"Lei En?! You monster, what are you doing in newbie waters like the East Blue?!"
Mihawk's shocked, horrified cry rang with exceptional clarity across the deathly silent Baratie.
The entire place fell into an eerie silence once more.
Everyone stared at Mihawk as if he were an idiot, then looked at the black-haired youth still picking his teeth with a toothpick. Their brains completely shut down.
W-What was going on?
The world's greatest swordsman, Hawkeye Mihawk, one of the Shichibukai, actually knew this young man?
And judging by his tone, there even seemed to be a trace of... fear?!
"What the hell? Monster? Newbie village?"
Lei En spat out the toothpick and rose from his chair in extreme displeasure.
He dug at his ear, looked at the utterly dumbfounded Mihawk standing on his coffin-shaped boat, and curled his lip.
"Hey, Hawkeye, it's been years. Why do you still have that dead-man face? What if you scare the flowers and grass?"
Lei En's incredibly familiar, roast-filled jab petrified everyone present once again.
The cigarette in Sanji's mouth burned straight down to his fingers.
Zeff nearly lost his footing on the right leg that had just grown back.
And on the other side of the restaurant, Roronoa Zoro, the green-haired swordsman who had been brimming with fighting spirit, now stood completely frozen like a statue.
He... what had he just heard?
This guy, who looked even younger than him, had actually called the world's greatest swordsman by his nickname?
And from the sound of it, this clearly was not their first meeting!
How... how was that possible?!
"So it really was you!"
Mihawk had finally recovered from his initial shock.
His hawk-like eyes locked tightly onto Lei En. The horror in them was swiftly replaced by an even more fervent, even purer fighting spirit!
That crushing defeat in Shimotsuki Village years ago had been the only humiliation of his life!
It was also the sole driving force behind his years of mad training, his endless challenges against powerful opponents, and his eventual rise to the pinnacle as the world's greatest swordsman!
He had dreamed of washing away that shame!
Yet today, in such a dramatic fashion, he had encountered once more the "childhood nightmare" that had haunted his dreams!
"Trash like Don Krieg no longer matters."
Mihawk slowly raised Black Blade Yoru, pointing its tip at Lei En from afar.
For the first time, a look of extreme excitement appeared on his eternally icy face.
"Lei En! Fight me again!"
"This time, I won't lose again!"
The fighting spirit Mihawk had suppressed for years erupted like a volcano at that moment!
A razor-sharp sword pressure several times more terrifying than the one he had used to cut the ship instantly blanketed the entire Baratie!
"Wahahaha! Interesting! This is too interesting!"
Rather than feeling tense at Mihawk's blazing fighting spirit, Lei En burst into excited laughter.
"Fine! My hands have been itching too!"
He waved to Kuina and Kuro behind him.
"Get farther away. Don't get caught in the crossfire."
Before his words had even faded!
"Crackle—!"
Lei En's body instantly transformed into a blinding blue bolt of lightning. Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, he shot skyward from Baratie's deck!
"Good!"
Mihawk shouted, stomping hard on his coffin-shaped boat.
Like a black hawk, he soared into the sky. Black Blade Yoru shrieked as it tore through the air, slashing fiercely toward the blue lightning bolt!
"Boom—!!!"
High above the sky!
A battle of gods!
One black and one white figure frantically intertwined and collided hundreds of meters in the air at a terrifying speed beyond the limits of human vision!
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Dense clashes of metal, like a raging storm, continuously rang out from the clouds, shaking even the sea below into violent ripples!
With every collision, dazzling sparks and flashes of lightning exploded in midair!
Razor-sharp sword energy shot wildly in every direction, like a storm of blades descending from heaven!
The sea below was shredded apart by the scattered sword energy, sending towering columns of water into the sky!
"Is... is this still a human battle?!"
The restaurant's patrons stared at the myth-like scene in the sky, collapsing to the floor in terror as they muttered to themselves.
Sanji and Zeff were equally horrified. They considered themselves masters of physical combat, but before a battle of this level, they felt they were not even qualified to serve as cannon fodder!
"Too... too strong..."
Zoro gripped the three swords at his waist tightly, his body shaking violently from overwhelming excitement and fear.
The Three-Sword Style he had always been so proud of was nothing more than children playing house before these two true monsters!
"Rumble!!!"
Another earth-shattering explosion rang out in midair!
Black Blade Yoru collided head-on with Yubashiri, which was wrapped in hundreds of millions of volts of violent lightning and pitch-black Armament Haki!
The terrifying shockwave, like a Category 12 hurricane, swept madly outward in all directions from the two of them!
The sea within several kilometers was forcibly pressed dozens of meters downward by that incomparably terrifying power!
Even the savage reefs once hidden deep beneath the water were exposed to the air as the seawater receded!
Like the wrath of the gods, splitting the sea and severing its currents!
"Break for me!!!"
Lei En let out an arrogant roar, pushing the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit within him to its limit!
He perfectly fused Roger's peak swordsmanship with his max-level lightning power, unleashing one of his strongest killing moves yet!
"Supreme Thunder God Slash!"
"Crack!"
Black Blade Yoru, which could cut through Iceburg, let out a mournful cry under the burden of this even more domineering, even more unreasonable power!
The Armament Haki covering its blade was instantly pierced through and shattered by the violent lightning!
"Pfft—!"
Mihawk suffered a devastating blow and threw back his head, spraying out a mouthful of blood.
Like a kite with its string cut, he was violently blasted away by the lingering shockwave of that terrifying sword energy!
With a bang.
He crashed back onto his coffin-shaped boat in an extremely sorry state, smashing several cracks into its fragile planks.
He struggled to rise, only to spit out another mouthful of blood. His blood and energy churned violently; he had clearly suffered serious internal injuries.
He had lost.
Once again, he had lost completely and utterly.
Yet there was not the slightest hint of dejection in those sharp hawk eyes.
Instead, they burned with an even fiercer, more frenzied light!
He looked at Lei En, who was slowly descending from the sky without a scratch, his voice hoarse but filled with unprecedented excitement.
"Lei En... you really are an absolute monster!"
Lei En sheathed his sword and dramatically flicked away dust that did not exist.
"Not bad. I wasn't even going all out."
Looking at Mihawk's battle-hungry expression, Lei En suddenly remembered something, a highly sinister smile curling across his lips.
"By the way, Hawkeye, who were you trying to slash with that sword earlier?"
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