The party lasted well into the night and even though no one was drinking. A few people like Luffy and Usopp passed out in the galley. Tashigi ended up leaving a little after dark but promised to be back early the next morning so she could spar with everyone. Marcus retired to his room for the night near the end of the night even though Luffy and some other people were still having fun.
How Luffy had this endless desire to party, Marcus had no idea… Maybe it was because of his devil fruit? Marcus shook his head as he laid down in bed, as he remembered Luffy liked to party and just have fun before the devil fruit. If he was being honest Luffy was kinda lazy and if it wasn't for the others pushing him to train. Well Luffy would rather relax, eat food or have fun with his friends than any type of training.
Marcus finally fell asleep to thoughts of increasing Luffy's training when they got back to Nami's island, which made Luffy unconsciously shiver in his sleep.
Early the next morning Marcus awoke to find Tashigi already on the ship as she practiced her swordsmanship. As he approached her he asked, "When did you get here?"
"Not long, maybe ten minutes. I didn't want to wake up the whole ship so I waited here."
Marcus nodded in understanding before he said, "If it wasn't for the party last night, and us currently traveling. We would be doing our warm up routine right now before breakfast."
Marcus started to stretch his body as he said, "Since you're here, you can join me for a run."
Tashigi nodded as she placed her training sword off to the side and followed Marcus down to the dock. Once there Marcus asked, "How far can you run without stopping?"
"Five or six miles… I think. I normally only run a couple of miles when I train."
"Then this is a good opportunity to find out… How far is the execution platform from here?" Marcus asked as he looked towards the middle of the city.
"It should be close to two miles, maybe a little longer."
Marcus started to jog as a warm up as he said, "Perfect. We will jog there to start and run back and forth after that for at least five laps."
"Five laps?!?" Tashigi asked as she kept pace with Marcus.
Marcus smiled at her but just kept jogging towards the middle of the city. It didn't take them long to make it to the platform and as they rounded it Marcus said, "Alright, start running and I'll keep pace with you."
Tashigi was still fine and breathing normally as she said, "Are you sure? I can run pretty fast."
"You set the pace you are comfortable with and just keep in mind we have at least five laps to complete."
Tashigi nodded slightly before she picked up the pace and started running. It wasn't a full on sprint, but it was definitely faster then the jogging they were just doing. Marcus kept pace with her just fine and when they reached the docks ran into Ace, Sabo, Kuina and Zoro who noticed them from the ship. Quickly the others joined them and they ran the second lap with them as they all followed Tashigi's pace.
The next lap they ended up getting more people from the ship and on the fourth lap they had everyone except for Zeff who was making breakfast. By this point Tashigi was getting winded, so Marcus had the others set their own pace which quickly left Marcus and Tashigi alone again. As they started their fifth and final circuit, the other group lapped them and even lapped them again before they finished.
Tashigi was completely spent running what amounted to just over eleven miles and was laid out on the deck covered in sweat. Marcus was completely fine since he normally ran farther with a training harness on. Once the other group arrived from their completed run, Marcus said, "We are gonna do some light training and spars after breakfast. After that everyone is free to explore the town for the day."
Tashigi glanced over from her spot on the ground as she asked in a concerned tone, "We're not finished for the day?"
"This wasn't even our normal warm up." Marcus said as he reached down and helped Tashigi to stand up.
Tashigi paled slightly as she noticed it wasn't a joke and everyone nodded in agreement to that statement. As they settled down in the galley to eat breakfast Luffy said excitedly, "I wanna visit the pirate king's execution platform today!"
Everyone except Marcus, Ace and Sabo turned to look at Luffy in shock before he started to pick his nose as he asked, "What?"
Marcus, who was closest to Luffy, punched him over the head as head said, "Don't pick your nose at the breakfast table you idiot!"
Luffy's head slammed into the table before he popped back up and said, "Grandpa does it!"
"That doesn't make it right!" Marcus said as he punched Luffy again.
Luffy rubbed the growing bruise on his head as he said in a sulking tone, "You don't have to hit me every time you tell me something."
"I only do it when I wanna make sure the message gets through your thick skull."
A few moments later Zeff started to bring out food with help from Sanji before Luffy asked, "Who wants to visit the execution platform with me?"
Everyone who ran early turned to look at him again before Usopp said, "Remember that tall tower in the middle of the city we ran by?"
Luffy nodded quickly before he said, "Yeah, that thing was taller than the buildings around it…Wait a second."
Everyone froze as it seemed like Luffy actually figured out what the tower was before he said, "I bet if we climb to the top of it, we can find out where the execution platform is!"
Everyone collapsed to the floor in shock as Luffy smiled proudly at his idea until Marcus jumped up from the floor and punched him with his sea stone knuckles. Marcus hit Luffy a couple of times as he said, "How are you so stupid?!?"
