Guns, Bandages and Blades.

It's been three weeks since then, and things have gone back to normal… sort of. Due to that little scuffle Sawamura and Raphael had, our squad had become infamous throughout the base. Although this granted me unwanted attention from everybody, I was willing to let this slide mostly because I had settled the issue with our squad and we had decided to move past it… until some idiot thought it was a great idea to brand our squad with a name.

<Flashback Begins.>

It was two days after the scuffle, as our squad was heading together for lunch, we heard a high-pitched voice filled with disdain from behind us,"Well well well, look what we have here…"(??)

I visibly cringed at the typical villain line and proceeded to ignore it and move forward. Apparently, Sawamura-San had the same idea, as he continued walking with his usual nonchalant expression with his hands behind his neck. The rest of the squad stared at our backs, and then look at the person who called us out and then continued to follow us.

If you don't have something unique to say, then I'm not going to give you my attention, that's my policy for all villains.

"Wha- How dare you ignore me?! Who do you think you miscreants are?!!"(??)

[Hmm… no one's ever called me a miscreant before. Well, you pass… for now](Ben)

Thinking so, I decided to turn my head side-wards to glance back at our bad-guy of the day. The owner of the voice was another 'pretty boy' marine with red hair who looked about the same age as Marie, surrounded by four other recruits, possibly either his cronies or birds of the same feather, I can't tell at this point.

Judging by the expensive looking ornaments adorned by them and the all too obvious air of superiority, they clearly were from the upper class. This situation was getting more typical by the second.

Flashy guy Raphael seemed to know this guy and clearly wasn't too fond of him either as he replied back with a snarl,"The hell do you want Drake?'

[Che, you had to respond to him](Ben)

Realizing that he got our attention, Drake regained his condescending demeanour and replied with a haughty tone, "Raphael, Mon Cheri, how could you use such a cold tone against your good ol-"

Blah Blah Blah. My mind automatically filtered out the rest of the dialogue.

Looking at my pocket watch, I realized that I was late for lunch. Seeing that the others were enthralled by the drama between those two, I decided to go alone. Even Sawamura-San who initially ignored the fool was listening in, albeit with irritation clearly etched on his face. So I signaled him that I was going to head off alone, and was soon on my way to the canteen.

As a simple lone wolf, there are three things that I consider to be of top priority: The one's I care about, Relaxation and Food. Anything else can come after. Besides this story is about ME, not some bunch of pretty boys. Those people have too many stories about them anyway.

After I ate a hearty meal consisting of an shaved-Egg Avocado Toast, and Greek yogurt Chicken Salad, I was on my way back to my barracks, when I Overheard people talking about me, or to be more precise Squad 203. Realizing that the drama may have ended poorly…again. I headed to the barrack to find Ito to ask him what's going on. Ito was a pretty cool guy. Other than Sawamura, he is the oldest member of our Squad. He was a Marine First-Class officer with a good record and was looking to get promoted to a Petty officer soon, at which point he will no longer be a part of our Squad and will work under a Captain-ranked officer.

Seeing Ito in his room, sullen and going through some paperwork, I approached him and asked,"Hey man, What's with the rumors floating about the squad?"

Hearing this Ito looks up and then lets out a long sigh,"It's been an hour, and even I can't make heads or tails of what's happening"

"How so?"(Ben)

At that moment, Sawamura-San came into the room as if on cue and answered the question.

"I'll tell ya how kid. Cuz our squad��s been branded with a nickname, by that walking ladies' purse, Drake"(Sawamura)

"...Come again?"(Ben)

"You heard me, that lipstick with legs gave us a nickname, and now we're stuck with it."(Sawamura)

[Wait what?](Ben)

"So you're saying, D-rake gave us a nickname and somehow everybody decided to just go with it?"(Ben)

''Yea. I Know it sounds crazy now but at that time things somehow worked out in his favour and the name just clicked into everyone's mind at the heat of the moment."(Sawamura)

"Yes now, everyone in the base refers to us by that nickname. Even some of the superiors are starting to call us by that name too. As silly as it may seem, in the worst case scenario this can have a huge impact on our chances of rising in the ranks in the future!"(Ito)

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad now can it?"(Ben)

"It is! Our reputation amongst our fellow marines can be a huge factor in determining our chances of getting into higher ranks, especially into administrative positions."(Ito)

"And you're telling me, a nickname is going to ruin our reputation, Come on guys, I mean I'm upset too but aren't you guys taking this way out of proportion? I mean, it's only a nickname right? These things fade away after some time."(Ben)

"HELL NO!"(Ito/Sawamura)

"Kid, nicknames stay with you for life, trust me; I know… Besides, it's not the fact that we got branded with a nickname that ticks me off, it's the nickname by itself. Do you even know what he called us?!"(Sawamura)

I was a little hesitant at this point since, I thought that the name had to be pretty stigmatizing if it were to spread through the whole base within a single hour, so my voice slightly faltered when I uttered,"W-what?"

