Chapter 18 - The Swordsman

Appearing on the Death Rider, the Blackheart Pirates went to do their own thing for the next week before they would finally arrive at the Baratie. The only ones who did not were Miles and Koby.

"Alright, for the next 7 days you and I will be in the time chamber for your training, let's go," Miles told Koby as he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the chamber.

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One week later...

"Look over there, that must be the place, but what is that sorry excuse for a ship behind it?." Erza said to the crew as she pointed at the two sh.i.p.s that were about one kilometre away from them.

In the distance, a fairly large and odd-looking ship could be seen. The had an oval shape, with normal masts and its head was that of a fish, this was the ocean-going restaurant The Baratie.

Behind it there was another ship that completely towered over the baratie in size, but this massive ship in question looked like it had been through a shredder. The sails were ripped to shreds, one of its masts was about to fall over and the hull itself had so many holes, it was surprising that the ship was still afloat.

"That's Don Krieg's ship, or what's left of it anyway," Miles said as he and Koby walked up behind the others. They had just come out of the time chamber and Koby was now strong enough to easily overpower marine vice-admirals. With a few more training sessions he will be able to battle evenly with an admiral.

The Death Rider pulled alongside the baratie and Zoro dropped the anchor then everyone hopped off and started to walk towards the front door, that's when they hear someone yelling.

"YOU COOKS SHOULD NOT HAVE DEFIED ME, I AM BY FAR THE WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN! ARMS MADE OF SOLID STEEL, WOOTZ STEEL BODY ARMOUR, IMPENETRABLE! AND A DIAMOND FIST THAT CAN POUND THIS ENTIRE WORLD TO DUST! I HAVE A FLEET OF 50 SH.I.P.S AND 5000 PIRATES! I HAVE WON EVERY SINGLE BATTLE I'VE EVER BEEN IN!"

"Table for seven please~," She said in a happy tone, completely ignoring the armoured man who was ranting a few seconds ago. After she said that, a certain blonde-haired chef with spiral eyebrows and hearts in his eyes arrived in front of her and said in a slightly high voice: "Anything for a beauty like you, follow me." Then, while doing his signature 'noodle dance' moved towards a large table for 8.

The Black Hearts didn't want to follow this creepy guy, but when they saw their captain walking behind the giant noodle, they also decided to go with him.

"My name is Sanji, how may I help you lovely ladies~," The noodle man asked the girls, ignoring the three men sitting with them. This, in turn, annoyed Zoro, made Koby laugh, and Miles was thought; 'Maybe I don't really need him on my crew.'

"HEY! DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHO I AM! I'M DON KRIEG THE STRONGEST-" *Bang!* He didn't get to finish talking because Nojiko had pulled out her pistol and blasted a hole through Krieg's "impenetrable" c.h.e.s.t plate.

"...How did you...?" Krieg said as he stumbled backwards to the edge of the baratie before falling into the ocean. *Splash* And with that, Don Krieg was no more.

"YEAH!" The cooks cheered at the death of the man who was about to steal their ship.

"Thanks, kid, if not for you, that prick may have actually stolen my ship. You and your friends get to eat for free as a thank you. " Said a man with a peg leg. This man was Zeff, the head chef and owner of the baratie.

Sanji then took their order and went back to the kitchen to prepare it, as the other chefs cleaned up the mess that Krieg had made.

After their meal, Sanji kept trying and failing to hit on the girls, much to their annoyance. While this was happening, Miles said something that made everyone on the ship go wide-eyed.

"Sanji Vinsmoke, fourth prince of the Germa Kingdom, and a man who is supposed to be dead. So the question is... what are you doing here?"

Sanji immediately became serious and glared at Miles.

"How did you know who I am, and what do you want from me?" He asked in a slightly heated tone.

"I'm just a curious pirate, nothing more." Miles smiled and said. But as soon as he finished speaking, a kick came from Sanji, intending to hit Miles in the face. Miles easily dodged this, but as soon as he did another kick came, then another and another. This went on for a while with Miles dodging and Sanji kicking.

Eventually, after about 15 minutes Sanji ran out of stamina and fell onto one knee.

"Not bad, with a few years of training you might be able to hit me," Miles said to the now exhausted cook.

"Haf...Haf... why can't I hit you?" Sanji asked while panting. Miles just smiled, shook his head then started to walk towards the exit. Seeing this his crew followed as well and left the baratie.

As soon as they stepped outside, two massive blades of sword intent shot towards Don Krieg's ship and split it into 3 sections. When the Black Heart Pirates looked towards the direction that the attack came from, they saw a man sitting in a small coffin-shaped boat with a single mast.

The man in question was Dracule "Hawk Eyes" Mihawk, he currently holds the title of world's strongest swordsman. Mihawk is a tall lean man with black hair, a short beard, moustache and sideburns that point upwards. His nickname comes from his strangely coloured red eyes which resemble a hawk's eyes.

As he got closer, an excited smile could be seen the faces of both Kuina and Zoro.

""Dibs"" They said at the same time. They then scowled at each other and quickly played 3 games of Rock Paper Scissors, with Kuina coming out on top.

"Ha! I get to go first." Kuina gloated. She stepped to Mihawk and than started speaking.

"Dracule Mihawk, my name is Kuina Miller and I challenge you to a duel." She said as she pulled her two katana from their sheath.

"And why should I fight you?" Mihawk asked in an uninterested tone as he glanced at his would-be contender.

