Chapter 67: Kuina's encounter and challenge

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Underwater, the warship of Sid, which now had the shape of a submarine, traveled fastly through the ocean in direction to another island.

Ever since the Inquisition of Atlas eradicated the Anomaly cultists from Darieru Island, and freed the poor villagers from their imprisonment, they have been traveling through islands defeating several other cultist groups that hid as normal villagers across the world.

Sid, or better said "Thanatos", took this as an opportunity to make his subordinates train a bit, and deal with the cultists by themselves. Of course, with a few counter-measures if things ever went wrong for them, or if the enemy is too strong for them to deal with. 

And while his subordinates dealt with some of the cultists among islands, he went to perform his usual activities as a Shadow eminence in Water7 with the straw-hats and also went to deal with some other things like reuniting more information about the whereabouts of the other main leaders of the cult.

And after a few unsuccessful and successful attempts, he finally decided to go back and continue dealing with the cultists spread among the islands, in order to understand why and how were they spreading their influence, even in completely normal people.

*Click*

Sid clicked a button on the side of the ship while moving as fast as this one, and wrote a password that only he and his subordinates knew.

*Shaaa...*

A small door opened, and soon he entered into it. 

After the water was taken out of the small room where he had entered, the doors leading to the main room finally opened, and Sid took out his swimming suit before leaving the small room.

There, the always training Kuina, who was swinging her sword with determination in sports clothes, turned to look at him with surprise and stopped practicing for a while.

"You finally came back, Sid..."

"I believe I told you to call me Thanatos, it is incredibly important to keep my identity secret in order to save the wo-"

"There's no one here, all the others left to deal with some cultists or to gather a few more resources to continue our travel" Interumping him by knowing what he could say, Kuina immediately reassured him and continued swinging her sword repeatedly.

"Oh, that's good then" Sid immediately shrugged the matter aside and sat on one of the sofas, and took out the mask of Thanatos in order to breathe fresh air.

*Sigh...*

Kuina sneaked a small glance and blushed sightly before she turned once again to look at her sword, this time with more determination on her gaze, and continued performing slashes with it for the next few minutes.

Soon, however, she turned to look at Sid once again and raised an eyebrow seeing him seemingly looking at the ceiling with a blank stare.

"Say, what did you go to do this time? It took you a few days to come back"

Sid's gaze returned to reality and looked back at Kuina with his ever-frowning eyes.

"I was dealing with important matters that were crucial for the sake of this world... what else?"

Kuina had her eyebrow twitch slightly after hearing that. However, seeing that this was always his response to this kind of question, she just shrugged the matter aside and continued striking the air with her sword.

It was only after an hour or so, that suddenly Sid's eyes opened abruptly, and he looked at the ceiling with an even more pronounced frown on his face. Soon, however, a small grin appeared on his face, and he turned to look at Kuina intensely

Kuina, who noticed his gaze, blushed in shame feeling his sharp eyes looking at her without stop, after all, she was covered in sweat due to the training, and Sid's gaze wasn't exactly a gentle one.

"What is it?"

After a while, as she finally finished gathering enough courage, she put the calmest face she could do and looked at Sid with an impassive expression before she asked him with the same monotone voice.

"It seems like someone is currently sailing above us, and he is quite the famous figure..."

"What?" Speechless, Kuina turned to look at the ceiling and activated her Observation Haki to observe what was happening above her.

When her view changed to that of the infinite sea, she noticed a tall lean man with black hair, a short beard, a mustache, and sideburns that pointed upwards. He was wearing black and red ornate clothing, a wide-brimmed black hat decorated with a large plume and a long, open black coat with no shirt underneath.

The man was traveling on a small coffin-shaped raft that only had one seat, and even though they were traveling through one of the most dangerous seas in the world, where large storms, enormous whirlpools, or even giant waves weren't rare to appear so suddenly out of nowhere, he was still calmly looking around admiring the landscape as if nothing wrong was happening. 

"Who is this guy?" Kuina asked while looking at Sid with a dubious expression on her face.