"He called us #$@%&*!!!" (Sawamura)

Once I heard the word, I could have sworn my mind went blank for a couple of seconds, so I walked over to Ito's bed and plopped down, then proceeded to massage my temples and try to re-run Sawamura-San's words through my head like a broken record. Not a few moments later, I burst into a loud cry that startled the two other souls in the room.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN????!!!!!"(Ben)

Fruitcake.

Yes.

Fruitcake.

That was the oh-so-stigmatizing nickname that had been branded on onto us. My brain couldn't fathom how someone could come up with that name in a discussion between grown-a$$ adults.

[What was that guy thinking. I mean seriously, how does a healthy, fully functioning human brain go from 'Hmm what should I name this bunch?' to 'Fruitcake'. I can even argue that the latter word shouldn't even pop up in a healthy brain, period.](Ben)

I looked at the other two squad-mates of mine and started ranting on them.

"Let me get this straight! You know, in case I missed something. So, this guy you've never met before comes up to you, has an argument with you. Then looks at you IN THE EYE! WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!! and calls you… 'Fruitcake'. Hmm, have I missed something? Oh Yeah! The part were somehow everyone around you looked a your mugs and unanimously thought, ' Yea, they do look like fruitcakes.' "(Ben)

"Yea. I wish they had gone for something classier like 'Seamen'."(Sawamura)

"..."(Ben)

<Flashback Ends>

Well, that's how we ended up getting the name Fruitcakes. The heat of the event has mostly died down, now except for the occasional wiseguy who brings it up, only to have it shoved back down his throat by someone in the squad, except Marie of course cuz Sawamura-San does it for her.

I'm still confused how that name stuck onto us, but I'm clearly not going to let that stuff bother me… totally. I'm a really calm guy, OK?

.

.

.

On a completely unrelated note, someone had snuck into Drake's barrack and glued his butt cheeks together using Super glue. The whole event caused an uproar in the base that quickly helped the whole gossip about our nickname disappear faster. How do I know about this? What happened to Drake afterwards? Well, too bad, like I said, this story is not about him, it's about ME. I'm pretty sure someone else will take a pity seeing poor Drake's plight and give him a place in their story.

Back to the present, things had progressed so far from the day we got our contracts. Due to my excellent scores in Science, especially Biology, I had been given an opportunity to train as a medic, which of course, I gladly accepted. There were three reasons that I had readily accepted this offer, one is obviously because I would never give up a chance to become a Medic. In a way, my paramedic skills were one of the few things that I was able to bring with me from my past life, so you can bet that I will do everything that I can to make use of the skills to the fullest.

The second reason is obviously the prestige. As a combat medic, my skills will be on high demand in any base, this can allow me to easily transfer to other bases without much repercussions. I mean any commander would value a medic over the standard marine.

Almost anybody can be trained to hold a rifle and yell 'YabaDabaDooo!!!' while jumping into a Battlefield, but it takes a skilled medic to patch those people up so that they can be able to walk again.

The third reason is that any marine recruit who successfully completes the medic program would be immediately promoted to a Marine First-Class officer, because the skill set that you will acquire after the course will obviously make you worthy of a higher rank. That's how important the marines are. Not to mention, those that complete the programme with flying colors can become eligible to start training as Physicians and Doctors, the programme is fully funded by the world government.

Of course deep within, my reason to accept the offer was purely the first one. Prestige and promotion were not things that allowed me to have an easy life and so were not of any importance.

My schedule was now officially packed, with the medic program in the morning,miscellaneous duties in the afternoon and then more medic field practice in the evening. This means that I would be left with little time to myself, that I needed to train or relax.

Speaking of training, I haven't trained my Rokushiki skills much since I came to this Island. It is my main hidden card against opponents and yet I haven't been focusing much on it, Damn! My Doriki is now probably a little over 1000, which shows that I haven't improved much due to my lack of training for the past two months.

