Hawkeye's Image Shattered? Drawbacks of His Ability?

Boom!!!

At that moment, Natsuya blasted Hawkeye straight into the sea.

Seeing this, Nami stood there dumbfounded.

Lord Natsuya had actually defeated Hawkeye, the world's greatest swordsman!?

This was far too unbelievable!!

In fact, not only Nami—even anyone else who knew Hawkeye would have been utterly shocked if they had been there.

The gap in strength between Hawkeye and Natsuya had seemed far too great!

One was merely a pirate with a bounty of one hundred million Beli, while the other stood at the pinnacle of the world, known as the world's greatest swordsman!

If those two fought, no one would have believed that Natsuya could win.

Yet Natsuya had won, while Hawkeye, the world's greatest swordsman, had been defeated and sent crashing into the sea!

Such a situation was naturally unbelievable.

But to Natsuya, it was not strange at all.

The only areas where Hawkeye surpassed him were Two-Color Haki and his superb swordsmanship.

But Natsuya had the Mirror of Heart Door to deal with Observation Haki.

As for Armament Haki and superb swordsmanship, he had offset both with even greater strength.

With that, it was only natural that Natsuya could defeat him.

Of course, simply saying that might leave many people without much of an idea of how powerful Natsuya was at that moment.

But if they thought it through carefully, they would understand.

First of all, Natsuya's basic physical abilities were already more than a dozen times those of an ordinary person.

Then, the Eight Inner Gates granted him all kinds of enhancements.

The Gate of Opening allowed him to exert one hundred percent of that strength, which was equivalent to more than a dozen times that of an ordinary person.

The Gate of Rest kept him from growing tired, allowing him to sustain his output.

The Gate of Life stimulated his potential. Empowered by an immense amount of life force, his strength surged to dozens of times that of an ordinary person.

Then came the Gate of Hurt, which traded bodily damage for even greater power.

In that state, Natsuya's strength might already have reached a hundred times that of an ordinary person!

And that kind of strength was then enhanced once more by the Monkey-Monkey Fruit!

Under all those enhancements, Natsuya's power had reached an astonishing level!

With such strength, doing astonishing things was naturally perfectly normal.

Of course, defeating someone and killing someone were still different matters.

Natsuya could defeat Hawkeye, but whether he could kill him was another question.

So, Natsuya intended to give it a try next.

But apparently, Hawkeye did not give Natsuya that chance.

After falling into the sea, he did not reappear for a long time.

The smile on Natsuya's face suddenly froze.

Nami, inside the Different Dimension, blinked in confusion as well.

Hawkeye was not a Devil Fruit user, so he naturally could not have become unable to move after falling into the sea.

And judging from what had just happened, he had not been knocked unconscious by Natsuya either.

So the only explanation was that Hawkeye had deliberately sunk into the sea.

He ran away!?

Natsuya's face darkened.

He had been careless.

Who could have expected Hawkeye to use the opportunity to flee!?

Of course.

Perhaps Natsuya had simply been influenced by his preconceived impression of Hawkeye's image.

In the original story, Hawkeye was aloof, proud, and elegant!

Who could have imagined that the world's greatest swordsman would run away too!?

"Momoo, go see if he's down there!"

Coming back to his senses, Natsuya hurriedly ordered Momoo in the distance.

Naturally, he was unwilling to let Hawkeye go just like that.

Come to think of it, his ability to defeat Hawkeye this time had also been due to the battlefield advantage.

Here, Hawkeye had few places to stand, while Natsuya could both use Shave and fly.

If he encountered Hawkeye again on land in the future, it would be troublesome.

Hearing Natsuya's words, Momoo did not hesitate and immediately swam down into the depths.

Momoo had originally been extremely afraid of Hawkeye, but now that Natsuya had defeated him, it naturally found its courage.

But the next moment, a vast blue-green light suddenly flashed beneath the sea, and Momoo surfaced with a pale face.

Natsuya immediately frowned.

Through the Mirror of Heart Door, he saw what Momoo had seen and heard.

That guy Hawkeye had indeed escaped!

