As Marcus gave Gin time to think over the decision, everyone tied up the pirates before they raided the ship. They only took valuables, money, and a collection of different weapons. Everything else they left on the ship before they started sailing back to Loguetown. It took about two hours for them to get back with the bigger ship since it was so loaded down with stuff. At the dock they were greeted by Kohariko and a full contingent of marines. Before Marcus could even greet the man, he rushed over to Tashigi and checked her over for injuries as his men went to take care of the pirates.
Once satisfied she was okay, he turned to Marcus and the others like nothing happened while Tashigi blushed in embarrassment. Kohariko cleared his throat once before he asked, "I see you ran into pirates not even a day into your journey… Are you sure it's safe to take Tashigi with you?"
"Uncle Kohariko!" Tashigi said as she stomped one of her feet on top of Kohariko's left foot.
Kohariko barely flinched at the action before he said, "Well, I guess it's fine since you beat the pirates in question."
As Marcus started to crack a joke, a marine rushed over as he said in a voice full of disbelief, "Sir, they captured the Krieg pirates!"
Kohariko's eyes widened slightly as he looked directly at Marcus and asked, "Were you able to capture Krieg also?"
Marcus smirked as he said, "Of course we did."
Kohariko looked relieved as he said, "You just took out the highest rated bounty in East Blue…"
Kohariko placed a hand on Marcus's shoulder and gave him a thumbs up as he said, "I was a little nervous letting Tashigi go with you before… But now I have complete faith that you can protect my Tashigi properly."
Marcus frowned slightly as he asked, "That's good to know, but could you take the death grip off my shoulder, old man?"
Kohariko released Marcus's shoulder before he turned to Tashigi and said, "Stay safe, I'll see you when you come back."
Kohariko quickly left to go help his men with Krieg and the rest of his pirates. Marcus then turned towards Ace and Sabo who had large sacks placed next to them before he asked, "You know where you're going?"
Sabo nodded as he said, "It's a block away from that shop we bought our clothes at."
"Good, then I expect you back here within an hour. I wanna set sail before lunch."
Ace and Sabo quickly left to sell off all the good loot while Marcus and the others waited on the ship for the bounty payout. Well, Marcus made the others stay on the ship because he didn't want anyone, especially Luffy to go exploring. As they waited, Marcus moved over to Gin who was now bandaged up before he asked, "So what do you wanna do kid?"
"Kid? I'm pretty sure I'm older than you are."
Marcus shrugged as he asked, "It doesn't make it any less true. So are you gonna join us or not?"
Gin nodded his head as he said, "I'd like to get stronger."
"Good. In that case do you have extra clothes?"
"Not really. I basically slept in a hammock and was given enough food not to starve. Everything else I was expected to take from other people." Gin said with a frown.
Marcus turned towards Tashigi before he said, "Take him to Golden Thimble and tell the owner he needs at least a week's worth of clothes. Then go find my brothers so they can pay once they sell off our loot."
Tashigi saluted before she said, "Understood, captain!"
Marcus rolled his eyes as he said, "I told you to just call me Marcus."
Tashigi blushed slightly before she said, "Sorry…" She then turned to Gin and said, "Follow me."
After Gin and Tashigi took off, Marcus ended up sparring with Zoro and Kuina who wanted to push themselves. Apparently the fight against the pirates didn't give them much of a challenge since they didn't fight one of the bosses. As Marcus fought with both of them, Kohariko came back to the ship with a large bag of money. He silently watched as Marcus methodically picked their defenses apart as he pointed out flaws in their stances. While he still didn't like sending Tashigi off, he knew that under Marcus's teaching she would grow greatly as a swordsman.
Kohariko waited for the sparring match to finish before he approached Marcus and said, "Here's the money for the bounties and the ship. It came out to be just over fifteen million."
Marcus took the offered bag as he said, "Take care with Krieg, we stripped him all the way to his underwear because we kept finding hidden weapons and tools on him…"
"I wouldn't be surprised if he had more hidden things on him, stored in more extreme places." Marcus said with a hint of disgust.
