11 Ch 9 Settling Business

The people gathered were staring with their mouths wide open.

Villager 1 - "Is... Is it over?"

Villager 2 - "Is this real?"

Then one by one, each of them stared to have bright smiles appear on their faces and then they began to cheer.

They were jumping up and down like little kids, but then the rat bastard Nezumi, made his appearance, along with his Marines.

Nezumi - "That's enough celebrating! Chi Chi Chi Chi!"

Nami and the rest of the villagers, who had quieted down, looked at him with disgust, anger and righteous indignation.

Nezumi - "What a lucky day it is for me today! Thanks to you, the money I had to hand over to Arlong, as well as all the riches of Arlong park belong to me!

So throw down your arms! I, Captain Nezumi of the 16th branch of the Marines, shall hereby take credit for your victory!"

Leo got tired of listening to the rat, so he sped in front of him, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

Leo - "You're ruining the mood."

Leo's sudden appearance and glowing red eyes terrified Nezumi, which then lead to him trying act tough and make threats.

Nezumi - "D-dont y-you dare harm m-me! I-if you do, you will become an enemy of the world government!"

He became emboldened as he talked, all because he was confident that Leo would be afraid of the world government.

He was mistaken.

*RIIIP*

Leo tore Nezumi's arm off, making blood spurt all over. The rat faced bastard started screaming and crying in pain.

Leo - "Oops. Looks like I hurt you."

A savage grin appeared on Leo's face and he started to laugh.

Leo - "HAHAHAHA! Honestly, was I supposed to be scared by that? Pathetic!"

*SNAP*

This time he snapped the rats leg, making him cry out even more.

The Marines that were accompanying the rat, finally got their heads out of their asses, they pointed their rifles at Leo and shouted for him to let Nezumi go.

Leo just looked at them like the idiots that they are.

Leo - "Not the smartest bunch are you...? You know what, do it. Shoot, I dare you!"

He looked at them with a condescending smile, while also tightening his hold on Nezumi's throat.

The Marines didn't know what to do and were now extremely nervous. But, luckily for them, the villagers spoke out.

Village 1 - "Wait! Dont kill him."

Villager 2 - "Please. We appreciate your help, but if you kill him, we will all be punished for it aswell."

Leo look at them and back towards the Marines.

Leo - "Fine..."

The Marines and Nezumi all felt relieved that they were given this way out. That was until Leo point towards them.

Leo - "But! All of you have to cut off the last two fingers on your right hand! And if you don't, I will rip your entire arm off!"

As he was talking, Leo's eyes started to glow with more intensity and released his killing intent to pressure them.

They all gulped and thought about it for a moment, but with the choices of losing an arm or a couple fingers, the decision was easy. They cut off their fingers.

Leo was kind of disappointed, but he threw Nezumi towards the Marines.

Leo - "Get lost, before I change my mind."

They picked Nezumi up and started running, but as he was being carried away, Nezumi started shouting.

Nezumi - "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS! YOU WILL BE HUNTED WHEREVER YOU GO! YOU AND YOUR PIRATE FRIENDS!"

Leo watched as they disappeared into the distance, and when they were gone, he turned around and walked back to the crowd.

Leo - "You should have let me kill them. Could have just pinned it on Arlong."

The villagers lowered their heads as they felt some guilt for stopping him. What they didn't know, was that he was going to let him live anyways so that he can get a bounty.

Leo then sighed and turned to Luffy with a question.

Leo - "So, you still want me in your crew?"

Luffy then showed his signature grin.

Luffy - "You bet! Welcome aboard."

Nojiko then decided to fix the atmosphere that Nezumi broke.

Nojiko - "Hey everybody, let's stop standing around and go celebrate! Tell the whole Island that Arlong is gone!"

Everybody start to cheer and shout once again, then they all started to make their way to inform the other villages and set up for a celebration.

Nami, Nojiko and Genzo made their way off somewhere, and Luffy started going towards the village for the party. And Zoro also needed to get his wounds treated properly.

After walking a few feet, Sanji noticed that Leo wasn't following.

Sanji - "Hey, you coming?"

Leo - "Hmm? Yeah... yeah... I'll catch up"

Sanji - "Hmm, okay then."

Sanji then continued on towards the village.

The reason or reasons Leo wasn't following were that; he first made a clone to follow Nezumi to the 16th branch, he wasn't going to let him live no matter what, though this was the first time he was making a clone so it took a couple minutes to complete.

The second reason, was that he wanted to keep an eye on that last soul that he didn't consume, he wanted to see if there was a time limit for him to consume it before it disappears.

And finally, since arriving at Arlong park, Leo could feel a soul was under the tower, that is now rubble. But, the soul seemed strange, sought of dark and corrupted.

So, like any curious person, he decided to investigate. (🧐)

He walked over and started clearing the rubble, and after it was gone, he saw a basement door with multiple locks on it.

Leo just destroyed the door and started his decent into the basement, and when he got inside, he found heaps of cash Arlong collected over the years.

