Chapter 148: Lafayette's Ability

Laffitte gazed deeply at Roronoa, a surge of wariness rising further within his heart.

The Devil Fruit ability he had never once exposed to anyone was now being displayed for the first time; even his captain, Blackbeard, had never laid eyes on it.

Yet despite this, he still felt that Roronoa's strength was unfathomably deep.

"I didn't expect you to hide so much."

Laffitte gripped the blade Mumei, flapping his wings furiously to keep himself suspended in mid-air.

His gaze remained locked onto Roronoa, terrified that the slightest lapse in attention would cause Roronoa to vanish from his field of vision and deliver a fatal blow.

He believed that Roronoa, known as the Devil, was entirely capable of such a feat.

"If this is the extent of your tricks, then you can say goodbye to this world."

Roronoa said indifferently.

What more was there to his hidden depths?

Back when facing Twitch, despite the astronomical gap in strength, hadn't he relied on those very hidden methods to gradually narrow the disadvantage and ultimately secure a counter-kill against Twitch?

Now, against merely Laffitte, there was no need to unleash his concealed abilities; his most proficient swordsmanship alone would suffice to end the battle.

"As expected of the Devil Roronoa. You don't even know my identity, yet you casually speak of killing me."

Laffitte's heart sank, his expression turning increasingly grim.

Although he had long anticipated this outcome, hearing Roronoa say it aloud still left Laffitte feeling somewhat displeased.

Why could this fellow be so arrogant? Could he be certain he wasn't his match based merely on a tentative move or two just now?

Yet Laffitte said no more. Whether in life or death, before the final outcome of battle was decided, who could say for certain?

On his anthropomorphic swan head, Laffitte's eyes narrowed, then snapped wide open as concentric ripples bloomed within his pupils.

This was another power of the Swan-Swan Fruit: hypnosis.

Normally, when Laffitte employed this technique, he could hypnotize others completely without their awareness.

Yet facing Roronoa, this trick seemed somewhat ineffective.

No, not just against Roronoa; even against that young swordsman earlier, his hypnosis had seemingly failed to take any effect.

Venturing out today, his hypnotic arts had apparently succeeded on only two individuals: the owner of the inn where he stayed, and the wife of that impoverished proprietor.

A hypnotic technique that had never failed in the past was now repeatedly falling short, causing Laffitte to briefly wonder if his ability had vanished entirely.

But now, he intended to employ another method to hypnotize Roronoa—a last resort born of necessity.

He had already attempted a pure contest of strength, which proved entirely unproblematic for dealing with that young swordsman.

However, it fell far short when used against Roronoa.

Thus, he had no choice but to seek alternative means to weaken or influence Roronoa.

In battles of their caliber, what might seem like a minor distraction could very well directly seal the outcome of the fight.

The ripples within both pupils spun at extreme speed.

As they continuously expanded in Laffitte's eyes, they seemed to take on a tangible form.

Forming substantive pale purple vortex patterns in the air, they twisted and whirled as they surged toward Roronoa.

Faced with these bizarre vortex patterns, Roronoa frowned and abruptly closed his eyes.

To those in the first half of the Grand Line, the inability to use Haki was their greatest vulnerability.

Roronoa guessed that the mechanism of these strange ripples likely required him to witness them with his own eyes or allow them to merge into his vision to take effect.

Otherwise, if mere physical contact were enough to induce hypnosis, it would truly be too absurd.

As he closed his eyes, guided by the perception of his Observation Haki, Roronoa suddenly sensed a fleeting flash of mockery in Laffitte's heart, prompting an immediate internal cry of alarm.

An intense sense of crisis erupted within him, and Roronoa instantly activated Soru, leveraging the tremendous reactive force to propel himself out of his original position, narrowly dodging the bizarre ripple that was about to make contact.

Fortunately, he had sensed Laffitte's psychological shift; otherwise, he truly would have suffered a painful blow from this bizarre ability.

For a Devil Fruit user, the most terrifying thing was not the strength they had already displayed, but their unfathomable and unpredictable bizarre abilities.

Much like Sugar with the Hobby-Hobby Fruit, Ain with the Rück-Rück Fruit, or the strange power of that big-eater woman Bonney.

When facing these three bizarre abilities, the uninformed were extremely prone to suffering devastating blows in silence.

Among them, Sugar's ability was particularly uncanny; the moment she touched someone, that person would be forgotten by every living soul on earth, leaving no trace of their existence.

"Damn it, he actually dodged it."

Laffitte let out a muffled hum. The ability he had hoped would secure a lucky strike had failed once again.

Yet at this moment, he still refused to give up.

Call it a dying struggle, or call it an unwillingness to accept defeat.

"Die, you detestable marine!"

Clutching Mumei and beating his wings frantically, Laffitte transformed into a streak of light, hurtling toward Roronoa.

"One-Sword Style: Swan Dance."

The moment he closed in on Roronoa, feathers rained down from Laffitte as if he were shedding, countless plumes fluttering continuously with his movements.

As for the man himself, he concealed himself amidst those falling feathers, the tip of his blade pointing straight at Roronoa.

This was originally a technique he used only when wielding a cane sword, as that was the only way to maximize its destructive power.

Yet now, having lost his cane sword and holding only the famed blade Mumei, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and use it.

If one looked closely at Laffitte, hidden amidst the drifting feathers, his movements were exceptionally elegant and magnificent.

At this instant, he looked not remotely like a villain, but rather an elegant artist.

Coupled with the gentle, restrained aura of Mumei, anyone else would likely have been lost in the choreography of Laffitte's movements.

Yet his opponent was Roronoa—a fellow who showed zero mercy toward pirates, whether they were old or young, and who would never allow himself to be enchanted by such a dance.

As Laffitte approached Roronoa, the countless drifting feathers instantly transformed into razor-sharp blades, obliterating everything in their path as they plummeted downward.

In merely those few seconds, the areas Laffitte passed through were thoroughly devastated by his feathers.

Building after building was reduced directly to ruins.

Had Roronoa not ordered the surrounding people to evacuate beforehand, it would not have been merely these structures destroyed by the feathers, but human lives as well.

Laffitte's sudden deployment of this technique actually piqued Roronoa's interest.

Slowly opening his eyes, Roronoa faced the swirling tempest of blade-like feathers with a calm smile and charged forward on the offensive.

He craved battle—a battle of substance.

If his opponents could be slain with a mere flying slash, how utterly dull life after setting out to sea would be?

Only this kind of direct, steel-on-steel collision was what Roronoa truly enjoyed.

Furthermore, only through this could he properly torture his enemies.

Wasn't watching those wretches witness themselves being hacked to death blade by blade far more exhilarating than ending their lives in a single stroke?

The moment the Nara collided with those feathers, an endless chorus of metallic ringing erupted. If an ordinary person were standing here, they would undoubtedly have been driven mad by the piercing noise.

Yet what manner of men were Roronoa and Laffitte?

The sharp, piercing screech was merely the accompaniment to their slaughter.

The sea of feathers was cut down one by one by Roronoa, until finally, Laffitte's true form was revealed from behind the plumage.

The two advanced in sync, blade tips meeting blade tips. Both famed swords bent into bizarre arcs, and then a tremendous reactive force repelled them both simultaneously.

"One-Sword Style: Elegant Nova!"