Chapter 199 (Patreon)

“Whoosh!”

After watching Hancock destroy two of his Ranged Slashes, Mihawk found himself genuinely impressed by the power of her Devil Fruit.

Then his figure blurred and vanished from the deck.

“He’s coming!”

The curtain of seawater had not yet cleared, but several members of the Kuja Pirates immediately sensed his presence moving.

The Kuja Pirates might have been an all-female crew, but no one could mistake them for weaklings.

Their overall strength was high enough that even the Straw Hat Pirates who first arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago would have struggled against them.

At that time, Luffy carried a bounty of three hundred million berries, while Zoro’s had reached one hundred and twenty million. Combined with Sanji, Robin, Franky, and the others, the crew’s total bounty amounted to roughly seven hundred million berries.

Even so, the Kuja Pirates were comparable to the crews of the Super Rookies and likely stronger than several of them.

The reason was simple.

Every member came from Amazon Lily, a nation of warriors where Haki was taught as part of their combat tradition. Nearly every Kuja warrior could use Armament Haki, Observation Haki, or both.

The moment Mihawk disappeared, they sensed his presence rushing toward them.

“Impossible!”

Boa Sandersonia stared through the falling spray.

“He’s running on the sea!”

As the rain finally cleared, Mihawk came into view.

He was sprinting across the surface of the water, closing the distance between the two ships at tremendous speed.

Boa Marigold’s face darkened.

“We chose the worst possible target.”

Both sisters were beginning to regret their decision.

Mihawk’s three-masted sailing ship was completely unremarkable. It carried no pirate flag, Marine insignia, or merchant emblem. Nothing about it suggested that anyone dangerous was aboard.

In the Grand Line, an unmarked ship was usually treated as easy prey.

Amazon Lily stood within the Calm Belt and had limited access to outside resources. Because of that, the Kuja Pirates regularly sailed out to raid other vessels and bring supplies back to their homeland.

When they encountered Mihawk’s ship, they saw neither Marines nor a famous pirate crew.

They had assumed it would be another simple raid.

Instead, that ordinary-looking ship carried a great swordsman capable of destroying their vessel with a single attack.

“Don’t let him reach the deck,” Hancock ordered, her brow tightening. “If he gets aboard, he’ll cut the ship in half.”

She kept her gaze fixed on Mihawk’s dark-red eyes.

“Boom!”

An overwhelming pressure burst from Hancock’s body and swept across the sea.

Her Conqueror’s Haki struck Mihawk like a violent gale.

Hancock did not rely on the Love-Love Fruit to charm him.

The eyes were said to reveal the soul, and something about Mihawk’s gaze and the way he carried his sword reminded her of Hawkeye.

Her instincts warned her that a swordsman of his level would not be brought down by beauty alone.

“That’s Lady Hancock’s Haki!”

One of the Kuja officers raised her bow and shouted to the others.

“Everyone, attack together! Don’t let that man reach our ship!”

“Fire!”

Dozens of Kuja warriors drew their bows at once.

“Whoosh—!”

A volley of Haki-coated arrows rose into the air before curving down toward Mihawk.

The arrows had barely begun their descent when they stopped.

Every one of them froze in midair, held in place by an invisible gravitational force.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you interfere with Mihawk-kun.”

Hinata’s gentle voice carried across the sea.

She floated above the three-masted sailing ship with one hand raised. The entire volley remained suspended beneath her palm, unable to move even an inch.

“She can fly?”

Marigold stared at Hinata in disbelief.

Sandersonia’s expression grew even more strained.

“What kind of people are they?”

“Clang!”

The sound of metal striking metal pulled everyone’s attention back to the Kuja ship.

Mihawk had crossed the remaining distance without being affected by Hancock’s Conqueror’s Haki.

He landed on the deck and swung Nemesis at her.

Hancock reacted instantly, raising one leg to block.

The blade struck her Haki-hardened shin with a sharp metallic clang.

“You...”

Hancock stared past her leg and the crossed blade.

Mihawk’s dark-red eyes were completely calm. There was no anger, excitement, or hesitation in them.

Her own expression sharpened for a moment.

Then it changed completely.

Hancock drew her hands beneath her chin and tilted her head. The cold arrogance vanished from her face, replaced by a delicate, vulnerable expression.

Her eyes shimmered as though they were about to fill with tears.

“That hurt...” she said softly. “How cruel.”

The change was so convincing that it seemed to affect the entire atmosphere around her.

“Lady Hancock!”

“She’s so beautiful!”

The eyes of the surrounding Kuja warriors turned into pink hearts as they cried out in adoration.

Even from the deck of the other ship, Hanabi and Saeko were caught by Hancock’s overwhelming charm. Their eyes became heart-shaped as they stared at her.

Only Mihawk and Hinata remained unaffected.

Hancock’s performance created the smallest opening in her guard.

Mihawk used it without hesitation.

“Boom!”

His foot struck her abdomen.

Hancock’s eyes widened as the force of the kick launched her across the deck.

She crashed into the gathered Kuja warriors like a cannonball, knocking down dozens of them before finally coming to a stop.

“Lady Hancock!”

“The Snake Princess was kicked away?!”

The Kuja warriors stared in disbelief.

Their empress had never been humiliated like this—especially not by a man.

Sandersonia looked at Mihawk with trembling eyes.

“He’s a monster...”

Her voice shook as she continued.

“My sister’s Conqueror’s Haki didn’t affect him, and neither did her charm. He’s completely different from every man we’ve encountered before.”

Mihawk slowly turned his head toward her.

“You said that was Conqueror’s Haki?”

His emotionless gaze made Sandersonia’s body stiffen.

A dark-red aura began rising from Mihawk.

The pressure spreading from him was far heavier than the Haki Hancock had released moments earlier.

To Sandersonia and the warriors around her, the world suddenly changed.

The bright sky turned crimson.

The sea beneath the ship vanished, replaced by a ruined battlefield covered in blood. Corpses stretched into the distance, piled upon one another until they formed mountains.

The smell of blood seemed terrifyingly real.

Mihawk’s killing intent merged with his Conqueror’s Haki and invaded their minds, carrying the weight of every life he had taken.

The Kuja warriors felt as though the dead themselves had surrounded them.

Their chests tightened.

They could not breathe.

“Thud!”

Sandersonia’s eyes rolled back, and her enormous body collapsed onto the deck.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Marigold fell beside her.

One after another, the surrounding Kuja warriors lost consciousness and struck the deck.

Sandersonia and Marigold were veteran fighters capable of defeating pirates with bounties exceeding one hundred million berries. Both possessed Zoan Devil Fruits and considerable skill with Haki.

None of it mattered.

Within moments, the deck was covered with unconscious Kuja warriors.

To most men, the sight of so many beautiful women scattered across the deck would have been difficult to ignore.

Mihawk did not spare them a glance.

Boa Hancock was the only member of the Kuja Pirates who remained conscious.

As Mihawk’s overwhelming Haki pressed down upon her, even the Pirate Empress found herself struggling to breathe.