Marcus moved away from the woman and ended up next to Zeff as the pirate captain started to scream before he quickly went deathly silent. As the older woman, now covered in blood, started to talk to the other women Zeff asked, “You know they’re going to kill all of them, don't you?”

“Probably…” Marcus said as he waved over Ace and Sabo who were looking towards the women in concern.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Ace asked as he watched the older woman as she urged the other women towards the tied up pirates.

“No. This might be the best way to help them work over what happened to them.” Marcus said with a slight frown.

One of the pirates screamed out before he quickly went silent as Sabo nodded in agreement and said, “While I didn't kill my father, beating him half to death did make me feel better.”

Sanji’s head snapped to look at Sabo as he asked in surprise, “You beat up your own father?”

“Yeah. He thinks he’s better than everyone else just because he was born a noble. It felt pretty good to take him down a peg.” Sabo said as he watched the women work over the pirates who started begging for mercy.

Zoro and Kuina appeared on the deck of the other ship to see what was going on a few moments later. They each had mixed reactions to what they saw, but none of them moved to interfere and quickly disappeared back into the ship. After a minute or so Marcus turned towards Zeff and said, “They might need a good meal after this. Do you feel up to cooking? If not, I'll have Kuina make more soup.”

Zeff grabbed his makeshift crutches and struggled to stand up before he said, “Come help me in the kitchen, little eggplant.”

Sanji stood up and helped Zeff back towards the galley as Ace and Sabo went back to the other ship to help move everything over. About ten minutes later when the women were almost finished enacting justice, Kuina and Zoro came over from the pirate ship with a large trunk of clothes. They placed it down next to Marcus who nodded in thanks before he said, “Toss that in the bathroom and then go to the other ship and collect some buckets and mops if they have any.”

After Zoro and Kuina left, Marcus walked over towards the women who were now sitting on the deck covered in blood. He glanced over their handy work before he said, “If you're all finished, clean up your mess.”

The women all looked at Marcus with a hint of confusion before he pointed at the bodies of the pirates and said, “You made a mess of my ship and I expect you to clean it up. Toss those bodies overboard and then I want you to mop up all of this blood.”

All the women had slightly different reactions but the older woman stood up and said, “Okay.”

As she started to drag a body to the side of the ship the other women started to get up to help. By the time they had half the bodies cleared away, Zoro and Kuina arrived with a few mops and buckets filled with seawater. Marcus stood off to the side and watched as the women cleaned the deck over the next half an hour. Once they were done he pointed at Kuina and said, “Kuina will show you where the bathroom is. There are some clean clothes there you can change into after you get cleaned up.”

None of the women said anything as Kuina led them away and Marcus glanced over the now clean deck. As he took the buckets and poured the dirty water over the side Sabo came over and said, “The pirate ship is pretty much cleared out. What do you wanna do with it?”

Marcus glanced over to the ship that was still in decent shape and said, “Let's just anchor it here. There's no reason to scuttle it and it would be a pain to take it with us.”

“Why don't we give it to those women?” Ace asked as he walked over.

“Maybe, but I doubt any of them know how to sail and besides. If we let them go off alone, what are the chances they don't get captured again?” Marcus asked as he glanced towards the other ship.

“That's a good point.” Ace said as Sabo nodded in agreement.

“Well let's go to the galley and finish lunch… Actually where's Luffy at?” Marcus asked.

All of them looked around for a few moments before Sabo asked, “I haven’t seen him in a while, you don't think..?”

“No, he one hundred percent did…” Marcus said with a hint of exasperation.

Marcus and the others headed towards the galley and when they made it inside they found Luffy asleep. His body was in the shape of an extra large beach ball, with tiny hands and feet stuck out to the side that just added to his comedic look. Marcus looked over the completely cleared tables and let out a sigh before he said, “Let's clean this up.”

As Marcus and the others started to clean up the dishes Zoro walked into the galley and after a moment of looking around asked, “Wasn't I just on the other ship?”

“Maybe, but you're here now so help clean up.”

With Zoro’s help they managed to clean the galley up just before Kuina arrived with the women they rescued. All of them looked a lot better after getting cleaned up and putting on fresh clothes. They still had cuts, bruises and looked a little malnourished, but it was a far cry from earlier. All of the women came to a complete stop when they noticed Luffy in his ball form, sleeping in the middle of the room.

Marcus waved them over towards a table as he said, “Don't mind the idiot. Have a seat over here, we need to talk.”

All of them glanced at the older woman who nodded before she approached the table and sat down. Marcus studied her for a moment before he said, “Food should be done soon.”

“Thank you.”

Marcus took a seat across from the women before he asked, “Do any of you know how to sail a ship?”

It took a few moments but eventually all of them shook their heads no, so Marcus said, “Alright, I guess you'll be sticking with us until we reach the next island.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Zeff hobbled out of the kitchen door on his crutches a moment later as he said, “I made enough food for everyone, so you brats come help bring the food out.”

Marcus glanced at Ace, Sabo and Zoro as he said, “The old fart was talking to you guys.”

“I was talking to you too, you stupid brat. And don't call me old!” Zeff said as he shot a glare at Marcus.

Marcus stood up from his seat as he said, “Don't be upset that you're old, old man. It's not good for your blood pressure.”

Zeff decided not to reply before he headed back into the kitchen. Marcus and the others followed him and within a few minutes the galley was filled with a bunch of food. As everyone sat down to eat Marcus said, “It's a little late, but we should probably introduce ourselves.”

After Marcus introduced everyone on the ship he asked, “What are your names?”

“I'm Zoe.” The older woman said before she glanced towards the other women.

Each of the women said their name afterwards before everyone started eating. The meal was pretty quiet with no one really talking until Luffy woke up and asked, “I can smell food, is it dinner time already?”

