Chapter 96: Tina's Trap
In this world, there are matches and also lighters. Matches become useless once soaked in water. Lighters can still be used, but where did these Marine soldiers get dry cloth strips to light their torches? Well, if they really dried their clothes and tore them into strips to use as torches, that could be plausible. But look at what they're using as torch handles—those are rifles! Have you ever seen a drowning person who refuses to let go of the rifle in their arms?
In short, Ian found these Marine soldiers highly suspicious.
Splitt hesitated and said, "We're not really falling for this, are we?"
The members of the Spade Pirates all exchanged glances, then looked at their captain, Ace. But Ace, that guy, didn't seem to notice anything wrong and was still urging everyone to bring the ship closer.
"Wait a moment!" Ian said. "Don't rush to rescue them. Those Marines are on a reef cluster. If we're too hasty, we might get stuck and have trouble getting out!"
As he spoke, Ian sighed inwardly. Ace wanted to save people, which was a good thing, but he was being a bit too simplistic. Now that they were on the scene, Ian realized things weren't as they seemed.
Ace was puzzled by Ian's advice. He didn't understand why they would stop when they could see people.
"There's no rush to save them," Ian explained. "If they really are shipwrecked, our ship is already here. They can wait a little longer. But if they're not, and they see us not making a move, they'll have to act."
The Spade Pirates members were now leaning toward Ian's opinion, so they also urged Ace to wait.
Ace was easygoing, so he chuckled and agreed to wait.
It was getting dark, and there was no wind. The Marine soldiers on the reef could see the Spade Pirates' ship stopped nearby, but they couldn't make out the flag clearly—only that it was a black pirate flag.
Through his telescope, Ian could see the Marine soldiers exchanging glances, but there was no sign of frustration on their faces.
This made Ian even more suspicious. If they were truly shipwrecked, seeing a ship appear but not approach would trigger one of two reactions: either they'd shout and wave to attract attention, or they'd feel dejected, knowing that since it was a pirate ship, they likely wouldn't be rescued. They should have shown some disappointment.
But these Marines on the reef showed neither reaction. Aside from waving their torches at the beginning, they didn't do much else.
Ian had an idea and whispered to Splitt, "Turn the ship around, make it look like we're leaving!"
Splitt immediately understood and nodded. He turned the helm and ordered the others to row. With their efforts, the Spade began to slowly change direction.
Ian kept his telescope trained on the Marines' actions on the reef.
By pretending to leave, Ian intended to provoke them. If these Marines were truly shipwrecked, seeing the ship turn away would surely make them panic.
But in Ian's view, they did panic, but their reaction was different from what he expected.
Instead of jumping up and down, shouting for the ship to come back, Ian saw one Marine holding a torch pull something from his pocket and yank it.
Whoosh!
The next second, a red flare shot straight into the sky!
Ian's heart skipped a beat. Fake! These Marines were definitely not shipwrecked!
"Get out of here now!" Splitt also realized it and shouted, "Row harder!"
The Spade wasn't a large ship—just a medium-sized one. Four people at the bottom were rowing frantically, trying to get the ship out of the windless zone.
"Is it a pirate trap?" Ace asked, standing beside Ian. "Are they disguised Marines?"
"Hard to say," Ian shook his head. "They might actually be real Marines."
"If they're real Marines, why would they reveal their identity in the distress call?" Ace asked, confused.
Even Ian couldn't answer that. He looked up at the flare slowly descending after reaching its peak. He knew that once that flare was fired, they'd soon find out whether it was pirates or Marines.
Just as the Spade turned around and sailed a short distance, Splitt suddenly shouted, "Large ship spotted ahead!"
Ian looked in that direction and saw a massive silhouette emerging in the faint twilight. Splitt was right—it was a large ship.
"On the left too, and on the right!" Splitt's voice was tinged with fear. "We... we seem to be surrounded!"
