"Puff—"
Smoker slowly exhaled a ring of smoke, tilting his head back to let the cold rain wash over his face.
Above them, the sky itself was a warzone.
A violent, oppressive aura of crimson and green clashed in the sky, the force so intense it felt as if the world was being torn apart.
Standing beside an Admiral lessened the pressure, but the sheer awe of it had already seeped into his bones.
"So this is Conqueror's Haki..." he muttered to himself, his emotions in turmoil.
"The kind only one in a million is said to possess..."
"Yup~" Kizaru drawled lazily, his eyes narrowed to slits as he peered through the storm at the two figures locked in a stalemate.
'Dragon is no ordinary opponent,' he thought.
'Just raw Conqueror's Haki alone won't be enough to settle this.'
'Just how many more cards is that kid hiding up his sleeve?'
Smoker tossed his soaked cigar away, his fists clenched so tightly the knuckles turned white.
"Mike! You goddamn bastard!" he roared inwardly, a storm of humiliation and rage building inside him.
"You actually have Conqueror's Haki?!"
As a Headquarters-trained Captain, Smoker knew all about the three forms of Haki.
And he knew that Conqueror's Haki—the mark of a king—was the rarest of all.
Yet the power Mike was unleashing wasn't the uncontrolled burst of a novice; it was advanced, a focused wave of pure willpower.
"You had this kind of strength all along?!"
Memories of his days "supporting" Branch 186 flooded his mind with agonizing clarity.
He remembered every lazy request for reinforcements, and how he, driven by his own ambition to keep the East Blue clean, had thrown himself into every fight, capturing every pirate in Mike's jurisdiction.
'All this time... I was the fool.'
'The workhorse for a slumbering dragon.'
"Every time I threw myself at the enemy, you just stood there lazily watching!" he seethed internally.
"Was it because those pirates were too weak to even be worth your effort?! Is that it, Mike?! You only play high-stakes games?!"
His mind flashed to moments earlier, when he had desperately tried to warn Mike away from Dragon.
'You must have been laughing your ass off at me, right?! Laughing at how naive I was!'
"Damn it..." Smoker growled, his voice thick with frustration.
"To think I've been played by that brat for so long!"
Kizaru watched Smoker's near-meltdown with silent amusement.
"Yo~ Don't make that face, Smoker," his voice drawled, carrying his usual teasing tone.
"Even I, his superior, couldn't fully see through my dear adjutant~"
"Oh?" Smoker grunted, his voice laced with mixed emotions. "Even you?"
"Mmm~" Kizaru nodded slightly. "I only just found out he possesses the Conqueror's Haki just now."
"Then why did you make him your adjutant so quickly?" Smoker demanded.
"What did you see in him?"
Kizaru stroked his stubbled chin, a meaningful smirk curling his lips.
"Well, Captain Smoker... don't you think that kid looks just as handsome as I did in my youth?"
"..."
Smoker froze, his expression stiffening into a mask of pure disbelief.
He stared at Kizaru's lecherous, trollish face, then glanced up at the awe-inspiring figure of Mike at the storm's center.
'Admiral Kizaru... if you weren't an Admiral, and if you couldn't beat me to a pulp... I'd have some very personal opinions to share with my fists!'
...
Behind the Going Merry, a pirate ship flying a clown flag tossed violently on the raging waves.
"Holy hell! Why is the sea getting crazier?!" Buggy shrieked, clinging desperately to the mast, his face pale with terror.
Suddenly, he looked up.
There, in the distant, torn sky, red and green lights intertwined and battled like two colossal dragons.
"That is..." Buggy's pupils contracted sharply.
A long buried memories surged into his mind.
He was a boy again, a cabin boy on the Oro Jackson, watching his captain, Gol D. Roger, clash with "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate.
The sky had split that day too.
It was a breathtaking confrontation, the pinnacle of power in the world.
And now... he was seeing it again.
His face turned even paler.
"Damn it, this is the East Blue!" he wailed in despair.
"The weakest of all seas! Not the New World! How the hell are two monsters like this facing off here?!"
"Alvida, stop gawking! The ship's about to capsize—do something!"
Yet Alvida, standing nearby, completely ignored him.
She clutched her telescope tightly, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the figures in the sky, her Smooth-Smooth Fruit repelling every drop of rain falling into her body.
"So... incredibly cool..." she murmured, her voice laced with infatuation.
Her eyes burned as she stared at Mike's distant figure.
"This presence... this power... This man is something else entirely."
....
Above the churning sea, the wind howled furiously.
Dragon tilted his head slightly, his gaze locked onto Mike.
"Impressive Conqueror's Haki," he said, his voice carrying a note of genuine admiration.
"On these seas, you deserve a recognition and fame for your power, Captain Mike."
"I'm not interested in that," Mike replied, his tone indifferent.
Fame was trouble.
All he wanted was a quiet life.
The Conqueror's Haki clash had served its purpose; he had vented the frustration he felt over Kuro's injury.
Now, it was time to go home.
The two "kittens" were waiting, after all.
"Sorry, Dragon, but I'm suddenly in a bit of a hurry," Mike's gaze sharpened, his presence in the storm becoming like an unsheathed blade.
"Let's end this with this next move..."
The air around him seemed to freeze.
An energy different from Haki, darker and more concentrated, began to gather around his sword.
He slowly raised Kusanagi as the blade turning a deep, light-swallowing black.
He softly uttered a single word—
"Mugetsu."
----Mugetsu (無月, Moonless Sky): Generating a blade of deep black Reiatsu in his hand, as it swings towards its target.
Doing so causes a massive veil of black Reiatsu to erupt upwards and approach the target, darkening the sky and heavily damaging anything caught within the blast.
Afterwards, the energy continues to rise before dissipating into the sky.
The final getsuga tenshou ichigo used against aizen in bleach.
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