Marcus was about thirty feet from Gion who stood confidently with one hand on her sword hilt. She watched him for a few moments before she said, "I'll let you start whenever you're ready."
"Rules?"
"Just come at me with your full strength." Gion said confidently as she slowly drew her sword.
A cocky grin spread across Marcus's face as he asked, "Are you sure?"
"I'll be able to hand everything you got kid, don't worry about it."
Marcus adjusted his stance and crouched down slightly as he gripped his sword hilt with his right hand while his left held his scabbard. Tokikake, who was off to the side watching with Hina, Nicholas and a few others asked, "Who is that kid anyway?"
"Secret." Hina said with a hint of mischief in her eyes.
Tokikake took a drag on his pipe before he said, "Eh, it doesn't really matter anyway. Gion will be able to handle him, he should just be happy she's willing to spar with him."
Marcus focused on his breathing that was almost second nature at this point before his muscles tensed. Gion's eyes narrowed slightly and her observation haki started to flare as Marcus whispered, "Thunderclap and flash eightfold!"
The ground beneath Marcus cratered as he disappeared from view and Gion barely brought her sword up to block in time. Everyone watching had their mouths drop open from the first attack but Marcus wasn't done. As soon as the first attack was blocked he landed just past Gion and the ground shattered again as he flew back towards her. In less than a few seconds Marcus attacked Gion eight times in a row and the ground around them was completely destroyed.
Gion was barely able to block or parry every attack with the help of her haki but sweat from beading on her forehead as she cautiously stared at Marcus who gave her a friendly smile. A moment later everyone recovered and Nicholas yelled out, "What the hell was that?!?"
"Just a friendly greeting so Gion would take me seriously."
Gion focused fully on Marcus as she asked, "Who are you?"
"Monkey D. Marcus." Marcus said before he appeared in front of Gion again as their swords clashed together.
"Monkey D. Marcus… Are you related to Garp-san?" Gion asked as she exchanged dozens of high speed attacks with him.
"He's my grandpa."
Gion nodded slightly as she started to fight back against Marcus's onslaught of attacks. They both turned into blurs and while most people could barely watch, Nicholas, Hina and Tokikake were able to follow the fight. Tokikake was the only one who could truly see everything and his pipe hung loosely from his lips, forgotten as he watched.
Gion was forced to use everything she had as still found herself slightly on the back foot against Marcus. She was positive she was stronger than Marcus, but his swordsmanship was better than hers which made them a pretty even match. He also used soru consistently which forced her to use it just to keep up properly. Back and forth they traded blows for over half an hour without words.
After almost two hours of constant fighting, Marcus's legs locked up for a single moment so he pulled back and slowly sheathed his sword as he said, "It's your win."
"Huh?" Everyone but Gion said at the same time.
Gion slowly put away her sword as she said, "It's only because you faltered."
Marcus gave a helpless shrug as he said, "My body still has issues using soru for extended periods of time."
"How old are you?" Gion asked as she walked towards him.
"Nine." Marcus said which caused Gion to stumble before she frowned.
Tokikake also frowned as he mumbled, "Even Garp's grandson is a little monster."
As Marcus and Gion approached the rest of the group Nicholas stepped forward and punched Marcus's shoulder as he said, "I kinda hate you… To be able to fight Commodore Gion like that for so long is crazy."
Marcus smirked as he said, "Don't slack off on training and you'll be able to do it too."
Marcus rubbed his sore legs for a bit before he said, "Alright you guys can spar now since I need to rest my legs."
"Huh? Who's gonna spar?" Nicholas asked as he glanced over everyone.
"You and Hina since you're close to the same level. Did you think we were finished training because I had a decent fight?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.
Nicholas raised his hands as he said, "Alright, alright, I got it… Captain, are you up for a spar?"
"Hina ready."
Hina and Nicholas moved out to an area with flat ground as Gion asked, "Only a few more years till you can join the marines, are you excited?"
Marcus chuckled before he asked, "Why does everyone think I'm joining the marines?"
"You're not? Then how come Garp-san taught you soru?" Gion asked with a frown as Tokikake nodded in agreement.
"My grandpa only helped with physical training and beat me up whenever he came to visit. As for soru, I watched him do it a few times and figured it out myself."
"You figured it out yourself?" Tokikake asked incredulously.
