Clang!
The pitch-black blade struck his Armament Haki-hardened right arm, sending sparks flying.
Lucas flung the giant bear's corpse from his shoulder to the ground, using the force of the blow to dart backward and carve two trenches half a foot deep through the ruined street.
"This time, I'll definitely arrest you."
Gion stepped out from behind the shattered wooden door with a cold expression. Armament Haki spread from her fair wrist across the blade of Kompira, and she was like a sword drawn from its sheath, her edge fully revealed.
Lucas patted the faint white mark on his right arm, a thoroughly wicked smile curling across his lips.
"It's been three years already. Why haven't you given up? The first time you said that, I stole Soru from you. The second time, I learned Geppo. And the third time..."
He deliberately dragged out the last words, his eyes sweeping maliciously over her slender waist and long legs.
"Shut up!"
Gion's pretty face instantly turned scarlet, even the tips of her ears flushing red. Embarrassed and furious, she cut him off.
"You only won before because you cheated! This time, I absolutely won't give you another chance!"
Kompira suddenly carved a stunning semicircle through the air.
A solid pink crescent slash tore through the air, effortlessly slicing open the ground in its path and kicking up chunks of rubble.
The Katana at Lucas's waist left its sheath, splitting the incoming slash into scattered waves of air.
The blast flung up rubble and rotten wood. With a flick of his wrist, he thrust his blade forward, sending an invisible sword aura straight at Gion's face.
Gion lightly tapped the ground with her lotus steps and shifted slightly aside.
The sword aura grazed past her hair. With a deafening boom, it split the crumbling house behind her in two.
Almost at the same instant, she raised her wrist and sent an identical Pink Flying Slash back at him.
Lucas neither dodged nor retreated. Powerful Armament Haki erupted from within him, forming an indestructible suit of armor over his body.
With a dull bang, the sword aura struck the armor and instantly shattered into countless motes of light.
He pushed off with his feet, collapsing the ground beneath him with a roar. He shot forward like a cannonball, his Katana crashing down upon Kompira as Gion held it horizontally before her.
The piercing clang of metal striking metal carried far into the distance.
Blade light and sword shadows intertwined throughout the ruined slums. They fought from dusk until deep into the night, then from night until dawn.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and gunpowder. The already shattered streets had now become a scorched wasteland.
On the night of their third day of battle.
Lucas seized an opening and slashed his blade against Kompira's guard.
With a thunderous clang, Kompira flew from Gion's hand and embedded itself deeply in a broken wall in the distance, its blade still trembling violently.
Before Gion could react, his arm became a blur, and several incomparably condensed invisible sword auras shot through the air.
The Armament Haki armor Gion hastily raised was sliced apart as easily as paper before those sword auras.
With several crisp tearing sounds, her Marine uniform was shredded into pieces by the sword auras, fluttering through the air like white butterflies.
Under the moonlight, the girl's fair, beautiful body was faintly visible. Fine beads of sweat and dust clung to her skin, tracing breathtaking curves.
"You... shameless bastard! You've gotten more and more skilled at using that move!"
Gion clenched her silver teeth, her cheeks so red they seemed about to bleed. She hurriedly covered her chest with her arms, leaning against the cold broken wall as she panted heavily.
Three days and three nights of fierce battle had long since drained the last trace of strength from her body. Forget raising a hand to fight back—even remaining standing was already her limit.
She was both furious and ashamed, her eyes slightly reddened. Yet deep down, there was a helplessness she refused even to admit to herself. She had lost again, utterly and completely.
"Of course."
Lucas sneered as he sheathed his long blade. The crisp sound of metal rang especially clearly through the silent ruins.
He stepped over the giant bear corpse that had long since been cut into several pieces by sword aura and walked over to Gion. Before she could resist, he reached out and swept her up around the waist.
"After all, I have the most dedicated sparring partner in the world."
He looked down at the girl in his arms, humiliated and furious but too weak to struggle. A trace of tenderness flickered in his eyes before he turned and carried her into the dilapidated wooden house.
The wooden door slowly closed behind him, shutting out the moonlight and the scent of blood outside.
The following morning.
A thin ray of sunlight filtered through a gap in the worn curtains and fell across the messy bed.
Lucas slowly opened his azure eyes, a trace of sleepiness still lingering in them.
He lowered his gaze to Gion, curled up in his arms and sleeping soundly, and gently pinched her smooth, delicate waist.
The girl gave an unhappy little hum and burrowed deeper into his embrace. Her long eyelashes trembled lightly like two tiny fans.
Lucas chuckled softly, carefully withdrew his arm, and got out of bed. He walked to the table, picked up the aged strong liquor from the West Blue, and poured himself a full glass.
The fiery liquor slid down his throat, burning his esophagus like flames.
Lucas leaned against the window, his gaze gradually becoming distant.
Eighteen years.
Eighteen years ago, he had merely been an ordinary office worker in the twenty-first century, typing code in front of a computer every day and working himself to the bone for his mortgage and car payments.
A sudden car accident had somehow sent him across worlds into this cannibalistic Great Pirate Era, turning him into an infant abandoned on the shore of the Kingdom of Ye.
A rundown local orphanage took him in. The gentle and kind nun gave him a name—Lucas.
That was the only period of his life filled with sunlight.
The nun taught him to read and write, shared half of her meager bread with him, and stayed by his bedside all night whenever he was sick.
