Ch 22 Meeting Ace

(Sorry for not writing anything for this in a while, I have been kinda stumped on where to go with it during the One Piece world. Like, I have more plans for future worlds than the current one...)

After Leo calmed down, everyone was curious about what pissed him off, so he gave a brief explanation about how he got eaten, which Zoro and Sanji found hilarious. So he threw them into the sea.

He then asked them what happened while he was busy and they explained how they just met Mr.2 and he used his Devil Fruit ability to copy their faces, then when he left to his own ship, they found out his identity.

Leo - "So, let me get this straight. You all met a strange man, who has the ability to steal your appearance and you thought it was a good idea to let him use it on you...? How fucking dumb can you be!? Even if he wasn't a Baroque Works agent, he could still use your appearance to do what ever he wants!"

Nami - "Well, he didn't get mine, Zoro's or Vivi's. We're not idiots like the others after all... Well, Zoro is debatable."

(A/N: I honestly don't think Nami or Zoro would have actually let Bonclay get their appearance. Zoro isn't as dumb as he seems, it's his direction problems that lead people to think he's an idiot in my opinion.)

Leo - "Fair enough, but what about the others? As a Baroque Works agent, he can now show up whenever and none of you would even realise what's happening before he stabs you in the back."

Vivi - "Why do you say it like it's only a problem for us? Won't you be in the same boat?"

Leo - "Nope. For two reasons; one, I can tell when someone has ill intentions and even then, there is no way he could copy your soul. And two, it wouldn't matter even if he did stab me in the back, if he could that is."

To give a demonstration, he made a dagger and jammed it into where his heart should be, shocking and terrifying the majority of them.

Leo - "See? Not much that being stabbed in the back will do. Plus, it takes a lot to even pierce my skin, so it's unlikely to even happen."

He then made the dagger disappear with a snap of his fingers.

Vivi - "YOU DIDN'T HAVE STAB YOURSELF!!!"

Leo - "Yeah... But seeing is believing. Plus, it's pretty fun to see your faces."

He laid back, interlocking his fingers and had a big grin on his face. The only problem is, he didn't see the pissed off face of Nami beside.

She grabbed hold of him by the ear and shouted at him.

Nami - "DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!! YOU HEAR!!?"

Leo - "You do know I dont feel pain, right?"

She didn't answer and continued looking at him angrily, with an unyielding look in her eyes.

Leo - "Fine, fine... I won't do it again. Unless I want to mess with people, no negotiations. So, will you let go now?"

She didn't immediately let go, but she relented after a few seconds and sat down grumpily. The others were just watching this with weird looks.

Leo - "Anyways, how far are we from Alabasta?"

Vivi - "We should arrive in a couple of hours."

After that, they all chatted for a bit longer then went and did their own thing.

- 1 1/2 hours later -

A big cat fish just appeared and three idiots tried to attack it for food, but they were stopped by Vivi, who said it was something sacred to Alabasta and was a sign that they were incredibly close now.

Then Zoro pointed out that there were a bunch of Baroque works ships to prove it.

Usopp and Luffy started debating the best way to attack, but were put down by Zoro and Sanji.

Zoro - "Forget these little ant."

Sanji - "Yeah. Don't lose sight of our target."

Leo - "Hehehe..."

But they were interrupted by a creepy laugh from Leo.

Leo walked to the front of the ship and made a pile of javelins. Picking one of them up, he pulled his arm back and then shot it forwards, making the javelin tear threw the air, right into the side of a ship. He then repeated the process a few dozen times at a ridiculous speed.

He then turned to the others with a savage grin.

Leo - "Even ants can make a mountain, if you kill enough of them."

*Snap*

He snapped his fingers and as a result...

*BOOOM*

<Low Mortal - 19.93%> (1993 tons)

He then walked back to his seat and started whistling eerily 'The hall of the mountain king'.(Just type 'Total drama island Mal whistle' into YouTube and you'll get it.)

The others were gobsmacked that he just killed them all so effortlessly.

But then, Vivi angrily stomped over to him and stood with her hands on her hips.

Vivi - "Why did you do that?"

Leo - "To kill them?"

He tilted his and spoke as if it was obvious.

Vivi - "You know that's not what I meant."

Leo - "Fine. Because they're a bunch murderers and who knows what else, they don't deserve to live. Not saying I'm not a murderer, someone who kills a murderer is still a murderer themselves. Killing one murderer doesn't change the number of murders in the world, but kill a hundred and then there's 99 less."

