The Will of D. reamers

The first week in Orange Town went by quickly and was mostly filled with training and trading. Marcus was able to off load most of the normal stuff they looted from the pirates along with a little bit of jewelry. As for the extra weapons they collected from the three pirate groups they defeated, they couldn't find a buyer that wanted them. Marcus thought about selling them to Henry to be melted down, but decided against it. Most of the weapons were in good condition and worth a lot more as weapons then as scrap metal.

At the end of the week, Henry had a working prototype for Zef to use. It was easily four times the weight of his peg leg and made it difficult to walk. So Henry hollowed it out in places which made it weaker but cut the total weight in half. Zeff tested it out for a few days and they quickly found the weight savings made it bend easily. So Henry and Marcus worked on different designs to figure out how to fix the issue.

During the second week of their stay, Marcus gave Zoe and her group training harnesses along with Sanji and increased their training. All of them were currently at level one with the harness and surprisingly no one even complained about the increased training… Well that was after they watched Marcus and his brothers punch boulders for over an hour straight.

Marcus also kept up with Zoro and Kuina's swordsmanship training along with sparring with everyone else. While Ace and Sabo didn't use swords, their sparring practice with Marcus helped improve their overall combat skills. Luffy was still lagging behind Ace, Sabo and Marcus in skill but he could beat everyone else which made him happy. The only one who didn't train or spar was Zeff, but Marcus planned to make the old man train once he had a better prosthetic leg.

The process of developing the prosthetic leg ended up taking five months and four different redesigns. Getting the weight down and keeping it structurally sound took a bulk of the time and money. Henry ended up using some weird alloy of metals that made it stronger than steel and about a quarter of the weight. After he figured out a solution for the weight, then it came to testing the leg itself. Each design was made after Zeff tested the leg for a couple weeks or more.

The current leg he used was almost two months old and he had no issues with it at all. Marcus even got the old man to train and spar with the leg and it worked great so far. Marcus was even surprised at how skilled the old man was when he sparred with him. For someone who pretty much used his legs, he was an impressive opponent and Marcus ended up losing to him each spar.

Marcus was sure if he used a real sword for the matches it would be closer. But even then Zeff would probably seriously injury him in the process. The worst part was that Zeff still wasn't back to his previous state before he helped rescue Sanji. Sure he was healthy again, but the muscle mass he lost hadn't returned and with his age probably never would.

While they mostly spent their time on the island training, they ended up hanging out in the town once a week on rest days. Well, only after they went fishing early in the morning to help take care of their food needs. While they had money to spare, Marcus didn't want to waste it on food. So part of their training involved fishing with the net installed on their boat. It only took a couple hours on their rest day and provided them with enough meat to last the week.

One thing that happened that Marcus expected to happen sooner or later was that Zoro and Sanji liked to argue a lot. Sure Sanji didn't have his personality quirks towards women yet, but something about Zoro and Sanji was like oil and water. They both argued a good bit and even fought a few times over stupid stuff. Unfortunately Sanji is just too weak and easily lost each time. Marcus was sure that would change as time passed and Sanji got stronger, but for now he kept getting beaten up.

Like that a total of six months passed in Orange Town with only training and no real action. All of the boys were getting kinda restless, even Zoe and the other women wanted to test themselves against some real enemies and not just spar at this point. Since Marcus also wanted to explore East Blue some more, he commissioned Henry to build a few more copies of Zeff's leg before they finally left town.

As they prepared to set sail, Boodle, Henry, Hocker, Chouchou the dog and a few others they made friends with all came to see them off on their journey. Boodle happily waved at everyone on the ship as he said, "Come back and visit again!"

Everyone waved back as they went about their duties on the ship and it slowly pulled away from the dock. Luffy was the most excited as he waved back since that was the type of person he was. But once they were out of sight he quickly got bored and went below deck to probably eat a snack. Marcus shook his head as he watched Luffy disappear before he adjusted the ship's course slightly.

Over the next few days training slowed down during travel, mostly in case they ran into pirates. As luck would have it they ran into pirates on the fifth day of their journey. The pirates were in the process of chasing down another ship when Zoe spotted them from the crows nest and pointed them out. So Marcus and the others quickly changed course with the intention to intercept them.

With their smaller and faster ship, they were able to easily overtake the pirate ship which decided to target them when they got closer. With the pirate ship's focus now on Marcus and the others, the other merchant ship quickly escaped from the situation and didn't look back.

Just before the ship met and were pulled together by grappling hooks, Marcus looked over everyone on the deck for a moment. Zoe and the other women were spread out between the other more experienced fighters. Sanji and Zeff were also on the deck but only Sanji was going to fight. With Zeff's strength it would be pointless for him to fight so it was decided ahead of time that he would act like Marcus. Their job was to watch for issues and step in if someone would potentially get seriously hurt or killed.

