The voyage was proving to be far more insightful than Leo had imagined.
While the Calm Belt was technically a graveyard for most, it was the perfect laboratory to observe the raw mechanics of this world. Fishing was out of the question—the ship moved too fast behind the two sea serpents—but that didn't stop the occasional "blind" Sea King from lunging at them, hoping to snag a snack before the serpents could react.
These encounters were Leo's front-row seat to the power of Haki.
Rindo, the guerrilla leader, was in charge of clearing the path. She was a master of imbuing projectiles with Haki. With a single blast from her oversized shoulder cannon, she could liquefy the skull of a hundred-meter-long monster. The sheer kinetic force, reinforced by spiritual willpower, was terrifying to behold.
Even Hancock occasionally joined in when the monsters annoyed her. She would casually fire a Mero Mero Mellow, turning massive beasts into floating tombstones.
"Does it work on everything?" Leo asked her one afternoon.
"Only on the mid-sized ones," Hancock explained, leaning against her snake-throne, Salome. "The truly colossal Sea Kings—the ones the size of islands—possess a primal energy that resists simple petrification. I would have to be much stronger to freeze one of those."
Leo nodded. This fit his theory on power tiers. If the Emperors and Admirals were Tier 1, the Warlords were a diverse Tier 2. At the top of that bracket sat Mihawk, Kuma, and Doflamingo—men who had likely "Awakened" their fruits or possessed Haki that rivaled the Admirals. Hancock and Jinbe sat in the middle; incredibly powerful, but perhaps yet to reach their absolute ceiling.
If Hancock wants to survive the coming era, Leo thought, she needs to awaken the Mero Mero no Mi. She needs to be able to petrify a city, not just a ship.
He sighed, his thoughts drifting to Doflamingo. The "Heavenly Yaksha" was a true strategic genius. He didn't just fight; he built. He ran casinos, auction houses, and a global underground arms trade. He was the broker for Kaido, the link to the World Government, and the pioneer of artificial Devil Fruits.
Leo felt a surge of "Strategic Envy." Doflamingo was close to the edge of true industrial fruit production. If Leo had the power, he'd snatch Caesar Clown in a heartbeat. But without strength, he was just a man with a map and no boots.
I have to keep training, he told himself, dropping into another set of controlled push-ups. I'm a baseline human in a world of mutants. I can't afford to be lazy.
They had been in the Calm Belt for a month, hugging the invisible border of the Grand Line. The navigator, Ran, kept the ship in the "Safe Zone"—a stretch of water where the weather was stable but the Sea Kings were frequent. It was a monotonous, if dangerous, routine.
Until today.
Suddenly, the lookout, Cosmos, began ringing the alarm bells. The sharp, rhythmic clanging echoed through the wooden halls of the palace ship.
Leo didn't know the specific signal, but he wasn't stupid. When he saw dozens of Kuja warriors rushing to the railings with their snake-bows drawn and Haki-coated arrows notched, he knew they had company.
"Leo! To the Empress's quarters. Now!"
Sandersonia and Marigold appeared on either side of him. Without waiting for an answer, the two sisters—each nearly twice his height—practically lifted him off the deck and hurried him toward the safety of the upper cabins.
For a ship to be spotted in the Calm Belt meant one of two things: it was a Navy vessel with Sea-Prism Stone plating, or it was a crew so powerful and reckless that they didn't care about the monsters.
Either way, the peace was over. The Kuja were no longer alone on the sea.