"Are you underestimating our strength?" Marcus asked, gesturing toward Sanji and Alvida.
"We just met them and it was over in seconds. I don't think this so-called Baroque Works has the power to deal with us."
His comment made both Alvida and Sanji blush slightly.
"I'm not that amazing~" Alvida touched her face shyly, clearly pleased by the praise.
Sanji raised his eyebrows, ready to make his own response, but Zoro cut him off first.
"Leaving this Pirate A aside, we're all pretty strong."
"What the hell did you just say, moss-head?" Sanji glared at Zoro, instantly irritated by the backhanded compliment.
Zoro shrugged, completely unfazed. "If Alvida hadn't helped you out, what could you have done against both of them?"
Sanji opened his mouth to argue but found himself without a good comeback. If Alvida hadn't appeared when she did, he really might have been overwhelmed by their attacks, and victory wouldn't have been guaranteed.
Besides, that explosive bastard's ability was genuinely dangerous. Even when Sanji used his fastest kicks, the shockwaves from the explosions left his legs numb. A direct hit would have been much worse.
Seeing Sanji fall silent, Zoro didn't push the point further, he'd just been teasing anyway.
Marcus waved his hand dismissively. "See? We've got some serious firepower here. Finding allies like us isn't easy. Taking Vivi with us won't be a problem. But I don't recommend you going alone, Igaram. If something happens to you, Vivi's the one who'll suffer, right?"
Mr. 9 suddenly raised his hand.
"What is it?"
"Uh... can I not participate in this?" When everyone turned to stare at him, he quickly held up his hands in explanation. "Ah, it's not like I'm gonna betray you or anything! But look, Vivi just saved my life, and I'm completely useless in a fight. Plus, someone needs to stay behind to clean up this mess, right? These people were our companions too. Even after everything that just happened, they were still willing to help us. I can't just abandon them."
His voice was shaky, clearly he was terrified. But his reasoning wasn't wrong. Someone did need to stay behind to deal with the aftermath.
At his words, both Igaram and Vivi lowered their heads in shame. They'd clearly forgotten about their former companions in all the chaos. Yet just moments ago, those same companions had risked their lives to help them. Without that assistance, they might really have been executed on the spot.
The two of them felt guilty.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Straw Hat crew turned to look directly at Marcus.
"What?" Marcus asked, confused by their sudden attention.
After a moment, he understood what they were getting at and chuckled, scratching his head. "Even if you hadn't asked, I was gonna help anyway."
Vivi and Igaram looked at him, not understanding what was happening.
"Don't worry about the cleanup," Marcus said. "First, take me to where everyone was gathered. Oh, and Kira, bring out one of the cows for me."
With that, he followed Mr. 9 toward the town center where the bounty hunters had been celebrating.
But when he saw the aftermath of the battle, what little guilt he'd been feeling evaporated completely.
While the One Piece anime and manga rarely showed death in the early arcs, that was just how shonen worked back then, this world clearly didn't follow those rules.
That explosive asshole had probably just gotten unlucky with which version of reality he'd ended up in. With his ability, killing ordinary people was tragically easy.
Countless mangled bodies of bounty hunters lay scattered across the town square. Out of what had probably been three hundred people, barely a hundred were still breathing.
"Vivi, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, I need your help," Marcus called out. "Do your best to find anyone who's still alive. Zoro, you're on severed limb duty. Gather up any arms and legs that got blown off, and make clean cuts where you need to, we might be able to reattach them. Sanji, regular food won't be enough to restore these people. You'll need to prepare those life-restoring dishes I told you about."
He continued assigning tasks. "Vivi, Nami, use your hands to stitch up wounds. Keep their bodies as intact as possible. Alvida, keep an eye on Miss Valentine over there."
The entire crew threw themselves into the rescue operation without question.
Luffy looked around frantically. "What about me? What should I do?"
"You? Go help Sanji. Ask him what ingredients he needs and fetch them."
As everyone dispersed to their tasks, Marcus began his own work. Kira had already brought over one of the cows.
