Chapter 136

"A monkey that can use a sword!"

Before Siano could recover his senses, stars were already sparkling in Nami's eyes:

"Oh, oh, oh, how amazing! Big Sister Kuina, lend me Huazhou for a moment; I want to go trade a few moves with them!"

Huazhou was the Grade Sword that Robin had originally gifted to Kuina.

Kuina liked it very much and always kept it by her side as a backup blade.

"You're being reckless again. You don't know any swordsmanship; wouldn't it be easier to just use flames to drive them away?"

Nojiko pulled on her ear, annoyed.

"That would be bullying the monkeys! Don't worry, I learned a few sword moves from my big brother back in the day; dealing with a few measly monkeys won't be a problem at all!"

"..."

Kuina shook her head and helplessly tossed Huazhou over to her.

"Roar! Here I come! Little monkeys, take this!"

Nami charged over excitedly.

As expected.

She didn't even last a minute before Nami was beaten into a panicked retreat, returning in a sorry state.

"Wuwu, these stinky monkeys are so strong..."

"Let me handle it."

Kuina sighed and drew Wado Ichimonji.

She glanced at the baboons, a hint of genuine interest in her gaze.

Initially, she hadn't taken these sword-wielding monkeys seriously.

But after seeing their fight with Nami just now, she realized that these baboons weren't just swinging their swords randomly; their techniques were quite refined, and some of their combinations even made her eyes light up.

They were opponents worth fighting!

Fearing she might accidentally kill them, Kuina did not use Haki and tried her best to use only the back of her blade, restraining her strength.

However, the gap in power was too great.

After a few exchanges.

The baboons were easily defeated by her, lying all over the ground with stars in their eyes and foam at their mouths.

"Very impressive swordsmanship."

Kuina sheathed her blade and offered her assessment, "It's a pity there are only this many; if there were more, even I would be forced into a bitter struggle."

"Is that so?"

Siano smiled, "That requirement of yours is easy to satisfy. I just scanned the island with Observation Haki; there are at least several hundred baboons here that can use swordsmanship."

"Several hundred?"

Kuina couldn't help but be stunned, "So many baboons that know swordsmanship? Who had nothing better to do and taught them all?"

"Not necessarily taught. Baboons are creatures that love to imitate humans. They probably watched people practice swordsmanship for years and secretly mimicked them, which is how they acquired such skills."

"Just by imitating, their swordsmanship could reach this level?"

Then just what level of sword mastery had the person practicing here reached?!

Kuina looked up at the castle shrouded in thick fog, "It seems the owner of this castle is a truly formidable Great Swordsman..."

"Let's go inside and take a look."

Siano stepped forward, pushed open the door, and strode inside.

At this moment, he was one hundred percent certain that this was the residence of Hawk-Eye.

The name was quite long; it seemed to be called Kuraigana Island.

It used to be a normal town, but later a brutal war broke out, leaving very few survivors, and the place gradually became desolate and dilapidated.

Hawk-Eye, accustomed to being alone, settled down here and made it his permanent residence.

The decor inside the castle was elegant and classical, but the furniture and floors were covered in a layer of dust, clearly indicating that the owner had been away for some time.

Where did you go, Hawk-Eye...

Not seeing the man himself, Siano felt a bit regretful. He didn't know if the other party had heard of his name, but he was quite keen on sparring with the world's greatest swordsman.

Kuina probably wanted to as well, right?

"Let's go into seclusion in this castle."

After touring the entire castle, Siano made his decision.

This castle, located in the center of the island, was simply a perfect place for secluded training.

The surrounding area was vast and uninhabited, satisfying both of Siano's major needs, and those numerous baboons proficient in swordsmanship...

To others, they might be a big headache.

But because there was a young swordswoman on the ship desperate to improve her skills, Siano actually felt the baboon population wasn't large enough.

However.

If he remembered correctly, there was also a giant baboon king here, wielding a broadsword very similar to Hawk-Eye's Black Blade Yoru, and its swordsmanship was quite formidable.

For Kuina, it would be a perfect sparring partner.

After exploring the surrounding area, the group followed Siano's instructions and settled down in the castle for the time being.

The first floor was spacious with many empty guest rooms, more than enough to accommodate the crew.

There was a kitchen, bathrooms, and everything else... there was even a small vegetable patch and a fish pond in the backyard, so there was no need to worry about supplies; they could be completely self-sufficient.

