Chapter 7

Markus smiled at all the excitement the appearance of a single mermaid caused for the crew. Technically this was the second mermaid they had met but no one wanted to count Kokoro due to her looks. The young mermaid was rather cute looking with light green hair, big dark eyes, full lips, and a nice figure. At least, nice until her waist where her body turned from a human into a pink fishtail. Once the mermaid got ahold of herself, she introduced herself to the crew, "I'm Camie, a Kissing Gourami Mermaid. Thanks for saving me before I was digested! I'm very easily eaten by big marine animals. I think this was the twentieth time! I need to thank you all somehow... OH! Do you like takoyaki!?"

Luffy instantly replied, "Takoyaki?! That's my favorite food!"

"Really? Well then, one will be five hundred Belly!"

The orange starfish wearing the rastacap next to Camie jumped up and smacked the back of her head, "This is no store!"

Markus shook his head as the antics continued for a while longer, the starfish was even introduced as Pappagg. The only interesting thing about him was that he was a clothing designer for one of the most popular brands of clothing on Fishman Island, 'Criminal'. As the talks continued, Camie's Den Den Mushi began to ring. Markus listened as she picked it up and talked to the person on the other side. This was the hook to their next, and last, adventure together on Sabaody Archipelago before the two-year split.

The conversation basically boiled down to Camie's friend, Hacchin, being kidnapped by a group. Markus didn't remember much about these events. His memories were a lot clearer on the events that happened with the Celestial Dragons, the Pasifista, and Kuma. Markus didn't pay much attention to the ensuing conversation, instead, he focused on activating his Observation Haki and scanning the surroundings for anything of interest. Since he didn't remember much about these events, he decided to remain on guard and pay attention.

His interest was piqued when Camie shambled over to the side of the ship on her tail and called out to the fish in the sea. It reminded him of a classic superhero from a certain comic book series as she spoke with the fish and asked them for help. The fish agreed to guide them halfway to their destination and did so by furiously churning the surface of the water with their tails to form an arrow shape.

As they followed the fish leading the way, Pappagg explained about the gang that captured Hacchin and the Flying Fish Riders to the crew. In short, they were slave traders that kidnapped anyone they could, human, fishman, or otherwise, and sold them off. In other words, they fit into the 'evil' section of Markus's new morality and he didn't feel like he needed to hold back against them. The crew was merry and jolly, Brook was even playing his violin and singing a song, until the fish leading them fled in a panic.

Everyone but Markus was surprised to see three men riding three giant flying fish. Markus snicker at how rediculous the three men looked dressed as a biker gang. Their fish even made sounds like motorcycles! What was up with that?! Camie and Pappagg were scared of the flying fish riders while everyone else got ready for battle. Markus just waved his hand and fried all three of them with thick bolts of lightning before they approached within a hundred feet of the ship.

Camie and Pappagg were staring at the sight of the three riders falling from the sky with their jaws hanging open while the crew just had wry smiles on their faces. Markus smirked and looked at Camie, "They're not so tough."

"B-but... Those were the SKY RIDERS! They're strong and tough and kidnap lots of people! How..." Camie looked at the other members of the crew, "Just how strong are you people?!"

Nami walked over to Camie and patted her on the back, "Try not to think about it too much. Those four guys are terrifyingly strong, especially Markus."

Luffy chuckled and rubbed his nose in pride at Nami's comment. The group continued to sail in the direction of where Hacchin was being held. Before long they arrived at a floating base in the middle of the sea that was shaped like a crescent moon. Markus could hear the commotion their unexpected arrival caused as the people inside scrambled to set up a trap for them. Hacchin was locked in a cage hanging over the sea to act as bait while the others hid to ambush the crew.

As the ship got closer, Hacchin panicked and covered himself in his own ink staining his entire body black. Markus chuckled at the conversation between Hacchin, Camie, and Pappagg along with the latter two's shock at Hacchin being obvious bait for a trap. Members of the crew were growing more and more suspicious of Hacchin. Zoro recognized his voice while Nami thought he looked suspicious. Sanji just cut to the chase and shouted out, "Hey! How's Arlong doing?!"

Hacchin, or Hatchan, was the octopus swordsman that worked for Arlong and suppressed Nami's village for years. He was still just as oblivious as ever as he directly answered, "Ahh! Arlong? Arlong and Chuu and Kuroobi, they're all still locked up by the marines! I broke out by myself and managed to achieve my dream of opening a takoyaki stand! ... OH CRAP!"

Markus couldn't help it and laughed while Usopp explained their history with Hatchan and the Arlong pirates back at Nami's village to the crew members recruited after they entered the Grand Line. None of the older members of the crew really wanted to help Hatchan, he was a previous enemy after all. Seeing no one willing to help, Camie began to cry while Hatchan called out, "Camie, it's fine! Just turn back! This is a trap!"

