As Marcus sailed around the outer age of Sabaody, one of the first places he found was grove sixty which was the marine base for the island. It made sense since the pose his grandpa gave him most likely pointed to something inside the base kinda like how a vivre card worked. But since the marines wouldn't want to change out poses for the island it was probably tied to something instead of someone.
With the marine base right in front of him and the unclaimed vouchers Hina gave him, Marcus decided to stop at the marine base to collect his money. The stop was relatively easy with no one questioning his age or how he acquired the vouchers. With another two hundred million in hand, Marcus sailed deeper into Sabaody with just wind power at half sail.
As he sailed past the marine base on his starboard side, he also passed grove seventy on his port side. Just passed those he ran into grove one and the human auction house that he wouldn't mind destroying, but that would just cause him issues for now. Besides having to deal with Mingo, he was positive the auction house's favorite customers would cause problems for him too. He didn't want to deal with either one and definitely didn't want a bounty.
After Marcus passed grove one, he paid more attention to the numbers and slowly made his way to grove thirteen. Almost an hour passed before he found the grove but he didn't dock right away. He circled the grove once to see if he could spot Shakky's Rip-off Bar. While Marcus couldn't find the bar itself, he did find a few docks with people so after he circled the grove once he stopped at one of them.
Being in the middle of the lawless zone the people on the dock looked about as untrustworthy as you could find and eyed Marcus like he was prey when he stepped off his ship. Marcus didn't feel like dealing with idiots so he targeted the strongest looking person and sent them flying with a punch before anyone could even react. Afterwards he glanced at everyone else around him before he asked, "I'm looking for Shakky's Rip-off Bar, does anyone know where it is?"
The people around him were frozen in place, too afraid to move until Marcus said, "If no one tells me, I'll just start hitting people until someone tells me."
Instantly everyone pointed in the same direction as a few people added, "It's closer to the other side of the grove."
Marcus nodded before he pointed at one of the people who talked and said, "You're gonna show me where it is."
"Get on my ship." Marcus said before he turned around and walked back to his ship.
The man in question hesitated before a few other people pushed him towards the ship and forced him on it. The man didn't move from his spot on the deck as Marcus pulled his ship away from the dock and said, "Point the way."
The man numbly lifted his arm in one direction and Marcus followed it. Over the next twenty minutes or so the man calmed down slightly and once they reached a small inlet into the grove he said, "Turn in there."
The space would be tight for a normal sized ship, but Marcus's ship easily entered the waterway and followed it a little ways till it opened up into a larger area with a hidden dock. Marcus noticed the inlet on his first pass but the way it curved out of sight made him think it was a dead end so he just passed it by. The dock and surrounding area was completely empty and almost silent beside some birds up in the trees. Marcus docked his ship and pulled out a handful of money which he handed to his guide before he said, "Thanks for the help."
The man looked at the money in surprise and tried to refuse it at first but Marcus said, "Take it and get out of here before I change my mind."
Instantly the man started to sweat but nodded his head and took off running. After the man left, Marcus locked up his ship and then flared his observation haki. While he couldn't have asked the man for more details, Marcus didn't think it would take him long to find the place as he disappeared. Marcus used soru to explore the area and within ten minutes he found a uniquely designed building not far from the dock.
The building itself rested on top of a massive Yarukiman Mangrove root. To reach the bar itself you needed to climb up a large set of stairs that gently curved up to the top of the root. As for the building the front part was rounded with a large green colored ball on top of the roof. Whether the ball served a purpose Marcus wasn't sure, but it looked like it had windows going all the way around it. Behind the rounded section was a more normal rectangle shaped building connected to it.
Marcus took in the building for a moment from the ground before he used geppo to reach the front door. Marcus opened the front door to find the place empty but heard a voice from the back, "Just a minute."
"Take your time." Marcus replied as he approached the bar and took a seat before he studied the bar.
The bar itself was an exact copy of what it looked like from the anime. After a couple minutes as Marcus quietly looked around the bar a woman carried a box out of the back. She had a slim build and stood about six feet tall with short black hair, while a lit cigarette hung from the corner of her mouth.
She placed the box on the counter near the wall before she turned to focus on Marcus. Her pink colored V-neck shirt with a black spider on it exposed her stomach and a large amount of cleavage. As for the rest of her outfit it was just a simple pair of pants and some white shoes.
Shakky took a drag from her cigarette, then held it with two fingers as she exhaled before she said, "Unfortunately I don't serve kids here, no matter how cute they might be."
"Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not here to drink. I'm looking for Silvers Rayleigh."
Shakky's face didn't change at all as she said, "That name doesn't sound familiar, sorry."
Marcus chuckled as he said, "Man I feel bad for old man Rayleigh if his own wife doesn't even remember his name."
Shakky took another pull from her cigarette before she asked, "What's your name kid?"
"Marcus."
"Marcus?" Shakky asked in a puzzled tone before she added, "Who told you about Rayleigh?"
"Shanks talked about him when he used to train me. He said he was one of the world's best swordsmen."
