After the first day of letting the boys spar against his trainees, Zephyr changed his training routine up. He increased their training regiment and also pushed them harder each day. He also decided to only let the trainees spar with the boys once a week, since they took a pretty good beating during the first set of spars.
The second set of spars didn't go well either and this time Marcus didn't get distracted so it was even worse than the last time. As for the boy's training, they settled into their normal routine, except for using their training harness, since Garp told them to leave them on the ship. That forced them to become creative as they tried to make their workouts more challenging. They mostly added more weights to their backpacks and attempted to do some of the obstacle courses with the backpack on. They also went deep into the forest and fought with stronger animals to push themselves.
It was after the third sparring match with the trainees that Garp finally arrived back on the island. Apparently he had to search around to find the rice crackers he liked and ended up going to one of the other blues to find them. Once he was back though, he attempted to help train everyone with Zephyr, which failed spectacularly. While Zephyr wanted to make the trainees stronger, Garp's methods were too much and by lunchtime of the first day not a single one of them could walk.
Zephyr glanced over his trainees laid out on the ground before he narrowed his eyes as he glared at Garp and asked, "What the hell is wrong with you?! How could you do that to the trainees?!"
Garp who was laid back in a beach chair stuffed a rice cracker into his mouth and as he chewed it said, "What? It's not my fault they're so weak."
Garp pointed to Ace and the others as he said, "Look, my grandsons are just fine."
"Not everyone is a freak like you and those kids! You need to tone it down for the trainees!" Zephyr said in an annoyed tone of voice as he looked over the trainees who were passed out.
Garp had a rice cracker in his hand as he waved at Zephyr dismissively and said, "It's for their own good. If they're too weak, they won't survive long being a marine."
Zephyr couldn't help it as he nodded in agreement before he said, "That might be true, but our goal is to train them. How are we going to train them like this?"
"Just wake them up and push them till they collapse again." Garp said before he stuffed another rice cracker in his mouth.
Zephyr frowned as he said, "You know what, just take care of your grandkids. I'll handle the trainees."
Garp smiled as he said, "Fine, but you still owe me a fight before I leave."
Zephyr waved him off as he said, "I know, just stay away from the trainees."
After that Garp only trained the boys while Zephyr and his team looked over the trainees. They still shared meals together and met once a week to spar. But overall Garp and the boys didn't interact with the trainees much after that. Plus Garp took them into the forest to train everyday and had them fight the stronger animals on the island.
While Zephyr didn't take any direct help from Garp, he decided to include some of his training methods. He mostly pushed the trainees a little harder everyday and had them run with weighted packs. It wasn't as harsh as Garp's training, but there was a noticeable increase at how fast the trainees improved and it didn't make them collapse from exhaustion.
It was about two months into the training camp when Marcus approached Garp after dinner to talk. When Marcus was close to Garp he said, "Hey gramps, can we talk in private?"
Garp pointed towards the bonfire pit he liked to cook as he said, "Sure, let's go over there and talk."
Marcus and Garp sat down on one of the logs next to the pit before Marcus glanced around for a moment as he asked, "Do you know anything about my sword? It acts weird sometimes."
Garp raised an eyebrow as he asked, "What makes you think I know anything about your sword?"
Marcus shrugged as he said, "Well you're the one who gave it to me."
Garp let out a sigh before he said, "That doesn't mean I know much about your sword. But whatever, tell me what your sword is doing and I'll see if I can help you."
"Well the main issue is that it vibrates when I'm around certain people." Marcus said as he watched for a reaction from Garp.
Garp nodded in understanding before he asked, "What kinda people?"
"Mostly people with bounties. But it happens around other people too sometimes."
"It's because your sword can sense the evil in people." Garp said.
"That doesn't even make sense! What determines whether a person is evil or even good for that matter? My sword just knows something like that?" Marcus asked in an incredulous tone of voice.
"I'm just telling you what I've seen, I have no idea how it actually works myself. But I know the sword is never wrong about who it considers evil." Garp said with a shrug.
"That still doesn't make sense to me. Depending on a person's morals, what they consider evil and what I consider evil could be completely different." Marcus said as he folded his arms over his chest.
Garp patted Marcus on the shoulder as he said, "Here you go again acting like an adult."
Marcus swatted Garps hand away as he said, "That doesn't help solve the issue."
Garp sighed slightly as he said, "It wasn't meant to."
"Let's go someplace else." Garp said before he grabbed Marcus by the back of his shirt and took off into the air.
Marcus freaked out while he waved his hands and feet around in the air as he looked at the forest a few hundred feet below him and said, "What the hell grandpa, are you trying to kill me?!"
