Already no match for Vane, and after fighting Bonez he had lost a great deal of stamina. His fate now was to be instantly killed with a single slash.
Strawberry collapsed weakly to the ground. The last scene before his eyes closed was someone approaching him with handcuffs.
"Reporting to the leader, there are two hundred and twenty-one Marines on the ship in total, including non-combat personnel. All have been captured."
Among the more than two hundred Marines were some non-combat personnel, such as trainee sailors like Koby on board, who normally had no qualification to fight and could only scrub the deck.
"Pirates" wouldn't care whether you were combat personnel or not. As long as you could move and hold a weapon, you were all captured first.
By the end, there weren't even enough handcuffs. They directly took out the Marines' own chains to use.
"So many prisoners—it's the first time. And they're all Marines."
Vane looked at the deck full of uniform white clothing, then glanced at his own side with dozens of people dressed in all sorts of colors… Was it necessary to unify their outfits?
After thinking it over, he felt there was no need if they were just ordinary clothes. In this world, battles caused extremely serious damage to clothing. It would be enough to add the Rocket Team's unique emblem to their clothes.
When their operation expanded enough in the future, then they could consider unifying outfits and insignia.
"Untie the cooks on the ship and have them prepare food."
"Huh? We're still going to feed these prisoners?"
"If I tell you to do it, then do it. I have a very good idea. They must eat their fill and have plenty of strength."
How to deal with these Marines was a very thorny problem. Killing all two hundred of them would be too wasteful. Bringing them onto the ship was also unlikely. In these times, you couldn't easily trust someone who came out of the Marine system.
Eight out of ten would be informants. The Marines' brainwashing ability was extremely strong.
Like Zephyr, who devoted his entire life to the Marine cause—his family was retaliated against by pirates, he himself was stabbed in the back by the World Government—yet even after leaving the Marine system, he never thought of becoming a pirate… Although what he did was far more extreme than most pirates, his starting point was to end the Great Pirate Era rather than take revenge on the Marines or the World Government.
Within the Marine and pirate systems, aside from those who were mentally twisted to begin with, only those driven into a corner by the World Government might possibly become pirates.
For example, Who's-Who, the saber-toothed tiger who later became the head of the Tobiroppo under Kaido. While escorting the Nika Fruit[Gum-Gum Fruit], it was snatched away by Red-Haired Shanks.
The World Government assigned him excessive responsibility, causing him to refuse to bear it and directly flee. In the end, he ran to Kaido and became a pirate under him.
So killing these Marines would be somewhat wasteful, but keeping them as subordinates was also extremely risky.
However, Vane quickly came up with an idea that could disgust the World Government and the Marines to an extreme degree—a kind of open scheme.
...
Strawberry woke up about an hour later.
He discovered that although the Marines were restrained hand and foot, they had all received treatment. The pirates even let them go eat in batches.
"Despicable pirates! Are you trying to make us defect to you?"
Strawberry immediately thought of this. When pirates fought each other, the victor often treated the opponent's prisoners well in order to win hearts and replenish their own losses.
But they were Marines! Even if the West Blue Marine branches were somewhat corrupt, they were not so easily pried apart by these pirates… Even if they did submit, it wouldn't matter. Marines forced to join pirates had an extremely high probability of being turned into informants.
If he accepted Marines, it would be equivalent to planting extremely unstable factors within his own team.
"Rear Admiral Strawberry… you're quite brave, bringing such a group of weak Marines to challenge our team."
Vane looked down at Strawberry from above. When he looked at him, his eyes would always involuntarily drift upward toward the top of his head. That tall skull was just too eye-catching.
Vane strongly protested—when measuring this guy's height in the future, they should measure only up to ten centimeters above the eyes at most. Anything beyond that absolutely could not count.
"Hmph! Our righteous Marines confront evil pirates relying on nothing but fearless courage!"
Strawberry acted extremely unyielding.
"Justice? Very good, very spirited! As expected of someone who commands a warship."
Vane's voice was especially loud when he said "very spirited," startling Strawberry.
This pirate was so young—was something wrong with his mind? I'm a Marine, your enemy. At a time like this, shouldn't there be all kinds of torture instruments and severe interrogation? Why is he suddenly praising my Marine spirit?
"I greatly admire your Marine spirit of justice. So in the coming time, I will lead you Marines together with me to carry out justice!"
Strawberry: ????
Has this pirate gone mad? A mere pirate daring to call himself justice?
"I know! You want a Shichibukai position, don't you!"
The policy of the Shichibukai had already been implemented for several years.
From the timeline, Crocodile was very likely the first Shichibukai after this policy was established.
When Luffy first set out to sea, the Shichibukai in office were Crocodile, the world's greatest swordsman Hawk Eyes, Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, Sea Knight Jinbe, and Doflamingo.
At first, Vane thought that after the Shichibukai were established, it had always been these seven, until Crocodile was defeated and Blackbeard took the position for a while.
But Oda unexpectedly wrote that when Ace set out to sea three years earlier, one of the Shichibukai was someone called Hanafuda.
That made things awkward. Crocodile, Hancock, Jinbe, and Doflamingo must have become Shichibukai very early. The remaining three didn't seem late either… The timeline conflicted slightly.
In the end, it could only be said that Oda had the final say.
"Shichibukai? Are there still vacant positions?"
Right now, Hancock was still a slave. Hawk Eyes he had just met and was still being hunted with a bounty. Sea Knight Jinbe was guarding the Ryugu Palace under the sea. Doflamingo was being chased around North Blue by Vice Admiral Tsuru. Kuma was probably still in South Blue.
Among the Shichibukai he was familiar with, at most there were Crocodile and Moria.
"Of course there are vacancies. I don't know how many pirates are eyeing those positions."
Strawberry did not conceal information on this point. At present, three people occupied Shichibukai seats. Only one was Crocodile, whom Vane was familiar with; the other two were strangers.
They would probably be defeated within a few years and thus lose their Shichibukai positions.
A defeated Shichibukai—especially one whose defeat became widely known—would lose their deterrent value and soon be abandoned by the World Government.