38- I’m the man who’ll become the Pirate King

The clash of Yoru against Fujitora's bamboo cane unleashed a raw surge of force. Mihawk's ship groaned under the pressure, but held firm—a miracle Fujitora sensed instantly.

"Interesting…" he murmured, his smile widening a fraction.

Mihawk didn't pause. With a fluid pivot, Yoru carved a black arc, slicing the air with a spectral wail. Fujitora raised his cane, but too late. The blade grazed his coat, tearing the pristine fabric.

Space warped. Suddenly, Mihawk weighed a thousand tons. The deck buckled beneath him, wood screaming under the strain. Yet his knees didn't bend.

Their blades clashed—Yoru against the seemingly fragile cane, unbreakable under Fujitora's black Haki. Each impact unleashed bursts of raw power, ripping the sea around them into fleeting liquid canyons.

"You hide your strength well, Mihawk," Fujitora said, parrying a horizontal slash that could've cleaved a battleship. "Your lone wolf reputation conceals… unnerving Haki mastery."

Mihawk countered with a flurry of lightning-fast thrusts, each move lethally precise. "Solitude's a fine teacher, Admiral."

Fujitora struck back. His cane swept downward. The sky collapsed.

No clouds, no rain—just the air itself turning into a colossal hammer, zeroed in on Mihawk and his ship. The wood shrieked, gothic cross railings twisting like wax. Perona and Kiku screamed, pinned to the deck. Korran watched the ship splinter before his eyes.

But it didn't break.

A low, primal growl rumbled from Mihawk—not a shout, but something deep, animalistic. A tsunami of black Haki, darker and more haunting than anything Fujitora had ever felt, erupted from him. It didn't just coat his body—it enveloped the entire ship, from keel to mast, like a living shadow skin.

BOOOOOM!

The collision was cataclysmic. Fujitora's gravitational assault slammed into Mihawk's Haki. The sea for hundreds of meters was blasted back, forming a momentary crater. Mihawk's gothic raft shuddered like a leaf in a hurricane… but held. It floated, unscathed, in a sphere of black force that literally deflected gravity.

Fujitora stepped back. His closed eyes widened in pure astonishment, revealing scarred, white sockets.

"Incredible…" His voice lost its measured calm for the first time. "To reinforce an inanimate object this large with such dense Armament Haki… for so long… It's…" He groped for words, struck by unwilling admiration. "Prodigious."

Mihawk breathed slightly harder, faint mist escaping his lips.

*As I thought, it's costly. But…*

His eyes blazed with cold intensity. "My ship. My crew. No one touches them."

A heavy silence fell, broken only by the sea rushing to fill the crater. Perona, Kiku, and Korran staggered to their feet, awestruck by their captain's display.

Fujitora adjusted his torn coat. His face regained its calm mask, but a new tension lingered. "You command my respect, Mihawk. But you also force my hand." He raised his cane to the darkened sky. "If a ship's too sturdy to crush…"

His Haki surged, different—vaster.

"…then I'll bring something heavy enough to crush it anyway."

Above, clouds didn't part from gravity but were shoved aside by something piercing the atmosphere. A fiery streak. A massive, rugged, dark shape, ablaze from atmospheric friction, grew visible, swelling rapidly.

Korran pointed a trembling finger. "Holy… Is that…?"

Perona turned whiter than her parasol. "Heehee… no way…"

Kiku looked up, her face etched with primal terror. "A… meteor?!"

Mihawk's gaze lifted to the sky.

The meteor, summoned by Fujitora's ultimate gravitational power, filled the heavens, its deadly shadow swallowing the ship and miles of ocean. Its descent roared like the end of the world.

Fujitora aimed his cane at Mihawk, his expression grim. "Surrender. Or see your ship—and everything on it—reduced to cosmic dust."

Mihawk's eyes locked on the Admiral, then the celestial rock hurtling toward them. A thin, dangerous smirk curled his lips.

'Finally.'

"Very well, Admiral," his voice cut through the sky's roar. "Let's play."

