Mihawk didn't speak.
He wasn't cowed by Adrian — but he watched him with a gravity that made the skin at the back of his neck prickle. Something about Adrian's presence was... wrong. The blade in Adrian's hand looked scorched, but there was no sign of fatigue in the man who wielded it. Mihawk's Observation Haki rasped warnings into his senses the whole time: the air was literally losing moisture, the sea was warming, and the water itself began to steam away. The temperature rise wasn't confined to a patch of deck — after Adrian's Bankai was released, a wide area around them was changing into a furnace.
"Watch yourself, Hawk-Eye."
Adrian raised the scorched knife — the Bankai had made his reiatsu unbearably oppressive. Bankai in its origin world didn't magically increase spiritual pressure; it increased the output valve, turning restrained power into crushing force. In practical terms, Adrian's Cataclysm-tier reiatsu now hit like a wrecking ball, and maintaining Bankai demanded far more energy.
"Zanka no Tachi — East — Kyokujitsu!"
Adrian flashed forward, riding the brute speed his enhanced physique granted. The remnant-fire blade crashed toward Mihawk with terrifying intent.
Mihawk's Observation Haki screamed. He pivoted, just barely avoiding the strike. Where Adrian's blade fell, the ocean vanished — as if a wedge the size of a cake had been cut clean out of the sea. The water didn't evaporate gradually; a slice of ocean simply ceased to be. Mihawk's pupils narrowed. Had he been struck full on by that single, casual blow, he wouldn't have survived to wonder what had happened.
"Night Slash!" Mihawk countered, clutching his black blade Night and infusing it with Busoshoku Haki until it shone with lethal intent. This was no careless cut — this was a true, committed attack. Against an enemy like Adrian, Mihawk had to be serious. He had to end things before the environment itself bled him dry.
Adrian's response was calm. He let the remnant-fire blade sweep horizontally. Night's vertical arc met it and — astonishingly — Adrian's sword simply cleaved the attack apart, as if cutting through a rope. The heat on Adrian's blade concentrated everything into its edge: anything it touched was consumed, erased down to nothing. Even an attack as fearsome as Mihawk's was split clean in two.
Mihawk launched another strike, sharp as a diving hawk. It screamed toward Adrian, but when it struck the Bankai's blade it dissolved — vaporized and torn apart — leaving a wide, gaping chasm in the sea where its remnant hit. The scale of Mihawk's power was obvious: the aftermath of that struck wave had carved a channel miles long and hundreds of meters wide out of the ocean. This was no mere skirmish. Mihawk's blade was capable of devastation on a planetary scale.
"Be careful," Adrian said, flatly. Mihawk's senses went on full alert. Normally such a caution might be ignored, but Adrian's strength left no room for contempt. A single slip here could mean death.
Adrian stopped, held his blade, then lashed out — speed so fast it blurred. Mihawk's Haki warned him in the instant Adrian lifted his sword. He dove to dodge, and the remnant cut slashed past — so close the air burned his skin. Though he avoided the edge, the heat had stripped moisture from him; his skin stung as if seared by white-hot coals.
"You cannot fight me forever," Mihawk thought, grim. Adrian's weapon would evaporate water, blood, even his own vitality if the duel dragged on. He had to end this in one decisive stroke.
Mihawk braced. He lifted Night high and gathered his spirit into it — maxing Busoshoku, pouring his will, matching the terrifying poise of the world's greatest swordsman. He readied one finishing blow. This was the move he'd chosen to decide the fight.
Adrian didn't stop him. He watched with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He let Mihawk charge.
"Night Hawk!" Mihawk unleashed the slash. The world seemed to dim as the cutting wind flew — an arc of pure menace wrapped in Haki and honed to a single point.
Adrian answered with a single, measured stroke. To any onlooker it looked almost leisurely, like a falling leaf — but the speed and intent were lethal. The two blades met and, to everyone's shock, Adrian's Bankai tore Mihawk's Night Hawk in half. The remnant force spat across the sea and carved a massive gulf where the water had been split apart by the strike.
Mihawk's technique had been enormous — it had cleaved the ocean itself — and yet Adrian's Bankai had met and split it. The world's greatest swordsman stumbled back and Mihawk's stance slackened. For a fraction of a second he simply stood, breath coming in pained pulls, and then collapsed backward onto the last intact section of the deck. Blood welled from his chest where the blade had cut, oozing dark and steady.
Coughing, Mihawk spat blood and looked up with an odd, small laugh. "Is that it? You won't kill me?"
Adrian chuckled, wiping molten ash from his blade like lint. "Killing you loses me a target to rob later. I'm a bandit — I plan to take and take again. So live, Hawk-Eye. Live and come steal your blade back."
He reached, grabbed Night — the black greatsword Mihawk prized — and walked away without another look, stepping easily across the air with Spirit-Particle stepping. In moments he was back aboard the Merry.
"Boss, the photos are ready," Lucci reported, dangling a camera.
"Good. Keep pressing Morgan's line. If Morgan doesn't bite in five days, move to the next paper. This is a headline that'll echo across the seas." Adrian instructed. Kidnapped Garp's grandson, blackmailing a Marine hero, and now taking the black blade of the world's greatest swordsman — that was a string of stories a dozen editors would kill for.
Mihawk lay on the shredded deck, one hand over his wound, the other missing his sword. Around him the ocean steamed and hissed where fire once danced — and the Baratie's chefs and crew watched like ghosts.
Adrian didn't even glance back. He had what he wanted: a trophy, a story, and one more dramatic piece of leverage to sell to the world.
"Live up to it, Hawk-Eye," he called over his shoulder. "Come take it back if you can."
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