A Strange Idea; Mihawk, Who Had Been Waiting

"Gosh! How can the seawater flow upward?" Ryan and his crew exclaimed.

In the distance, they could already see the seawater reversing its course and flowing toward the sky. Reaching this point, Ryan could finally share his idea with everyone.

Pointing at the map, Ryan said, "Look, this is Reverse Mountain. The waters of the Four Seas gather here, and then the outlet is the entrance to the Grand Line. If you circle the world along the Grand Line, you can become the Pirate King."

Ryan paused and continued.

"What if we go straight down right here? Wouldn't that take us directly to the end?" Ryan pointed in the opposite direction of the Grand Line entrance.

"Can we do that?" Beli asked doubtfully.

"Someone proposed that idea before, but it was eventually proven unachievable because it requires going down the back of Reverse Mountain. The height of Reverse Mountain is said to be ten or twenty thousand meters, and its backside is sheer with nowhere to grab. Going down from here is a dead end."

Watching the enthusiastic Ryan, Lory poured cold water on him.

"Turns out there's someone else in this world as much of a genius as me." Ryan acted as if he had found a kindred spirit.

"Did you even hear what I was saying? You'll die going down this way!"

"I know, I didn't say I wanted to die, I just wanted to take a look." Ryan smiled and spread his hands.

Of course Ryan knew it was impossible to reach Laugh Tale from this side, let alone the terrain of Reverse Mountain—even if he could get past it, he didn't know where Laugh Tale was located.

As the final stretch of sea in the New World, the weather there was completely unpredictable. Could it be that no one except Gol D. Roger had ever ventured to that region?

There certainly were others, but only Roger returned alive and successfully found Laugh Tale, which was why he was the Pirate King.

Yet Ryan's curiosity genuinely drove him to know whether one could go straight from here to the final sea of the New World.

Just like knowing that taking another step forward meant death, the vast majority of people would still stop to observe carefully. Some were even willing to pay with their lives to try.

Ryan didn't want to die, but Ryan was curious.

Inquisitiveness and exploration were forever the truest nature of humanity.

Moving forward out of a yearning for the unknown—perhaps this was what adventure truly meant.

"Advance toward the unknown!" Ryan stood at the bow, pointing toward Reverse Mountain.

The rest of the group shared an understanding smile: this was their captain.

Ryan and his crew's ship got closer and closer to Reverse Mountain, and a current pulled the ship, changing its course to rush into that bottom-up waterway.

"The ship is really sailing up into the sky!"

Everyone in the group acted like curious babies, pointing and gesturing all around, and even Lory, who usually spoke very little, joined the group.

The ship rode the ocean current all the way toward Kong, and gradually they could see clouds in Kong passing right beside them.

Ryan marveled in his heart at the wondrous workmanship of nature; for such terrain to exist, this truly was the world of pirates.

Before long, the upward current reached its peak and the ship soared straight up into the air. Due to inertia, everyone on board lost their center of gravity and was flung up into the air.

Ryan hurriedly looked down to the lower right, seeing only the clouds of Kong and towering peaks, with nothing else besides them.

Ryan sighed internally, Let's wait and come back to check it out next time.

Afterward, the crew climbed back onto the ship, and the vessel smoothly entered the sea route heading toward the Grand Line, riding the current downward.

Going down was even faster and much more thrilling.

Ryan wondered in his heart whether Laboon would be waiting for them at the bottom.

The ship successfully surged out of the sea channel.

With this, the Ryan Pirates officially stepped into the Grand Line, setting their names ringing across the entire world.

Suddenly at that moment, Beli shouted at the top of his lungs, "The Grand Line, the Ryan Pirates have arrived!"

Ryan looked speechlessly at Beli without saying a word.

Kid, standing off to the side, said, "Do you think he's mad because Beli stole Ryan's line?"

Killer: "Probably."

Watching those two little brats talking behind his back, Ryan decided he needed to love them a little more in the future.

Right at that moment, a Flying Slash hurtled toward Ryan!

Ryan's Observation Haki sensed it immediately, and he drew the sword at his waist, countering with a Flying Slash of his own.

In an instant, the two slashes met in Kong and collided, neither giving an inch. At the point of impact, the previously calm sea surface formed a momentary Kong zone.

"Who's there?!"

"Bloody Swordsman Ryan, I've been waiting for you a long time." A voice drifted over from afar.

In the distance, aboard a small ship that looked like a coffin, a man with a pair of sharp, hawk-like eyes, wearing a black top hat adorned with white fluff, a burgundy patterned shirt, and a cross pendant knife hanging at his chest, stared at Ryan and the Ace in his hand.

Upon seeing the newcomer's features, Ryan recognized him almost instantly: the man who would in the future be called the greatest swordsman in the world, Dracule Mihawk.

Because of his pair of sharp, hawk-like eyes, even the strongest warriors inevitably felt a chill, which was why he was known as Hawkeye.

Ryan began to get excited. He hadn't expected to run into Hawkeye here, and being able to fight the future greatest swordsman—as long as he didn't die here—would definitely be of immense help to his swordsmanship cultivation.

Looking at his own swordsmanship proficiency, which had already reached a staggering 99,999 points, his breakthrough would happen today!

"I've also been looking forward to you for a long time, Hawkeye Mihawk."

Both men saw the formidable fighting spirit in each other's eyes.

"Let me measure your worth, Mihawk!"

