A few hours later Marcus and Ace were woken up as Garp smacked them over the head.
"What the hell?!?" Both boys yelled out at the same time.
Garp laughed loudly as he pointed to a table full of food, where Luffy, Sabo and Bogard were already eating as he said, "Your naps over, go eat dinner."
The boys glanced at each other and found each other covered in badges. Ace smiled as he said, "Looks like I won."
Marcus shook his head as he said, "I remember standing over your body screaming in victory."
"You should get your head checked, I might have hit it too hard." Ace said.
Garp slapped both boys hard on the back and said, "Marcus won, but passed out afterwards. Now come on, it's time to eat."
Ace frowned as he moved towards the table and asked, "How did Marcus win? He can barely beat Luffy in sparring matches."
Bogard took a drink from a wine bottle before he said, "He never fought with his full strength, so you and Sabo would underestimate him."
As Ace took his seat he glared at Marcus and said, "So you cheated."
"Cheated?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ace grabbed a piece of meat, took a large bite and after he swallowed said, "You hid your strength, so you could win the tournament. That makes you a cheater."
Marcus picked up his own piece of meat and pointed it at Ace as he said, "That doesn't make me a cheater, it means I'm smart. If you were smart you would have noticed that I never improved in any spar we had."
Garp nodded as he said, "This is a good lesson to learn early. Never underestimate your opponent, no matter how much you think you know them."
"Fine, but next time we spar, you better not hold back or I'll beat you worse than I did today." Ace said.
Marcus nodded as he said, "Pretty sure I beat you. But that's fine, I no longer plan to hold back anymore when I spar with any of you."
Ace was about to say something when he fell forward, completely asleep in his plate of food. No one said anything and kept eating, already used to Ace's weird habit. After about a minute Ace sat back up and looked around for a moment, before he wiped his face clean and continued to eat like nothing happened.
After dinner finished, Marcus went outside to practice like normal while Bogard watched and drank some wine. As Marcus started to go through his stances Bogard said, "You know you can take a break sometimes right?"
Marcus shook his head as he said, "Maybe when I'm stronger. But for now, I'm too weak to slack off."
"Why are you so determined to become strong, kid?"
Marcus focused his purple colored eyes on Bogard as he asked, "If I'm not strong, how will I fight strong people?"
Bogard took a long drink from his wine bottle before he said, "You sound like Garp."
Marcus shrugged as he said, "It must be a family trait then."
Bogard shook his head before he took another long drink as he watched Marcus practice his sword skills. There was a noticeable difference from the other day, everything was smoother and linked together faster than before. It was easy to see that the fights with Sabo and Ace today helped increase his skills more than the last couple weeks of training combined.
After a while Bogard finished his wine and said, "Marcus, follow me. I wanna show you something."
Marcus stopped his practice and sheathed his training sword to follow Bogard away from the village and down to the coastline. The place he took Marcus to was filled with large boulders, most of which were smoothed down and rounded over by the tide and waves. Bogard walked till he found a couple nice sized boulders and stopped while resting a hand on his sword.
Bogard glanced at Marcus and said, "Watch carefully while I show you two things that are connected."
Marcus focused on Bogard after a quick nod of his head and waited. Bogard slowly drew his sword as he said, "Once you reach a certain level, you'll be able to do something like this."
Bogard casually swung his sword at the boulder next to him, which split in half a second later. As the two sides touched the ground with a soft thud Bogard said, "Did you see it?"
Marcus shook his head since Bogards attack didn't really make sense to him. Ya he knew it was some type of weird anime world logic, but seeing a sword slice a boulder in half in real life was… Marcus's brain stopped working for a few seconds before Bogard said, "Watch again and pay attention this time."
Bogard walked next to another even larger boulder and with a lazy sword swing it easily split in half. This time Marcus focused more on Bogards movements, but still didn't see anything different. Bogard glanced back at Marcus as he said, "It's fine, I didn't expect you to see it so easily. I'll show you the next part though, since it will be easier to see."
Bogard glanced at a boulder in the distance and lazily swung his sword again. A white slash flew from his blade cutting a path through the sand until it struck the boulder and flew through it. A second later the boulder fell apart into two pieces.
Bogard glanced back at Marcus as he asked, "What do you think?"
"Looks powerful and at the same time weak… If you put more effort into the attack, would it be bigger?"
Bogard smiled as he said, "You're correct. If I use my full power, I can easily cut a mountain in half."
"That's awesome, I wouldn't mind seeing that done." Marcus said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Bogard shook his head as he said, "Let's head back, it's almost bath time."
As they started walking back Marcus asked, "So I can do that when I'm stronger?"
"Ya, but it will be a while before you can do it. Just keep practicing like you do and focus on improving your skills. Once you finish Garp's first stage of punching through a tree with just your fist, start trying to cut through a tree with your training sword."