"Ian, it's the Marines!" Ace said, adjusting his cowboy hat.
Yes, they were indeed Marine ships. Though it was getting dark, there was still some light. Ian could see the seagull emblem painted on the sails of those large ships—unmistakably Marine.
"So this really is a Marine trap!" Ian sighed, but he was even more puzzled. If it was a Marine trap, why did the "shipwrecked" Marines openly admit they were Marines in the distress call?
Most pirates wouldn't bother saving Marines, right? Could such a tactic really lure pirates in?
Well, he was wrong—it did lure someone in, specifically Ace...
"We need to break out!" Ian said to Ace once they were out of the windless zone and could raise the sails again.
But what the Spade Pirates didn't know was that on the Marine ship directly ahead of them, someone was also looking through a telescope at the pirate flag on their mast.
"How strange!" said the person holding the telescope. She was a woman wearing a Marine coat, with pink hair and a cigarette dangling from her lips. Beneath the oversized coat was a mature, sexy figure. She continued, puzzled, "That's not the Iron Bones Pirates' flag. Is this a new pirate crew? I have no memory of it! Tina is so confused!"
"Captain Tina, what should we do now?" a Marine soldier saluted and asked.
This woman was none other than Captain Tina, revered as the goddess of Marine Headquarters. She lowered her telescope, revealing a beautiful face and the sunglasses on her forehead. The faint smoke from her cigarette added to her mature, commanding presence. She adjusted her gloves and said, "Since we didn't lure out the Iron Bones Pirates, this operation is a failure. But we can't let this foolish pirate crew that showed up get away! It's our duty to suppress pirates. Since we've encountered them, sink their ship and capture them!"
"Yes, Captain Tina!" The Marines on board snapped to attention and shouted, then quickly sprang into action.
Tina was originally a captain at Marine Headquarters, so why was she here?
This all started with the Iron Bones Pirates. This pirate crew had recently risen to prominence in the Grand Line. A new pirate crew emerging wasn't unusual, but what infuriated Marine Headquarters was that the Iron Bones Pirates made a name for themselves by attacking Marine ships!
The captain of the Iron Bones Pirates, nicknamed "Iron Bones Ewing," was a Paramecia-type Bone-Bone Fruit user. He seemed to harbor extreme hatred for the Marines. Some time ago, his crew attacked a Marine patrol ship in the Grand Line, killing over a hundred Marines on board before escaping.
Such an incident naturally enraged Marine Headquarters. It was rare for pirates to dare attack Marines so brazenly; usually, it was the other way around.
According to intelligence, after attacking the patrol ship, the Iron Bones Pirates used an Eternal Pose to flee to the G-3 branch route—the same route Ian and Ace were sailing.
The G-3 branch was responsible for maintaining order on the entire route but was understaffed. So Marine Headquarters sent Captain Tina from headquarters to pursue Iron Bones Ewing, placing a bounty of 75 million berries on his head.
However, Iron Bones Ewing was cunning. After attacking the patrol ship, he seemed to go into hiding. The intelligence Tina had only indicated that Ewing was operating around Maze Island, where the waters were complex. Tina found it difficult to pursue him, so she reluctantly used this distress call fishing method.
Based on her intelligence, Iron Bones Ewing hated the Marines deeply. The hundred-plus Marines he killed were all tortured to death. So Tina sent out bait that identified themselves as G-3 branch Marines in the distress call, hoping to lure Ewing in.
It might be a crude method, but it was a last resort. This world didn't have spy satellites or the like; Marines usually had to track pirates by finding their traces.
Tina's reasoning was that if the distress call came from Marines, most pirates wouldn't bother coming. Only someone like Iron Bones Ewing, who hated Marines, might show up to see and possibly kill the stranded Marines.
It was a trap specifically designed for Iron Bones Ewing, and it had a decent chance of success. But Tina never expected that instead of luring Ewing, it would attract the Spade Pirates...