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Chapter 58: My Rising Ego III

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Yovan nodded gratefully at her, "Thank you for refreshing my memory. I totally forgot about it."

He truly forgot about it. He noticed the mark of course, but he assumed it to be a tattoo, merely a shitty cosmetic.

Thankfully, he wrote down a lot of things in his notebook, and his personal symbolic language allowed him to write a lot in so little space.

He didn't just write the things he remembers from the story, but also a lot of common knowledge, anything he deems noteworthy from books, and he has a lot of free time to read books.

In his case, free time for him is the time when he can distract himself from the fact that he is kind of torturing himself all the time.

Hancock remained silent for a while, her emotions seeming to be very erratic though she strangely was still capable of using Observation Haki.

In fact, Yovan noted that her Observation Haki was more stable than ever, as she seemed eerily calm.

"Death shall be your destiny today, and I will stop at nothing to bring you down!" Her eyes shone with determination, and Yovan could swear they glowed pink.

If the fact that she has the slave mark were to get out, not only would she lose her title as a Warlord, but the Marines would stop at nothing to capture her and eliminate everyone around her.

Yovan also came to that assumption, a very logical conclusion, and well, she seemed to care very much about her people. 

'I remember that she appeared in the story at some point... Right? She did... Hmm, something, then something happened that led to something that I don't remember, but she was definitely there.'

Yovan nodded at himself, giving himself a thumbs up as he felt his memory getting better, "Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere. In fact, you'll be going with me."

A strange smile emerged on his face as a brilliant method to tortu... Train his crew surfaced in his mind, and Hancock was the key component for this pure kind training.

Hancock ignored everything he has to say, and she pretty much blocked off sound from her mind.

She focused completely on eliminating him as soon as possible for the sake of her people.

Her legs were inky, and her eyes shone in a deep pink color as Yovan felt her conqueror Haki trying to invade his brain, to knock him out, but it still didn't feel like much to him.

What was dangerous, however, was her Armament Haki. It was different, a slight pink hue traveling through it. 

She has become stronger somehow, breaking her limits just out of necessity. Her speed also seemed exponentially higher to the point even Yovan's Observation Haki was having trouble keeping up.

Her kicks were seemingly blurry, and the only way to keep up was to continuously switch forms. From hybrid to beast form to hybrid again, rinse, repeat.

All he could do was to evade while going far and beyond to keep up, her kicks almost scratching his form. 

He was barely fleeing from death while also manipulating his feather arrows to attack her from time to time, but nothing was working.

Her Observation Haki was working to perfection, allowing her to manipulate her Armament Haki into the targeting areas, thus mostly ignoring his attacks. 

But Yovan remained absolutely calm even under the pressure of her Conqueror Haki. 

The pressure she was putting on him only continued to get heavier and heavier as Hancock got better control of her powers.

At one point, her kicks seemed to be leaving a burst of lightning behind that affected Yovan without touch, leaving burn marks on his already frail body.

Yovan's body soon started slightly shaking, just not out of pressure. His mind was mostly focused on controlling a shockwave force to travel through his body into his hand.

And that continued for hours, yet none of them seem exhausted at all, not even Yovan with his extremely frail body.

Hancock adapted and got so comfortable with the fight that she was trying to kick him while creating pink hearts to attack him with, especially focusing on sending them toward the shockwave ball in his hand.

It took him hours to form that shockwave ball, and he will certainly not allow her to destroy it, wasting hours of his hard work because creating it means putting his body through hours of torture.

It was the accumulation of all the shockwave force that traveled through his body for hours, and doing so was hard, to say the least.

So he protected it with all he can, surrounding it with a barrier of feathers until it was time to make a sacrifice like always.

Hancock sensed danger as her kick was on the verge of hitting Yovan. Common sense told her that her will just transform into his beast form again to evade her attack again.

However, her Observation Haki couldn't be wrong, right? And she trusted it, so she tried to retreat just as her Haki warned her of another thing, the feather barrier around them started clamping down, trying to stop her from escaping.

