Chapter 18

The three of them stayed in Alabasta for a full week. Most of that time was spent on training the two women. By the end of the week, the two of them were just barely able to use Soru. Neither could use it with any finesse and half the time they ended up faceplanting on the ground when using it. Markus laughing at the incidents only made them work harder to master the basic use of the skill. They would require a lot more work to be able to use Soru with proficiency.

Once they left the sandy island, it was an extremely short journey to get to the Drum Kingdom. The two islands weren't all that far apart, relatively speaking. As they drew closer to the island, all three of them changed into their Wallumpus skin outfits. Rei was rather happy to be drawing closer to a winter island since it reminded her of home.

Once the entire island was within his Observation Haki range, Markus noted the two locations of the important figures on the island, Doctor Kureha and the new King, Dalton. Despite being the King of the island, Dalton still appeared to live in his old house in the village. Kureha was up in the old castle still living there it seemed. The whole island seemed a lot more lively and happy, if the emotions Markus could feel meant anything.

He took control of the boat and drove it around the island until he found the inlet that was used on his first visit to the island on the Merry. He drove up it until they reached a small cove. While he was driving, the two women had been packing. Markus didn't intend to stay on this island very long. Once he recruited Kureha, he planned to hang out on either Jaya or Long Ring Long Island for a couple of weeks for some training. After that, it was back to Water 7 to pick up his new ship then off to Dressrosa.

When they arrived at the small town Dalton lived in, Markus couldn't be bothered to remember its name, their trio drew some attention. That quickly drew Dalton to them. The moment the large man spotted Markus, he grinned brightly, "It's you! What brings you back here?"

Markus smiled at Dalton, "I'm just here for a moment to make Doctor Kureha fulfill her half of a little bet we had."

"Bet?"

"Yeah, she'll be leaving this island with me. Congratulations! You don't have to put up with her anymore!"

Dalton didn't know how to react to what Markus said. Part of him really was glad. Kureha could be a complete pain in the ass. On the other hand, she was still the best doctor on the island. Thankfully, the doctors who used to work solely for Wapol had returned to being available to anyone on the island. Since he was now the king, all the medical treatments were free to the citizens. Even so, part of him still wanted to protest even if he had no right to since it was a private matter.

While the two were chatting, the locals were listening in and many of them had bright smiles on their faces. None of them would ever think of denying Kureha's medical expertise. She had saved many people over the years. While they were a little thankful, they mostly remembered the ridiculous medical bills she stuck them with after she was done. With the return of the other doctors, they no longer had her crazy bills to deal with and were a lot happier.

After he finished speaking to Dalton, Markus looked toward the old castle, "It was good to see you again, Dalton. I'm going to collect Kureha and head back into the Grand Line. I've got places to be and pirates to beat."

Dalton opened his mouth to say something but he swallowed his words as he watched Markus and the two women with him floating into the air. Markus was feeling too lazy to walk through the snow to get to Kureha so he just used his Gyro-Telekinesis to lift the three of them into the air and fly over to the castle. Bonney grumbled her complaints in a low voice. Since it was her first time experiencing flight, Rei was panicking a little. Her arms and legs were flailing about in the air.

Bonney looked over toward her and smiled, "Don't struggle so much. It's just Markus picking us up. So far, he's never dropped me so it should be fine."

Seeing that Rei still looked nervous, Markus spoke up as well, "Don't worry, I won't drop you. I just want to get right to the top of the mountain. This is the fastest and easiest way."

Bonney interjected, "Next time, give us a warning! Or better yet, ASK!"

Markus thought about it and nodded, "Fair enough. I'll do that next time."

When he finished speaking, they all gently landed on the top of the mountain in front of the castle's main entrance. Without thinking too much about it, Markus led Bonney and Rei into the castle. He could sense exactly where Kureha was inside and led the two women directly to her. As he opened the door to the room, Kureha looked up and looked surprised, "You actually came back?!"

Markus laughed, "Did you really think I would forget that your life belongs to me?"

Kureha snorted, "What possible use could someone like you have for an old lady like me?" She looked at the two women and seeing no one else asked, "Where is everyone else?"

"Some stuff happened. They're all off on their own training to get stronger before heading into the second half of the Grand Line. I plan to head there a little sooner and you're coming with me." Markus gestured to Bonney, "Once she's done with you, your age won't be an excuse to not come with me anymore."

Kureha looked over at Bonney and arched an eyebrow, "What's this little girl supposed to do?"

Markus smirked, "She's going to revert your age. I said I would do that didn't I?"

Bonney and Kureha eyed each other for a while before Kureha spoke, "So this little girl is going to make me younger huh?"

Markus nodded and gestured between Bonney and Kureha with his arm, "Bonney if you would, please."

