False Accusations

The Marine ship had been sailing for half a day. The captain, Verne, had ordered that no one approach Jeanne, who was detained in the ship's holding cells. For the entire trip, Jeanne just sat there, defeated. Eric couldn't help feeling guilty about what he did, but he also couldn't believe that he had been working alongside a pirate for so long. But he couldn't help remembering the time that they had spent together, seeing how nice she was. But the idea of a pirate being nice only left him confused. He decided to try to talk to her. He managed to sneak into the holding facilities, and approached Jeanne's cell. She only gave him a cold, anger filled stare.

"What the hell do you want?" she growled.

"I want to make something clear. I don't give a damn about whether you're related to some big shot pirate from way back when. But I never thought that you were a pirate yourself, a-"

Jeanne suddenly started laughing conceitedly.

"What was that for?"

"Just because you hear people claim that I'm a pirate, you assume that that's the case, don't you?"

"Wha-"

"I'm not going to talk to you anymore until you actually hear the charges against me."

"I guess that's fair enough," Eric said, then snuck out of the facility.

He then approached Captain Verne.

"Um, excuse me, sir?"

"What is it, lad?"

"I have a question concerning the captive, Jeanne?"

"And that would be?"

"What did she do to warrant her bounty?"

"As you were told, she is the granddaughter, and as such she carries the blood, of the traitorous Jimbei who betrayed the World Government during the War of the Best."

"But what did she do?" Eric innocently asked.

"Did you not hear me? That woman is that fiend's granddaughter. Even if she hasn't done anything big yet, we have to prevent that chance."

Eric didn't show it otherwise, but he was speechless after hearing that. He couldn't believe that people from the Marines were after her for that reason alone. He realized that he had made a terrible mistake. Since this was the only time this occured that he was aware of, he didn't lose all faith in the marines, but he still decided to talk to Jeanne. He snuck back into the holding facilities and approached Jeanne, who blankly looked up at him this time.

"Well?"

Eric then used his power to cut the chains, releasing Jeanne and genuinely surprising her.

"What the?"

"This isn't right. Are they really only after you because you're the granddaughter of a pirate?"

"Yeah. However, I'm proud of my grandfather. He would tell me stories about his time as a pirate. I didn't want to follow his legacy, but the stories fascinated me. I wanted to see the world outside of Fish-Man Island. However, I didn't truly understand how things worked, and the instant I let slip who my grandfather was, they slapped this bounty on my head and have been hunting me for the past 5 months."

"That long? How determined are they to capture you?"

"Oh, they don't want to capture me. They want me dead."

Eric gasped.

"I need to get out of here. But you could lose your position if I escape. I'm still mad at you, and I hate the Marines, but if you still want to stay, I don't want you to get fired, or worse."

"I have an idea. It'll allow you to get out and still allow me to keep my position."

"What's that?"

The soldiers were just doing their patrols and switching shifts, when they suddenly heard the sound of a struggle. They could tell that someone was being beat up in the holding facilities. Some of them thought that even though she was a pirate, not even she deserved that treatment. Suddenly, Jeanne bust down the door, knocking out the soldiers that had been listening. Some other soldiers came by, threatening to shoot her, but she then used Shark Arrows to harm, but not kill, the soldiers. That was the chance she needed to break through the window and dive into the ocean, allowing her to escape. The Marines looked at the holding cell, and saw Eric, almost completely bruised, but far from dead.

"What happened?" one Marine asked.

"I was checking up on the prisoner when she suddenly broke her locks and escaped from her cell. I tried to stop her, but you can see how much good that did."

"Don't worry, you tried to stop her. She's a dangerous criminal. It's a miracle that you're alive."

"Thanks," Eric said as he staggered to his feet.

"We better tell Captain Verne what happened and receive our next orders," another Marine said as he and the others ran to find Captain Verne.

Eric smiled as he looked towards the shattered window.

"What?" Verne shouted.

"The Sergeant Major put up a valiant fight, but she was too strong for him. Should we pursue?"

"No. We lost any chance of pursuit the instant she got into the water. We stay on track for the rendezvous point with Troop 34."

"Yes, sir," the Marines shouted.

The doctors of the ship healed Eric's wounds, but they noticed that absolutely nothing was broken. They didn't pay it too much heed, however, and just told Eric to take it easy for a while. He couldn't help thinking about Jeanne's story. He had to admit, he just put his faith in a pirate, and the thought made him question his sanity. But he had spent enough time with Jeanne to know that she wouldn't lie about this... or at the very least he wanted to believe that. But the deed was done, so he decided to stop worrying about it.

After several hours travel, the ship had finally come upon the Marine base. After another hours wait, Troop 34 had arrived at the base. Eric was welcomed back by the friends that he had made among the troop, and was also welcomed back by Fergus. Of course, Fergus had to reprimand him for disobeying orders, but he was evidently relieved to see him alive. Eric told him of his travels, but completely cut Jeanne from the story, instead saying that he was lucky enough to wash up on the shore of the island, and editing other parts of his story as necessary.

"Seems like you had quite the journey. I'm sorry you're gonna be spending your first day back reprimanded, but it's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, sir," Eric said.

"Glad to hear it. That's all for now."

Eric saluted, then went to his room. The day after, Eric was back to working hard. Everything was back to normal for Troop 34. They would protect islands and capture pirates. But Eric couldn't help but notice that that was almost literally all they did. Other than make certain that civilians weren't around when they started fighting, they did nothing to actually directly help the people, especially considering collateral damage. Eric couldn't help thinking that there was more that he could do to help others. But he knew that the marines was the closest he could get to helping others, so he kept up his work.

