The clearing stood still.
There were always distant cries from beasts hidden in the jungle, the rustle of leaves from things too large to be called animals and too old to be called anything else, the strange breath of the island itself shifting between its endless moods.
But in this moment—
All of it felt distant.
Because in the center of that clearing stood two swordsmen.
On one side, Vista of the Flower Sword, Fifth Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, smiling softly with both blades drawn. His stance was elegant without being fragile, light without being careless. Twin swords rested in his hands like they belonged there more naturally than fingers did.
On the other side stood Giovanni.
One blade.
One grin.
And enough excitement in his eyes to make it seem like the whole island had just been built for this exact moment.
A few paces away, Rayleigh folded his arms and watched with obvious interest.
Marco stood beside him, eyes sharp.
Thatch looked openly eager.
Izo remained composed, though even he was clearly paying close attention.
The breeze shifted across the clearing.
Vista smiled first.
"Well then," he said, voice smooth and almost gentle, "show me what sort of swordsman you are."
Giovanni rolled his shoulder once and raised his blade.
"With pleasure."
Then both men moved.
Steel met steel with a brilliant shriek.
CLANG!
The first collision sent a sharp shock through the clearing, leaves raining down from the nearest trees as both swordsmen slid off each other's blades and immediately reengaged.
Vista moved beautifully.
That was the first thing Giovanni understood.
Not just fast.
Not just precise.
Beautiful.
The commander's twin blades weaved in arcs so smooth they almost looked harmless until they were suddenly at Giovanni's throat, ribs, shoulder, then leg in the span of one breath. His swordsmanship didn't feel like violence disguised as elegance.
It felt like elegance revealing itself as violence.
Giovanni's Observation Haki flared.
His body leaned before his mind fully caught up.
One blade whispered past his cheek.
The second came lower, trying to catch his side as he turned.
Giovanni twisted, brought his own sword down at an angle, and let Vista's lower strike slide along the flat of his blade instead of meeting it head-on. Sparks spat between them.
Then Giovanni stepped in and cut for Vista's chest.
Vista smiled wider.
One sword intercepted high.
The second snapped in low and nearly clipped Giovanni's wrist.
Giovanni jumped back just in time.
"Whoa," he muttered with a grin. "You really are the real deal."
Vista let out a soft chuckle.
"I would hope so."
He advanced again.
This time the Flower Sword's movements came faster, his twin blades tracing a pattern that resembled petals blowing on the wind. Soft curves, flowing lines, deceptively fluid transitions.
Giovanni retreated two steps.
Then stopped retreating.
His eyes sharpened.
He began reading the rhythm.
There.
A shift in shoulder angle.
A slight change in breath.
The second sword always came just a fraction behind the first, but not predictably enough for ordinary observation. It was meant to punish instinctive defenses. To catch fighters after they congratulated themselves for surviving the opening cut.
Giovanni saw it.
So when Vista's first blade came in from the left, Giovanni didn't fully block.
He brushed it aside.
Then stepped into the space before the second sword could complete its angle.
His own saber snapped forward in a short, vicious thrust.
Vista's brows lifted.
He had to pull away properly for the first time.
The thrust missed his torso by inches and punched through a tree behind him with enough force to send bark exploding outward.
Marco's eyes narrowed slightly.
"He's reading Vista."
Rayleigh smiled.
"Told you the boy's Observation was special."
Vista landed lightly, both swords still poised.
Then he laughed.
"Good."
The compliment made Giovanni grin harder.
"Thanks."
Vista's expression sharpened.
"But don't get too pleased with yourself."
Then he vanished, not with raw speed, but with footwork.
The Flower Sword slipped across the clearing in a blur of controlled motion, using fallen roots, stones, and even the uneven earth to shift his angles. One moment he was in front of Giovanni. The next he was to the right. Then behind.
Twin blades flashed in a crossing pattern.
Giovanni's body bent backward, feet sliding through the dirt as one sword passed over his nose and the other skimmed just above his stomach.
He planted one hand on the ground, kicked off, and spun away.
Vista was already there.
The commander's blade carved a clean vertical line through the place Giovanni would have landed if not for a last-second correction driven by Observation Haki.
Giovanni's boots hit the bark of a low root instead.
He immediately leapt from it, sword cutting in a horizontal line that forced Vista to catch the strike with both blades crossed.
CLANG!
The impact burst outward in a ring of pressure.
Vista slid back.
Giovanni landed.
Both grinned.
The jungle around them seemed to exhale.
Then they crashed together again.
The clearing began to come apart.
What had started as clean exchanges turned into a storm of steel and movement.
Vista moved through the environment like he had grown there. He ran up a slanted trunk and sprang downward with both swords flashing in an X-shaped cut. Giovanni met him from below, his blade rising like a tide and forcing Vista to split apart his attack midair.
One sword hooked downward.
The other whipped around toward Giovanni's temple.
Giovanni ducked the first, twisted under the second, and slashed low at Vista's landing leg.
