Chapter 11: The strength of the strongest sword
The Restaurant Baratie.
Kreig's minions were shaking in their boots nonstop since the arrival of the strongest of the Warlords of the Sea. Their minds were still fresh with the memories of the way this person had cut through their entire fleet.
" Why are you chasing us so far? Did we do anything to you at all?!"
One of the pirates close to the boat yelled at him. The man had chased them from the grandline all the way till East Blue.
"Just killing time."
Replied Mihawk. He answer was so simple that the pirates did not know what to reply. Like all brutes, they followed up with violence when they were tongue tied.
*bang* *bang*
A pirate took out two pistols and shot it at Mihawk at the same time. The bullets were on target but Mihawk drew his great sword and redirected the two bullets after he was shot at. His reaction speed and skill with the sword could be barely understood by even the most elite people around at that time.
"I have never seen such a skillful use of a sword before."
Someone asked from behind the pirate who shot at Mihawk, that person being Zoro.
"A sword which only uses strength does not have any power."
Did you use that sword to cut the ship?"
"None else."
"Understood. You are the strongest! I set sail to meet you."
Zoro acknowledged the strength og the person in frint of him and directly began a confrontation with the strongest sword.
"What do you aim for?"
Mihawk questioned Zoro. Zoro tied his bandana, which implied that he was going full out from the beginning.
"What foolishness."
Mihawk's words contained ridicule towards his challenger, someone who had no idea what he was fighting against.
"You have time to spare, right? Let's have a duel."
Zoro as usual was very eager to prove himself. That relentless bestial levels of intent hidden inside of him did not allow him to hide or gloss over this encounter.
" Duel? A pitiful weakling. If you were a first rate swordsman, you would have understood the difference between us. For what reason do you do this? Is it bravery, or pure foolishness?"
Mihawk's words were as sharp as his sword. Even though Zoro wanted to spar with Mihawk, his few days of growth had made him barely aware of the strength and skill the opponent held. But he is not Zoro if he held back at this moment.
"It is for my ambitions! And for the promise I made to my friend!"
Zoro's reply was the embodiment of his soul's desire, burning strong enough that it has clouded over the reasoning he had, truly worthy of the berserk swordsman he is.
...
Usopp and the rest were looking at this encounter with worried faces. They knew that it was impossible for them to stop Zoro from challenging Mihawk and only Usopp, Nami, Luffy and Zeff understood that Zoro would be put down brutally.
People had already recognized Zoro as the Pirate Hunter of the Santouryuu style, one of the strongest in their seas. They all looked forward to this legendary encounter, or so they thought until they saw Mihawk pull out a small kogatana that was hung around his neck. From Usopp's viewpoint, he could feel Zoro's anger and humiliation, and the cold blood thirst that followed which surprised Usopp because in the anime, Zoro went full berserk at this point. But Zoro felt cold, and his blood thirst made the others blood freeze. He then took a stance.
"[Santouryuu: OniGiri]!"
Zoro's movements were way more refined than normal, and he had better control over his strength. Just a few days of strength and control training had made him go one step beyond what he was during the original anime. Though his opponent was the worst he could find to compare sword moves and skills with in the entire Verse. The attack was stopped by just moving the kogatana into the exact point where the three swords would intersect, which was the weakest point of the entire move. Usopp again felt despair well from Zoro, and recognition of the strength possessed by the people at the top.
After this point, Zoro was trying to judge the best way to take on this person, and again Zoro showed promise for even being a little ant in front of someone whose haki was most probably at the better ends of the advanced side. Mihawk kept on playing with him until he almost thrust the kogatana into Zoro's heart, stopping shyly off of it.
They could not hear anything of the conversation that happened between Mihawk and Zoro, but they knew things were serious when he pulled out Yoru and pointed it at Zoro.
" Kid, name yourself."
" Roronoa Zoro!"
" I will remember this name. As a respect towards the strength you have shown, I will use this kokutou to sink you!"
"I am all the more thankful for it."