Kohariko's eyes widened slightly before he said in a menacing tone, "Don't worry about him. We are taking him straight to the gallows for his crimes."
Marcus nodded slightly before he said, "Good."
Kohariko looked around the deck for a moment before Marcus said with a knowing smile, "If you're looking for Tashigi, she is off running an errand right now."
"Oh, I wasn't... Well anyways, I have stuff I need to do." Kohariko said before he quickly took off.
Marcus went back to sparring as they waited for the others to return to the ship. Within half an hour, Ace, Sabo, Tashigi and Gin came back to the ship before Marcus ordered them to set sail. After they left Loguetown, Marcus switched with Kuina who took over the helm as he headed below deck with Gin. He ended up tossing Gin into the room shared between Ace and Sabo, since the ship was a little crowded at this point.
Tashigi and Kuina were already forced to share a room, while Luffy, Usopp, Sanji and Zoro shared another. Zoe and the older women all shared one of the biggest bunk rooms on the ship, while Zeff had a room attached to the galley and Marcus had the captain's rooms for himself.
They had another room on the ship that could technically be used as a bedroom, but they already used it as a living room. It was originally used as an entertainment room for the noble who owned the ship. But it was the same size as the galley, so everyone could easily fit inside it at the same time.
With the ship underway, Marcus made sure they set a direct course towards Cocoyasi Village. With a little luck and their skill in sailing they made it back to the village in six days and arrived just before dusk. On the dock Marcus met Genzo who welcomed them back and asked, "How was your trip?"
Marcus waved his hand in a so-so motion as he said, "Kinda boring. Only fought with three pirate groups."
Genzo raised an eyebrow as he asked, "And you consider that boring?"
"They weren't a challenge, so yeah." Marcus said with a shrug before he glanced over his shoulder as he said, "Sabo, toss me that bag I left on the deck!"
"Here!" Sabo said as he tossed the bag to Marcus.
Marcus caught it easily before he handed it to Genzo as he said, "Here's our docking fee."
Genzo refused to take the bag as he said, "You paid more than you spent last time."
Marcus pushed the bag into Genzo's hands before he said, "We're going to stay here for at least six months. So take this and add it to the fee we already paid."
"Six months?"
Marcus nodded before he said, "We really need to buckle down with our training and this is a decent spot to do it at."
After chatting a bit more with Genzo, Marcus headed back onto the ship to eat dinner with the others before he told everyone to head to sleep early. The next morning everyone was up before dawn and in training harnesses as they started doing the boys warm up routine. The new people like Tashigi and Gin couldn't even finish it before they collapsed from exhaustion.
Marcus let them rest until breakfast and after everyone finished, he forced them to train till they collapsed again. The same thing happened after lunch and after dinner everyone basically went to bed beside Marcus, Ace, Sabo, Luffy, Kuina and Zoro who were used to the harsh training.
Sure Usopp, Sanji, Zoe and the other girls had experience with it, but Marcus pushed everyone today. Even the people who stayed up were worn out, but they wanted to unwind a little bit before they went to bed. So as they played cards in the living room area, Marcus was on the deck slowly moving through sword stances as he practiced his breathing technique.
The next few days passed in a blur for everyone and by the end of the week Marcus called for a break. While the two new recruits could now almost make it to the end of the day, they were on a slightly lower level of training. Once they were used to the pace, Marcus planned to increase it slowly until they could keep up with the others.
In sparring, Tashigi improved the fastest out of everyone. But she would constantly talk with Kuina about sword fighting, stances and would spar against Marcus any chance she could get. Gin on the other hand was in the process of figuring out what weapon felt comfortable to use in a fight. Marcus kept two of every weapon they found from the Krieg pirates and had Gin practice with them till he found something that felt comfortable to use. So far a saber was the best thing he found, but Marcus thought the tonfa would end up being better.
Since it was a rest day, Marcus made sure people like Zoro and Kuina weren't going to train before he gathered up a few things to trade. After eating breakfast with everyone on the ship, Marcus headed out with a large sack tossed over his shoulder. He walked through the village and up the small trail towards Nami's house. About half way there he turned off the trail and headed towards the small cliff side that faced the sea.
