23 Chapter 4

Everyone spun around to look at the spot where Igaram's ship used to be, only to see nothing but flames and debris. As everyone stared at the scene with looks of shock, anger, and in the case of Vivi sadness and determination, Markus looked on stoically. He knew Igaram was alive. The attack was done by Nico Robin, the only other woman to permanently join the Strawhat crew. She might act like a bad person sometimes, but deep down she was actually a really good person. Circumstances had been forced upon her and left her with little choice. She did what she did to survive in this harsh world.

Everyone decided it was time to leave. Zoro ran ahead to prep the ship. Luffy ran to grab Usopp and Sanji, literally. Nami and Vivi were the slowest of the group so Markus stuck with them for 'protection'. As they ran through the town of Whiskey Peak, Vivi kept raising her pinky to her lips and whistling, "Carue, where are you? Why won't you come?"

As they arrived at the ship, Vivi looked around in a panic while Nami said, "We don't have time to go and look for him."

Still emotionally unstable and scared out of her mind, Vivi shouted back, "I can't just leave him here!!"

Zoro hooked the anchor to the side of the ship and looked down at the bickering girls, "What's wrong?"

Markus called up, "She won't leave without the duck standing next to you."

Nami and Vivi looked up at the ship and as soon as they spotted the large duck standing next to Zoro both of them shouted, "THAT'S where you were?!"

Zoro pointed at Carue, "He was on the ship before me."

Markus chuckled a little. Honestly, he didn't know what to make of Carue. Sometimes the big bird seemed like a complete idiot, yet other times he seemed like a genius. With Carue on board that meant that everyone had arrived. The sail was unfurled and Vivi guided them down the river to leave the island. As they sailed everyone seemed to relax a little bit. Luffy asked Vivi, "So, how many guys are gonna come after us?"

Vivi looked serious as she replied, "I can't say for sure. There are over two thousand people working for Baroque Works and towns like Whiskey Peak aren't uncommon."

Nami shuddered, "You mean we could have over a thousand people looking for us?"

Markus jumped into the conversation while grinning, "Does it really matter? No matter how many they send after us, all we have to do is beat them. Right, Captain?"

Luffy laughed and nodded his head, "Right! It sounds like we're going to have lots of fun!"

At that moment Sanji and Usopp woke up and started making a fuss. They wanted to go back to Whiskey Peak and have more fun. They kept shouting and making demands. Markus looked over at Nami and smirked, "I think you should explain to them."

Nami grinned, "Consider it done."

With two loud bangs, Usopp and Sanji were silenced. Vivi and Luffy stared dumbly at the two men laid out by Nami in a single blow each. Markus once again wondered if she was secretly the strongest on the crew. Hell, her blows seemed to hurt Luffy sometimes so maybe she had unconscious Armament Haki already? Who knows but Markus found it hilarious.

Most of the crew gathered on the deck of the Going Merry. The sun was just beginning to rise and the fog was slowly clearing up. Nami looked around and commented on it, "The fog is beginning to lift."

From behind the crew came a woman's voice, "Be careful not to crash your ship into the rocks near the shore."

Nami unconsciously puffed up her chest as she replied, "Of course! I'd never make a mistake like that."

After she finished speaking, Nami looked confused, as did the rest of the crew. Everyone spun around to see a woman sitting on the banister surrounding the upper deck where the kitchen was. As they looked at her, the woman commented, "This is a nice ship."

Everyone, except Markus of course, looked shocked to see the woman sitting there. She was a good looking woman with shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes. She was currently dressed up as a sort of cowgirl wearing a corset-like vest without a bra, a short fringed skirt, boots, and a cowboy hat, all in the same dark bluish-green color. She smiled a little deviously as she looked down at the shocked and almost terrified Vivi, "I must tell you, Ms. Wednesday, I met up with Mr. 8 just a while ago..."

Vivi looked horrified, "Are you saying... It was you who killed Igaram?!"

Markus remained off to the side and watched the conversation as it was unfolding. Part of him just wanted to stay out of it but another part of him wanted to screw with things, at least a little bit. As he thought about what he would do, Luffy shouted up at the woman, "Why're you on our ship anyways?!"

Vivi shouted after her, anger clear in her tone, "What are you doing all the way out here Ms. All-Sunday?!"

Markus quietly listened to the conversation while he browsed through his inventory. He was looking for a good prop to use when he messed with Ms. All-Sunday, also known as Nico Robin the 'Devil Child'. So named by the world government for her ability to read Poneglyphs. The others continued to talk as Vivi informed them that Ms. All-Sunday was Mr. Zero's partner and how she and Igaram followed Ms. All-Sunday to figure out that Mr. 0, the boss of Baroque Works, was Crocodile. Nico Robin added on that she let the two of them follow her. The conversation went back and forth until it ended with Nico Robin speaking in a somewhat amused tone, "It was just too amusing to observe. A single princess who foolishly thinks she can take on the entire Baroque Works organization and save her kingdom."