It didn't take long for the pirate crew to start boarding their ship and it didn't take long for them to get beaten. It was actually a slight disappointment with how easy it was to win. Sure Sanji, Zoe and the other women needed the experience. But compared to sparring matches against Marcus, Ace, Sabo, Luffy, Kuina or even Zoro… The pirates were pretty pathetic and everyone was disappointed.

Once the pirates were taken care of, they looted the ship completely before they scuttled it. Afterwards Marcus checked his current location compared to the closest marine base and set off towards it. They were in luck because there was a base near the island they were heading towards, it was just on a different island in the same archipelago. With the destination set, Marcus changed course slightly and headed to drop off the pirates.

Since they were already close to their original destination, it only took them a couple of days to reach the marine base and turn over the pirates. Unfortunately the pirate crew was so new, most of them weren't worth anything. It also helped explain why they were so weak to begin with. After they finished at the marine base, Marcus set course towards their original destination.

It only took them just over a day to reach the place and as they approached Marcus studied the island bathed in early morning light. In the series it was shown that the island only had two ways to enter it, but that wasn't true here. Sure there were two slopes that led up to the main area of the island, but the island also had a decent harbor and dock on one side of it. Since they had a dock and it led up to the town, Marcus decided to use it, instead of docking by one of the beaches.

As they slowly pulled into the small harbor and prepared the ship to dock, Marcus scanned the area. It was still early, just before sunrise but there were at least a dozen people working on the dock already. Marcus aimed the ship towards one of the two empty piers where they ended up docking. After the ship was secured, Marcus talked with the harbormaster about port fees before everyone took off to explore the island.

Marcus himself stayed behind to watch over the ship for now, since Zeff was going shopping. Once Zeff came back with supplies, he would take over watching the ship and Marcus would be able to go explore the island. Marcus was resting in the crows nest reading a newspaper when Zeff, Sanji, Zoe and a few others returned with supplies. Marcus checked in with them for a couple moments before he headed towards the town.

It was around noon by the time Marcus reached the town and found it was definitely bigger than he thought it would be. It still looked like a quiet and peaceful place to live, but instead of calling it a village, it was more like a large town. Marcus could also see farm land just outside of town along with a large mansion on a hill.

Since it was noon, Marcus decided to find a place to eat before he looked around more. The place he decided to eat at was called Meshi and it looked more like a cozy cottage than a restaurant. As Marcus entered the place he was greeted by the sound of his brothers laughing and quickly found them eating at a table.

The table was packed full with his brothers, Zoro, Kuina and another young boy with a long nose. As Marcus approached the table he heard the boy with a long nose as he said as he raised his head up proudly, "Once they realized they couldn't beat me in a fight, the entire pirate crew gave up and promised to quit being pirates."

After the long nose boy finished his story, Luffy said, "Wow, you must be really strong!"

The boy puffed out his chest as he said, "Of course I'm strong, I'm captain Usopp and I once beat a giant in single combat!"

Marcus raised an eyebrow at that comment, but didn't say anything since he knew whatever Usopp said always came true at some point. Luffy took notice of Marcus a moment later and said, "Marcus! Look who we found, Yasopp's son, Usopp!"

Marcus glanced at Usopp for a moment before he said, "Oh yeah, that loser did mention having a kid…"

Usopp frowned as he asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Marcus grabbed a chair and placed it at the end of the table to join them before he said, "It means your dad is a loser."

"My dad is a pirate and a brave warrior of the sea. He isn't a loser!" Usopp said with a hint of pride.

"Your dad might be a brave warrior of the sea, but he is a trash father and husband. Which makes him a loser." Marcus said before he grabbed a large chicken leg from Zoro's plate and took a bite.

"Hey, that's mine." Zoro said with a frown.

"No he isn't! You take that back!" Usopp said with an angry tone as he pointed a finger at Marcus.

Marcus ignored Zoro as he shook his head before he said, "What else do you call a man who abandoned his family?"

"My father didn't abandon us, he followed his dream!" Usopp said with a hint of anger.

"If that's the case, explain why he didn't come back to visit you when he was just in East Blue within the last year or so and could have easily done it?" Marcus asked as he looked directly at Usopp.

Usopp frowned but doubled down as he said, "He followed his dream, he had no reason to come back."

Marcus let out a heavy sigh before he said, "You're just as delusional as your father… Like father, like son I guess."

"If you keep talking about my dad, I'll beat you up." Usopp said as he glared at Marcus.

Marcus waved off the comment with the chicken leg in his hand as he said, "You can't even beat the little zombie we have on the ship. Much less fight me."

"But he fought a giant before!" Luffy said with some excitement.

"You keep a zombie on the ship?!?" Usopp asked with a hint of fear in his voice, while he pulled out a cross from who knows where.

"I doubt he's fought a giant if he's scared at the mention of a zombie." Marcus said before he finished off the chicken leg.

"Zombies are different then giants, of course normal people would be scared of zombies… Right?" Usopp asked as he glanced at everyone at the table.

When no one agreed, Marcus smirked and said, "Looks like you're the only normal person here."