Day three

"I thought your 'client' only ordered 3 trees? I'm sure it's more than enough for making rails"

"There's one more actually, a guy from East Blue, really shady" Leo just nodded while picking up his axe, he guessed, when you've been dealing in illegal trading for years you can't ask for anything clearer than that as you can never be too careful about anything.

"Is this good?" Leo referred to the haki that he's managed to accumulate in his arm hoping that it was good enough a Gyo as Danny had expected. Danny looked up from the sharpening of his axe and nodded.

"Good enough, but you might want to allocate a little to your legs just to make sure you've got a good grip on both sides" Leo shrugged his head.

"It's quite basic really, if you want to launch energy toward one direction you also need to have the same amount of energy to the opposite direction, it's what's called as recoil, I'm sure you've heard it" following Danny's advice Leo planted his foot firmly on the ground. He then inhaled as he raised the axe and with great power swung it down along with his exhalation. The result was a gaping clean cut the shape of the head of the axe on the wood. Not as big as Danny's but Leo was quite proud of it.

"Good, very good Leo, but it's nothing compared to this" Danny swung the axe and a huge explosion rang from the point of impact. Leo noticed the shock wave he felt days ago now clearly, it was cutting the insides of the tree, a straight horizontal line from the edge of the axe was formed alongside the width of the trunk. The result was nothing short of impressive. The little axe has somehow slashed the tree almost all the way into the center from their side. What he didn't notice was Danny's arms' muscle flexing in an attempt to absorb all the energy that the powerful impact has released his way.

"Wow that's impressive" a kid's voice from behind them interrupted the rush.

"Your Highness!" Danny quickly dropped his axe and bowed down while Leo casually approached the 'little kid' and lazily bowed down to the cap wearing Princess.

"I thought you've finished your picture"

"Yea I was bored so I decided to take a walk" Leo looked around for a certain bald man in a black suit or the soles of his shoe flying toward his face but nobody was around "well actually I took a run" the Princess said playfully noticing Leo's worried look. Leo sighed in relief at that while the Princess passed him by toward the tree they were cutting before.

"Uhm…Princess what are you doing?" Danny asked as he saw the Princess picking up his axe with both of her small hands which looks really disproportionate with the Princess' small figure.

"I wanna test my haki power too" the Princess walked around the tree to do the 'back cut' though the men doubted she even knew what that was. She was just rather sloppily looking for a surface to stomp the axe on with her 'haki'. She's going to make a fool out of herself! She's barely taller than the axe itself Leo just chuckled at the thought.

"Your Highness I don't think that's such a good idea" the Princess didn't bother, she swung the axe and a similar but less impressive explosion noise was produced then the tree began to shake meaning that the tree was going to fell soon and the Princess just stood still below it apparently proud of it.

"How was…" before the Princess finished the sentence Leo was already pushing her away onto the ground with his body atop shielding her away from the falling tree and other debris. The tree fell as the trunk gave and a huge dull sound was heard as the gigantic tree hit the ground.

For what seemed like hours the Princess and Leo laid there on the ground, the Princess still shocked laid unmoving, Leo didn't know whether that was because of the near death experience or the fact that a mere peasant like him was lying so boldly on top of her. So Leo immediately got back on his feet while offering her a hand to get up.

"Whew heheheh that was close! Well done Leo" Danny was suddenly beside Leo patting his shoulder a bit harder than usual, he didn't seem to notice the cold sweat running down the surface of his face. But seeing the Princess lying there, empty blue eyes looking at the sky paled Danny's face again, "are you alright Your Highness?" asked the concerned Danny trying to sound as calm as possible. Suddenly her eyes shot toward the source of the sound and she grabbed Leo's offering hand and pulled herself up "yeah, I'm alright".


Minutes later

Leo was walking nervously alone with the Princess. He wondered why Danny had let him take a walk with her alone in the woods when he was the one who told him right to his face not to get close to her! Just how powerful is she that he can't even say no to this little kid? And this whole 'World Noble' thing.

"What is it?" suddenly the Princess pierced the deafening awkward silence

"What?"