Vivi furiously shouted, "Don't you dare underestimate me!"

At the same time, Sanji and Usopp appeared next to Robin. Sanji pointed a flintlock at her head while Usopp had his slingshot fully drawn. Simultaneously Zoro drew his sword and Nami retrieved her combat stick. Not one to be left out, Markus drew his revolver and activated his Observation Haki. He had no intention of capturing or hurting Robin at this point, but he had to play along a little. Besides, she was a pretty woman and would become a member of the crew later if he didn't fuck things up. From what he could remember she seemed like an honest a decent person who'd had to do some dishonest things to survive. He didn't see anything wrong with that.

There was a moment of silence as five weapons were trained on Nico Robin. She seemed unconcerned as she said, "Would you mind not pointing such dangerous things at me?"

Without more warning than that, Sanji and Usopp were suddenly flung off of the balcony and down to the main deck. Zoro's sword was knocked out of his hand. Nami's combat stick was knocked out of her hand. As for Markus, he allowed his revolver to be knocked out of his hand. The others were shocked by the 'invisible' attacks and immediately attributed it to a Devil Fruit. They weren't wrong and though the attacks had been invisible to the others, Markus had clearly seen hands and arms appear for a brief moment. It made him wonder something. If she could so swiftly and easily summon arms like that with her Hana Hana no Mi, why did she always have to cross her arms after joining the crew?

Seriously, it bugged him. Right now she was just sitting without her arms being crossed over her chest like she always did later on. Neither did she say how many she was summoning. It was weird and this was the one and only time he could recall her using her ability without those two prerequisites. If she could always use her fruit in this fashion she could have become a lot deadlier as she wouldn't be broadcasting clear signs of her intent to use her Devil Fruit.

While Markus contemplated the oddity of this incident, Sanji finally got a good look at Robin. His eyes immediately turned into hearts, "WHOA! She's a real beauty!"

Robin chuckled, "There's no need to get so riled up. I haven't come here on any orders and I have no reason to fight you."

Luffy's hat suddenly flew off of his head and into Robin's hand. She spun it on her finger as she looked down at Luffy, "So you're the captain of the Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy."

Luffy was instantly annoyed. If there's one thing he couldn't stand it was people taking his hat. He immediately started yelling, "Gimme back my hat! So you are trying to pick a fight with us! I've decided you're my enemy! Come at me!"

Robin plopped Luffy's hat on top of her own cowboy hat, "How unfortunate. Small-time pirates trying to protect the princess from all of Baroque Works and a princess having to entrust her safety to small-time pirates."

She looked over at the Log Pose on Nami's wrist, "Even more unfortunate is the next stop on your route, Little Garden. Even if I didn't lay a finger on you, you would never make it to Albasta anyway."

Luffy didn't care and just shouted, "As if we'd just roll over and die! NOW GIMME BACK MY HAT!"

Robin seemed to grow tired of Luffy and his yelling. She flicked his hat back to him while tossing and Eternal Pose to Vivi. Markus kept an eye on the conversation while he found what he was looking for inside of his inventory. It wasn't exactly what he needed but it would do for the moment, just in case he needed a prop. Robin explained about the Eternal Pose pointing to an island just before Alabasta on a route unknown to Baroque Works. While everyone was conflicted about what to do with it, Luffy took and crushed the Eternal Pose, "You're not the one determining the route of our journey!"

As Robin stood up to leave, she gave a glance in Markus's direction. He had been silent and watching her the entire time. She felt as if her every move had been seen through by him. His silence and contemplation made him stand out from the rest of the noisy and rambunctious crew members. As she looked at him, Markus decided it was time to act and toy with Robin a bit as payback for her toying with them. He reached into his hoodie and pulled out a wanted poster just far enough for her to understand what it was. As she looked confused he silently mouthed, 'Nico Robin' to her and then winked.

She immediately turned to leap off of the ship. As she did she heard a whisper just behind her, "See you soon, Nico Robin."

As she leaped off the ship she turned her head to look behind her but there was no one there and Markus was still standing in his original position. She landed on a giant turtle and immediately left the area. Markus smirked to himself, it wasn't much but it should definitely throw her off of her game. She most likely truly thought they would die when they arrived at Little Garden, how wrong she was.

As Robin rode away on her turtle. Markus looked at his system and grinned.

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New Quest!

Journey to Alabasta Part 1!

