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Chapter Intro・"Yearning" Serialization Suspended・The Handsome Knights
On a ship docked at the seaside of the Burujoa Kingdom, about to set sail, reporters from a newspaper were frantically taking pictures of a little girl named Marianne. On the other side of the deck, another crowd of reporters surrounded Cavendish, who was gazing narcissistically at the ocean while dramatically biting down and swallowing a rose.
Camera shutters clicked wildly and flashbulbs lit up around him. Thinking of reuniting with her daughter bacCharlotte Amandek home, Annie couldn't hold back her excitement; she casually knocked over a member of the royal guards on deck and then eagerly waved at the next one…
…
"What just happened...?"
"Who is that?"
"Did something just fall from the sky?"
"Look! A hottie!"
The previously noisy colosseum arena suddenly fell into a brief silence due to this unexpected entrance. Countless eyes focused on the man and woman who had literally fallen from the sky.
Even the professional host, who had been enthusiastically broadcasting tournament info through a loudspeaker Den Den Mushi like ambient background noise, was momentarily stunned. He pushed up his glasses, looked at the sky, then at Liam and Robin.
"Uh... the two who just descended from the sky onto the tournament grounds... seem to be the rumored duo, Jolyne Kujo and her crewmate, Chopper Giorno! What a memorable entrance. Giorno really is as... hmm... unbelievable as the rumors say..."
After all, this was a world-class tournament. The professional host couldn't openly introduce contestants as "pirates."
Most of the audience had actually bought tickets just to enjoy the show, ordinary people, many of them vacationers on this island. They didn't really care about such details. This was a legitimate large-scale sporting event, not a public execution broadcast like Marineford's war. So naturally, there wasn't just one camera filming the ring.
In fact, across the vast arena grounds, numerous reporters and cameramen wandered, each with cameras hanging from their necks. Some used old-school mechanical models, while most had various types of Den Den Mushi, acting as mobile camera units scattered inside and outside the venue.
The massive screens behind the ring, along the arena walls, and on displays all over the world switched between these Den Den Mushi feeds to show real-time footage.
Some shots offered a bird's-eye view, an immense, barren ring, competitors and staff walking along the edges, and a slowly-filling audience creating a thrilling, immersive sense of anticipation...
Other shots panned over hundreds of swordfighters on the field...
The original number of entrants from all over the world had exceeded 3,000. But over the long registration period, many swordsmen vacationing on the island quietly withdrew. The closer it got to the deadline, the more people backed out, realizing just how many monstrous swordmasters from the Grand Line, New World, and powerful factions had entered.
Anyone with sense gave up. Right now, many of them were probably watching the live broadcast on street-side screens outside the arena, blending in with tourists and locals, some reluctantly, some contentedly.
Sometimes the cameras cut to staff interviews, contestant interviews, or even audience reactions...
But when Liam and Robin fell from the sky and landed, every Den Den Mushi and nearly every spectator and contestant instinctively turned their focus to them.
The big screen immediately zoomed in on Liam's devilishly handsome and nonchalantly smiling face.
The camera pulled back slightly to fit in the gorgeous woman next to him, who was a full head shorter.
"Eh? Why's everyone staring at me?" He asked, confused, on the giant screen.
'It's your crazy entrance!' Everyone thought. Many people were secretly envious. 'Damn, why did they get to steal all the spotlight?'
But damn... they really were good-looking!
Outside the Arena… On the street square outside the colosseum, in front of one of the massive broadcast screens, a large crowd had gathered.
Blending into the throng, Red-Haired Shanks' crew stood watching. Vice-captain Benn Beckman, with a pipe in his mouth, stared at the confused, handsome young man on the screen and turned to ask his captain: "Captain... that face..."
"Yeah, I see it." Shanks pressed down the straw hat on his head, looked up at the screen with a smile. "It's been a long time, Liam."
