CHAPTER 4: ISLAND
The Going Merry slowly sailed into the harbour of the high-tech island. Only that the harbour was so big and technological, it looked as if the Titanic could stop there. Everyone got off the boat and scouted the area.
Before they could exactly figure out what kind of place was this, a robot rolled in. It looked like the short and stout robot from Star Wars, only it could talk.
“Welcome, foreigners. My name is RPH72. May I be of your assistance?”
“Yes, please,” Nami replied, looking down at the robot which was somewhere around her waist. “Could you tell me what kind of island is this?”
“This is Island TYR40918645X#, also known as Future Island. In this island, everything is as easy as a push of a button. Convenient as it is.”
“Wow~!” Usopp gaped at the elaborate features of the harbour. “Now that’s my kind of island! No monsters, no alien life-forms and no danger!”
“Correction,” RPH72 replied, “there is alien life-form existing in this island, although they are not harmful. They come from all around the world and have been living here since the dawn of this island.”
“Looks like Mr. Know-It-All isn’t so safe after all,” Sanji sneered, which resulted into a glare from Usopp. It seemed that his stomachache has already ceased torturing him.
“Would you foreigners like a tour around this island?” RPH72 offered.
“Sure, why not?” Zoro replied as he slipped his swords into his waist belt one by one. His stomach wasn’t that painful anymore either.
RPH72 took them out of the harbour. On the way out, the Going Merry crew feasted their eyes on the oddity of their surroundings. Big bulky machinery filled the whole place. They found themselves standing on a floor escalator; they only had to remain standing as the escalator brought them to the exit. There were machines for scanning luggage and bags. There were quite a number of counters which admitted passengers in and out of the harbour, managed by robots and androids of all shapes and sizes. There were even machines that scan through passengers at the exit, which was what the crew was brought through. Zoro was almost detained for bringing his three swords but the rest of the crew sweet-talked the security guard out of it, and RPH72 vouched for Zoro. Zoro would rather give up his life than his swords, especially when it was Luffy who helped him get them back from Captain Mogan’s office.
Outside the harbour was another story. The buildings were all made of solid metal. Robots, androids, cyborgs and humans walk among each other in a busy city. There were even a number of weird-looking beings walking about. Almost everyone had at least an android as a servant. Some carried little children on their backs, some helped their masters and mistresses carry groceries, and some even helped to walk the dog! Usopp gaped and gasped at everything in sight, like a child who was taken to a candy shop. Sanji noticed a few androids wearing marine uniforms and saw a tall building bearing the logo of the marines.
“Does your island have marine forces too?” Sanji asked, not shifting his eyes from the building.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, we do. But most of the marine crew are either androids or cyborgs,” RPH72 replied. “Our marine force is the only force with the least human members.”
“OK,” Sanji muttered under his breath. “Solid metal sea soldiers. Not very encouraging.”
After quite a long tour (and after satisfying gadget freak’s curiosity—namely Usopp), the crew was hungry. RPH72 took them to a small restaurant which sold Italian food. The crew gorged over pasta, lasagna, pizza, mushroom soup and more. Sanji and Zoro ate the most. Chopper felt weird at the sudden change of their appetite.
“Are you sure you can take it in, Zoro? You just recovered from a terrible stomachache,” Chopper asked, concerned. “And Sanji! You’re eating as if you’ve been starving for a week!”
“I feel normal,” Sanji replied. “I’m just impressed at this lovely food we’re served, although it still needs a little something. The food is really not bad, right, Zoro?”
Zoro could only nod, what with all the food in his mouth.
After lunch, each paid their share of the food to the cashier. The robot cashier eyed at their currency and shook his head, “Insufficient currency. Cannot accept.”
“Sorry, my friends, I forgot to tell you,” RPH72 said apologetically, “you have to change your currency. Over here, we don’t use the universal berry as currency. Come, let me change your money.”
So saying, RPH72 slid out a metallic pocket. The crew slipped in the money and moments later, RPH72 slid out a few pieces of metallic film with golden inscriptions engraved on it, showing the value of the film. Zoro took it and paid the cashier. The cashier took the money and slid it into his metallic pocket, saying, “Thank you for dining in our restaurant. Please come again.”
