Mourning and Celebrations

I walked into the Brecksville Militia base and yelled, "We have done it! We have destroyed all of the gangs within Brecksville after only 1 day!"

Cheers erupted from the room as many who hadn't joined the raid felt joy that a problem that had been plaguing them for years had disappeared.

I had to break the mood, however, "Sadly, 4 members of our group have perished in the ensuing fight. Alice Young, Nolan Ferd, Valance Brunswick, and Jasper Olin have all died in the line of duty."

"As such later this weak I would like to have a gather in honor of their brave sacrifice in helping us get rid of this menace."

There was a beat of silence before I spoke up again, "But to honor their memory let us enjoy what they have given their lives for. Let's celebrate."

I broke out a bottle of champagne I had kept in my inventory and open allowing the festivities to continue. I had planned this celebration out and soon platters of food and wine started being served.

I knew that it was moments like this that bind an organization together. They felt that we had gone through hard times together and now had great memories of us.

I celebrated with them but when I saw Laurance in my peripheral vision I excused myself to greet him. "What brings the police chief out to these parts."

He smiled weakly, "You know what brings me here. I would like to thank you for your group's help in getting rid of the gangs in Brecksville."

"But I have to mention, that the killing of the entire Dancing Scents Guild was a bit extreme. I understand emotions were running high but that doesn't excuse killing 17 men."

I sighed knowing this conversation would happen, "It was a terrible situation we had just been poisoned and were panicking when one of our men saw them lob something at us he acted."

"We didn't know that what they had thrown was a deadly gas. We just returned what they threw at us. It was self-defense."

Laurance sighed, "You know I won't persecute you for what you did to the gangs. God knows if I did that I would be lynched the next day but just don't make a habit of it."

"The way you dealt with the Yellow Goblins Guild was a perfect example of what you could do to reduce casualties. Only 3 out of 18 men died in your raid."

"And while the Steel Hand Brotherhood was less well handled. I saw your man kill Ricklin even though he had already been taken out, it was still acceptable."

"Granted the property damage was massive, but you only killed 5 out of 20 men so I will let you off on that. Just don't make a property damage a habit."

I nodded, "Don't worry we won't. We were just worried about the firepower that the Steel Hand could bring against us so we decided to be extra careful."

Laurance snorted, "You were extra careful alright. But I have to ask, are you going to keep expanding your little gang?"

I widened my eyes, "This a gang? No! I'm just worried about the state of the outside world, you have seen how dangerous it can be."

He nodded and said, "I know that's why I am letting you be. But make no mistake the moment I believe that you are no longer serving the community I will call the army on you."

I sighed, "No need for threats. Let's just celebrate for today. You have no more pressing matters do you?"

He shook his head, "With the gangs dealt with I'm mostly free of work."

I nodded, "So let's party!"

I dropped a bottle of champagne into his hands and we walked back into the hall and continued our party. I hope that I don't have to deal with Laurance I actually like him, he is a good cop.\

---

The next day when I woke up I looked around and saw that I was in a room I didn't recognize. This wasn't the militia hall, nor was it my apartment.

The door opened and in came Mary dressed in her nightclothes just a t-shirt and panties. I immediately wonder had I slept with her?

She looked at me then smiled, "Hello sleepy head and before you ask, no, we did not have sex. You were just too blackout drunk and since I didn't know where your apartment was I brought you here."

"This is the room of Terrence. So excuse anything weird you find here. I was all his stuff."

I nodded, "Thank you, for bringing me to a bed."

She smiled and said, "It was the least I could do. After all, you were the one that gave me these amazing powers and got rid of the gangs."

I smiled and thought yup she is definitely into me. Was that good? After some mulling over I decided that it was, she would be even more loyal and caring towards me.

She also didn't seem like the Yandere type so it wouldn't affect how I dealt with other women in my job as militia commander.

She was also pretty and confident so I was attracted to her. So I wondered if I should just confess now and even more tightly bind her to me.

I decided not to not only because it didn't feel appropriate for the situation but also because I really didn't have time for a relationship right now.

Maybe later when things were more stable. And if we were to confess to me herself I guess I would accept to not make things awkward between us and I was genuinely attracted to her.

"Well," I said, "It's all in a day's work. Fighting bad guys, waking up in a beautiful young maiden's house just a normal day in the life of Marcus the Magnificent."

She laughed at my joke and said, "Beautiful am I?"

I said, "Yes you are Mary. And if anybody else tells you otherwise they are lying."

She smiled then said, "Ok that's enough flirting from you mister. You still have a lot to do in the aftermath of tomorrow's raid."

I groaned but reluctantly agreed with her. I had barely had the time to even train with my Haki barely improving due to me not having many chances to use them.

I was already incredibly strong to the point where I could take down most of the gangs by myself. I didn't find much need to use my Haki.

Hopefully, in my next mission, I will have more time to train it as on Earth I have way too much to do and no real good opponents to fight against.

I walked out of Mary's house bidding her and her mother farewell before heading back to base. I still had a lot to do.

I had to give compensation to the family of those that died during the raid, plan the meeting to mourn them, and decided who gets rewarded for their performance.

After some deliberation decided that Dustin deserved one for saving many lives from the poison and that Wind Mage, Katy for stopping that follow-up attack.

I would probably give Mary a reward as well but I didn't really have anything that would fit. I would give her her reward later when I had something that better fit her fighting style.

I would also give Wilbur a reward, probably the bag of dials I had, for the instrumental role his weapons played in all the battles we had been in.

I wanted to attract more craftsmen to our guild and hopefully, this gift would make Wilbur more attached to our guild as his leaving would be a massive blow to our potential future growth.

I didn't give on to Micheal however as he had disobeyed orders and killed Ricklin when he was defenseless. If I rewarded him I was afraid I would promote the mindset that might make right.

I didn't what that particularly corrosive mentality to seep into our organization. I would just lead to tyrants who got what they wanted not because they deserved it but just because they were strong.

So I announced that I was awarding Dustin, Katy, and Wilbur after all the members of the militia had trickled in.

I offered Dustin and Katy to pick 1 fruit of the 4 I was showing them. After some deliberation, Dustin picked the Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Anaconda.

I think after seeing how a weak vitality could kill you even if you didn't fight on the front lines he wanted to bolster his admittedly terrible physical stats.

Katy picked the Chop-Chop Fruit I guess to enhance her already impressive agility that came from her wind magic.

She would be incredibly had to kill with her limbs floating all around the place with the wind improving their speeds.

They showed their new abilities much to the amazement and adulation of the crowd. Now they knew my claims of giving them new abilities were not unfounded.

For Wilbur when he came up and I showed him the ability of each of the dials I swear I saw his eye dance with an evil glow.

He especially seemed interested in the impact dial due to its ability to absorb and release kinetic energy and the Eisen dial for its ability to release clouds that can be as hard as iron.

Once the rewards and commendations were given out I dispersed the crowds after all today was going to be a busy day. Like all the other coming days.

We had to prepare, with the new batch of recruits coming after hearing our triumph over the gangs and our looming threat of foreign gangs we didn't have any time to relax