Even after diving to the seabed, Momoo could only see a tiny silhouette from behind.

And at that moment, Hawkeye seemed to notice Momoo's movements. With a casual swing of Yoru, he unleashed a terrifying slash even beneath the sea!

As a result, Momoo was so frightened that it hurriedly floated back to the surface.

Natsuya frowned, but his expression suddenly changed.

"Let's go."

Ignoring Hawkeye no longer, Natsuya summoned Nami out, then had Momoo tow their pirate ship swiftly away from the area.

Only after they had traveled far from the battlefield did Natsuya finally let out a long breath.

"What's wrong, Lord Natsuya?"

"Why aren't we continuing to hunt down Hawkeye!?"

At that moment, Nami could no longer hold back the doubts in her heart and asked.

After discovering that Natsuya had defeated Hawkeye, Nami's mindset changed immediately after her initial shock.

In her eyes, since Natsuya could defeat Hawkeye, they no longer had to fear him. They could even try to kill him!

After all, as one of the Shichibukai, Hawkeye's bounty was not low.

Thinking of this, Nami's eyes turned into Beli symbols.

But what she had not expected was that after sending Momoo to search for him, Natsuya simply gave up.

But from what she knew of him, Natsuya did not seem like someone who would leave trouble unfinished.

What was going on!?

At that moment, Nami finally could not help but ask.

Hearing this, Natsuya immediately revealed a bitter smile.

He did not answer Nami's question. Instead, he immediately deactivated the Eight Inner Gates.

And that was precisely why he had given up pursuing Hawkeye.

Because the time limit of the Eight Inner Gates had run out!

More accurately, it was the amount of time Natsuya could endure the Eight Inner Gates.

After all, he had already been injured before. Activating the Eight Inner Gates again, especially the Gate of Hurt, naturally made his injuries worse.

Thanks to the enhancement of the Monkey-Monkey Fruit, Natsuya had been able to maintain it for a while.

But as time passed, he naturally could not hold on any longer. That was why he had hurriedly taken Nami and Momoo away from the scene.

At that moment, after deactivating the Eight Inner Gates, Natsuya's monkey face instantly turned pale.

Waves of dizziness washed over his head.

Fortunately, Natsuya was still maintaining the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power. Otherwise, he would have truly fainted like last time.

Thinking of this, Natsuya could not help but shudder inwardly.

His current Monkey-Monkey Fruit ability was being maintained through the power of the Door-Door Fruit.

If he fainted, the ability would automatically retract, and he would be in trouble!

At that time, without the Door-Door Fruit's power restraining the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power, the two Devil Fruits would very likely clash, turning him into a human bomb!

Realizing this, Natsuya was startled as well.

Clearly, this was the drawback of opening the Gate of Heart and embedding Devil Fruits.

Natsuya suddenly felt fortunate.

In fact, when he had faced Garp, he had already developed this method of embedding Devil Fruit powers into his own body.

But when he fought Garp before, the difference in strength between them had simply been too great.

Even if Natsuya had mastered the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power, he probably would not have been able to contend against that legendary veteran who had reached the Realm of Gods.

Therefore, during his battle with Garp, Natsuya had never used the Door-Door Fruit's power to activate the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power.

Because if he had been knocked unconscious, he really would have exploded!

As for now, he no longer had that concern.

Although his head was a little dizzy, Natsuya was delighted to discover that with the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power activated, his body was gradually recovering.

Well, this was probably why Zoan Fruit users were so hard to beat up.

That recovery ability was no joke.

Realizing this, Natsuya simply did not cancel the state. Instead, he maintained his Monkey Form and allowed the ability to repair his body.

Come to think of it, the injuries he had worsened by using the Eight Inner Gates this time were also quite troublesome. But with the Monkey-Monkey Fruit's power helping him, he should be able to recover completely before long.

Thinking of this, Natsuya finally let out a long breath.

But immediately afterward, Natsuya's expression changed again.

His pair of bell-sized eyes abruptly turned toward the stern of the pirate ship.

"Who's there!!"

Nami was instantly startled.

What, someone's there!?