Before they could leave the restaurant, a man suddenly burst in. He looked really old and had long shaggy white hair and beard. His face was flushed and his eyes were glazed, and in his right hand held a bottle of beer.
“Hear ye, hear ye, everybody in this place! I have come to reveal our true enemies! It is the marines! The marines are our true enemies! They don’t give a damn about you! They torture the daylights out of you and leave you there to rot! I solemnly swear that…”
And the old man kept on ranting and raving drunken nonsense, much to the other customers’ amusement. RPH72 slid out an antenna from his head and beeped. Soon a few police androids came in and took the mad old man away. Everyone resumed back to their business. RPH72 sighed and slid the antenna back into his head.
“What was that about?” Chopper asked.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just a drunkard,” RPH72 said as he led them out of the restaurant, “and a nuisance. He was arrested by the marines a few years back and he became like this after his release ever since.”
“Arrested by the marines?” Zoro was interested. The Going Merry crew recognized his tone of voice and were ready at his command.
“Yes. But that’s the past. He’s an old man. Come, let me show you around some more.”
“Thanks, RPH72, but we can manage from here onwards,” Zoro replied as he gave the signal by a sideways look. “We need to explore this place personally. For a robot like you, you do care about your people.”
“All in a day’s work, sir. If you need me, please don’t hesitate to beep me,” RPH72 said as he passed a small remote control with only a red button. Zoro took it and handed it to Usopp, who marveled over it like a curious child.
As soon as the robot was out of sight, the crew followed the drunken man secretly. He and the police androids were not far away from them. They followed them at a distance. Surprisingly, they did not take the old man into the police station (and a really tall one indeed). They just passed it by and headed for the outskirts of the city. It was rocky and bare, with full of trees, caves and caverns but no trees at all. Not even synthetic ones they saw at the city. They tried hard to catch up with the fast-going police androids as they climbed the rocky hills and tramp over sandy ground, not wanting to lose them.
Soon they found the police androids taking the old man to a cylinder-shaped home. The walls were made of polished glass and the windows were of transparent film. One of the police androids took out the pass card that was hanging around the old man’s neck and opened the door. They shoved the man in and left. The Going Merry crew hid out of sight and waited until the police android went far away enough. Softly but swiftly, they went down the small hill and stood in front of the weird-looking house.
“Ohayo!” Zoro called out at the door. “Anybody home?”
“He might have not recovered from the booze yet,” Chopper said. “Let’s just wait for a moment.”
They didn’t have to wait for long. A few minutes later, a huge fat robot lady answered the door. If it weren’t for her kind sweet face, Usopp would’ve run away helter-skelter. Then again, he’ll almost run away at the sight of anything big and scary to him anyway.
“May I help you?” the robot lady asked.
“We would like to speak to the master of the house, please,” Nami said, “that is, if he’s available. It’s really urgent.”
“The master is still quite intoxicated now. But I’m sure you can see him after I snap him out of it. Please, come inside.”
The Going Merry crew walked into the home. They were surprised to see that although the walls of the house were made of glass, it wasn’t transparent. They couldn’t see the outside from inside the house and vice versa. The robot lady led them to the living room and invited them to sit down. She made them drinks from the drink processor in her stomach.
“Please wait a bit while I call for the master,” the robot lady said as she left the crew.
“Nice house,” Usopp complimented, looking around, careful not to break anything.
“Yeah. This is so different from the other islands we’ve explored. And so much more different than our own hometown,” Nami agreed, testing on the softness of the sofa she was sitting on. “This place really is the future.”
“And a whole lot damage it did to me!” A gruff voice replied, much to the crew’s surprise. They turned around and saw the old man standing there, still a little bit flushed but quite sane than before. “Who are you and what are you doing here in my house?”
“We’re just tourists, and we’re just here to ask you for a little bit of information…” Nami tried to sweet-talk the old man into a better mood but Zoro hit him straight to the point.
“We heard that you’ve been arrested by the marines before. Can you spare us a little marine story?”
