After moving to a bigger table to sit with Shanks and his crew, Marcus introduced everyone to Yamato before he turned his attention to J or as he now knew her, Jasmine. He studied her for a few moments before he asked, "So why are you with these two? Weren't you gonna find a quiet place and live off all the money you made?"
"That was the plan till that crazy bastard basically killed you, then I realized I really needed to be able to protect myself." Jasmine said as she pointed towards Uta and Baby 5 who were seated on each side of Marcus and added, "These two showed up the next day to find you and we've been together ever since."
Uta nodded along as she said, "We taught her how to fight and she even learned to play bass guitar."
"And what happened to my ship?"
"Well you weren't around and grandpa Rayleigh wouldn't look after it, so we've been using it. But all your stuff is still on it!" Uta said in a happy tone as she completely glossed over the fact that she was clearly wearing one of Marcus's shirts.
Marcus shook his head slightly before he turned towards Baby 5 and asked, "How're you doing? Did your keyboard skills improve?"
"Yes dear, I've practiced diligently the entire time you were gone."
Marcus let out a sigh as he said, "Just call me Marcus."
"Yes Marcus dear."
Marcus rolled his eyes as he asked, "And the money I made is still there?"
"About half is left."
"Half?!?" Marcus asked with an incredulous tone as he turned his full attention to Uta.
Uta nodded with a smile as she said, "Well your money is our money and we needed it."
"What kind of communist propaganda bullshit have you been reading? My money is MY money and no one else's."
Uta and Baby 5 both wrapped their arms around one of Marcus's arms as Uta said, "Husband and wives share everything."
Baby 5 nodded in agreement as she added, "Including money."
Marcus extracted his arms from both girl's grips before he bonked them over the head as he said, "We are not married or even dating! At best we are good friends and nothing more."
Both girls gasped and looked like they were about to cry when Marcus hit them over the head again and said, "Don't even start with that and tell me how you spent half of my money in a year."
"Well we bought clothes."
Marcus raised an eyebrow as he studied Uta and asked, "If that's the case, why are you wearing one of my shirts?"
"It's comfortable and matches the rest of my outfit!"
"Whatever, but that still doesn't explain half my money being missing. There is no way you spent… Shit, I don't even remember how much I had."
"It was aro-" Jasmine started to say before Uta clamped a hand over her mouth and said, "It's fine if you don't remember, it wasn't that much anyway…"
Marcus eyed the girls for a moment before he asked, "So what did you spend the money on?"
"Well there were some slaves we freed from a pirate ship who we gave money to." Uta said as Baby 5 nodded in agreement and added, "We also helped that town rebuild after stopping that pirate raid."
"We also spent money on food and supplies for the ship."
Marcus stared at the girls for a few moments before he said, "Why didn't you bounty hunt to pay for ship supplies?"
"Why do that when we already have money?"
Marcus dropped his head onto the table and let out a groan as Shanks who wasn't far away burst into laughter. Marcus looked up and shot a glare at him before he said, "Laugh it up Lefty."
The whole table and the surrounding area quieted as they turned to look at Shanks who was missing his left arm. Shanks took a long pull from his cup before he smirked as he asked, "I will and shouldn't it be righty instead?"
As Shanks raised up his right arm in emphasis, his crew started to laugh as Uta elbowed Marcus in the ribs and said, "That was rude."
"Not really, old one arm over there doesn't care." Marcus said as he glanced at Shanks and asked, "Isn't that right?"
"It would take a lot more than a few harmless words to upset me." Shanks said with a shrug before he downed the rest of his glass and reached for another one.
"How did that happen anyways?"
"I'll tell you later."
"While we spar?" Marcus asked in a hopeful tone.
"He's still recovering, so no fighting for at least another week or two." Hongo said before he grabbed a full cup from Shanks's hand as he added, "And I told you two drinks max! Alcohol slows the recovery process."
Shanks tried to grab another drink as he complained, "And I told you I'm fine, I'm in perfect health already."
People around the table started laughing at Shanks as he tried to drink more while he fought off Hongo which he failed at with only one arm. Marcus watched the interaction for a few moments before he said, "Perfect health? It looks like you could use a hand if you ask me."
Uta elbowed Marcus again as she said, "Don't make fun of your father in law."
Shanks ran away from Hongo with a bottle of liquor in his hand as he shouted over his shoulder, "If you want my permission to marry Uta, then help me out!"
Uta turned towards Marcus with hope filled eyes before he bluntly said, "No thanks."
"You're a jerk!" Uta said with a pout before she turned away from Marcus with her arms crossed over her chest.
