Garp was right when he said it would take about three months before he was found. But during those three months he pushed everyone to the absolute limit and forced them past it. While everyone else had decent growth, Marcus's physical strength exploded as he easily reached the six rank of the training harness under Garp's specialized training. Part of it was Garp telling the New World pirate to attack Marcus with the intent to kill. While Marcus doubted Garp would let the man actually land a fatal blow, it didn't stop him from trying.
Because of that type of training, Marcus was pushed to his absolute limit and left bed ridden each time. Within a couple days he would be back on his feet and then Garp pushed him till he collapsed for over a week until he forced Marcus to spar with the New World pirate again. Over that three month period the process was repeated six times. And when Kohariko finally arrived at the island to look for Garp, Marcus had just finished the seventh 'training' session and was recovering.
Garp was in Marcus's room having just dropped off food for him when Kohariko knocked on the door. Garp shoved a rice cracker in his mouth before he said, "It's open."
Kohariko opened the door dressed in civilian clothing and as he stepped inside he said, "Sorry Garp-san, Sengoku-san asked me to find you over a month ago… I put it off as long as I could."
"I figured he would send that brat Smoker to find me… Aren't you already retired?"
Kohariko smiled slightly as he said, "I am, but you know how it is. Once a marine…"
"Always a marine." Garp said as he shook his head slightly.
Kohariko held up a den den mushi as he said, "Sengoku-san wants you to call him immediately."
Garp took it and as he started to dial a number, Kohariko turned towards Marcus with a frown as he asked, "Do you have any idea of the mess you made when you left?"
Marcus paused in his eating as he said, "I didn't leave a mess."
"Smoker was pissed and wanted to chase after you!"
Marcus shrugged as he said, "And he would have ended up with another ass whooping in front of his troops."
Before Kohariko could respond, a pissed off voice rang out from the den den mushi as it asked, "Where the hell have you been Garp?!?"
Garp placed the snail down on the table as he started to pick his ear with a finger as he said, "I told you I was taking a vacation."
"It was approved for one month! You've been gone for almost four!"
Garp stuffed a rice cracker into his mouth with his free hand before he said, "And I told you I was taking at least two months or more."
Sengoku let out a frustrated sigh before he said, "I don't have time to argue with you. I need you to head directly to the New World and link up with Aokiji."
Garp turned serious as he paused, putting another rice cracker into his mouth before he asked, "What happened?"
"Big Mom and Kaidou are stirring up trouble and the Red Hair pirates have been making some moves. I need you there immediately just in case something big happens."
Garp laughed as he said, "I'll leave in a few minutes."
"You're just going there to…" Sengoku was cut off as Garp hung up the call and tossed the snail back to Kohariko as he said, "If he calls back, don't answer until I'm gone."
The snail started to ring a moment later and Kohariko glanced at it as Garp stood up and said, "Not until I'm gone."
Kohariko slowly nodded his head before Garp turned to Marcus and said, "Looks like I won't be able to drop you off."
"It's fine, I was getting a ship made anyways."
Garp nodded before he said, "I'll go grab you a few things before I take off."
Kohariko left with Garp and didn't come back when Garp returned with a small box. Garp opened the box and showed him the contents as he said, "You should know what these are."
"A log pose and some eternal poses."
Garp smiled slightly as he closed the box and placed it on Marcus's table as he said, "You can use the log pose if you want, but I also gave you eternal poses for Alabasta, Water Seven and Sabaody. If you follow them in order you can quickly reach your goal."
Marcus frowned slightly as he asked, "Isn't it faster to just follow the Sabaody pose?"
"In theory, but what about supplies and detours? If you stop at those two places along the way, you won't have any detours and can resupply easily because they're both large trade hubs."
Marcus nodded in understanding before he said, "Thanks grandpa."
"Just make sure those other idiots stay here for now… And be safe, brat." Garp said as he headed towards the door.
Just before he walked through it Marcus said, "I will and I'll call you once I reach my goal."
After Garp left, Marcus focused on healing and then pushed himself with even more training. He still needed to consolidate his gains from his near death training with the New World pirate before he did anything else. So another two months quickly passed by and the year ended as Marcus barely reached the seventh level of the training harness. He could now walk around with it activated, but it would take all of his effort to do.
As for his brothers, they were still on the fourth level of the harness and couldn't even walk using the fifth level yet. Marcus thought about helping them the way Garp helped him the last few months. But he quickly gave up on that idea since he didn't want to accidentally kill them. Marcus was positive Garp used his observation haki to help stop the fights at just the right time to get the most impact. And if not….
Well Marcus didn't want to think about it, because he really felt like he was gonna die after each fight. He had faith in Garp, but the sword slash across his neck said otherwise. It was mostly healed by now and probably wouldn't leave a scar. But Marcus saw his new life flash before his eyes when it happened and Garp hadn't so much as blinked at the time. There was also the time the pirate missed his heart by a hair and punctured his lung…
Marcus shook his head to clear it as he focused back on his ship and trimmed the sail. Besides training, Marcus spent a lot of his time testing his ship and sending information back to Frank. Actually he was currently sailing his ship back to Loguetown as the others followed on their normal ship. It was something Marcus needed to do so Frank could find any hidden issues with the design after being sea tested.
The plan was to drop the ship off and then go hunt pirates while Frank worked on Marcus's new ship. Since it was a lot smaller then Zeff's and some parts of it were already made, it would easily be done before his next birthday. Which meant Marcus would enter the Grandline before his tenth birthday.
