Who Told You My Trump Card Was Hasshoken?

With Jogo's voice falling, the deck fell silent.

The sea breeze rushed against the pirates' faces like a series of slaps, making them wonder if they had misheard.

The next second, public indignation surged.

Before the pirates could draw their weapons to teach Jogo a proper lesson.

Abu, who had long since been unable to hold back, darted out first.

"What kind of joke are you telling?!"

He roared angrily, charging forward at a fast pace.

No longer restrained like last time, using only fists and feet.

He reversed his grip to pull the battle axe from his back and brought it down in an overhead chop!

Whoosh!

The heavy sound of breaking wind descended from above.

The faint sound of the axe surface vibrating could be heard.

This was a method of applying Hasshoken to weapons!

It possessed both the lethality of a weapon and the penetrative power of Hasshoken, making it impossible to guard against!

"Try meeting this with your fists again!!" Abu shouted.

"Good!!"

The surrounding pirates' eyes lit up as they eagerly cheered him on:

"Kill him, Vice-Leader!!"

"Wash away the shame! Let him see the Ha... Has..."

Mid-sentence, all the pirates widened their eyes, frozen in place, forgetting what they were supposed to say.

Right in front of them on the deck, Jogo raised his left hand and effortlessly caught Abu's attack.

Of course, if that were all, it wouldn't have been enough to surprise everyone.

What they truly couldn't understand was that Jogo's hand and the vice-leader's axe weren't even touching!

There was at least a two-finger gap between the axe blade and that scar-filled palm.

It was as if it were stuck fast against a wall, unable to advance an inch!

The axe blade vibrated violently!

They were not unfamiliar with this sight—every morning when the leader and vice-leader sparred, this exact scene would appear. This was...

"Has! Sho! Ken!" xN

The pirates all leaned back, their cries of astonishment deafening.

"How is that possible?"

The crowd of pirates was about to go crazy!

"Why does that damned guy know Hasshoken, the secret martial art that only the Chinjao Family can learn?"

"Are our eyes playing tricks on us?"

Abu was also filled with shock and utter disbelief:

"You, you, you, you... why do you know Has..."

Before he could finish, Jogo spun around with a flying kick, landing squarely on Abu's stomach.

"If we're fighting, we fight. Why waste so many words?"

Hum!!

The violent vibration at the sole of his foot was like an awl, easily piercing through Abu's shockwave defense, penetrating his body, and churning his stomach!

Agonizing pain radiated from his gut.

Abu's eyes bulged, he spat a mouthful of blood, and he flew backward.

"Vice-Leader!!!"

The pirates cried out in alarm.

If a group of pirates at the ship's rail hadn't been quick-handed and sharp-eyed enough to catch him, Abu might have flown right off the vessel.

Jogo stretched his wrists, looked at the unflinching Sai at the bow, and crooked a finger at him:

"Not coming?"

At this moment, Sai actually calmed down. He glanced at Abu, hefted his naginata, and walked toward Jogo.

"I suspected it all along."

"Why would someone who became a slave still dare to be so arrogant."

"You must have a trump card!"

"So, this is what you were relying on?"

He advanced step by step, and the closer he got, the more it seemed his anger burned.

An indescribable aura gradually climbed over his body.

"You actually dared to secretly learn the Chinjao Family's Hasshoken!"

"Today..."

He sank his waist, fixed a fierce gaze on Jogo, and bellowed in rage:

"You must die here!"

The next second, his entire body vanished from the spot!

Jogo's pupils constricted.

"So fast!"

"Watch out on the right!" Hina called out in warning.

Trait switch!

Observation Haki (Awakened)
Trait Equipped: "Otherworldly Soul (Silver)", "Pirate Hunter (White)"

In his suddenly sharpened perception, a wave of intense danger assaulted him from the right!

It was already before his face!

Too late to dodge, Jogo immediately raised his hands to block!

Hum!!!

Sai's flying kick stopped mid-air, a finger's width away from Jogo's arm!

A violent shockwave erupted between them, causing the air to ripple like water!

The surrounding pirates watched in dumbstruck amazement.

"He actually blocked it!"

"No way, even the vice-leader couldn't block that!"

Fortunately, what made all the pirates breathe a sigh of relief was that this stalemate lasted only a second.

Bang!

Sai's foot broke through Jogo's vibration defense, kicking heavily into Jogo's arm.

Jogo retreated a few steps and shook the arm he had used for defense.

"So that's how it is. Does combat between Hasshoken users come down to whose vibrations can cancel out the other's?"

He thought to himself.

