414. Grandline Begins

The Straw Hats bid farewell to Crocus and leave after having a good talk. Crocus watches as they leave and he looks quite interested in the rookies. After all, Buggy's kids are among them, their Captain reminds him of Roger, and the others are also interesting.

"Knowing Buggy, he should've known his kids have entered Grandline by now. I can't wait to see what will happen from now on. Surpassing his father? That might be an even harder dream than becoming a Pirate King. Young Leo, you will find out soon that your father has the ability to conquer this world if he wants," says Crocus while smiling.

Crocus befriended both Buggy and Roger, so he knows them quite well. Roger is the most charismatic man he has ever met. But Buggy gives off a more dangerous feeling than even the Pirate King, Whitebeard, or Garp.

It's not just Crocus who thinks like that though. Even Whitebeard who has fought against Buggy and Rayleigh who were close to Roger admits that Buggy feels more dangerous than Roger. The current Buggy can't even be compared to when he was defeating Whitebeard.

He is much stronger now and he hasn't even reached his prime age yet because he is still 37 now. That is Buggy's scariest aspect, he still can grow. Those who know it are afraid to even know how powerful he will be once he reaches his prime age.

That's why the World Government and Marine are very careful to do something about Buggy. They are very lucky that Buggy is only interested in exploring the world and not conquering it like Rocks. He may be even more dangerous than Rocks D. Xebec.

But they are still preparing countermeasures in case they need to face Buggy. They are still enemies, after all, so the chance of them clashing is quite high. The World Government doesn't want to face him unless they're sure of their win, so they never attacked Buggy and his people.

However, Buggy knows they won't stay silent all the time. They must've prepared something for him and the other Emperors. At the very least, he knows they are making Pacifista right now, and they will keep improving it. With Vegapunk behind that project, they will reach their goals soon.

Well, Buggy and his crew aren't staying still either. They are preparing a few things too these years to prepare for anything that might happen in the future. Buggy doesn't want to just rely on their power, he wants to have many cards to use.

Back to the Straw Hats, they have gone quite far from Twin Cape. They are very excited to explore Grandline, but they are just about to experience why it is called the most dangerous sea. These rookies will face Grandline's most famous trait, its weather.

Nami suddenly senses the air changing and right after that, the nice weather turns into a storm. They immediately work to face the storm because this storm is even more powerful than any storm in East Blue.

The strong waves are rocking their ship and they feel like it will flip if they stop controlling it. The storm lasts for hours and when they think they can relax, a blizzard suddenly happens. They are working again for hours before the weather calms down.

Luckily, they don't meet another dangerous weather until they reach the first island. Now they feel very relieved because they aren't ready for another dangerous weather. They are very tired and want to rest for a while.

Just like in the series, the first island they visit is Whiskey Peak. They get welcomed with a celebration by the people. It always happens on Whiskey Peak because this is their best strategy to make the rookies drop their vigilance.

Then just like how it was in the series too, the Straw Hats are fooled by this. Well, only Luffy and Usopp get fooled actually because the others could feel that this is too strange. Their suspicions are proved at night when the bounty hunters start their real plan.

Zoro is the first one who confronts them and he fights against the bounty hunters alone. Sanji wants to fight too, but Leo stops him and tells him to gather food instead because they are low on supply. As for Leo, he watches Zoro facing the bounty hunters from a rooftop.

"Big sis must've looting this place now. I don't have anything to do, so let's make this merrier," says Leo while taking out a harmonica.

He starts to play a tense song as the battle's background music using his harmonica. Zoro sweatdrops when he hears it, but he keeps fighting. He wants to shout at Leo to help him, but he also wants to fight alone, so he ignores Leo.

Of course, the bounty hunters also hear his song, so some of them are trying to attack him. But they can't reach him because he made a fire field around him. There is still a way though, that is using guns.

The bounty hunters start shooting Leo using their guns. But their bullets just pass through his fire body without affecting him at all. Although he is annoyed that they are disturbing his performance, he doesn't stop.