Vista kicked off Giovanni's blade itself, using the contact point as a step to vault backward onto a broken branch.
Thatch laughed from the sideline.
"That's filthy!"
Izo's lips curved faintly.
"As expected of Vista."
Giovanni didn't let up.
He chased.
His feet slammed across the clearing, sword tracing silver arcs as he cut through hanging vines and low branches to keep Vista from using them against him. He leapt onto a boulder, pushed off it, then swung with enough force to release a ranged slash.
"Davy Sword Style: Sea King Slash!"
The compressed crescent of force tore across the clearing.
Vista's eyes brightened.
He crossed both swords and met it head-on.
The slash exploded against his guard, shredding the grass beneath him and splitting the top off the boulder behind him in a spray of stone.
When the dust settled, Vista was still standing.
But now he looked delighted.
"Oh, that was lovely."
Giovanni laughed.
"You're enjoying this too much."
Vista stepped forward through the drifting debris.
"As should any swordsman."
Then his blades changed.
Until now, he had fought with grace.
Now, that grace became something heavier.
Darker.
"Let us step forward properly."
Then he attacked.
The first hit nearly tore Giovanni's sword out of his hand.
Even with a good angle, even with his Observation guiding the timing, the force behind Vista's Haki-coated twin blades was monstrous.
The second sword came immediately after.
Giovanni didn't block.
He pivoted aside and let the blade split open a tree trunk beside him instead.
The tree crashed down behind him a second later.
Giovanni exhaled through his teeth.
'Right. Still that problem.'
Vista saw it too.
"Your movement is excellent," he said while continuing to press. "Your reading of intent is rare. But you still cannot afford too many direct collisions."
"Wow," Giovanni said between clashes, "it's like you're trying to kill me politely."
Vista laughed.
"Would you rather I be rude?"
Giovanni's grin sharpened.
"No."
When their blades met again, the difference was immediate.
This time Giovanni didn't get blown off-line.
This time he held.
For a heartbeat.
Then he twisted out of the bind and cut upward so fast Vista had to lean back and let the attack shave through the edge of his coat.
Marco's eyes narrowed further.
"He's improving in real time."
Rayleigh chuckled.
"That's what happens when talent is cornered."
Then Giovanni's spirit shifted again.
Vista felt it first.
Not in the blade.
In the boy.
The pressure around Giovanni rose.
Vista's smile widened.
"No wonder."
Giovanni stepped forward.
His Conqueror's Haki rolled through his body and into the strike itself.
Their blades met.
BOOM.
Black sparks burst between them.
The surrounding grass flattened outward.
Several birds exploded out of the canopy all at once.
Vista laughed, genuinely pleased.
"There it is!"
Giovanni's grin had gone sharp and fierce.
"I was wondering when you'd notice."
Now the fight changed again.
Vista answered in kind.
His own Haki rose and battle spirit sharpening until the dual swords in his hands seemed to bloom with danger. He cut forward in a flowing, relentless chain of slashes, each one carrying enough power to split bark, earth, and air alike.
Giovanni met him in the center of the clearing.
One sword against two.
One growing monster against one already seasoned.
Steel shrieked.
Black Haki flashed.
Trees were cut down by missed slashes.
Roots split open beneath their feet.
A boulder cracked in half from the aftershock of a deflected strike.
Giovanni's Observation Haki burned hotter than ever as he danced through the storm, his body moving ahead of thought, seeing just enough to survive each sequence and answer back with one of his own.
Vista's smile never faded.
This was what he loved.
A swordsman on the edge of growth, forcing his way upward in real time through violence and joy.
Giovanni launched another flying slash.
Vista split it.
Vista pressed with both blades.
Giovanni slipped under one, leapt over the second, and hammered a Haki-laced kick into Vista's guard before swinging for the shoulder.
Vista caught it.
Locked it.
Then both men grinned as if they had just shared a private joke.
The clearing was ruined now.
The earth had been carved to pieces. Broken trunks and split roots ringed the battlefield. The surviving branches above them trembled from every impact.
Eventually, both men landed apart.
Breathing heavier now.
Giovanni's clothes were torn in several places, and one shallow line of blood ran across his side where Vista had finally found him. Vista had a cut at the shoulder and another across his forearm, neither deep, both clean.
They stared at one another across the wrecked clearing.
Then, almost at the same time—
They laughed.
Vista lowered one sword slightly.
"Well."
Giovanni rolled his neck and lowered his blade too.
"Well."
Thatch clapped first.
Then Marco.
Then even Izo gave a small, approving nod.
Rayleigh stepped forward from the sideline with a broad smile on his face.
"That is enough."
Neither swordsman argued.
Because they knew.
There was more they could do.
More they could force.
But the point had already been made.
Vista rested one of his swords on his shoulder.
"A draw, then."
Giovanni smiled.
"For now."
Vista's eyes gleamed.
"For now."
---
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