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A few hours later.
Calm Belt, Impel Down!
"Director, there are ships appearing a few kilometers away from Impel Down," a blonde woman wearing military uniform and sunglasses said, standing in front of Impel Down Director Magellan and opening her mouth to report. "It's Ikki's Explorer, and Captain Smoker's Marine warship escorting the Explorer."
"Have they arrived already?" Magellan looked up from a pile of report documents, a light flashing in his eyes.
Thinking of the order he had received from Sengoku, Magellan sighed and stood up from his seat.
"In that case, let's go meet this swordsman with exceptional talent."
Because it was an order from Sengoku, plus Ikki had killed the legendary pirate Golden Lion Shiki who had once escaped from Impel Down, Magellan felt it would be better to visit Ikki in person.
"Yes." The blonde woman, Domino, the deputy warden of Impel Down, saluted and followed Magellan's pace.
But when she saw Magellan picking up the famous sword 'Raiu' from the counter beside him, Domino felt a little conflicted. That blade had originally belonged to her former boss, Impel Down's warden Shiryu. Even so, now that Shiryu was on death row, Domino couldn't say anything about the sword's whereabouts.
"Speaking of which, how is Hannyabal thinking?" Magellan asked Domino while walking.
Domino immediately understood that Magellan was asking whether Hannyabal was willing to hand over his sword.
"Deputy Director Hannyabal is still hesitant about this," Domino shook her head and said.
"That guy has actually thought about it for so long," Magellan sighed. "Forget it, after all, the weapon is his own. Let him think about whether he's willing to exchange the famous sword for power."
He walked quickly toward the entrance of Impel Down.
As soon as he arrived at the gate, Magellan heard a burst of exclamations.
"What a big Sea King! How could a Sea King attack Marine warships? Aren't all Marine warships able to avoid Sea Kings?"
"Didn't you see? There's another ship behind the Marine warship, and the Sea King is heading toward that ship!"
"Isn't that ship the ship of Ikki, the famous sword hunter?"
"Wait, what is that? Why did the Sea King break in two?"
The soldiers of Impel Down widened their eyes and looked at what was happening on the sea in the distance in disbelief.
"It's a swordsman. There's a female swordsman up there who cut down the Sea King!" came a steady voice from behind the soldiers.
"Director, you're here!" The soldiers looked back, saw Magellan, and saluted one after another.
Magellan nodded slightly and turned to look at Hannyabal and Sadi-chan, who had arrived at the port first.
"Hannyabal, you also use a sword," he said. "What do you think of the swordsmanship of the orange-haired woman who swung the sword just now? Is it worth studying?"
Hearing Magellan's words, Hannyabal scratched the back of his head. He understood the meaning behind Magellan's words – this was clearly to let him make the final decision.
"The one who wielded the sword just now must be Ikki's Thunder Swordsman Nami," Hannyabal said. "There's no doubt that she's quite powerful. If I can master this power, I can indeed become stronger... If I can let that Nami teach me, that would be even better, hehe..."
At first, Hannyabal's face was quite serious. But at the end of his sentence, he smiled lecherously.
Magellan's face darkened when he saw this scene, and he sent Hannyabal flying to the corner with a big punch.
"Put away your perverted smile – don't disturb the guests."
On the other side, the Explorer
"Hey, Miss Navigator, where's Ikki?" Smoker said, jumping from the Marine warship to the deck of the Explorer and glancing at the Sea King that had fallen to Nami's sword with some amazement. "We're about to land – tell him to prepare."
However, he didn't feel too shocked. After all, this kind of thing had happened too many times along the way. Some Sea Kings were beheaded by Nami, and others were cut down by Nojiko. He and the Marines had been surprised at first, but later, Smoker and the others had become accustomed to it.
Smoker finally understood why Ikki dared to let the Explorer cross the Calm Belt. Those Sea Kings couldn't possibly pose a threat to his crew. Ikki didn't even have to act himself.
"I'll inform him – he's currently teaching in the Sword Enlightenment Room," Nami said, returning her sword to its sheath and turning to walk toward the cabin.
After a slight hesitation, Smoker took steps to follow. Nami didn't say much about this – just going to the Sword Enlightenment Room to have a look was still within the allowed range.
"It hurts! Ikki, please be gentle!" came Tashigi's pained voice as Nami and Smoker walked outside the Sword Enlightenment Room.
"Huh? What's going on?" Smoker blinked, walked into the room and looked curiously toward the direction where the sound came from.
In the room, Ikki was putting his hands on Tashigi's shoulders and helping her stretch her legs.
"What are you doing?" Smoker asked, confused.
"Flexibility training. Tashigi's breathing rhythm is already very good," Ikki explained with a smile. "So I plan to help her further develop her physical potential and increase her lung capacity. What I'm doing now is flexibility training. Come to think of it, this won't do, Tashigi. As a woman who also uses the gentle Water Breathing sword technique, having such stiff ligaments means you're not a qualified Water Breathing swordsman."
He let go of Tashigi's arms. She lost her support and immediately fell to the floor, blushing.
She had never thought that one day she would be subjected to flexibility training.
"Let's continue the training later," Smoker said. "We arrived at Impel Down. Ikki, the Director of Impel Down and others are already waiting at the port. Let's go meet them now."
He took a look at the Demon Slayer Mark on Tashigi's forehead and thought of Hina.
"By the way, didn't Hina train with Tashigi?"
"Hina is too old to train with Tashigi. Let's wait until she masters the Innate Demon Slayer Mark first," Ikki said, lifting Tashigi off the floor and walking toward Smoker.
"Let's go and harvest the famous sword."