Bonney stepped closer to Kureha and touched her shoulder. Instantly, Kureha's age began to slowly revert. The first, and easiest, change they noticed was the skin around Kureha's face tightening and becoming smoother. The same thing happened over her entire body. Every inch of her became younger, smoother, tighter. Unfortunately, the length of her nose wasn't due to her age so it remained unchanged. Her long wavy grey hair became a deep raven black that almost seemed to turn blue as light reflected off of it. As her body became tight and fit, her chest swelled a little larger, some of its weight had been lost with age.

When it was all said and done, around one hundred years and twenty years had been shaved off of Kureha. She had reverted to a young, vibrant, and beautiful woman with beautiful black hair and a charming smile. Kureha examined herself in a nearby mirror and frowned when she saw her chest. It had swelled a couple of cup sizes. After juggling her breasts in her hands for a while, she let out a sigh, "My back is going to start hurting again."

Bonney and Rei gave her looks of sympathy, what woman among them wasn't familiar with back pain brought on by the weight of their chest? Markus said nothing since it wasn't a problem he shared or could relate with. Well, he could if he was willing to spend time around Ivankov but that was never going to happen. He was very happy being a 'he.'

When she was done examining herself, Kureha turned to face the trio, "I'm taking the day to take care of things around here for my departure. Those young shits I'm in charge of need some ordering around."

Markus grinned playfully, "Can you really call them 'young' when you're probably younger than them now?"

Kureha grabbed a large double-bladed axe off of the wall and violently threw it at Markus while shouting, "I might look like this now but I'm still older than all of you combined! Show some respect!"

Markus didn't bother to dodge and allowed the huge axe to harmlessly pass through his body, generating a few sparks, and embed itself in the stone wall behind him. Kureha arched an eyebrow when she saw that, "So, that's why you're the 'Thunder Beast' now, eh?"

Markus smiled, "And now you're a member of my crew."

Kureha nodded and left the room to take care of her departure. Markus turned to look at Bonney, "With that our deal is done. If you wish, you're free to go your own way now."

Bonney scoffed, "You're not getting rid of me that easily. I said I was joining your crew and I meant it! Besides, where else would I get such good food and so much money for doing nothing?"

Markus just smiled and accepted her answer. His crew now consisted of himself and three women. He even had two more women in mind for his crew already. He really wondered if he was building himself a harem crew... Well, they were all beautiful but he didn't feel anything but a surface level physical attraction to them. He wasn't very interested in love, he was too young for all that still. If it happened though, he would accept it. But until then there was nothing wrong with spending his time on the sea with a bevy of beauties. Hell, even Kureha was a bombshell now.

With nothing better to do, Markus showed himself to the castle's kitchen and began cooking. It was close enough to lunchtime for them to eat. Hopefully, Kureha wouldn't take too long to take care of her business. He didn't want to be on this small, cold island for very long and wanted to get back on the sea. A nice warm spring or summer island was what he wanted. Even if the cold didn't bother him thanks to his clothing and power, he still didn't like it very much.

Soon enough, the two women were wiping the corners of their mouths as the heavenly scent of Markus's cooking filled the air. His cooking level had been progressing nicely, though it had slowed recently, allowing him to cook somewhat filling meals. Unfortunately, the minimum amount they would fill was just two to three percent. Meaning, to fill Bonney he would need to cook anywhere from thirty-five to fifty meals to fill Bonney up. Yeah, he wasn't going to do that. She still lived off of system food. He would only cook for her when the percentage reached five minimum.

After their meal, they passed the time playing card games. Old Maid was the favorite though Markus and Bonney gave up since Rei won every game. Her luck was just too damned good. Worse, Markus couldn't cheat at card games because Observation Haki didn't give him x-ray vision. The best he could do was tell when someone was bluffing, something Rei never did.

Just as they were growing bored, Kurenha returned with two heavy bags in her hands and a massive array of weapons strapped to her back. Kureha was actually a very strong woman. She was capable of handling Luffy and Sanji the last time he was here. Hell, just the number of weapons she was carrying had to weigh hundreds of pounds but she walked as if they weighed nothing. Markus climbed to his feet and addressed Kureha, "Got all of your stuff and said all of your goodbyes?"

Kureha snorted, "Those kids that call themselves doctors are already planning their party for when I've left."

Markus chuckled, "Alright, let's go."

All four of them exited the castle and with a wave of his hand, they began to float in the air. Kureha let out a bit of a gasp while Bonney yelled at him, "What did we just discuss on the way here?!"

Markus rubbed the back of his head, "Oh, right. I'm going to fly us all to the coast now. Hold on tight."

Kureha yelled at him, "Hold on to what?!"