Marcus glanced at Tokikake and said with a dismissive tone, "You think kicking off the ground a bunch of times in a row is hard to figure out? Once you have enough strength in your legs anyone can do it."
Tokikake looked like he was about to respond but Gion cut him off as she asked, "If you aren't gonna be a marine, why train so hard? What's your end goal?"
"I want to explore the world and to do that I'll need to be able to protect myself…" Marcus said with a smile before he added, "Besides, turning in pirates for their bounties pays way more than I'd ever make in the marines and I don't have to take orders from anyone to do it."
"So you plan to be a bounty hunter?"
Marcus watched as Hina forced Nicholas back with her powers as he said, "Something like that."
"What a waste, you would make a great marine."
Marcus glanced at Tokikake before he said, "I'm terrible at following orders and that's over half your job."
Tokikake puffed on his pipe before he said, "You said like Garp-san."
"Out of my brothers, I'm probably the most similar to grandpa… Except I use my brain for more than fighting."
Gion laughed for a few moments before she asked, "I wonder what Garp-san would think about that?"
"He'd probably hit me a few times for even thinking that."
Marcus talked with Gion and Tokikake for about half an hour until Nicholas finally lost to Hina. Afterwards he decided to call the training for the day before he asked, "Do you wanna train again tomorrow?"
Nicholas shook his head as he said, "No, we were only here for resupply. We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning."
Hina nodded as she asked, "Maybe we can spar again next time we stop for resupply?"
"I'm only staying for another day or so while Iceburg examines my ship."
Hina stuck out her hand as she said, "In that case, it was a pleasure to meet you. Hopefully we can meet again."
"You too, Captain Hina." Marcus said as he shook her hand.
Marcus turned to Nicholas and clasped his hand as he said, "It was good to see you again, but you better be stronger the next time we meet."
"Don't worry, I will be."
"Good." Marcus said before he turned towards Gion and Tokikake as he said, "It was nice to meet both of you and I look forward to our next duel, Commodore Gion."
"Me too."
Marcus left the others and headed back to the upper city by using the lift to not stress his legs. When he arrived back at dock one he found Iceburg and his men still examining the hydrofoils and propellers. When he approached closer Iceburg noticed him and waved at him as he said, "Marcus I went out early and picked up what we talked about."
"Really?"
Iceburg nodded as he said, "Nmaa, It's already loaded too. I bought ten different barrels of the rarest alcohol Water Seven carries and made sure it was different from what you already had."
"Nice, thanks for the help."
"You're welcome. But honestly I should be thanking you for letting me examine your ship." Iceburg said as he glanced back at the hydrofoils.
"Did you find anything interesting?"
Iceburg nodded before he started talking about how the design could be improved to be more efficient and he was already planning to make a prototype to test with. He also started looking for flame dials to research them and see if they were usable for a steam engine. Marcus talked with Iceburg and his team for a while until they went to have dinner.
Marcus didn't do much after dinner or the next day besides explore Water Seven a bit and hang out with Iceburg and his workers. Before the ship was removed from the dry dock, Iceburg handed Marcus another set of updated blueprints as he said, "In case you don't come back here for your next ship… Even though these will probably be outdated after we make a test ship."
"Thanks. If I'm still in Paradise when I need a new ship, I'll definitely come find you."
Iceburg handed Marcus another piece of paper as he said, "And that's my personal number. Call me if you get any ideas for the ship, I'll easily be able to test them."
Once the ship was docked in the canal, Marcus headed to dinner with Iceburg and his crew. Afterwards he took his ship and headed back to the bottom level of the island. He checked the pose for Sabaody and ended up on the other side of the island before he docked for the night. Early the next morning before dawn Marcus pulled his ship away from the dock and headed towards his next destination.
His trip to Sabaody was pretty uneventful even with a short trip through part of the Florian Triangle. Marcus almost thought about finding Brook, but with how big the place was, he doubted it would be easy. Plus he didn't want to accidentally run into the fat boy hiding there since he wasn't sure he could beat him. Sure he had haki, but who's to say whether or not Moria didn't have it. Plus Marcus was alone and Moria had his crew and zombies, which Marcus didn't want to deal with.
With all that in mind Marcus headed straight for Sabaody and after a little over two days Marcus spotted the iconic island on the horizon with its large trees and bubbles floating all around it. When Marcus was within half a mile from the island he started looking at the numbers marked on the trees before he headed for the lawless zone and grove thirteen.