It was quick, leaving her with two options, either try to retreat which will certainly leave her vulnerable or continue with her attack that will certainly damage Yovan and perhaps even kill him.

Yovan positioned himself perfectly to receive the kick with his upper left side, meaning his left shoulder because of his missing arm. He even concentrated a shield of feathers on that side.

His hand was already moving towards her chest for completely pure reasons. His eyes were fiery, shining with an odd light as all of the circumstances lined up for him.

A wave of feathers collided with him from his right side just as her kick hit him, allowing him to remain stable in his place, and actually hit her.

Unlike Hancock's other attacks, only the immediate area around the point of contact turns to stone, not the entire object or person, but still, a significant portion of his shoulder turned into stone before crumbling.

Yovan fell to his knees, but Hancock remained standing... In shock. She couldn't move. The shock ball left her chest completely deformed.

Hancock's ruthlessness was gladly reciprocated by Yovan. She felt her heart barely beating. Her body was all bloody by her own blood. 

So she fell to her knees as well. It was just that Yovan stood up at that exact moment, narrowing his eyes at her, "You protected your heart and lungs with Haki, didn't you?"

His words made her stand up with a frown on her face. The Snake Empress was truly snakey because despite the attack leaving her in a sorry state, she could still move. She just hoped Yovan would let down his guard.

"I hate you!" Hancock screamed with all of her heart, letting out all her emotions.

"I don't," Yovan looked at her straight in the eyes, "I don't hate anyone, for that matter."

"Things like this only work to rise my Ego. I feel like I deserve it. I feel like I work harder than anyone, so your failure today is a statement of how hard you work."

Blood was flowing down Yovan's nose, and parts of his shoulder were still crumbling, yet it all seemed foreign to him, "My Ego Is Rising." He murmured mostly to himself.

"What's your goal?" Yovan wondered with curiosity amidst the battle, treating her like nothing has happened. It was clear that he truly didn't hate her.

"To kill you." That was her goal at the moment

"I don't seem to have any grand ambitions. I just wanted to journey around, find fascinating places, and create wonderful memories. Those memories would then be drawn as paintings as vessels to refresh my memory whenever I want.

No, it isn't just about fascinating places, but also about doing anything that I want, and seeing how I would draw that memory. I'm a being of curiosity, I admit."

"Yahahah," Yovan shook his head with a laugh, letting out a genuine smile, "I want to experience things that I will not forget no matter what. I experienced some when I was just a normal nobody, all in the woods, or in danger. 

I had the will to go through it all no matter the consequence, living among bears, exploring volcanos, and trying to befriend snakes. I remember that Anaconda that almost choked me to death, such a fucking traitor."

He was just rambling on and on, just speaking his mind, and nothing he said made him sound normal. No, he was a lunatic.

"And I tried and tried after I became a Captain, but I still found myself confused. Despite trying to convince myself otherwise, I was very much finding it hard to adapt..."

Hancock was watching it happen, a change was taking place in his mentality. His change somehow drove a chill down her spine as she watched him letting out small laughs from time to time.

"Yahahah, that'd be funny."

"Wait, what if? That'd be insanely cool."

"Hmm, yeah, I should've done that at the time. I wonder why I didn't do it. Was I holding myself back?"

"And if I do that, Bege would be so happy... But Laffitte would be mad, no? Sounds like fun."

He was talking to himself. No matter how she looked at it, he was insane!! That look, a New World has just been opened before his eyes.

"My purpose in life is to do whatever I want. If I felt like it, I should do it. If it's interesting, then why not experience it? If it's crazy, then why not make it crazier?"

Before Hancock's very eyes, something in Yovan changed, something different than his mentality. She saw black feathery lines traveling throughout his body, and they weren't Haki.

"And it will be all safeguarded in the treasures that are paintings... Oh, right. I just thought of a way to make my crew's tortu... Training harsher."