Crocus lowered the harpoon he’d been about to hurl.
“You’re a Devil Fruit user?” Gavin glanced at the one-eyed manta ray still working its jaws and let a gleeful little smirk tug at his mouth.
Minazuki’s healing was second to none — the process of being healed, though…
He, for one, had zero desire to find out what it felt like to be chewed on by a giant one-eyed ray.
“No.
It’s a special swordsmanship passed down through my family.” Gavin dumped the whole explanation onto the previous owner of this body.
“Shanks should’ve already filled you in about me.
This is a special ability of our Hickman clan.” Crocus nodded thoughtfully.
“I see.
No wonder those idiot nobles of the Goa Kingdom started a war — they were after your Hickman clan’s ability all along.” He tilted his head.
“Still, how come I never heard Roger mention any of this?
He was from the East Blue, wasn’t he…?” Without so much as a flicker of guilt, Gavin answered coolly.
“Because the odds of awakening it are minuscule.
It’s like Conqueror’s Haki — only those born with the talent can awaken it.
The Hickman clan hasn’t produced a descendant who could in years.” When Crocus stopped digging and instead reached out to curiously stroke the ray, Gavin let out a small breath of relief.
It was the best explanation he could come up with.
He could hardly tell Crocus— ‘Sorry, I’m a transmigrator running a cheat, and my specialty is a brand-spanking-new build of a hack that gets patched every month.’ Right as he was mulling it over, the ray’s mouth yawned open.
Minazuki: (ಠ·3) Ptooey~ It spat out a man drenched head to toe in slime.
Shanks’s limbs twitched, his eyes rolled back, and his tongue lolled out on its own — the very picture of someone who’d been thoroughly wrecked.
“Y-you bastard, Gavin…
One day — one day, I swear I’ll gut you…” Shanks: ◍×◍ K.O….
“Oh!
That healing power’s not bad at all.” Crocus crouched beside Shanks and, with open distaste, rolled him this way and that.
“His earlier wounds healed this fast — Shanks is a lucky man from here on out.” Even Gavin was a little impressed.
He turned to look at Minazuki.
The one-eyed ray, catching its master’s gaze, split into a wide grin that showed off its big tongue and wagged its tail like an eager puppy.
“…Never mind.
I’d rather let my body heal on its own.” Then— The shriek of cannon fire tore through the air.
Cannonballs came screaming toward Laboon.
A red glint flashed through Gavin’s pupils; he made a grasping motion at the ray with his right hand, and it collapsed back into its Asauchi form.
Then he pushed off with both feet, launched into the air, and sliced the incoming rounds clean in half.
“Enemies?” Crocus only shook his head, a flicker of disgust in his eyes, and hauled Shanks along, ducking through the iron door atop Laboon’s spine and down into the whale’s belly.
“I’ll leave this to you, Gavin.
They’re the World Government’s hounds.” “World Government agents?” His question was answered soon enough.
“Halt!
Suspicious individual!” A Marine warship closed in fast.
Black-clad agents and marines alike leaned out over the rails, weapons trained on the man standing atop the whale’s back.
“Laboon, go on down and rest for now.
I’ll call for you when I need you.” Gavin leapt, landing dead center on the warship’s deck.
“Who are you?
Why have you suddenly appeared on the borders of the South Blue?!” A Marine officer came running up and barked the question before Gavin could get a word in.
“Don’t you know the South Blue’s under martial law?!
Throw this man in the brig — there’s a good chance he’s an associate of the Pirate King, Roger!” “Yes, Captain Belo!!” “What a pain.
Can’t you people even let me finish a sentence?” Gavin’s utter unconcern was, if anything, what kept the surrounding agents and marines from moving in too hastily.
The South Blue was not what it used to be.
On top of the searching marines and the low-level Cipher Pol agents of the World Government, rumor had it that elite CP9 operatives were lurking in the shadows too.
Belo’s brow creased as he studied the black-haired man before him.
‘Could this guy be one of those elite agents?’ “Who are you?” he pressed again.
“Which Cipher Pol unit are you with?” “Hmph.
Smart of you to ask.” The moment the words left Gavin’s mouth, the marines around him instinctively lowered their aim.
Even Captain Belo’s hands twitched.
“I’m a pirate.” <{=…(gaa~ gaa~ gaa~) The marines and agents blinked.
“Oh, he’s a pirate…
A PIRATE?!” Belo’s mouth twitched.
He was suddenly seized by the feeling that he’d been possessed by a braying jackass.
“…Open fire.