"Come on, you've been giving me the cold shoulder since the morning we met, what's the matter?"

Leo thought for seconds whether to be honest or not, he was afraid this would have had a very negative impact on Danny and himself, "promise you're not going to get mad at what I'm gonna say?" Leo looked down hoping that she wouldn't, "depends" she said that with that playful tone of hers, as if they were longtime friends.

"Yesterday, when I went up the hill after I saw you, you sent your bodyguards to jump me right?"

"What made you say that?"

"Again I'm sorry if this offends you, but I remembered something about the bald guy Berther asking you whether the fight was up to your expectations or something…" he looked down to see the Princess was apparently not slightly surprised or affected by Leo's statement.

"and…and it's impossible for us to fight that long without you noticing, a fight like that's got to draw attention even if you were gone to take a leak or something and you did nothing to stop him! He's your bodyguard, under your leash, he wouldn't have done that if it wasn't based on someone's order! So now don't play all innocent and sweet in front of me, you might own this country but I'm not afraid of you!"

The little Princess in front of him suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Leo stopped behind her, despite what he'd said earlier about how he wasn't afraid of her he really was just caught up in the mood. Damn I wasn't thinking! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid Leo!

She began to walk again "yes, it's true I let Berther fight you"

"Wh…"

"Why is because I'm a fighter like you too Leo, I learn from fights therefore I can learn what their specialty is and their weaknesses…"

Leo was a bit surprised at that, he wouldn't have guessed that she was into martial art or anything related to it. Her trained haki could be a result of the bald guy or somebody else applying it to her to protect her, yes haki can be used that way "are you saying you want to fight me? Is that why you're bringing me out here?"

"Well, I do believe that having a good rival is the only way you're going to advance and Berther don't have the guts to fight me because he's so by the book"

Leo just chuckled at that "sorry but I don't think with a figure like that you can go far"

She abruptly turned toward him "don't you get it? THAT is my advantage"

"What? Fighting in a body of a child so they'll pity you?"

The Princess sighed "…men with their brawn…having a large body is a liability, your vital points are more exposed and your response are slower, you're not as flexible as the small bodied-ones"

"Logically yes, but smaller body means it'll hurt more if somebody attacks you, your body is so small that you won't even block a kick or punch entirely!"

"That's why smaller body is more flexible and faster! We don't block, we dodge as many as we could" she got a point Leo thought

"I suppose your 'speed' will have to bear the short range of your attack too?" she didn't answer but this has made Leo longing for a match with her just to prove her that small body doesn't always mean victory, besides this is a good opportunity to fight with a foe with a much smaller body than his, living in North Blue you rarely fight a small opponent and a female one at that too.

"I like your principle but you can't expect to be small forever you know…you're thirteen for Gylfen's sake!"

"How do you think I could keep this shape at thirteen?" at that Leo was thoroughly and utterly surprised.

"You purposefully did that to your own body? Now most girls I know think they're not 'growing' enough and here you are suppressing it just for a bit of advantage, I mean you're a girl you're going to still be smaller than most of your foes even without you meddling around, that's assuming they're men"

"Still that is NOT enough! You're lucky you're born a man, there's not one single day goes by without me cursing myself for being born a girl" Leo was startled, he never knew he was a lucky man. If only she knew… this girl got some issues, yesterday I thought she was the total opposite of me with her painting hobby now I think she's an even crazier martial artist than me!

"Just what is it that makes you obsessed with this? It's got to be really great…."

"Enough with it, we're here" she turned as Leo looked around and realized that this was the same river where he and his friends often visit for camping or just hangout. They're in a little beach in a wide and open river bank. The forest didn't cover this part of the beach and seemed suitable enough except for the sandy ground for a match, but he was sure he doesn't need to worry about that when fighting against this 'kid'.

"You sure you want to do this?" the Princess showed her seriousness by immediately entering her unique fighting stance. She kept her head low, arms in front protecting the front of her body and she kept moving left and right in an elaborate footing technique making it difficult for Leo to target her vital points. I guess this is what she said as advantage…but still with that height she won't even…

Before he could finish his thought Leo quickly stepped back. If he hadn't focused his sight on her feet movements the weird high spinning kick would have got him

"Don't hold back on me" she said that as she made a high snap kick.

