The Haki coating Leo's fists grew thicker and darker than before. It wasn't natural but forced, from the depths of his will, responding recklessly to his desperate desire to defeat Garp—even at the cost of destroying his own hands.
"Don't overdo it, kid… you're too green to…" Leo moved before Garp could finish his sentence.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he shot forward with explosive speed, his fist tearing through the storm.
Garp didn't dodge but stepped in, with no haki covering his hand, he met the fist head on.
The collision of their fists thundered across the port startling the spectators.
Leo was blown back while Garp slid only a few meters back, his fist a little bruised.
"…It's been a while since someone made my fist ache." His gaze locked on Leo.
Leo's body hadn't just grown—it had changed from within.
Beneath his skin, Complex layers of muscle twisted like coiled cables and yet his bones had cracked from the impact only to be healed next second.
"Stop destroying your body, brat…" Garp shouted, watching the reckless, stubborn boy.
Leo ignored him and lunged again only to be caught mid-air, Garp's hand clamping down on his jaw.
Leo didn't stop—he kept throwing punches, kicks, and elbows, tearing the old man's uniform and leaving shallow dents, only exhausting himself.
Yet against a relentless barrage, the old man didn't budge.
'Monster…'
Leo's heart pounded violently, far beyond human limits. Blood roared through his veins and his cells broke down and regenerated in rapid succession, his devil fruit ability forcing his body to hold together when it should have already collapsed.
The Haki coating his arms burned into his muscles from inside, thin wisps of smoke seeping out from his hands.
Leo's movements finally began to slow, his body showing the strain of pushing beyond its normal limits.
"Now that's more like it." Still holding Leo by the jaw, Garp bent his knees and leapt high in the sky.
A faint wave of Conqueror's Haki coated his palm not to destroy the boy, but to overwhelm his will.
"Blue Hole."
The next second Leo's eyes widened in terror as he came down like a meteor, carving a deep crater in the center of the port.
His body reverted, shrinking back to normal, as he lay there barely conscious.
Soon Garp landed nearby and next second Luffy dropped in from above, having defeated Bogard charging straight at Garp.
A few "fists of love" and he soon joined Leo at the bottom of the crater, broken and exhausted.
Garp sighed, hoisting both boys over his shoulder like sacks of rice, stepping out of the crater as rainwater slowly began to fill it.
At the port, the crew stood ready to sail only to realize their days as pirates were over before they could even enter the Grand Line.
"Come down and surrender, you fools… or should I make you?" Garp's voice crushed their morale.
Behind him, Leo stirred from the rough voice, he lifted his head and shouted in blind hope.
"I know you're watching… Dragon…" Garp stopped mid-step.
"Just help me this once… and I'll owe you." Garp's expression became agitated.
"…What did you say, brat? Dragon's here? That explains how you got rid of the seastone cuffs."
"Garp… you are not authorized to engage with Dragon. Bring those two to the headquarters." The Den Den Mushi crackled from a nearby marine's hand, but Garp paid it no mind.
He dropped both boys to the ground and looked up at the eye of the storm, now raging more than before.
"I should've known this storm was artificial…" his voice hardened. "Dragon—come out and face your old man." Behind him, Leo moved sneakily.
He pulled Luffy close and the earth shifted beneath them, carrying them slowly toward the Going Merry like a crude escalator.
His body screamed in pain, barely keeping him conscious.
'That Conqueror's haki punch… was too much.' He didn't dare heal, Knowing If he did, he'd black out instantly.
They hadn't gone far when a gentle wind rose and lifted both of them.
The breeze carried them across the distance, setting them down onto the deck of the Going Merry just as the ship began to move, pulling away from Loguetown… and the nightmare named Garp.
Leo glanced back, on a distant rooftop, a lone figure stood, its cloak fluttering in the raging storm.
The next second, a thick pillar of lightning crashed down from the sky, striking straight at Garp but he sidestepped instantly, moving faster than the bolt itself.
Without wasting a moment, Garp lunged toward the distant figure of Dragon, fist clenched ready to strike but by the time he reached him, Dragon had already disappeared.
From the ship, the crew watched as the two figures appeared and vanished across the rooftops speaking and dodging each other, and then at last, Dragon disappeared for good.
Garp stood there alone, enraged and with a roar, he punched upward into the eye of the storm.
The force of attack surged skyward, laced with Armament and Conqueror's Haki, tearing through the storm itself.
The clouds split apart, scattering as sunlight broke through, washing Loguetown in sudden calm away from the storm.
"Damn… is the Grand Line filled with monsters like that?" Sanji muttered.
Leo lay back, barely conscious looking at the scattering storm, while Luffy groaned beside him. Both of them remembered the old man's words in the crater.
'Be careful in the Grand Line and don't ever kill a Celestial Dragon, the time isn't right.'
"Guys! Look!" Nami pointed ahead.
"That lighthouse, past that is an entrance to the Reverse Mountain!"
With a little unintended help from Garp, the storm finally settled, calming the sea. Ahead, the waters clashed with calm belt and ran upward toward the mountain in reverse stream.
Everyone knew what the Calm Belt was.
A massive breeding area for sea kings many of them the size of islands. No ordinary ship dared cross it, except marines.
Soon, the crew found themselves before a massive red wall stretching into the clouds, its peak lost from sight as if it stretched infinitely into the sky above.
"Guys! The current's too strong, we need to steer a little to the right!" Nami shouted, eyes locked on the narrow entrance as the ship came close to crash into the steel columns beside the entrance.
"We'll handle it…" Zoro and Sanji, still battered, forced themselves toward the helm. Their swelled muscles screamed against their desire, definitely the handiwork of Garp as they struggled against the violent current.
"No need…"
Leo spoke painfully, clutching his jaw with one hand as he pressed the other hand against the ship deck.
The moment his palm made contact with the deck, he felt as if he and the Going Merry had become one entity, as if everything on the ship was his to command.
The ship responded instantly, turning under his will, aligning exactly where Nami directed.
And then the sea current carried them upward.
The ascent was smooth and the crew gathered at the railing, breathlessly, watching the impossible climb which stretched into infinity
For several minutes, they rode the upward stream.
Then, the ship veered left following the downward current, slicing through thick fog as they descended toward what should have been the vast open sea.
But instead a massive, dark-blue mountain towered ahead of them, blocking their path.
"That's… not a mountain…" Nojiko said, lowering her binoculars.
"That's a Massive whale."