Hearing Luffy's name, Makino was taken aback for a moment, then asked with delighted surprise, "Really? Are you also a good friend of Luffy's?!"
The mention of Luffy also piqued Dadan and the others' interest, and they looked at Leo with expectant faces.
That's Luffy for you, they probably thought. He'd only just set out to sea and had already made good friends.
Leo looked at Makino with a faint, ambiguous smile and shook his head. "I know Luffy, but that doesn't mean we're friends."
"In fact, if we meet next time, I might just kill him myself."
That one calm sentence plunged the bar's atmosphere into a strange, dead silence.
Makino's face paled slightly, her smile completely vanishing.
Smash!
Dadan shot to her feet, shattering her liquor bowl on the floor, and glared at Leo with pure fury.
"You brat! I watched Luffy grow up! You dare think about causing trouble for him?!"
"You're not going anywhere until you explain yourself!"
Sensing the situation turning sour, Dadan's lackeys also rose to their feet, adopting postures that promised a fight at the slightest provocation.
"Dadan, calm down," Makino said quickly from the side, grabbing Dadan's arm to prevent the conflict from escalating further.
She walked up to Leo, her voice sincere. "Sir, it's true Luffy likes to cause trouble, but he isn't a bad child."
"If he offended you in some way before, I apologize on his behalf. Please, don't hold it against him."
Her voice was gentle, her emotion genuine. A truly caring big sister.
Leo felt a stir of interest. A completely different flavor from Nami.
His earlier statement about killing Luffy was, of course, a fabrication.
But he held no particular fondness for Luffy.
Putting aside the Impel Down incident, the world of One Piece seemed to have one unshakable rule: anyone connected to Luffy, no matter what evils they had committed before, could somehow be righteously redeemed in the end.
A classic example was the fish-man Hatchan.
He had followed Arlong, throwing his weight around and oppressing people for eight years, committing countless atrocities, his hands stained with blood.
In the end, Nami actually forgave him? They even became friends with the Straw Hats?!
It was absurd!
Of course, while Leo didn't care for Luffy, he didn't harbor any intent to fight him to the death either.
Unless Luffy provoked him first.
Otherwise, he wouldn't mind making the so-called Sun God meet an early sunset.
As for fear?!
No matter how powerful the Nika fruit was, could it possibly be more powerful than his system?!
Looking at Makino pleading for Luffy, a faint, satisfied smile curled at the corner of Leo's mouth.
"I came here for you."
"As long as you join my pirate crew, I won't make things difficult for him."
Makino looked at Leo with a complex expression, momentarily caught in a dilemma.
If she agreed, she didn't want to leave the village she'd lived in for years. And she was genuinely afraid of pirates deep down.
As for Shanks? They had gotten to know each other's true nature only after spending a long time together.
But who knew what kind of person Leo really was?!
But if she refused, she worried Leo would actually make a move against Luffy.
Sabo was already dead; she really didn't want to see Luffy make too many enemies. (They still didn't know the truth.)
Dadan, who had been on the verge of exploding with rage, said nothing more and simply stepped in front of Makino, her voice低沉 (low and serious).
"Brat, you've gone too far!"
"Do you know who watches over this place?!"
The fierce-looking lackeys immediately picked up their weapons, surrounding Leo.
Don't be fooled by their joking and laughing with Dadan and Makino.
They were mountain bandits. Not a single one of them was a pushover.
"Daring to cause trouble here, I think you—"
"How noisy!!"
A cold snort cut through the air. Simultaneously, a terrifying, immense pressure erupted from Leo's body.
An invisible force swept out at incredible speed, instantly engulfing the entire bar.
Creek... Crack...
Creek... Crack...
Tables and chairs collapsed instantly. Cracks snaked across the floorboards. The very air seemed to hum and whine.
Thud. Thud.
Dadan and her men, being the first in line, rolled their eyes back into their heads. Over a dozen people crumpled to the floor in a heap, their positions utterly undignified.
"Dadan! Everyone?!" Makino gasped, covering her mouth in horror.
What was happening?!
"Huh? Why are you okay?"
"Wait, why am I okay too?!"
Nami looked at Makino in surprise, then at herself.
The reason the two women were unaffected was, of course, because Leo had deliberately controlled the output. Otherwise, everyone would be on the floor.
"Dadan?!" Makino, snapping out of her shock, rushed to Dadan's side first to check on her condition.
"Relax, she's just unconscious," Leo's explanation made Makino breathe a sigh of relief.
As long as there was no mortal danger.
"Will you accept my invitation now?"
"If you refuse again, I can't guarantee what will happen next."
"My patience is limited. Their behavior just now has already put me in a very bad mood."
Threats.
For Nami, it had been enticement.
In short, it didn't matter if it was a black cat or a white cat; as long as it caught mice, it was a good cat.
Leo's lightly spoken words made Makino feel as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.
She couldn't just stand by and watch Leo harm Dadan.
After a long moment, Makino finally raised her head, her voice slightly choked. "As long as you don't hurt Dadan and the others... I am willing to join your pirate crew."
Clap. Clap.
Applause sounded.
"A wise decision," Leo said, looking at Makino, a smile returning to his face.
"Let's go. On to the next destination."
With a familiarity that suggested deep intimacy, Leo extended his arms and simultaneously wrapped them around the slender waists of both Nami and Makino.
Nami, already accustomed to this, just rolled her eyes at him.
The sensation of warmth on her waist made Makino's body stiffen. He's already this handsy?!
A sudden sense of foreboding washed over her.
If Nami knew what Makino was thinking, she would definitely give her a thumbs up.
Congratulations, you guessed right.
You're about to fall into Leo's clutches.
But she was also secretly relieved. With Makino joining, her own... "load-bearing device"... would finally get a chance to rest.
.....
Several hours after Leo left.
Dadan and the others gradually regained consciousness.
"Makino! Where's Makino?!" Dadan yelled, but Makino was long gone from the bar.
Needless to say, she had definitely been taken by Leo.
"That bastard!!"
"Boss, what do we do now?!" the second-in-command lackey asked.
Dadan stamped her foot in rage. "We contact Garp!" she said viciously. "Let him come catch this little brat."
This story is rewritten version of a famous fanfic so if you find any similarities please dont mind . Thank you .
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T/N :
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