章 296: Chapter 296: North Sea: Hawkins' Prophecy
Enel's sudden appearance was met with calm from Hawkins, but his crew members were visibly panicked.
Hawkins didn't answer Enel's question right away. Instead, he shuffled his deck of tarot cards again, drawing a card and holding it suspended before him. Before he could read the result, Enel raised his finger, and a bolt of lightning instantly reduced the card to ashes.
Hawkins remained silent.
"Tarot cards? Oh, I remember now," Enel said lazily. "You're the fortune-teller I met when I first came down to the Blue Sea. Huh, not bad. Now you have a bounty as high as mine. Let's hope your strength matches it."
Even though the card had turned to ash, Hawkins had glimpsed its outcome. The reading was clear: if he fought Enel head-on, defeat was inevitable... not even a chance to run. Hawkins never took risks in battles without a chance of winning.
"I'm not your opponent," Hawkins said calmly. "What do you want?"
Enel scowled. "Giving up before the fight even starts? You're telling me someone as cowardly as you has a bounty equal to mine? Ridiculous, I don't acknowledge you!"
With that, Enel unleashed another bolt of lightning.
Hawkins tried to dodge but was a moment too late. The bolt pierced through his arm, but he remained unharmed.
On a distant cargo ship, a worker suddenly screamed in pain, his entire left arm turning charred and black.
Hawkins' arm split open, and a small, damaged straw doll fell to the deck.
Hawkins possessed the Straw-Straw Fruit, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allowed him to create straw dolls to transfer the damage he took to others. In battle, this ability worked like having multiple extra lives, with Hawkins able to create up to ten dolls to absorb damage.
"Interesting ability," Enel sneered. "Let's see what you're really capable of."
Enel swung his golden staff without even using his lightning powers, aiming directly at Hawkins.
Hawkins stepped back repeatedly.
His crew members tried to help, but he waved them off, signaling them to stay back.
After three failed attempts to hit Hawkins, on the fourth swing, Enel extended the staff at the last moment. Hawkins grabbed onto it, but Enel smirked and increased the staff's weight.
Thousands of kilograms of force bore down instantly, slamming Hawkins into the deck.
"Captain!"
"Damn it, he's too much!"
Hawkins' crew rushed to help.
"Stay back," Hawkins' calm voice emerged from below the deck.
Enel retracted his staff.
Hawkins leaped out from the smashed deck, still unharmed.
Meanwhile, on the cargo ship, the crew that had been tending to the burned worker saw yet another person suddenly scream. A middle-aged man's chest caved in as if struck by a heavy object, and he collapsed, unconscious.
Back on Hawkins' ship, Enel watched as another damaged straw doll fell from Hawkins' arm. He curled his lip in annoyance. "What is this annoying ability? It's disgusting..."
"I possess the Straw-Straw Fruit," Hawkins said. "I can transfer any damage I receive to others. I have no intention of opposing you and don't want any conflict."
Enel remained silent.
"Haha, big guy, is that all you've got?" Kaku's voice suddenly called out.
After Enel had run off to pick a fight with Hawkins, Kaku had been stretching his legs on the flying ship. He then leaped effortlessly over to Hawkins' ship, which was nearly a hundred meters away by now.
Thanks to his Silent-Silent Fruit ability, no one noticed his arrival until he spoke up.
Hawkins turned in surprise to Kaku. "I didn't sense your presence at all. You have no aura..."
Kaku shrugged casually. "I'm just an inconspicuous shipwright. It's normal for me not to stand out."
Hawkins remained silent.
"Hey, can you handle this or not?" Kaku asked Enel again.
"Who asked you to come here? Get back to the ship! I can handle this," Enel snapped, clearly irritated.
Kaku chuckled. "I've been watching you miss Hawkins over and over. Looks like all that training hasn't done you any good. You must've been slacking off."
"I haven't! I haven't slacked off at all!" Enel yelled, swinging his staff angrily at Kaku.
Kaku easily dodged.
Enel's staff smashed the railing where Kaku had been standing, shattering it completely.
And just like that, the two of them were at it again. Within seconds, they'd managed to destroy about a quarter of Hawkins' ship.
"Captain, they're going to tear our ship apart..."
"Captain, do something! If they keep this up, we're done for."
Hawkins heard his crew's anxious voices but made no move to intervene. Calmly, he took out his deck of tarot cards, shuffling them before drawing one.
"Intervening has a 100% chance of ending in our annihilation. Not intervening has a 20% chance," Hawkins said.
His crew fell silent, stunned.
Hawkins drew another card and continued, "Abandoning ship has a 100% success rate. Staying aboard has a 50% success rate."
After a moment of silence, Hawkins put away his cards and said, "We can't get involved in their fight. Prepare the lifeboats. We're leaving."
"Yes, sir..."
Though reluctant to abandon the ship, Hawkins' men trusted his prophecies completely, as he'd never been wrong. As soon as he gave the order, they rushed to prepare the lifeboats.
Enel and Kaku fought for a good while longer, and by the time Enel noticed that Hawkins and his crew had fled in their lifeboats, most of the ship had already been destroyed.
"An 80-million bounty pirate, running like a coward? Pathetic," Enel grumbled. "What a useless bunch."
Kaku laughed. "At least they knew their limits. Let's head back to the ship before this one sinks."
With that, Kaku jumped back to the flying ship.
Though still annoyed, Enel glanced at the direction Hawkins and his crew had fled, said nothing more, and in a flash, returned to their own vessel.
The ship continued sailing through the North Sea for nearly two more months. One day, several warships, each pulled by a giant snail resembling a Den Den Mushi and bearing sails marked with the number "66," appeared before Takumi and his crew.
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