She just looked at him with disbelief that he said something so contradictory yet true.

Leo then leaned back with his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

Leo - "Besides, why should you care? They're the ones who have caused your whole country to be embroiled in conflict."

Vivi - "..."

With nothing to say, she turned around and left him on his own, though he was soon joined by Nami.

Nami - "Did you have to be such an ass?"

Leo gave her a side glance.

Leo - "Being an 'ass' would be telling her to 'fuck off and grow up', this world's cruel and filled with cruel people, she of all people should know this and yet she clings to foolish ideals that everything can be solve without conflict. It can't. Humans are inherently violent, it's in our nature, it's how we survived and grew for thousands of years. Even a verbal dispute is still conflict, she just doesn't realise or doesn't want to realise it."

Nami - "You're really pessimistic, you know that?"

He looked at her a second time, then uttered quietly.

Leo - "You try being killed by someone you loved and then tell me if you still see the world so sweetly."

She then shut up. She knew herself just how cruel the world is, but that doesn't mean she should give up on it, does it?

Leo - "*sigh* Look, I'm not saying everything is bad. There are some good people out there, but they are overshadowed by the bad ones. She is the Princess of a Kingdom and will rule after her father, she needs to learn that not all wars can be stopped by discussion, especially when you are the weaker party. Unless you want your people to be the ones to suffer for your naivety."

Nami - "I get what you're saying, but at least try to take it easy on her. Please."

Leo - "... I'll try."

They then sat and watched as the others messed around.

Soon, Alabast was in sight. They all drew an X on their left arms and then tied a piece of cloth around it, so they could know who is real. Minus Leo, who demonstrated that the ink would burn away on his body, so he only had a cloth made from Hellfire, just for show.

Leo - "Just gonna say it now. If any of you get into a fight, I won't interfere unless you're about to die."

Usopp - "What? Why?"

Obviously, some of them weren't happy about Leo's decision.

Leo - "Because, if I just fight everyones battles, non of you will grow. You will remain weak and become reliant on me, but I won't always be there to help."

Usopp then back down, knowing that Leo was right. That didn't stop him from grumbling about how everything could have been easy with Leo there.

At the behest of Luffy, they all gathered in a circle with their left arms stretched to the middle.

Luffy - "No matter what happens from here, this mark on our left arms will bear the sign of our fellowship. All right. Let's go ashore!!! TO EAT!!!! Then to save Alabasta."

Everyone - "ALABASTA'S AN AFTER THOUGHT!!?"

They then sailed over to the cove, where they disembarked the ship and Luffy ran straight to town, not waiting for anyone.

Leo - "Well, I can't say I didn't expect this to happen."

They all started walking into the city soon after a bit of discussion about what to do about Luffy. They decided to just see where things go.

They stopped just outside of town. They all went their separate ways to gather supplies and Nami sent Sanji for clothes, where he bought skimpy dancer outfits for the girls and robes for the men.

Leo refused to wear robes and just created some desert camo trousers, along with some army boots. He didn't even bother with a shirt, not like he'd be sunburnt.

Leo - "Well, I'm set."

Zoro - "You are such a damn cheat."

Leo - "Git gud."

Zoro - "Huh?"

Leo - "Nevermind."

Nami - "I love these clothes!"

Vivi - "Maybe we shouldn't have got Sanji to pick our clothes. These are dancer outfits..."

Nami - "Does it matter? I think we look great! What do you think, Leo?"

Leo looked at her as she did a twirl, and went into a light daze.

Leo - "..."

Nami - "Leo?"

Not receiving a reply, she looked at him as he seemed a bit out of it.

Leo - "Uh, yeah, you look great, Nami... Both of you do..."

Leo then looked away, feeling a bit uncomfortable inside.

Leo - 'Why do suddenly feel so awkward with her...?'

Meanwhile, Nami was feeling happy from his compliment. Even though he said both them look good, it was clearly initially directed at her. Vivi looked between them and started forming ideas about the two of them.

They made some jokes and were then going to go into town again, but stopped because there was a ruckus going on, where they saw the Marines running after someone. It was obviously Luffy, who was being chase by not only the Marine soldiers, but also Smoker.

Smoker tried to apprehend Luffy using his Devil Fruit, but was stopped by a blast of fire. The fire came from a man who looked like a stereotypical Australian...

Luffy - "Ace!"

Ace looked back at Luffy, then told him to get away while he deals with the Marines, which Luffy listened to and told everyone to run.

