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Serialized Chapter – Love-Sickness 36: Trouble! The News Bird is Flying In with a Den Den Mushi!
Two soldiers of the Kuja rushed into the palace, eager to report to the Empress. But before they could enter, they were hastily blocked by Sandersonia and Marigold. Interrupting their elder sister's daily self-administered treatment was something they would never allow.
One of the warriors clutched a wriggling News Coo in his hand. The serpent bow coiled around his arm hissed, tongue flickering as it stared down the terrified bird. The other warrior carefully carried a Den Den Mushi in both palms, the snail's face blank, as though caught between deadpan seriousness and the drowsiness of a nap.
…
"Come to me, sword!" Liam stretched out a hand.
"Hm?" Shanks' saber, the famed Griffin, quivered once, then shot from his grasp with a sharp whiz, pulled by an irresistible magnetic force straight into Liam's waiting palm.
"I am borrowing this for a bit," Liam said with a grin, catching Griffin in one hand while his other hand seized his iron staff flying in from the opposite direction.
Mihawk's black blade descended in a vertical strike.
The Stand armor snatched Griffin, while Liam raised the iron staff. Both sword and staff glowed as Busoshoku Haki wrapped around them in black flame.
CLANG!
Yoru, the gigantic Black Blade, crashed down upon the crossed weapons, force so heavy it seemed to shake the entire island.
"Now this feels right!"
Mihawk's lips curved into the faintest of smiles. Black lightning crackled and burst from the clash of three weapons.
BOOM!
The island trembled with another explosive shockwave.
All around, the beasts of the forest panicked once more. Day after day, these humans fought with such terrifying ferocity that the animals were only one step away from fleeing into the sea altogether.
The sun rose, the moon fell. High above, News Coos flew back and forth across the sky.
On the island below, pirates gathered. Daytime meant duels. Nighttime, banquets.
…
Black lightning ripped through the trees as Liam and B.I.B. together pressed against Mihawk's unstoppable blade.
Not far away, Shanks adjusted his straw hat, while Robin bit her lip, eyes fixed on the fight.
…
"You actually managed to wound him? Not bad, Liam!"
Beneath the stars, glasses clinked together in celebration.
…
B.I.B. swung the black iron staff in a brutal arc at Shanks.
Shanks met it with Griffin, but his eyes flicked past the clash. Behind him, Liam had seized the Black Blade Yoru with both hands, bringing it down in a devastating strike.
BOOM!
Liam was hurled backward. Midair, his foot stomped against the sky itself, Geppo!, and he twisted Yoru in his hands. The blade spun, then with a faint shhh, sank silently into the earth, vanishing until only the massive cross-shaped guard jutted above ground. Liam landed neatly atop it.
"Oops," he said, spreading his hands innocently toward Mihawk, who was already pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
…
"Liam, how does that blade feel in your hands?"
"Ehh… not bad, not great either. Ha ha ha ha ha!"
The bonfire blazed as their laughter joined the crackling flames.
…
Unnoticed, half a month had already slipped by.
Then, BOOOOM!
The island shook with another thunderous impact.
"Shhhk---!" Mihawk planted Yoru before him in a block, the sheer force sliding him dozens of meters across the ground before he came to a halt.
"…" Mihawk lifted his gaze, expression unreadable, toward the figure standing far across the field.
Liam.
His entire body was wreathed in a black spectral aura, a shadowy cloak that made him seem less man than phantom.
Around the battlefield, the Red-Hair Pirates gasped in shock, jaws dropping wide.
"His strength… it skyrocketed all of a sudden?" Lucky Roux blurted out.
"This is way too fast to be real!" Yasopp exclaimed, eyes bulging.
Shanks' eyes gleamed with delight. "Ohhh… Liam, so that's it. You really pulled it off, huh?"
Liam clenched his fist. His flesh, hardened through Life Return's Tekkai, had become steel itself. Over that, the Stand armor condensed Busoshoku Haki, layering his body in pitch-black armor that wrapped his fists like molten iron.
