Shirakawa's crew had already cleared a space without being asked. None of them expected this fight to last very long anyway.
After all, Mihawk was only a Sword Master right now. No matter how impressive his strength, he stood no chance against a Great Sword Master like Shirakawa. Still, Shirakawa didn't show Mihawk any disrespect.
"Jora, how strong is your senior brother?" Among everyone present, Jora should know Mihawk best.
"I'm not sure about now. But he was always strong. I never beat him. Not even once."
"Is that so?" Hearing Jora's words, the crew was somewhat surprised. Jora's strength ranked in the top three aboard their ship. So this Mihawk was even stronger.
"Plus, we haven't seen each other for a few months. I think his strength has improved quite a bit. But he still can't beat the captain." After thinking it over, Jora delivered his final verdict.
By now, Mihawk had already drawn his blade and charged at Shirakawa. Shirakawa, in turn, smoothly drew his own sword and blocked every attack.
Mihawk's strikes were fast. Extremely fast. But Shirakawa could not only read every line of attack, he could match his movements with effortless ease.
He predicted Mihawk's every move. Whatever attack Mihawk launched, Shirakawa had already shifted into the perfect defensive position ahead of time.
The sharp clang of steel echoed from the point of impact. Sparks briefly flared between their blades.
"Impressive. Much better than Jora."
Even mid-fight, Shirakawa could afford to toss out a compliment. And he meant it. Mihawk was leagues ahead of Jora now. In terms of combat experience alone, Jora couldn't even come close.
"Hey, Captain! No need to land hits like that!" Jora laughed bitterly.
You're fighting your own battle. Why drag me into the line of fire?
Mihawk flicked a sidelong glance at Jora, then instantly refocused on Shirakawa. As Jora's senior brother, he knew exactly what kind of swordsman his junior was.
"Still, if Mihawk is this strong already, then Shanks... as his future lifelong rival, he's probably no slouch right now either."
Watching Mihawk fight with such utter seriousness, Shirakawa's thoughts suddenly drifted to Shanks. It had been over two months since he'd last seen him and the others. He wondered how they were doing.
If his guess was right, they'd already entered the New World again. They were probably close to Laugh Tale by now.
Shirakawa felt a small twinge of regret that he'd probably never see the treasure of Laugh Tale with his own eyes. But that's all it was. A small regret. He had never been deeply interested in the world's greatest secret.
Because he knew that in his lifetime, someone would eventually uncover it.
Mihawk noticed Shirakawa's momentary distraction. A spark of anger flared in his chest. Fine, my strength is still beneath yours, but you cannot disrespect me like this.
Suddenly, Shirakawa felt the pressure against his blade surge. He snapped back to attention and saw the fury burning in Mihawk's eyes.
"Sorry. I was thinking about something else."
Maybe Shirakawa's emotional intelligence was lacking. That sentence made things worse. Saying that only made Mihawk angrier. So this fight was just an afterthought to him?
"Can you take this seriously?"
Mihawk's voice was dead serious. Shirakawa's attitude had truly stung his pride.
"Fine. If you want me to get serious, then I'll warm up a little."
The moment those words left Shirakawa's mouth, Mihawk felt the shift. His entire aura changed. What had felt like a sparring match a moment ago was now a real battle.
A crushing pressure bore down on Mihawk. It was a suppression of realms, of sheer presence.
"Now that's more like it." Mihawk muttered to himself. What he didn't realize was that this would only make the fight end even faster.
Mihawk moved to attack again. But Shirakawa spotted a flaw in his offense immediately. His blade twisted in at a near-impossible angle and locked against Mihawk's arm.
Then Shirakawa flicked his sword upward with a burst of force. A gash opened along Mihawk's forearm. The sword in his grip went flying.
The outcome was now painfully clear. A swordsman without a sword in hand had already lost at least eighty percent of his strength.
"You lose."
When Shirakawa said those words, Mihawk froze. He forgot the pain in his wounded arm. He hadn't expected to lose so fast, so completely.
Seeing Mihawk's blank, hollow stare, Shirakawa felt like he'd shattered the man.
"You're trying to leap too far ahead." Shirakawa spoke to him.
"Right now, you're only a Sword Master. The people you should be challenging are those at your own level, or maybe just a little above you. But you challenged a Great Sword Master. One of the elites among Great Sword Masters, no less. Of course you lost."
Shirakawa was unusually patient in his explanation. If he were the reason the future's Greatest Swordsman never came to be, his sins would be enormous. He'd have countless fans of Hawkeye cursing his name forever.
Jora also stepped forward to console his senior brother. "Senior Brother, losing to the captain isn't shameful. Right before I left, Master told me that even he might not be the captain's match anymore."
Hearing this, Mihawk jolted. He stared at Jora in disbelief. "Really?"
Mihawk had seen his master go all out only once before. It was against a powerful pirate. That battle had been truly earth-shattering. The sea itself had been cleaved apart, the wound lingering long after.
That had been the deepest impression his master ever left on him. It was also a core reason why Mihawk had committed himself so fiercely to the way of the sword.
"I never imagined... his strength had already reached such heights."
Mihawk looked at Shirakawa with complicated eyes.
"Is this Mihawk guy really that strong? It didn't look like the captain even tried." Mol, who knew nothing about combat, asked in confusion. All he'd seen was the captain standing there, barely moving, just flicking his wrist a few times before Mihawk's sword flew away.
"He's very strong." Yuristine said. "To us, he'd be a formidable opponent. But to the captain, he's just a newcomer who's barely started to rise."
Salar also let out a sigh. He didn't even think he could beat Mihawk himself. Yet the captain had taken him down so easily.
Right now, the Silver Pirate Crew had one glaring weakness. They lacked high-end combat power. Their only true powerhouse was the captain alone. The rest were all untested geniuses who hadn't yet grown into their potential.
If they ever got surrounded and hunted by top-tier fighters, those geniuses might never get the chance to bloom at all.
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