First Battle

Whenever Locke revealed himself, a pirate fell.

Locke mercilessly harvested the pirates' lives.

The pirate captain, who had just cut someone down, realized something was wrong. Half of his crew had already fallen, yet he still had not found who was attacking them.

As he wondered about it, a pirate not far from him was suddenly cut down, and a boy holding a sword appeared behind that pirate.

"Ah... brat, so it was you. Stand right there!" With that, he swung his blade at Locke, who had just appeared.

Locke had just cut down a pirate and had not even caught his breath when he saw a figure rushing toward him. By the time he reacted, the figure was already in front of him.

With no other choice, Locke rolled to the side and dodged the incoming attack.

Only then did Locke get a clear look at the man attacking him. He wore a captain's hat and had a scar across his face. No matter how he looked at him, the man did not seem like a good person!

"Who are you, brat? You dared to kill so many men from my Haribun Pirates. Are you tired of living? I'm a pirate with an eight-million-Beli bounty!" The man did not attack immediately, instead stopping to question him.

"Eight million? So what?" Locke slowly got to his feet and muttered. A flash of purple light followed, and he vanished.

Watching the brat disappear again, Haribun immediately tensed up. Was this kid really that fast? He could not even see him move?

Before long, a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek and fell to the ground. At that moment, the sound of wind came from his right.

His survival instincts made him dodge left, narrowly avoiding the attack. However, a small cut still appeared on his right arm, while the youth appeared out of thin air where no one had been standing moments earlier.

Then another flash of purple light appeared, and the youth vanished once more.

After several exchanges like this, Haribun noticed something was off. The youth's attacks were not as powerful as he had imagined; only his ability to disappear was rather strange. Realizing this, Haribun gradually calmed down.

After another unsuccessful attack, Locke also stopped and appeared some distance away from Haribun.

"I admit it—you're qualified to know my name. Remember it well. The one who will cut you down is Chris Z. Rock." With that, Locke charged straight at Haribun.

Before he even got close, a mass of purple light appeared before him, transforming into a purple slash that flew toward Haribun.

Seeing the incoming slash, Haribun sidestepped and avoided it. But he could not evade Locke's attack that followed right behind it, and another wound appeared on his body.

However, Haribun had already noticed that the purple slash seemed to have no real offensive power. By all rights, it should have cut through the mast behind him, but it still stood there completely intact.

When Locke attacked again with the same move, Haribun did not bother dodging the purple slash at all. Instead, he swung his sword at Locke behind it.

Fortunately, Locke reacted quickly enough to avoid a fatal blow, though a long wound still opened across his arm.

"Hahaha, brat, I've already seen through your attacks." Haribun laughed loudly and pressed his advantage.

"Seen through them?" Hearing Haribun's words, Locke curled his lip in disdain and blocked the blade coming at him.

"You're far too early for that!" As he spoke, he dodged the incoming blade again.

Illusion: Shadow Trick!

The Locke standing there suddenly became two identical Lockes.

Seeing an extra Locke suddenly appear before him, Haribun was only briefly surprised.

"You think I'll be scared just because there's one more of you?" With that, he continued his attack.

"Good!" The two Lockes spoke in exactly the same voice. At the same time, they raised their swords and slashed at Haribun. Yet as they struck, one Locke moved slightly slower while the other moved faster.

Haribun watched the two Lockes keep slashing at him. Though he knew one of them was fake, he could not tell which was real and which was false. All he could do was keep blocking.

However, amid his constant defense, Haribun seized an opportunity and slashed directly at one of the Lockes. Upon taking damage, that Locke vanished into thin air.

The remaining Locke took the opportunity to pull away from Haribun.

"It's over, brat! You can't run away. Hahaha!" Seeing Locke leap back, Haribun assumed he was trying to flee and laughed arrogantly.

Yet Locke did not run as Haribun expected. He merely stood there, looking down on Haribun as he said, "It really is time to end this."

Phantom: Blade Flash!

With a loud shout from Locke, purple light shimmered over the sword in his hand from afar. Then the blade suddenly lengthened, shooting straight toward Haribun's back.

"Hahaha! Didn't I already tell you? I've seen through your attacks." Although Haribun said this, the serious look on that brat's face made him raise his own sword into the path of the ever-lengthening blade.

When the extended sword struck his own, he felt no force at all behind it.

"Hahaha! Br—" Before he could finish, a sword pierced in through his back and ran straight through Haribun's heart.

"I told you, it was time to end this." The Locke in front of him slowly faded away, while the real Locke gradually appeared behind Haribun.

"H-how... how is this possible? I'm an... eight-million-Beli pir..." Before he could finish, Haribun slowly collapsed.

Watching Haribun fall, Locke slowly sat down as well. He was now covered in wounds, most notably the twenty-centimeter-long gash across his chest, which continued to gush blood.

To deceive Haribun, Locke had deliberately exposed a weakness and allowed himself to be struck. He had then used his Fruit ability to achieve optical invisibility, disappearing before Haribun's eyes and creating an opening for the final blow.

Because the battle had caused quite a commotion, the surrounding pirates were all rushing in this direction. Locke could only use his sword to support himself as he stood, then faced the pirates coming toward him once more.

Fortunately, Locke did not have to wait long before Koushirou arrived with the dojo disciples who were able to fight.

The moment he saw his master arrive, Locke could no longer hold on and collapsed.

Locke did not hit the ground as he fell, because the arriving Koushirou caught him.

Looking at that calm, unreadable face, Locke blissfully lost consciousness.