"Ouch! Why are you hitting me so much?!?"
"Because you make people's brains hurt when you talk!" Marcus said as half the table nodded in agreement.
Marcus turned to Luffy as he said in an exasperated tone, "That tower you want to climb to find the execution platform… It is the execution platform!"
"Really?" Luffy asked in surprise as he rubbed the lumps that covered his head.
Marcus placed both his hands over his face as he mumbled to himself quietly, "Oda-sama, why did you make him like this?"
As everyone started to eat breakfast Luffy asked again, "Who wants to visit the tower with me today? We can climb to the top and see what the pirate king saw before he died!"
"You can't climb the execution platform!" Tashigi said with a slight frown.
"Why not?" Luffy asked as a few others paid more attention to the conversation.
"Because it's considered a historical monument and you would get arrested."
Marcus waved off her concern as he said, "It'll be fine, we helped take care of those pirates yesterday. I am sure they'll let it slide if he climbs to the top."
Tashigi shook her head as she said, "Just because you helped people yesterday doesn't mean you can break the law today."
"Are you sure it's against the law? Because I didn't see a sign or anything like that on or around the platform. Heck it isn't even guarded." Marcus said with a shrug.
"But it's a historical monument and everyone in town knows not to climb it!"
Marcus turned to Tashigi with a grin as he said, "Well we aren't from here."
Marcus patted Luffy on the back as he said, "That means you can climb it without worry."
"Yosh! Just wait tower, I'll climb you after breakfast!" Luffy said before he stuffed a big piece of meat into his mouth.
"But I just told you, you can't!"
Marcus ignored Tashigi as he picked at his ear and asked, "Did anyone hear something just now?"
People around the table shook their heads while Ace said, "No, but I might join Luffy on his climb later."
"But…"
Marcus cut off Tashigi as he said, "I know you're excited to spar, don't worry I'll let you spar with my minions after breakfast."
"That wasn't…"
Marcus cut her off again as he said, "It's fine, just enjoy your breakfast and don't worry about it."
Tashigi frowned as she said, "But they are…"
Marcus cut her off again as he said, "And I said don't worry about it. Worst case scenario we'll either beat up the marines or call grandpa."
The other brothers nodded in agreement before Tashigi looked appalled as she said, "You can't fight the marines! That would make you criminals!"
Marcus shook his head as he said, "Naw, grandpa would fix the issue… Well if we don't take things too far."
"He would definitely give us more training though." Ace said with a slight shiver as the other brothers nodded in agreement.
"You guys always talk about your grandpa like he's some kinda monster… Who is he exactly?" Zoe asked in a curious tone.
"He's a giant gorilla that always hits me!" Luffy said as he rubbed the lumps Marcus gave him earlier.
"That's because you mouth off to him." Marcus said as he rolled his eyes.
"But he always beats us up!"
Sabo nodded in agreement before he added, "Grandpa might be a little heavy handed in how he treats us, but he does it because he cares."
Marcus shook his head as he said, "I hate to admit it, but Sabo is right… Or we have Stockholm syndrome from the beatings."
Ace started to chuckle before he added, "It's probably both."
Marcus and Sabo nodded in agreement before Luffy asked, "What's stock-home-sin-drum?"
Marcus waved off the question before he said, "It doesn't matter, just eat breakfast."
Others around the table still wanted to know more about the brother's grandpa who apparently beat them regularly and was… A gorilla, but everyone decided to drop it and just eat breakfast instead. After breakfast Marcus had Tashigi spar with the weakest person on the ship which was currently a toss up between Sanji and Usopp.
Sanji didn't want to fight a girl so they went with Usopp who put up a decent fight but still lost since he was only using soft wood pellets. Afterwards Tashigi fought a few more people until she reached Zoro who beat her pretty handily within a few minutes. Then he lost just as handily to Kuina a few minutes later which Marcus found hilarious.
As other people sparred together, Marcus decided to spar against Zoro, Kuina and Tashigi at the same time. While it took them a few minutes to get into sync with each other, their fighting experience helped them come together pretty quickly. Marcus still wasn't pushed that hard by the combo of all three of them fighting him and took the chance to correct them as they fought.
Tashigi, not used to this type of teaching was thrown off for a moment when Marcus slapped her leg with his training sword and said, "You over extended. Your foot should be back slightly and your sword should be at more of an angle."
"What?" Tashigi asked as she froze in place.
Marcus slid close and bonked her over the head as he said, "You froze in combat. Never get distracted."
It took Tashigi a bit to get used to the training method, but by the time Marcus ended the spar, she felt some improvement in her sword play. As they rested on the deck, Luffy came over with a big smile on his face as he said, "Let's go visit the execution platform!"
Marcus thought it over for a few moments before he said, "Sure, I kinda wanna check out the view myself."