"Alright, you're asking for it" it was now Leo's turn to attack, he started with overwhelming his opponent with barrage of punches which she managed to block and dodge, an amazing feat considering her small arms, but it was to be expected from a haki practitioner. It was just a mere distraction from what was to come. To the Princess his punches were quite easy it made her suspicious and she was right as she saw his feet coming for her face. She smiled and ducked, she never knew it'd be this easy, but come to think of it all of her fights are almost always ended up with this killing technique of hers and only a small body can support the speed and agility which is needed for this technique to work. As Leo's feet kicked the air, the ducking Princess spun and prepared her Gyo. The little time that Leo needed to pull his feet back was all she needed for her to blast her exposed opponent to oblivion. That's why speed matters. But Leo aware of her plan in a split second spun around his opponent, left feet haven't even fully extracted yet. The Princess looked back in surprise, Leo in less than a second had not only managed to avoid her killer attack but also somehow did it with only one of his legs. Leo quickly skipped forward and threw his elbow, but the shocked Princess threw her head back to avoid the elbow just in time but Leo anticipated this by opening his folded arm, now his arm fully extended have wider reach, her head unable to stay out of Leo's range any further received it on the temple by Leo's side knuckle punch.

As a result of the punch the Princess flew and fell on her back. Still on the ground she clutched the side of her head. Leo was surprised she didn't faint from that knowing that she hasn't restored her haki around her from futilely using Gyo earlier. But he was sure she's done for the day.

"You okay?" Leo asked while extending his hand, the Princess looked up at him and grabbed his hand.

"I felt dizzy…" now 'dizzy' was an understatement, at least he could see the contusion starting to get even more prominent and darker too. It reminded him of the one he got from the bald guy a long time ago. He wished it wasn't that bad though.

"Alright just lie there, take some rest while I go back for Danny alright?"


"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" as expected from dear Danny...

"Let me explain first alright! She asked me to spar with her and who am I to refuse her? After all I'm just an ordinary peasant boy" Leo said trying to get back on Danny after the latter allowed the Princess to 'borrow' him.

"You..you.." Danny pointed his finger at Leo "I can't believe it" Danny muttered gibberish things as he moved around trying to get back to his senses. Leo's got him good.

"What are we going to tell to her parents?"

"I don't know! So do you have some bandages or not? She's bruising really bad"

"Yeah I got it in my cabin…I think, I'll go take a look while you go back there and attend to her! I don't want any more incidents you hear me!"


Back in the river Leo saw the Princess lying under the shade of a tree, she looked like she was asleep as he sat beside her.

"I underestimated you" Leo looked down to see the Princess still have her eyes closed but definitely awake now.

"I know the feeling, it's very tempting…when you see victory right in front of you, you forget about anything else because it is really close, my father once told me that and I've also learned it the hard way too"

"I guess it's also…because this is my first time that…I ever fought seriously with someone…"

"What do you mean?"

"All I ever got as sparring partners were Papa and the bodyguards…and with every practice Papa has to be present and me being a Princess, makes them nervous and let me have it easy…"

"Well it's rational, after all they're your 'bodyguards' clearly they don't want anything bad to happen to you, besides why learn the dangerous world of martial art when you can have as many monsters as you want to protect you? I'm starting to get the feeling this is more than just for the sake of self-defense"

"And you learn haki to be a town thug?"

"What!? Of course not! Who said that!? I'm going to be the Royal Guard one day"

"Well I guess you better treat me nicely then"

"But you still haven't answered my quest…" before he could finish it the frantic sound of Danny pierced the quiet river bank.

"Over here Danny!" Leo sighed

"Are you okay Your Highness?" Danny knelt down and took a look at the bruise, now dark blue. He grimaced.

"I don't know...the headache is getting worse" Danny turned his head toward Leo and handed him the first aid

"What is this?"

"You're the doctor's son!"

"Yeah so?"