"Well... you don't really have a choice." She replied as she stepped off the deck of the baratie, and as soon as her foot touched the sea, all of the water in a 1 km radius turned to ice. Mihawk's eyes went wide for second but just as quickly went back to normal.

"A devil fruit user, and ice at that. I was under the assumption that there could only be one ice-ice fruit user. So how can you have it as well?" He asked out of curiosity.

"If you beat me I will tell you. And don't worry I won't use it during our duel, I only used my power to give us a platform to stand on. From here on, it will be a clash of swords, and haki of course." She said as she coated her swords in armament haki.

Hearing what his opponent said and seeing her actions, Mihawk narrowed his eyes and finally stood up from his coffin boat and stepped onto the ice. Initially, he thought this girl was weak and was simply overestimating herself by challenging him, but now he thought differently.

'How does she know haki?' He thought as he pulled his black blade Yoru off his back. At first, he was planning on using the small dagger hidden in his crucifix pendant to humour her, but after seeing Kuina's display of both her devil fruit and her haki, he decided to take her seriously.

"If you think you can beat me while holding back, then you are sorely mistaken," Mihawk said as he got into his stance.

"We'll see about that" Kuina replied. She then charged at Mihawk and gave a few simple attacks. She wanted to feel out her opponent first to see how powerful he really was, and if he had any weakness she could exploit, afterwards, she would attack with full force.

As this was going on, Zoro was completely focused on studying every single movement that Mihawk made. This was because now that Kuina was testing the waters, he wouldn't need to when he fights. Instead, Zoro would go all out from the start.

After a few minutes of fighting, Kuina jumped back a few feet and stared at the strongest swordsman in the world.

'No openings, which means I'll need to make one myself' she thought as she gripped her swords tightly and lunged forward, no longer holding back.

Kuina moved so fast that it looks like she disappeared. Mihawk, seeing her vanish, quickly put his black blade up to block Kiuna's incoming attack that he felt with observation haki. *CLANG!* *CRACK!* The force behind Kuina's attack cracked the ice beneath Mihawk and pushed him back a few feet.

"Hmm, not bad. But now it's my turn." Mihawk said as shot a blade of sword ki at Kuina. Seeing the attack coming she dodged to her left, but then hastily put her swords up to block the incoming black blade that she felt with her haki. *CLANG* After this clash she jumped back and stared at Mihawk who had a smirk on his face.

"Creating a blade of sword intent to distract me than using that chance to attack. It's a good faint, but not good enough!" Kuina said as she once again attacked. She continued to clash with Mihawk for the next 15 minutes before she finally creating an opening.

She rushed forward and slashed at Mihawk with her left, and he easily parried her sword downward. While deflecting her left, she quickly stabbed forward towards Mihawk's throat with her right. He saw this attack coming with his haki but was unable to counter because his blade was still repelling her first attack. As the tip of her sword reached his neck it stopped just before piercing the skin.

"I win," Kuina said with an elated smile.

"*Sigh* It would seem that way" Mihawk replied with a smirk as he dropped his sword signalling an end to this duel.

"My turn!" Zoro said as hopped onto the ice and walked towards them. Kuina looked at Zoro for a second then sighed and went back towards the crew. Mihawk stared at Zoro, then slowly picked his sword off the ground and got into his stance.

"What's your name?" Mihawk asked the green-haired man in front of him.

"Roronoa Zoro" He replied as tied his trademark bandana around his head.

While these two were speaking, Miles had quietly used [Perfect Heal] on Mihawk. Miles knew that Zoro would want to fight Mihawk at full strength after the duel with Kuina. So after Miles used [Perfect Heal] to restore Mihawk's stamina, he crossed his arms and waited for the next fight to start.

(A/N. I'm not writing Zoro's fight. Figuring out how to do Kuina's was hard enough)

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It had now been a few hours since Kuina had beat Mihawk and Zoro had challenged him. And for Zoro, his fight was much longer and a lot more fierce. It turns out that when Kuina was feeling out her foe, Mihawk was doing the same. And since Zoro and Kuina use a very similar style of swordsmanship, Mihawk was able to pick out the flaws faster than his first fight. Eventually, it came down to who had more stamina and fewer injuries.

After a full hour of fighting, Mihawk collapsed onto what was left of the ice platform. Zoro, on the other hand, barely had any wounds on him and was also able to recover during the fight thanks to him having the body of a primordial.

By this time, Mihawk had left after being healed by Miles. And as thanks for having a match with Kuina and Zoro, Miles decided to gift Mihawk a bottle of heavenly wine he bought from the system.

Currently, the Black Heart pirates were back on their ship and getting ready to leave for Loguetown, their last stop before they enter grand line.

"Congratulates Zoro and Kuina for Dracule 'Hawkeyes' Mihawk. You can now call yourselves the second strongest swordsmen in the world." Miles said to his two crewmates.

"What do you mean second strongest?" "Yeah, we both beat Mihawk. That means we only need to face each other one more time to see who's the strongest." Zoro and Kuina said. Miles grinned at them and asked them a question.

"Who is the one person you two have never been able to beat in swordsmanship?" Miles asked as he looked over to a certain person on the ship. Zoro and Kuina followed his gaze and soon it landed on a beautiful redheaded woman who was in the middle of eating a piece of strawberry shortcake, with a delighted smile on her face.

""Fuuuck...""

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Author Note.

Originally I was going to add Sanji to the crew but I changed my mind. Reiju will still be in the harem though, but that is in the far future.

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