Chapter Thirty-Seven

The unlikely pair of myself and Mihawk left behind the Divine Squadron of which Mihawk had quickly incapacitated.

We walked across the Upper Yard at a comfortable pace until we came to a series of ruins. Both of us could sense an incredibly powerful presence there but neither of us wanted to appear weak in front of the other so we continued onwards.

Using my Sage Mode abilities I could tell that the person present in the ruins had also noticed us but had chosen not to do anything.

This indicated just how sure of his power he was. Even with all of my strength I was sure it would take a great deal of effort to beat this person.

We crossed the ruins and I pointed to the large bean stalk known as Giant jack. "Mihawk the person you want to challenge is at the top of that bean stalk, I will go say hello to this person while you complete your purpose for coming here".

Mihawk thought for a moment about refusing my offer but decided it would be in his best interest to face the God of Skypiea at his best instead of exhausted after fighting someone else.

We went our separate ways and I headed towards the powerful presence I felt. As he had already noticed me walking with Mihawk using his incredibly advance Observation Haki I decided that a sneak attack was no longer possible.

The ruins around us held incredibly important historical objects including something called a Poneglyph. These block shaped objects are known to tell the history of the world. Only a select few can read this writing as it is written in an ancient language that has been all but eliminated by the World Government.

The knowledge of this language is considered so dangerous that any one who is able to read it is immediately given a huge Bounty and marked for death by the World Government.

As I was thinking about this Poneglyph a huge hulking figure emerged from the large ruin before me. He was around twenty one feet tall and had a large crescent shaped moustache.

Even though this man before me is around fifty years of age he is still in his prime. He is none other than Edward Newgate also known as Whitebeard.

Even when he was in his seventies in the Anime and Manga and was weakened by illness he could still take on the full might of Marines in what was known as the Battle Of Marineford.

As he is not weakened right now however if we should come to blows I know I have a real challenge ahead of me.

We walked and faced one another I didn't even come up to the man’s shin it was quite an embarrassing sight.

He began laughing his unique laugh of "GU RA RA RA RA" seeing such a small child willing to stand before him.

"Hello there Whitebeard it is a pleasure to meet you" I said to him as politely as possible.

"Cut the crap kid I could sense your desire to fight me from miles away" he replied.

I'm not going to lie I was tempted to see how powerful this beast of a man was before his illness but who would have thought he could sense it so clearly. Obviously his mastery of Observation Haki is far higher than the norm.

"Well I was tempted to see just how strong the fabled White Beard is. But before that may I ask why you are here in Skypiea?"

Whitebeard laughed again "You have some guts kid. Very well, you see I'm currently retracing Roger's steps to see what I missed when we were competing against each other."

Ah so that's it I thought but before I could ask anything else the powerful pirate took a fighting stance. It seems that for whatever reason he has taken an interest in testing my strength too.

He throws a punch which shatters the air like glass. The cracks spread out before releasing a shock-wave that comes heading towards me with such power I almost panic.

I activate the Rinnegan and use the Deva Path I create a spherical shock-wave with me at its centre to combat his own shock-wave.

the two shock-wave clashes head on. I was shocked to see that the incredible almost Godlike power of the Deva Path was being pushed back slightly.

Eventually the two shock-waves dissipated but it was clear in the test of strength his was even more powerful than mine.

A smile appears on the face of Whitebeard seeing he was able to push my power back. However I have more tricks up my sleeve than just that so I began the counter attack. I summoned several large beasts using the Animal Path power of the Rinnegan.

A large drill beaked bird, a multi-headed dog and a giant rhino all rush Whitebeard. Whitebeard however stands tall with not even a hint of fear on his face.

As the three creatures rush towards him he releases incredibly potent waves of Conquerors Haki causing all three to faint. I couldn't help but wonder just how much of a monster this man is.

I had attempted to use the distraction to be able to sneak up on Whitebeard in order to activate Body Snatcher but he detected me and swung his Naginata at me. the sharp blade pierces through me scattering large amounts of sand.

Luckily I had Crocodile's Devil Fruit active and Whitebeard hadn't used Haki allowing me to avoid a fatal attack.

"Logia Huh" Whitebeard mused to himself.

Deciding he would probably be using Haki in his attacks from now on I decided to step up my game against the monstrously powerful Pirate before me.