A few days passed quickly as Marcus healed completely and Shakky gave him a clean bill of health. The same day that happened Rayleigh called everyone to the bar where he said, "I'm gonna take Marcus to go train and we won't be back for at least a year."
"Where are we gonna go grandpa?"
"You and the Baby 5 aren't coming." Rayleigh said, which caused both girls to ask, "Why not?"
"Because you're both weaker than Marcus and I really don't wanna train all of you at the same time."
Uta held up her arm and coated her fist in haki for a moment as she said, "But I can already use haki!"
"You can barely use it and Baby 5 can't use it at all. No, it would be a waste of my time to train all three of you. Instead you'll be going to train on Shakky's home island, I've already talked to Shanks about it and he agreed."
Uta frowned as she said, "But I wanted to train with Marcus."
Baby 5 nodded in agreement as she added, "I wanted to help Marcus train and cook food for him every day."
"Which is another reason I won't be training all of you. Marcus doesn't need you girls around as a distraction, he'll be too busy training to do anything else."
Baby 5 lowered her head slightly as Uta pouted before Marcus said, "Honestly I agree. I came to Rayleigh for training and having either of you around is going to distract me from that."
Uta looked like she was about to respond when Marcus held up a hand and said, "I know you just wanted to spend time with me, but I want to train and get stronger."
"But I can trai-" Marcus stopped her from talking as he bopped her on the head as he said, "You can train, but whenever you're around me or your dad you tend to slack off. So go somewhere new where you can't do that, it will be good for you."
Marcus then turned to Baby 5 as he said, "As for you, I want you to go train how to use your devil fruit powers better and learn how to use haki properly in a fight. I also want you to get better at playing that keyboard you picked up."
Baby 5 nodded slowly as she said, "You can count on me, I promise I'll be useful."
Marcus reached out and placed a gentle hand on Baby 5's shoulder as he said, "Remember what I told you. You're already useful and don't ever think differently."
Baby 5 looked like she was about to cry but was interrupted as Rayleigh said, "As interesting as this teenage drama is, I wanna set sail today, so wrap this up."
"What? You're gonna leave today?" Uta asked with a frown.
Marcus chuckled slightly before he stood and hugged Baby 5 followed by Uta as he said goodbye to both of them. Afterwards he turned towards Rayleigh and said, "Alright, I'm ready to go whenever you are."
"Good. I've already checked out your ship, it's a little small. But it should get us where we need to go without much issue."
"You wanna use my ship?"
Rayleigh nodded before he added, "You said you brought a bunch of alcohol for me, we won't need to unload it if we take your ship. Plus I already added supplies to your cargo hold while you were recovering."
Marcus nodded before he turned to Shakky and said, "Thanks for all the help, I'll bring you something nice the next time I visit."
A playful smile played across Shakky's face as she said, "I look forward to it."
Marcus then turned towards Gab and Limejuice as he said, "It was good to see you both again and tell Shanks I said hi."
They both nodded before Marcus followed Rayleigh out the door. Out of everyone, Baby 5 and Uta followed him quietly down to the dock to watch them leave. When they reached his ship, Marcus unloaded Baby 5's music books, equipment and other things as he said, "Make sure you practice with Uta, she should be able to help you out if you can't find a proper music teacher."
Baby 5 nodded as Marcus focused on Uta and said, "Be nice to Baby 5 going forward, she could use a real friend."
Uta frowned slightly but nodded her head before Marcus jumped onto his ship and started to untie it from the dock. Rayleigh helped out and as they started to pull away, Marcus waved towards both the girls before they disappeared from view. As they navigated their way out of the island Marcus asked, "Where exactly are we going anyways?"
"An island in the Calm Belt that should be perfect for you to train at."
Marcus slowly nodded before he asked, "Do you have an eternal pose for it?"
Rayleigh held up a piece of white paper as he said, "It doesn't have one, but I have the next best thing."
Once out on the open waters, Marcus fully raised the main sail and caught a decent head wind. Once the ship was up to speed, Marcus pushed the gearbox into place and stepped on the bike as Rayleigh asked, "What exactly is that thing for anyways?"
Marcus started to pedal and as the hydrofoils engaged properly he said, "To help this boat reach its full potential."
Once the boat was fully out of the water and riding on the hydrofoils only, Marcus pointed towards them as he said, "Those are hydrofoils, they helped me travel the Grandline in about a week if you don't count my stops along the way."
"This boat can travel the first half of the Grandline in a week?!?"
Marcus nodded as he said, "If I wasn't alone and had someone else who could pedal this properly it would have been even faster."
Rayleigh rubbed his chin in thought for a few moments before he said, "I thought it would take at least a day or two to reach our destination, but with this boat we might reach it tonight."
"Well if you take care of the sail and man the helm, I'll focus on this to keep us at top speed the entire time."
