Chapter Opening Serial・Love-sick 33・Love Before the Common Era
"These are…"
The two Boa sisters stared in shock at the mountain wall covered with countless stone carvings…
A Giorno sitting cross-legged in meditation.
A Giorno gazing into the distance.
A Giorno resting his cheek on his palm, yet stretching out his leg to look down from above.
A calm Giorno, a silent Giorno, a laughing Giorno, all sorts of Giornos…
And also Princess Jolyne.
Princess Jolyne is smiling brightly.
Princess Jolyne is sketching with a pen.
Princess Jolyne is sipping tea while reading.
Princess Jolyne gently smells flowers.
Princess Jolyne is attempting to draw a snake-shaped bow…
These lifelike stone statues carved into the mountain wall were not just of Giorno and Princess Jolyne, but even of their elder sister… and of themselves.
Standing before these sculptures and looking up, Sandersonia and Marigold almost felt dazed, as if their elder sister had used her Medusa Fruit power to petrify and seal away the moments of the past, embedding them into the rock face forever…
…
It was as though Doomsday had arrived.
The entire sky seemed to be sliced in half, splitting apart slowly as a gigantic, swirling crack opened in the heavens…
A few News Coo birds that had been following the Red Hair Pirates' ship shrieked in terror and flapped their wings frantically, fleeing the scene.
Countless feathers spiraled down from the skies, drifting toward the lush little island below.
Shhh!
A streak of flying sword energy pierced through, splitting a feather cleanly in two.
Boom…!
Many of the falling feathers were shredded into thousands of downy fragments by the violent air currents surging over the island…
Within the forest of the small island, the ground trembled. Disordered, frantic footsteps rang out, terrified, pitch-black masses of animals burst out of the woods, fleeing desperately toward the seashore.
Bang!
From the island's center came a thunderous crash like colliding storms. A raging blast of air snapped giant trees in half. At the very heart of this overwhelming aura, an intensity so great no ordinary person could even approach or look directly upon it, two human figures could be faintly seen.
One gripped an enormous cross-shaped greatsword. The other held a seemingly ordinary rapier in his left hand.
The two clashed back and forth endlessly…
With every strike of their blades, black lightning burst forth, scattering the wind, rending the sky, shattering the forest, and driving beasts into mad retreat…
"...Heh." Vice-Captain Beckman bit down on his cigarette.
"Ahh… so this is how he fights when he gets serious, huh?" Sniper Yasopp muttered through his goggles.
"Captain's real scary." Lucky Roux chuckled while gnawing on a chicken leg.
The Red Hair Pirates watched from afar, some calm, some solemn, some visibly shocked.
"When he fought that Charlotte, he wasn't using his full strength at all?" Robin murmured.
Dozens of meters away, on a small hillside, she leaned against Liam's side. Liam's body was like a solid wall in front of her, shielding her so she could half-open her eyes and gaze toward the island's center, where Shanks and Mihawk dueled with overwhelming force.
Robin's heart trembled. This was the first time she had ever witnessed a battle of such terrifying scale.
The scene before her shattered her understanding of human strength.
Rumble, Rumble, Rumble!
Waves crashed wildly against the island's shores. Countless beasts crowded the coastline, as if deciding that compared to the merciless sea, the battle raging behind them on the island was far more terrifying.
Liam and B.I.B. stood side by side, silently watching the clash of legends.
Red Hair Shanks.
Hawk Eyes Mihawk.
One, the future Yonko, heir to Pirate King Roger's will… The other, the world's greatest swordsman, unmatched and untouchable…
Clang!
Their long blades collided, black lightning crackling as their faces lit up with excited smiles.
"Not bad at all, Hawk Eyes!" Shanks laughed. "Whoever wins gets stuck hosting the banquet, how about that?"
The corner of Mihawk's mouth curled beneath his small mustache. "With so many of your crew, that'd be exhausting."
They exchanged grins. Black energy entwined around their swords, and once more they struck with earth-shattering force.
Bang! Bang, bang!
The immense density of energy between the famed blade Griffin and the Black Blade Yoru pressed against one another.
So much pressure built up between them that a tiny gap slowly forced itself open between the blades, though they weren't even physically touching anymore, the intensity of their clash had risen to yet another level!
Boom! Boom-roar!
A devastating storm erupted from their bodies, sweeping outward in a tempest of flying dust and shattered stone.
The flying debris passed harmlessly through B.I.B. Liam stood unmoving, too lazy to dodge; the pebbles bouncing off his body didn't hurt in the slightest.
"Is this… the world you long for?" Robin's voice came softly from behind him. "The true world of the strong…"
With her back pressed against Liam's back, she waited for an answer that didn't come.
She could almost picture his eyes, burning with focus and passion as he watched the battle. Her lips curled into a small smile.
