Ch 30

(... Remember what I said about Laffitte...? How I did know if he was part of BB's crew yet... Well, If I had read ahead a bit more, I would have found that he was at the Warlords meeting, promoting Blackbeard... *sigh* Whatever...

Also, I just had to finish this bit.)

It didn't take long to arrive at the docks and get to the ship.

When he was walking through the docks, Leo saw all the ships of the deceased pirates and had a fantastic idea. He made a bunch of clones and had them go steal all that was worthwhile.

Nami, who he was still carrying, obviously realized that he made all the clones and questioned him.

Nami - "What's the clones for?"

Leo - "To take the spoils of war."

She obviously got what he meant and got excited.

Nami - "Is this your way of 'making it up to me'? Because, I forgive you if it is!"

Leo - *Chuckles* "No, but it can be an advance for it. Honestly, did you think I would just throw money at you to make it up to you? I'm hurt!"

He pretended to be sad, which was apparently convincing, because she got all panicky.

Nami - "Ah! No! I didn't- I just-"

Leo put a finger to her lips to get her to be quiet.

Leo - "Calm down. I was just teasing, sorry. I know you don't think like that."

He slowly moved his finger away, which was when Nami leaned her head on his chest.

Nami - "... I was worried that you were really sad there... Idiot."

Leo - "My dark sense of humour can be troublesome, sorry."

Nami - *Sighs* "What do you plan to do with all that treasure anyways?"

Leo - "I'm just gonna give it to the crew. I don't have much need for it anyways."

Nami - "Well, aren't you generous~?"

Leo - "Only to my friends."

They continued to talk while making their way to Merry and soon arrived

When they got on the ship, Leo put Nami down and left her to go do what she needed.

Leo went over to the spot where he went through his violent transformation and saw the broken railing from his grip, along with the broken and scorched boards.

He stroked his hand along part of the railing.

Leo - *quietly* "Sorry about this Merry..."

After her said that, he turned to go get some tools to fix her.

As he walked, a quiet voice echoed in his ear.

"It's... Okay..."

Leo stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. His eyes widened when he looked at the figurehead of the ship. There was a faint glow around it and he could feel a soul in it, one that he never felt before.

The soul was faint and he wouldn't have noticed it was there at all if he wasn't looking for it, nor if the soul was inactive.

He saw the soul start to dim and go inactive again, but now that he knew about it, he could easily identify it.

Leo - 'That is most likely Merry... She has started forming...'

Leo went into deep thought about something and started making his way to get stuff to repair the ship with.

Leo - 'This is gonna take some experimenting...'

He got the stuff he needed and got to work with the repairs.

While he fixed the ship, they got to sailing and made their way around to the other side of the island.

On the way, they ran into the brother of the Scavenger captain Masira they met, Shoujou, who started accompanying them to their base, where they would talk to their boss, Mont Blanc Cricket.

It didn't take too long to get to their base of operations, where everyone disembarked Merry and went to a house behind a model of a castle.

Cricket wasn't there though, so they had to wait.

Leo went to the Merry and sat in a meditative pose. He was thinking of what he could do with his powers, different ways to apply them and situations.

After a short while, he decided that his best option would be to train his Haki, so he went to his dimension, in the section where his other clones were training.

When he got there and looked around, the place had changed a LOT, from the barren landscape when he made it, to a battlefield with mountains, forests and lakes. There was even a volcano.

The land had signs of battle. Chunks of earth seemingly gauged out. Mountains with huge slashes in them. Trees that had been cut and scorched.

Leo - "What the hell..."

Just as he was about to go looking for one his clones, they all came to him.

C. Leo's - """Sup."""

Leo looked at his clones with a blank expression.

Leo - *Sigh* "Half of you disperse..."

They did so and he was barraged with all their memories and experience, which made him feel a bit dizzy.

After getting over his dizziness, he sorted through everything and was immediately happy.

His happiness came from the great progress he has gotten with all his Powers and Weapon skills. He was pretty sure he could beat Zoro with just swordsmanship, some of the clones even learnt three-sword style.