"No! I'll save you! You're always helping us out! Pappagg! Let's go!"

She leaped off of the ship and directly into the ocean with Pappagg following behind her. She was instantly captured and held above the surface by three ugly fishmen. She really was an expert at being captured by people and eaten by sea kings. Seeing two people handling Camie and one handling Pappagg, Sanji was instantly infuriated, "Those bastards! Camie didn't do anything wrong! Let's just save her."

Nami interjected, "Hold on Sanji. It's fine, let's just save Hachi, too. He's really a harmless buy. I mean, we made a promise to Camie, right?"

Nami looked at Luffy for his approval, and judging from the drool dripping out of the corner of his mouth, he was on board, "If you're fine with it, Nami, then we've got no choice! We'll save Takohachi too."

Having made up his mind to rescue his dinner, Luffy wasted no time and jumped from the ship while stretching his arms to wrap one around Camie and grab Pappagg with the other. After rescuing them, he landed on the surface of the floating base, "Zoro! Cut down Takohachi's cage and rope!"

Hatchan shouted, "Strawhat, be careful! You're already in their trap! The flying fish riders are gonna come out and surround you!"

Markus looked down at the water and felt the people down there beginning to move. He'd known they were there the whole time but there wasn't much he could do about it without using a lot of power. Water simply weakened and dispersed the effect of his lightning too much for it to be effective against underwater targets. Luffy didn't care about them and grinned, "I don't care if they come from the sea or from the sky! Bring them on! We'll destroy them! ALRIGHT, GUYS! IT'S TIME FOR BATTLE!"

Luffy's gaze switched to Markus, "And you! Save some for the rest of us!"

Markus laughed and gave Luffy a thumbs up, "You got it, Captain!"

To keep his word, Markus put on his Seastone Bracelet and retrieved Kashu from his inventory. None of the people around here were worthy of Shodai so he switched to the weaker sword. He wanted to use pure swordsmanship and his reduced attributes. The problem was... The 'Power of Friendship' skill was giving him a one hundred percent bonus! Luckily that bonus only applied after the reduction from his Seastone Bracelet so his attributes were still lower than their base.

Markus rolled his shoulders and watched the fish riders moving up through the ocean water at high speed. The moment they broke the water, he and Luffy moved simultaneously. Luffy threw out his arms and grabbed one of the riders while Markus leaped into the air and propelled himself with Geppo. Luffy tossed the rider off of his flying fish and took over the controls. Clearly, he was having a great time riding the flying fish if his loud laughter was anything to go by. Markus used his Geppo to quickly propel himself around while using Kashu to slice the membranes of the flying fish's wings causing them to fall from the sky.

He planned to leave the riders to the rest of the crew and just disabled their means of air superiority instead. He moved quickly and disabled half of the flying fish before the riders understood what was happening. The commander called for them to dive back into the sea, dragging Luffy down with them. Markus watched, flabbergasted, as Brook and Chopper dove into the sea to rescue the drowning Luffy. Franky and Nami were forced to jump into the water to rescue the three idiots while Sanji, Zoro, and Robin remained behind.

With at least half of the flying fish rider's no longer having flying fish, the fight became significantly easier for the crew. Markus landed on the deck of the Sunny and watched as Zoro freed Hatchan from his cage. Hatchan really was a nice guy, he even apologized to Zoro for injuries he didn't cause in their previous fight.

Brook watched what was happening and became depressed. It was his first official fight since joining the crew and he hadn't had a moment to show off his skills yet. As a group of three riders came toward the ship, he took action. He leaped high into the air, thanks to his extremely light body, and actually pulled his violin out to play it, "Lullaby Fleche!"

The sound of his violin spread and put the riders, as well as Luffy and Chopper, to sleep. Markus felt the sound wash over him but it had no effect on him. As Brook landed on the sea he churned his legs rapidly and ran on the surface of the ocean to charge at the riders with his sword extended. He sliced through them taking them out of the fight.

"What did that bastard do?!"

"What kind of dirty trick did he use?!"

"It's not a trick! It's music, yohohoho!"

After hearing Brook, Markus jumped off of the Sunny and Geppo'd his way over to the skeleton as he continued to run on top of the ocean, "Brook. Remember what we discovered? I'm willing to bet that your music is the key to using your soul power."

Brook looked up at Markus, "Soul power?"

Markus nodded, "That's what I decided to call the energy you shot from my gun. Feel free to change it if you want. I'd bet anything that you can channel that power through your music for all kinds of different effects!"

Brook rubbed his jawbone as if he was stroking a bead, "That kind of makes sense. I do feel like my music is more potent ever since I died. I'll give it a try! Yohohoho!"