Once there he pulled out a blanket and laid it out under a tree before he arranged a handful of books on it. He also placed some brand new clothes down on the blanket in different sizes. Once satisfied he pulled out a couple of cushions and placed one on the ground. Once he sat down on that cushion, he placed the other one behind him against the tree trunk and leaned back on it. Once he was comfortable, he pulled out the newspaper he bought yesterday and started to read it.
About an hour or so later an accusing voice asked, "It's you! What are you doing here?"
Marcus glanced over to see Nami who stood with a finger pointing at him and a frown on her face. Marcus turned back to the newspaper as he said, "Are you blind, little thief? I'm obviously reading a newspaper and waiting for people to come and trade with me."
The frown became more prominent as Nami raised her voice and said, "I'm not a thief!"
Marcus raised an eyebrow as he glanced at her and asked, "Did you not come on my ship and steal something from it?"
"You got it back, so technically I never stole anything." Nami said matter of factly.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, little thief." Marcus said as he rolled his eyes.
As Marcus went back to his paper, Nami cautiously approached closer towards him and the blanket before she asked, "What are you trading?"
"Stuff I picked up and have no use for, along with books I've already finished reading and no longer need."
Nami approached even closer to get a better look at what was on the blanket before her eyes widened and she moved even closer. Nami went to reach for one of the books before a rolled up newspaper slapped her hand away. Nami jumped back like a frightened cat and looked at Marcus with narrowed eyes as she said, "Jerk! What was that for? I just wanted to see what was inside the book."
"Don't touch the merchandise unless you plan to buy it."
Nami placed both hands on her hips and asked, "How do you even know if I was gonna buy it or not?"
"Do you even have anything to trade for it?"
Nami frowned slightly before her eyes lit up and struck a pose as she imitated Bellemere before she said in her attempt at a seductive voice, "I could pay you with my body~."
"Be gone, thot. I'm not interested in kids or people shaped like planks."
"Thot?!? Wait… What did you mean by plank?" Nami asked with narrowed eyes.
"Look down, can you see your feet?"
Nami did so before she asked, "Yeah… Why, what does that have to do with anything?"
"Ask your mom about it later, she'll explain it to you."
"Are you making fun of me?" Nami asked as her eyes narrowed again.
"Me? No way, I would never do something like that." Marcus said in a slightly sarcastic tone as he had a set of fingers crossed.
"Good." Nami said with a nod of her head.
Marcus opened back up the newspaper as he said, "If you're not gonna buy anything, you can leave. As you can see, I'm busy."
Nami frowned slightly and looked back at the books on the blanket before she curiously asked, "How much for the book?"
"A pitcher of chilled lemonade that's a decent mix of sweet and tart."
Nami's eyes widened before she pointed to another book and asked, "And that one?"
"Five mikan's peeled and ready to eat."
After Nami found out the price of everything she took off to find her mom. It didn't take long for Nami to return with Bellemere in tow before she pointed at the books and said, "Can we buy them? He said he wants mikans for them!"
Bellemere narrowed her eyes before she asked, "You really want mikans for this stuff?"
"This one is for a pitcher of chilled lemonade and that one is for some pre peeled mikans. The rest are for bags of mikans."
"That's it?"
Marcus shrugged as he said, "It's just some old books I don't need and some clothes I have no use for. As for money… I currently have no use for it."
"You have no use for money?! Everyone needs money." Nami said in a tone of disbelief.
Marcus glanced towards the girl before he said, "There is more to life than money and there are many things in life money can't buy."
Before Nami could reply, Bellemere asked, "And you just so happened to pick this place to set up your little stall?"
Marcus raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Bellemere before he said, "I liked the view, besides I'm not in a rush to sell all this stuff. Now if you're done with the twenty questions, either buy something or go away. You're interrupting my day off."
Bellemere's eyes twitched before she said, "Fine, we'll buy everything you have."