Lodestar Island's Harbor

Lodestar Island, harbor.

Seven was patching up the pirate ship they'd stolen, hoping it would hold together in the Upward Sea Current and not fall apart on the way to Skypiea.

Otherwise, Mihawk might very well be killed by the fall.

At the thought of Mihawk plummeting from a great height, Seven hurriedly shook his head to dispel the wild image.

Their destination this time was Skypiea—

The White Sea lay ten thousand meters in the sky. Other than flying, riding the Upward Sea Current was the main way to reach Skypiea.

It was an exciting and dangerous journey, one that usually ended in one of two ways: everyone made it there, or everyone died.

Last time, Seven and Buggy had nearly pissed themselves.

This time, at least they had the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to fall back on.

Seven muttered to himself, "A guy like Mihawk shouldn't get scared, right?"

Bang, bang, bang~

The distant sounds of fighting pulled Seven's wandering thoughts back to reality. "Huh? Something's going on."

The speed granted by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit gave Seven the confidence to come and go as he pleased. As long as that Marine slacker wasn't around, Seven was the fastest kid on the block.

Besides, surely he couldn't be that unlucky. What were the odds of running into Kizaru at some random harbor?

Setting down his tools, Seven turned into a bolt of lightning and flashed near the source of the noise to watch from a distance.

Seeing a group of men in white suits and capes locking another man in Seastone Handcuffs, Seven immediately grew interested.

CP, the World Government's lackeys?

And who was the man they'd caught?

But the CP leader seemed to sense something. He suddenly turned and looked in the direction where Seven was hiding.

"Kill that guy."

"Observation Haki?" Seven didn't flee right away. Instead, he casually pulled a blue-glowing Plasma Sword out of thin air and prepared to fight.

He was even more interested now that the CP Organization had so readily ordered them to silence a bystander.

And what if he couldn't win?

Even if he couldn't win, he could at least run.

With the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's speed, Seven could leave whenever he wanted. He could come and go as he pleased.

The World Government had sent ten CP agents to capture the Devil Fruit user. Seven didn't recognize him.

But it didn't matter. Whoever was fighting the World Government, Seven would lend a hand.

If things looked bad, he'd just run.

"Fist Bone: Impact!"

Seven shouted the name of the attack, but swung his Plasma Sword. What he actually unleashed was a Thunder Dragon, aiming to catch them off guard.

A lightning dragon dozens of meters long roared toward the CP agents.

"Iron Body!" several voices cried at once.

If you wanted to get knocked out quickly, just train Iron Body. As the Pirate World's biggest lie, the claim that Iron Body made you invincible had harmed countless people.

Plenty of people mistook damage reduction for immunity.

The Thunder Dragon knocked several weaker CP agents unconscious on the spot.

It was clear enough that the World Government's CP lackeys had some real skill. Unlike the Gorilla Pirates, they hadn't been nearly wiped out.

"Finger Pistol!"

"Shave!"

Several attacks from the remaining CP agents struck Seven at once, turning his body into a sieve. The next moment, he recovered as if nothing had happened.

The CP leader narrowed his eyes. "Stand down. He's a Logia Devil Fruit user."

As he spoke, Armament Haki coated his fists in black.

Before the CP leader could launch his attack,

a red-black aura suddenly burst from Seven, splitting the sky in an instant—it was the Conqueror's Haki he'd awakened at the age of eight.

Unlike Armament Haki and Observation Haki,

Conqueror's Haki was the manifestation of a king's disposition. It couldn't be awakened through training after the fact; it only grew stronger when its wielder's spirit did.

Now, Seven could control his Conqueror's Haki at will, knocking out ordinary grunts with precision. It couldn't be more perfect for clearing the field.

The CP agents all dropped like flies.

Only the CP leader remained standing, his face deathly pale and sweat pouring down his forehead. "Y-You..."

The Conqueror's Haki had been extremely effective.

After all, no one could imagine that a man with intermediate-level Conqueror's Haki wouldn't know Armament Haki or Observation Haki.

The other two kinds of Haki could be gained through training, though they required a certain level of physical ability and talent.

Before gaining Innate Divine Strength and becoming a Big Eater, Seven's physique and talent had indeed been pretty lousy.

But Conqueror's Haki was a manifestation of spirit.

In his previous life, Seven had been born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze. In this life, he was a transmigrator with a cheat, too. Awakening Conqueror's Haki had been ridiculously easy.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled across the sky. The red-black Haki tore through the clouds. With his blue-glowing, crackling Plasma Sword in hand, Seven looked imposing.

But only Seven knew the truth.

He wasn't even sure he could beat the CP leader in front of him, who had both Armament Haki and Observation Haki.

With Observation Haki, the man could avoid his attacks.

With Armament Haki, he'd be incredibly hard to injure.

Unless Seven mastered a more advanced application of Conqueror's Haki—Conqueror's Haki Infusion.

He was only standing off against the man while he waited for someone. With all this commotion, why wasn't Mihawk here yet?

The captain couldn't keep up the act much longer.

"A guy like you is really strange." Mihawk's voice came before he did, his Black Blade Night resting on his back.

When the CP leader saw who had arrived, he demanded, unwilling to accept it, "Dracule Mihawk, are you really going to make an enemy of the World Government?"

Mihawk ignored him, keeping his gaze fixed on Seven. "I'm getting more and more curious about you."

Everyone knew curiosity was the start of falling for someone.

Once you grew curious about someone and began wanting to learn more about them, there was only one likely outcome: you'd fall for them.

Seven put away his Conqueror's Haki and Devil Fruit powers, then spread his hands. "When you're out there making your way in the world, you've got to know a thing or two."

In the Pirate World, Seven had no prestigious background, an ordinary physique and mediocre talent, and was an orphan. Yet he'd survived on his own until the day he met Captain Roger.

He'd already been through a long ordeal of blood and tears.

Watching the two men ignore him, the CP leader glared in fury. He suddenly pulled out a pistol and fired at the man in Seastone Handcuffs nearby.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In a flash, Mihawk blocked every bullet with Black Blade Night. Then, with a single casual strike, he sent the CP leader flying dozens of meters. The man hit the ground and didn't get back up.

Seven, meanwhile, went around finishing off the CP agents with his Plasma Sword: one slash to the head, one to the chest, one to the soles of the feet.

He made sure to leave no one alive.

Mihawk put away Black Blade Night and glanced at the man in Seastone Handcuffs. "Your friend?"

Seven shook his head. "I don't know him."

"This isn't the place to talk. Let's take him aboard first."

When it came to caution, Seven was second to none on the Grand Line.

The mysterious man, who hadn't said a word the whole time, was sharp enough to cooperate and follow the two of them aboard.

"Mihawk, where are the food and water?"

"In the storeroom."

"Then let's go." Seven deftly hauled in the anchor, started the ship, and sailed away from Lodestar Island's harbor, heading toward Jaya Island.

Only after they reached the deep sea did Seven take a good look at the spoils they'd snatched from the CP agents.

"Oi, why was the World Government after you?"