00041. Becoming famous...

A few months quickly passed by after Garp left and not much changed for the boys. The only real change was Luffy's training routine which now included time for him to practice his devil fruit powers.

Each day Luffy trained his devil fruit powers for about four hours. At first he just tried to punch stuff, but Marcus stopped him after the first hour and set up a target for him. Instead of just punching things at random, Luffy now had a large target setup that he used to practice his aim.

At first Luffy didn't like the idea much, but Marcus turned the whole thing into a game. Luffy's goal each day was to hit the target more than the day before. Marcus increased the difficulty by making the target slightly smaller each week.

That was only one part of Luffy's training though. Marcus also gave Luffy ideas on how to use his powers and encouraged him to explore the limits of his powers. Sabo and Ace also helped with the training and gave him other ideas on what he could use his powers for.

Another thing the boys also worked on a few hours each day was the secret skills Garp showed off. While he only demonstrated them for the boys, Marcus used his knowledge and led them in the right direction on how to train them. He never explained things directly but would pretend to figure out something and point them in that direction.

So far they haven't succeeded in anything yet, but Marcus was sure he was close to Soru. He couldn't kick off the ground ten times in the blink of an eye, but he could do five. It gave him a slight speed boost but he didn't have the stamina to do it for long, even when he used his self created breathing technique.

The others also had similar progress with that skill as it seemed to be the easiest one to learn. The only issue was they didn't have Marcus's breathing technique and could only use the skill once or twice before they were spent. As for the other skills, they would take more work and time to figure out properly.

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Marcus glanced around the trash heaps with a scrunched up nose. If there was one thing he didn't like about Gray Terminal it was the smell. No matter how many times he came to the place, he never adapted to it like his brothers. They were next to him and didn't seem the least bit affected by the smell of the place.

It was their day off from training and they decided to spend it hunting in Gray Terminal. While they rarely found anyone with a bounty in the place, it was still worth checking out when they had time. They also used it as an excuse to go dine and dash in the Goa Kingdom.

It was early afternoon and the boys just finished their meal at some high end restaurant not long ago. Now they were walking around Gray Terminal as they relaxed and let their food digest.

As they walked past another mountain of trash they heard a small commotion happening. In the distance two groups of people were arguing and it even looked like they were about to start fighting.

Luffy was excited and pointed towards them as he said, "Come on let's go watch!"

Ace clamped a hand on Luffy's shoulder as he said, "Let's watch from back here."

"But I wanna watch up close."

Marcus narrowed his eyes as the fight broke out in earnest. There was one man he noticed from the start and after a minute he was positive he knew who they were. It was a large man with long pale blue hair who wore a red colored vest. His left bicep was completely covered in a tattoo and he carried a large cutlass on his hip.

His name was Porchemy and he was part of the Bluejam pirates with a bounty around four million belly. Once Marcus confirmed it was him he said, "After they finish fighting let's follow them to their hideout and then take them out."

Ace glanced over as he asked, "Why?"

"Because that big guy with the sword has a bounty."

Luffy tried to break free of Ace's grip as he asked, "What are we waiting for then? Let's go beat him up!"

"You need to learn to be patient, Luffy." Marcus said while Sabo nodded in agreement.

"Why?"

Marcus glanced at Luffy and realized his words would be wasted, but still said, "Because it's a good skill to have."

"But it's not fun to wait around!"

"Then either figure out a way to make it fun or learn to like it." Marcus said with a shrug.

As they talked the fight in the distance basically finished with Porchemy and his guys winning. After they collected some things from the people they killed, Porchemy grabbed the person he killed and pulled out a knife. Marcus and the other boys watched in morbid fascination as Porchemy scalped the dead man. Once finished he led his group away from the bloody scene and deeper into Gray Terminal.

The boys quickly followed behind but kept a safe distance and tried their best to hide their presence. It was a little hard to do because Luffy had no idea how to be stealthy, but somehow they managed to follow the group back to a random shack slightly hidden in a trash pile.

Once Porchemy and his men entered the place, Marcus and the others did a quick sweep around the place. After they finished Marcus asked, "It looks like there's only one entrance or exit. So how should we handle this?"

"Let's just charge in." Luffy said with excitement as Ace nodded in agreement.

Marcus leveled a flat look at Ace as he said, "Do you not remember what happened the last time Ace charged into a pirate's hideout? If he was a little bit taller he could have died or been seriously injured."

Ace frowned as little as he recalled the bullet that flew over his head a few years ago. After a moment Ace asked, "Okay. So what should we do? Wait for them to come back out?"

"Why wait?" Marcus asked with a smile as he glanced at the trash heap the hideout was buried under.