No one answered her while Markus flew them toward the nearest coastline. Kureha quickly got used to being manhandled in the air and took the time to look over the island from the sky. She loved this home of hers but she would be lying if she said she wasn't looking forward to a nice adventure. She'd thought she would die on this island, not for another hundred years of course! But she would, eventually, die here and join Hiriluk in the afterlife. It looked like that old quack would have to wait another few centuries though!

They quickly arrived at the coast where Markus retrieved his boat from his inventory and set it on the sea. This, naturally, led to Markus explaining how his Devil Fruit let him convert things to electricity and store it in his body. His usual bullshit excuse for the inventory function of his system. Kureha also admired the boat but there was a rather obvious problem. There were only two beds and four people. He left it up to the women to decide their sleeping arrangements. He planned to continue sleeping on top of the cabin. He'd grown used to it and actually liked sleeping under the stars now.

He also had to teach Kureha how to drive the boat, but that would be relatively easy. With the Eternal Pose for Water 7 set on the console, they quickly left the island. Markus drove while Bonney, Rei, and Kureha, went into the cabin to deal with the current sleeping situation. Kureha wasn't thrilled with the small boat but accepted it since it was only temporary. They would have a much larger ship in a few weeks.

Markus drove the boat until the sun started to go down. Kureha was honestly surprised at the speed of the boat and Markus took the time to teach her all the functions it had. She, like the other two, would only be able to use it with the Jet Dials, but that wasn't a big deal at all. It was everyone's habit to have one set recharging while the other was being used. Honestly, it felt like they were breaking the laws of physics to him since the setup essentially gave the boat infinite energy with which to propel itself. He could be wrong about that though, he wasn't a physicist by any means.

Things got into a nice groove over the next few days as everyone got to know each other better. Well, it was more the three of them getting to know Kureha better. Markus knew her a little bit, but not as much as he thought. The only thing that really mattered to him was her medical expertise. He had a medical skill but he didn't want to be the ship's doctor. He was already the captain, chef, and the muscle of the crew. Who would want to do everything? If he was just going to do it all himself then there was no point at all to having a crew. Not to mention there was no such thing as a Yonko without an army. Being a Yonko with just a small crew would be hard enough.

On their journey, they bypassed Alibasta and chose to stay at Jaya. Markus picked Jaya since there were plenty of other pirates there. Why did that matter? Living punching bags! Once he trained the three women up a bit the pirates would make good practice dummies for them to pummel. Training alone wasn't all that great without practical experience. Maybe there would even be a few tougher pirates that could push the three women a bit and help them grow stronger through difficult trials. He wouldn't hold his breath over that possibility though. The majority of pirates were just lawless trash.

Once they arrived at Jaya, Markus found a spot far away from the pirate town to set up their camp. He used supplies from his system shop to make sure everyone had their own sleeping arrangement. They spent their first afternoon just playing card games and enjoying each other's company. Markus had warned them that the hard work would begin the next day.

After breakfast, Markus took the three of them away from their camp. He began giving out instructions, "Bonney, Rei, both of you practice Soru. I'll explain the Rokushiki to Kureha..."

He didn't get to finish before Kureha interjected, "How many times do I have to tell you it's Doctor Kureha! Doctor! I didn't do all that studying so a young punk like you could just call me by my name!"

Markus faced the young and beautiful Kureha with a grin, "Sorry 'doctor,' I'll try to remember that next time."

"You say that every time! If I could I'd pummel it into you!"

During the journey, Markus had constantly called her Kureha. She wasn't nearly as fearsome when she got angry after she became younger. Honestly, she actually looked rather beautiful when she was pissed off now. It just made him want to keep teasing her to see that cute angry looking face. He cleared his throat while Rei and Bonney went to practice, "Anyway. The Rokushiki is a set of skills that the Marines developed. I know all of them so I plan to teach you the ones you're interested in. Though I consider two of them to be mandatory."

He gestured to where Rei and Bonney were trying to use Soru. The two of them would focus for a moment then kick-off of the ground. They had that part down. Once they kicked off, they would vanish from sight and appear a short distance away. More often than not, once they appeared they would lose their balance, trip on something, or run into something. This meant they ended up faceplanting on the ground more often than not.

Kureha frowned while watching them, "So, it's a skill for falling on your face?"

Markus smirked and vanished from where he was to appear behind Kureha and place his hand on her shoulder, "They're still learning. A Master can use it in combat to get an advantage on their enemies." He stepped back, "I'll show you all six Rokushiki then we'll start your training."

Kureha narrowed her eyes at Markus and got ready to learn. She was already pretty strong by normal standards but she was old and knew that there were real monsters in the world. Learning from Markus would prepare her for dealing with them. Besides, once she got stronger she could punch him whenever he called her just Kureha!