She wondered, what was Hancock doing right now? If she were here, witnessing this battlefield, what would she think? Would she be crushed by despair? Or fired up with excitement? Or firmly convinced she'd one day surpass even those two?
Robin sighed softly. "I'll never understand them… those people who enjoy fighting so much…"
The battle raged on from daylight… through noon… and into dusk.
The sound of clashing swords thundered across the small island, echoing in the sunset.
Shanks and Mihawk were still locked in their duel.
The Red Hair Pirates were starving, and with a rustle and shout, they scattered toward the shore to hunt beasts. Liam and Robin also went to help, returning to the Red Hair Pirates' ship to unload crates of food and fine wine.
"It's almost dark. Shouldn't we wait for them?" One of the younger members of the Red Hair Pirates took a swig of wine.
The first mate lit another cigarette, exhaling a plume of smoke as he flicked away the match. "You think a duel between those two is going to end quickly?"
"With strength at their level, no so-called finishing move can kill the other in an instant…" Liam accepted a steaming cup of red tea with his bare hand, as if it were nothing, and casually set it in front of Robin. "Battles of this caliber come down to stamina and conviction, or rather, willpower."
In a world where spirit and will truly affect the body and one's combat power, the importance of willpower in battle didn't need further explanation.
"…" Robin sipped her tea, recalling how, before leaving Amazon Lily, Liam's duel with Hancock had also lasted several days and nights.
Yasopp bit into a piece of fruit, pushing his goggles up onto his head.
"Relax and wait. Sooner or later, one of them will come out on top…"
That night, beneath the moon, the shadows of two swordsmen crossed back and forth across the island. The Red Hair Pirates sprawled out asleep along the shore, some with their feet shoved right into their crewmates' mouths…
At dawn, heavy mist blanketed the island, and slashes of sword energy tore sharp marks through the fog. With a whiz, Yasopp's slingshot brought down a passing seabird. He grinned.
"Breakfast's ready."
News Coo birds flew overhead, scattering newspapers from the sky.
"Hey! Liam, you're in the paper!" One of the Red Hair Pirates waved a freshly delivered issue.
"Oh?" Liam, mid-conversation with Robin, turned his head. "Really? Let me see…"
…
North Blue
"So who is truly the world's greatest swordsman? Giorno Chopperna, or Dracule Mihawk? Fuffuffuffu…"
Wearing a pink feathered coat over a suit, Donquixote Doflamingo lounged on a wooden crate, casually flipping through a freshly obtained newspaper. His twisted grin stretched as his eerie laugh rang out.
"That guy Morgan… all for newspaper sales, he really will print anything. Fuffuffuffu…"
Not far away, a boy with a fur hat and a terrifying expression was threatening a News Coo with a dagger. Beside him, a girl protested righteously that since he caught the News Coo, he should pay for the paper and not try to cheat… But when the fur-hatted boy glared at her, she burst into tears, clutching Corazon's sleeve and turning her back on the scary-faced boy.
Trebol, snot dripping down his face, croaked: "But young lord, that Giorno Chopperna's strength at the Swordsman Tournament really was terrifying… After all, he easily eliminated Big Mom's second daughter…"
"The Swordsman Tournament… fuffuffuffu…" Doflamingo lowered the newspaper.
"In a contest like that, even if Diamante joined, he could easily place near the top."
Diamante gave a modest laugh. "No way, even if I went, I wouldn't…"
"Of course, there are too many strong people out there." Doflamingo chuckled.
"Well, if even you say so, Doffi!" Diamante suddenly changed his tone and boomed, "If I entered, I'd naturally make it to the finals with ease!"
Flames and explosions lit the island ablaze. The Donquixote family, as always, thrived in their own twisted harmony. In the reflection of Doflamingo's trademark sunglasses, the photos of Giorno, Jolyne, Mihawk, and others shone from the newspaper.
…
Grand Line, Sabaody Archipelago
"What a pity… It would've been amazing if Giorno and Hawk Eyes met in the finals."
At Shakky's Rip-Off Bar, Shakky mixed a drink at the counter, cigarette between her fingers, smiling as she spoke.
Rayleigh sipped his glass and pressed down the corner of his newspaper with a smile.
"Red-Haired Shanks and Hawk-Eyes Mihawk, eh? Heh heh… That kid Shanks is just about reaching the summit himself…"
Elsewhere, the Charlotte sisters' ship had just been coated, preparing to dive to Fish-Man Island and then head to the New World.
Nearby, tourists in the Sabaody Archipelago gawked at their ship, which could even speak human words, buzzing with chatter.
"That's the Charlottes…"
"One lost to Hawk Eyes, the other to Giorno…"
"Giorno, huh… what an unbelievable monster. A pirate that terrifying, and yet I've never heard of him setting foot in Sabaody…"
"How bizarre…"
(End Of This Chapter)
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