Everyone started running back to the ship, except Leo, who just stood there thinking that he could just knock all of the Marines out, but then shrugged and disappeared from his spot, shooting towards the ship and arriving in a few seconds.

A few minutes later, he could see the others arrive, they saw him lying down on the railing.

Leo - "Slowpokes."

Nami - "Stop gloating and help us set sail."

Leo - "Fine, fine..."

They then prepared to set sail, while Vivi gave Carue a message to deliver to her father.

Just as they got out of the cove, Luffy started explaining about Ace and how he used to get beaten by him in fights, even when he didn't have a Devil Fruit ability.

Nami then questioned how that was possible.

Leo - "Well, it's not difficult for those who have the skill or if the person know Haki."

This was Leo's way of introducing them to Haki early, so that they could be prepared.

Zoro seemed particularly interested.

Zoro - "What's Haki?"

Leo - "It's a power that anyone can attain to a degree. Observation Haki, which let's you feel everything around you, like a sixth sense and can even let you predict your opponents next move. Armament Haki, which let's you use your spiritual energy to increase the potency of your attacks, increase your defense and even hit Logia Devil Fruit users, you could use it to punch Luffy and he would be hurt. There is a third, but knowing about it would cause more harm than good right now."

By this point, he had everyones attention. A power like this is useful for all of them, for one thing or another.

Usopp - "Does that mean it could be used to hurt even you?"

Leo - "No."

Usopp - "But you said-"

Leo - "I know what I said, but my powers didn't come from a Devil Fruit. At most, it would help someone at my level of strength match up to me, but that's about it, they couldn't truly defeat me."

Sanji - "So, do you know how to use it?"

Leo - "No. I'm not sure if I can, I'm built a bit different. Plus, I haven't tried yet. There is more to it than just having immense strength, though it does help."

Luffy - "Shishishi! Well that doesn't matter, I can still beat Ace, even without it."

That was when said person jumped on to the ship.

Ace - "Who can you beat exactly?"

Luffy - "Whoa!"

Ace then started thanking everyone for taking care of Luffy, then he invited Luffy to join the Whitebeard crew, but was declined.

He then started talking about how great Whitebeard was and how he would help Whitebeard become the pirate king, making Leo scoff.

Leo - "Pft."

Ace narrowed his eyes at Leo.

Ace - "What?"

Leo - "The fact that you think he should be the 'Pirate King'..."

Ace instantly saw this as an insult toward Whitebeard and attacked Leo, only to go flying back.

Ace - "AAHG!!"

Leo had instantly pulled out the Seastone tipped Jitte that he got from Smoker.

Leo - "Calm down, hot head. It wasn't an insult."

Ace looked at him wearily, he didn't even see what happened before he was sent back. He got up while holding his stomach.

Ace - "Then what was it...?"

Leo - "An educated analysis. He has had years to find the One Piece and could do it very easily, yet he hasn't. He doesn't even seem to care about it. He is all but crowned as the Pirate King by everyone in the world. If he claimed the title, no one would dare deny him. But, you know him best, do you think that he would care about something like that or want the sloppy seconds of his once rival?"

Ace looked at him with his mouth wide open, as if he suddenly realized something.

Leo - "Didn't think so. You should learn to control your temper, it makes you vulnerable to provocation and will get you into trouble with someone who isn't so nice as to simply be giving you a lesson."

He then put the Jitte away and went to sit down.

The others just watched this happen, not understanding what was happening. One second they're talking, then Ace tries to attack Leo, only to get taken down and then they're back to talking.

Ace was also realizing that he acted rashly and was thinking about Whitebeard.

After that, they all went back to talking, but Ace soon said that he had to get going, telling them about how he was after an ex-crewmate, Blackbeard. Upon hearing his name, Leo's eyes had a sharp glint pass through them, but nobody was looking.

Ace said his final good byes and gave a glance towards the seemingly sunbathing Leo.

Ace - 'Well, at least I know Luffy is safe with someone strong like him around.'

He then jumped off, on to his boat.

When Ace left, everyone started doing what they wanted.

Nami went over to Leo and sat next to him.

Nami - "You did it again."

Leo - "It was for his own good. You saw him, he has no control over himself, despite not having the power to back his rash actions. He is like a stupid brat, he hates a man for something that is undeserved and without knowing the full story."

Nami - "You have a point about his rashness. But what do you mean about him hating someone?"

Leo - "Not my secrets to tell. Sorry."

He then watched Ace leave on his boat, as he destroyed the ships of some Baroque Works agents who tried to block him.