The journey to save Alabasta from Crocodile has started, however, the journey is long and arduous. It will take time and effort to save the kingdom so be prepared to be in it for the long haul! The first step of this journey is to survive the dangers of Little Garden!

Objective 1: Survive Little Garden along with every member of the crew.

Objective 2: Defeat any Baroque Works agents you discover

Failure Conditions: Death, Failure to complete Objective 1.

Rewards:

Objective 1: 10,000 Experience, Choice of 1 Rokushiki Skill Book

Objective 2: TBD

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Markus smiled to himself as he saw the reward for the first objective. He already knew exactly which technique he wanted from the Rokushiki. All of them had their uses and could be extremely powerful, but one of them would make him so much stronger with very little effort, Shigan the Finger Pistol. Combine whatever bonus he got with Shigan with his bonus to unarmed damage from brawling and the damage bonus from Armament Haki and he would have a devastating pinpoint accurate attack! If he remembered correctly, Shigan could also be trained to fire off shots of compressed air for a ranged attack. It would fit in nicely with his current arsenal of skills and give him a truly deadly attack to use.

That wasn't to say that the other techniques of the Rokushiki weren't tempting. Geppo, or Moonwalk, was extremely tempting as it would let him walk on air. Rankyaku, or tempest kick, would give him a deadly kick that could cut things at a distance. Kami-e, or Paper Art, would combine well with his Observation Haki and allow him to dodge just about anything. As for Soru, or Shave, it was the least tempting at the moment because he already had the unspeakable skill at his disposal for movement speed. However, if he remembered correctly, there was a secret seventh skill that required mastery of the previous six to learn. For that skill, he'd be willing to replace the unspeakable skill with Soru. He just wasn't in any rush to do so.

While Markus was contemplating his skill choice, the others were back to normal and being as loud and rambunctious as ever. Luffy was demanding breakfast now that the sun was up. Sanji and Usopp wanted explanations. All in all, it was quite enjoyable.

As everyone sat down to breakfast together, Markus spoke up, "That woman, Ms. All-Sunday, her real name is Nico Robin."

Everyone, except Luffy who continued to stuff his face, froze and stared at Markus. Vivi was the first to ask, "How do you know that?!"

Markus ate a bit of food before answering. He did so for two reasons. One, to build tension. Two, if he didn't Luffy would eat everything. After he swallowed he spoke again, "When I was a kid I saw a bounty poster for another kid. Even then the poster looked old. It was a bounty poster for that woman as a child, that's why it took me so long to remember. It called her Nico Robin the 'Devil Child'. That's all I really know though, that she's been hunted by the government since she was a child."

As everyone contemplated over what he'd said, Markus returned to eating. It wasn't long before the rest of the crew noticed Luffy snagging food off of their plates. Sanji and Nami both gave him a vicious beating for it. Markus chuckled at the sight of Luffy laying on the ground with a large bump on his head. After breakfast, Markus spoke to the crew, "Alright everyone, time for Haki training!"

There were groans from everyone while Vivi just looked confused. Her confusion didn't last long as Markus got everyone paired up with either a blindfold over their eyes or a stick in their hands. As usual, Markus was paired up with Luffy. Only, unlike it used to be, now sometimes when Markus swung the stick at Luffy it would briefly become pitch black just before it struck him. Those random swings caused Luffy to yelp in pain when they hit him. Markus hoped the pain would help Luffy learn a little faster.

As they trained, Markus kept an eye on the others to see their progress. So far, there were only minor hints of the crew starting to understand Observation Haki. Nami seemed to be the one making the most progress with it. Markus assumed it was because of her sharp senses. She was always so good at predicting the weather because of them and now they were helping her with learning Observation Haki.

Once the training was done, Markus found a spot to 'meditate' in and use his Image Training. Thanks to running into a few of the higher ranking Baroques Works members, he had some new punching bags available to grind for experience. Once they provided too little to be worth beating, he used them to grind up his skill seven further. With the increasing levels of his skills, they'd become significantly harder to raise. Luckily, he had a limitless army of people to pound the snot out of. When he wasn't beating the simulations senseless, he wore his sweatsuit and worked out until he collapsed from exhaustion. He still couldn't increase his Agility, but his Strength and Vitality could still grow on the ship.

For the several days that it took to sail from Whiskey Peak to Little Garden, the group kept up a daily regimen of training. At the same time, everyone took a little time to get to know Vivi a little better and learn about Alabasta. They even played cards, though Markus was soon banned from playing. They clearly didn't appreciate his cheating by using Observation Haki. Though, Nami became much more motivated to learn it when she realized it could be used to cheat at games!

Soon, there was an island on the horizon. Everyone looked at it with either anticipation or fear, depending on who was looking. They had finally arrived at Little Garden.