These words were loud enough for everyone to hear. They then saw Zoro hold the swords in a never before seen stance. He started spinning the two swords in the opposite direction while increasing the strength and concentration of the attack. Usopp took out his catapult along with a lot of ammo and stood on standby, while Luffy was crushing Johnny and Yosaku to stop himself from jumping into the fight. Usopp could feel the ridiculous amount of spirit Zoro had put into that one strike, which had a far stronger buildup of strength than what he had seen in his moves.
"[Santouryuu Ougi: SanzenSekai]!"
Zoro made his move and both swordsmen passed each other in an instant. A fraction of a second later, two of Zoro's swords fell into pieces. He then turned around and faced Mihawk.
"What are you doing?"
Asked Mihawk, who was confused with the out of place action that Zoro made.
"A wound on the back is a shame for a swordsman."
Even in the face of death, Zoro continued to spout out cool dialogues. Mihawk smiled for once and brought his sword up. Usopp was fully prepared at the moment, and any killing intent towards Zoro would make him act. At that moment he felt that his position was locked on by Mihawk because of the threat he posed to the duel's sanctity itself. Usopp did not have any of it and continued to focus, which was when he completed a black armament fortification haki, which he imbued onto the ammo. Mihawk was keeping tabs on Usopp when he continued his conversation with Zoro.
"Well said."
He muttered one phrase and cut Zoro down on the spot. All of the crew yelled in terror when they saw Zoro's body fall down and the huge wound which almost cut him in half was visible. As Zoro was about to fall into the sea, Usopp used [silent steps] to appear before him and took him back to the ship for first aid. Luffy was furious a he flew towards Mihawk, to which Mihawk just moved aside. Luffy was stuck in the wooden log when Mihawk started speaking to him.
" Are you the companion of the young swordsman? Do not worry, I left him alive... It is not yet the time for him to die. My name is Dracule Mihawk! Discover the world! Discover yourself! Become stonger! I'll be waiting for you in my strongest form, however long you take! Try to overcome my sword! Overcome me! Roronoa Zoro!"
Said Mihawk, towards the man who held enough promise to reach his standards. The pure ambition and drive he felt from Zoro made him tremble with anticipation.
"What is your mission, kid?"
Mihawk asked Luffy. He had a litttle bit of an idea on who he was.
" Pirate King!"
" That is a very hard path, way harder than even surpassing me!"
"Don't care, cause I am going to become one anyway!"
Luffy answered Mihawk's question in the most Luffy-esque way possible- straight up insulting super strong characters and then getting away with it.
"He's alive!"
Usopp's voice sounded just after Mihawk's words. Then Luffy saw Zoro's sword rise up and point towards the sky.
"Oi, Luffy... can you hear me?"
"Ou!"
" Sorry for making you worried. If I don't become the strongest swordsman, you will be troubled, right? Until I beat this guy and become the strongest swordsman, I will never lose again! Have any problem with that, Pirate King?! "
Usopp held down Zoro, who was running on fumes and willpower at this point.
"Nope!"
Luffy's reply made Zoro calm down and go back to sleep. It was at that moment that Mihawk turned towards Ussop. This made Usopp almost sweat himself to death.
"Who are you, kid?"
" I am the sniper of the crew, Usopp!"
He tried to put up a false bravado in front of Mihawk, who started to walk away after hearing him. Usopp was sure that Mihawk recognized him as Yasopp's son, or he might have been like Zoro, in a coma induced by the world's strongest sword.
Don Kreig tried to pull something on Mihawk in between, actions which Mihawk ignored completely. He looked like a person who had had his fun for the day when he disappeared in the smoke caused by Kreig's personal cannons.
Kreig will soon have his bones used as dog feed since he ruined the epic mood that was going on at that moment. He did not understand what waited for him when he saw Luffy remove the entire suit to fight.
...
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
battlemonger
battlemonger I'll probably fast forward the next sequence. Also, Nami is still around, if you were wondering.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone