Battle Log Seven

Leonardo vs Schweitzer, "The Unknown"

SHING.

An arm.

SPLAT.

A throat.

SCHLOP.

An eye.

"Damn you, ki-"

His sword danced, and the man's tongue now lay on the floor. With disbelief and shock, he stared at it in a comical way that would have looked appropriate in a historical painting.

Leonardo always found those paintings to be amusing.

As he slit the man's throat and rapidly moved on to the next three opponents, he found himself somewhat happy to have spent the last two or so months training Jackie. His skills were more polished, he was most certainly faster than before, and his accuracy had improved beyond even his own belief.

That guy...I owe him one. It hurt his brain to even think of actually appreciating something that half-baked dumbass did for him, but he knew he had to thank Jackie later.

Maybe if they both survived this battle, he would.

He dropped his tenth man of the day and looked around. There were certainly more pirates, but now they looked rather unwilling to come any closer. Some lowered their hands to their belts where their guns were, but in their faces there were expressions that showcased uncertainty.

And not without good reason. A Ley user was not to be underestimated. Even bullets would be damn near useless, thanks to his Basic Ley.

As he paused to decide his next move, he heard clapping from behind him. He turned his head, and saw a man and a one-armed woman descending from the upper deck down a flight of stairs.

"That was quite something, young man! You're good at combat, hm?" The man was at least a foot taller than the woman and probably a good six inches taller than Leonardo himself. His black hair was curly and short, and exposed a strange tribal tattoo beneath on his forehead. It was a singular line that stretched across his forehead, with two dots above and below the center of the line. He was skinny, so skinny that he made Leonardo wonder if he was recovering from a sort of bad illness.

His clothes were fairly clean for a pirate's. A white long-sleeved dress shirt with a red cloth tied over the upper left sleeve hung over his bony frame, and a black belt with a gold buckle tightened to his waist held his grey pants up. Unlike other pirates, however, he wore handmade sandals instead of boots.

"Welcome aboard my ship. I named her the Unknown...something I've spent years researching. It would be my pleasure to make her your final resting place!" He said merrily, as if the notion of someone dying aboard his vessel delighted him.

A strange sound that resembled a mixture of an excited squeal and a moan escaped the lips of the Asian woman next to him. She was a sight to behold, wearing a bright green kimono with a purple belt that encircled her middle. An odd talisman shaped like a diamond had been attached its center. A blindfold of the same colour restricted her vision, with a grey paper label depicting a wide, singular eye firmly fixed on it. The arm that was missing was her right one, and a scarred stump just above where the elbow should have been was all that remained of the limb. Her kimono drooped a bit to the right, revealing the top of her fairly large breasts.

"Lloid, let's attack already. I'm tired of waiting!" She complained, but the man appeared not to hear. Which would have to be some feat, considering a loud jingle accompanied her every step and movement.

It was strange, but Leonardo found her hair to be the most bothersome thing about her. It was long enough to reach the back of her knees, and was extremely smooth and shiny. Something about it made his neck itch, and the simple act of looking at it made goosebumps appear on his arm. "I won't be doing any final resting today, Schweitzer." He said, aiming his sword at the man.

"So you know my name, do you?" He asked, that false smile on his face slightly dimming. Leonardo wondered how him of all people wouldn't know. Schweitzer's name, as well as countless rumors of his attribute, were extremely well known among Ley users and people in the upper echelons of the pirate world.

There was never any concrete, reliable information on what exactly his ability was, but it all seemed to point towards one thing: Ley itself. If it isn't something like fire or water, and something that fucks with Ley directly...that's not going to be simple to navigate around.

Still, he felt fairly confident on this matchup. There was still a trump card almost nobody knew of, if nothing else.

"Hard to miss the name of Schweitzer from drunken sailors and blabbering merchants." He replied shortly, and stepped towards the two pirates with his guard up.

The men who had been fighting him watched him go, and one of them suddenly spoke up. It was a man in a dirty, patched vest and a bushy mustache below his nose. "Boys! We're going downstairs. Now."

The boys didn't object, and ran off to the back of the ship where the entrance was. Leonardo let them go. No point in stabbing dead men, as Borris once said.

Besides, his priorities now lay with the two far more dangerous opponents before him. He watched as the smile on Schweitzer's face disappeared entirely, and was replaced by a grimace. "I must say, I had expected a lot more from someone who was selected to be Whitebeard's vice-captain. For a cretin like you to succeed him...it's pathetic!"

Leonardo sneered. "I've heard that more times than I can count. Give me something new to ponder at already." Despite this bravado, Leonardo didn't like the look on Schweitzer's face. It was the kind of look that a man who was in complete control would retain, a confident man for whom everything was going the right way.

His arrival on the Unknown was not ruining Schweitzer's day, and he began to wonder why.

"Then ponder this, young man. Did you assume I would be easy pickings for you because of the baseless rumors you heard from drunken men?" He asked, a simmering malice now starting to emerge in his voice. "Have you ever once really observed your surroundings since you came aboard?"

And then it clicked for Leonardo, and he suddenly realized he was in a horrific situation.

The ship. The ship!

There was nothing about the ship that was odd or that would make it stand out from any other naval vessel. Its size was average, maybe about 50 meters long, and had a total of 9 decks.

Nothing that could've possibly thrown anybody off, except for one feature.

Or perhaps, in this case, six features. They were the long, black poles that extended from the starboard and portsides of the ship, making it look as though it had three arms rising above each side. They poles were all connected directly to the hull, and were only worth a slight glance from anybody who looked at the ship. Especially since they were quite a bit shorter than the main mast in length.

Except, Leonardo now thought, those poles aren't mere decorations. They're covered in black string or rope, and completely surround the middle of the top deck.

He was caught like a fish in the middle of a massive net.

Schweitzer saw the realization in Leonardo's eyes and laughed. It was an unpleasant laugh that seemed to shear through the tense atmosphere between the them.

"About time you saw those. To think Whitebeard would really select you as Leopards' successor...how embarrassing indeed." There was a sort of familiarity in that sentence, which made Leonardo wonder about the man before him and his identity.

Still standing straight and keeping his unease seperate from his body language, he raised the tip of his blade to point it at Schweitzer. "Just who the hell are you?" He asked.

The expression of bewilderment that appeared on his face at that question looked genuine to him, and the answer cemented his suspicions. "Me? How did you catch on so quickly, young man?"

The woman next to him whined some more about how long their chat was, but her pleading went ignored by both men this time.

Leonardo didn't bother to answer that question, because he really didn't know how. But something about the way Schweitzer mentioned Leopards' name and the spiteful tone he used to address his position convinced him to ask. This man...he had once known Leopards. He was now sure of it.

After a moment of silence, the bewildered expression vanished from Schweitzer's face. In its place was a playful expression...with a far more obscene, and almost sensual face hidden beneath it.

This guy is a little more than just odd. It struck Leonardo as funny that it was only now that he reached this conclusion. His unnaturally skinny frame, the strange calmness and eagerness to add his dead body to the ship should have clicked together and made him reach the decision to mark this man as crazy a long time ago.

Now, he stood before him and finally turned to the woman by his side. "Do it, Mizuki."

Even with her eyes hidden behind the blindfold, it was easy to see how much her face brightened with joy at that simple command. With renewed enthusiasm and energy, she spun to face Leonardo.

"I like your voice, but I'm afraid I've got to kill you now!" She said with surprising empathy and cohesiveness, as opposed to her previous behaviour.

And then she raised her left arm. He watched the movement, felt the Ley around her begin to extend, saw her straighted hand with the fingers all tightly held together like thin pencils, and leaped for the edge of the ship.

"Primis."

Too late.