⸻
The world held its breath.
The waves lay still. The clouds slowed. Not even the wind dared move.
Kael D. Raen stood alone at the center of the Moonfang training grounds, the obsidian stone beneath his feet marred by weeks of combat scars. His shirtless torso bore fresh cuts and old battle marks, the twin Oni horns curving from his head, gleaming in the morning light. Raizan, the Storm Blade of the Oni Flame, rested across his back, humming with contained lightning.
Across from him stood Dracule Mihawk.
The strongest swordswoman in the world.
Daughter of Silvers Rayleigh and Shakky.
A predator in the shape of a queen.
Golden eyes gleamed beneath the shadow of her black coat. Yoru, her enormous obsidian-black blade, rested in her hand like it weighed nothing.
"You intrigue me," Mihawk said, voice like a blade sliding from a sheath. "Oni blood, Buccaneer blood… and I sense something older. Something ancient and wild the world forgot to name."
Kael unsheathed Raizan. His trusted blade howled, lightning splitting the air.
"Let's see if my fire can match your steel."
[System Notification]
Special Duel Event Activated
Participants: Kael D. Raen vs. Dracule Mihawk
Rewards: Legendary Swordsmanship Data, Title Advancement, +500,000,000 Beli Bounty Increase, and rare sword crafting material
World Impact: Severe
⸻Commencing⸻
The Duel – Fourteen Days of Storm and Steel
The first clash was not heard — it was felt.
A thunderclap so deep it rattled bones, shattering the obsidian beneath their feet. Lightning erupted from Raizan in jagged arcs, Yoru drinking the light into its endless black.
They moved faster than most eyes could track. Each swing carried the weight of continents.
Day One – The Breaking of Ground
The air itself split under their strikes. Raizan's arcs set the cliffs ablaze, while Yoru's sweeping cuts carved chasms into Moonfang's coastline. Seawater boiled where their shockwaves met.
Day Three – The Sky Splits
Neither had slept. Their clothes hung in tatters, bodies marked with a thousand shallow cuts. Kael's left horn was chipped; Mihawk's coat was shredded, golden eyes burning brighter than the dawn.
With a single upward swing, Mihawk's black blade ripped the clouds apart, sunlight flooding the battlefield. Kael answered with a downward crash of red lightning that plunged the island back into shadow.
Day Six – The Sea Boils
They had pushed the fight to the shoreline. Mihawk's slashes sent walls of water surging inland, Kael's strikes turning the waves into pillars of steam. Fish leapt from the boiling shallows only to be incinerated midair.
Day Nine – The Blood Pact
Their blades met so hard the shockwave blew Yamato and Smoothie back by a dozen paces. Blood from Kael's shoulder dripped onto Mihawk's cheek; The cut across her ribs leaked down her side. Neither flinched. Neither of them slowed.
They smiled the first honest smiles of the duel.
Day Twelve – The Storm Crown
Moonfang's peak became their stage. Lightning webbed across the black sky, violet and crimson tearing at each other. Kael's Roaring Oni Flame burned so hot it warped the air; Mihawk's killing intent was so sharp the rain refused to fall on her.
Day Fourteen – The God's Strike
Both fighters were shadows of their first-day selves, drenched, bloodied, breathing ragged. Yet their eyes shone brighter than ever. Every muscle screamed, every bone ached, but they moved like the storm itself had chosen them.
Kael poured everything into one last swing, Raizan howling like a war god, lightning spiraling into a molten edge.
Mihawk answered with a two-handed cut, Yoru's darkness collapsing the light around it.
Impact. Silence. Then the heavens screamed a pillar of red and violet tore skyward, rending the clouds in every direction like a divine wound.The shockwave rolled across the ocean for miles.
When it cleared, they stood locked in place, both blades trembling, blood dripping onto the cracked earth between them.
While the Storm Raged – Training Montage
When Kael wasn't actively clashing with Mihawk, the crew didn't waste a second.
Carmen battled her new Devil Fruit powers, summoning bursts of boiling broth and freezing sauce midair until she learned to shape them into weapons. More than once, Yamato and Smoothie had to dodge sudden geysers of soup during sparring.
Smoothie focused on refining her overwhelming strength into razor-precise blade work. Her sword strokes began splitting boulders without wasted movement.
Yamato trained her hybrid form control, forcing herself to hold it for hours until steam rolled off her skin and her breath came in ragged puffs.
Mihawk, between sessions with Kael, occasionally appeared on the cliffs, not offering advice, but sparring with Yamato or Smoothie in short, surgical bouts, each leaving them battered but sharper.
The sound of steel and thunder rolled from the training grounds.
Day Fifteen – The Conclusion
The final clash shattered the clouds.
Red lightning met violet darkness in a titanic burst of light and sound.
Kael and Mihawk stood, bloodied, panting, blades trembling. Then Mihawk grinned.
Not a polite smile. Not a victorious smirk.
A dangerous, claiming grin.
"I've made my decision."
She sheathed Yoru with finality. "You're mine now."
Kael blinked. "…Huh?"
"This is how my parents met. My mother, Shakky, dueled my old man, Rayleigh, for five days straight. She won and then she told him: 'I claim you as mine now.'"
She smiled, memory sharp in her golden gaze.
"I guess I'm taking after my mother."
Aftermath
For the first time in days, Kael lowered his shattered blade.
Blood dried. Wounds ached.
The air tasted of salt, storm, and something dangerously inevitable.