Sid looked at her for a few seconds before he laughed lightly and placed the Thanatos mask on his face again, and stood up from the sofa. His voice, which had been normal until now, turned incredibly grave and ethereal as he walked towards the control room with a steady pace, and answered Kuina's question.

"He is Dracule Mihawk, one of the seven Shichibukai that work for the world government, and also the so-called Strongest swordsman in the entire world"

Kuina's eyes widened enormously as she heard the word stronger swordsman in the world, and soon, the fighting spirit inside her awoke furiously, and she grabbed the sword on her waist before she turned to look at Sid that was currently making the Ship go back to the surface.

"Are you gonna challenge him?"

Sid leaned his head sideways and looked at her briefly before he turned back to look at the control panel in front of him.

"Although it would be a good opportunity to develop my swordsma-Ehem! my knivemanship abilities, I don't think he will be able to have another battle after fighting with you. So I will just glance from away"

Kuina smiled after hearing Sid grant her the opportunity to duel with the current strongest Swordsmanship in the world, though her smile still twitched a bit when she heard him call his swordsmanship knivemanship once again. But in the end, she just shrugged it aside and prepared herself mentally for the challenge that was to come.

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Above the surface...

The raft of Mihawk moved slowly through the sea and allowed Mihawk to enjoy the breeze of the sea with a relaxed face. He had been traveling around for quite some time after he got bored and decided to kill time by messing around with random pirate crews that travel around these seas.

The Krieg pirates were one of his victims, and the straw-hats as well. Though the last ones were to a very lesser degree, as he only injured Zoro gravelly before he left without doing anything else.

Now, he was going back to Kuraigana island in order to take a rest at his castle. He had the feeling that something big would happen in the future, so he wanted to rest properly before anything else happened.

However, right as he was enjoying the peaceful breeze of the sea, suddenly an enormous body of water rose from the depths and startled him slightly, even though his expression did not change in the slightest.

Thinking that a sea king was about to attack him, Mihawk took out the sword of his scabbard and prepared to attack the creature immediately.

However, right when it was about to do so, he noticed that this wasn't a creature, but rather a gigantic ship that had emerged from underwater!

His eyes widened slightly after seeing such a unique view, and seeing that it wasn't exactly a hostile creature, Mihawk retracted his sword and looked back at the ship with a curious gaze. After all, if the people inside the ship decided to come out in front of him, then there must be a reason, right?

As he expected, soon the submarine-looking ship took a more ship-looking appearance, and two figures appeared above it before looking at him from above.

"Swordsmen?" Seeing the majestic swords resting on these two figures' scabbards, he concluded that these two people standing in front of him were swordsmen. As for their intentions, he had yet to hear it from them.

Suddenly, one of the figures standing on top of the ship launched a small object to the sea that floated for a few seconds before it sunk completely.

Mihawk was about to ask them their motives, but soon, a pale light engulfed the depths of the ocean and a thick layer of ice covered an enormous portion of the sea.

Mihawk was once again surprised by these two figures as they did something that only, but as the expert swordsman that he was, his face barely showed any emotion besides raising an eyebrow slightly.

Soon, both of these figures descended to the newly made floor of ice and walked towards Mihawk until their appearance became completely clear.

One of them was a beautiful woman of red hair that was wearing incredibly majestic red-colored robes above a thin blue-colored light armor that helped her to receive protection and not have her body movements restrained in the slightest. On her waist, there was an incredibly beautiful and impressive katana that seemed to have an aura of elegance and power around it. Even Mihawk, who was the best swordsman in the world, couldn't help but exclaim in awe while seeing this incredible katana.

'That katana is comparable to the twelve supreme grade swords...! How come no one has ever seen it before...?' Mihawk eyes widened enormously seeing this katana. After all, no one had heard about a thirteenth supreme grade sword around the world, and to suddenly find it in the hands of this woman, was something incredibly improbable.

Soon, he turned to look at the figure standing next to the woman, and this time Mihawk's expression hardened when he noticed the identity of the man standing some meters away from him.

Shadow Raven, the man that has been making a lot of havoc around Marineford, and the fastest man to reach a bounty of a million or more bellys since he made his debut.

To think that this man was related to a person that had in their possession a new supreme grade sword... It was unbelievable... Or not.

Now that Mihawk was standing in front of him, he could perfectly feel that the power that Shadow Raven was hiding inside that armor. He had fought multiple people across his life, and every time he fought someone new, his senses also became sharper.

He could feel deep in his bones that Shadow Raven was not another mere pirate from the East Blue, but rather, a worthy opponent that can actually rival his abilities.

Mihawk soon turned to look at the sword inside Shadow Raven's scabbard. He was curious if the woman standing next to him had a supreme grade sword, then could it be that his sword was also a supreme grade that no one had ever heard before?

Since the scabbard was covering the sword, Mihawk was completely unable to see through it, and unlike the woman's sword, this one was not releasing an aura and simply felt like a normal sword.

But at this point, he wasn't really confident in his own judgment.

"May I know what do you want from me, Shadow Raven and..."

"Kuina" The red-haired woman looked at him and spoke her name, something that seemingly startled the man standing next to her. But soon, as if comprehending what was running through her mind, Shadow Raven simply nodded.

"We came here in order to request a duel against you, the strongest swordsman in the world" Shadow Raven's deep voice reached Mihawk's ears, and made him grin lightly at finally facing a new opponent after so long.

After Shanks had lost his arm, there was no one else that represented a challenge for him. For so many years he lived without a worthy rival that could make him go all out in a battle, or make him become even stronger than before.

He found a green-haired swordsman at the east blue that had the spirit, determination, and the talent to become a worthy rival in the future. However, it was going to take many years for that man to reach his level, and until then, he would have to wait in his boring castle the day that man's strength reached the highest level in the world.

However, now he didn't have to wait for more for a rival, he had finally found someone that could make his heartbeat with fierceness and satisfy his desire for battle!

"I suppose one of you will fight me, and then the other? Or are you planning on fighting alongside me?" Mihawk took out his sword and looked at these two people with a calm expression.

However, unlike what he expected, Shadow Raven actually just took a step back as he crossed his arms on his chest and looked at Mihawk with a calm gaze.

"Kuina is the one that will fight. I'm not a swordsman so I don't aim for that spot" Shadow Raven closed his eyes and patted the sword hanging on his waist with a "see?" like gaze in his eyes.

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"But that's a sword" Mihawk sweatdropped while looking at Shadow Raven.

"It's a knife"

"No, that's a sword" Mihawk looked speechlessly at the affirmation of Shadow Raven. The thing on his waist was a katana no matter how you looked at it.

"I'm the one that made it, so if I say it's a knife, then it's a knife"

...

Mihawk just chose to remain silent and turned to look at Kuina.

"Then it will be an honor to fight against you lady"

Kuina nodded briefly, before she suddenly grabbed Shadow Raven's shoulder, and whispered something on his ear.

Shadow Raven just nodded in understanding as if he had been expecting this from the beginning, and placed his hand on Kuina's face.

Kuina's facial structure changed rapidly, and her red hair turned completely blue from one moment to another.

Her face was a lot more mature than from when she was a kid, but nevertheless, it still had some of the traits that represented her.

She turned to look at Shadow Raven once again and muttered a small thank you with her mouth, but then, she noticed that Shadow Raven seemed to be in some kind of daze while looking at her.

"What is it?" She asked confused about Shadow Raven's state, as she had never seen him like that ever since they met.

Shadow Raven's look came back to reality, and soon he turned away and started walking towards the Ship at a steady pace.

"It has been a while since I had seen your real appearance, that's all" Was everything that came out of Shadow Raven's mouth, before he disappeared and reappeared on top of the ship in order to watch the battle attentively.

Kuina just shrugged the matter aside, and turned to look at Mihawk before she pulled her sword out and took her stance.

"Then, thank you for the duel!"

Mihawk smiled and took his stance as well.

"Thank you for the duel as well!"

And like that, the battle of these two swordsmen began.

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