Coating his entire body and the sword in his hand with Armament Haki, Ryan took the initiative, stamping his feet like an arrow leaving the bow and charging at full force toward Hawkeye.

"Well-come!"

The two began exchanging blows right in Kong. Their speed was extremely fast; Kid and the others couldn't clearly see either of them attack, and only Beli could dimly make out the details of their clash.

Killer asked nervously, "Beli, how is Master Ryan doing?"

"Evenly matched."

After exchanging hundreds of blows in Kong, the two retreated back to their respective ships.

Ryan's sword-holding hand trembled slightly, and fresh blood flowed all over his body. The white robe he wore had gradually turned red.

Only then did the others notice that more than a dozen crisscrossing wounds had appeared on Ryan's body, including one deep on his back that exposed bone.

This was the first time Ryan had suffered such severe injuries since coming to this world.

Hawkeye was even more heavily injured, covered entirely in wounds, especially on his hands and chest. The wound on his chest was a mere two centimeters away from Hawkeye's heart.

"What was the name of that move just now?!" Hawkeye asked in a deep voice.

"Hundred-Step Flying Sword."

As it turned out, Ryan had used Hundred-Step Flying Sword during his exchange with Hawkeye.

It was Hawkeye's first time facing such a technique, and he had been hit. However, relying on his own super-strong combat intuition, the moment he was about to be pierced through the heart, he managed to touch the flying sword mid-flight with his hand, forcefully deflecting the blade—which should have struck his heart—by two centimeters.

Thinking back to that moment, Hawkeye couldn't help but tremble inwardly. He had almost died!

Meanwhile, the wound on Ryan's back was also inflicted by Hawkeye. Hundred-Step Flying Sword possessed a fatal weakness: once the sword was sent out, it couldn't be brought back. The moment Ryan saw that the sword hadn't pierced Hawkeye's heart, he knew things were bad.

To retrieve his sword, Ryan had simply endured Hawkeye's slash, which was how the wound on his back came to be.

Fortunately, because Hawkeye was heavily injured at that moment, the power behind his blade was far from sufficient; otherwise, if it had been a slash from Hawkeye at his peak, Ryan would have been cleaved cleanly in two right then and there.

Duels between swordsmen were that simple and dangerous, especially close combat, which was the most perilous kind—lose focus for a moment and you might find yourself missing a spare part.

Ryan also discovered that the weakness of Hundred-Step Flying Sword was far greater than he had imagined, particularly when dueling masters whose reactions allowed them to completely dodge it. If Hawkeye's Observation Haki could foresee the future, Ryan should already be a corpse right now.

Ryan decided that until he perfected it completely, he would no longer use this move in the future.

"Sigh!"

Ryan sighed softly in his heart. After all, this was created based on his own ideas and held special emotional value; it was a pity the idea was great, but reality was too cruel!

Still, now was not the time to zone out. Ryan smiled at Hawkeye across the way.

"Next up, a single strike decides the victor!"

"Good!"

The fighting spirit of both Ryan and Hawkeye reached its absolute peak.

This move—

would decide the victor, and also determine life and death!

Both men were making adjustments, continuously building up their momentum and striving to make their upcoming strike even stronger.

Ryan felt a mix of excitement and dread. During the previous battle, Ryan had discovered that both of them currently stood right on the threshold of Great Swordsman, separated from a breakthrough by only a single step.

"Remember to fish me out," Ryan instructed quickly.

The momentum on Ryan's body reached its peak.

Hawkeye did the same.

"Kamusari!"

"Heaven-Splitting Slash!"

The two figures collided in Kong.

Conqueror's Haki and murderous intent erupted from Ryan's body.

Hawkeye likewise used another power to contend equally with the Conqueror's Haki and murderous intent released by Ryan.

Faintly, one could see Kong itself being torn apart.

Ryan and Hawkeye had broken through their own limits; this strike was the strongest of their lives so far.

The crew members still watching from a distance noticed a massive wave rolling toward them. This was the wave formed by the churning seawater caused by the aftermath of the battle between Ryan and Hawkeye.

"Quick, turn the ship!" Lory screamed in alarm.

"It's too late." After saying that, Beli drew the twin axes from his back and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Earth-Splitting Slash."

The seawater was cleaved directly into two halves, passing right past the sides of the ship.

Having narrowly escaped death, the four of them witnessed the moment Ryan and Hawkeye plunged into the ocean together.

"Oh no."

Beli, Kid, and Killer dove into the water without hesitation to rescue Ryan.

Right at that moment, an inopportune voice sounded out.

"Killer, save me!"

As it turned out, that was Kid.

Kid had probably forgotten just then that he was a Devil Fruit user himself.

Killer swam toward Kid in a hurry and hauled him up.

In no time at all, Beli was seen returning to the ship with a person tucked under each armpit.

Those two people were none other than Ryan and Hawkeye, both unconscious after falling into the sea.

Kid said indignantly, "Why did you save him? He's the captain's enemy."

"They fell in together, so I just grabbed him by the way. If Ryan were awake, he'd have me do the same."

Kid fell silent.

Because he knew that given Ryan's personality, he really was the kind of person who would do something like that.

Just at that moment, a massive roar echoed out.

All four of them covered their ears, and next, they witnessed a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

A whale the size of an island appeared within their line of sight, and before they could even react, they were swallowed whole, ship and crew disappearing straight into the whale's belly.

After finishing all that, the whale plunged into the sea and vanished.

The ocean surface finally returned to its former calm.