As for the second floor, that was the owner's quarters. Since they were borrowing someone else's territory, they had to show the proper respect.

There was no need to worry about the rest of the crew; Siano specifically warned Nami and the two pets not to go up and rummage around when there was nothing to do.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next day.

A little past five in the morning, before the sun had even risen, Siano was already up.

He spent half an hour running ten laps around the island as a simple warm-up, then found an open space in the forest to continue practicing the "Destructo Disc."

Over the past few days.

He had read through all the essentials described in the secret manual and tried it several times, but all had ended in failure.

The biggest problem was that in the pirate world, there was no such thing as the "Qi" found in the Dragon Ball world.

This seemed unsolvable, but at its core, Siano was mastering a technique; as for what exactly was being gathered in his palm and released, it was merely a form of energy.

After pondering for a while, Siano decided to try substituting it with Haki to see if it would work.

Today was the first official attempt.

"The key to the Destructo Disc lies in compressing energy into a disc shape while rotating it at high speed..."

He closed his eyes, recalling the contents of the manual, and the Armament Haki within his body began to gather in his palm.

Unlike the "Qi" in the Dragon Ball world, the form of energy when using Haki tended more toward materialization.

And as the name implied, through the technique of emission, once it was released from the body, it often carried a reckless force—

Wide-open, crashing everywhere, incredibly domineering...

To control it, one had to be even more precise and focused.

Hum!

Dense black Haki condensed between his palms, rapidly forming an irregular elliptical sphere that began to rotate slowly.

Siano glanced at the black vortex above his head, feeling the energy contained within, but his brow furrowed slightly.

"It's not compressed tightly enough, and the rotation speed isn't high enough."

At this level, even if he fired it, it would be soft and weak, easily dodged, and lacking any lethality.

He took a deep breath and suddenly increased his Haki output.

Sizzle, sizzle!

More Haki poured into it, but under Siano's deliberate compression and control, the vortex didn't grow much larger.

This time, the rotation speed gradually increased.

But the edges were jagged, the shape was irregular, and Haki was constantly being flung off and leaking out; it was nowhere near the perfect state of a circular saw described in the manual.

Bang!

With a muffled sound, the Haki vortex suddenly exploded, and a terrifying shockwave spread out, instantly flattening a large circle of trees in the vicinity.

"The rotation speed isn't enough; if I keep it in an emitted state for too long, it will explode on its own."

Siano shook his numb right hand and pondered.

He had been practicing Haki for many years and had mastered the technique of "emission" quite well, but even so, once Haki left his body, he couldn't control it as precisely as the martial artists in the Dragon Ball world.

Yet the "Destructo Disc" had extremely high requirements in this regard.

Haki, after all, was not "Qi"; trying to copy it directly was clearly not going to work.

Siano sighed, stood up, and paced back and forth while rubbing his chin.

Perhaps he should change his approach. Since he couldn't perfectly replicate the original version, he would make targeted improvements based on the characteristics of Haki.

It was just a matter of how...

Just then.

From the deadwood forest in the distance, "Ooh-ooh-ooh!" cries rang out.

Siano used Moon Walk to reach the top of a tree and looked in the direction of the sound. It was those baboons from yesterday, calling their friends and bringing a whole bunch of reinforcements, heading toward the castle with a menacing aura.

Out for revenge?

Kuina should be awake by now; she would probably be very happy to see so many sparring partners delivered to her door.

Siano watched with great interest.

One of the baboons, while walking, casually swung its sword in a beautiful arc—a standard circular flourish—and the flashing cold light stung Siano's eyes.

"Sword flourish..."

Siano narrowed his eyes, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck.

He returned to his original spot, raised his right arm, and condensed his Haki.

But this time, he didn't try to form it all at once by compressing a big lump of Haki directly into a disc shape.

Instead, he first divided the emitted Haki into hundreds of fine threads, intertwining them as if weaving.

"Start spinning!"

With a low shout, these Haki threads, sharp as blades, began to rotate at high speed in one direction, gradually forming a disc about half a meter in diameter.

Although the edges were still a bit rough, the overall shape had begun to take form.

"The approach is correct!"

Siano's face lit up with joy. This method could perfectly fit into the mold of the "Destructo Disc"; all that remained was to continue slowly polishing and optimizing it.

