Just as Gern handed food to the weakened Luffy and waited for him to regain his strength
and explain the full details of his battle with Blackbeard...
A familiar, soul-freezing presence crept toward Gern from his blind spot without warning!
This chill was neither Kuzan's pure ice nor an ordinary low temperature
but a unique, deathly cold tinged with the netherworld aura of the Yellow Springs!
Gern's brows knitted almost instinctively the instant he sensed it!
This feeling... was familiar!
Where had he encountered it before?
There was no time to think!
A clear voice rang out behind Gern, accompanied by a silent burst of sword energy moving through the air at incredible speed!
"Hanauta Sancho: Yahazu Giri!!"
Before the words had faded, a slender streak of sword energy, with a single glimmer of ghostly blue cold at its tip, appeared silently at the center of Gern's back!
This was no slash displaying a swordsman's distinctive power and force, but a sword thrust that combined speed and stealth to their utmost limits!
Its secret lay in how its victims often remained completely unaware
as the extreme cold and impact within the sword energy invaded their bodies. By the time they noticed, it was too late!
And so, before Gern even turned around
a layer of crystalline frost instantly covered the tear in the back of his shirt.
The frost spread rapidly, carrying the bone-piercing chill of the Yellow Springs as it tried to seep into his body
but the Armament Haki coating Gern's skin stopped it!
"I didn't expect you to notice me after all."
At the same time, a tall, thin, skeletal figure moved as though he had almost "teleported"
and silently "slid" out of the shadows beside Gern
to appear directly between Gern and Luffy
with his back