Marcus frowned slightly as he asked, "Won't my sword break if I use it to train like that?"
Bogard chuckled as he said, "It won't break, that thing is meant to be abused."
As they made it back to Makino's, Garp walked out with the other boys and said, "Let's go, it's bath time you stinky brats."
"You're the one who stinks old man." Ace said.
Garp slammed his fist into Ace's head knocking the boy out before he picked him up by the back of his shirt and asked, "Anyone else wanna say anything?"
Luffy and Sabo quickly shook their heads before Garp laughed and said, "Good. Now let's go."
After a nice bath, everyone headed to bed to wake up early in the morning. Instead of their normal training, Garp told everyone to rest and relax today since he was leaving. When Marcus went to go train alone, Garp stopped him and said, "Take a rest for a few days, you've been training for a month straight."
"But…"
Garp placed a hand on his shoulder as he said, "It's good to take a small break from training, to let your body properly heal. You might not have noticed it, but your body needs rest. You and the others need to rest for the next few days, since I pushed you so hard the past month during training."
Marcus was going to argue, but when he saw Garp's serious face he said, "Okay Grandpa."
Garp looked at the other boys as he said, "Take the next few days to rest and when you start training again. I want you to train for six days and rest on the seventh. Understood?"
"Yes grandpa." Everyone said.
"I'll also check in with Makino. So you better do it, or I'll punish you when I get back."
All the boy's sweat dropped as they nodded at Garp's threat. Garp smiled before he said, "Good. Now let's head to the dock, our ride should be here soon."
Grap picked up the weapon training rack, making sure to leave behind the boys weapons, before he headed to the dock with Bogard and the boys. It was mid morning as they left Makino's, walking through the bustling village towards the dock. As they walked, people greeted them and wished Garp and Bogard a safe journey.
Within a few minutes the group reached the dock and could already see the navy ship in the distance. Garp placed the weapon rack down before he sat down on the edge of the dock and pulled out a packet of crackers. The boys joined Garp sitting on the edge of the dock, while Bogard stood off to the side smoking a cigar.
As Garp shared his crackers with the boys he said, "I took a long time off this time, so I won't be back for at least a year or more."
"What about the prize for whoever won the tournament?" Ace asked.
Garp patted Ace on the shoulder as he said, "Don't worry, I'll be bringing something back for Marcus."
"I won, not Marcus!"
Garp smiled and then pushed Ace into the water below the dock. When Ace surfaced from the water Garp said, "Stop being so cocky, you might not like it. But you lost. Now get out of the water, you're supposed to be resting."
"You're the one who pushed me in, old man!?!"
Garp narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Who are you calling old, brat?"
Ace stuck out his tongue before he said, "You! You shitty old man!"
Garp crumpled up the wrapper from his package of crackers before he infused it with a little haki and then threw it at Ace. Ace was slammed under the water and after a few seconds swam back up with a large lump on his head. Garp pointed and laughed at the boy as he said, "You think an old man can do something like that you stupid brat?"
Ace wanted to say something but stopped when Garp pulled out another package of crackers. Grap glanced down at Ace as he said, "Hurry up and get out of the water."
Once Ace was back on the dock, Garp and the boys sat in silence and ate some more crackers before the navy ship finally arrived. After loading up the weapon rack and their clothes, Garp and Bogard bid farewell to the boys and left with the ship.
The boys with nothing else to do ended up spending the rest of the day at Makino's playing games and talking. The next day they also rested, but instead of staying in Foosha Village, they headed to Town Center in the heart of the Goa Kingdom. While walking all the way there might not be considered proper rest, the boys didn't consider it training.
Once they reached the city walls, the boys used a large trench coat to hide that they were just children. With Ace who acted as the base, he carried the other boys stacked on his shoulders. Luffy and Marcus were next as each one rested on one of Ace's shoulders. Sabo was seated on top of both of them and acted as the head. Like that they easily bypassed the gate guards and moved into Edge Town, before they moved into Town Center.
Once there, they went to one of the fancier restaurants to eat. After requesting a private room, Sabo ordered a bunch of food for everyone and waited. Once all the food arrived, Sabo and the others came out of the coat and started to eat. Everything went well at first, before the waitress came in to check on them.
When she found four boys in somewhat tattered clothing, she started to yell at them, asking if they had money to pay for everything. Ace and the others didn't actually have money on them, so they took the chance and jumped out the window to run away.
With their training, they easily outpaced the couple people who tried to chase them and before long were back outside the city gates. After that experience the boys turned their weekly rest day into a dine and dash routine. They would head into the inner city where the rich lived, then pick out a good restaurant and eat till they were found out before they quickly ran away.
It only took a month before rumors started to spread about a group of kids who liked to dine and dash. While it didn't stop them from doing it, it limited them to new places every time. It was a good thing that the rich part of the city had a lot of restaurants to choose from though.