He immediately tried compressing more Haki into the edges of the disc, making them as thin as cicada wings, causing the rotation speed to become even more terrifying, almost invisible to the naked eye.

The pitch-black energy disc emitted a piercing hum, and it looked like it was about to lose its stable form.

"Go!"

Siano exerted force with his right hand, and the rapidly spinning Haki disc left his hand, whistling as it flew toward the distant hill, which was about a hundred meters high.

Boom!

Amidst a deafening explosion, the entire hill was sliced in half.

The upper half of the mountain slowly slid off, kicking up a sky full of dust. Siano used Moon Walk to reach the air and looked down to inspect it; the cross-section was as smooth as a mirror—it had been sliced clean off by that single strike!

It worked!

A sharp glint flashed in Siano's eyes. After several days of research, he had finally conquered the most difficult hurdle, and he couldn't help but clench his fist in excitement.

So what if the original "Destructo Disc" couldn't be replicated in this world?

The technique was universal!

Now, he had finally created his own unique "Haki Destructo Disc"!

"This name doesn't sound very good; I have to change it."

But not right now.

Siano's gaze fell on the severed hill. He could achieve a similar effect with a casual punch, so he wasn't actually satisfied with the current power of this move.

So for the next period of time, he had to grasp both ends—both had to be strong!

—He had to continue consolidating and optimizing the power of the Destructo Disc while continuing to practice Conqueror's Haki infusion.

And then...

Perfectly combine the two!

Yes!

The "Destructo Disc" manual had a very high ceiling; just improving it into a Haki version wasn't enough!

If he wanted to make it his ultimate trump card, how could he not mix in a large amount of Conqueror's Haki, just like Kaido?

Letting his imagination wander to the future...

He would raise his right arm, and on that high-speed rotating disc, while emitting a terrifying aura that made people tremble with fear, thick black-red lightning would constantly spread out in all directions...

Even the Four Emperors and Admirals—would they dare to take it head-on?

Siano had already thought of a name in advance.

Just like the "Divine Departure" and "Divine Punishment" series, he would pick a similar name—

Its name is—

Divine Cleave!

As for now...

Siano clenched his fist.

Continue the bitter training!

————

During the days of secluded bitter training, time seemed to pass even faster.

In the blink of an eye, two months had passed.

Ever since Roger started the Great Pirate Era, this sea had never been calm.

This period was also full of turmoil.

First, a great battle broke out in the New World between the Beasts Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates.

The cause of the incident seemed to be related to that missing swordsman, Siano.

To summarize briefly, after the battle at Enies Lobby, Kaido's temper became even more irritable. After drinking for a few days in his lair, he went out looking for fights, and by chance, he found the Red Hair Pirates, ultimately leading to the outbreak of this war.

While the war in the New World had not yet subsided, there was more eye-catching news in the first half of the Grand Line.

The two vacant positions for the Seven Warlords of the Sea had finally been decided.

One was a long-famous great pirate named "Fierce Rhino" Akshan, with an original bounty of 430 million Berries, a veteran who had even spent time in the New World.

People had expected such a figure to become a Warlord, so it didn't cause much of a stir.

As for the other one, it made many people's jaws drop.

Named "Thunder God" Enel, he had no original bounty, and no one had ever heard his name before. This guy seemed to have fallen from the sky, suddenly appearing on this sea, and was favored by the World Government.

It couldn't help but make people speculate.

Was this guy's strength really worthy of being a Warlord?

And on what basis did he dare to call himself the Thunder God...

As for the big news of the last few days.

A huge explosion had occurred in Dressrosa, under the rule of the Donquixote Family, causing the entire island to shake violently.

Some people saw something fly into the sky and escape into the distance.

But as for the specific situation, the Donquixote Family seemed to have blocked the news, and reporters from the World Economic News were currently infiltrating to investigate.

The waves behind always push the waves ahead.

One piece of attention-grabbing news after another kept popping up.

In comparison, the remnants of the Fallen Adventure Group, which had once created countless big news stories after Siano's death, had completely disappeared from the spotlight and basically received no attention.

There were rumors that these guys had been successfully captured by the Marines and wiped out, and other rumors that since their captain was dead, the group had fallen apart and everyone had returned to their hometowns.

Regardless.

The story belonging to Siano had already retreated from the center of the world's stage, and according to past experience, it wouldn't be long before most people completely forgot about it...

(End of chapter)