He wasn't sure if he'd won or lost.
And for once, he didn't care.
He only cared about what came next.
[System Notification]
Title Earned: Pirate Flame — The Storm Oni King
Bounty Increase: 540,000,000 → 1,040,000,000 Beli
World Reputation: Class-S Threat Confirmed
System Impact: Marine and Yonko Interest Intensified
[System Alert]
Enemy Presence Detected
Cipher Pol Agents: 7 Remaining
Threat Level: Minimal
A wave of Conqueror's Haki burst from Yamato. Not clean. Not tempered. Oni fury wrapped in storm light. The ground cracked. Clouds split. Every agent within a quarter-mile collapsed in a heap.
Even Smoothie flinched. Mihawk chuckled softly.
Kael rubbed his temple. "Can I please get one quiet week?!"
Mihawk pointed at the bodies. "I warned the World Government. That Kael D. Raen was mine. If they keep testing that…" She left the rest unsaid.
The remaining agents fled in broken terror.
The Island Erupts
Yamato stormed forward. "Who the hell do you think you are, claiming him? If anything, he is my boyfriend. We spent the most time alone together." Her aura flared, Oni's rage bleeding into her voice.
Smoothie stepped up beside her. "I'm not letting a warlord princess steal what I've staked my claim on either." Mihawk grinned, unbothered.
Yamato pointed her kanabōat them both. "If either of you wants him, you'll have to go through me first." Smoothie's eyes glittered, leaning on her greatblade. "Sounds fun."
The Devil Fruit Gift
That night, Kael found Yamato alone on the cliffside, moonlight turning her hair silver. He pulled a black-lacquered case from his system space and opened it to reveal a swirling silver and ice-blue fruit.
"Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Fenrir," Kael said quietly. "The wolf who hunts the moon. Thought it suited you and will pair well with your Inu Inu no Mi."
Yamato froze. In Oni legends, Fenrir was no mere beast; it was inevitability with fangs.
Kael smiled faintly. "You already have the spirit. This gives you the teeth."
Without a word, she bit into it, grimacing at the taste. Her eyes flashed silver. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf's howl carried across the sea.
Kael's Reflection
Later, while the others slept, Kael returned to the obsidian field.
He drilled Garp's raw, bone-breaking strikes until his knuckles split, then layered Rokushiki atop them.
Soru fused with lightning footwork.
Geppo carried him skyward in storm bursts.
Tekkai, reinforced with Armament, made his skin glow like forged steel.
A new style all his own built from his grandfather's lessons, his own fury, and the storms in his blood.
[System Notification]
Item Acquired: Star-Iron Obsidian
Forged in dead stars. Cooled in the breath of Sea Kings. Known to drink the light of weaker blades.
Kael considered reforging Raizan or forging something new.
The Island Table Hall
Kael sat at the long volcanic table with an untouched meal before him. Smoothie entered first, dropping a bottle of rum. Yamato stormed in seconds later, glare sharp.
"This was supposed to be a quiet night," Kael sighed.
"Not with us around," Smoothie smirked.
Yamato pointed accusingly. "You're lucky I didn't cave your skull in after that stunt with the kiss."
Smoothie's grin sharpened. "Fair warning, I'm not done."
Kael closed his eyes for a moment, then looked between them. "Both of you… Knock it off. The seas ahead aren't forgiving to pirates who waste strength on petty grudges."
For a long moment, the storm winds outside filled the silence.
Then Yamato huffed, dropping into a seat. "Fine. But I'm still breaking her jaw later." "Looking forward to it," Smoothie said, pouring a drink.
As the sharp edges softened the three of them, storm-forged survivors, sharing rum and tension under a storm-lit sky.
Kael smiled faintly. "My brothers and I always wanted to be free. But I was always the one who wanted to put fear into gods!"
Yamato and Smoothie looked at him. Something fierce. Something real. "When this storm settles," Yamato asked quietly, "and the whole world's after us… what are you chasing, Kael?"
He stared into the drink for a moment. Then he met their eyes. "Freedom and a family that's worth burning the world down for." Smoothie's lips curved. Yamato's glare softened into a smile. Not peace. Not yet. But a start.
World News Eruption
DUEL OF LEGENDS: KAEL D. RAEN VS. DRACULE MIHAWK!!!
YAMATO PUBLICLY DECLARES HIM HER MATE!
WORLD GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS CLASS-S THREAT!
Ace laughed aboard the Moby Dick. "Little brother's courting Warlords now? Showoff."
Luffy grinned from the Going Merry. "Kael always liked strong girls!"
Shanks raised a drink. "Kael makes Luffy look like an angel."
Kaido shattered a sake jug. "Yamato called him WHAT?! I'll crush him! "
Big Mom cackled. "Smoothie better give me strong grandbabies! Have Pekoms and Tamago made contact yet? "
Sengoku pulled at his hair. "GARP! YOUR FAMILY'S GOING TO SINK THE WORLD!"
Garp roared with laughter. "Ain't they glorious?"
Dragon, far away, closed the paper and smiled faintly. "It begins."
Cliffside
Storm clouds were behind him. Lightning danced in his storm-colored eyes. His Twin Oni horns gleamed in the moonlight.
Behind him stood Yamato, silver wolf's aura rolling off her shoulders; Smoothie, greatblade humming; and Mihawk, golden gaze locked on his back.
Three deadly women. One storm-born pirate.
The world watched as the beginning of Kael D. Raen's legacy began to be cillized in history.