Chapter 106: Marineford 96

As the Frontier Run docked at Marineford harbor, Bill was starting to regret the fact he had given Pearson the Devil Fruit when he did.

After seeing the devastation on his Chief Petty Officer’s face after he nullified the new ability, Bill decided to leave him be and for the last couple of hours had to deal with smelling twisted o-zone while Pearson ran through the ships walls and humble bragged to the others.

Now that the ship was docking, it was all hands on deck and the Fish-men in modified Marine uniforms were standing in neat lines giving various attempts at proper salutes. The human crew, men and women alike were much more professional and nearest to the docking ramp stood Yoko and Nelson on the right side with Willy on the left.

Getting to the end of the line of saluting Marines, Bill stopped and looked down at the awaiting HQ Officials before turning to Nelson and saying: “No shore leaves for the time being, if you have any issues with the Fish-men then Willy will help, and make sure no one besides yourself interacts with the prisoners.” After addressing Nelson, he told Yoko to make sure Boss didn’t fly around once it stopped molting and got an emphatic “Yes Sir.” for an answer.

Then turning his head to the other side, Bill said evenly: “Willy, you’re to assist Nelson. When I’m not here his words are my own, understood?”

After getting another positive reply both Bill walked down the ramp, sat down a briefcase, and gave a quick salute the officials before saying: “Captain William Ox reporting for an appointment with Fleet Admiral Sengoku!”

Seeing him do this, and whether it was due to his size or his youthful face, the two officials looked at each other and laughed.

?: “We aren’t here on official business, my boy. Darragh and I are just here to collect you. Now, bring your things and follow me.”

Nodding his head, Bill did as the man said and walked beside the two men.

In his last life Bill had never been to the Great Wall, or Pyramids, but he had been to the Grand Canyon and thought to himself that the view in front of him was no less spectacular.

Passing through the first defensive castle, Bill looked up and saw the enormous stairway bridge that led to the entrance to the citadel and thought it was truly a sight to behold.

He had spent a couple years here, and still the sights never ceased to amaze him. As magical as Water 7, Clockwork Island, or Hannabal were, to Bill the overwhelming scale of Marineford set it apart.

After all, this place was designed to host even the largest of giants comfortably, and that meant that it had to have the largest and strongest of everything.

Walking over the stairway bridge to the citadel was more akin to climbing up a mountain than anything else.

It took quite some time, but the trio spoke to the entire way. The older Marines mostly asked Bill about how he grew up and Bill asked them about their time in the service. During that walk, Bill learned much about them and came away appreciating their demeanor's.

He came to learn the older man’s name was Rear Admiral Havar, and Darragh was a Lieutenant Commander, both of whom had served with his father some twenty years ago.

Approaching the huge citadel doorway, Bill eyes were drawn down from the view and what he saw made him choked up a little.

Off to the side stood a crowd of people. He didn’t know many of them, but others were unmistakable.

The first person he noticed was a tall woman with light skin and flaming auburn hair. Despite being a 42-year-old mother of three she looked young standing beside an even taller man who had a lightly tanned complexion and dark black shoulder-length hair.

Besides his parents the group consisted of Sentomaru, Captain Hina, Maynard, and even Instructor Trapano.

Bill had never held much anticipation for this Court Martial and thought it would be a simple case.

Because of that, he had only mentioned it once to his parents a year ago during a rare call and hadn’t made any sort of big issue about it to his Lieutenants.

Seeing the group in front of him still didn’t change his feelings, but it made him choked up that they would come unbidden.

Just as the first person he noticed was his mother, she was likewise the first person to notice him, and he saw a rare smile spread over her as she then broke away from the small crowd and approached him.

Bill sped up a little bit, leaving Darragh and Havar behind and he crossed more than half the distance between him and his mom and launched into a huge hug.

And in that instance, it struck him that the pretty giant woman that he had seen when he had first awoken in this world felt so small in his arms.

Of course, besides Bill, no male would have been able to just launch into a hug on her. She was an Amazonian, and besides her husband, didn’t allow contact with other males.

Bill was unknowingly a very rare breed. It wasn’t unknown for Amazonians to give birth to boys, but it was exceedingly rare.

After hugging her for several moments, she pushed him away to arm’s length, and after looking him up and down asked: “Have you been well? You so rarely contact us that I can’t know.”

Giving her a smile, Bill wasn’t in the slightest combative when he answered: “Sorry mom, it’s been a busy while, just before I got the notice of the trial date I had just finished a big operation; but I’ll put more effort into calling you.”

Giving her son an appraising eye, Dina said: “Did you not claim this before, how am I to believe it now?”

This time, before Bill could answer a large voice was heard from the side walking towards them: “Now Dina, we have to be understanding! Our boy is leading an entire Department!”

Hearing Aramaki say this like he wanted everyone to hear, Bill raised an eyebrow.

On the surface, the Procurement Department wasn’t very large. Consisting of four ships, and barely 550 total personnel it was around the same size as Hina’s fleet had been after getting stranded on the castaway island.