Marcus with the help of the others lit fire to a couple spots of the trash heap. It took a little while, but after half an hour or so Porchemy and his men charged out of their hideout carrying a couple treasure chests. They were all coughing hard and covered in a layer of soot.

Porchemy glared at the hideout now partially in flames as he asked, "Did we get all of the treasures out?"

"Yes." A man said before he broke into another coughing fit.

"Thanks for all your hard work."

"It was no problem, Porchemy…" Another man said before his voice trailed off and everyone turned to look at who spoke.

Marcus and the others walked out from behind another trash heap with smiles on their faces. Luffy was practically bouncing on his feet as he asked, "Can we fight them now?"

"Go for it."

Luffy cracked his knuckles as he said, "Yosh! Let's go!"

Ace rushed forward past Luffy as he said, "Follow my lead. I'll take on the big guy."

"I wanted to fight him!" Luffy yelled as he chased behind Ace.

Sabo shared a quick smile with Marcus as he said, "I guess I'll handle the small fries."

Marcus gestured to the group with his free hand as he said, "Be my guest."

As Sabo charged forward Marcus grip on his sword hilt tightened. His sword wouldn't stop shaking since he first noticed Porchemy. He already decided he wasn't going to fight this time if he could help it. Since he knew his sword's blood thirst was something he couldn't control yet, it was safer to keep it sealed in its sheath instead.

As the other boys charged over, Porchemy glanced at them in disdain as he said, "The day I get beaten by a couple of kids is the day I quit being a pirate!"

"Well, we did come to collect your bounty. So your days of being a pirate are technically over." Marcus said as he watched from a distance as the fighting broke out.

The fight took only a few minutes to finish and once the dust settled, Porchemy and his men lay defeated on the ground. Marcus wasn't surprised by the overall outcome, he just didn't expect it to be so fast. Ace easily handled Porchemy alone, while Luffy ended up helping Sabo take out the cannon fodder.

Marcus walked up to them and said, "Alright, first priority is to secure our loot somewhere safe and then turn these guys into the marine base."

Sabo glanced at the fire they started and asked, "Shouldn't we put that out?"

Marcus glanced around a bit just to double check the area before he said, "It should burn itself soon enough, no need to waste time putting it out ourselves."

Ace nodded in agreement as he said, "Let's hurry up and move the treasure."

Ace moved to one of the bigger chests and said, "Marcus, you stay here and watch these guys. We'll hide this and come back."

Marcus nodded in agreement before he watched as Ace and the other boys took off with the two treasure chests. It only took them about half an hour to hide the loot somewhere and come back. Porchemy and his men were still knocked out so they tied them up and then carried them to the marine base.

It took them a while and they had to take a few breaks along the way, but they managed to make it. Once they arrived at the base they were greeted at the gate by a couple of marines.

"Oh, you kids found a new bounty uh?"

Ace dropped Porchemy on the ground and said, "Yeah, this is Porchemy and some of his crewmates."

The marines opened the gate and one of them yelled out, "We have a bounty claim at the gate!"

After about a minute the base captain walked out and when noticed Ace and the others he asked, "You kids wanna spar with my men after you collect your money?"

Ace seemed a little eager for another fight, but after sharing a glance with the others he said, "Maybe tomorrow. Today is technically our day off."

The captain glanced at Porchemy and the others before he asked, "Taking down a pirate with a bounty is how you spend your day off?"

"We just got lucky."

The captain nodded as he started inspecting the pirates and when he noticed Porchemy he asked, "Where's his captain at?"

"Bluejam? No idea. But when we find him, we'll bring him in too." Marcus said with a shrug of his shoulders.

The captain pulled out a stack of bounty papers and quickly glanced through them as he picked out four of them. He showed them to the boys as he said, "These guys have a combined bounty of about six point five million belly. Give me a few minutes to collect it for you."

The captain disappeared into the base as some other marines came out to take the pirates down into the prison. After a few more minutes the captain came out with a bag and as he headed it to Ace he asked, "By the way… You boys wouldn't happen to know anything about a group of four kids running out of restaurants and not paying the bill, would you? They've become pretty famous for doing that in the noble district of the city."

Ace kept a straight face as he said, "No idea."

"There's a noble district? Where is it at, in the Gray Terminal?" Sabo asked.

The captain swept his gaze over the other boys and stopped on Luffy who was looking to the side and whistling for no reason. The captain narrowed his eyes as Marcus stepped in front of Luffy to block the man's view as he said, "Is the food good there? Maybe we should check it out since we just made some money."

"But we just ate in the... FUU!" Luffy said as he doubled over from Marcus jamming his scabbard into his stomach.

"You're right Luffy, we just ate and it seems you have a tummy ache. We should get you home so you can rest." Marcus said as he quickly took the money from the captain and started to carry Luffy away with help from Sabo and Ace.