The pirate kept provoking Hina, hoping she would attack, so she would be arrested by the kingdom.
"The little marine princess is waiting for her knight in shinny armour, i can help you with that if you want, I promise you will scream…"
Hina almost attacked him but decided against it, she simply left for her own ship, furious, there was no reason for her to stay here and be further humiliated. She could see that the guards from the island would be mostly likely to help the pirate if things escalated further.
Seeing the show was over, Ars decided to leave, there was also no reason for him to stay, after all the inhabitants of the island actually enjoyed living here, and the pirates didn't cause too much trouble, so there wasn't much to gain from staying, at most maybe a dozen people and while that wasn't too bad that could invite another kind of trouble and it wasn't worth it.
Once he returned to the ship, he ordered his soldiers to sail towards a nearby kingdom that was quite poor.
Ars was thinking that he probably would find what he sought there, in other words he was expecting a lot of refugees.
Once they started sailing towards their new destination, Ars noticed they were being followed by the marine ship, they were slowly pulling away from it, but it was clearly following them, curious Ars ordered his soldiers to slow down the ship.
When the marines approached, they stopped just by Ars ship. On it, Hina was looking at Ars ship, and at his soldiers.
She noticed they weren't a cruise ship or a merchant ship, they looked like a bunch of soldiers, but she couldn't identify where they were from. She then introduced herself before explaining why she was following them.
"Hina is Hina, and Hina is a marine commander, and Hina would like to ask for your help."
Ars almost laughed at that introduction but managed to hold on, he was also confused for a bit. First Hina wasn't a captain, like she would be in the future during the Alabasta Arc, but it was still a few years away so it wasn't too surprising. The surprising part was her request for help, he was confused about it. So he asked about it.
"Confused, am I!"
Ars men laughed at him poking fun at the Hina way of speech. Then Ars a bit more seriously turned at her and inquired.
"Your side sometimes even ignores civilians' cries for help if it suits you. So what do the marines want with me?"
She looked at him indignantly, and replied with some discomfort in her voice.
"Marines do not ignore civilians, Hina is angry at the baseless accusations…"
Her shoulders slumped a bit and then she continued.
"Hina doesn't like to do this, but Hina asks you to share a bit of food and water, during our trip here Hina got attacked by a group of pirates, and they blew up most of Hina's provisions, to make things worse, Hina got caught in a large storm, that delayed Hina even more. So Hina stooped on that island to stock some provisions, but even before Hina could acquire them, pirates came to pick a fight. Hina has been very unlucky these last few days."
Ars thought about it and nodded, he didn't see any disadvantage in helping, so he looked at his men, and ordered.
"Bring them 3 days worth of provisions."
"Hina thanks you."
Suddenly Sas came running with a weapon in hand, preparing himself to attack the marines. Ars just tripped him and said.
"You should calm down, they are not the same marines that attacked you."
Ars then looked at the men that should keep an eye on him. They looked down on the ground embarrassed, they were distracted admiring Hina and failed to stop him.
Hina was curious why that man tried to attack them. No one else in that ship looked like the marines bothered them, she had also realized that Ars was strong… Abnormally so, she decided to ignore what just happened… But this individual even on the ground looked at them like he hated them. She looked at Ars and asked about it with an intrigued face.
"Hina is curious, why does that man hate the marines so much?"
Ars looked at Sas annoyed, then looked at Hina apologetic, before answering.
"Let's just say that the last marines he met left a lasting impression, and it wasn't a positive one… What he got on his island, were at best corrupt, at worst they were worse than pirates, so this one distrusts marines, and i mean all marines."
Hina showed a surprised face, she knew some marines were corrupt, but to be worse than pirates… Hina then looked at the Guy struggling on the ground, and commented seriously. She finally realized the earlier jab at the marines as an organization was coming from something they saw.
"Where is this scumbag, Hina will go arrest him!"
That made both Ars and Sas chuckle, Hina got confused why they were chuckling, so she angrily questioned them.
"Why are you both chuckling?"
Ars looked at her and explained with a fake and freezing smile.
"You are quite a good person, but sadly for you it is not a single marine… It's an entire base, maybe with one hundred or even hundreds of marines, all corrupt, if you go, you will either end up dead, captured, or worse, wishing to die but not being able to, well you could also go there and not find anything if they hide the proof, either way you going there doesn't help anyone."
Ars made a pause but then he added with a serious expression.
"Besides I'm not too sure what punishment they would face if they get captured. Even if I give you the information on that kingdom, and you manage to catch them. The most likely scenario is that most of them will get a slap on the wrist, and the rest of the incident will be swept under the rug. Even if some of them get fired, and even arrested, it isn't enough considering what they have done. So going there is unnecessary, and will only put yourself at risk."