As for Zeff he was brought along since he was their cook, but his ship was left docked at the village. It was slow compared to either of Marcus's ships and wouldn't be needed for hunting pirates. The only issue would be how Smoker would handle it when they showed up in Loguetown.
The last thing Marcus did in his preparation for leaving was learning how to cook under Zeff. He wasn't doing full training to be a chef or anything, but he wanted more than the basics so he could survive alone at sea. Marcus already knew how to cook somewhat from his memories, but he figured it never hurt to learn more. The trip to Loguetown was pretty quick and Marcus took his ship directly to Frank and his dry dock when they arrived.
The other ship headed for the main port to dock and resupply before they took off to hunt pirates. After Marcus talked with Frank about the ship's design and a few minor things, he handed over half of the money for the construction of the ship before he headed to the dock. When he reached there, he found Smoker with a frown on his face as he stood next to his ship.
Marcus put on a friendly smile as he asked, "Smoker! Long time no see, how have you been?"
Smoker's right eye twitched as he bit down on his cigar and took a deep pull from it. After he exhaled a large plume of smoke he said, "Don't act like we're friends."
"Oh I know, we're acquaintances at best. But that doesn't mean we can't be friendly with each other."
"You call knocking me and my men out friendly?" Smoker asked with a frown.
"My grandpa knocks me out at least once or twice whenever he visits and we're family." Marcus said with a careless shrug.
Smoker shook his head slightly before he said, "Come to the base, I want to spar with you."
Marcus smirked slightly before he glanced towards the ship and yelled, "Usopp, tell everyone I'll be back in a little while!"
Usopp's head barely peeked out from the top of the crows nest before he said, "Yes, sir!"
Marcus walked with Smoker to the base in silence and once there, they headed towards a large training ground. It was currently empty and after they arrived Smoker turned towards Marcus and said, "I want you to fight me without your sword and don't use any of the marine powers."
Marcus smirked as he asked, "You asked to spar and you wanna give me a handicap too?"
Smoker bit down on his cigar as he said, "Garp said to train more, but no one here can push me properly…"
Marcus nodded slightly before he said, "Alright, I can do that… But I want you to fight me with your devil fruit powers and don't hold back."
"I didn't plan to."
Marcus chuckled as he said, "Good."
The both separated and after getting into place they watched each other for a few moments before they rushed forward. Smoker's right arm shot forward like a rocket powered by his smoke as he said, "White blow!"
Marcus shifted his head slightly to let it slip past his head as he charged forward and swung his haki coated fist at Smoker's chest. A moment later Smoker was blown backwards as he stared at Marcus in disbelief. Smoker rolled across the ground a couple times before he jumped up to his feet and rubbed his chest as he asked, "You know haki?"
Marcus just smirked before he charged towards Smoker again who frowned slightly but threw another white blow towards the incoming Marcus. Marcus easily dodged the blow and when close enough he threw another body blow at Smoker. This time Smoker elementalized his body and formed a hole that Marcus's arm passed through. Marcus raised an eyebrow slightly as he jumped backwards to not be caught as Smoker attempted to grab him.
Over the next hour Smoker and Marcus went back and forth fighting. While Smoker was mostly on the losing end of the fight, his use of his devil fruit power gave Marcus good experience. Smoker might have been a little weak and relied too much on his devil fruit, but the man learned quickly. Over the fight he quickly learned to make holes in his body whenever Marcus attacked him. Marcus still landed hits sometimes, but that was only because he was faster and had observation haki.
When Smoker finally collapsed to the ground completely out of breath, Marcus wasn't even winded. Marcus smirked slightly as he glanced down at Smoker and said, "You really need to work on your stamina."
Smoker, who was bruised all over, slowly sat up as he asked, "How the hell are you so strong?"
"I've been training almost nonstop since I could walk… And gramps always comes up with more crazy ways to train us."
Smoker pulled out a new cigar, lit it up and he took a long pull from it before he said with a frown, "I've been in the marines longer than you've been alive… You shouldn't be this much stronger than me."
"You've never pushed yourself properly."
Smoker glanced up with narrowed eyes as he said, "I trained under Zephyr and completed the marine officer training program."
Marcus chuckled as he asked, "You trained under old man Zephyr? I met him years ago… You know what he said when he saw how my grandpa trained us?"
Smoker shook his head so Marcus said, "He told gramps to stay away from his students because they weren't freaks like we are."
Marcus broke into a belly laugh as Smoker frowned slightly. When Marcus calmed down he focused on Smoker as he said, "The funny part is everyone on my ship does the training Zephyr thought was too much for his students, even Tashigi."
Marcus offered his hand to Smoker and helped pull him up as he said, "You don't need to be special to do grandpa's training, you just need to work your way up to it, step by step and push your body past its limits."
"If you want, I can show you our current training routine before we leave." Marcus said after he let go of Smoker's hand.
Smoker slowly nodded so Marcus said, "Alright, I'll write out the whole thing and then show you examples real quick."
Almost two hours passed before Marcus walked out of the marine base alone and left a stunned Smoker behind. The list Marcus left was ridiculous and he didn't believe it was possible for anyone to do in a single day… But Marcus easily finished one of the exercises without much effort just to prove it was possible. And then he dropped the bomb that he normally did that same exercise weighted down.
Smoker studied the list in his hand again before he looked back towards Marcus who was whistling as he walked away. Only one thought flashed through his mind as he watched Marcus disappear from view and that was he was a little monster like his grandfather…