With his powers, control was always good to have, but knowing what you are really capable of is even better. For example, finding out that he can now transform into any animal that he consumes the soul of, all thanks to the Clone Clone fruit that he got from Mr.2. The only downside is that he couldn't use partial transformations, like a Zoan could. Atleast not yet.

As he continued looking through the memories, he found that some clones had tried practicing the Rokushiki. They only managed to learn Soru, Shigan and Rankyaku, so the ones that mostly require strength and only to a certain degree. But, it is all good nonetheless.

He continued looking, which lead him to two things that kind of annoyed him.

Leo - "Why the hell they/I decide to practice Mr.2's fighting style... And were they/I really so bored that they/I learned to dance, just so we could use dance fighting..."

Some of his clones started to snigger, while other looked away and whistled suspiciously.

Leo started rubbing his temple in frustration.

He waved his hand and dispersed everyone. The reason being that he found out that they weren't able to use Haki, because they were made before he could.

Without wasting time, he made a bunch of clones and had them go start training again. This time, they could train with Haki, though the primary focus was Armament Haki, because he would soon be meeting a wannabe god.

He also visited his other two islands, which he hadn't actually been making use of, because they were frankly too weak. But, he had a slight plan for that.

For his plan, he made a couple clones on each island and left them to enact it, as well as practice something extra.

With all his clones set with their tasks, Leo left his dimension and went back to the ship, where only a few seconds had passed.

For the rest of the time they had to wait, he went and sparred with Zoro using his Red Dragonblade.(Genji sword)

As they clashed, the others watch the show.

Zoro backed up a bit and looked at Leo suspiciously.

Zoro - "How have you suddenly improved so much?"

Leo grinned.

Leo - "Just had to practice for a few years."

Zoro - *Confused* "What's that supposed t-!!"

As Zoro spoke, Leo used Soru and appeared infront of him, slashing down and making him block.

Leo - "You shouldn't talk so much in a fight."

Zoro - "Grr!"

Zoro pushed Leo away.

Zoro - "What happened to restraining your strength?"

Leo - "I am..."

He used Soru again, going to cut Zoro's waist, which was hurriedly dodged.

Leo - "This is a technique to utilise your strength. Now, talk afterwards."

Leo started using Soru more and gained a big advantage, but the more he used it, the more Zoro could predict and see what he was doing.

The same could be said for Luffy and Sanji.

Luffy seemed like he was trying to come up with a way to catch up to that speed. And Sanji, he was really interested in the technique that Leo was using, seeing that it uses ones legs and was essentially just kicking off the ground multiple times in quick succession, it would fit his fighting style quite well.

The spar continued for quite a while, but neither Leo nor Zoro minded.

Leo was improving his skills while fighting. There is only so much that training will do for you after all.

Meanwhile, Zoro was excited to have a good bit of competition as it was also helping him improve.

Their spar had started to get a bit intense as they started going for more viscous strikes.

For Leo, such strikes were of no consequence, but for Zoro, he could be seriously injured if Leo were to get a little serious. Which had just started to happen, evident by him beginning to laugh.

Leo had unconsciously started using his Haki on his sword, reinforcing each of his swing. If it weren't for the fact that his Haki was only in the most basic stage and could only assist in hitting Logias, he may have already seriously wounded Zoro.

Small cuts started to appear on Zoro, at which point he realized that Leo had gotten too into the fight and started putting his all into it.

Zoro had just deflected a slash that would cut his arm off if he was a second slower. He kicked Leo in the stomach and at the same time, used him to jump back, where he started getting ready to use Onigiri.

However, as Zoro got ready, Leo saw him and also got ready to use a big move.

Leo held his sword in his right hand and placed over his shoulder, at his back, in a drawing position. He pulled the sword from his back in a drawing motion, skillfully did a full forward swing on his right side and then another on his left before bringing it back to his right side, above his shoulder, held with both hands and pointing towards Zoro, ready to strike.

Those watching and Zoro, saw an illusory dragon appear around Leo and were shocked.

Leo's killing intent started to subconsciously leak in small amounts, warning Zoro that Leo was going seriously with this attack of his.