He abruptly ducked his head to evade Sai's sweeping kick, and before he could even raise it, he hurriedly sidestepped.

Swish!!

A blinding blade-light slashed past his face!

A few strands of black hair were whipped into chaotic flight by the fierce air currents.

Ahead, Sai gripped his naginata with both hands, his expression extremely ugly.

He too had doubted...

Even having seen it with his own eyes, he still doubted!!

How could Hasshoken, a technique passed down in the Chinjao Family for hundreds of years, suddenly be learned by Jogo?

No matter how much he doubted, however, the tactile feedback of the probing blows wouldn't lie.

"Hasshoken... Jogo really has mastered it!"

Never mind how he managed to learn it... It had only been a few days?!

He had practiced this fist technique since childhood, training day in and day out without daring to slack off for a single day, and it had taken him a full decade just to get past the threshold!

While Jogo...

Not only had he crossed the threshold in five days, but his control over vibrations was already approaching his own level!

How could this be possible!!!

"If this is real, what were all those decades of bitter toil for?!!"

A berserk fury welled up from his heart.

He twisted his wrist and lifted the blade, the violent vibrations transmitting onto the wide edge of the naginata, kept suppressed without releasing.

The next instant, he stepped forward, the blade-light surging like a dragon as it enveloped Jogo!

Jogo didn't give ground at all, swinging his fists to collide directly with that blade-light!

Every single punch hit the blade with pinpoint accuracy!

Hum hum hum hum!

In an instant, violent buzzing noises erupted from the deck.

The two of them seemed to be enveloped within rippling water, making their figures hard to discern.

tiny cracks spread out from the deck, shattering the sea breeze!

Suddenly, Jogo backed up fiercely.

Ahead of him, Sai pole-vaulted, plunging his naginata straight into the deck to leap off the momentum. His right leg swept through the air in a half-circle like a windmill, the heel of his boot suddenly taking on a pitch-black metallic sheen!

A furious voice resounded through the air: "Armament Heel"!

Boom!!!

The deck shattered instantly, smoke and dust blasting into the sky!

A shockwave on an entirely different level from before rippled outward, causing some of the closer pirates to feel their entire bodies go numb for a moment.

"The enhancement of Armament Haki? Truly exaggerated!"

Jogo thought to himself.

After learning Hasshoken, looking at this power again gave him a completely different sensation.

"Originally, my control over vibrations could reach seventy or eighty percent of Sai's."

"But once reinforced by Armament Haki, it immediately became Sai being seven or eight times stronger than me. Now I don't even have the qualifications to go toe-to-toe."

Within the smoke and dust, Sai stepped out.

"Why aren't you blocking head-on anymore?"

"With that pathetic level of Hasshoken, you think you're qualified to act as a trump card? And you dared act arrogant in front of me?!"

He stared coldly at Jogo, unwilling to say any more as he stomped heavily onto the ground, spreading his feet apart and bending his knees slightly.

"Since you want to learn it so badly, I'll let you die by the true power of Hasshoken!"

The surrounding pirates burst into cheers:

"That's it!"

"Kill him, Leader!"

Hina felt a surge of anxious panic inside.

She knew clearly that Hasshoken with Armament Haki and Hasshoken without it were on entirely different levels.

"Hina already told you, so where do you even get the courage!"

Yet things had reached this point, and saying anything was useless. She could only pray Jogo still had some clever trick up his sleeve.

At the very least... not to die too quickly, and to give her a chance to trade her life to protect him!

"Jogo, don't block it head-on!" she shouted aloud in warning.

Yet it seemed already too late.

Hiss—

A wisp of hot air escaped from between Sai's teeth.

The next second, he vanished from the spot.

Moving even faster than before, he instantly appeared directly in front of Jogo!

His right leg turned pitch black, raised high!

"Die!"

"Armament Heel"!

Right in that split second... amid the near-frenzied cheers of countless pirates... he caught sight of the palm Jogo extended toward him, and behind that palm, those still-calm eyes.

As if asking him:

"Who told you my trump card was Hasshoken?"

Trait switch!

Conqueror's Haki (Awakened)
Trait Equipped: "Flower-Flower Fruit (Gold)", "Otherworldly Soul (Silver)"

—Since other people awakening Haki or eating Devil Fruits could increase soul strength... then Jogo awakening Observation Haki could likewise increase soul strength!

In an instant, twenty illusory, swaying red dots tinged with a faint crimson hue materialized in a circle around the top of Sai's head.

The next moment, they erupted violently!

Conqueror's Haki Release: 2000%!

The wind carried Jogo's faint voice:

"Withering Flowers · Blazing"!