told him it’d be in the morning, to meet the others in the chow hall at breakfast and that he should be fully packed.

Just as Bill was about to leave the office, Sentomaru called out: “Lieutenant Ox, there shouldn’t be any trouble on a mission like this but remember as an officer for the Marine Science Unit, those members are under your protection.”

Nodding his head, Bill signaled he understood and went to his bunk. He decided that he’d just take it easy and read for the rest of the day.

The next morning, Bill was ready to go. He had a large sack holding the various materials he’d need for his two classes along with the Moon Step manual and some personal belongings.

He didn’t need to bring cloths, as those would already have been put in the pawn of the ship.

Bill had learned from Captain Maynard, that despite the massive warships used by the Marines, space was always a problem. There simply wasn’t enough room for each sailor to have their own sea chest.

So, ships had pawns where clothing, shoes, and other essentials were stored. Besides that, sailors were allowed to only have a simple sack filled with personal belongings.

Not that it mattered much, the Skipper had explained, most sailors didn’t have much of anything they wanted to bring out to sea.

Hefting up his sack, Bill turned off the lights to his bunk room and headed to the chow hall.

When he got there, he saw a few familiar faces, but most people were unknown to him.

“Oi! Lieutenant!”

Seeing the girl as she saw him, Marron ran over accompanied him.

“They said you’d be in charge of the security for the Science Division!”

Giving a small laugh at this, Bill replied back: “Well, we’ll probably be relying on the Headquarters Captain more than anything… but if push comes to shove, we all have to show the Science Unit’s valor!”

When he said this, the girl beamed a smile.

Walking into the group, Bill greeted everyone one by one. He knew three of the researchers who were tagging along which he was thankful for.

“Tom, Jerry, Samantha! I’m surprised it’s you.”

Hearing his voice, the trio turned around and Samantha spoke: “Hey Bill! Yeah, we’re going with a professor, half the class wanted to go out but we three got it.”

After this, Bill introduced Marron and the five teenagers stood around chatting until Sentomaru came along side a sheepish looking man wearing glasses.

Seeing the Captain, Bill excused himself and went to stand in front.

The outing was relatively simple, but Sentomaru stressed caution. He then introduced Bill, or rather, Lieutenant Ox.

“On the ship you’ll be subject to the Captains rules, but if you have any problems, see Lieutenant Ox first.”

For Bills part, he was neutral. After all, causing a commotion on a ship would potentially be a big problem.

After all was said, Bill led, as the group moved together through the base and Marineford Town to the docks.

The ship was exactly where it ought to be, it was a large Marine HQ Frigate.

Walking over the extended bridge, Bill saw the pink haired lady who he thought was the Captain, walking over he asked: “Captain Hina?”

Pulling the cigarette out of her mouth, the pink haired lady gave Bill a once over and replied: “If your here, Hina is ready to get going.”

Bill who had no other reference for this lady, thought it was bound to be a long trip.