Chapter 13 - Mihawk vs Kozaburo

Shimotsuki Kozaburo looked nothing like the old man shown in the manga. At the moment he stood tall and strong the spirit of a samurai still burning bright inside him.

As Mihawk and Kozaburo rushed at each other, they both simultaneously raised their swords above their heads and unleashed an overhead downward slash.

Their respective blades met in the middle and the impact generated a strong gust of wind flurrying every onlookers hair and clothes by the generated wind.

And without stopping the second and third sword clashes soon followed. But there was a slight problem, both swordsman seemed to be holding back. The curious villager surrounding them preventing them from going all out.

"Maybe you guys should take this somewhere else." I suggested.

None of them responded as they both were more preoccupied by the swordsman in front of them.

So I decided to prepare an arena for their fight.

Directing my palms downward, I generated a large gust of wind and took flight toward the sea.

As soon as I reached the vast body of water surrounding the island. I simply touched it releasing and immense amount of cold into it. Completely freezing a large portion of the sea.

Both swordsman who had kept fighting while I was gone, seemed to come to an understanding. As they both started running toward the large body of ice while still occasionally clashing along the way. decimating any forest and cutting any hill in their way.

After finally reaching the frozen sea, they finally went all out. Their respective blades turning black from their use of Haki.

Mihawk took a heavy step forward, making the ice crack under his feet before propelling himself toward Kozaburo.

Kozaburo sensing the attack, jumped backwards and unleashed two large orange flying slashes. One after the other in an X shape.

Mihawk seeing the incoming attack, dropped one foot to the ground and used it to propel himself toward Kozaburo who was still in the air after his previous jump.

As the large X shaped flying slash approached Mihawk, he held his sword in front of him and started spinning in the air.

A Helix shaped flying sword slash enveloped his spinning body and without any effort he managed to break through the X shaped sword slash thrown at him.

Both swordsman met in the middle of the air and kept trading blows, Mihawk would slash with decisiveness aiming for the kill while Kozaburo was more on the defensive reacting accordingly to whatever Mihawk threw at him and counterattacking when he could.

This sort of stalemate lasted for 3 hours, both swordsman seemed to be evenly matched. As they threw flying slash after flying slash at each other. But all their respective attacks were either parried or redirected.

Their respective clothes were growing weary as shown by the numerous small cuts in them. And even their flesh was not spared as they were full of small cuts here and there. But their will and drive to fight, to win didn't allow them to back down.

The stalemate soon came to a halt, Kozaburo who had been mainly on the defensive.

Took a couples of step back, and gripped Wado Ichimonji with all his strength. An unparalleled focus in his eyes. A couple of seconds latter, a large orange aura started flowing from his body and unto his sword. Completely coating the already darkened blade in a thick orange aura.

My eyes widened as I immediately recognized what he was doing, he was channeling Ryuo into his sword. A form of advanced armament haki, mainly used by the Samurai's in the land of Wano.

Mihawk seemed to have realized something was wrong as well, as for the first time since they started fighting he took a defensive stance.

Once his blade was fully coated, Kozaburo rushed at Mihawk, his blade armed and ready.

This time when their blade clashed, instead of the usual stalemate the crowd, Yasopp and I were used to seeing. Mihawk who had been more than holding his ground was instead sent flying a couple of feet away.

He thankfully managed to stay on his feet, as he planted his sword in the ice to stop the momentum.

The look of complete shock in his eyes, was reflected by all of us. The stalemate was finally broken.

Leaving his sword in the ice, Mihawk stood still for a moment as he examined his hands. His hands were trembling not from fear, but from the resulting impact. To him this single hit felt like he was parrying a Giants blow and not a mere humans.

The increase in destructive force and power provided by Ryuo was simply astonishing.

Mihawk slowly grabbed onto his sword with his still trembling hands and prepared himself for what was to come.

Kozaburo kept the same focus and after his first strike and witnessing the resulting effect. He started to unleash a series of slashes towards Mihawk. Who this time, instead of completely parrying the blows was redirecting the force of each strike. By letting Kozaburo sword slide on his prized Yoru instead of absorbing the impact. Mihawk's sword play was simply incredible as a single mistake on his part could cost him his life.

His hawk like eyes observed with complete focus each and every move Kozaburo made and parried with the utmost efficiency. This type of complete focus was tiring on him but if my observations was right Kozaburo's technique and constant use of his unusual amount of Haki was a lot more taxing.

Something Kozaburo realized as well, as he unleashed fiercer and firecer attacks in hopes of either breaking Mihawk's sword or out-powering him.

Kozaburo pumped even more Ryuo into his sword and swung at Mihawk, the usual parry from Mihawk followed as his large curved blade changed the trajectory of Wado Ichimonji just enough for it to miss his shoulder.

Another quick strike from Kozaburo followed, this time a diagonal upward slash from the bottom to the top. Mihawk seemed to be taken back by the speed of the strike and reacted poorly by placing his blade at a weird angle to parry the strike.

Mihawk's Yoru absorbed all of the weight of the attack and was thrown from his shaking unprepared hands. As Mihawk's sword spun in the air free from the his hold.

Kozaburo saw victory finally at his reach. Seizing the opportunity, he lifted his arms and prepared himself to cut through Mihawk's unprotected front.

I kept staring at the scene in complete shock as I had never thought Mihawk would lose. And just as Mihawk's was about to be cut down and everything seemed to be over.

A slight smirk tugged on Mihawk's lips, in an instant he raised his dominant hand upward and made a grabbing motion onto the spinning Yoru that was still in the air and in a fluent strike, like a hawk swooping on its prey. Yoru descended on the unprepared figure of Shimotsuki Kozaburo.

In an instant the fight was over. A simple blink and the incredibly fast strike would have been missed.

Mihawk had somehow baited Kozaburo into believing he had managed to make him lose hold of his sword. A genius and dangerous plan that had somehow payed off.

Mihawk stood tall and started sheathing his large sword on his back. While Kozaburo did the same.

The villagers seemed to not understand what transpired. Until Mihawk started calmly walking toward us. And just as Mihawk walked passed the orange clad samurai, a large diagonale gash started spraying blood from the samurai's torso coating the white surface of the ice completely red. The proud samurai stood still for a couple more seconds before falling face first on top of the ice, completely unconscious.

(A/N First time writing a sword fight, how did I do? What can I improve?)