But that wasn't what he was there for, what he was there for was nicely placed in a chest, right in the centre of the room.

Not wasting time, he went and opened the chest, what he saw inside surprised him and excited him.

A Devil Fruit!

He found a Devil Fruit! It was red, pear shaped with swirls and a yellow stem. The biggest surprise, is that he could feel the soul coming from inside it, and it felt as though it was squirming in an attempt to get away from him.

Picking it up, Leo tossed it up and down a few times, considering whether to eat it or not, also how? He could eat it normally or directly devour the soul.

After deliberating over the matter for a few minutes, he decided to consume the soul itself, that way he wont have to taste it.

So starting the process, he started drawing the soul out. The fruit began producing a black aura that was absorbed into his body. It only took a few seconds and when it was done, the fruit turned into a sludge.

When he finished absorbing the soul, he could feel something burning inside of him and also information being implanted into his mind.

Turns out the Devil Fruit was called the 'Quake Quake Fruit', it was basically a downgraded version of the 'Tremor Tremor Fruit'. It allowed him to Vibrate his body at high frequencies.

He wanted to mess around with the power, but he would be able to do it later. For now, he decided to store all the money and treasure in his dimension, then he went back outside.

When he got outside, Leo sat down and waited for about 20-30 minutes, it was then that the soul he was keeping an eye on disappeared.

Since he had killed that fishman, it had been about an hour.

So now he had figured out some of the aspects of his abilities that he wasn't sure about.

First, he has an hour after someone dies to consume their soul or it will disappear.

Second, he gets about a quarter of the total strength possessed by the person whose soul he consumes.

Third, the more sinful a person is the more/higher skill degree he receives from the person. For example, when he consumed the soul of Kuroobi, he got his fishman karate. And from his mass consumption of fishmen, his swimming skills improved greatly. Though he can't manipulate water like a fishman, that is a racial ability.

Fourth, and this was something unexpected, Devil Fruits seem to have souls and he can consume those souls, and when he does, the curse is burnt away inside him.

There is likely more that he has yet to understand, but for now, it would do.

So with that settled, Leo made his way over to where everyone else was.

...

Meanwhile, at the Marine base, Nezumi was shouting down a Den Den Mushi, he was demanding for bounties to be put on Leo and Luffy.

Leo was hiding in the shadows, well his clone was, and he was wondering why the hell Luffy was getting a bounty? He barely did anything. Even in the anime, Zoro beat Nezumi up and Nami hit him with her staff, but they didn't get a bounty.

Whatever, Nezumi was wrapping things up, calling them vicious and violent, which is kind of true in Leo's case. Anyways, Nezumi had just sent pictures of Leo and Luffy.

After getting confirmation that a bounty would be placed on them, Nezumi angrily slammed down the microphone(thing?) of the Den Den Mushi, he started muttering and clutching the place where his arm used to be.

Nezumi - "Ha Ha Ha... He will regret doing this to me!"

Leo - "I doubt that."

*!!!*

Nezumi swiftly turned around to see who was there, but the moment he did, he was grabbed by the head and smashed through his desk.

Leo then lifted him up and looked him in the eye.

Leo - "Did you really think I was just going to let you live? I'm going to finish what I started."

Leo then tore the rest of his limbs and started to burn him, before he killed him though, he decided to try an ability that he forgot about.

Penance stare. The ability to forces its victim to experience all the pain and suffering they have caused to others. The more the person has caused pain the stronger reaction they have.

For extra effect, he decided to shift into his Ghost Rider form. (seriously should I just use GRF?)

Bringing Nezumi to eye level.

GR Leo - "Look into my eyes and feel the pain of penance long overdue."

Without understanding what was happening, Nezumi's eyes were drawn towards Leo's hollow sockets, but that was only until flames lit up inside them.

As he stared into Leo's eyes, he started to see a myriad of scenes, he saw the suffering of the people he had caused to people over the years, he felt the pain of the people he had cause the death of, directly or indirectly.

For what felt like an eternity, it like he was being burned alive and the pain went right to his soul.

Nezumi - "AAHHHHHHH!!!"

And then, silence.

Nezumi was dead, his eyes were burnt black and were like coal.

Leo continued to stare even though he was finished with his business. Using his penance stare was a unique experience, he saw all of the stuff that Nezumi had done, but only the bad. And it was somewhat unsettling, but he wasn't going to get held up on it, he would do it more in the future and surely see worse.

Leo did decide to leave little gift for when people find the rat. Speaking of which, it's weird that nobody had arrived to see what was going on... The room was probably sound proofed.

Anyways, he took Nezumi's sword that was left next to the door, he then pierced it through Nezumi's chest and pinning him to the wall, then wrote 'sinner' above him in blood.

Then before leaving, Leo went and stole all the money and treasure that Nezumi had stolen.

After placing it all in his dimension, clone Leo dispelled himself and real Leo got all the memories.

...

As Leo was walking, he got the memories of his clone, and when he saw that he ripped the limbs off of Nezumi, he facepalmed.

Leo - "I hope this doesn't become a habit..."