Looking down at Viola while she cried with a frown on his face, Bill’s heart said ‘yes’ despite his head telling him ‘no’, and with an exasperated sigh he was about to say something when-

“LADY VIOLET?!
YOU MARINE!!
STEP BACK OR WE’LL BLAST YA!!!”

With dozens of rifles being aimed at him Bill naturally felt no worry, instead he asked a different question than what he had originally planned.

Turning his head back and forth to look at a group of soldiers who were pointing their rifles, he asked: “What about them?” and was answered with Viola getting to her feet and shouting:

“Hot Iron Tear: Eye Whale!!!”

Instantly transforming into two large balls of red-hot liquid, Viola’s tears morphed into whales that struck out in both directions, causing the black-clad soldiers to flee.

This ability made Bill raise his eyebrows because it couldn’t understand the connection between weaponized tears with the so-called ‘Glare-Glare Fruit’.

But by this point he gave up trying to find true logic behind Devil Fruits, so after making sure that the soldiers had truly fled and weren’t planning on immediately returning, Bill came back to Viola who wasn’t crying anymore but had a firm look on her face that said she was willing to do whatever it took for Justice.

“OK, I get it…” he started: “I understand… and I’ll help you bu-

When he said this, Viola started shaking her head and said: “You don’t… you still don’t understand, or you wouldn’t be acting how you are… I’ve seen that in your mind and that’s what lifted my heart… look at me, William.”

Gesturing with her hands Viola motioned Bill to bend down, and perhaps because she somehow sounded familiar, he did so.

With their heads level with each other, she said: “Look inside my mind… these are the memories of my life.”

With one hand holding the side of his face and one hand on his left eye, Viola leaned in and touched her forehead to Bills eye and instantly he found himself watching scenes as if they were from a movie.

Somehow watching from both first and third perspectives, Bill never lost the sense that he was an observer but at the same time could feel whatever emotions Viola had felt.

He watched her as a small child, saw her interact with her father – the previous King – and felt the happiness that any child would feel in a healthy family.

He watched her grow up into a kid who would play pranks, sneak out, cause trouble, and get dirty.

He watched her as teenager, watched her fall for boys, watched her despise boys, and watched her generally not have a thought for what would happen tomorrow.

Then he watched her when she was 15 and saw the night when Doflamingo took power… he felt her powerlessness and saw from her eyes what she had to do to save her father…

Following that, Bill could only describe the woman’s life as one long nightmare.

When she was barely 18 and had just joined the ‘Donquixote Family’ after years of effort using her Glare-Glare Fruit, he watched Doflamingo take from her everything she had left. Something that would happen many more times and what turned a normal girl into a cold-blooded man-hating witch.

In fact, he would come to find out that she only had been with the Straw Hat crews chef because she intended to lead him on before capturing, interrogating him, and then send him to the Toys House!

As an interrogator, spy, torturer, and finally higher ranked ‘Family’ member, Bill saw through Viola’s eyes so many evil deeds that he couldn’t even call Doflamingo or his Family members ‘human’.

Drugging children to experiment on them, manipulating Marines and Pirates alike, and selling illegal weapons were just some of what he saw.

All of this was known to Viola, who was basically a middle-level manager because of her Devil Fruit, but clearly, even she didn’t know all of what Doflamingo was up to!

There were some obvious memory gaps from an outsider’s perspective, one example being that Viola had a niece but had no memory of her older sister having any husband or even boyfriend… the details of her memories couldn’t have been faked, but they were all sort of skewed.

For example, when her sister revealed she was pregnant there were a lot of celebrations in the castle… but how could that have been the case if her sister – a princess – was unmarried?

To Bill, when he didn’t see any memories of her niece’s father, he immediately thought about the polka-dotted zebra toy that he had met barely an hour before.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time, when Viola had shown Bill all there was to see, he looked down on her and couldn’t help but feel her sense of injustice.

He couldn’t help but feel a mix of pity for her but also an appreciation of her defiance because she had never stopped hating Doflamingo, she never gave in to what he did to her.

Most of all though, Bill felt resentment and anger.

Taking her into his arms, she let out a surprised gasp, but he held her tight and said: “You’ve been through a lot, and you’ve suffered… I’m sorry you had to go through this, but you know, you’re not dirty and you can’t ever think that way again, it’s just not true.

Those things that happened, those things that should have never happened, that’s in the past now… I promise, no matter what happens, you will never be subjected to those things again, and he will pay… you and everyone he’s harmed will have Justice… I guarantee it.”

By now, Viola was crying hard again – as if that’s what she had wanted to hear for years but never had anyone she believed who could say those words.

But even though she had only known Bill for about an hour, after seeing images of most of his life, she felt like she had known him for a long time… and she knew he could be counted on.

For the first time in her life, she found someone she could trust.

Scooping her up into a princess carry, Bill smiled at her and said: “I’ll take you back to my ship, and then I’ll go collect you father and niece. After that, once they’re safe, we can discuss how we want to handle the situation.”

Getting a soft nod of her head, Bill walked out of the warehouse and jumped through the air.

She had seen his extraordinary ability in Moon Stepping from his memories but experiencing them firsthand was something else altogether.

For Bill, walking in the air was as effortless as walking on land or swimming through the sea. Partially covering her with his Coat of Justice to block the wind, Viola looked down at the Kingdom and felt safe.

She didn’t know that while she was held under his coat and looking down that Bill’s face was a slab of iron.

Because heading to his ship he saw another figure flying through the air and it was unmistakably Doflamingo.

Swinging his arms sort of like a bird – no doubt using his strings to fly – the Joker was flying fast, and narrowing his eyes, Bill could see the Doflamingo had been in a fight.