They quickly flew through the air and made it to the middle of the island to land near the rim of the volcano when Marcus finished talking. Garp dropped Marcus down on the ground as he said, "Settle down, even if I dropped you, you wouldn't die from that height."
Marcus glanced down to the island almost a thousand feet below him and started to sweat, while Garp dug around in his pockets for a few moments. Garp pulled out a small black colored den den mushi a few moments later before he dialed a number on it.
Pururu pururu pururu gacha
A gruff sounding voice came through as it asked, "What is it this time?"
"Is that any way to greet your father?" Garp asked in annoyance.
There was a pause before the voice said, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else… I honestly never expected you to call me. Give me just a moment, I need to change locations."
After less than a minute the man said, "Okay we can talk now. What's going on, is something wrong? Are the boys okay?"
"I didn't plan to call you, but your son needs to talk with you." Garp said as he handed the den den mushi to the stunned Marcus.
"What? Why?" The man asked in confusion.
Marcus cleared his throat before he said, "Hi dad, this is Marcus."
After a short pause Dragon said, "I won't be able to talk for long, so tell me what you need son."
"I'm having issues with my sword and grandpa can't answer my questions."Marcus said.
"What's the issue?"
"It vibrates when I'm around certain people, grandpa said it only does that when it senses evil. But that doesn't make any sense to me, who or what determines whether someone is evil and how would the sword know that?" Marcus asked.
A sigh could be heard before the man said, "To think the sword would open up to you when you're still so young."
Marcus wanted to ask a bunch of questions, but instead waited in silence for over a minute before dragon said, "I can't tell you how it happened, but I can at least tell what… Your mother told me about the sword. It was specially forged for your grandfather when he became recognized as a sword master in his twenties."
"He was a powerful man with a strong sense of justice who wielded that sword for almost fifty years. During that time, the sword somehow awakened and copied its master's sense of justice. How it can sense if someone is evil, I have no idea, but I know it's never been wrong before."
Marcus let out a frustrated sigh before he said, "That doesn't help me much. How do I know what I consider evil is the same thing the sword considers evil?"
Dragon laughed a little before he asked, "Would you consider someone who kills other people evil?"
"Depends on the reason." Marcus said.
"What if there's no reason, they did it just because they could." Dragon asked.
"I would consider someone like that evil."
The den den mushi nodded as Dragon said, "Then trust the sword when it warns you next time and also remember that you don't have to act on that warning. Just because the sword has its own sense of justice, doesn't mean you need to follow it. Always be true to yourself first and follow your own beliefs."
With some doubts cleared up Marcus smiled slightly to himself before he said. "Thank you father."
"You're welcome and I'm sorry that I am not able to raise you and Luffy myself." Dragon said in a sad tone.
"It's fine, Luffy is kind of an idiot and didn't realize we had parents until I told him. And while it would be nice to have you and Gramps around us more, I know you're both busy trying to help the world in your own way. Gramps being the marine hero and you leading a revolution against the current world government." Marcus said with a smirk.
Both the den den mushi and Garp went wide eyed at the comment before Garp punched Marcus as he asked, "You little brat! Who told you about that stuff?!?"
Garp punched harder than he thought and knocked Marcus off the rim of the volcano. A moment later Marcus screamed out as he started to tumble down the edge of the volcano. Dragon heard the scream and asked in concern, "What just happened? Why did Marcus scream?"
Garp watched Marcus as he flipped end over end down the volcano slope as he said, "Nothing, I just gave Marcus some extra training."
"Oh… Okay… I need to get going anyways, take care of yourself dad and thanks for taking care of the boys for me."
"It's fine and stay safe." Garp said before he hung up and started to head down to get Marcus.
Marcus was battered, bruised and covered in blood when we finally came to a stop at the foot of the volcano. As he laid on his back and tried to suck in a breath, Garp landed on the ground next to him as he asked, "Anything broken?"
Marcus glared up at Garp before he said, "I hate you so much right now."
Garp smiled as he said, "It was just some extra training, no need to get upset. Can you walk or do I need to carry you?"
Marcus slowly tested his body and was surprised to find nothing was broken. Sure his whole body felt like one giant bruise and he had some small cuts here and there, but otherwise he was fine. He slowly stood up on his own before he said, "I'll walk."
As they started to walk back to camp Marcus said, "Do you know why I asked you about my sword today?"
"No." Garp said as he pulled out a package of rice crackers.
"One of the trainees makes my sword vibrate whenever I'm near him."
Garp glanced down at Marcus with narrowed eyes as he asked, "Which one?"