489 489. Return Time

On the calm surface of Caln Belt, a boat that shoots fire from its rear is cruising fast. It's Leo's boat that was made by Red Hair Pirates' shipwrights. They made it so he could return to Sabaody on his own using his Flame Flame Fruit ability.

It's bigger than Ace's boat in the series, so Leo can sit and even sleep comfortably on this boat that looks like a big bullet. If it's made out of steel, then maybe it could even become a submarine because it can be closed tightly, making it really look like a bullet.

The boat moves fast on the calm surface and it attracts the Seakings here. They try to eat it, but the boat is evading all their jaws even though they come out of the water. It's as if Leo can see their movements underwater and moves his boat to evade them.

"Damn, I don't have time to deal with you guys."

He uses more power and makes his boat move faster. Leo keeps looking at an Eternal Pose that points to an island named Jagged Island. It's the closest island in Grandline to the island the island Leo used to train in Calm Belt. The Red Hair Pirates gave him that Eternal Pose.

It takes a day for Leo to reach the Jagged Island from his training island. Just as its name suggests, the Jagged Island is full of jagged rocks. It's a quite big island, but no one lives here as there are not enough natural resources here.

Leo stays here for 3 days though. His adventurous heart makes him very curious about this new place. He is truly Buggy's son, after all. They both might like battles and getting stronger, but they like adventuring to new places more.

Looking around the island is fun enough for Leoz but he actually finds treasures. He finds a skeleton that leans on a rather big worn-out sack in a small cave. Leo moves the skeleton and picks up the sack, but it rips immediately because its condition is very bad already.

When it rips, a lot of jewelry flows out and covers the ground. Leo's eyes gleam because this is his first time finding this kind of thing. Even if wealth isn't his main purpose in life, he will never refuse free wealth like this.

"No wonder Dad likes exploring the world. He could find this kind of thing if he's lucky. Hehe, he said he has explored most islands in Grandline, right? That means he has been here, but he didn't find this thing. You sure weren't lucky here, Dad. The Red Hairs too. They have come here but also didn't find this. Their luck was really low."

As Leo says, The Clown and Red Hair Pirates have explored this island already. But they didn't find these treasures because they didn't find the cave which is located in a hidden spot. Leo's luck on this island is better than theirs.

"Great, now I can buy supplies. Haven't eaten good food for a year now."

Since the Red Hair Pirates left, Leo needed to cook by himself. Unfortunately, he is a bad cook and he himself doesn't like the food he cooks. The only cooking method he can do well is boiling, so he mostly boils his food, and just with salt.

Only sometimes did he roast them, though he preferred not to because he always burnt them. His fire was always too strong to roast the meat or veggies. That's why he mostly boiled his food. Well, he doesn't hate it because he likes the broth made from boiling the meat & veggies.

Anyway, Leo leaves the Jagged Island and follows the Log Pose now. He still has time before the meeting time, so he wants to explore a bit. That's why he just asked for an Eternal Pose and a Log Pose to the Red Hair Pirates.

The next island is a medium-sized island called Pony Island which has a town called Trixie. This island is known for its native small horses or ponies that have various beautiful colors. But even if they are smaller than regular horses, they are actually stronger, and aggressive.

These ponies live in an open field on the opposite side of the town on the island. They're separated by a small mountain and a forest. The locals don't catch the ponies because these animals can kill them and if they hurt a pony, the others will attack them together.

Leo learns it the hard way when he gets ganged up by many ponies. He landed on the ponies' territory and he was hungry, so he thought of capturing a pony. In his mind, the pony is just another wild animal even though it's cute, after all.

He punched a lone pony and knocked it out before attempting to cut it apart. But before he can cut it, the other ponies suddenly attack him together. It confused him, but he just shrugged his shoulders and fought them back.

Leo only uses his fists and kicks though because he doesn't want to kill them all. One thing Buggy always taught him is to not kill unnecessarily even if it's an animal. He needs to make sure he kills if he needs to, so he will only kill the animal he wants to eat.

The ponies are stronger than Leo thought, but they are not threats to him. They attack him from all sides using their feet, but it's like he has eyes all over his body because he can even dodge attacks from his blindspots or counter them. His attacks are also powerful as he can knock each pony with just a few attacks.