Sniper Yasopp chuckled, "So that was him earlier flying through the sky with Geppo, huh? Ha ha! That flash, that flair, Captain, don't tell me you corrupted him?"
"Hey hey hey, don't frame me like that!" Shanks replied innocently. "He was already like that when I met him!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
…
"As expected." In the bustling crowds of the Sabaody Archipelago, the former "Right Hand of the Pirate King," Silvers Rayleigh, stared at the public screen in the park. The face of the young man on screen, his unruly demeanor, truly matched the tone of their old pirate crew…
Nearly 64-year-old Rayleigh, chuckling, took a sip of his drink.
"The tide of the New Age is slowly rising… You see this, Roger? Only knows how to steal the limelight, arrogant Paradise brat."
From the New World, a pirate Swordsman named Cold-Cold cast a frosty glance at Liam and Robin.
Around him, other contestants who had received their numbered entry tags were whispering:
"That's Wendy Shanos! A bounty of 260 million Belly!"
"That high?!"
"That's way more than Chopper Giorno's 200 million Belly! Terrifying…"
"If someone that dangerous has set his eyes on Giorno, he's in real trouble…"
"Hmph, serves him right for making such a flashy entrance. Does he not realize where he is? There are monsters here straight out of the New World!"
Plenty of people naturally disapproved of Liam and Robin, but since the duo's combined bounty reached 360 million Belly, few dared to directly provoke them. Still, borrowing the authority of a New World veteran pirate to mock them? That, they had guts for.
"I heard the girl, Jolyne Kujo, is actually the captain. But her bounty is lower than Giorno's, how weird…"
Someone in the crowd looked up at the sky, murmuring amidst the chatter: "Still, how many people here… can fly down from the sky?"
Screech--!
The conversations paused for a moment. Everyone looked up into the sky, confusion meeting confusion. Flying? That's not something anyone had ever really heard of happening…
Setting aside the mixed reactions of the nobodies in the crowd, Liam and Robin's dramatic entrance didn't raise many eyebrows among the Big Mom Pirates. Charlotte Amande and Charlotte Amande, sisters participating in the tournament, simply glanced over before losing interest.
Amande's face was obscured by the shadow of her wide-brimmed hat, with wisps of smoke curling from her lips. Her elder sister Monde, hand resting on her sword hilt, swept her gaze over the other contestants, a trace of curiosity in her eyes.
"No good," She muttered, glancing over a group of sword-wielders.
"Too weak," She added, looking past a few gloomy swordsmen.
"Where are these guys from, anyway? With that kind of skill, they dare to join a Swordsman tournament?"
Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
"Oh?" she said, noticing a tall, uniformed man standing in the far corner. "That guy might be decent. Amande, what do you think?"
Just then, a commotion broke out near the man they were observing.
A contestant passing by suddenly staggered, several wounds appearing on his body.
"Ah!" Blood sprayed as he collapsed, eyes rolling back.
"Sword wounds! Who did that?!"
"I didn't even see the blade move!"
Contestants all around gasped. Beside the fallen swordsman stood Shiryu, cigar in his mouth. His blade was already sheathed, untouched by blood.
"Filthy weakling, blocking my view," Shiryu muttered.
Only then did the others realize it had been him.
"That sword was so fast… When did he even draw it?"
The entire group took a wary step back from Shiryu, who already had few people near him to begin with. There was something eerie and bloodthirsty about him, intimidating just to stand near.
To cut someone down so casually at a major tournament like this… it was arrogance to the extreme.
Medical staff rushed in, lifting the injured man onto a stretcher. Cigar smoke curled around Shiryu as he squinted at the arena.
On the other side of the ring, with a quiet, cleared area around him, a man stood watching the empty arena. His hands were clasped behind his back.
Dracule "Hawk Eyes" Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman.
He hadn't said a single word since arriving. No one knew whether he was waiting to be challenged… Or just zoning out in a daze.
(End Of This Chapter)
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