Mihawk suddenly lifted the cross from around his neck. An exquisite knife appeared in his hand.
Before the cannonball could strike his tiny boat, Mihawk swung the blade in a single, precise arc.
The heavy shell split cleanly in two. Both halves rocketed past either side of the boat and splashed harmlessly into the sea.
Then, with perfect composure, Mihawk slid the knife back into the cross-shaped scabbard.
His gaze shifted toward the warship.
On the deck, Finn stroked his chin thoughtfully. "More interesting than that Shanks guy. Shanks just gave up and took the hit..."
Though, if you thought about it carefully, Shanks did care about his reputation. He often threw around phrases like "do me a favor" and "give me face."
But in everyday situations, as long as you didn't cross his bottom line or bully the people he cared about, he wouldn't react.
The Mountain Bandit King had smashed a bottle over his head, and Shanks hadn't even seemed angry.
Now, try doing that to Mihawk.
You'd be chopped into pieces before you finished the swing.
"Do we want to arrest him? He is classified as a pirate," Gion asked.
At the same time, her hand drifted toward Konpira at her waist.
Finn smiled. "No. Actually, I want to measure his current strength and see if he's qualified to become one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea."
"One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea?" Gion blinked in surprise. "Why him?"
"According to Fleet Admiral Kong, Admiral Sengoku, and the others, we can't fill all the Warlord positions with our own people from the start. That would be inappropriate, and the risk is too high. So we need to mix in some real pirates," Finn said softly.
"I understand that much. But why him specifically?" Gion pressed.
"Relatively speaking, this guy poses the least threat to the world as one of the Seven Warlords, because he's not really a pirate," Finn said with a knowing smile.
Currently, Smoker had already become one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, leaving six positions open.
Bartholomew Kuma of the Revolutionary Army was basically a lock. The Fleet Admiral was clearly interested, and Finn had no intention of interfering.
So that left five positions.
Gekko Moriah had joined the Revolutionary Army, so there was no reason for him to become one of the Seven Warlords. He could be crossed off the list.
Crocodile was currently missing. He was supposed to be the first of the Seven Warlords, but now he was nowhere to be found. No one knew where he'd gone.
He could be set aside for now.
As for Doflamingo, if nothing unexpected happened, he could become one of the Seven Warlords eventually.
That left four positions, and Finn planned to fill at least two of them with his own candidates.
Hancock was clearly one. But it would take another four or five years. Once she reached adulthood, she'd be arranged to return and inherit the throne of Amazon Lily. As the Pirate Empress and captain of the Kuja Pirates, she'd sail the seas while secretly serving as one of the Seven Warlords.
Four or five years was nothing. The Warlord system could wait.
That left three positions.
One would be reserved for a Marine candidate who hadn't been decided yet. As for the remaining two, given Finn's position and sense of Marine justice, he needed to choose people who weren't too dangerous.
Those two candidates were tentatively Mihawk and Jinbe.
Looking at the entire roster of potential Warlords, only those two seemed truly suitable.
Jinbe becoming one of the Seven Warlords would help the Marines and the World Government improve their relationship with Fish-Man Island. Finn had heard that Fleet Admiral Kong had already begun contacting Queen Otohime.
Who knew what kind of crucial role Jinbe might play in the future?
Perhaps one day, relations with Fish-Man Island could actually be repaired.
Judging by his personality, Jinbe couldn't be considered an evil pirate. He'd been forced into his current situation.
As for Mihawk, the man was a loner, and he was actually quite dangerous now because he constantly sought out fights. But once he became the world's greatest swordsman, his threat level would drop sharply.
He'd quickly become a homebody, farming his own land on Kuraigana Island and living in seclusion. He'd only go out to sea when he was truly bored.
Even then, he wouldn't engage in large-scale plundering or anything like that.
From that perspective, wasn't he the perfect candidate to be a low-maintenance Warlord?
Listening to Finn's explanation, Gion nodded slowly, somewhat agreeing with his assessment. "That makes sense. Thinking about it carefully, he really is quite suitable."
After a pause, Gion continued. "Actually, Mihawk might be a bit of a sword lunatic, but once he becomes the number one swordsman, he'll probably settle down. Judging by his character, he's not a complete villain. He can still be saved."
"What do you mean by that?" Finn glanced at Gion.
"What I mean is, maybe we can recruit him properly in the future?" Gion said thoughtfully.
Finn was silent for a moment. When he actually considered it carefully, there was some possibility of that. But he quickly smiled. "Let's talk about it later."
Gion's conversation with Finn was just a few brief exchanges. It didn't take long.
At that moment, Mihawk, who had just been shot at by Finn, stood up from his small boat.
He'd been inexplicably fired upon, and it was clearly a fishing sting operation.
Mihawk was, of course, in a very unhappy mood.
As a man determined to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship, Mihawk would never turn around and flee at a time like this.
He slowly lifted the black blade from his back and gripped it firmly in his hand.
An invisible aura began to condense around him.
The sharp, oppressive energy radiating from that presence made the surrounding sea surface ripple unnaturally, as if the water itself were being cut.
Just the concentration of that aura alone drew Finn and Gion's full attention from across the distance.
"That's quite a presence," Finn said, narrowing his eyes slightly.
If he remembered correctly, Mihawk was only around twenty-five or twenty-six years old this year, right?
He was only a couple of years older than Finn, but judging by that aura, he'd already reached the top tier. His strength was comparable to when Finn had fought Charlotte Linlin.
