421. Alabasta

While Buggy is going to his next destination, the Straw Hat Pirates have finally arrived on Alabasta. They are still in Nanohana, the port city, where they intended to buy clothes to travel the desert. Even Leo needs the clothes even though he is basically a fire. The reason is he doesn't want to be left out.

The crew now has a new member, a small humanoid reindeer, Tony Tony Chopper. He joined the crew because of Luffy's persistence. Now Leo isn't the youngest anymore because Chopper is 1 year younger than him, but he is a human while Chopper is a reindeer.

In Nanohana, the crew moves separately to do their own tasks. But Leo runs away because he knew what task he would get, being his sister's slave. So he runs with the excuse of finding Luffy who has disappeared.

Leo is exploring Nanohana while still looking for Luffy even though it's not his priority. He knows that finding Luffy is easy because his Captain will always cause trouble. So he just does what he wants in the town.

There's only one thing that takes Leo's attention, the music. There are some street performers who play music that take his attention. So he stops by and gives them some money to play more. He watches them happily while also learning the music they play.

Leo is too engrossed in the music that he forgets the reason he's there. He finally remembers it when he hears many people scream because a big fight happens. It disrupts the music that he enjoys, after all, so he gets pissed.

But he raises an eyebrow when he sees that Luffy is amidst the chaos. Luffy is running while a familiar Marine is chasing them and a shirtless man runs behind them. Leo's expression changes from pissed to dumbfounded.

"Damn, that Smoker is here," says Leo before hiding in the crowd because he doesn't want to get involved for now.

Smoker sends his smoke to attack Luffy, but then a big magma fist falls and blocks the smoke. Leo is surprised, just like Luffy and Smoker. They look at the man who sent it, which is the shirtless man behind them.

Luffy looks happy seeing the man while Smoker doesn't seem happy at all. Smoker then reveals who the man is. He is a Division Captain of an infamous crew, Whitebeard Pirates. Luffy doesn't have any clue about that crew while Leo thinks he has heard it somewhere, but he doesn't care.

Leo only cares about the shirtless man's power which seems interesting. Luffy calls the shirtless man Ace, so now Leo knows his name. Then Ace tells Luffy to go first, he will take care of Smoker for a while.

Luffy leaves, but Leo stays and hides in an alley to watch what will happen. He then sees Ace fights against Smoker. It's an interesting fight to see even though Ace has the upper hand from the start because his ability is too strong for Smoker. The magma is obviously more powerful than smoke.

Ace wins just by shooting some small magma bullets that break through the smoke. But he doesn't injure or kill Smoker and just leaves. Leo also leaves while having a grin on his face because he gets some inspiration for his ability.

Leo's biggest problem with using his devil fruit ability is his experience. He hasn't seen many uses of devil fruit ability, especially logia type. There aren't many devil fruit users in East Blue and his mom who has fire-type ability doesn't use it often, so he only relied on his imagination.

"So logia users fight like that, huh? Interesting. Elements and compatibility also affect the battle, huh? Some abilities have an advantage over others, but their usage and mastery also affect how the battle goes. I can handle Smoker, but Ace is still too strong for me. Hmm, how can I face that magma? What will my dad do?" ponders Leo while running to find his crewmates.

He finds them when they are chased by many marine soldiers led by a girl that looks like Kuina. Leo is quite stunned by how similar she is to his fellow apprentice. But he stops thinking about it and helps his crewmates.

Leo copies Smoker's technique and sends a big amount of fire in front of the marines to stop them. It takes quite more energy than his other skills, which makes him frown. He doesn't like wasting energy like this, which is why he doesn't have big-scale attacks.

"I don't like it, but it seems this kind of attack is necessary in Grandline. Most of them use powerful attacks when they fight, so I can't ignore them. I need to increase my stamina fast," says Leo while running to his crewmates.

The crew runs together to their ship in the port and then escapes. But Luffy isn't there because he lost his way while Zoro is not, very strange indeed. They don't need to wait for long though because Luffy propels himself onto the ship from the island.

Luffy almost hits some people on the ship, but Leo catches his face. His body still stretches though and he hits Usopp who can't evade. Usopp yells angrily while Luffy just laughs dumbly without any care.

Suddenly, a small boat comes closer to them, so they check it. Ace is on a boat that moves quite fast even though it doesn't have any sail and he doesn't pedal it. The boat was actually made by Ruff as a gift from Buggy and it uses Jet Dials to power it.

Ace's magma power can't be used to power the boat, unlike his fire. Buggy felt that he owed a boat to Ace because he exchanged the Flame Flame Fruit with Magma Magma Fruit. So he asked Ruff to make a Dial Boat for Ace as compensation on the pretext of giving a gift for his late Captain's son.

Ace attaches his boat to Merry and they resume their way. Luffy introduces Ace as his older brother which makes the others dumbfounded because Ace seems very polite, unlike his younger brother. Although Leo can see that Ace has the same idiot feels as Luffy.

Some Marine ships come to them and Ace says he'll take care of the ships. The crew lets him to see the power of an Emperor crew's Division Captain. Ace leaves Merry and uses his boat to get closer to the Marine ships.

Then he shows a powerful attack that shocks the Straw Hat Pirates. Ace sends a massive Magma Fist that breaks all the Marine ships at once. He only needs one attack to sink some Marine ships instantly.

Leo & Zoro immediately thinks of how they'll catch up to that level of power. Zoro thinks if Mihawk can do that while Leo thinks about his dad. Both of them are sure the people they are chasing can also do that easily, so they need to reach that level of power and surpass it.

After that, they go to their next destination, a town named Katorea. Vivi intended to go to Yuba, but Robin found out that it has been destroyed by Crocodile and the town's people relocated to Katorea. Those people also made a Rebel Army to fight against the King who they thought to be the perpetrator of their Kingdom's destruction.

But before they go to Katorea, Leo gives Vivi a proposal after hearing the intelligence that Robin has gathered. He & Robin will go to Katorea, while the others will go to Rainbase where Crocodile stays. Leo might not be as smart as Buggy about things, but he is still a battle genius.

He is genius enough to make war strategies after getting some information. If Vivi goes to Katorea and succeeds to persuade the rebels, Crocodile will know that the Rebel Army will go against him. It will be more beneficial if Crocodile still thinks that the rebels will go against the Kingdom.

After Leo explained his intention, Vivi finally agrees and Robin is very impressed by his way of thinking. He even considers the biggest problem which is Luffy's nature that won't listen to anyone by sending Luffy to Crocodile because he really wants to fight the Warlord.

So now they split into 2 teams and go in a different direction. On the way to Katorea, Leo explains the details of his plan to Robin. He needs Robin's ability to find spies in the Rebel Army because there must be a spy there. Crocodile won't just leave the rebels alone, so spies are necessary.

"I will distract them without mentioning Vivu while you search the spies. You need to hide though because maybe they know about your connection to Vivi. After you found them, we will start persuading them. We won't have any good cards if we just talk to them from the start," says Leo.

"What will you do if the plan fails?" asks Robin.

".... I'm thinking about that now," says Leo.

Well, he's not that genius actually.

________________________________________

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