Shakky's eyes widened slightly before she asked, "Wait, did Shanks give your brother his hat?"
"Unfortunately… Now all that idiot does is shout that he's gonna be the king of the pirates." Marcus said as he shook his head.
Shakky smiled slightly as she said, "Chasing your dreams isn't a bad thing."
"You're right, but chasing your dreams and yelling about it all the time are two totally different things."
Shakky took another drag from her cigarette before she said, "I'll take your word for it… You can wait here for Rayleigh to return if you want, but it would probably be faster to go search for him at the casinos."
"He doesn't have a den den mushi?"
Shakky shook her head as she pointed to one on the wall as she said, "That's the only one we have."
Marcus let out a sigh before he asked, "My ship is down at that hidden dock, will it be okay there?"
"It should be, most people don't come by this area often. But I'll keep an eye on it for you while you're gone."
"Thank you, Shakky… Also where are the casinos at?" Marcus asked with a helpless smile.
"Grove twenty in the lawless zone has one for the pirates. Then there is one in grove forty nine next to grove fifty and the last one is in grove seventy." Shakky said as she took another puff from her cigarette before she added, "Grove seventy is your best bet to find him since he will normally rob rich people for more money."
Marcus chuckled as he shook his head and asked, "He really knows how to lay low huh?"
A playful smile played across Shakky's face as she said, "He's perfected it over the years to the point where no one knows who it was."
Marcus shook his head as he said, "Alright, thanks for the help Shakky… Oh yeah, let me give you my number in case he comes back while I'm gone."
After exchanging numbers, Marcus left with a small hand drawn map from Shakky. With a new destination and proper directions, Marcus disappeared in a blur as he headed for grove seventy. As he passed through the rest of grove thirteen he used observation haki and found that Shakky was right, the place was mostly empty.
Marcus passed through a few more groves and found more people the farther he traveled from grove thirteen. Why people seemed to ignore the place was interesting but Marcus assumed it had to do with who called the place home. Or the fact there was almost nothing in that grove besides Shakky's bar and a few other random buildings Marcus found.
Even traveling at top speed it took Marcus half an hour to reach his destination and he had to pause to take it all in. The place was packed with people and large buildings that took up most of the grove. Marcus pulled out Shakky's map and looked at its simple directions before he focused on the name. Marcus glanced up at the densely packed buildings for a few moments before he disappeared and landed on top of one of them.
Using his new height advantage Marcus scanned the buildings around the area before he disappeared again. Marcus repeated the process a few times until he found the building he was looking for with its overly flashy exterior. The sign above the building read, 'Lucky Cat Casino' with a fat cat in sunglasses lounging on a pile of money.
Marcus smiled when he saw the sign and quickly jumped down from a building to land in front of the entrance. With his speed and the amount of people around no one noticed him because he didn't make a scene or destroy anything. Marcus stepped out of the main thoroughfare and approached the front door where two big burly men stopped him as one of them said, "No kids allowed."
"I'm just looking for someone, an older man with shoulder length white hair, scar over his right eye who wears glasses and normally has a large silver cloak."
The guard shrugged as he said, "I just keep people out and guard the door kid. I don't keep a list of people I let inside."
"So you won't send someone to go check if the person I'm looking for is inside?"
The man shook his head as he said, "No, now go away you're blocking the entrance."
Marcus nodded slowly before he said, "Alright."
Instead of walking away Marcus stepped forward towards the door which made both guards frown as the same one said, "I told you to leave kid. If you don't, I have to beat you up."
Marcus stepped forward towards the guard and slammed his fist into the man's stomach. The man crumpled forward with the wind knocked out of him and Marcus grabbed his head and slammed it into his knee before the man dropped to the ground unconscious. Marcus glanced at the other guard who was frozen in place as he asked, "Are you gonna stop me too?"
The man quickly shook his head as he stepped backwards which caused Marcus to smirk before he said, "I think gramps is on to something with this."
After Marcus stepped inside the door he was greeted by not only a wall of noise, but a wall of people. The place was completely packed and everyone seemed to be talking at the same time. Marcus frowned at first because he really didn't want to search the place with how crazy it was so he focused for a few moments before he blasted out his conqueror's haki at full strength. People in front of Marcus started to collapse and within moments the entire building went almost completely quiet.
Marcus glanced around the room and everyone he could see was now unconscious. Marcus knew Rayleigh wouldn't succumb to something like that so he started walking deeper into the casino as he yelled out, "Rayleigh, are you here?"
After Marcus searched around for ten minutes and even checked the upstairs VIP area, Marcus left the casino. Rayleigh wasn't there and even though Marcus had observation haki to help him. He wasn't skilled enough to easily tell the difference or even strength of other people yet, so a manual search was required.
Marcus left the first casino behind and headed towards the casino in the lawless zone as a random thought popped into his head. What if Rayleigh wasn't at the casinos but at the auction house planning to rob whoever bought him. From the way he said it originally, it sounded like it wasn't the first time he'd done something like that.