Markus smiled and offered his hand to Brook, "Let me give you a lift."

Brook clasped Markus's outstretched hand. With a firm grip on Brook, Markus increased his pace and brought him to the floating base with ease. Brook weighed hardly anything, though it was extremely weird to touch him. He was just bone, after all.

It was a bit odd for Markus to be giving out so much advice to a member of the crew. He usually stuck to just trying to teach them the basics of Haki to the best of his ability. Which, judging by the results so far, wasn't so great. However, Brook was a special case. The sooner Brook learned how to use his soul powers, the stronger he would become after two years. Markus had a plan to make use of his powers to bring a dear friend back to the crew and Brook was the only one who could potentially help him do so.

Luffy decided he wanted to play more and grabbed another flying fish but ended up crashing it almost instantly. Markus wondered if Luffy had a special skill for crashing anything he tried to drive. At least this time he crashed on solid ground and wouldn't end up drowning. A few moments later he came running out of the building with a man riding a large cow chasing behind him. The large man riding the cow wore a full face mask so even Markus couldn't see exactly what he looked like. His Haki could let him see movements and the conditions of people but details like what someone looks like exactly are hard to grasp. It wasn't like Observation Haki gave him x-ray vision.

As the man came charging out, the riders called out his name, Duval. It struck no chords with Markus but when Duval started to shout, it began to bring up some memories, "I haven't been running this operation because I enjoy it. You all know that don't you?! Today is a glorious day. The man I've wanted to kill... That I've wanted to kill so badly that I see it in my dreams! Now, he's right in front of my eyes!" Duval looked over at the Sunny and focused on one particular individual, "I'm so grateful, God must truly be on my side! That man who sent me to the depths of hell! Right here, right now I will kill you, even if it comes down to stabbing you!" He took a deep breath and shouted, "YOU, 'BLACK LEG' SANJI!"

As soon as Duval finished his speech, Markus remembered exactly who he was. He took a step back and covered his mouth with his hand to try and hold back his laughter. Tears swam in his eyes as he forced himself not to laugh out loud. His actions caused confused looks from his friends nearby as they couldn't figure out what was so funny about someone wanting to kill a member of their crew. Markus couldn't take a breath deep enough to tell them that Duval was an unfortunate soul who just so happened to look EXACTLY like the piss-poor drawing of Sanji on his wanted poster!

Naturally, Sanji was a bit surprised that someone he didn't know wanted to kill him. Nami couldn't help asking, "Is he someone from your time at the restaurant? Think back."

Sanji scratched his head and counted on his fingers as if trying to remember everyone he ever beat the tar out of, back on the Baratie, "That's so long ago... Well, I got into fights with people all the time back then."

Usopp patted him on the back to comfort him, "You're getting what you deserve."

Duval, enraged at being ignored by Sanji, lifted one of his two massive spear cannons and aimed it at the Sunny. Duval's spear cannons were loaded with a large number of spears all at once and fired similarly to a machine gun when he pulled the trigger, "Don't just stand there and space out Black Leg! This just happened recently!"

As Duval continued to fire, the crew noticed something weird about the harpoons when smoke began to rise from the grass where they landed. The harpoons were covered in a deadly poison. Not wanting anything to happen, Markus jumped and dashed through the air to land on the ship. He used Kashu coated in Armament Haki along with his Observation Haki to intercept and deflect the harpoons into the water to protect everyone.

As Markus continued to deflect the incoming harpoons, Luffy charged out from his cover behind a broken building and kicked the mask off of Duval's head. Duval finally stopped firing as he covered his face. He took a breath before slowly lowering his arms, "That's fine, take a good look! Take a good, long look at my wounded face!"

Everyone had various reactions to seeing Duval's face, though the weirdest had to be Franky's as he started to cry, for some reason. Sanji was probably the most shocked as he stood stock-still and looked as if someone had killed his precious pet dog. It didn't last long as he took off and jumped into the ocean to swim over to the floating base. Duval, with tears in his eyes and snot running from his nose, lamented on his current state of life, "I've waited for this day, I went out to sea with my heart set on killing you. But... Finding you was too difficult!" He slammed Sanji's terrible wanted poster down on the saddle of his cow, "The face on the wanted poster was different from the real mans face! If the marines or bounty hunters saw the man on this poster they wouldn't just walk by! When they found me they would say 'we found you, Black Leg Sanji!', and I would tell them, 'You're wrong! I don't know that guy! I'm not even a pirate!'."

Duval's crying became worse, "Marines form the Marine Headquarters and bounty hunters were all trying to kill me! Just what did I do to deserve this?! GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK!!"

Sanji charged across the open area while Duval was shouting and leaped into the air to deliver a vicious kick to his face, "How should I know?!"