Marcus glanced over his shoulder to see Luffy wiggling his arms and legs around to try and move but it wasn't working so he said, “Someone help, I can't move!”

“You can't move because you ate all of our food from lunch you idiot.” Marcus said as he turned back to eat.

“But everyone stopped eating, I thought you were done and I didn't want to waste food!”

Marcus's eye twitched slightly as he said, “Don't lie to me, you disappeared while we were still clearing out the pirate ship.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Luffy said as he tried to whistle nonchalantly and failed.

Marcus attempted to ignore him but Luffy started to complain that he wanted to eat too, even though he was already a massive ball. Marcus ended up tying a gag around his mouth since he was too big to move out of the room. With relative peace returning to the galley, everyone enjoyed the meal. Once it was finished Marcus had Kuina lead Zoe and the others to a bunk room they could use.

After the galley and kitchen were cleaned up, Marcus and the others headed up top to start sailing again. After separating from the pirate ship, Marcus gave orders to raise the sails and he checked their course. As they started to sail away from the rock, Sanji came out onto the deck to look around. Marcus noticed him and asked, “Zombie boy, do you know how to sail?”

Sanji frowned at Marcus as he said, “My name is Sanji!”

“Well you look like a zombie right now, so your name is zombie boy until that changes… And you didn't answer my question.”

Sanji frowned again as he said, “I only really know how to work in the kitchen.”

“Alright, well then you’ll help the old man in the kitchen from now on. But you’ll also need to learn how to help run the ship.”

Marcus pointed at Sabo as he said, “I don't expect you to really help until you are properly healthy. But I want you to shadow Sabo and learn from him.”

Sanji didn't argue and headed towards Sabo to learn as he went about his duties on the ship. Marcus himself pulled out a compass and checked it before he adjusted the ship's course slightly. After half an hour or so, Zeff appeared on the deck and slowly climbed up the stairs leading to the helm.

Once he was on the helm's deck he made his way over to Marcus and asked, “Where did this ship come from? Is it your grandpa's?”

“It was some noble's pleasure ship. We confiscated it because they were colluding with pirates.” Marcus said with a grin.

“That explains the kitchen, it's one of the best ones I've ever seen.”

Zeff stared out over the open sea for a minute or so before he said, “I took stock of the kitchen's inventory. We have a good supply of meat, some rice and cheese… But not much else. Also the last of the bread you have is starting to show signs of mold.”

“Anything that's starting to go bad, just feed it to Luffy.”

Zeff raised an eyebrow as Marcus added, “My brother is like a human garbage disposal… I've seen him eat food out of a trash can before because he considered it still edible.”

“I'll keep that in mind going forward… But we still need supplies so I can cook properly. There is only so much I can make with what we have on hand.”

“We're currently headed towards our next destination and should be able to resupply there. I think it's a week or so away, depending on the weather.” Marcus said as he glanced out over the currently clear skies.

Zeff ended up leaving to start on dinner after a little while and had Sanji tag along to help. A few hours later Marcus switched with Kuina at the helm after she finished her own dinner. When Marcus went down to the galley he found everyone still there eating including Luffy who was back to his normal size.

Marcus took his seat and started to load up his plate as he asked, “Hey old man, how long were you and zombie boy stranded for anyways?”

Zeff frowned slightly before he said, “We were trapped there for over seventy days.”

Luffy's jaw dropped to the table and the large hunk of meat inside it fell out onto the table as everyone turned to look at him. Marcus who was next to him slapped the back of his head as he said, “That's disgusting! Don't spit your food out… And make sure you chew it properly too!”

Luffy's rubber jaw snapped back into place before he said in horror, “You missed over two hundred and ten meals!”

While the newcomers had different reactions, Marcus, Ace and Sabo all stared in wide eyed wonder at how Luffy somehow did math. Sabo, thinking he was dreaming, quickly asked Luffy, “What's three times five?”

Luffy held up his hands with one hand completely spread out and the other with three fingers out. He glanced at it for a few moments as smoke started to come out of his ears before he said confidently, “Eight!”

Marcus, Ace and Sabo let out a sigh of relief and realized Luffy doing math was just a fluke. There was no way someone like Luffy could actually do math. But then Marcus had a disturbing thought and said, “Luffy, you eat too much. I think I should lock you up and not let you eat for the next twenty seven days.”

“No! You can't! I would miss eighty one meals!” Luffy said as he grabbed Marcus by the shoulders and shook him, with a look of terror on his face.

Everyone except Luffy and Marcus collapsed to the floor in shock at Luffy's statement. Marcus would have also collapsed if Luffy wasn't holding him up by the shoulders at the moment. After a few moments as everyone slowly recovered Marcus said, “If you let me go I'll think about making it only five days!”

“No! That's still fifteen meals!”

Everyone collapsed to the floor again at the absurdity of the situation. Apparently Luffy was some kinda math savant, but only when it came to how many meals he would miss… So maybe Luffy was a meal savant instead? Marcus finally told Luffy it was a joke and eventually everyone went back to eating. The rest of dinner was pretty normal after that and before long everyone returned to their rooms for the night unless they were on night duty.

There was also a room change that happened. Since Kuina was no longer going to run the kitchen, she didn't need her room anymore. So she moved to an empty room next to Zoro, while Zeff took her old room and Sanji was given his own room next to Zoro and Kuina.

The next few days passed in a relatively normal routine for the boys, Kuina and Zoro. The six women mostly stayed in their rooms besides meal times, with only Zoe coming out to get some fresh air every once in a while. Sanji would also come out a lot and would watch everyone else train, but never attempted to join in. He also shadowed Sabo and Ace a lot as he learned how to sail the ship.