Suddenly, Leo burst forth, appearing infront of Zoro, blade raised and striking down at him.

Without a second thought, Zoro dived to the side.

When the slash came down completely, a blood red arc shot out, carving up the ground and trees in it's path.

(Ryujin no ken wo kinae!)

Leo stood in his completed strike position for a moment, grinning like a maniac, before his grin suddenly disappeared and he stood up straight, looking at the mess he just made and then turning to the ones watching sheepishly.

Leo - "Hehe... Oops?"

They just continued to look at the mess he made.

Usopp - "What..."

Sanji - "The hell..."

Luffy - "WAS THAT!!?"

Luffy was seemingly more impressed and amazed that shocked. He even had sparkles in his eyes.

Zoro - "WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?!?"

Leo walked over and helped Zoro up.

Leo - "... Sorry... I got too excited."

Zoro - "How the hell did you go from complete novice to that in a few days!?"

Leo - "I just made a bunch of clones and had them train for me. I get all the benefits and more time to myself. Though it does seem to be more efficient to train personally."

Zoro - "... I hate you and your bullshit powers..."

Zoro then went to get himself treated while Leo stood there with a smirk.

Leo decided to fix the ground up and then went to go meditate on the Merry, or basically just calm down from the spar.

While he was meditating, Cricket had returned to his house and the rest of the crew talked about going to Sky Island.

They also listened to Crickets story of being a descendant someone renowned as a liar and how he was the one who revealed that the Sky Island exist. Blah blah blah. (Canon shit.)

In the end, he was won over by Luffy and explained what would need to be done. The only real difference is that no one really panicked.

Eventually, Nami went to get Leo so that they could all have a party.

It was part way into the night that Cricket remembered that they would need a special type of bird to get to where they needed to go. So, Leo did what he does best and abducted another creature, for however long they need it.

He returned in a minute, in which the crew was still eating and drinking, but Cricket and his men got to work on the ship.

Leo went back to the crew and ate some more, internally crying because he can't get drunk.

When morning came, the ship was ready to go and so was everyone else.

As they were leaving, Leo decided to show some gratitude.

Leo - "Hey, Cricket!"

Cricket - "Yeah?"

Leo - "Just so you know, your ancestor didn't lie. The reason no one found anything, is simply because they looked in the wrong place. The knock up stream sent part of this island to the sky. If you just take a map of Jaya and draw the top half of a skull around where the stream appears, you'll understand everything. Anyways, see ya."

Leo then turned his back to a shocked Cricket and got on the Merry.

Zoro - "Why did you tell him all that?"

Leo - "Just showing some gratitude."

The Crew then left, accompanied by the two monkey brothers.

They arrive at where they needed to be pretty early, courtesy of Leo slaughtering a town, so the ended up having to wait around for awhile.

But, as they hoped, the sky soon turned dark and the sea formed a giant whirlpool.

The two monkey brothers helped them get into the whirlpool and told to get to the centre, which they did and the water suddenly settled before shooting them flying into the sky, then they just had to sail up the side of it under the direction of Nami.

Soon enough, they reached the clouds, which was the same being underwater. As in there was no air... Which is a problem for everyone other than Leo...

When they finally broke out of the cloud sea and then landed in it, everyone gasped for air, while Leo just looked at them.

Leo - "You guys look like shit."

Zoro - "Screw you."

Sanji - "Asshole."

Usopp - "Bonehead."

Luffy - "Immortal."

Usopp - "That's not an insult Luffy."

Luffy - "...Flaming skeleton."

Usopp - "Close enough."

Leo looked at them with a look of superiority.

Leo - "Oh? Then I guess you won't want me to dry you up then."

He turned and walked over to Nami and Robin, used the Sand Sand Fruit and absorbed the moisture from their clothes, then used his Hellfire to heat the area around him. Chopper also got dried.

Guys - "We're very sorry. Please dry us."

Leo - "Hmm... Nope!"

The guys started to sulk in their wet clothes. Leo laughed at them and the girls shook their heads at the boys antics.

They had official arrived at the sea in the sky and could start their adventure at anytime.

(Y'know what? You'll get the next chapter when you get the next chapter.)