Thus like any responsible person, it was finally time to reorganize my timetable. I had changed my sleep duration from Eight hours to six hours, in order to accommodate for a 2-hour meditation session. I did not feel like reducing the sleeping time any further lest I risk stunting my growth.

As soon as I finish my meditation session, I would have to immediately rush out of the base, into the sea. This would require me to go on a silent but fast-paced parkour run through the rooftops of a town that is still mostly asleep. Once I reach the shore, I grab a heavy rock near the shore and dive right in to the bottom of the sea.

Once I am at the bottom of the sea, I start practicing the Rokushiki. Now that I have mastered all the six moves, my goal now is to increase its strength, versatility, and increase my Doriki. Underwater is the best place to train these techniques.

As you go beyond 60 metres below the sea level, you start to experience Nitrogen Narcosis, as in you start feeling intoxicated as if you're drunk. This coupled with the underwater pressure that acts on your body from all directions makes it really uncomfortable.

To combat the pressure acting on my body, I activate Tekkai(Iron Body) and try to using other moves simultaneously such as Kami-e, and especially Rankyaku(Whirlwind kick). This task is obviously difficult since it requires me do do multiple things at the same time, and is very difficult to utilize in real life combat situations without sufficient practice. The only way this can be of use in combat is if I can master these moves to a point that I can carry out the combos by reflex.

And make no mistake, as tedious as this may seem, once I have mastered it, my combat prowess will have leaped several-fold. Not to mention that If I can master all six moves to a certain extent, I can combine them to create the ultimate move, Rokuogan.

With limited air supply and extreme pressure acting on my body, I can imitate near-death situations and therefore push my body beyond its limits.

This training usually lasts till when the sun rises. Of course I surface above the sea once every four minutes for fresh air. It takes a while to resurface since I have to ascend slowly while still training in order to make my body get used to the change I pressure, lest I experience bends due to the accumulation of nitrogen bubbles in my blood, which can be extremely painful.

Once I head back to shore, I quickly dry myself with towels that I have brought with me and move to a secluded area to change into my uniform before heading to the base. The Morning session for the medic course will commence as early as 6:30 AM, since the Medics are usually extremely busy during the rest of the day. This session mostly consists of theoretical classes ranging from human anatomy, protocols to be followed during emergencies, front-line trauma care etc.

So after a hearty meal after entering the base, I head to the Department of Medical Sciences in order to attend the morning session. I am accompanied by other recruits and even some superior officers who wish to acquire this skill.

The lectures are carried out in a dull spacious room by marine physicians. I am familiar with most of these topics but there are always some new knowledge waiting to be gained here. The books provided to us were also very precious and informative, usually costing tens of thousands of Beri to acquire outside. This shows how much the medics are valued by the marines.

As the day begins to brighten, the whole base begins to burst with activity.The various faint sounds of chorus yells provide an oddly satisfying background music as I continue to read and listen to the lectures.

At noon, I head to the canteen where I join my squad for lunch, after which, I would take part in the standard weapon training provided by the Marines.

Remember when I said that the technology in One Piece Universe is complicated? So here's the deal, the primary weapon used by everyone in this world is either the Flintlock pistols or Muskets. But unlike on earth where these guns are known for their poor reload time and no. of bullets per round; in this universe, none of those problems exist. This can be seen when Black Beard and his crew fire bullet after bullet at the body of White Beard using a flintlock pistol without having to reload. Similar scenes can also be seen in most gun fight scenes in the One Piece anime.

As a marine, each recruit is provided with a flintlock pistol, a musket and a Cutlass as a part of their equipment. They are required to properly look after these equipment since they act as a marine's lifeline during battle. Most superior officers like Vice Admirals can even be seen carrying Meitos (I.e. blades that have gained their own fame).

Like everyone else, I was also provided with old and used weapons, since the newer ones are reserved for superiors or even nobles. This didn't sit well with me because, if there is one thing I am known for, it is being neat and clean. This also automatically extends to my possessions.

Thus I took it upon myself to restore my rifle and blades to their pristine conditions. Using most of my savings that I had set aside, I brought sandpapers, wood as well as metal polish, whetstones of various grain size, rust remover, cleaning patches and tons of cleaning patches.