He moved from victim to victim, pouring milk down their throats and feeding them grilled fish. The food mechanics worked their magic, stabilizing the dying and healing what could be healed.
But just as he'd expected, those with severed limbs couldn't be completely restored. The best he could do was keep them alive.
"My methods are still too crude," he muttered to himself as he worked. "If we'd had a real doctor here to perform proper reattachments, this would've gone much better."
The process took hours. Marcus found himself becoming numb to the horror as he moved from one broken body to the next. Some people were missing entire limbs. Others had internal injuries that his food could heal but couldn't undo the trauma of the experience.
In the end, the number of survivors exceeded his expectations.
Out of a town of about three hundred people, around a hundred had died, but more than two hundred were still alive. Some with relatively intact severed limbs could have them reattached thanks to his vitality buffs, though the results were far from perfect, mismatched arm lengths, uneven legs, and other complications were inevitable.
His methods had been crude and improvised, but keeping them alive was already more than most people could have managed.
By the time they finished, night had fallen completely.
Under the sky, bonfires began appearing throughout the town. Despite everything they'd lost, the residents of Whiskey Peak unexpectedly began organizing a celebration.
"I can't thank you enough for what you did today," said a grizzled bounty hunter with his arm in a sling. "Without you, I'd be dead already."
"Yeah! If it wasn't for you, my buddy here would never have been able to hold a drink with his own hands again," added another man, gesturing to his friend who was flexing fingers that had been nearly severed.
"Damn right! Without you, this marksman might not even be able to hold a gun anymore!" called out a woman.
"We owe everything to you!"
"Drink! Tonight we're not stopping until we're completely wasted!"
Groups of rough bounty hunters raised their cups, their voices growing louder as the night went on.
Marcus felt somewhat out of place. "You guys... after everything that happened..."
Seeing his hesitation, the bounty hunters just shook their heads and smiled.
"Don't overthink it," said an older man with bandages wrapped around his chest. "We live with blades at our throats every single day. Even if it hadn't been this time, the next fight with pirates could've ended the same way. And when death comes calling again, we won't have you there to save us."
"Exactly," nodded a woman missing half her left arm. "Surviving is already incredible luck. As long as we can keep fighting, there's nothing to complain about."
"Enough serious talk! Drink with us!"
The rough crowd clinked cups and drank heavily, trying to wash away the memories of what they'd just endured.
But Marcus could see through their forced cheerfulness. Many of them were crying behind their smiles. He sighed quietly. Maybe joy really was better than despair, even if it was forced.
He raised his cup and joined their toast.
Meanwhile, Igaram and Mr. 9 were working by torchlight, digging graves and laying bodies to rest one by one. The work was backbreaking and heartbreaking, but it had to be done.
On Cactus Rock, countless new gravestones appeared, not just for the Baroque Works agents who had died, but also for the bounty hunters who had made their lives in this harsh place.
Nami and Vivi carved inscriptions into stone markers.
"Do we really only need to write their names?" Nami asked softly.
Mr. 9 nodded, wiping sweat from his brow. "That's enough. Over there are the unmarked graves for nameless pirates who died here. Having a name at least shows they were bounty hunters, not criminals."
Sanji took a long drag from his cigarette, the smoke drifting up toward the stars. "This is the cruelty of the Grand Line, isn't it?"
Vivi, who understood this world's harsh realities better than most of them, explained quietly, "Many of them came from other islands where they couldn't survive. Even from Arabasta, some of our citizens ended up here."
"Why would they leave their homes?" Nami asked.
"Because at least here, they could make a living," Vivi said, pressing her palms together in prayer for the dead. "The Kingdom of Arabasta sits in the middle of a desert. With so few oases, the land can only support a limited population. Those who can't survive there take to the seas. Some are forced into piracy, others become bounty hunters. Many who refuse to become criminals choose this place instead."
"That's also why we once considered killing Laboon. The whale was blocking too many people's paths to survival. But now... that shouldn't be necessary anymore. Still, there's so little I can actually do to change things."
Her smile was forced and filled with sadness.