He had to admit, this guy was seriously talented.
No wonder he'd been able to become the world's greatest swordsman by the time he was around thirty.
However, aura alone wasn't enough to truly gauge someone's strength. In Finn's opinion, Mihawk likely still had shortcomings.
"Flash!"
Mihawk suddenly exhaled sharply as his aura peaked.
As the word left his lips, the slender black blade in his hand swung out in a devastating arc. A powerful, razor-sharp slash was released in an instant. The slash didn't even touch the sea's surface, yet the aura alone carved a line through the water.
This strike embodied Mihawk's energy, his focus, and his will. It could be considered his full-strength attack.
It already carried the weight of a world-class swordsman's strike.
After all, in the future, he'd just use normal attacks. There'd be no charged strikes, no named techniques.
Finn tossed the cannon in his hands back onto its carriage.
But at that exact moment, Gion, who was standing beside him, shoved her glass of juice into his arms. The liquid sloshed over the rim, spilling all over him.
While Finn stood there, bewildered and dripping, Gion shifted her stance and stepped directly onto the deck railing. Her figure became a streak of lightning, trailing a dazzling arc of electricity.
Then, within that lightning, a slash wrapped in crackling plasma shot forward and collided head-on with Mihawk's strike.
The two powerful slashes met in an instant, tearing the calm sea apart in the blink of an eye.
As the chaotic shockwave spread outward, Gion's figure flickered. In the span of a heartbeat, she materialized directly on Mihawk's tiny boat.
Mihawk hadn't expected Gion to be so fast, but his body's instincts were sharp. The moment Gion appeared in front of him, the black blade in his hand rose to meet her.
"One Sword Style: Eternal Dance.!" Gion shouted.
Lightning flared across Konpira in her hand. She brought the blade down. Mihawk's instincts barely caught up. The black blade Yoru intercepted Konpira with perfect precision.
The next second, the boat beneath their feet suddenly sank, nearly plunging into the sea. At the same time, a powerful electric current surged along the black blade.
A gleam of understanding flashed in Mihawk's eyes. He wrapped his hands in Armament Haki, the powerful coating condensed enough to forge a Black Blade. It was just enough to withstand Gion's electrical assault.
However, at that very moment, Gion's wrist loosened.
Konpira suddenly slipped from her grip, circling around the black blade Yoru. It rotated half a turn, shifting from the blade side to the back.
To be honest, completing such a strange maneuver under normal circumstances would be impossible. Even Mihawk's eyes widened in surprise.
But unfortunately for him, Gion was the user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. The power of lightning guided Konpira's rotation, allowing her to pull off such an unconventional move.
At the same time, with Konpira no longer blocking it, Mihawk's black blade slashed forward.
Just as the blade was about to cut into Gion, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. A flash of indigo light sparked in her eyes.
Crack.
Gion's figure vanished.
In less than the blink of an eye, Gion's form reappeared directly in front of Mihawk. She'd used a continuous lightning-speed teleport to dodge Mihawk's Haki-clad strike out of thin air.
At the same time, Mihawk's guard was completely open. Gion stood right in front of his chest, catching Konpira as it completed its half-rotation.
It had all happened so quickly. The two of them had been fighting for less than two breaths.
The instant she caught Konpira, Gion slashed downward, aiming directly for Mihawk's chest.
Mihawk's hawk-like, razor-sharp pupils contracted. It seemed that, in this moment, he had no way to avoid it. Even if he tried to retract the black blade, it was already too late.
In terms of speed, he was clearly slower than Gion.
Could this single strike decide the match?
Sometimes, swordsmen's duels were like this. They could fight for three days and three nights, but one mistake could also determine the outcome immediately.
However, at that very moment, Mihawk suddenly used his free hand to grab the cross hanging around his neck. Without even having time to remove the disguised scabbard, he wrapped it in Armament Haki and raised it to his chest.
Clang!
Gion's lightning-wreathed Konpira was blocked by Mihawk at the last possible second.
"Oh? Two-sword style?" Gion teased with a smile.
A serious look crossed Mihawk's eyes. "Your strength has improved so quickly, it's beyond my imagination. But I never said I only knew how to use a single sword, did I?"
The crackling hiss of electricity continued, but after hearing Mihawk's words, Gion said with a trace of emotion, "I'm probably not a pure swordsman anymore. My strength isn't a breakthrough in swordsmanship."
"Why? Why aren't you a pure swordsman anymore?" Mihawk said, staring directly into Gion's eyes.
"I'm a Devil Fruit user. Can't you feel it?" Gion said in a low voice.
As she finished speaking, the electric light around her intensified even further.
"What a strange theory!" Mihawk's voice was cold and sharp. "What does that have to do with whether your swordsmanship is pure or not? It doesn't matter if you're a Devil Fruit user, or something else entirely. Even if your race isn't human, it has nothing to do with the purity of swordsmanship. In my opinion, whether someone is a pure swordsman depends on whether the sword in their hand is pure enough. If the sword in your hand is the same as it was back then, then you're naturally still a swordsman!"
Gion was stunned for a moment when she heard this.
In that brief instant of distraction, Mihawk seized the opportunity. He slashed with his off-hand blade, forcing Gion back two steps. He repositioned himself on the tip of the boat.
"Are you trying to shake my will with words like that?" Gion said, her expression darkening slightly.
Mihawk looked at Gion with solemn intensity. "No. Those are my true thoughts. If you waver, that's your own problem."
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