Capítulo 2: What is a Marine?

I woke up to the smell of a wonderful breakfast. Ahhh — My dad is a good cook. I am very hungry!

Ugh! I forgot this body can't move its' legs.

"Ben! Are you awake?" Please come help me bro, I'm hungry!

My door gets kicked open by a grumbling Ben. He stops grumbling immediately on seeing me. Well, that makes sense.

"Nick! What did you do?!" He rushed to help me. What a nice brother. But hurry up, my face is pressed onto the floor!

He picked me, nagging the whole time he carried me to the kitchen. Look, it's not my fault I forgot I was paralyzed from the waist down in this body — My memories are a mess right now!

Of course, I knew he was mostly upset about what happened last night.

After continuous adamant refusal to train Ben, Dad went to sleep ignoring Ben's shouting.

I mean, Dad was right though. What kind of idiot would want to go join the marines — facing life and death on the regular. People who want to be pirates are worse. Not only do you risk death, but the majority of them are people who willingly desire to hurt others. Not all of them can be like Luffy & Co, who won't be around for another 21 years!

At the table, there is a ton of food and dad is sitting there. After getting me seated, Ben starts digging in while still glaring at dad. I should eat too!

…

"Ben…. I can't reach the food, you put my seat too far away from the table."

I watched Ben stop mid-chew. He obviously felt guilty as I saw his face scrunch up a little bit.

Better! Foooood!

As Ben and I heaped food onto our plates and filled our bellies gloriously, Dad continued to sit there in silence.

Only after we finished eating did he finally talk.

"Ben. I'll train you."

"Really!?"

"No. I mean. Yes. Kinda — Just listen." Don't scratch you head so much dad, you might scratch your hair all off. Oh, wait, he's probably just thinking. Let's tune in: "I will have you follow a basic, but accelerated physical training course. However, I will only train you until you turn 16. Then I will send you to my brother who is a vice-admiral in the marines to participate under his junior apprenticeship program. He has been pushing to allow juniors aged sixteen to train at headquarters until the age of enlistment of eighteen. He got permission recently to start this program. If I train you for two years and then he trains your for two more before you enter official marine basic training — you'll be able to get close to four and a half years of training. Actually, it should be closer to five, since you'll be able to go through accelerated basic training and then go straight into junior officer training for participating in the junior marine training program. This is the only path for you I will be comfortable in for you to pursue being a Marine."

"Five years of training…and wait! You have a brother!? I have an Uncle!" Ben looked very shocked.

I'm shocked. I have nearly 4 years of memories in this world, but nothing to indicate that information. Oh, that doesn't mean I am 4. It means I only have clear memories of the last 4 years of life in this body. Why's that? Well, this body was an infant before that, I'm only about 7 years old!

"Technically yes. You have an uncle. But I never bothered telling him about you two. He writes me often but I don't usually respond."

"You don't love us!" What can I say? I'm a child, right? Let's act childish.

"Stop goofing off Nick" Shit— he saw right through my scheme.

"I never told him because we had a falling out years ago when he joined the Marines. And secondly, it's because technically he's not related to you two. After all, you two are adopted."

Oh, we're adopted.

Cool.

Wait a moment.

"Then who're my parents!?" Ben and I shout at the same time. Well, I actually don't care. I'm acting. Acting!

"Ben D. Tennyson. You, were actually the child of some friends of mine. They passed away a year or so after your birth."

"What!? How did they die!?" …This is getting serious quickly. I didn't think this would be that kind of story.

Dad sat there in silence, calmly taking in Ben's glare.

"They were killed." He said simply.

"But by who! Pirates? Bandits?"

"Marines"

Whoa Bomb drop. Crazy news alert. Is this happening? Ben, you look very pale.

"Explain!" Whoa, there is a lot of pressure coming from Ben. His eyes look scary.

"Forty years ago, your father served on the crew of the then Pirate King, Edward "The Torturer" Lowe. Heh, the Lowe Pirates, were truly the lowest of the low. They were well known for the amount of torture and harm they put onto the people of the world. They were even personally responsible for the death of two Marine admirals and the then Fleet admiral. This caused a massive re-organization of the marines and a World Military draft."

"So my father was a filthy pirate! Then I'm glad he died!" Ben sat back down and started stabbing at his food.

"Your father is one of the most noble men I have ever had the honor of knowing. He greatly disapproved of the torture and methods of his captain, secretly saving many people. He held a mutiny. His mutiny failed, and so he fled. You have to understand, Lowe was truly the worst of the worst. After the failed mutiny, Lowe went and sought out every living relative of every member of the crew that betrayed him… and made clear examples of them all."

This is getting scary! This world is supposed to be based on a shounen manga, aren't those supposed to be fairly simplistic and not tragic?!

"Your father used this against Lowe. He would track down the families of the crew members remaining on the Lowe's ship and put them under his protection as the marines refused to do so. In fact, the marines even tried to torture some of the relatives for information themselves about the Pirate King. Your father fought and rescued as many as he could from the marines as well as from Lowe. He wanted the remaining crew on Lowe's ship to turn against him. "

The marines… they wanted to use this against the both of them. So they leaked information they had to Lowe about where your father was hiding the families. Lowe took his most loyal and strongest crew members to go kill your father. At the same time, he left those who had families being protected by your father behind… at the bottom of the sea. He had no use for a crew that he couldn't guarantee wouldn't betray him. Lowe went to kill your father, your father's crew, and the families of the crew he put to the bottom of the sea."

"But everything was a trap by the Marines. While your father was fighting Lowe…. The marines initiated their Buster call. A monstrous and inhumane method of attack. They devastated everything. They had no care in the world that there were civilians on the island - they were all branded as criminals for being associated with Pirates. This was all for the sake of killing Lowe. This was 35 years ago. "

"Do you understand? This is a marine. Justice at any cost. Justice is absolute, even if it means killing the ordinary people that get in the way."