Normally, beasts will be afraid if their comrades are defeated easily. But these ponies get even angrier and angrier instead. They just keep coming and attacking Leo mindlessly. It makes Leo start to feel frustrated even though he can defeat them easily.

"ARGH! DAMMIT! WHY ARE YOU KEEP COMING AT ME? ALRIGHT, I WON'T EAT YOU, SO STOP IT!"

A burst of pressure suddenly spreads out of Leo's body and knocks all the ponies. This is his Conqueror Haki that he has trained to control for 2 years. He doesn't like using it, but these ponies are just too annoying.

"Tch, such persistent creatures."

Leo keeps his word and leaves instead of just killing and cooking one of them. Seeing them fighting with their lives for their comrades has reminded him of his crewmates. It makes his appetite go, so he decides to leave and go to another place.

He sails around the island and finally finds the town on the other side. Now he really wants to scream. He didn't know there is a town here. Had he known, he wouldn't even bother to attack that pony for its meat.

But he can only sigh as he approaches the town's port. Some people are looking at him strangely because his ship looks unique. He ignores them and goes to the town to sell some of the pieces of jewelry for money so he can buy food.

On the way, people are avoiding him as he walks. They were looking at him impressedly and some girls even looked at him flirtatiously. He is a handsome man with a good posture, after all. But they all avoid him as soon as he gets closer to them.

It's because he is so stinky. He hasn't washed himself for a few days and his clothes haven't been washed too, so he smells terrible. Well, he didn't have any choice because he was sailing and didn't have that much water. It's only enough for drinking, not washing himself or even his clothes.

Even the jewelry shopkeeper needs to hold her nose when Leo sells his goods. If not for the blades on his waist, she would've thought that he was a beggar or petty thief. But she knows he is either a bounty hunter or a pirate, so she doesn't dare to scam him.

Leo gets his money and goes to a pub to buy food and drinks. He knows people are avoiding him because of his smell, but he doesn't care. His empty stomach needs to be filled and it's more important than people's weird gazes.

After filling his stomach, he buys some clothes and goes to wash himself in a public bath. His fresh self makes things better for him and the people around him now. No one avoids him anymore now, including those with bad motives.

Some thugs try to rob him, but he handles them easily and even makes them do chores for him instead. Leo just doesn't know that these people are not just some random street thugs. They are sent by The Caribbean to approach him because of his dad's order.

Well, these thugs are not members, just being used by them though. Some members are watching from afar to see how things go. They have been following him since he arrived without him noticing.

That's some serious stalking skills right there as their target has trained all 3 types of haki including Observation Haki. Even if he has just trained for 2 years, Leo's Observation Haki is quite strong already. But he doesn't notice them at all.

After staying for 2 days with no noticeable thing happening, Leo leaves the island. He has gathered some info and realizes this island is far enough from Sabaody. So he decides to go straight to Sabaody following Rayleigh's vivre card after stocking supplies.

He sees some islands on his way but doesn't stop on any of them, except for Water 7. Leo doesn't have any choice but to stop on Water 7 because his boat almost breaks. He has been cruising on Grandline's violent sea for days, after all, so his ship has gotten a lot of damage.

Luckily, he knows the shipwrights there, and with Iceburg's help, his boat gets fixed in less than a day. Iceburg is really glad to see him because it means the whole Straw Hat crew is fine and about to meet. There hasn't been any news of them in the last 2 years, after all, so he was very worried.

They talk about the things that happened in the last 2 years. To say that Leo is shocked is an understatement, he is speechless when he knows what happened a year ago. He was on Calm Belt, so he didn't get any news for 2 years.

"You don't lie right, Iceburg?"

"Well, you'll see if I lied or not when you arrive on Sabaody. You can see the biggest proof of what happened from there."

What Iceburg says makes Leo want to leave immediately. So he leaves as soon as his boat is fixed and goes to Sabaody at full speed. He arrives in just a few hours and immediately climbs a mangrove tree instead of going to Rayleigh's place.

Leo's eyes widened and his body stiffened when he sees the Red Line. It now lost a big chunk of its red wall and there is a big carving of a pirate crew's Jolly Roger on the red wall. He already knows that Jolly Roger because he has seen it since he was a kid.

"Damn, it's really them, those monsters."

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You can read more 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 Chapter 527. Rushing

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

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