After turning in the pirates to the marines and sacking their boat for loot much to Tashigi and the marines dismay. Marcus led everyone back to the boat along with Ipponmatsu and Tashigi. The first thing he did was tell Zeff to prepare a birthday feast before he headed to the hull and showed Ipponmatsu all the weapons they had in storage.
Marcus gave the man a good amount of weapons for the swords Zoro received. But even then, they still had a large amount left over. Ipponmatsu took a bit of time as he looked over everything before he made Marcus an offer for everything. It wasn't a very generous offer and Marcus knew he could probably haggle for more. In the end he just agreed and told Ipponmatsu they would remove the weapons from the hold but he would need to carry them back to his shop.
Ipponmatsu quickly found dock workers and rented a couple of carts to load up the goods. After he took them back to the shop, he would come back with the money and pay Marcus in full for everything. Before Ipponmatsu left with all the weapons, Marcus asked him if he knew anyone interested in the other items they had. Ipponmatsu glanced over everything and said he would talk with a couple people he knew before he came back with payment for the weapons.
After Ipponmatsu left, Marcus headed down to the galley where he found Luffy and the others bombarding Tashigi with random questions. Tashigi was flustered from all the attention and could barely answer a question before another was asked. Marcus shook his head at the sight before he said over everyone, "Settle down everyone, we have something important to discuss."
"Is it meat?" Luffy asked in a serious tone.
Marcus slipped something onto his hand before he disappeared from view and Luffy hit the deck a moment later as Marcus said over his body, "It's not about meat you idiot!"
"Owww, why does it hurt so much."
Marcus showed Luffy the sea stone knuckles that covered his hand as he said, "I had them made just for you as a birthday present."
Luffy rubbed the lump forming on top of his head as he asked, "If they're a birthday present for me, why do you have them?"
"What are you talking about? I just gave them to you a moment ago… They are a gift that just keeps on giving." Marcus said with a grin as he pounded one fist into the other.
Luffy pouted and rubbed his head as Marcus turned to everyone else and said, "Like I was saying, we have something important to discuss."
Marcus pointed at Kuina as he said, "Apparently it was her birthday the other day and she didn't tell us."
"What!?!" Almost everyone asked at the same time.
"We missed out on a party and cake?!?" Luffy asked in horror.
Marcus waved off the comments as he said, "We did. But I asked Zeff to prepare a birthday feast for Kuina a little while ago. So he went to collect a few things and we will have a party in a couple hours."
Everyone started to get excited before Marcus said, "Since we're gonna celebrate Kuina's birthday, I want everyone to take the next hour or so to go get her a present."
"You don't have to do that." Kuina said as she waved her hands in front of herself and shook her head.
"You're right, we don't." Ace said with a grin before he added, "But we want to."
Others nodded in agreement before Marcus said, "Alright everyone is free to go shopping, just be back in a couple hours at most."
As everyone started to clear out of the room, Luffy grabbed Tashigi and dragged her along as she said, "What are you doing? I don't need to get a present, I just came to spar."
Luffy shook his head as he said matter of factly, "Marcus said everyone needed to get a present for Kuina."
Marcus chuckled slightly at the exchange before he turned to Kuina and said, "You are on watch duty until Zeff gets back."
Kuina nodded slightly as she followed Marcus out of the room and headed towards the main deck to train. Marcus didn't leave the ship just yet and waited for Ipponmatsu to return. Zeff returned with Sanji in tow within ten minutes or so of waiting and Ipponmatsu arrived five minutes later with a couple of people.
Ipponmatsu first handed a bag over to Marcus as he said, "Everything we agreed on is in there."
Marcus took the bag with a nod before he said, "Pleasure doing business with you."
Ipponmatsu nodded in return before he introduced the two people with him. They were both shop owners like him, but one specialized in luxury goods, jewelry and accessories. While the other man was focused on normal, more mundane goods. Marcus took them both below deck and after letting them look through what they had collected as he waited for an offer.
Both offers were lower than he expected, so he ended up haggling with each of them for a bit before they each came to another agreement they were both happy with. Afterwards they went to hire dock workers to transport everything to their respective shops. It took about an hour, but the hull of the ship was finally cleaned out of all the junk they collected and Marcus made a large amount of money for the trouble.
With only forty minutes or so until the party would start, Marcus headed out himself to get Kuina a present. He wasn't completely sure what to get her, but remembering her talk about wanting comfortable clothes decided to visit a clothing store and look around. He ended up in the nicer part of town by the marine base with better dressed people since he decided to run instead of walking. After he searched around for a while, he found a clothing store that looked pretty decent and decided to head inside.
