00047. The only important question.

With the pirates dropped off and the bounties secured, Marcus and the others went down the coast to meet Luffy and take the ship back to Foosha Village. It was already dark when they arrived but the glow from the out of control fire lit up the evening sky. As they docked the ship, Marcus noticed a lot of villagers outside watching the fire lit sky.

The mayor was one of the only people not concerned with the sky and walked towards the dock to greet the boys. Once he was close enough he asked, "Where did you boys get this ship?"

Marcus finished tying off one of the ships mooring lines to one of the docks cleats as he said, "Confiscated it from some pirates before we turned them in for their bounties."

The older man nodded before he asked, "Shouldn't stolen property be turned over to the marines so it can be returned to its rightful owner?"

"Gramps said we don't have to turn in anything we find when we take it from pirates." Ace said as he walked up to the mayor.

"Garp and… Nevermind." The mayor said as he shook his head.

Marcus smiled and patted the old man on the back as he asked, "Have you had dinner yet?"

The mayor glanced at the sky for a moment as he said, "No, not yet. Everyone is concerned about whatever is happening in the Goa Kingdom and kept asking me if I knew anything."

"All of Gray Terminal caught fire and it's in the process of burning down." Marcus said as he glanced at the sky.

"Gray Terminal's on fire?" The man asked with concern in his voice as he studied the sky.

Marcus nodded as he said, "Yeah, the pirates who we caught were the ones who caused it."

"You should let everyone know and then join us for dinner. The fire is pretty much contained, so it won't spread outside of Gray Terminal." Marcus said as he started to walk towards Makino's.

The boys spent the rest of the night at Makino's as they ate dinner and rested for the night. While the fire was started earlier than expected, Marcus was positive his father would still show up in a few days and planned to meet him. While Luffy and his own lineage is supposed to be a secret, Marcus was sure it wouldn't matter too much if they met and chatted for a bit.

Early the next morning the boys loaded up the treasure and money they collected and took it to their hidden base in the forest. After everything was hidden away, the boys headed towards Gray Terminal to see what happened with the fire they created.

Before they even reached the halfway point where the top of the mountains separated Foosha Village from the rest of the island. They were hit with the unpleasant smell from the remnants of the fire. Once they reached the midway point they could see the destruction caused by the fire.

Gray Terminal was now basically gone and in its place was a massive pile of ash which covered the place. In a few area's a few sporadic fires still burned low, but overall the fire had mostly finished. The high walls of the Goa Kingdom were scorched black about a fifth of the way up, but otherwise looked fine.

As the boys made their way down the mountains the temperature slowly started to rise until they reached what was left of Gray Terminal. The ground throughout the place radiated residual heat from the fire and made the boys sweat just from being close. The air was still a little smoky, but the fresh breeze from the sea helped clear most of the smoke away.

Once they arrived they skirted the area and headed towards the coast which is where they saw people gathered. It looked like the plan worked properly and people were able to flee from the fire. How many was another story, but Marcus was sure most if not all of the people made it out just fine.

The people along the coast were in a sorry state when the boys arrived. All of them were covered in soot and ash from the fire, while they all looked dejected. Sure they were alive, but they all lost their homes and most of their stuff.

Marcus and his brothers checked out the area for half an hour and even talked to a couple people before they left to explore the rest of Gray Terminal. While it was overly hot and not very comfortable, the boys still took their time to comb through the destruction they caused. Marcus was relieved to find no skeletons anywhere, but there was a possibility that the fire destroyed even a person's bones.

Once they finished scouting Gray Terminal, Marcus and the others headed towards the forest where they hunted a few of the larger beasts. Then they brought them to the people of Gray Terminal so they wouldn't have to worry about food for the day. Afterwards the boys headed to Foosha Village to clean up and relax for the rest of the day.

Over the next few days Marcus decided to abstain from normal training and practiced swordsmanship on one of the cliffs that overlooked Gray Terminal. He knew Dragon and others from the revolution army would show up soon and didn't plan to miss them. It was on the fourth day of training that Marcus finally noticed a ship in the distance approaching the area. While he wasn't sure if it was Dragon at first, he still went to find Luffy and the others.

A couple hours later Marcus arrived back at the cliff with his brothers and found the ship anchored off the coast. It was slightly hidden from Gray Terminal and the Goa Kingdom, but was close enough that they could reach it with a rowboat in fifteen minutes. Marcus and the others observed the ship for a little while. It was a massive ship with three large masts and a dragon as its figurehead.

Marcus was positive now positive this was Dragon's ship and quickly led everyone else down to the coast. The first thing they did was ask around in case anyone came ashore recently. While there was the possibility people landed somewhere else and secretly came ashore, Marcus still wanted to check anyway. When they found no important information, the boys borrowed one of the small fishing boats and headed out towards the ship themselves.

It didn't take long before they neared the ship and someone on board yelled out, "Don't come any closer to our ship."

"Just sink their boat."

A few people exclaimed, " EHHH! You want us to sink their boat, Iva!?"

"Mmmm… Of course not! They are just kids!" The person said as they broke into a laugh. 

Mmmfufufufufufuf

"Thank god you were joking… OHHH, You fooled us again, Iva!"

Marcus glanced towards the ship and saw people wrapped in cloaks looking down at them as they joked around. He waved at the ship as he said, "We came to talk with Dragon."

Luffy glanced at the ship with a finger in his nose as he asked, "We came to talk? I thought we were gonna fight pirates?"

"Uh? Who are you and why are you asking for someone named Dragon?" Someone on the ship called out.

"Tell Dragon the future pirate king wants to see him."

"Future pirates king? Stop joking around, kid?" Someone asked before people started to laugh again.

Luffy stood up on the boat as he yelled out, "It's not a joke! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be the pirate king!"

Everyone went silent as a man with a deep voice said, "Let them board the ship."

"Eh! Are you sure, Dragon-boy?"

"Yes."

Someone pointed to the side of the ship as they said, "Come to the port side and we'll lower a rope down."

Within a few minutes Marcus and the others climbed onto the deck of the ship. Once on the deck of the ship they were greeted by a bunch of people but three of them stood out. The first one was the leader, he was tall with a decent build and when he removed the hood of his cloak the red pattern on the left side of his face stood out.

The person on Dragon's left was massive and was currently the tallest person Marcus had ever met. Marcus's first thought after he saw the man was, 'It's crazy a person could be that large and still skip leg day.'

The person to the right of Dragon stood out for a totally different reason though. While they were also tall and easily towered over normal people, that didn't make them stand out. It was the size of their head that made people notice them, since it was almost half the size of their body currently.

Marcus glanced over them all for a moment before he asked, "Do you have a place we can talk in private?"

Dragon nodded as he said, "Follow me."

Before Dragon moved, Marcus said, "Kuma and the big headed idiot should join us."

"OH! It hurts, I think I might… I might…" The man with the big head said as he grabbed his chest and spun around in place like he was about to fall.

"Iva! Are you okay!?!" A couple people asked in concern as the man fell to the deck and laid there for a few moments.

He popped up a moment later as he said, "I'm fiiiiine!"

"Oh, so you're fine after all!" The same people said as they sighed in relief.

Luffy was the only stand out from Marcus's group who thought the man was funny and actually laughed at the scene. Marcus himself shook his head as he said, "Maybe we should leave him here on second thought…"

As the big headed man started to make another scene, Marcus and the others followed Dragon into the ship through a hallway before they ended up in what was most likely the captain's quarters. The big headed man ended up following them once they realized Marcus and the others followed Dragon into the ship. Once inside the room Marcus glanced around it for a moment before he asked, "Finally finish your trip to the store to get some milk?"