******************************************

While Bill was heading towards Green Bit, while Ain was contacting a troop of Marines she found stationed near the Colosseum, and while Zephyr was arguing with Fujitora with a captured [Trafalgar Law] on the ground at their feet, Yoko found herself swatting away dozens of tiny fairies.

Making sure they didn’t take away the creep that she had chased into the jungle, when she first saw the tiny creatures, she had been amazed that they were real!

Yoko had always loved fantastical stories; Imps, Fairies, Unicorns, Dragons, you name it, she wished them all to be true.

Sure, Nelson claimed to have encountered dragons… but she couldn’t believe him, so seeing these actual living fairies was an actual dream of hers!

But when she tried to talk to them, wide-eyed and enthusiastic – they outright started attacking her!!

And with indignation she couldn’t believe nor accept this!!!

Using Monkey Kung-Fu, a martial art primarily focused on agile movements, she was able to hold the fairies at bay, but she had to say…

‘These little buggers are tough!!’

Lifting up a leg, turning her shoulder, extending one of the two leaves on Compliance Tree down to make a shield, and generally dodging this way and that way, Yoko could only barely try and speak in huffs between attacks – which were coming almost faster than she could react to!

After a long time of this, almost a full hour of intense combat, even with her superhuman endurance she found herself starting to breath heavily, and with no end in sight and another half dozen fairies seeming to appear from the ground itself, she made her choice…

Grab the creep and run awa- no, strategic withdraw!!

In a rolling-jump motion she dodged two fairies that were attacking her with dinner forks and extending the two leaves of the [Compliance Tree] down she heard two heavy ‘thuds’ as the iron-like petals of the martial tree were rammed into.

Looking down at the creep who was sewn into the ground and screaming: “What the hell are those things, get me out of here!! Get me out of here you crazy Marine b*tch!!!” – and who had been screaming the same thing for almost half an hour since he woke up – Yoko whacked him hard on the top of his head to stun him.

Then, with the big creep stunned she grabbed him by the collar, ripped him up as fast as she could, bringing along a layer of turf with him.

With that done, she knew she had to get out of there because these fairies seemed indomitable – or at least, for as long as she wasn’t aiming to kill them, she didn’t see how she could ever win.

They didn’t even try talking to her!

Throwing the creep over her shoulder, Yoko retracted the Compliance Tree and just in that moment saw a little green fairy charging her again.

This fairy was the strongest and fastest of them all and had a Devil Fruit allowing him to sew the creep down to the ground – forcing Yoko to hold none of her punches back.

Using the creep who was almost twice her height as a wrecking ball with one hand, she shrank down the Compliance Tree to the size of a baton and mashed the green fairies head – forcing it to plumet to the ground.

This sent the critters into a frenzy like never before! And turning to withdraw, Yoko didn’t look back and with the creeps’ head bouncing off tree branches she ran towards her ship.

Yoko was fast, in the jungle she was like a fish in water…

But without turning her head back, she heard a buzzing.

And that buzzing grew…

And grew…

It grew until she was forced to turn around and with a wide-mouthed look of surprise she saw no less than 60 fairies! Some of them were riding beetles which looked like smaller versions of her own beetle buddy, Boss!!

Throwing the creep down, she extended the Compliance Tree again and shouted: “Back off while I’m still being polite!!!” at the top of her lungs, only to be answered by the green fairy who despite looking like he was crying led the dozens of fairies: “We’ww nevah suwwendah to you, viwwain!!!”

 “Villain?!” Yoko shouted angrily, literally feeling affronted by the accusation.

In her mind she could be called anything but a villain, but to the fairies, that seemed like a declaration because they shouted in unison: “Viwwain!!!” and closed fast.

In a small clearing in the jungle, Yoko waited for the buzzing swarm of fairies as they were rushing in.

She still didn’t want to kill them – they were fairies after all – but in her anger took the position that if they wanted to fight then she couldn’t be blamed!

Waiting for them to arrive, which would be a matter of seconds, suddenly the trees behind her began to shake and in a heartbeat white uniforms could be seen.

Landing on the branches of huge trees and on top of giant mushrooms, Yoko turned her head slightly and saw one of her Lieutenants, the Howler Monkey Mink named Haruman, standing at the head of a troop of 40 Monkey Mink Marines!

“Captain!!” he shouted, confused by the sight of fairies, but nevertheless ready to rumble after seeing Yoko’s dirty appearance.

This happened suddenly and the fairies who were charging suddenly stopped in midair… mostly colliding with each other.

Now it was the green fairies turn to stare in wide-mouthed surprise, all before exclaiming: “Oh no! Weinfohwcements!!” and then gritting his teeth he said: “Viwwains!! We have sent for the Hewo Usoland! suwendah now!”

“Usoland?” questioned Yoko, who was now feeling much better with her crew behind her.

“He’s a Hewo! So, you betta be wisten up!” answered the green fairy in a huff, but Yoko could only shake her head and snap back: “Stop calling be a villain you shrimp! This creep is the villain and that’s why I have to bring him back!!”

Hearing this, the green fairy became cautious, then asked: “You’we not a viwwain?” which got an immediate answer from Yoko.

“I’m a protector!”

This got a series of whoops from the Howler and Spider Monkey Minks, and surprisingly, the fairies started cheering too!

“Oh, you’we a pwotecta! Why didn’t you thay so, phew! That’s gweat!”

Then, almost as if nothing had happened, the fairies began landing on the ground gasping for breath, and Haruman landed beside Yoko, saying: “Captain, what’s going on…?”

About to answer, there was a sudden movement in the bushes, and bungling out of the tree line, Yoko saw a muscular man with a long nose and heard the fairies all start to call out: “Usoland!”