Leo keeps playing the tense background music until Zoro finishes all the bounty hunters. Now, Zoro can finally shout angrily at Leo for playing around while he fights. But Leo ignores him and starts playing sad music to mourn the 'dead' bounty hunters.

Zoro just sighs defeatedly because he can't do anything more. But then his annoyance turns to Luffy who has woken up and thinks that he is beating the 'nice' people. They are debating and start fighting each other.

Leo who sees the funny situation plays another background music. But then Zoro & Luffy are stopped by Nami's pissed punches. She also yells at Leo and tells him to stop, so now he stops because he knows how scary his sister can be when she is angry.

Their misunderstanding gets resolved fast and then Sanji finally comes out with a lot of gathered supplies. He also brings Usopp by pulling his nose because the long nose is still sleeping. They sigh and decide to go back to their ship to resume their journey.

But then they see 2 people are coming toward them. A man with curly black hair and a blonde woman are approaching them. The Straw Hats know they must be these bounty hunters' comrades.

"Mr. 5, it seems they are the ones who did this," says the woman.

"Of course, they are the only ones here. Step back, Ms. Valentine, I will handle this fast," says Mr.5.

Mr. 5 suddenly picks his nose and takes out a piece of his booger. Then he suddenly flicks it toward the Straw Hats who immediately jump away because they don't want to touch a booger. But they get very surprised when the booger actually explodes.

"What the heck?! He takes booger bombing to another level," says Leo with widened eyes.

Mr. 5 then starts shooting more boogers at them, making them run away to avoid the boogers.

"Damn, just how much booger he has in his nose," says Leo with a disgusted expression.

Leo suddenly sees his sister being chased by Ms. Valentine who floats in the air. Sanji is trying to save Nami, but nothing will happen because he won't fight a woman. So Leo takes the matter into his own hands and grabs Luffy who is preparing a punch for Mr. 5.

He grabs Luffy's shoulder and throws him toward Nami. Luffy hits Nami, making her fall forward, but she can evade Ms. Valentine. The woman who has increased her weight a lot falls on Luffy instead, but he doesn't feel anything because of his rubber body.

"OI LEO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" shouts Luffy angrily.

Leo claps and says, "Wow, you are very nice, Captain. You actually helped your crew member even if you need to sacrifice yourself. I'm so touched."

After saying that false compliment, Leo runs toward Mr. 5 because he also wants to get into action. He evades some booger bombs and finally reaches Mr. 5. Then Leo sends a punch at Mr. 5 instead of using his cutlasses, a punch is more satisfying for beating people, after all.

Mr. 5 catches his punch and smirks before making an explosion with his hand. A big explosion happens on Leo's fist and it surprises the Straw Hats. They call Leo panicky, but then they hear a cough and an irritated voice.

"Damn, there's too much smoke," says Leo as the smoke disappears.

Leo doesn't get injured one bit and he just looks annoyed. The explosion couldn't damage his fire body, after all. So he is fine and only got annoyed by the explosion.

Leo smirks and says, "It's my turn, right? Fire Fist!"

Leo sends a punch using another hand and this punch generates fire. A fist-shaped fire is shot from his punch and hits Mr. 5. It engulfs Mr. 5's body and even the building behind him. Leo's fire fist is still not at the scale of Ace's Fire Fist, but it is strong enough to defeat Mr. 5 instantly and destroy the building behind.

"Hmm, it's still not enough," ponders Leo while looking at his fist. Leo knows this power is still too weak to even tickle his dad in a fight. He still has a long way to go.

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You can read up to 35+35 chapters ahead of my fanfics and more pictures on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.

Voting for this book is highly appreciate. Cover image is the MC, artist's ig: @fatmaqn_

I've uploaded:

1. Chapter 438. Fire Dragon Ignia (Fairy Tail: Sun Eater)

2. Chapter 449. Enel's Might (Transcended as Lord Buggy)

3. Pictures of both stories (ex: bounty poster & magazine cover) by fatmaqn_

https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain

(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)