An uneducated army was a foolish army.
"Ha ha ha, who the hell do you think you are?" someone hidden among the crowd loudly mocked Leo.
He thought that since he was in the crowd and Leo did not know them well, Leo would never find him as long as no one informed on him.
Leo chuckled. Leaving aside the fact that William and Barbaro were now his men, with Sandersonia, who was proficient in Observation Haki, here, there was nowhere for him to hide.
"Sonia!" he called.
Sandersonia understood him perfectly and had long been itching to teach the other party a lesson.
Leo might not be able to find him, but could she not?
A section of her green hair instantly transformed into snakes and shot into the crowd.
Then, one man was caught by the leg by a green snake formed from her hair and hoisted into the air.
Sandersonia's move was somewhat similar to the Marines' "Life Return." Her hair came alive like a snake and seized her target. In battle, snake-like hair could bind an opponent's limbs and body, leaving them no room to fight back—after all, most people only had two hands and two feet. Once they were entangled by hair, especially hair reinforced with Armament Haki that even blades could not cut through, struggling was out of the question.
At that point, ordinary people would have only death awaiting them. Even Logia users might suffer a severe blow.
Of course, these little lackeys without even a bounty did not warrant Armament Haki. She effortlessly lifted him with nothing more than hair used in a technique similar to Life Return.
This was a man weighing over a hundred jin, yet he was dragged out by one leg and dangled in midair, flailing his arms and legs as he screamed in fear.
The bizarre strength of Grand Line powerhouses exceeded everyone's expectations. That was also why Leo had brought Sandersonia aboard this ship.
She had not even transformed using the Snake-Snake Fruit, yet she had already intimidated everyone into immobility.
"Is that him?" Leo asked.
"That's him. No mistake," the towering Sandersonia said with certainty, not even moving her hands as she folded her arms over her chest.
"Hang him up. He won't be training today."
Leo waved a hand as he gave the order.
Rindou casually grabbed a rope and flung it out, hanging the man from the mast.
"Next, everyone! Eight to a row. Get in formation within twenty seconds!"
Leo roared.
Everyone jolted and hurriedly began searching for their places in line.
Leo counted down twenty seconds in his head, watching them go from blind panic to several crooked rows. He did not correct them or say anything, merely watched them fumble around on their own.
After twenty seconds, they had finally formed ten uneven rows. Standing on both sides of the deck, they looked at Sandersonia with uneasy eyes. They were not afraid of Leo, but they feared Sandersonia and the Kuja Pirates behind her.
Leo had no need for them to fear him. They would soon learn what hell was.
"First row, one step forward."
They stepped forward unevenly, opening up a one-step gap from the people behind them.
"Now, do as I do." Leo jumped down from the rail, stood before the first row, and stuck out his butt.
Low laughter rose from the crowd, because the posture was simply too ridiculous.
"Sonia." Leo's expression did not change as he gave the order.
The second sister's hair once again turned into green snakes and went after people.
Three more men were hung from the mast. Whether they would die from the sun or starve to death, no one knew. This time, no one dared make another sound.
"Take my stance and squat down twenty times." Leo pointed at the people in the first row.
The people in the first row looked embarrassed, but seeing Leo hold the pose and stare at them, they could only helplessly let out a breath.
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Four!..."
Leo followed along for the first few, but after four, he merely watched them continue.
The movement looked ridiculous, laughable, and stupid, yet after doing twenty of them, their waists and legs unexpectedly ached. A faint smile appeared on Leo's face. This was the common failing of pirates—they basically did not train while at sea. Even when they did, they trained only their upper bodies. They had few opportunities to train their lower bodies. Most pirates had big heads, thick necks, and burly torsos, but their skinny little legs were a miserable sight.
This was rarely seen among the Marines. Most Marines had extremely scientific training methods and systematic routines. Even Sengoku the Buddha, who had not trained in a long time, had two long, powerful legs.
But pirates were not so fortunate. Famous examples included Kaido of the Beasts, Big Mom Linlin, Blackbeard Teach, the Supernova gangster Capone, and the Strange Monk Urouge. All of them had thick upper bodies and short lower bodies. Genes were certainly a factor, but compared with the Marines' universal long-legged build, something was clearly off—and Leo's conclusion was that pirates severely neglected training their lower bodies.
After the eight people in the first row finished, none of them were even out of breath, but their strange stances fully revealed just how much their waists and legs hurt.
"Go to the back row."
"Next row, step forward!" Leo kept a cold face and did not joke with them at all, instead ordering row after row to come forward and perform the strange movement.
If he had been humiliating them, he would not have needed to do it alongside them. But if he was truly training them, then this training was far too strange. Everyone could not help falling silent, wanting to see what exactly he was doing.
This training was barely anything to their stamina, but the posture was simply too unusual, second only to the diving leap. It was one of the rare core movements that trained the thighs, buttocks, hamstrings, lower back, upper back, abdomen, and trunk muscles. The movement called the squat was indispensable for developing the body's core strength. Precisely because it was so unusual, many people who never trained their lower bodies found their knees and glute muscles practically twitching when they suddenly did it.
The strength of many people's lower-body muscles was obvious at a glance.
Leo gently shook his head. Their stamina really was excellent; many of them had not even shed a drop of sweat yet. But this aspect of their training proved his judgment.
Now, things were getting interesting.
At some point, Leo had acquired a wooden stick. He lightly tapped it against his left hand as he looked at the group standing in crooked lines, then suddenly swung it out.
Today's gossip had been so exciting that I lost track of time watching it.
The moment the American stock market opened, it fell seven percent and directly triggered the circuit breaker. This was probably only the second circuit breaker in American history, right? I thought I might get to witness the spectacle of '91 firsthand, so I kept following the gossip. It was too good. But America was still America—it actually pulled itself back. It was still struggling now. They said trading would no longer halt after 3:25, so I figured there might be even bigger news then. Sadly, I need to sleep. I'll check it tomorrow morning.
I'll organize it later and report back to you all.
Before you continue