Chapter 190 (Patreon)

Cocoyasi Village, Arlong Park.

A sudden silence descended over the stronghold of the Arlong Pirates.

The fish-men and the Straw Hat Pirates stopped fighting almost simultaneously.

Some stared in shock, while others looked as though their eyes might fall from their sockets.

Every gaze was fixed upon the man and three women who had entered the stronghold through an impossible means.

Behind them, a space-time portal resembling a black hole slowly contracted. It pulled at the surrounding air like a wormhole, releasing an oppressive force that seemed to drain the strength from everyone nearby.

An instinctive fear took hold of the battlefield.

“This is...”

Nerona Mihawk surveyed the fish-men surrounding them.

His gaze then shifted toward a green-haired swordsman and a boy wearing a straw hat whose feet were trapped in the ground.

Recognition appeared in Mihawk’s eyes.

“So that’s it. We’ve arrived in this world.”

“Hey... Who are you people—”

Boom!

Arlong had barely begun to question them when a powerful gust swept across the entirety of Arlong Park.

Mihawk’s Conqueror’s Haki erupted without warning.

The fish-men led by Arlong stiffened as though they had been struck in the head.

Their eyes rolled back before they collapsed one after another.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of bodies striking the ground echoed throughout Arlong Park.

Within moments, every fish-man had lost consciousness.

Among the combatants, only Luffy and Zoro remained awake.

Mihawk had deliberately excluded them from his Conqueror’s Haki.

“Huh? What just happened?!”

Luffy continued struggling to pull his feet free as he stared at the unconscious fish-men in confusion.

“Why did they all fall over?”

Zoro’s reaction was completely different.

He held Wado Ichimonji tightly in both hands as sweat poured down his face.

We can’t defeat him.

He’s on an entirely different level.

Unlike Luffy, whose instincts rarely allowed him to appreciate the danger of a situation immediately, Zoro understood what had happened.

A dark-red aura surrounded the kimono-clad man standing before him.

Despite Mihawk’s refined appearance, that aura was unmistakable.

After spending years as a bounty hunter, Zoro knew exactly what it represented.

Killing intent.

The man’s killing intent was so powerful that it had almost taken physical form.

Damn it...

Where did someone this terrifying come from?

Why did he appear here?

Just how many people had he killed?

Those questions roared through Zoro’s mind, but he did not dare make a careless move.

“Let’s go.”

Mihawk gave Zoro one final, searching look before leading Hinata, Hanabi, and Saeko toward the entrance of Arlong Park.

Hinata glanced back at Luffy and Zoro before leaving and quietly memorized their appearances.

She had noticed that Mihawk’s Conqueror’s Haki had deliberately avoided them.

His earlier reaction also suggested that he had recognized this world after seeing the two of them.

Were they special in some way?

With that question in mind, Hinata committed both faces to memory.

Mihawk walked past Luffy without even looking at him.

Only after he had passed did Luffy’s carefree expression finally disappear.

He raised one hand to hold down his straw hat and stared solemnly at Mihawk’s departing back.

Thud!

Once Mihawk and the others were gone, Zoro dropped heavily onto the ground.

“Haa... Haa...”

His breathing trembled as the tension finally left his body.

“We’re alive...”

A moment later, however, excitement appeared in his eyes.

“There’s no mistaking that pressure. That man... he’s on the same level as Hawkeye.”

...

“Mihawk-nii, where are we going now?”

After leaving Arlong Park, Hanabi moved closer to Mihawk and looked up at him uncertainly.

Other than the strange fish-men they had just encountered, this world did not appear particularly different from their own.

Once her initial excitement faded, Hanabi no longer knew what she was supposed to do.

She was like a child arriving in an unfamiliar place only to realize she had no idea where to go next.

Fortunately, Mihawk was beside her.

His presence gave her someone to rely upon.

Mihawk immediately noticed the change in Hanabi’s mood.

He neither found it strange nor troublesome. He had experienced the same uncertainty in his previous life when he first found himself in an unfamiliar world.

Mihawk placed a hand on Hanabi’s head and smiled.

“First, we’ll gather information about this world. After that, we’ll find somewhere to stay. How does that sound?”

“Mm-hm!”

Mihawk’s words gave Hanabi an immediate sense of direction.

Her uncertainty disappeared, and she nodded several times.

Once Hanabi had regained her enthusiasm, Mihawk turned toward Hinata.

“Hinata, can your Tenseigan examine another person’s memories?”

“I can use a Puppet-Cursing Sphere to read someone’s memories,” Hinata replied. “It would also allow me to control that person’s will and actions.”

She immediately understood what Mihawk intended.

“Mihawk-kun, do you want me to use the Tenseigan to gather information?”

“Mm.”

Mihawk nodded.

In truth, he did not need Hinata’s ability to recognize this world.

Because Hawkeye had been his first template, Mihawk still remembered the major events of the pirate world clearly, even though he had forgotten many details of the shinobi world over the years.

The moment he saw Luffy, Zoro, and the fish-men, he understood exactly where they had arrived.

Sparing Luffy and Zoro from his Conqueror’s Haki had been a small reward for indirectly providing him with that information.

Hinata’s Tenseigan would simply help them gather ordinary information about their current surroundings and the state of the world.

Mihawk had decided the true purpose of this journey before they ever left Konoha.

Traveling through another world was merely an added benefit.

Their real objective was to find a way to live forever.

A single century was far too short.

Mihawk, Hinata, and Hanabi all wanted to remain young and stay together forever.

To Mihawk, nineteen represented the height of youth.

He intended to find a way to preserve that youth within the next three years.

Fortunately, he still remembered the most important events and mysteries of this world.

It took him only a moment to identify a possible method.

No—there were two.

One offered extraordinary longevity, while the other promised eternal youth.

Pure Gold and the Op-Op Fruit.

Luffy’s battle against Arlong revealed the current point in the timeline.

The Op-Op Fruit already had an owner, and obtaining eternal youth through the Perennial Youth Operation carried too many uncertainties.

Mihawk trusted the achievements of science more than the supernatural power granted by Devil Fruits.

That made Pure Gold the better choice.

Pure Gold was a legendary metal whose light could drastically slow the aging of anyone exposed to it.

A person who continuously wore it could remain alive for two hundred years without visibly aging.

Compared to relying on the Perennial Youth Operation of the Op-Op Fruit, this method felt far more reliable to Mihawk.

His first objective in this world was decided.

They would find Pure Gold.