217 217. Space Map

Lafitte had no choice. It's either death or imprisonment, and he chose the latter.

Coming to an agreement Shinobu patched him up, just enough for him to use his powers.

Leo held out the medallion. Lafitte pointed his right arm index finger at it. The air rippled as a strange power enveloped the medallion.

As soon as this power touched the medallion, it absorbed it greedily. Lafitte was taken back, the amount of power he exerted just now was enough to throw an adult human being tens of miles away, however it was cleanly devoured by this small medallion.

He used his powers again and this time he kept it running.

The medallion was like a black hole as it absorbed his power. The rate of absorption was terrifying, in less than a minute Lafitte was drained of his strength.

Seeing as how Lafitte was running dry Leo took back the medallion and checked it with his spiritual sense.

He could feel the medallion was more active than before. If we consider the medallion as the lock and Lafitte's ability as the key, then the key was at most turned 3 percent inside the keyhole.

"Rest. We will continue after you recover."

Leo said and walked away.

Flare cuffed Lafitte and threw him inside a cell. He was given food and medicine to recover as quickly as possible.

Leo fiddled with the medallion and was lost in thought.

Shinobu walked beside him and asked, "This will take atleast a week."

Leo nodded, "No other way around it. The medallion's appetite is far bigger than I thought."

"So what now?"

Leo shrugged, "What else? We wait. Anyway, Issho and the rest are on clean up duty, it will take a while before they join us. We can take it easy and wait for them while filling the medallion."

The next few days were uneventful. Lafitte was healed and he took turns every few hours to feed the medallion.

A whole week passed by.

Lafitte was feeding the medallion as usual. Leo expectantly looked at the medallion.

Just when Lafitte was going to be sucked dry the medallion hummed.

Leo gestured at Lafitte to stop. He then pushed his spiritual sense inside the medallion.

This time his spiritual sense found no obstructions and easily entered the medallion.

A rush of information spilled into Leo's mind.

A map?

Within Leo's mind was a map. Well, it was farfetched to call it a map. It was a blank space with five dots of light. And one of them was shining brightly than the other.

Several seconds later he understood what the map was.

"How was it?"

Shinobu asked with expectation.

Leo frowned slightly, "It's worse than we thought."

He didn't elaborate. Mace who was with them understood and left with Lafitte.

Only then did Leo explain, "We didn't just jump one planet, we jumped several. Accurately speaking, five. After absorbing that much of Lafitte's power the medallion formed a connection with this world's space."

"If we want to get back home, we need to repeat the same process and fill the medallion with space power, and make a connection with the closest planet."

Shinobu mood took a hit when she heard Leo and asked, "How long will it take?"

Leo shook his head, "I don't know. Lafitte isn't a pure space ability user, his help is limited. But if we can find someone with a much stronger ability then we might be able to fill the medallion quite quickly."

Shinobu nodded. Suddenly she thought of something, "Are we doing this till we fill the medallion for a complete jump or just the first planet?"

Leo shook his head bitterly, "Just the first jump. Inter world travel is very dangerous, the medallion could at most guarantee the safety of one person, if I stretch my power then two, but that's it. Anymore, the barrier protecting us will shatter and we will be torn to pieces by space storms."

Shinobu paced back and forth and asked, "If we can only make one jump then how are we supposed to get back?"

Leo was also bogged down by this problem, he thought for a moment and said "There is a solution. If one of us can find a space type devil fruit then charging the medallion for a jump won't be a problem."

Shinobu thought this was possible. She finally let out a relieved sigh.

Leo hugged her and said seriously, "I promise I will get us back."

Shinobu hummed and rested in his arms.

...

A couple more days later, Issho and the rest returned. Finally they were ready to head back.

The world had no idea about what happened. Maybe some had noticed but they couldn't confirm their doubts.

Leo and his crew set sail.

As they were passing through a certain sea area Mace came upto Leo and reported.

"Sir, a ship was spotted ahead of us. It's the one Blackbeard was after."

"The one carrying the tribute to celestial dragons?"

Leo asked in confusion.

According to intel this ship should have reached Mariejois by now.

Did they change their schedule? Must be. World Government is no fool to strictly adhere to schedules when there are a lot of people eyeing their stuff.

"Alright."

Leo nodded. Mace left after his report.

As the distance between them reduced Leo was able to see the ship clearly.

Well...

When his spiritual sense swept past the ship he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The ship drew closer. By now both ships were very close and everyone saw each other.

Mace was startled when he saw who was on the ship. Not just Mace the other marines were also startled.

A man wearing white clothes and a transparent bubble head mask was standing arrogantly on the deck of the ship.

"So that's a celestial dragon."

Shinobu standing beside Leo commented.

The celestial dragon glanced at the navy ship without much interest. But when his eyes fell on Shinobu he paused.

"Not bad. Bring her to me."