Chapter 19

To begin Kureha's training, Markus showed her all six moves of the Rokushiki. After hearing his explanations on all of them, she thought for a bit before speaking, "I want to learn everything but Tekkai. Especially Shigan."

Markus nodded. None of the women wanted to learn Tekkai and he didn't argue with them. As for Shigan? It was probably the deadliest technique in her hands. With her knowledge of the human body, she would be able to specifically target someone's weak points and disable or kill them with ease. It was rather scary now that he was thinking about it.

He started Kureha out the same way he did with the other two. Every day is leg day! On the bright side, Kureha was pretty strong as a 140-year-old woman, as a woman in her twenties she was even stronger. She was easily able to handle double the weight that Bonney could handle when just starting out. Lucky for him, Markus could produce any weight he wanted so he could always push his vic... companions to their limits without going over them.

While Kureha worked out, he paid attention to Bonney and Rei, giving them some advice to help polish their Soru technique. They were getting the hang of it. Taking off wasn't much of a problem anymore, but they still had issues with coming to a stop. Momentum was working against them as they were forced to try and adapt to it to stop where they wanted to. When they were too tired or sore from practicing Soru, he pulled out the bucket of soft balls and the blindfold, "Alright, time to practice Observation Haki."

They groaned out their complaints but played Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who was throwing and who was dodging. This also led to him explaining the two common forms of Haki to Kureha and demonstrating them.

Working out, practicing, and eating good food became their habit for the next two weeks. During those weeks, Rei and Bonney finally learned how to use Soru with some competence. Kureha managed to not only catch up to them but surpass them in the use of Soru. She had a century and a half of experiences and wisdom to draw from so she grew faster now that she had a younger body. That didn't even include her knowledge of anatomy and physiology that let her understand things on a deeper level.

The advantages that Kureha's age and occupation gave her even extended to learning Observation Haki. As a doctor, she used sight, touch, smell, and sound to help her diagnose problems within patients. Observation Haki used all of those same senses to 'diagnose' what the opponent was doing.

On the other hand, Rei was the only person he was giving any instructions to on the use of Armament Haki. She had already unlocked it and just needed someone to practice with. She could use the invisible stage of Armament Haki with relative ease as long as she was focused but it took over a week to get her to be able to use the blackening stage at will. It wasn't practical for use in combat yet as she had to fully focus on maintaining it and any lapse in her concentration would end it.

Of course, they didn't spend all their time just working out and practicing. They did take time off to relax, play games, spar, or do whatever they wanted to do. Markus wasn't a slave driver and knew that not everyone could be like him and spend all their time practicing and training to get stronger. It was during the downtime that they conversed and got to know each other better. Solidarity and unity were needed for a crew to work together.

He didn't have to worry much about Rei, she willingly chose to follow him even after knowing he was a pirate. Bonney, well he initially kidnapped her to use on Kureha but now she too was willingly following him. Kureha was the only one he wasn't entirely sure of. She seemed willing enough and happily learned from him to grow stronger. It was her motives that weren't fully known. She had joined him because of their bet and for no other reason. She may honor her word until she's strong enough to leave, or she may remain loyal and stay. He didn't know. He'd find a way to deal with that later, for now, she seemed content to stick around.

It was after those two weeks that something mildly interesting happened. Another group of pirates happened to sail by where they were training and spotted the girls practicing. As could be expected, the pirates had the cliche desire to make the three beautiful women their playthings for a while. They quickly pulled up to the island and disembarked their ship. Markus remained sitting in a relaxed position while around fifty or so small-time pirates surrounded the women. He would only step in if they really needed some help. Dealing with the weaklings in front of them shouldn't be too hard for them and it would be good practical experience.

Even though they are surrounded by so many rabid pirates, none of the women look bothered. Rei actually looks angry while Kureha and Bonney look unimpressed. Even though the three of them were unarmed, all of them could use Soru and unarmed sparring was a part of their training. Markus might not know a full material art like Krav Maga or Jiujitsu but he knew how to throw a good punch.

The largest man among the pirates, standing at about nine feet (2.7 meters), stepped forward with a cutlass gripped in his thick hand, "I suggest you give up pretties. If you play nice, we might play nice too."

After he finished speaking the remaining members of the crew chuckled darkly. His words only caused Rei to look even angrier while Bonney and Kureha had looks of disgust. Markus resisted the urge to crush or fry all of them right then and there for being terrible cliches. Instead, he called out, "Don't bother talking to them, just pummel them into the ground and send them running with their tails between their legs like the dogs they are."

