Chapter 7 - Mihawk

"I'm Sinbad!"

Mihawk didn't say anything, he simply kept staring at me with clear curiosity in his eyes. While taking a casual sip of wine from time to time.

"You said this is your ship?" I asked.

"Yes." He replied without any malice, simply stating a fact.

Downing the rest of the wine in my cup, I asked while staring up at the cloudless blue sky. "Do you have a dream hawk eye?"

"A dream?" He asked.

"Yes, a dream, something you wish to accomplish?" I asked.

Mihawk didn't respond straight away, but I could see the gears turning in his mind.

"I do not have a dream. But I do have a goal, a goal I'm certain I will accomplish." He said with absolute certitude in his sharp hawk eyes.

"Hahahahaha, and what might that goal be?" I asked genuinely impressed by Mihawk's resolve.

" I will be the greatest swordsman in the world." He replied with certitude.

I took his words in, as I gazed at the limitless sky. Without saying a word I stood up. And walked up to him.

Laying my eyes on his seated figure. I asked with utmost determination and a charisma worthy of a leader. "Dreamless man with a ship, I am a shipless man with a dream. Why don't we join force? And turn these sea's upside down!"

Mihawk slowly smirked at my statement, before he started laughing uncontrollably.

"Wahahahaha!" After he managed to get his laugh under control. He took my extended hand and added. "If your dream comes in the way of my goal know that I will kill you." He stated while looking straight into my eyes.

"I would expect nothing less!" I exclaimed before we both started laughing uncontrollably.

"Hahahahahah"

"Wahahahahah"

(A/N Could you guys suggest an original laugh for Sinbad?)

After calming down from our fit of laughter. I turned toward the seated Mihawk. "So Hawk eye, what is your name?" I asked.

"Mihawk, Dracule Mihawk." He replied.

"Well Mihawk, from now on we are Nakama!" I exclaimed with a smile.

Mihawk simply smiled at me and nodded.

"Now let's go, first stop will be the Gecko island. I've heard there's a man who never misses there." I said as I took control of the single sail and started heading towards Gecko island, more precisely Syrup village.

"Mhm… a man who never misses. This should be promising." Mihawk remarked before settling on his usual poker face.

~~~

While sailing toward the Gecko islands we had encountered a large number of small and large boats. All sailing toward Loguetown, a clear goal in mind enter the grandline. It was the start of The Great Pirate era and all those ships sailed under the same black flags.

Through our journey toward Syrup village, Mihawk and I had sunk so many ships that we've lost count. A single slash from Mihawk's Yoru or my scimitar and their dream would end just like their ships at the bottom of the endless sea. We would look for riches of course but most of them only had a couple thousand bellies all dirt poor as they had just started their journey.

" Haa! This is getting tiring, squashing bugs left and right is no fun!" I exclaimed.

Mihawk simply raised an eyebrow in question. "We can spar to pass time if you want? I've been curious about how strong you are since I saw you casually cut a ship in half."

Thinking about it he was right, we had nothing else to do. I'm sure a fight against Mihawk would at least get my blood pumping.

"All right, let me just prepare the terrain." I said as I leaned over and touched the ocean. Completely freezing a large portion around us in a instant.

Stepping on top of the ice plateforme I unsheathed my sword and faced Mihawk who calmly took out the large 7 foot tall great grade sword.

Mihawk's blade wasn't black yet, but except for the blades color it looked the same as in the show. With all the precious gems on its large cross shaped handle and its humongous size.

[Yoru pic]

As soon as he fully unsheathed his blade and took a stance, I pounced on him.

First wanting to test my swordsmanship against his.

I went in with an overhead slash putting all my weight into it. Mihawk casually blocked the sword strike and sent a counterattack toward my abdomen. He wanted to cleave me in half.

I easily read the flow of his blade and with great agility I jumped up and pulled my legs in, toward my abdomen.

As soon as his blade passed under my feet, I skillfully dropped my feet on top and stood on his moving blade.

Taking advantage of the size of his heavier blade, I slashed at his throat while still standing on the moving sword. Putting all the force I could muster in my arms.

A large flying slash left my sword aa it headed with incredible speed toward Mihawk's throat.

In an instant the large and seemingly slower sword in his hand. Vanished from under my feet as he took a defensive stance and blocked the flying slash aimed at his throat.

Mihawk raised an eyebrow at me, as the slash was clearly aimed to kill.

"Hehehe, I was certain you could block it." I said while scratching the back of my head.

"I guess we can up this spar a notch." Mihawk said, before his silver sword slowly turned black.

"Oh so you know Haki?" I asked, as I did the same with my sword coating it in the basic color of armament.

Mihawk simply nodded and rushed at me. With a lot more strength, power and precision in each of his sword strikes.

As soon as our blackened swords clashed a large gust of wind scattered in our surroundings as the ice under our feet started to shatter.

With each collision of our blade, my swordsmanship improved by leaps. As I either had to improve or get sliced by Mihawk.

If not for my flow reading mixed with my observation Haki I wouldn't have lasted an hour against him. As Mihawk managed to somehow learn my habits, he completely learned my sword style and how I operate with a sword in a couple of clashes. He was the Mayweather of the sword, as by constantly observing me with his hawk like eyes and using observation to either block or dodge my counterattacks, he slowly but surely started to anticipate my next moves. And like a game of chess it was only a matter of time before he won.

It took a total of 3 hours for Mihawk to defeat me, his sword casually rested an inch from my throat while mine laid on the cold ice as he had disarmed me with his last strike.

Huffing and puffing, I stared at Mihawk. He had a couple of cuts here and there and was breathing heavily. His hawk eyes were fixed on me, looking for my next move.

"Hahahaha! You're really good Mihawk. I would expect nothing less from my first mate!" I exclaimed. "Now let's see how you fare up when I go all out!" I added with both my hand pointed toward the ground.

In an instant two gust of wind emerged from my hands as I took flight into the air while pushing him away from me in the same breath.

Mihawk seeing I was taking flight sent a giant green sword slash at my flying form.

Seeing the sword slash, I simply cupped my hands together generating a small sphere shaped tornado. As the sword slash approached me. I released the compressed air in its direction, completely discarding his attack as sword slashes were made out of wind.

[Blocking wind Pic]

Just as Mihawk got into another stance and readied himself to launch another sword slash at me, I pointed my palm at him and in single flash a large bolt of lightning fell toward him.

The lightning was so fast that he barely managed to completely dodge it. But even after dodging it, the large explosion left behind melted a large portion of the ice we were using as a battle field and propelled him a couple of meters away.

In the meantime, I conjured a gust of wind and picked the sword I had lost in our previous clash.

With my sword in one hand and control of the weather in the other. It took me less than an hour to stump Mihawk. As he couldn't defend against the elements and my sword at the same time.