"Desert Grande Espada—"
"Don't think you can use your power so easily," Mihawk warned.
Whoosh...!
Kanan Island.
Under the rule of the 'Black Cat' Pirates, the island was rebuilding fast. But right now, deep in the mountains, two powerful men who did not belong in the West Blue were clashing.
"Tch, I remember now," the pirate spat. "You are Mihawk, the 'Marine Hunter'."
The man looked like a true pirate, with a hook for a hand. His body had been cut apart, but it turned into sand and formed back together. He moved away from Mihawk, whose sword was shining black with Haki.
"You were a wanted man on the Grand Line," Mihawk noted. "Why are you hiding in a sea like this?"
"I could ask you the same thing. You aren't using Haki, but you are very used to fighting against it. You must have survived many hard battles."
If this pirate only relied on his devil fruit, the first slash would have killed him while he was floating as sand.
But he was still alive because he didn't get lazy with his invincibility. He dodged it completely.
"Why did you target 'Black Cat's' territory... no, why target Nico Robin?" Mihawk demanded.
The pirate didn't answer right away. He just smirked.
"If you want to know, bring Nico Robin and join me, Marine Hunter."
"...What?"
"With a swordsman like you and me working together..." the pirate began, his eyes gleaming, "if we grab the Ohara knowledge now, we can build a pirate organization that no one can ignore."
Mihawk had led the fight to a rocky slope where the bare earth was visible.
He decided not to fight a sand user near the green areas, because he didn't know how much damage it would cause.
This choice was thanks to Robin, who had given him many lectures about not being reckless and protecting the environment.
"I have a plan. I promise I won't treat the Demon of Ohara—Nico Robin—badly. How about it?"
The pirate held out his golden hook, as if asking for a handshake.
"A pirate crew in the middle of nowhere like this must be boring, right? With us—"
"I am not interested," Mihawk cut him off.
The swordsman flatly rejected the pirate's offer.
"Huh...?"
"Did you not hear me? I said I am not interested."
The pirate swung his arm. Sharp blades of sand flew at Mihawk.
But Mihawk's slash was faster.
To the pirate, it looked like Mihawk had just quietly put his sword back in its sheath. But with that single move, he cut down all ten golden sand blades.
"What are you doing?" the pirate yelled, frustration evident in his voice. "Are you planning to rot here with these third-rate pirates acting tough in a weak sea? Are you going to let your sword skill go to waste?"
"Foolish. You came here without knowing anything about 'Black Cat'."
He is strong.
Mihawk knew this pirate was strong.
But at the same time, he thought:
He is young.
Compared to the 'Black Cat' leaders, who were even younger than this man, this pirate was too impatient.
Is it confidence? Or did his lack of knowledge make him careless?
"Fine. I will crush this place and take the Demon of Ohara. Sables!"
"...I see. A smokescreen without a body," Mihawk observed calmly.
A sandstorm rose from the pirate's right hand and grew huge in an instant.
"Kuhahaha. You let the Demon of Ohara escape, but she can't get off the island," the pirate laughed from within the swirling grit.
Everyone in 'Black Cat' knew about devil fruit users who could use their abilities as extra eyes and ears.
Mihawk understood that even in this bad visibility, the enemy knew exactly where he was.
"I'll crush you along with this whole area, and the rest will be easy!"
The wind from the sandstorm was incredibly strong.
Mihawk stood calmly, but any normal soldier would have been blown away.
"Crescent-Shaped Sand Dune!"
An arm shot out from the blinding storm. Mihawk dodged the strike, knowing it would dry out anything it touched.
He knew that Haki could hit the user's real body, but it couldn't stop the power itself from working.
If I had Haki that could hit without touching, like Kuro... this would be easier...
He gripped his sword again. He decided that as soon as the Captain—the man he served, even if just for now—returned, he would challenge him to a serious duel again.
"Your sword skill is amazing. But you are alone! There is a limit to what one man can handle!"
Suddenly, a massive number of golden blades shot out of the storm surrounding Mihawk. They were faster and more numerous than before.
Mihawk dodged every attack, but he couldn't land a finishing blow.
He tried cutting the sandstorm with Haki, but there was no resistance. It wasn't the pirate's body.
He is using the sandstorm to turn the bedrock into sand and firing it at me.
Haki hardens the body or weapons. It is also one of the few ways to hit a Logia-type Devil Fruit user who has no fluid body.
But against a simple natural phenomenon, there is little it can do.
Fighting an enemy who used their powers at this level was difficult, even for the high-level soldiers of 'Black Cat.'
-- But.
Yes. A normal soldier would be in trouble against this storm—
"Pirate, you..." Mihawk started, raising his voice.
"You underestimated 'Black Cat' too much," a chorus of female voices declared.
Zooooom—!
In the next instant, the sandstorm that could have covered the whole island was blown away.
A sudden gust of wind—no, a slash so fast it felt like a gust of wind—flew through the air.
The pirate, hiding inside the sandstorm, looked shocked. He watched the storm blow away and looked in the direction the slash came from.
It wasn't from the swordsman.
It came from the mountain ridge.
Six women were standing there.
They had just finished swinging their swords. Without letting their guard down for a second, they slowly put their weapons back in their sheaths.
--
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