Rayleigh nodded before he took over the helm and checked the ship's direction. After a slight adjustment to the heading, he trimmed the sails slightly before he pulled out his flask and took a drink. Once they settled into their respective duties, Rayleigh glanced towards Marcus and asked, "So you like both those girls huh?"
Marcus shook his head as he said, "I like both of them as friends, but both of them have a screw loose and want to marry me for different reasons."
"In that case, you should just tell them how you feel."
Marcus chuckled before he said, "I can't do that yet with Baby 5 because she would think I'm abandoning her. Once she gets over her mental issue with being needed I will…"
"And Uta?"
Marcus let out a helpless sigh before he said, "I tried it the last time she came to visit. When I got her to calm down and convinced her that I didn't hate her… Well she basically said as long as I love her, I could love whoever else I wanted at the same time and she would be happy."
Rayleigh let out a deep laugh and said, "Looks like she forgot to add in the fact that she would be incredibly jealous of any other girl that liked you."
"Ain't that the truth…"
Marcus and Rayleigh chatted about a wide range of topics as they made incredible time towards their destination. By the time the sun was just starting to set they crossed over into the Calm Belt and had to reef the sail. While they lost speed, Marcus was able to keep the ship going on its hydrofoils by his leg power alone. As for the sea kings, Marcus felt Rayleigh's conqueror's haki at work which kept them away. Marcus was sure he could do something similar, but it would never last as long as Rayleigh's.
As for the island they were traveling towards, Rayleigh's used two different pieces of vivre card to determine its exact location. Marcus wasn't sure on the time when they finally arrived, but it had to be close to midnight when they docked the ship. Rayleigh chose an area on the south side of the island with shallow water where they anchored the ship. Afterwards they ate something before he said, "Get some rest, training starts first thing in the morning."
Marcus woke up early in the morning to find Rayleigh still asleep, so he started doing his normal warm up routine while he waited. Within half an hour or so, Rayleigh appeared shirtless and half asleep as he scratched his belly. He let out a yawn as he slowly focused on Marcus before he asked, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Pre-breakfast warm up routine."
Rayleigh glanced around and frowned as he said, "The sun isn't even up yet."
"You said we would start training first thing in the morning."
"Yeah, in the morning." Rayleigh said as he waved his hand to the darkness around them and added, "This isn't the morning."
"Well this is when my morning normally starts. You can go back to your beauty sleep, I'll be here whenever you're ready to train."
Rayleigh's eyes narrowed slightly as he said, "I was gonna let you rest some more, but if you wanna start training already…"
Rayleigh pointed towards the island as he said, "Let's go and see where you stack up."
Rayleigh, still in his boxers, took Marcus with his sword into the island and found a small clearing just off the coast. He squared off with Marcus as he said, "Come at me with everything you got until you can't use haki anymore."
Marcus drew his sword as he asked, "Are you sure? You don't have a weapon."
Rayleigh grabbed a random stick that instantly turned jet black before he said, "Yeah, I'll be fine."
Marcus nodded as he unleashed his conqueror's haki and coated his sword in armament haki before he rushed towards Rayleigh. Rayleigh didn't respond with overwhelming conqueror's haki, but just enough to erode Marcus's and force it back. As Marcus attacked, Rayleigh kept the perfect amount of pressure on him the entire time. It felt nothing like his crushing defeat at the hands of Doflamingo, but at the same time Marcus was being pushed harder.
Doflamingo absolutely dominating Marcus's conqueror's haki with his own was nothing compared to what was happening now. When Marcus fought Doflamingo, he could easily keep his Conqueror's haki active around himself. It wasn't pleasant to do, but it worked. But the way Rayleigh kept slightly more pressure then Marcus could produce ate away at his reserves incredibly fast. Marcus could feel his conqueror's haki slowly growing from the clash, but he also knew he wouldn't last more than a minute at the rate it was going.
As Marcus's conqueror's haki started to flicker out like a dying flame at the end of a candle's wick, Rayleigh said, "Keep going and don't stop pushing!"
Marcus didn't stop and kept pushing himself until his conqueror's haki completely disappeared. As that happened Marcus dropped to the ground covered in sweat. Marcus didn't even last five minutes against Rayleigh and he already felt like he'd trained all day long. Rayleigh slowly approached as he said, "Not bad for a kid, but compared to everyone else in the world… You're definitely lacking."
Marcus chuckled as he said, "Tell me something I don't know."
"Your swordsmanship is already good, but it's not really compatible with mine or Roger's style. I'll spar with you every day to help you refine your swordsmanship, but I won't be able to teach you any techniques. You'll have to create your own."
Marcus slowly nodded as he sat up and said, "In that case, should I stop using divine departure?"
Rayleigh chuckled as he said, "No, that technique you use is similar, but it's definitely not Roger's or even Shanks divine departure. Just keep working on it and I'm sure it will turn into something you can fully call your own one day."
Rayleigh reached out and helped Marcus up as he said, "Alright, let's go eat breakfast and then we'll practice swordsmanship until you recover enough to use haki again."