the silence of despair. ONE PIECE

8. the golden cook's long-forgotten conviction

Note:  here is the last chapter of the arc baratie! next chapter will be nami's arc ( and let's just say that Umekui will certainly not hold herself).

"Hearts are wild creatures, that's why our ribs are caged"

Mihwak was never one to get involved in the world's affairs. He simply didn't give a damn.

He was a lone traveler, carving the stars above him as the world's strongest swordsman.

One man with ambitions and power did not waste time on pointless activities. He saw the global government's offers to join the seven warlords of the sea as a means of reducing the number of things that annoyed him, such as the self-proclaimed gods of the world and the dog's government.

However, as the world's strongest swordsman (a title that pulls the heavens down and hell back. To be the strongest and greatest in the world is to be viewed as the most superior), Miwhak simply slips into boredom. As time passed, he yearned for someone to come and challenge his reign, dispute his right to be the strongest, which he had desired for a long time (And the disappointment of witnessing Shanks lose his arm brought back feelings of indifference and ennui).

His life is quite monotonous. He attacks pirates to entertain himself on his identical journey and wrecks their ships to gorge himself on their distressed faces. All the pirates and marines appeared the same, and all the men were the same, always wishing for things that would never come true (richness, power, peace, frame, he met all the same dreams in all the same types of men (so dull and insufficient, they were all missing one thing: will)).

As a result of continuously encountering the same type of ignorant men, he gets bored. His life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between boredom and waiting.

Waining for the person who will bring back his excitement and curiosity. That would prove to him that the wolf he was looking for hadn't died, so Mihwak traveled again, like the lone wolf he was, to find the new wolf who wouldn't hesitate to sink his teeth and claw at his flesh.

Meeting this green-haired boy claiming to be the world's next greatest swordsman (and the determination, splendor, and power that lurked deep within him made Mihwak's blood simmer) perturbed Mihawk's sphere of boredom.

He's finally found the one he's been waiting for—the wolf who is going to stake the title as the world's greatest swordsman.

Roronoa Zoro's will causes the skies and oceans to quiver because he will be greater than anything else (And Mihwak knows deep down that this boy will make history and become stronger and greater than anyone who has ever walked on Earth's surface). Passion beats like a second heart in his chest, and strength flashes in his veins like Icare concealed deep within him because he is simply not ready; he has so much to do and see ahead of him.

Roronoa Zoro's will burns like the stars above him (a million explosions, nebulas as immortal as the sun above them), and the ferocity in his gray eyes causes the blade in his hands to glow and burn.

But, to be honest, Mihwak isn't sure if he should be astonished at how fate works. His captain was Monkey D. Luffy, a name that irritated him because Shanks could never stop talking about this youngster who claimed to be the next king of pirates and for whom Shanks, his ex-only rival, sacrificed his arm. For a long time, Mihwak couldn't comprehend how a strong guy like Shanks could give up his arm for a foolish young boy.

The straw hat that never left Shank's head shimmered brighter than he had seen it before, a wild loud laugh (that reminded him so much of Shank's annoying laugh) rang in his head, and his curious eyes beheld the unbelievable devil fruit that made him become a rubber man. Now that he encounters Luffy, the stupid boy (who appears to be just as dumb as Shanks and a lot more), he comprehends why his ex-rival did what he did.