Battle Against Akainu

Soon, Akainu arrived in front of Haku and the others!

"You're Haku, right!" Akainu looked at Haku beside Garp with undisguised disdain! Evidently, the moment he laid eyes on Haku, he had already equated him with the weak.

Haku, on the other hand, curiously sized up Akainu, one of the legendary Three Admirals before him.

The opponent's appearance did not differ much from the impression in Haku's mind: wearing a corsage, a dark red suit, a marine cap on his head, black leather gloves on his hands, and a Marine Admiral's coat draped over his shoulders.

However, the expression the man wore made Haku feel inexplicably annoyed. Haku's hand unconsciously drifted to the Zanpakuto at his waist.

At that moment, Garp said with dissatisfaction, "Sakazuki, you punk, not staying inside the headquarters, what are you doing here!"

Akainu glanced at this unreliable Garp and did not answer the question.

As everyone knew, Akainu and Garp had been at odds for a long time!

Among them, Akainu believed in Absolute Justice, so he relentlessly rooted out all evil! Yet coincidentally, Garp's son was the leader of the Revolutionary Army, hailed as the most heinous criminal in the world.

Because of this logical layer, even though Garp was hailed as the Hero of the Marines, Akainu still targeted him to varying degrees!

Akainu's strong opposition to Haku competing to become a Marine Admiral was only partially driven by the previously mentioned factors!

In Akainu's view, if Haku truly became an admiral and an incident similar to Dragon's betrayal of the Marines happened again in the future, the Marines would truly lose all face!

Therefore, facing Haku, Akainu was extremely persistent in stopping him from becoming an admiral! Moreover, he believed that even if Haku was personally trained by Garp, his actual strength would at most reach the level of a Vice Admiral. That was why Akainu had requested the mission to evaluate Haku's strength from Kuzan!

Only, what Akainu did not know was that Kuzan had crossed swords with Haku long ago. Kuzan knew Haku's specific strength, and if he could, he himself did not want to fight Haku!

As a result, this fellow Akainu suddenly jumped out, and he happily tossed the evaluation mission to him.

In the distance, Kuzan saw that Akainu had intercepted Haku, and a slight curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

This scene was noticed by Kizaru beside him. He leaned close to the sleep-deprived Kuzan and asked, "Kuzan, have you known this Haku for a long time?"

Hearing Kizaru's words, whether it was Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Tsuru, or the Headquarters Vice Admirals who had followed them out, all cast their gazes toward Kuzan.

Kuzan nodded in disbelief, confirming it!

Once Kizaru received the definite information, he turned serious. He asked Kuzan, "Since you know this kid, you must know his strength, right? How strong is this kid?"

Everyone silently raised their Observation Haki, wanting to hear Kuzan's evaluation of Haku's strength.

Kuzan's expression turned ugly. He glanced at Kizaru, as if thinking of some bad memories. He said in a deep voice, "Haku's strength is terrifying! And last time when the other party and I just crossed swords briefly, I felt like I couldn't win against him!"

Fleet Admiral???

Vice Admiral Tsuru???

The other Headquarters Vice Admirals???

Kizaru wore a surprised and exaggerated expression as he looked at Haku, who was confronting Akainu in the distance, and said, "My, my! Youngsters these days are truly terrifying!"

No one expected Kuzan to actually say something like feeling he couldn't win against Haku. This made them all begin to take the distant Haku seriously.

Before long, among the three in the distance, Garp continued walking toward the direction where Sengoku was, leaving only Haku and Akainu behind in place.

Although that old fox Garp was carefree, he had already guessed something. He simply left this arena to the two of them; anyway, in his view, this battle was already inevitable! Besides, he had great confidence in Haku's strength.

Haku smiled as he looked at the Headquarters Admiral before him, no matter how strongly the man radiated his own powerful aura. Naturally, Haku felt no fear—this was a manifestation of his own formidable strength!

It was Haku who took the initiative to speak, asking, "Mr. Akainu, do you have any pointers for blocking my path?"

This punk! Akainu muttered inwardly, seeing the burning fighting spirit in Haku's eyes. There was quite an age gap between the two, which made Akainu feel somewhat looked down upon.

Akainu spoke up, "Brat, I am now here to evaluate your current strength. If your strength is lacking, I advise you to give up on becoming a Marine Admiral!"

Oh~?

Haku was somewhat surprised, because before coming to Marineford, Garp had leaked that the one supposed to evaluate his strength this time should be Kuzan? Why had it inexplicably changed to Akainu?

However, it didn't matter to Haku who the opponent was; he just needed to complete the system's assigned quest!

"Are you sure you will be my opponent next? You should know that only that guy Kuzan can suppress my power!" Haku slowly drew the Zanpakuto from his waist.

"Talk less nonsense! Brat, are you looking down on my strength!" Having finished saying this, Akainu took the initiative to launch an attack on Baiyuan!

Facing that fist wreathed in scorching magma from Akainu, Haku's expression did not change at all.

Just as the scorching magma was about to touch Haku's body, a Zanpakuto imbued with Armament Haki blocked in front of Haku.

Akainu's gaze narrowed. After all, Haku was brought up by Garp. In his opinion, no matter how mediocre Haku was, he shouldn't be so bad that he couldn't even block such a simple attack.

Shunpo!

Haku's figure appeared beside Akainu, and the Zanpakuto carrying dense Haki slashed toward the opponent's right arm!

So fast! Akainu thought to himself, and simultaneously his right arm rapidly underwent Elementalization to dodge Haku's slash.

In the distance, Sengoku and the others—even they hadn't seen how Haku moved to Akainu's side.

Sengoku's toad-like eyes flashed slightly with a sharp glint, and he said to his old buddy Garp beside him, "What is up with Haku's movement speed just now? The naked eye couldn't even capture his figure!"

Garp pulled out a bag of donuts at some point, eating while saying nonchalantly, "To be honest, old man, I don't know what's going on either. I heard from Haku that this is a short-distance movement method he created by combining Soru!"

Hiss! This kind of movement method made all the high-ranking marines' hearts stir. Based on this trick alone, Haku had already won the recognition of some people.

Great Eruption!

Akainu grew slightly serious and stopped holding back, striking with ruthless precision at Haku's vital points the moment he moved!

This bastard!!! Haku cursed internally, because he could not dodge this attack; right behind him was the dog-head warship he had just ridden on.

If! Haku dodged this attack, the marines aboard the dog-head warship would be in disaster.