After a week back with the Marines, Eric heard that they were to pursue a wanted pirate named Carellia, with a bounty of 80,000,000. The only thing known about her was that her parents were the notorious pirates Vylan and Retea, both known to be ruthless killers, raking in 300,000,000 bounties each before they were captured. Eric almost instinctively prepared himself for a tough fight, but then he remembered the incident with Jeanne. He considered that maybe she was actually a nice person that was wrongfully branded a pirate. He tried to share this opinion with the others, but they just plain chalked it up to him being so nice to the point of naiveté. But Eric decided to try to actually talk to Carellia and get her side of the story this time.

The troop arrived at Undora island, the last place that Carellia was seen. Some of the marines stayed behind, since Carellia was known to sneak onto navy ships and steal them to escape. Eric and Fergus, along with the rest of the marines, went ahead to locate Carellia. The citizens had all evacuated, all scared of the daughter of Vylan and Retea. Eric couldn't help feeling anxious to know exactly who had everyone so afraid. The marines stayed together to prevent the risk of being picked off one by one. After a while, the marines were about to consider that she had given them the slip. Suddenly, they saw one of the marines that was to be guarding the ship running towards them.

"What's wrong?" Fergus asked.

"I have no idea how, but Carellia must have snuck onto the ship, because it's sailing away," the marine shouted.

"Oh no!" another marine shouted.

"How will we get it back?"

"I'm on it!" Eric shouted as he flew off towards the ship.

Eric shot as fast as he could towards the ship, knowing he was the only one who could stop Carellia. He couldn't help feeling relieved that he had the perfect chance to talk with Carellia. He made it to the ship, and managed to make a soft landing. However, he needed to take a second to catch his bearings. After that, he headed to the wheel. However, no one was there. Before he could guess why, he suddenly started spinning. However, he realized that it was only his eyes and ears that were spinning.

"Aaahhh! What the hell is going on?" Eric shouted as his eyes continued to spin.

He then grabbed his head at the right moment, which managed to return his face to normal. He then tried to figure out where Carellia was. However, he couldn't see her anywhere. He was about to grab the wheel and turn the ship around, but he then got punched in the head hard. He turned, but again there was nothing. He realized that he couldn't let his guard down for even a second. He stood completely still, waiting for Carellia, or whatever was causing this, to show up. As strange as it was, he then heard a door open behind him. As surprised as he was, he was able to grab the fist behind him and flip it above him. Sure enough, the assailant fell flat on her back in front of him. When he got the chance to look at the assailant, he realized that it was a girl that was younger than him.

"What the?"

"Ow, that hurt, you bastard," the girl complained.

"A-are you Carellia?"

"And if I am?"

"My name is Eric. I'm from-"

"The Navy. The uniform is a dead give away, moron."

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"Right. And then suddenly I'm slapped with Sea Prism Cuffs. I wasn't born yesterday."

"No, seriously. I only want to talk."

"You wouldn't care. I'm Vylan and Retea's daughter, after all."

"Of course I would."

"Right, I'm so sure," Carellia said sarcastically.

"Seriously, I'll listen."

"Stop lying and leave me alone!" Carellia shouted as she slapped Eric, causing his eyes to spin around again.

"Aaaahhhh! I am rapidly hating this!" Eric shouted as he started to feel queasy.

After he got the time to regain his composure, he realized that Carellia was gone. He tried to find her on the deck, but to no avail. He then searched belowdecks, and he managed to spot her. Before she could flee, Eric managed to grab her wrist.

"Let me go!"

"Please, listen."

"No! You should be afraid of me. Don't you know who I am?" Carellia desperately shouted.

"No, I don't!" Eric shouted, causing Carellia to flinch. "I know who your parents are, but that doesn't mean that I know who you are."

"Wha-"

"I know that you've been on the run because the Navy believes that you'll live up to your parents legacy. But I know that you're not like them. You could have easily killed me in my moment of confusion if you wanted to, but you didn't. That alone proves my point."

"Just leave me alone!" Carellia shouted, desperately trying to break free.

"Why do you keep trying to escape from me?"

"Because everyone hates me," Carellia said.

"I can tell that you don't believe that."

"I-It's true," Carellia stuttered.

"What's the real reason?"

Carellia didn't say anything for a moment.

"It's because everyone I try to befriend gets captured by the Marines," Carellia blubbered. "Everytime someone tries to help me, the Marines find out and capture them. Some have even been put to the sword because of me." Carellia was crying by this point.

"It's not your fault that the Marines are going out of line," Eric said.

"But I should just stay away from everyone. I don't deserve any friends if this always happens."

"I'll be your friend," Eric simply said.

Carellia looked up at him, surprised.

"But, what would the Marines think?"

"They don't have to know. I'll just say that you managed to escape on one of the lifeboats, but I managed to reclaim the ship. They'll be none the wiser, and you'll be able to escape."

"Y-you'd really do that for me?" Carellia asked.

"That's what friends do. And because they'll believe that I tried to stop you, I won't get in trouble for it."

Carellia was evidently happy to hear that.

"Thank you so much!" she shouted as she hugged Eric.

"Don't mention it. And by the way, if you run into a light-blue skinned fishwoman with short black hair, she's another friend of mine. I believe she's a whaleshark fishwoman."

"Ok," Carellia said as she headed for the life raft.

Eric then turned the ship back towards Undora island, already with a story for the marines. No one questioned his story because of Carellia's bounty, so everyone just resumed their patrol. Eric couldn't help feeling a little guilty for allowing Jeanne and Carellia to escape and lying to his fellow Marines, but it quickly subsided when he remembered who they actually turned out to be. But he figured that the marines were wrong about some people, but otherwise were everything he thought they were. He had no idea these thoughts would be completely destroyed.