Mihawk drove Yoru into the deck, his piercing gaze fixed on the sky-devouring meteor. A cold glint danced in his eyes.

His crew held their breath. Perona clung to her parasol, tears in her eyes, while Kiku stood frozen in dread. Korran muttered incoherent curses, wide-eyed at the threat's scale.

"Captain…" Korran's voice shook but held resolve. "What do we do?"

Mihawk didn't answer immediately.

'I can't just see it—I must feel it.'

"Stay back," he said at last, voice calm. He raised Yoru, its black blade gleaming. "And cover your ears."

'I'd have liked to test my new art, but the time's not right.'

Fujitora, still as stone, sensed the shift in the air. His honed Observation Haki caught Mihawk's intent. His brow furrowed, curiosity mingling with unease. "What are you planning, Hawkeye?"

Mihawk didn't reply. He closed his eyes.

"Ichiba, mukai. Senkai ugachi, bankai saku. Sekai yo, shizume. Ō no ken, koko ni ari."

(One blade, no world.

It pierces a thousand seas, tears ten thousand skies.

World, bow.

The king's blade is here.)

He chanted the words like a mantra. The meteor, vast and roaring, filled his mind like a map.

'I can feel it…'

In a breath, he struck.

Yoru didn't swing skyward. The blade sliced the air in a complex, almost choreographed pattern—a deadly dance. Hundreds, thousands of air blades erupted, each laced with Haki, forming a web of invisible cleavers that soared toward the meteor. The attack was so swift, so precise, it seemed to defy time.

The meteor shattered.

Not in a chaotic blast, but a methodical fracture. Thousands of pieces—some house-sized, others pebble-small—scattered across the sky. The shockwave rocked the ocean, sending colossal waves that pitched the ship. Perona screamed, Kiku clung to the mast, and Korran dropped to his knees, jaw slack.

Fujitora, blind yet "seeing" through his Haki, froze. Shock and admiration warred on his face. "To split a meteor that size… in one strike…" His voice quavered, betraying rare emotion. "Your mastery is inhuman."

But he didn't stop. The Admiral gripped his cane, his Haki flaring again. The torn sky rumbled anew. Two fiery streaks appeared—two smaller but still devastating meteors, plummeting toward the ship at terrifying speed.

"You're a monster, Mihawk," Fujitora said, his voice cold again. "But even monsters buckle under the sky's weight."

Mihawk, still as stone, opened his eyes and studied the flaming masses. His breathing was steady, but a bead of sweat traced his brow. Yet his lips curled into a dangerous, almost taunting smile.

"Admiral," he said, his voice ringing with chilling confidence, "you still don't understand."

He raised Yoru again, but this time, he didn't just slash. The air around him pulsed.

The meteors, mid-descent, slowed abruptly, as if gripped by an unseen force. Fujitora's empty sockets widened, sensing the impossible.

"You're… manipulating gravity with your Haki?" he whispered, incredulous.

'Not quite.'

Mihawk wasn't controlling gravity. He was imposing his will. His Conqueror's Haki erupted like a storm, saturating the space around the ship. The meteors, crushed by this intangible force, wavered in their paths. Then, with a roar, Mihawk swung Yoru down.

The meteors broke—not into thousands of shards like the first, but into larger chunks, veered off course. They crashed into the ocean hundreds of meters away, sending geysers of saltwater that drenched the deck. The ship shuddered violently but stayed whole.

Fujitora staggered back, his cane trembling in his hand. "You…" He fumbled for words, a rarity for a man of his stature. "Such Haki mastery…"

Mihawk sheathed Yoru with deliberate slowness, his piercing gaze locked on the Admiral. "Fujitora," he said, voice low but resonant, "you fight for justice. That's honorable. But I…" He paused, his smile widening faintly. "I'm the man who'll become the Pirate King."

A deathly silence fell over the battlefield. Perona, Kiku, and Korran stared at their captain, jaws dropped. Fujitora, for the first time, seemed truly shaken. His lips parted, but no words came.

The sky, freed from the meteors' grip, calmed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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