She could see that Ars and most of the people on that ship weren't too happy about the situation, or even the marines organization. So she tried to give examples that the marines were good people.
"Hina disagrees, marines are good people, not all of them, in all groups there are always some black sheeps but most of marines are good people, for example the hero of the marines, vice admiral Garp, the fleet admiral Sengoku…"
She was going to continue but Ars interrupted her.
"I agree that vice admiral Garp is a good man, but Sengoku would be one of the ones trying to hide this incident. You do understand that this incident would hurt the marines image, and he can't allow that, yeah he will punish them harshly but, in the end that doesn't help the people they killed or help the families they destroyed either. His role in itself would make him give priority to the marine image, because at the end of the day, he needs people to trust the marines."
Hina stopped arguing to think about it, she realized that Ars was mostly correct, it wasn't that Sengoku didn't want to bring justice to those people, but that he couldn't. If people started to doubt the marines, that could result in troubles for the marines and himself, because the world government would come knocking demanding an explanation. Then she tried to justify Sengoku's possible actions.
"Well… Marines represent justice, so fleet admiral Sengoku actions would be to protect the general public."
Ars laughed, then showed a face full of pity towards Hina, before questioning her.
"The marines represent justice? Who decided that? Because they follow the world government rules? No… The marines represent order… Not justice!"
Hina for a moment shivered, there was something about Ars tone that unsettled her. But Ars kept going.
"In this world the biggest fist is justice. The ones with the biggest fists make the rules,
and call following those rules justice. Anyone following those rules will talk and scream about justice, to justify their crimes. Because murdering someone innocent sounds much better when you can say it was necessary and that it was for justice. And the thing is, one day if someone strong enough decides that murdering someone is justice, then everyone will murder each other, and when people question them, why are they killing, they will only say, it's for justice, and no one would be able to punish them, after all the rules said the same thing. But would that be justice?I leave that for you to think about."
Hina wanted to argue, but the more she thought about it, the more real what Ars said became, suddenly she realized that justice wasn't just following the rules. Yes most rules were to help the general public and benefit nobles, but what about the rest?
Ars smiled and added.
"No matter what you are, pirates, marines, revolutionaries, or others, what decides if you are a good person or not, are your actions themselves."
Hina went silent, and stayed like that until they went their own separate ways.
If Ars could see Hina after they went their separate ways, he would see that Hina went to her room to cry, she was feeling quite desolated about not being able to defend herself or her superiors, she called Tsuru. She wanted to hear Tsuru say Ars was wrong, but sadly even if in a redundant way, Tsuru only confirmed his words, but then she said to Hina.
"Do you know why Garp never became an admiral? He was strong enough but he always refused the position, and the reason is simple, he didn't want to have to follow some extra rules that would come with the position."
Hina was shocked, she finally realized things were more complicated than she thought.
Ars on the other hand was now slowly approaching the destination he set the course to. He remembered something and commented.
"It's the circle of life… I kill marines and take their resources, and then I give part of those same resources to another different marine…"
When he arrived like he expected, he saw poor people here and there.
He quickly moved towards a tavern, where a lot of poor people were hiding in the shadows, maybe not hiding, but waiting. He entered the tavern, and went to speak with the barman.
"Good afternoon, i would like to order some snacks, a beer and i would also like to ask for some information."
The barman nodded and went to get the beer, when he came back he inquired about the snack Ars would like.
"We have a few different snacks, we have ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, dried fish, and jerky. What would you prefer?"
"I will go with the ham and cheese sandwiches. You can also bring a snack and beer for yourself, my treat."
The barman smiled and nodded, then left to prepare the snacks.
"So, what kind of info would you like?"
Ars smiled and pointed outside, then he said.
"I would like information on the current state of the island and the amount of poor people, and if you know, the amount of people who would be willing to leave this place to go live in a different place, where they can start new lives."
The barman showed some surprise on his face when he heard the last request, but he smiled and started explaining.
"Well, while we are poor, the kingdom itself is not doing that bad, the nobles and the royals are not that bad either, we can still pay for the heavenly tribute and have enough to eat, well most of the kingdom. Some folks can't afford it anymore, so they have no choice other than to scavenge or beg."
The barman stopped talking for a few seconds while he tried to come to a number of poor people. When he thought he had more or less the number he kept going.
"The amount of poor people is quite large. The kingdom has around 300.000 people, and about 100.000 are poor, but only about 1000 people live in extreme poverty. For the amount of people that would be willing to start a new life in a new place, I would have to ask, but maybe 700 people at most."
Ars nodded and then made a request to the barman.
"Would it be possible for you to spread the word that I would like to take a few people with me to start a new life in a new place?"