"Greetings and welcome to the Golden Thimble young man." The pleasant sounding voice of a woman said from behind the main counter.
Marcus politely nodded back as the heavy set woman behind the counter smiled and asked, "Is there something I can help you with?" Her voice trailed off at the end as the woman glanced at Marcus's outfit with a hint of disgust and said, "I expect a certain amount of decorum from people who shop here."
Marcus glanced down at his outfit and realized it was worn out with rips and cuts in certain places. But the thing the woman was probably disgusted with was the dried blood that was all over it. Marcus gave a helpless smile as he said, "Sorry, I fought some pirates earlier and forgot to change clothes because I was in a hurry."
The woman's face softened a little before she said, "I'll let it slide this one time, but if you visit again, you'll be in clean clothes at least or I'll throw you out."
Marcus nodded as the woman asked, "Good, now what can I help you with?"
Marcus smiled helplessly as he said, "I was planning to buy a friend of mine an outfit, but I just realized I don't know what size she wears."
The woman's eyes lit up with mischief as she asked in a conspiratorial tone, "Is this girl a friend?" The woman raised her hands and made quotation marks as she added with a wink, "or a "girlfriend?"
A playful smirk played across Marcus's face as he said, "Let's just say she's a friend who I get hot and sweaty with at least once a day."
The woman looked almost scandalized as she covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. Marcus's smirk turned into a grin as he patted his sword and said, "We train together in swordsmanship every day."
The woman's eyes widened as she realized Marcus wasn't talking about what she thought he meant and blushed slightly before she said, "You should have said that in the first place you little rascal."
Marcus tilted his head slightly as he asked in an innocent tone, "What else would we do to get hot and sweaty?"
The woman studied Marcus for a few moments before she asked with narrowed eyes, "You… Never mind… So is this girl friend of yours with a sword, Tashigi?"
Marcus shook his head before his eyes lit up and he said, "No, but she is the same exact size!"
"Another girl is training in swordsmanship besides Tashigi? I wonder why I've never met her or Tashigi even mentioned her?" The woman asked as she came out from behind the counter and headed towards a section of clothes.
Marcus followed the woman as he said, "We just arrived on the island today and met Tashigi for the first time a couple of hours ago."
"Oh, that makes sense. We get a lot of visitors to the island but rarely are they kids. Mostly traders, pirates and seamen." The woman said as she nodded before she stopped in front of a clothing rack.
She turned to Marcus as she asked, "So what does this friend of yours like clothing wise?"
"She likes comfortable clothes that are easy to move in and don't hinder her ability to fight."
The woman nodded as she asked, "Color preference?"
Marcus thought about her normal clothes before he said, "She likes to wear lighter colors. But I've also seen her wear dark red or blue pants."
The woman hummed slightly to herself as she started to look through the clothing on the racks. She quickly selected a couple different pieces which she showed to Marcus before she asked, "What about these?"
"Those tops don't look good, but the shorts are fine."
Marcus and the woman spent the next ten minutes going through different combinations of clothing before they settled on an outfit. Marcus nodded at the chosen outfit in satisfaction before he asked, "What are your policies on if it doesn't fit?"
"Just bring her back with the outfit and I'll adjust it to fit her… And maybe find you some decent clothes at the same time." The woman said as she glanced at Marcus's outfit again with more disgust.
Marcus nodded as he said, "I'll probably be back tomorrow to get clothes then."
After he paid, Marcus had the woman place the clothes in a nice looking gift bag before he headed back to the ship for the party. When he arrived he found everyone there along with Tashigi who looked a little awkward at being in the whole situation. She was seated by Luffy and Usopp while the latter was in the middle of telling her about his first fight against pirates… Which he exaggerated about greatly.
Marcus placed his present on the table where a pile of presents were before he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Once everyone turned towards him he said, "Looks like everything is almost ready, but before we begin I just wanted to say this."
Marcus turned towards Kuina as he said, "Even if you don't want to celebrate your birthday, or think it isn't a big deal."
Marcus waved towards everyone else in the room and the gifts placed on the table as he said, "Everyone else here will easily disagree with you. So speak up next time so we can celebrate it on the actual day."
Kuina lowered her head slightly as everyone cheered in agreement. A few moments later Zeff and Sanji come out of the kitchen carrying food and within a few minutes the galley tables were covered in a feast and a large cake. Before they could start eating, Marcus led everyone in singing happy birthday to Kuina and then the party fully kicked off.