Some of the pirates jumped in surprise when Markus spoke, they'd been so focused on the three women that they hadn't even noticed him off to the side. Others immediately grew angry and started to yell lame threats in his direction. Meanwhile, the trio of women listen to his command and immediately get to work.

Rei coats her fists in an invisible layer of Haki. It was the best she could do in real combat at the moment but it would still enhance the strength of her attacks a little bit. She quickly used Soru to vanish from where she was and appeared in front of a short ugly little man. She drove her fist into the man's face with zero hesitation. The force of her punch combined with her Haki shattered his nose, knocked out a few of his remaining teeth, fractured his jaw, and sent him flying through the air while trailing blood behind him.

When Rei charged, so did the other two. Bonney used Soru to close in on the captain and slapped him right across the face. As he flew through the air he aged rapidly. By the time he slammed into the ground he became a decrepit old man. The impact of the fall shattered several of his, now ancient, bones.

Kureha, like the other two, used Soru as well to appear in front of one of the pirates. She slammed the palm of her hand into his sternum and knocked the wind out of his lungs. She followed her palm attack by lightly hopping into the air and delivering a spin kick to his temple. The man spun through the air and slammed into the ground a few feet away. He was barely conscious and trying desperately to catch his breath.

Markus carefully observed the battle as the women ripped into the pirates and beat the hell out of them. Rei focused on a hard-fisted approach. She mostly punched people, breaking the bones in their faces. Bonney moved swiftly through them. First, she would turn them old then easily beat them when they lost their strength. Kureha was more technical in her approach. She would strike at the weak points of their bodies such as joints to disable and defeat them.

They weren't perfect though. Due to the sheer number of opponents, they would occasionally take a blow that they couldn't avoid. Usually from behind where they were all blind. They finished the fight knocking out or disabling all of the pirates that wanted to 'have fun' with them. They all had a bruise or two but compared to their enemies... Well, almost all of them had at least one broken bone, if not more.

Markus hopped to his feet and walked over to them, "Go rest up a bit and think about the fight and what you could have done better. I'll take care of the rest."

After giving his orders, he used a weak Gravity Press to hold down all of the pirates. They were too injured and weak to even hope of struggling free of his hold. While they were pinned down, he raided their ship and stole everything of value along with all of their food and water. After he was done stripping their ship of anything useful, he threw them all onto it with his Gyro-Telekinesis. The women watched as he used a little more than half of his Willpower and Gravity Push to shove the ship about two miles away from them.

After wiping his hands off he turned to face the three women with a smile, "You three didn't do too shabby. I expect that Kureha and Rei would have done better if they had their weapons but considering you were unarmed, it went well. Bonney, next time you face weaklings like that, try not to use your power until it's necessary. It would be best if you didn't become too overly reliant on it. There are many things out in the world that can disable Devil Fruit abilities. If you rely on it too much and encounter one, you will be helpless."

Bonney eyed Markus, "Should you really be saying that? You use your power for just about everything!"

Markus grinned, "True, but even without it I'm still rather strong. Between my physical strength and many skills, I could fight an Admiral even without the use of my Devil Fruit power. So, I can afford to be lazy and use my power however I like. You, on the other hand, are nowhere near that strong."

Bonney complained under her breath but didn't continue to argue with him. Once they were rested up and their minor wounds treated by Kureha, they got back to their training. When they wanted to work out, Markus would provide the weight but other than that, he spent most of his time lazing about. At least, that's what it appeared like to them.

In reality, Markus was grinding a couple of skills. He constantly had Tekkai active on his body. Thanks to its level, he could move normally even with it active. He still wanted to master the Rokushiki and learn Rokuogan. As he'd mentioned to Bonney, it was still possible for someone to disable his powers, skills like the Rokushiki would then become his best bet of winning such a fight. He also wore his Seastone bracelet to raise his resistance, had things lined up in his crafting queue to level that skill. Lastly, he constantly had gravity fluctuating around his body. He wanted to improve his Gravity Control skill.

His control needed to improve for two main reasons. First, he wanted the discount on the amount of Willpower he needed to spend on his skills. Second, he wanted more slots for creating free skills using the system. He currently had a single free slot and as much as he wanted to use it to make a skill for dropping meteors on people, he preferred to have more than one slot first. It wouldn't be funny if he needed to create a skill only to not have the slot available. A good example of that was when he made his Electro-Magnetic Tag skill. If he hadn't had a free slot at that moment, he would have been boned. He planned to have one free slot available for emergencies or sudden needs at all times.