Marcus shook his head and ignored Uta's antics as he turned towards Shanks trying to chug a bottle of alcohol as he ran. It was working for him, but it looked ridiculous at the same time. When he finished it off he stopped running and raised the bottle in the air as he let out a laugh before Hongo landed a flying tackle. Both of them crashed to the floor and Hongo started to wrestle with Shanks as everyone laughed. Marcus glanced towards Yamato who was also laughing and asked, "Having fun?"
Yamato nodded as she said, "Yeah, this is great."
"So wanna learn how to play drums?"
Yamato glanced at Jasmine, then Baby 5 who was leaning against Marcus's shoulder and Uta who was still pouting before she focused on Marcus and asked, "I'm not gonna become like them, right?"
"Hey, I'm not like that!"
"You don't have to worry about becoming like them, they both have mental issues." Marcus said as Baby 5 nodded in agreement while Uta huffed and turned completely away from Marcus.
Yamato glanced between the two girls for a few moments before she asked, "And we'll travel around the world?"
"Yup. We will need to do a few things first, but we will definitely see the world."
"Then I'll join your crew."
Marcus shook his head as he said, "We aren't a crew, we're a band that also bounty hunts sometimes."
"What's the band's name?"
"No idea, I haven't gotten that far yet since we technically just formed… Any ideas?" Marcus asked as he glanced over the girls around him.
Those others quieted to think as Shanks was being tied up by Hongo and a couple of other crew members so he wouldn't drink anymore. Marcus watched the entire interaction as he went over band names but none of them felt right to him. After a while Uta finally said, "Marcus and the bombshells."
"Nope." Marcus said without even a second thought as Jasmine and Yamato nodded in agreement.
"Marcus and his future wives?"
"No!" Jasmine and Yamato said at the same time as Marcus bopped Baby 5 over the head.
"What about calling the band Uta?" Marcus asked after a moment before everyone turned to look at him.
"I don't want the band named after me."
"And neither do I."
Everyone started to throw out random names but no one could agree on what sounded good. Shanks and some of his crew also threw out names, but no matter what Marcus and the others didn't fully agree on the name. Marcus tried to steal some popular band names he remembered, but even those were voted down so he gave up and let the others figure it out. A few hours later and they were still stuck without a clear winner so Marcus said, "Let's worry about a name later. We still need to get Yamato a drum set and teach her how to play. Then we need to come up with some songs."
"Oh, I already wrote a few!" Uta excitedly said as she waved her hand around.
"I have a few I've been brainstorming too." Marcus said as he thought about all the music they could easily recreate.
"Really? Can we hear them?"
Marcus shook his head as he said, "I still need to figure more of the songs out and write them down properly first."
Marcus spent the rest of the day talking with Uta, Baby 5 and the others until after dinner where he pulled Shanks aside to go talk. As they headed outside to talk, Hongo yelled from the table, "Make sure he doesn't drink!"
"Sure thing doc."
Once outside, Shanks and Marcus moved away from the docks and the bar to a small hilltop with a nice view of the area. They sat down on the grass and sat together in silence as they watched the sky turn dark before Marcus pulled out a bottle of whiskey and handed it to Shanks. Shanks took the bottle with a grin as he said, "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
"I'm still not joining your crew."
"Bah, who wants a brat like you in their crew."
Marcus chuckled as he said, "You did the last time you tried to lose your arm."
Shanks glanced at where his missing arm should be and let out a sigh before he said, "Honestly everything would have been easier if you just let me lose my arm back then."
"Why do you think that?"
Shanks ripped the top off the bottle with his teeth and took a long pull from it before he said, "I had to cut it off before a serious fight with someone."
"Why did you have to cut off your arm?"
Shanks took another long drink and stared out to sea for a few moments before he said, "So I couldn't be controlled by it."
Marcus glanced towards Shanks and studied him for a few moments before he asked, "You want to expand on that?"
"No… It doesn't matter anymore anyways." Shanks said as he shook his head and took another drink.
They both sat there as the sky darkened fully without speaking until Shanks finished the bottle and asked, "What about you? Uta wanted me to kill Doflamingo because of you… Are you gonna go after him?"
"It was a thought, but if I kill him then the world government will probably try to make me take his spot or label me a pirate…"
"That would definitely happen."
Marcus nodded slowly as he said, "It's the only reason I didn't go for his head after I woke up. For now he gets to live because I don't wanna deal with the fallout."
"What about Uta and Baby 5?"
"What about them?"
Shanks side eyed Marcus as he said, "They both think you're going to marry them."
"And I already told them no."
"Well pick one of them or make it more clear."
Marcus let out a helpless laugh as he asked, "How is a direct no, not clear enough? What do you want me to do, beat them up?"
"If it works."
"Really? You want me to beat up Uta?"
"No…"
"Exactly. Plus it would probably destroy the band before we even started properly." Marcus said with a sigh before he added, "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will work out eventually if I don't indulge their fantasies… I hope…"