Of course, one level deeper and Bill knew that he had many advantages that most base commanders couldn’t dream of having, but he had never gone into great detail about it with his dad.

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But still, Bill wouldn’t talk back against his father in front of so many people over such a small issue and just smiled and gave Aramaki a hug also.

Unlike his mom, who stood around eight foot tall, his father was closer to nine and half foot tall and while he was skinnier than Bill, he was far too large for Bill to think the man was another other than a giant.

After that, Bill went around greeting the others. He spoke to Trapano and Sentomaru, then Hina, followed by Maynard.

Trapano spoke to Bill about the new recruits in Vallipo, and Bill somewhat jokingly offered Trapano to come and be his Instructor. Sentomaru didn’t have much to say but did tell Bill about Egghead Island and Vegapunks recent completion of the Satellite Program.

He learned from Hina that Smoker would have come but he was escorting Crocodile to Impel Down, and he was told by Maynard the fate of the mousy Nezumi – the corrupt Captain had been formally discharged.

After them, Bill was introduced to the others.

Aramaki: “And these are some of my old friends, the one with the katana is Rear Admiral Yukimura and this guy with the funny hair is Vice Admiral Strawberry. I go back with them since we were recruits.”

With these men, Bill exchanged much more formal meetings, and once they were introduced, there was only one man left.

He was about eight-foot-tall with a buzz cut and a lightning shaped beard, but what Bill was mostly looking at was the piece of bacon stuck to one side of his face.

Aramaki: “And here’s another acquaintance of mine, I met him back when he first came to Marineford, this is Vice Admiral Vergo.”

Unlike his dads other friends, who were happy to greet him immediately, Bill noticed the slight hesitation in this Vice Admirals movements as he looked up at him.

And then when they shook hands, Bill could feel Vergo’s grip slowly tighten.

With a smile on his face, Bill just slightly matched the man’s strength and before anything else happened Aramaki stepped in, apparently, he had seen what was happening so putting his hand on Vergo’s shoulder he said: “The Vice Admiral here is now commanding the G-5 unit in the New World. That is a tough post, and we’re glad to have him there.”

Just as Bill was about to ask what he meant by “we’re” Aramaki suddenly turned his head with a serious expression and Bill followed his line of sight.

There he saw Onigumo walking beside a large man in a red suit that Bill didn’t recognize.

With father and son looking in the same direction, it didn’t take but a moment for the others to do the same thing and Dina was the first to speak: “That Red Dog should know better than to interfere.”

Bill knew the epithet ‘Red Dog’ but had never seen the man before. His guess turned out to be right though when the others in the group shot a look at his mom and his dad spoke somewhat hurriedly: “Calm down, wife. Onigumo has the right to petition the Admiral and we don’t know what the situation is yet.”

After the two men left the citadels entrance, Bill noticed that there was a mild cooling in the air around the group. Besides his parents, Trapano, and Sentomaru the others were slightly less forward and truthfully; he didn’t blame them.

Putting aside the wide legal authority of the Admirals, Bill knew that they were nearly forces of nature in of themselves.

After nearly a half hour of mingling, Aramaki started to wrap it up: “Ok, I want to again thank you for coming. I can’t say exactly what the process will be...”

And when he said this, Bill wondered if that was due to the involvement of an Admiral, or due to each case being handled differently, but didn’t ask and continued to listen.

“…but I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t true, but my son is not one to assault a higher-ranking officer over nothing, and it’s a real good thing for me to know that you will stand up as character witnesses for William if that’s what it comes to.”

Standing with her arms crossed, Hina nodded and added: “Hina’s knows the Demon Spider and so Hina knows the Spider started it.”

With this said, the group who Bill knew nodded in agreement while the others didn’t disagree.

“Ok.” Started Aramaki: “We’re going to meet with Sengoku now. Since the claimants are here the trial could start at any time, hopefully this doesn’t take more than a couple days to clear up.”

To this statement the others nodded and the just as the family trio was about to leave, Bill was stopped by Vergo.

“I did have a question for the young man.” He said speaking to both Bill and Aramaki, and when they didn’t object, he kept speaking: “There had been news that there was a major raid near Alabasta Kingdom, and that Lieutenant of the Science Division have made quite some noise in bringing in dozens of captured pirate ships and hundreds of prisoners.”

Then, stepping forward Vergo continued to speak: “It was also said that one of those ships belonged to the traitor Marine Gasparde, and that he was apprehended in that same raid.”

Nodding his head, Bill readily agreed that just before getting called to Marineford that he had led the raid on Hannabal Island and captured the traitor Marine.

It had to be known now that bounties were largely posted based on the danger presented by individuals to the World Government. Despite Gasparde having been at large for ten years, he only had a meager 95m Beli bounty due to the fact that he was a localized threat.

So, when Bill announced that he had captured the traitor, the other Marines were at first stunned and then congratulatory.

Vergo: “You did good. We need young Marines like yourself, and I’d like to invite you to come and see how we operate in G-5.

I think I would surprise you.”