"So wrap the bandage around her!" Realizing that he would only waste his and the Princess' precious time by arguing with Danny, Leo took the first aid and unwrap the bandage. He then lifted the Princess' head a bit and secured the bandage tightly around her head with some cold wet cotton covering the bruised part. The result was quite neat, Leo has to admit it, maybe it's because of years of helping the doctor operate on people but he knew no matter how good it was they'd have to get some ice soon if it was going to heal well.

"We have to bring her back before we got price on our heads"

Leo was about to nod when he looked a big lunchbox behind Danny "look what time it is? I think it's lunch time, the Princess said she was hungry, she can have mine (lie)"

"Alright but make it fast, we also still got some jobs need to be done" Danny said as he unwrapped the plastic bag covering the lunch boxes and grabbed his.

"Just take the woods to your cabin right? Easy"

"Well…I've been thinking…" Leo stopped his eating, don't tell me we have to cut a dozen more trees

"Nah it's not that!" Danny yelled, somehow he knew exactly what Leo was thinking " I've been thinking since this summer you're not going anywhere…why don't you help me out transporting the goods to my client over in East Blue" that was so nice of Danny to bring Leo for the first time out of 'his' native sea…there could be great adventures waiting for me there!

"Pay's good?" Leo being Leo just had to keep his cool

Danny smirked "You don't have to worry about your pay when I deliver those things to my client, food is on me as usual"

"It's a deal!" fired up, Leo shook Danny's hand hard, soon he realized his mistake as Danny began to crush his hand again.

"Uhhh...Leeeooo whut did yoou giive to mmeee...?" both men turned their heads back to find the Princess apparently high on drugs.

"Uh oh, i think i gave her a wrong dosage"

"You should turn her back to her parents before this could get any worse"

"What about you?"

"Uh...uhmm..i still have something to do here..."

"You're just saying that! Come on don't let me go there alone, she'g got that bald guy and other ninjas holed up in that mansion"

"Well it's not me who gave her all this" Danny put his hand on his head to mimic Nessa's predicament.

"...besides they know it already"

Leo's eyes widened at that. He mouthed "Really?"

"Yep, she has a tail"


On her way home

"So you spend your summer in the Peak often?"

"What? No, we usually change places…Papa like to stay in new places so he can get to know locals better" the blond boy nodded

"Are you usually this adventurous though? Meeting and picking fights with strangers..."

"No…you wouldn't recognize me if you'd known me 2 years earlier, but I'd rather not talk about it"

"Alright so how long will you be staying here? I could be your tour guide"

"I'd love that thanks, i'd be staying here for 3 days more, then we'll go back since Papa can't leave the office for too long…and it's been how many months already!"

"That's good, perfect" the couple then stopped in front of the all too familiar front yard of the vacation home, the same yard where Leo got beat up months ago. On impulse Leo checked his surrounding, he'd vowed to himself yesterday that he was done getting ambushed by anybody especially that bald thug.

"Alright, tomorrow morning at eight maybe in Wolves Café?"

"Sounds good to me"

"See you then"

"See you Princess" Leo bowed down a little, now a little more refined. Whew, thank God the drugs wore off quickly!


Nessa let out a sigh as she closed the door behind her. He didn't know how to explain her disappearance to his parents nor does she have one for the bandage wrapped around her head, knowing her parents she knew they wouldn't take this likely. Nessa pulled down the cap she was wearing further down her head, she hoped it wasn't that obvious. She then tiptoed to her bedroom and hoped to lock herself there until she could find good explanation to this. But she didn't go very far when she bumped into somebody's hard chest, and unfortunately she thinks she knew just to whom that chest belongs to. She slowly looked up from under her cap and saw her father standing tall before her, his face showed nothing but concern. She sighed with relief at least she's spared from his wrath for now. "Nessa".

"Who is he?"

"Just a boy I met in town"

"He did this to you?" her father raised his hand and took off her daughter's cap to reveal the bandage.

"I heard he's quite the fighter"

"H…how did you!?" Nessa yelled, clearly startled because she's done all her best to stealthily escape form the confinement of her bodyguards, and they've also found a way to track her down and she didn't even feel their presence through her haki.

"Wait…if they were there why didn't they try to stop me like they've been doing all this time?"

