Hawkeye Came Chasing After Him, and Froze When He Saw Lei En

"Pack them up."

Lei En's emotionless command, laced with cruel amusement, made even Kuro—the former pirate captain known as "Hundred Plans," who had killed without batting an eye on the seas—shudder involuntarily.

He looked at the defeated remnants of the Krieg Pirates sprawled across the ground, utterly stripped of their fighting spirit like lambs awaiting slaughter.

Especially Don Krieg, the tyrant of East Blue, whose golden armor had been crushed beneath a single kick. His eyes were vacant as he kept muttering, "Impossible."

Kuro forced an impeccably professional butler's smile onto his face and habitually pushed up the new reflective glasses on his nose.

"At once, Boss."

Kuro's tone was exceedingly respectful, even carrying a trace of flattery.

He did not dare show the slightest negligence.

What a joke. Enel had been broadcasting Buggy's miserable fate on Mine Island through the Den Den Mushi every day, vividly recounting it like a hilarious joke.

"Fail to mine ten tons of coal a day, and dinner is the Ten Thousand Volts: Electrotherapy set meal."

Kuro would rather die than experience such deranged employee benefits even once!

He swiftly pulled several thick coils of rope from his clothes and, like tying up piglets, expertly and brutally bound his former peers one after another.

"Move faster. Don't dirty the restaurant deck."

Lei En glanced at the foul-smelling pirates with distaste, then turned to head back into the restaurant and ask Sanji for another after-dinner dessert.

Just as Kuro kicked the last pirate into the pile and was about to report back to Lei En—

Suddenly!

An incomparably sharp, bone-chilling sword aura, so cold it seemed capable of freezing a person's soul in an instant, came without warning from the calm horizon in the distance!

This sword aura was so pure, so tyrannical!

It was not deliberately unleashed, yet it swept across the entire Baratie like an invisible storm!

In that instant—

Everyone in the restaurant, whether they knew swordsmanship or not, whether they were pirates or not, felt as though an invisible peerless blade had been placed against their throats, ready to slit them open at any moment!

The surrounding air seemed to have been sucked dry by that sword aura, making even breathing unbearably difficult!

"W-What kind of monster is that?!"

Sanji, who had been peeking out from the kitchen, instantly went pale. The cigarette clenched between his lips fell straight to the floor as his jaw trembled violently.

Zeff's right leg, which Lei En had just healed through a miracle, instinctively tensed every muscle.

His old eyes, which had weathered countless storms on the Grand Line, widened sharply. His face showed an unprecedented gravity, as if he were facing a great enemy.

"What terrifying sword aura... This is absolutely not a level that should exist in a peaceful sea like East Blue! Did some monster from the New World come here?!"

Under everyone's horrified gazes, they all turned toward the source of the sword aura.

On the formerly calm, azure sea in the distance, a blinding green light suddenly erupted without warning, so bright it almost hurt their retinas!

"Slash—!!!"

Accompanied by a shrill blast that seemed ready to tear the sky apart—

A massive green slash hundreds of meters long, forming a perfect crescent as if it could divide the whole world in two, tore through wave after wave and came roaring forward with unstoppable, devastating force!

That slash was not aimed at Baratie.

It was aimed at the enormous, battered flagship of the Krieg Pirates Grand Fleet, docked beside Baratie!

"Boom—!!!"

Before everyone's terrified eyes, so stunned that they forgot to breathe—

The enormous three-masted sailing ship was sliced apart the instant it touched that green slash, like butter cut by a red-hot knife on a summer day!

There was no violent explosion.

Only the incredibly smooth, crisp sound of metal and wood breaking apart!

The entire massive pirate ship was cleanly and precisely split in two from bow to stern by that unbelievable slash!

The snapped mainmast and massive hull let out grating wails as they slowly collapsed to either side. In the end, they kicked up two enormous splashes and sank completely into the bottomless sea!

One strike!

Just one casually thrown strike had completely sunk a pirate ship large enough to carry hundreds of people!

What kind of terrifying, unreasonable destructive power was that?!

"Gulp."

Someone in the restaurant swallowed with difficulty. That faint sound was especially clear in the dead silence.

Under the crowd's vacant stares, as though they were witnessing divine punishment descend from a god—

A strangely shaped little boat slowly emerged from the sea mist split apart by the slash in the distance. It looked like an open coffin floating on the water.

Two ghostly green candles burned at its bow and stern, making it particularly conspicuous and eerie beneath the daylight.

