You Were Their Hero

Over the next month, Leon turned straight into a plow, sweeping indiscriminately across all the surrounding seas with Foosha Village at the center.

"The brutal Marine bandage man uses unimaginable, bloody methods to kill every pirate who enters his line of sight..."

Rumors about Leon spread like wildfire across the East Blue. His image was already on the verge of becoming something like a terrifying urban legend.

Still, Leon's actions had indeed produced good results.

Although they hadn't had time to expand their sweep to the entire East Blue, as word spread quickly, the pirate forces that had once been rampant across the sea began to lie low.

The sea had temporarily returned to peace.

"Bogard, we've been out here almost all day, haven't we?"

"And we haven't run into a single pirate crew."

Leon lay in his deck chair, boredly yawning.

"This stretch of sea has been pretty much cleared out. We'll probably have to head farther out to find any signs of pirates..."

Bogard pulled out a nautical chart and drew an even larger circle beyond the one already marked.

"Then let's do that." Leon rolled over. "Teacher Garp said we'll be returning to headquarters in the next couple of days."

"We've done more than enough. The rest can be left to the Marine Branch in the East Blue."

When this campaign to clear the East Blue first began, Leon had intended to gain more combat experience, so he'd led the charge against the pirates himself.

But perhaps because the Great Pirate Era had only just begun,

the pirates' strength was wildly uneven. Apart from a handful of pirates with bounties who had some real ability, most were just brutes who relied on sheer viciousness and wildly swung their swords.

Growing bored, Leon simply gave the Marines aboard the warship the chance to show what they could do.

These elite Marines from headquarters, who had undergone strict training, completely outclassed ordinary pirates whose weapons were rusted.

By the later stages, the pirates would flee at the mere sight of a Marine warship in the distance.

They'd captured so many pirates that Leon and the others even had to find an uninhabited island to hold them temporarily.

Among the pirates were also some adventurers who hadn't yet committed any crimes and had gone to sea simply to search for treasure.

Leon couldn't be bothered to judge them one by one, so he handed them all over to the Marine Branch in Loguetown. After a basic screening, the branch sent them to Judicial Island in batches to stand trial.

"Hey, Bogard, isn't that a merchant ship up ahead?"

"Why's it avoiding us? Should we go take a look?"

The taciturn Bogard said nothing and silently lowered the brim of his hat.

Over the past month, they'd come across quite a few slave ships from various kingdoms. Every time, Leon had solemnly insisted that the slave traders were pirates in disguise.

He never gave them a chance to explain, just punched them to pieces.

Now nobody dared go near their warship...

If Garp hadn't been there to back him up, along with the credit they'd earned for eliminating so many pirate forces,

Leon might well have ended up standing trial on Judicial Island alongside the pirates he'd captured...

As evening fell, the Dog Head Warship returned to Foosha Village.

"Red-Haired Shanks and Buggy the Clown should be in the East Blue now, too..."

"Too bad we didn't run into them. I never got to test the strength of the Face-Man and the Luck-King..."

Leon climbed off the ship, disappointed. The village had already prepared a grand banquet to send Garp off.

"Leon and the others are back!"

Cheers rang out, and the banquet began.

"Here."

Beside the bonfire, Garp tossed Leon a bottle of rum. Leon sat down beside him, picked up a huge piece of meat, and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Back in his hometown, Garp's laughter grew even more uninhibited. Without a care, he slapped Leon on the shoulder with his greasy hand.

"Why aren't you out dancing, kid?"

"I've seen several pretty young girls giving you the eye, ha ha ha!"

Leon downed the bottle of rum. Perhaps because it had been made with rather crude methods,

the drink tasted a little bitter...

"This year, I'm definitely going to get the nuclear radiation inside me completely under control!"

Leon made up his mind.

Garp was already drunk, and his words had grown a little slurred.

"I just don't know why they'd go for a weird kid like you, all wrapped in bandages and never showing your face."

"Back when I was young..."

All right, I get it. Dragon didn't just pop out of a rock.

Not wanting to listen to Garp brag any longer, Leon stood up and joined the others' invitation, taking hands with the crowd and dancing together.

The night passed without sleep.

The next morning, despite his hangover, Garp stood bright-eyed at the bow of the warship, thanks to his inhuman constitution, bidding farewell to the people of Foosha Village.

One thing worth mentioning was that before leaving, Garp rejected Leon's suggestion to build a structure out of pirate heads—a "Kyongwan," as Leon called it—to intimidate the pirates.

"I believe that under the Marines' protection, this sea will be able to remain peaceful."