Tekkai and Busoshoku Haki, Layered as One.
Back in the West Blue, aboard the flower-ship, Shanks had once said it was nearly impossible to wield those two entirely different systems of power together.
And yet, Liam was doing it before his very eyes.
That single punch carried a destructive force far beyond anything Liam had shown until now.
Liam clenched his fist, swung it once, and flashed Shanks a toothy grin.
"You've really got it in you," Shanks laughed in return.
Mihawk stepped forward, Yoru in hand, his voice as sharp as the blade itself. "Continue."
Because of the strength Liam displayed while clad in his armor, both Shanks and Mihawk grew more and more intrigued. What had begun as a duel had stretched into a gathering of blades and banquets, dragging on for nearly half a month.
It wasn't that they were tired of fighting. No, their brawl could have lasted forever. But the Red-Hair Pirates' supplies were finally running low.
Over the course of more than a month, they had fought in every combination imaginable, Shanks versus Mihawk, Liam versus Shanks, Liam versus Mihawk, B.I.B. against Shanks, B.I.B. against Mihawk, Liam with his Stand against Shanks, Liam with his Stand against Mihawk, armored Liam against Shanks, armored Liam against Mihawk…
Countless battles.
And by now, half the island lay shattered from their clashes.
But this was the pirate world, creatures were tough, and nature tougher still. Decades ago, when Roger and Whitebeard fought here, the island had endured, scarred but not destroyed.
Now again, sword energy cleaved skyward, rending the island's surface in two.
Mihawk leveled Yoru at armored Liam, but then, unexpectedly, turned his gaze toward Robin.
"Your captain," he asked, "that power which makes opponents feel their hearts shatter with pain… is it some Devil Fruit ability?"
Shanks slapped his fist into his palm. "So that's it! No wonder you hesitate sometimes in the middle of a match, it feels like your heart is breaking. But why? Why does it actually shatter?" He frowned, rubbing his chin in thought.
"…" Liam lowered the black staff from his guard. The B.I.B. peeled away from his body like a phantom, catching the weapon instead.
"You answer this one," Liam said, turning to Robin.
Robin's lips curved in a quiet smile. "It's fine. Everyone here can be trusted."
"Actually…"
Liam crossed his arms, flashing Shanks and Mihawk a grin.
Behind him, Robin lifted a hand. Petals drifted lazily from her arm.
Liam clapped his palms together, then spread them apart. Between his hands, a vortex of magnetic force spun into existence, pulling at the very air.
Petals swirled upward, coalescing into two humanoid shapes behind him.
"My captain is far stronger than I am," Liam said lightly.
Then he slammed the magnetic vortex into the ground.
BOOM!
The surge meshed with the island's natural magnetic field, amplifying it a thousandfold in an instant.
Bloop… bloop… bloop…
High above, the Den Den Mushi hanging from every News Coo's necks stuttered like machines gone mad. Their voices garbled into nonsense, their transmission cut off into black silence.
The birds shrieked, feathers flying as they scattered in a panic.
On the island below, Shanks and Mihawk froze in visible shock. Yasopp and the rest of the crew could only gape, eyes wide with disbelief.
For the two humanoid figures forming behind Liam, assembled from Robin's petals, were becoming Shanks and Mihawk themselves.
Not illusions. Not fakes.
They were so lifelike they seemed real.
The two swordsmen shook their heads, but even when they closed their eyes, the vision remained. Through Liam's shoulders, they could still "see" themselves standing there, eyes shut, heads shaking in disbelief.
"Hana Jizai, Hanahana World…"
Robin's arms crossed as she whispered the name. In an instant, a storm of petals surged like a tidal wave around the stunned pirates.
When the blizzard of flowers finally fell away, each person found themselves standing beside a perfect clone, identical in face, in stature, in every detail.
(End Of This Chapter)