For another week the group trained together almost nonstop. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Kureha was the first to fully comprehend and unlock Observation Haki. The moment she did, she became a much more effective fighter. She could spot flaws and weaknesses in the movements of a human body and would target them. This made her far more effective and terrifying in melee combat. Bonney was the next to fully comprehend the skill and when she combined it with her Devil Fruit she became a true monster. A few poor souls were subjected to becoming ancient beings on one of their trips into town for 'supplies.'

Markus had near-infinite supplies with his system but kept that fact a secret. He used the 'lack of supplies' as an excuse to go into the pirate town and stir up some trouble. It provided a good experience for the three women. Rei hadn't managed to comprehend Observation Haki. However, she could now use the blackening of her Armament Haki at will and in combat. She couldn't maintain it for very long but she grew better with each day.

All three of them had grown physically stronger thanks to him making them work out every day. On top of Haki training, all three of them could use Soru with excellent proficiency and had begun leaning Geppo. Each of them could jump a few times in the air before running out of steam. It was enough for them to maneuver around in a fight or for Bonney to save herself if she was falling into the sea.

They knew the other techniques they wanted to learn from demonstrations provided by Markus but hadn't begun training in any of them yet. There was still plenty of time for them to learn. The Strawhats wouldn't reconnect for just under two years and by then all of his crew would be extremely strong. Maybe not as strong as Zoro or Luffy, but definitely stronger than Sanji. Maybe...

After spending about three weeks on Jaya, it was time for them to leave and return to Water 7. It would take a few days of sailing in cramped quarters. Once they arrived they would either wait for the ship to be finished or leave for Sabaody right away. It didn't matter which but their next destination was set for Dressrosa.

It'd been over a month since Doflamingo's death and he wasn't sure how long the rest of his crew would remain on that island. He was certain they would stay there for a while though. It was their main base and home. With all the work they put into taking it over, they wouldn't give it up too easily. Thanks to Sugar, most of the dissidents and problem people were toy slaves doing most of the work for them.

With nothing left to do on Jaya, Markus addressed the women, "We'll leave for Water 7 tomorrow morning. Enjoy the last night outside before we're back in cramped quarters again."

All three of them seemed pretty happy about leaving. The sooner they got the bigger ship, the better for all of them. While they were thinking about the new ship, Markus was contemplating people to recruit. While sailing on a ship filled to the brim with beautiful women seemed great on the surface, he really wanted some other men to hang out with. The problem was, most of the men he could remember we're all either in a crew, idiots, or villains.

For example, Daz Bonez. He would love to recruit Daz Bonez into his crew but the man was loyal to Crocodile. Recruiting him would be near impossible and killing Crocodile would just make Daz Bonez and enemy. Or Sabo, for example. Sabo was an excellent fighter and he would love to have him on his crew. But, again, Sabo was loyal to Dragon and the Revolutionary Army.

There was one man that he wanted to try recruiting though. Someone he felt like he had a good shot at actually convincing to join his crew. Bartolomeo, the man with the Bari Bari no Mi. Bartolomeo himself was a bit of an acquired taste for most people. He was crude, vulgar, and had a temper. Yet, it was all worth putting up with because of the Bari Bari no Mi. He could generate nearly unbreakable barriers, even the King Punch couldn't crack his barriers. The barriers weren't limited to just plain flat walls, their shape could be manipulated. How about an unbreakable sword? Being chased by Marines? Put an unbreakable and unmoveable wall in front of their ship and watch it crash.

He honestly couldn't remember many men worth recruiting. Some of Doflamingo's crew members were pretty powerful, especially Pica with his Ishi Ishi no Mi. On the sea he was meh, but on land, he was damn near invincible. His power and strength were on par with a Logia despite being a Paramecia. If he wasn't such a scumbag and didn't have a voice that would make Markus fall into a fit of giggles, he might have been worth recruiting.

Markus was brought out of his musings on possible recruit when Bonney shouted at him, "Markus! We're ready to go!"

He glanced over and saw the campsite was cleaned up and all of their items were packed. He stored the camping gear then summoned out the Cigarette Boat. Once everyone was on board, he started up the electric motors and eased away from the island. Once they were oriented with the Eternal Pose he slowly pushed more power into the motors, "Next stop, Water 7!"