The old man stared long and hard at Zoro first, then said slowly, “You must be the legendary Greatest Swordsman everyone has been talking about. I may be drunk sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t stay updated.”
“In the flesh,” Zoro replied.
“And you all must be the famous Luffy gang. I’ve heard a lot about you during my time in the marine prison. A lot of my inmates have been talking about you.”
“Wow! We’re even famous in the marine prison! That’s cool!” Usopp said, resulting to a smack from Nami.
“That is definitely not cool! We’ve become the talk of the century among the worst people in the world: pirates!”
“Yes, my inmates are mostly pirates. And we were all kept in the prisons deep down the Marine Force Centre,” the old man grinned as he took a seat.
“Marine Force Centre?! That’s where you were kept in custody?!” Now everyone was interested. Zoro kept a level head, but in his heart, he was skipping with joy at finally finding the right person to talk to.
“Yes, my friends. I was in the Marine Force Centre. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Doggan,” he said, and the Going Merry crew introduced themselves.
“So what was your offence?” Sanji asked as he sipped his drink.
“Nothing. I was framed. The marines accused me for something I didn’t do. They said I was in an alliance with a certain pirate to overtake the force and I was tortured into questioning. Of course, I didn’t tell them anything, because I couldn’t! They locked me up in their dark cellars and taken out for questioning everyday. I had to suffer the same torture everyday for the past few years until they found the real criminal behind all this. I think they just did it for the kicks, since the public has been pressuring them to catch the real culprit and they couldn’t get anything.”
“Is the Centre as bad as they say it is?” Usopp asked cowardly, his knees began to knock each other in fear.
“Oh, it isn’t too bad, come to think of it,” Doggan shrugged, “but it is worse than normal prisons. In normal prisons they at least feed you with something—anything, for a matter of fact—but there, they don’t give a damn about whether you live or die. They force you to do heavy work and never give you as much as a drop of water. They say it was so-called a rehabilitation system to rehabilitate pirates into decency. I had to escape from that hellish place. They didn’t attempt to find me, which confirmed my suspicion that they only arrested me for the kicks.”
“Where did you escape?” Zoro said after a long moment of silence.
In a low voice, Doggan told the Going Merry crew about the ins and outs of the Centre, including the ones he had seen when he was doing his hard labour work mopping the floors of the centre. He revealed that there were no junior marines working there, only highly trained professionals. The junior marines may have to do odd jobs and hard labour in their quarters, but in the Centre, it’s the inmates’ job.
The Going Merry crew were fascinated and enthralled with this piece of information. Doggan tried to be hospitable by inviting them to stay for the night and have dinner with him. Nami would jump to any opportunity which offered anything free, because she was sort of the treasurer of the crew and this means that they will not have to spend money on hotel food and accommodation (stingy girl!), and Sanji would love to know how well can a robot cook. Usopp and Chopper would always agree on anything hospitable. Zoro didn’t mind. He had almost the basic info he needed for their mission. During their stay at Doggan’s house, he shared more of his misfortune in the Centre and revealed more information for the crew. He even told some of his adventures when he escaped from the Centre and on his way sailing back to Future Island.
After a few stories exchanged and a whole lot of beer shared among the crew, they all retired to their rooms. Doggan still had some more room for whiskey. He poured himself a glass and took a peek at everyone sleeping in their beds: Sanji and Zoro sleeping side by side, Usopp snoring like a pig despite his long thin nose and using Chopper as his bolster, and Nami curled up on her bed sleeping peacefully, like an angel in mortal attire.
As Doggan sipped his whiskey, he muttered to himself, “I think I know what you Luffy team members are up to. Yet I have no right to stop you.”
Doggan walked slowly to his room, thinking about his action in revealing secret forbidden things about the Centre to the Going Merry crew. Slowly he shrugged and smirked.
“One Piece…”
“Thanks for the food and bed, Doggan,” the crew thanked the old man before leaving his cylinder glass house.
“Don’t mention it. You guys kept me company. That’s all I can do repay you. See ya guys soon!”
“SAYONARA!!” the Going Merry crew waved before climbing their way towards the big city.
“Come back alive,” Doggan said under his breath.
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