"The bastard flung me quite far…" Leo cursed.
"If it wasn't for these seastone cuffs…" Leo muttered, pushing himself up against the cracked pillar, one hand rubbing his back where the bear had hit him yesterday in Arlong Park.
"How annoying..." Leo was about to sprint into the battle again when he heard a voice behind him.
"Young man… Why did you save those slaves from the World Government ship?" Leo's entire body froze.
Instinctively, he spun and struck behind him, his Haki-coated hand slicing through the air toward the man but his wrist was caught before it could connect.
Leo pulled back immediately, creating distance between them observing the intruder.
'What shitty luck… the guy from the underworld bar…' Leo identified the man from his attire even though his facial features were hidden behind the hood.
"What do you want?" Leo snapped. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of a fight?"
The man didn't answer. His gaze drifted past Leo, as if watching the battle through the walls.
After a moment, Leo exhaled answering his question.
"I just saved them on a whim," he said flatly. "Nothing more." A faint smile appeared on the man's lips.
"I see. Then remember that whim… and keep acting on it. In a world this cruel, such acts have a way of returning to you."
Before Leo could respond the man vanished and reappeared right in front of him in a flash.
In the next instant, his hand caught over Leo's seastone cuffs tightly.
Leo tried to pull free from the weirdo but an overwhelming wave of Haki crashed down on him, locking his body in place.
His heartbeat spiked, louder than the storm around him, worse than anything he had felt even against Garp or his Mother.
Slowly, Leo looked up at the man standing right in front of him. A flash of lightning split the sky, briefly lighting up his face and Leo froze.
'D. Dra.. Dragon… leader of the Revolutionary Army… the worst criminal in the world.'
The man's hand rested over the seastone cuffs, and a controlled surge of Armament Haki and something else, sank inside them instead of coating the surface. For a brief second, the pressure built from within, then with a sharp crack the cuffs split and fell apart.
(A/N: Dragon uses Advanced Armament Haki along with his unique 'Dragon Claw Fist' style, if you want, you can even assume a touch of Conqueror's Haki mixed in. That combination should be enough to break those cursed cuffs.)
CREEK—!
Leo's eyes widened and an almost manic smile spread across his face.
Freedom...
As he looked up to thank the man, the person in question was already gone.
'…Why would he help me? Because I saved those slaves in the passing?' Leo's heart still pounded, his body trembling from the aftershock of that overwhelming conqueror's Haki.
'Even with all this strength… I'm still a frog in a well. East Blue, the safest sea my ass…'
He placed his hand on his neck activating his devil fruit ability, Pain surged briefly and the next second his back bone was completely healed.
He felt his full strength returning to his muscles, suppressing the overwhelming emotions, Leo exhaled slowly, then smirked.
"Time for payback… you Smokey bastard."
He placed his palm against the ground, and the area roughly sixty meters around him responded.
The earth shifted, as if the entire surface had become pliable. Buildings slid sideways without collapsing, stacking neatly against each other, while the street stretched outward and opened into a wide circular arena, all of it moving in precise alignment under his control.
(A/N: Think of it like when Ancient One bending the Mirror Dimension in marvel universe. That's the kind of effect I'm going for here, though the explanation might feel a bit rough.)
At the center of it, Luffy was pinned to the ground by Smoker.
Leo's hand brushed past the metal safe lying around, reshaping it into a Five-foot-long club that scraped along the ground behind him.
With the club still in contact with the earth, he activated his Devil Fruit ability, tapping into the terrain indirectly.
At his command, the ground swallowed Luffy whole, the next second, Luffy popped out right beside Leo confused.
"Woh… how did… Your cuffs are off…" Luffy went through a myriad of emotions similar to Smoker.
"Hey, Smokey…" Leo called out, rolling his wrist.
"Ready for round two?"
A bead of sweat slid down Smoker's temple, distinguishable even in the raging storm.
Leo flexed his fingers once, then rubbed his wrist casually. Right in front of smoker's eyes, the marks left by the seastone cuffs faded, his skin restoring itself to normal.
Not underestimating his opponent anymore, Smoker launched himself forward, raising his seastone embedded metal baton.
The next second, their weapons collided but something unexpected happened.
The metal body of the baton smoker held, turned to dust while the intact seastone tip clattered onto the ground.
Smoker immediately distanced himself, dropping the decayed weapon. He stared at Leo with a hateful gaze, as if he'd just destroyed something precious.
"Oh… I didn't know it was important."
Leo crouched down, placing a hand on the wet earth where the scattered metal dust lay. In an instant, it reformed—restoring itself into the baton again though a little imperfect then before.
"See? Good as new." Leo smiled at him mockingly.
"Bastard… don't play with me." Smoker shouted and attacked.
"White Blow!"
Smoker fired both arms forward propelled with smoke toward Luffy and Leo.
Luffy's Gum-Gum Pistol and Leo's newly reshaped baton met the attack head-on, deflecting it into the distance.
"Look, Smokey… I don't have a grudge against you, and a fight with you will only drag things out considering I am in a hurry."
Leo expalined, unfazed by Smoker's fury.
"Even the weather's bad for fighting. Why don't we meet in the Grand Line… if you've got the guts that is. Then I'll fight you for real." Without waiting for his reply Leo placed his hand on the earth.
"You don't get to—!"
Before Smoker could finish, the ground around him erupted encasing him into a solid coffin.
Then, an earthen vault sealed over him twice his height—then another layer, then another. At least eight earthen shells formed one above another creating a 30-foot high tomb in the middle of the arena.
The next second, the earth below swallowed the whole tomb dragging the entire structure forty feet below the ground.
Even with his Logia abilities, Smoker could not escape immediately. Only brute force could break through it, and carving a way out would take time—especially in the weather like this.
Leo and Luffy were already gone, sprinting toward the port, when Tshigi arrived with other marine officers not finding captain smoker anywhere.
"That was so fun! Your ability is really fun, Leo. Why don't you join my crew? C'mon!"
"Let's focus on getting out of this place first." Leo ignored him and within a minute, they reached the port only to freeze in shock.
Zoro and Sanji lay defeated, half conscious on the ground, not far away from there, Usopp's bloodied figure lay unconscious.
Marines had Nami and Nojiko restrained in cuffs and beside them an old man sat calmly on a wooden crate, waiting for someone with a bored expression.
As soon as his eyes met the newly arrived duo, he slowly stood up, cracking his knuckles with a menacing smile.
"My diarrhea still hasn't cured after I drank that sleeping drug laced booze, you brats served me…"
"You better prepare yourselves… my fists have been aching to deliver some JUSTICE!"
"Kyahahaha…" A wild, unsettling laugh followed startling everyone.
"…Grandpa?" "Old man...?"