"Come on."
Kai crooked a finger, beckoning toward Hawkeye with a fearless grin.
WHOOSH!
A pitch-black sword slash ripped through the air, Yoru's black edge splitting the frozen sea as it raced straight for Kai's head.
"Yare yare… you're really not polite."
Red light flashed in Kai's eyes as his figure blurred like a phantom. In the next instant, he flickered away, his cheek grazing along the edge of the slash by a hair's breadth.
A man could dodge. The ice could not.
The slash ripped through the several-meter-thick frozen sea like paper, its power refusing to dissipate until it vanished into the endless horizon.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The sound of splitting ice split the heavens as the vast ice field groaned and collapsed, a yawning rift forming as seawater gushed upward like furious beasts breaking free of their cage.
Sanji swallowed hard, voice trembling as his eyes bulged in disbelief.
"J-just one careless swing… and it cuts through the entire ice field?!"
Was this even human?
Reiju's face darkened, eyes cold and serious.
"This… this is the kind of monsters that come from the New World…"
Her heart thudded as she realized her future enemies would be beings like this.
"Yamato!" Kai called sharply.
"On it!"
Yamato pressed her palms down, and a surge of freezing divine wind burst from her body. A tidal wave of frost engulfed the splintered sea, and within seconds, the gaping wound sealed shut, the surface restored into thick ice once more.
Kai scratched his head with a lopsided smile.
"Yeah… maybe that was a little too loud."
Hawkeye snorted coldly, lowering Yoru until the sword whispered along the ice.
"If you cannot fight seriously, then this duel is meaningless."
"Fair enough." Kai's lips curled back, showing sharp teeth. "It's been a long time since I've gone all out!"
The ice splintered beneath his feet as he shot skyward like a cannonball. His body ignited with a furious jade radiance, swelling brighter until he looked like a miniature sun.
WHOOSH!
Radiant fragments scattered across the stormy sky, shimmering like galaxies as Kai soared heavenward into the storm.
Above, endless black clouds churned and devoured the blue, coils of lightning writhing like serpents in the heavens. Kai dissolved into the thunderclouds, swallowed whole.
Behind him, Hawkeye's relentless strikes pursued through the storm. Every arc of Yoru's black edge split the clouds open, the sky parting wherever it carved, but under Kai's storm the rifts healed immediately, as if the world itself bent to his command.
Then it came. A low rumble. A beast awakening inside the storm.
"Thunder!"
The heavens roared.
Pillars of lightning, each wider than ship masts, came crashing down like divine punishment, stabbing straight for Hawkeye.
Hawkeye's hawk-like gaze sharpened, Yoru thrummed in his grip. The black sword trembled with killing intent, hungry for an equal strike.
"Good… Only by cutting down such a man can my sword roar again!"
He met the storm without flinching, Yoru flashing into a furious storm of his own. Sword light shone like a thousand suns, each stroke colliding with the falling thunder.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Lightning and sword crashed together, the sea convulsing from the impacts. Golden serpents of stray thunder fell into the distance, gouging smoking craters into the frozen sea.
The ice field screamed, splintered veins racing across it faster than the eye could follow.
Finally, the floe shattered completely, breaking into vast, jagged shards that rocked across the ocean. The Rayquaza itself lurched dangerously up and down as the waves smashed against its hull.
Hawkeye pressed Haki into the soles of his boots, anchoring himself against the ice. He stood tall amidst chaos, cloak torn, sword still steady.
From Baratie, a middle-aged man in a ragged coat popped up grinning, a clunky camera flashing like fireworks as he clicked furiously.
Reiju frowned at him. "Who are you?"
"A passing photographer," the man said, never removing his lens from the fight. His eyes gleamed, ecstatic. He'd stumbled onto the story of a lifetime. Little Fire Snapper, the idiot who dared tail Hawkeye, couldn't believe his luck.
Sanji barely noticed. His wide eyes reflected the clash, engraving every strike into his young mind: this was power, the kind of power that lived in the New World.
From the storm's crown, Kai glared down with a predator's calm.
"Not enough…" he muttered.