Kill him and dump the body in the sea.” A storm of gunfire erupted.
But Gavin found that his body began moving on its own, as though the technique were etched into his very muscles.
His ankles pivoted; Observation Haki fed the trajectory of every single bullet back into his mind.
His right hand closed around the hilt, and he stepped forward into a charge.
A dazzling arc of blade-light flashed through the crowd; blood sprayed, and screams became the night’s main refrain.
Mid-slaughter, Gavin suddenly dodged right, his left hand seizing the wide-eyed enemy in front of him and flinging the man backward.
Squelch!
Belo had come charging in with a blade in each hand — but that momentum-loaded strike landed squarely on one of his own men.
“C-Captain Belo…” “Tch.
Get out of my way, all of you.
Fall back and let me handle him!” By now Belo could see how formidable Gavin was, but as a Headquarters marine dispatched down from the Grand Line, he wasn’t about to lose his nerve while the outcome was still unclear.
A pitch-black aura coiled up his arms and, in an instant, stained both blades jet-black.
“I am Belo, Captain of Marine Headquarters.
My blade does not cut down nameless men.
Pirate — state your name!” Gavin scratched his head, looking genuinely put out.
“Let’s not.
If you hear my name, you’ll probably lose all interest in fighting.” “Hmph!
I, Belo, am a man destined to become an Admiral.
As if some name could scare me into holding back!” Sparks leapt where his two blades scraped together, and he sneered.
“Though if you’d rather die a nameless ghost, I’ll happily grant you that.” He charged, both blades sweeping across in a horizontal slash.
To Gavin, as he was now, such a crude move looked downright ridiculous.
Back in his Nozarashi days, he wouldn’t have even bothered dodging a strike like this.
But things were different now.
Minazuki’s former master was Big Sis Hana — the first Kenpachi, the woman said to have mastered every school of swordsmanship there was.
A single step forward carried him inside the enemy’s guard and strangled the horizontal slash in its cradle before it could ever land.
A straight kick followed, neatly canceling out Belo’s rising knee.
“Slow.
Far too slow…” Gavin’s body began to weave left and right, slipping past several incoming rounds before surging in.
A pair of merciless eyes suddenly filled Belo’s entire field of vision.
“You—” A blade swept up on the diagonal, from lower left to upper right.
Belo’s pupils blew wide; clearly he hadn’t expected to be cut so easily.
“Damn it all!!” Seeing the enemy’s blade turn to link into a downward cut, he tensed every muscle in his body.
“Tekkai!!!” Gavin: ?
‘Tekkai?
He’s using Tekkai to block my sword?’ His face was a mask of disbelief, but he brought the cut down all the same.
After a mere half-breath’s resistance, Minazuki carved straight into the man’s body.
As he sheathed the blade, Gavin couldn’t hold back the urge to snark.
“Are you brain-dead?
Since when do you use Tekkai to block a sword?
If you’re really that dumb, I’ll feel too embarrassed to keep swinging at you.” Minazuki shifted a few times, batting away the covering fire meant to support Belo.
BOOM!!!
A crimson spiritual pressure, threaded through with wisps of gold, exploded outward!
Marines and agents alike, caught in that sudden surge, rolled their eyes back and dropped straight into unconsciousness.
Belo forced himself to stay awake, barely managing to lift his head, straining to look straight at the man standing within that pressure.
“Just who…
are you…?” Gavin walked up to him and raised the blood-slick tachi high overhead.
“Hickman D.
Gavin.
Take my name with you and report to hell.” Whoosh—!!
Thud… thud… thud… A perfectly good head burst free in a gout of blood and rolled off to the side.
Gavin glanced at the marines and agents lying senseless around him, chose not to finish them off, and walked to the edge of the warship.
A piercing whistle rang out.
A colossal shape surfaced from the sea, huffing and calling out to him.
“I know you’re tired.
Once we find somewhere safe, you can rest, Laboon.” As Gavin leapt clear, he abruptly spun, right hand gripping the hilt, his gaze fixed on the warship’s mainmast.
“One-Sword Style, Iai…” The pitch-dark night suddenly blazed with a dazzling, resplendent starlight — as breathtaking as a shooting star streaking across the heavens.
Ting~~~ As the blade slid home into its sheath, a brilliant, gleaming seam split open across the very center of the mainmast.
And with it, a long gash tore across the surface of the ship’s structure behind it.
A night breeze swept past, and the scored mast and buildings all began to lean toward the sea on the far side.
CRASH—RUMBLE—!!!
“Star Pluck.”