Unfortunately, good times did not last.
When he was ten, a small gang called the Grey Wolf Gang massacred the orphanage in a territorial dispute.
The nun was hacked to death before his eyes while protecting him.
The overwhelming rage and despair awakened his Conqueror's Haki at that moment. Every ordinary gang member who had invaded collapsed unconscious.
However, that did not save him.
Thanks to Golden Lion Shiki, the gangsters of the Kingdom of Ye were no strangers to Conqueror's Haki, though they only knew that those who possessed it had extraordinary potential.
The gang's higher-ups who remained conscious did not kill him. Instead, they took him away and trained him to become the perfect killing machine.
The next five years were five years of hell.
Lucas pretended to have been thoroughly brainwashed, obeying every command from the gang without question and killing without blinking.
Like a sponge, he desperately absorbed everything that could make him stronger.
Finally, on his fifteenth birthday, he made his move.
Overnight, more than three hundred members of the Grey Wolf Gang were wiped out. Not a single one survived.
Blood stained the entire courtyard red, and even the sewers ran with bloody water. From that day onward, the Kingdom of Ye had gained a living taboo.
It was also that year that he met Gion.
The spirited girl had just graduated from the Marine Elite Training Camp. Dressed in a pristine cape of justice, with eyes as clear as a spring, she firmly believed in the Marines' absolute justice.
She chose the Kingdom of Ye as her first stop for live combat and swore to purge the gangsters here.
During their first clash, Gion beat him black and blue with her masterful Rokushiki and Two-Color Haki.
Lucas could only rely on his extraordinary recovery ability and iron will to drag himself back to his feet again and again.
In that life-and-death battle, he unexpectedly discovered his innate talent—during combat, he could copy and master all of his opponent's techniques at an astonishing speed.
The gangsters of the Kingdom of Ye were nothing but fools who relied on brute force, so he had never had the chance to discover this talent.
And Gion was like the finest teacher heaven had given him.
Once he had stolen all of Rokushiki and Two-Color Haki from Gion through battle after battle, the balance of victory had completely tipped.
From then on, Gion lost every time they fought.
Yet strangely, she never gave up.
Every few months, she would take a warship to the Kingdom of Ye, only to be defeated by him, and then... their feelings gradually heated up beyond control through this strange and twisted way of getting along.
By now, the only thing separating them from being a real married couple was a government-issued certificate.
"I'm going to kill you, you bastard!"
A bashful yet furious cry abruptly yanked Lucas from his memories and back to reality.
A sharp gust of wind came from behind him. Armament Haki wrapped around Gion's long, fair fingers as they stabbed toward the center of his back like daggers.
Lucas did not turn around. Powerful Armament Haki instantly formed a layer of armor across his back.
With a dull bang, her fingertips struck the armor with a muted impact. He turned with the motion and grabbed Gion's wrist.
"Why are you so angry this early in the morning?"
"What, are you trying to murder your husband? Or do you want to become a widow while you're still so young?"
At the words "your husband," Gion's eyes instantly reddened.
She struggled with all her strength, yet she could not break free from Lucas's grip no matter what she did.
In the end, she gave up resisting and slumped weakly against the edge of the bed. Tears rolled down her cheeks like beads from a broken string.
"Why won't you come with me? Why won't you become a Marine?"
"Is being a gangster really that good?"
Her personal feelings and the ideals of justice she had upheld since childhood were like two sharp blades, cutting through her heart again and again and tormenting her.
She hated Lucas's unruliness, hated that he refused to accept her goodwill, and hated herself even more. She was a Marine, yet she had fallen in love with a gangster.
Lucas's heart suddenly softened.
He released her hand and pulled Gion into his arms, gently patting her smooth back. Her body trembled slightly, and her warm tears soaked through his shirt.
"I've answered that question countless times already."
"I don't like being controlled, and I especially don't want to be a dog for those Celestial Dragons sitting high above everyone else. As for being a gangster... do you think that was a choice I wanted to make?"
If he could, he wanted to live an ordinary life too.
But this world had never given him a choice. From the day the orphanage was massacred, only one path had remained in his life—becoming stronger, strong enough to protect himself, strong enough that no one would ever dare bully him again.
Gion pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
Of course, she understood his difficulties.
She had seen the darkness of the Kingdom of Ye. She had seen nobles riding slaves through the streets in arrogant procession. She had seen gangsters casually slaughter lives over the slightest profit.
She simply... could not accept it.
She believed that if Lucas joined the Marines, he could escape the shadows of his past and live an honorable life in the light.
Lucas lowered his head and gently kissed the lips that still wanted to say something.
The kiss carried the fiery bite of strong liquor, as well as endless tenderness.
After a long while, their lips parted.
"I'm going to take care of something. I'll be back soon."
He got up, dressed quickly and neatly, then turned and walked out of the bedroom.
"Don't forget to fix the door when you leave."
A pillow flew at the spot where the back of his head had just disappeared.
The wooden door closed softly, leaving Gion sitting alone on the bed, staring blankly at his departing figure with an unreadable expression in her eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED
(PS: There is no canon reference for Gion's age. In theory, fanfiction authors can write it however they wish within reason. In this book, I set her at forty during the canon timeline. This chapter takes place twenty years before canon, which means Gion is currently twenty years old.)