The clouds thickened once more. Lightning died. Instead, the air crystallized.
Frost bled over the world. Shards of ice whirled in the air, and the wind cut like blades.
"So cold…" Violet shuddered, hugging herself. The summer heat was erased in seconds.
Speed lifted her face to the sky with awe. Only Lord Kai could turn the seasons upside down.
And Yamato? She smiled, closing her eyes as she inhaled the chill like perfume. "Mmh… beautiful… Kai, I like this one."
The ice moaned. The storm roared. And then Kai's voice fell like a tombstone.
"Frozen Wind!"
The heavens collapsed.
The storm screamed down in a blizzard of death, shredding the sky and crushing the ocean. Hailstones slammed like boulders, wind sharp enough to flay skin. It swallowed Hawkeye completely.
In an instant, the greatest swordsman in the world was frozen in crystal, entombed in gleaming amber-ice.
The shockwave rolled across the ocean, frost racing outward, patching every fractured floe. Even Rayquaza and Baratie groaned, their hulls sheathed in rime and frost.
CRACK! BOOM!
From the sculpture exploded steel resolve. Hawkeye burst free, his wrists stiff, his breath smoky. His jaw clenched. He'd been frozen—if only for a moment.
He'd lost that exchange. And against Kai, a single step was death.
Kai landed, smashing ice into shards under his boots. His body swelled into beast-man form, black-red lightning of Conqueror's Haki writhing around him like furious serpents.
He pointed his claws, grinning darkly.
"Your turn, Mihawk."
"Come then!" Hawkeye planted his feet, with Yoru gripped tight. Black-red lightning leapt across its edge like fire-birds trying to escape the sword.
The world cracked when they clashed.
BOOOOOM!
The air itself tore as their power collided. Black Haki lightning burst outward like broken shackles, ripping the sea to pieces.
A singularity formed where their wills collided, a pulsing black sun. Haki lightning poured from it in every direction, flaying the sea and blasting the sky apart
The storm clouds tore like curtains. Light stabbed through holes in the sky. The sun burned down once more.
Sanji's mouth moved dryly, barely able to form words. "T-the sky… split…"
Yamato trembled and then grinned, fists clenching. If Mihawk had this strength, she had to grow stronger, or she would be left hopelessly behind.
The shockwaves receded.
Kai hovered in the sky; Mihawk was hurled into the waves. Both crashed back down onto separate ice islands, soaked, battered, and breathing hard.
"Another round?" Kai wiped blood from his lip, his smile fevered.
"Of course." Mihawk's calm mask gave way to a genuine smile, his eyes blazing.
The sea howled.
Two streaks shot forth once more, faster than sight. Sword and claw, thunder and steel, met and broke, met and broke again.
The East Blue screamed. Calm seas had become a New World battlefield.
Rayquaza heaved like a drunken beast across the tide. Baratie moaned under the waves. And still, neither combatant yielded.
"One last strike?" Kai asked, chest heaving.
"Perfect way to end it," Mihawk replied.
Kai's emerald body darkened into black. Crimson lightning danced violently across his skin.
Mihawk raised Yoru. Sparks leapt from the edge as Conqueror's Haki spilled wildly into the storm.
They charged. Air tore. Earth burned.
Sacrificial Charge.
Sword met claw.
The ocean collapsed.
Water exploded to the horizon in a monstrous ring, the earth itself sinking into a titanic bowl. Waves as tall as mountains howled outward—a super-tsunami racing for the ships.
On Baratie, Patty and Carne clutched each other in snot-streaked terror: "We're dead! We're dead for sure!"
Zeff grunted. "Fools. All men die sooner or later."
But then—
"Ice Fang Breath!"
Yamato roared, her chest swelling, exhaling a colossal wave of frost.
The tsunami was stopped. Frozen into titanic crystal walls around the ships, forming a protective cage as tall as the heavens.
"Saved!" Violet screamed with joy, jumping into Yamato's arms. "You're amazing!"
Yamato scratched her nose with a wide grin. "Heh. Small feat. I'm Yamato, after all."