"Because I know you'll do it again and again until you get what you want, you're stubborn like that…I figure you'll keep doing it until you realize that there are so many stronger people out there! Even a random lumberjack could beat you up like this, when are you going to learn that this isn't some kind of a destiny it's a death wish!"

"If you think I'm going to give it up just because I lost to some 'random lumberjack' then you're wrong Papa"

"Listen to yourself Nessa Dear…this isn't you…"

"The second he came back to us like that I knew this was my destiny!" her father just shook her head, he put his large hands on her little shoulders and sighed "…knowing him…do you think that he'd want you to grow up like this?" and we came back to this again…!

Cannot possibly stand with it anymore Nessa stormed outside, anywhere her legs could carry her as far away from her parents as possible, quickly before they could change her mind, before they could make her forget the promise she's made. They don't understand, they'd never understand how much I've missed him, how I so long to just see his smile again…how I wished I could take it all back before all of this happened…they'll NEVER understand!


Since Leo remembered the doctor was supposed to come back tonight Leo has been catching up with the accumulating chores he's been neglecting since days ago. He wished he could clean the dishes and do laundry with his haki. Leo was just finishing his house chores when he heard knocks on the door. He quickly put down the laundry basket he was carrying, wiped the sweat off his forehead and proceeded to answer it. "Sorry but the doctor is..." Leo stopped midway as he was shocked the second he saw his late guest which was no other than the Princess herself. Apparently she forgot to put on her cap and also she's been crying, and he thought he knows why. Leo told her to come in and sit down on the couch while Leo went to prepare some drinks.

"Care to tell me what happened?" Leo asked as he sat down on the couch with her, he passed the cup of soothing freshly brewed green tea to her.

"Leo…" she whimpered. She seemed to be hesitating about something...

"Uhm…I just came here to take you up on your offer to be my guide, can we go like…now?"

Leo clapped his hands as he got up "sure! Let's go"

The couple chatted about all kinds of things, especially about martial arts since she still refused to tell him what was going on. He found out that one doesn't have to spend months meditating to be able to see his haki. She said a haki practitioner could 'force' open the eye of the haki that enables a person to see haki physically. Also she told him that he knew about 'shigan' and any other secret techniques, turns out she wanted to learn it all just as badly as he does but her father denied her pleads for obvious reasons.

By the time they arrived at the 'beautiful spot' that he mentioned it was already dark. The aforementioned spot was the hill where they first met. Leo pointed his finger toward the view of the 'Or Mountain and as she looked up she couldn't hide her awe at the spectacular view before her. The mountain was even more beautiful at night with what Leo called as 'aurora' in the sky and the Mountain with its strange feature reflecting the colorful and mystical 'aurora' on its surface. It looks as if the rolling mountain was part of the magical sky itself.

"I've never been there, but my father told me the whole Mountain was covered by thick ice, not snow but frozen cold ice, the reflective nature of the clear ice is what makes the Mountain always have the same colour as the sky…"

"It's wonderful…"

They sat there with the entire forest lit only by the moonlight, marveling the beauty for like hours before the Princess broke the serene silence

"Leo…"

"…do you think taking revenge is right?"

"It depends" Leo said after much thought and he also had decided to not talk about the fate of his Pirate father to her

"What? what do you mean?" asked the girl puzzled

"'Right' is relative, from my point of view taking revenge is wrong but you might have some justification as to why you want to take that revenge which I believe if I had I'd see it as the right thing to do"

"So you mean as long as I have strong reason to do it…"

"Since you're not going to tell me what the hell is happening to you, I can't judge your decision"

There were a moment of quietness as the Princess tried to hold back her tears, Leo could see her struggling inside, more tears were starting to fill her blue eyes and the moonlight reflected in her eyes perfectly conveyed her emotion.

"I…It's about someone I loved very dearly….more than anything else in the world…and is…taken away from me"

After a long pause and thorough consideration Leo decided to ask "…who?"