Although this left a considerable dent in my savings, it was totally worth it. Especially since I couldn't afford the ridiculous price the blacksmith had offered, just to have the weapons cleaned once. I also bought a wooden box to store all these things and a bottle of rum in order to bribe Jeff, the lighthouse keeper, so that he would allow me to store these things at the top of the lighthouse. The lighthouse lamp is electric, so I don't have to worry about the solutions catching on fire. This way I can clean my weapons whenever I am chilling at the lighthouse.

It took me about three weeks to restore the blade as well as the rifles to their prime conditions, with the addition of both wood as well as metal polish my weapons were practically shining. Looking at my cutlass, the thought 'I wonder' passed through my head. So I got into a meditation pose, held the cutlass in my hand, closed my eyes and tried to focus all my attention, willpower, whatever I feelings I could convey onto the blade in my hand. For a while, nothing happened, but when I opened my eyes all of a sudden!… still nothing. Who am I kidding, if haki were that easy to obtain, then every kendo master in the land would have it. I guess I'll have to take it one step at a time.

On the bright side, I still got shiny looking weapons at the end. This granted me looks of envy from the other marines, with some even asking me to clean their weapons. I simply misled them by saying that I had a blacksmith restore them for a ridiculously high price. Heh, that should keep them away. If they still bother me, a simple 'No' shall suffice.

A strange thing I have noticed is that there aren��t any strict regulations for marines carrying their weapons outside their base. The only exception is that we have to fill out a form and have it signed by our squad leaders whenever we need to procure additional ammo for the muskets and pistols. Open-carrying the Cutlass as well as the guns in the streets was allowed.

Back, to the point, the weapons training session mostly consisted of target practice, sparring and so on. After that, I had to head back to the medical department in order for field practice. This mainly consists of helping senior medics as well as physicians to take care of the patients. The medical department in the Avalon base, receives a constant stream of injured civilians as well as marines from other Islands. In this pirate era, not all islands have a marine base stronghold or even an old man with his pet Sea king, thus they are subject to raids by pirates and bandits.

The marines who are dispatched to take care of these crises, often come back unharmed. The lucky ones are able to get first-aid treatment from combat medics present in the battlefield and are sent back to the base for further treatment. Some lose their lives on the battlefield, while others even succumb to their grievous injuries on the way to the base.

The all too familiar sight of wounded patients seeking medical attention made me remember the harsh truth of this profession, the people who are around me at this moment may not necessarily be around tomorrow. Snapping out of my thoughts, I quickly rush to help in any way I can. This would last until late evening or even into the night. After this, I would head out to eat dinner, and then depending on the time I have left, I would either head to the lighthouse to do maintenance work on my weapons or simply lie down on the roof and gaze at the sky full of stars, or just head to the barracks to call it a day if it's late.

And so my peaceful days at the Marine base continued, while unbeknownst to me a huge plot was brewing beneath the peaceful veil of this land.

------------------- x --------------- x ------------------ x ------

(Author's thoughts)

Hello everyone,

I'm back again with another chapter. Thank you all for your love and support, it means a lot to me.

Remember in Chapter 1 when I mentioned that I will include action and comedy in the story later on... and that's what I've been trying to do these past few chapters. I'm not much of a talkative guy, but I still like to think that I have a modicum of humour within me. Well boy was I sorely mistaken.

When I first started approaching comedy, my mind went completely blank, I realized that I have no Idea how to make my own jokes. Thus I went about it the old-fashioned way; through trial and error. And I gotta tell you, It was difficult as hell, still is.

Sometimes I try to make up these jokes, they initially sound funny in my head, but once I type it down I realize that it doesn't seem funny at all.

Some jokes sound funny in the beginning, but after updating the chapter and then reading it alongside everyone else, I realize how cringy, unfunny and even inappropriate my jokes seem. Some of you are considerate enough to ignore these flaws, while those of you who are frank with your comments deliver your criticisms... in a rather creative way.

One of the paragraph comments in the previous chapter made me laugh out loud at first, but then made me feel like hiding myself in embarassment and shame. But still I must acknowledge that these are essential hurdles that must be passed for selimprovement. Not to mention I value most criticisms that help me improve as a writer.

My point is, please put up with my attempts at comedy. They may not be the most pleasing right now, but I promise to be relentless in making new and improved jokes, and finding my own style of comedy. Besides, one day if I improve my skills, I'd like to come back to these chapters and laugh at my current attempts at a joke and be like, 'Ah! Those were the days!~'

So until next time folks, stay healthy, stay safe, and as always... Happy reading