And seated quietly aboard that little boat was a man.

He wore a burgundy patterned shirt, open at the chest.

Strapped to his back was an extravagantly shaped black blade, like an enormous cross.

What no one dared look at directly, however, were his sharp yellow-brown eyes, as piercing as an eagle's and seemingly capable of seeing through every illusion in the world.

The world's greatest swordsman.

One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

Dracule Mihawk, known as "Hawkeye"!

The only reason he had appeared in East Blue, known as the "weakest sea," was because he had grown too bored on the Grand Line. He had happened to hear that the foolhardy Don Krieg had actually taken his fleet for a stroll through the Grand Line, so he had chased him all the way here, looking for some amusement to pass the time.

That earlier slash had merely been casually swung to conclude the last little bit of entertainment.

At that moment—

On the other side of the restaurant's outer deck, a green-haired swordsman who had also been drawn out by the overwhelmingly terrifying sword aura gripped the railing tightly, his entire body trembling with excitement.

"That's right... It's him! There's no mistake!"

Roronoa Zoro's eyes were bloodshot as he gripped the three famed swords at his waist, weapons that had accompanied him through countless battles.

In those beast-like eyes, an almost crazed fighting spirit called ambition burned fiercely!

"I went to sea... I wandered all over these waters just to find him!"

"The world's greatest swordsman!"

Zoro felt the blood throughout his body boiling. He could barely wait to draw his swords, rush forward, and challenge the man seated at the summit of the world!

However—

Mihawk, seated on the coffin-like boat, did not even have the slightest interest in glancing at Zoro from the corner of his eye.

There were simply too few swordsmen in this world capable of catching his attention.

His eagle-sharp, icy gaze casually swept over Baratie's deck, as though searching for prey worth pausing for.

When his gaze passed over the panicked chefs and guests huddled in the corners, his eyes did not linger at all, as if he were looking at a group of harmless ants.

When his gaze passed over the remnants of the Krieg Pirates, tied up like dumplings and covered in despair, unconcealed contempt and boredom flashed in his eyes.

So the so-called East Blue tyrant was only this much. Didn't he even qualify to make me draw my sword...?

Mihawk sighed inwardly and was about to turn his boat around and leave this boring place.

Until—

His gaze passed through the packed crowd and over Zeff and Sanji, who stood ready for battle.

At last, as though drawn in by a powerful magnet, it locked firmly onto the black-haired youth sitting boldly in a chair, leisurely picking his teeth with a toothpick.

At that instant—

Time seemed to freeze in Mihawk's eyes.

This man, who never changed expression even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, actually had his eternally icy face twitch violently for once!

An expression of utter disbelief, startlingly human, and even somewhat comical appeared on the world's greatest swordsman's face without warning!

First came confusion.

As though he had seen something that defied all common sense.

Then shock.

His pupils shrank abruptly to pinpoints.

And finally—

An extreme, ghostly disbelief and horror, as though he had seen the deepest nightmare of his life!

"Swish!"

Mihawk abruptly rose from the low stool!

His movement was too violent, too sudden.

Even his right hand, which held a sword as steadily as a rock all year round, and Yoru, the Supreme Grade Blade in his grip that symbolized the world's greatest strength, began trembling faintly beyond his control!

His knife-sharp yellow-brown eyes stared fixedly at the youth picking his teeth.

That face, slightly more mature than in his memories but still so punchable...

That terrifying aura, forcibly restrained yet still enough to make his heart pound...

Nearly ten years had passed!

Yet he would never forget, even in death, the humiliation and oppressive sensation carved into his soul—the childhood nightmare of being utterly crushed by a brat on the beach of Shimotsuki Village, where even Shanks had been kicked flying!

"H-How is this possible?!"

Mihawk roared madly in his heart.

The calmness and composure he had always prided himself on shattered completely the instant he saw this youth!

"Lei... Lei En?!"

Mihawk cried out in shock!

That cry was filled not only with unprecedented shock and horror, but even—

Everyone present, including Zeff, Sanji, Kuro, and even Zoro, who had been itching to fight—

Could clearly and incredulously hear a trace of—

Fear?!

"Y-You monster!!"

Mihawk pointed at Lei En, who was sitting there at ease. His usually aloof, proud face was now somewhat twisted by extreme shock.

He nearly shouted, stammering out the question on everyone's mind.

"How could a monster at your level... appear in a rookie sea like East Blue?!"