"My brother" then Leo's eyes lighted up, he remembered reading it in the doctor's newspaper years ago, about the death of the Kingdom's Crown Prince. The event was really big with the Kingdom's flag flown at half mast, and people from around the Kingdom mourning and shops closing for days. It was a very gloomy day. I should have known! Well…in my defense the event was a long time ago

"Ah I remembered reading it, he was killed in a war years ago, I was really saddened hearing that…the country's only Crown Prince gone at such a young age with so much potential…" it was true, he heard the Prince was quite an adventurer…at the age of 17 and he was already sailing around the world alone 'exploring' despite his status and also his family's adamant refusal to let him go, it must have hurt knowing how it's turned out and knowing how it could have been prevented if only...

"True, except…he didn't really die and he wasn't involved in any war" Leo looked up, clearly surprised to hear it.

"IT ISN'T A WAR! IT'S A MASSACRE!"

"What is?"

"Ohara" at the mention of the foreign name Leo wrinkled his brows in confusion

"I know I can trust you…right Leo" the Princess looked up looking for something in his eyes, now the unrestrained tears starting to stream down her young angelic face one by one. Leo jsut smiled as he gently wiped the tear streaks off her cheek with his thumb, "...of course"

Nessa smiled weakly and nodded "our Kingdom have secretly been supporting the Ohara archeologists in their research…" that didn't sound deadly at all...thought Leo

"Two years ago through several captured Oharan archeologists, the World Government suspicion about its unwanted activity was confirmed and it decided to silence Ohara once and for all…my brother was there of all places, somehow he knew of the oncoming raid but he came a little bit too late…the moment he got there the Marines were already there and instead of killing him like what they did with cold blood to the rest they captured him because they knew who he was" Leo started to put the puzzles together and he dreaded to hear what was about to be told to him by the sobbing Princess.

"…And they tortured him! But he was a stupid stubborn boy, he always has been, he kept his silence regarding our Kingdom's involvement and they kept going at it until…until they finally broke his mind" by that time Leo's already had one hand covering his mouth, how could he not know of such terrible incident…he couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like for her brother to have to suffer such things.

Leo reached out and embraced the Princess, forget about the stories and revenge, this was all she need right now, a shoulder for her to cry on. She's been through a lot.


"You know what you're up against right?" Leo asked now on their way home.

"I'll have no regrets" that's good spirit but who's going to rule this Kingdom? Leo thought, he's been considering to say his thoughts to her but he decided to leave that to her parents

"You know Leo…even though I've only known since yesterday somehow I felt like I've known you since I was a child, you're like a best friend I wish to God I had…and for that I'm really grateful to have met you here…and sorry for having Berther kick your ass, but it was fun while it lasted" she giggled

Leo smiled, he didn't know why some people could have a 180 degree change like that in less than an hour. An hour ago she was bawling like a baby and talking about revenge and things, now she was making fun of him. "Yeah I just have one of those faces…" Leo joked which got him a jab to his side.

"Are you sure you don't want to have dinner with us?"

"Nah…my stomach isn't for those fancy stuffs you guys serve…besides my father's coming home tonight, I don't want him to come and find the kitchen empty" she just smiled understandingly "Alright Leo, thanks for your little tour, I really appreciate it"

"Hey don't mention it"


"Leo I'm home!" an appreciative sniffing sound was heard from the middle room.

"Don't come here, just wait a minute, I've got something special prepared for ya" Leo yelled from the kitchen

"It smells like a STEAK!"

"Aww…you always guessed it all!"

"Can't help it, it smells really great" the doctor said, he was seated at the table, complete with knife and fork in each hand, napkin tucked into his collar as Leo came out of the kitchen bringing two plates of special sizzling tri-tip steaks, it's the doctor's favorite and he was lucky to have it at a bargain at the town so that means he still have plenty of those juicy steaks. Without further ado the doctor devoured the meal like he was a hungry carnivorous lion.

Leo has just sliced his first piece of the delicious meat he's proudly grilled when he looked up to find the doctor has finished it all, down to the potatoes and the little corns which he usually didn't eat. Just how far is this town! …Leo thought

"That hit the spot!" The doctor burped and then proceeded to clean the mess on his mouth with the napkin "so Leo...tell me, how's your day?"