Chapter 20: Goodbye Nami
Maybe life would be better this way, as it was a part of destiny that he met her there on the ship and fate to all that happened between them.
He looked up at the sky with the dashes of white clouds floating gracefully in the sky and the sun shining from a distance to the cliff.
Now, it was just him on the clifftop as he watched the short grass on the cliff moving like dancers to the movement of the wind. Then at the ocean waves that blow to the shore, the brown color of the sand below the cliff.
He looked at the deep-sea water below him, blue and cold. Then, with a light smile, he jumped from the cliff's height.
He used a couple of steps to get a head start on his pace before kicking off from the edge of the clifftop into the wide-open air before him. His oversized blue shirt fluttered in the speed of his ascension towards the sky.
'This is beautiful and crazy,' he thought to himself as he laughed when gravity started to bring him down from the acceleration down to the core of the Earth. He could feel the air pushing up from below on his face and brushing his hair into the air.
For those short moments in the sky, he felt the freedom of a bird in the sky, and he closes his eyes to taste that freedom. Then, feeling the cold air of the atmosphere, the current brushing his body as he falls.
'How can I choose between comfort and adventure? Comfort will eat away my passion. But adventures will set my passionate heart free,' Leo remembers those thoughts he once had a day before. The thoughts of being together with Nami, starting a family, and leading a peaceful life. But this is the life that he wants and needs. His veins contain the blood for adventure; without it, he will die.
Somewhere in the marine building, a subordinate came up to Fleet Admiral Sengoku and announced the news about the death of a marine officer. In the room, Garp was also there, and he was eating some snacks while having a chat with Sengoku.
The two-man looked over at the marine subordinate who rushed into the office. Sengoku was the first to speak up, "What do you have to report?"
The officer makes a military salute posture and says to Fleet Admiral Sengoku, "Sir, there's the news that the Pirate Hunter Leo defeated the Arlong Pirates!"
"That seems good news," Garp commented while eating a donut from his right hand. "I remember that pirate group was quite notorious in the East Blue."
"Also, the Pirate Hunter Leo--Killed one of our Marine Officers!"
Hearing the news took the two men by a bit of surprise. It is a piece of shocking information, especially for Garp, "I had known that boy before. He wouldn't do something like that without a purpose. It doesn't seem like him."
During the five years that Leo lived with his three brothers, he would see Garp when he was visiting his boys. Garp was always the one who tried to push him to be a marine officer. They even ate together and drank together before.
"Wasn't he the boy you said with surprisingly high fighting talent?" Sengoku remembered when Garp told him about a boy who possessed all three types of Haki. He was honestly thinking that Garp must be playing with him.
Even when he was that age, he could hardly even know what Haki was. When he was Leo's age, he was still doing basic marine training. If he had only known that Garp wasn't joking, Sengoku would have personally gone there to capture him to be a marine.
"According to the information I gathered from the villagers, the marine officer Nezumi was a partner in crime with the Arlong Pirates," the officer said to Sengoku and Garp. "The Pirate Hunter Leo killed him after Nezumi tried to capture him for intruding on his duty."
"How despicable!!" Garp beat the wooden table with anger written on his face. "Such trash deserved to be killed. Marines should always be supporting the duty of justice. They should not hurt the villagers, especially not collaborating with pirates to harm."
But meanwhile, Sengoku said with a severe expression, "Although it is wrong what the officer has done. Leo is also at fault for killing a marine officer indiscriminately."
Garp wants to say something, but he also knows that if the news got out that a marine officer was killed without punishment, it would hurt the reputation of the marines, especially when the people don't know the whole story and only hear the part where Nezumi was killed.
The people who pass on the gossip would escape certain parts to make the story more dramatic. Villainizing specific individuals help with making the story more interesting. That's how the world works. There's got to be victims and a villain.
Sengoku sighs before saying to the officer, "Give this man a bounty of 60,000,000 Belli." He made this decision based on the possible potential that exists in Leo.
Back at Foosha Village village, Luffy, Sabo, and Ace ate a feast in the Partys Bar. They were celebrating together the success of defeating a beast.
"Did you hear a new pirate in the East Blue called Leo with a bounty of 60,000,000 Belli?!" A man at the bar table said to his friend.
"No way, isn't that boy that used to frequent the bar here? I think I remember him," his friend was looking at the wanted poster. "Yeah, it has to be that young man called Leo. No doubt about it!"
"Leo?" Ace's ears were able to catch that word. He walked to the men's table, looking at a wanted poster. "Can I take a look at that poster?"
"Oh, Ace! Here you are. Isn't Leo the kid you grew up with?" He showed Ace the wanted poster that just came out on the news.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone