What the hell was going on here?
This left Marcus completely confused.
Shouldn't Zoro be challenging Mihawk right now, getting his ass kicked, and then making that famous declaration about never losing again? Wasn't this supposed to be the battle where Mihawk acknowledged his potential and gave him that scar?
So why was he sent flying after just one exchange?
The story was unfolding in a way that was far too different from what he remembered.
But the next moment, he figured out why things had gone sideways.
The ship that was supposed to have been sliced apart by Mihawk was still completely intact.
Without a proper fighting platform, what would Zoro have chosen to do? Try to duel Mihawk on the tiny coffin boat?
Of course Mihawk wouldn't agree to that. And if the restaurant got destroyed in the process, then what?
Sure enough, Mihawk clearly didn't want to damage the ocean-going restaurant. Marcus watched as the hawk-eyed swordsman leaped onto Krieg's battleship instead.
"Your swordplay is too wild and reckless. My boat couldn't withstand your destructive style," Mihawk said casually.
Zoro wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
Just two minutes earlier, everything had started normally enough.
He'd seen Mihawk and immediately recognized him as the World's Strongest Swordsman. Of course he'd issued a challenge, that was the whole reason he was out here on the seas.
Mihawk had accepted, but then he'd drawn that tiny cross-shaped dagger from his chest instead of his legendary black blade.
"Sorry, but I don't have anything smaller than this on me."
That single line had instantly ignited Zoro's fury. It was like being told he wasn't even worth using a real weapon against. So he'd charged forward with everything he had.
And then he'd experienced true helplessness for the first time in his life.
No matter how he attacked, no matter what technique he used, Mihawk countered everything with just that small knife. Three swords striking together, yet all of them suppressed by a blade no bigger than a dinner knife.
On that tiny boat, Mihawk had stood perfectly still without moving a single step.
When Zoro had gritted his teeth and prepared to put even more strength into his attacks, Mihawk had simply flicked his wrist and sent him flying with one strike.
The force had been overwhelming, but not enough to actually injure him seriously.
The blood at Zoro's mouth wasn't from Mihawk's blade. It was from him biting down on his own gums.
"The world can't be this far beyond my reach," Zoro muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
"Pathetic. Even now, you still can't see the gap between us?" Mihawk's expression hadn't changed at all. He wasn't even breathing hard.
Zoro, on the other hand, was already panting, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose onto the deck below.
Gritting his teeth, he crossed his blades and unleashed Oni Giri.
CLANG!
The sharp clash of metal rang out as Mihawk blocked it with his tiny knife, not budging an inch.
"What?!" Zoro couldn't believe it.
He'd poured all of his strength into that attack. They weren't even constrained by the small boat anymore, they had plenty of room to fight. Yet still, he couldn't make Mihawk move even slightly.
Zoro twisted his hips, rotated his whole body, angled his swords to avoid Mihawk's knife, and pressed forward again with a different approach.
But Mihawk simply swung his little blade downward, and Zoro's attack was dismantled once more.
This was complete domination.
It was suffocating.
If not for the limited space on that small boat earlier, Zoro probably hadn't even been qualified to make Mihawk take a single step.
Zoro thought back to his childhood promise, to become the World's Strongest Swordsman, to make his name resound across the world.
And yet here he was, completely outclassed.
Whether in technique, power, or even speed... he had lost in every category. Mihawk had only been defending so far. He hadn't even bothered to go on the offensive.
The frustration was eating him alive.
Zoro abandoned all defense, choosing pure offense to end this "farce" one way or another.
Mihawk immediately noticed the shift and thrust his blade straight toward Zoro's heart, forcing him to choose between defending and continuing his reckless attack.
But Zoro didn't stop. His guard remained wide open, completely vulnerable.
Mihawk had seen this kind of desperate courage countless times before. At the last second, he shifted his blade slightly, avoiding Zoro's heart.
"Why don't you dodge? Do you actually want me to run you through the heart?"
"I don't know..." Zoro struggled to stay upright, blood flowing freely from his wound. "But I feel like if I retreat here, everything I've stood for until now will disappear."
"This is what defeat feels like."
"Then I have even less reason to back down!"
"Even if it costs you your life?"
"I'd rather die!"
Mihawk studied the young swordsman for a long moment.
"State your name."
"Roronoa Zoro!"
"I'll remember it. My name is Dracule Mihawk. You are strong… but you still have much to learn. No matter how many years it takes, I will remain here, holding the title of the World's Strongest Swordsman. Until that day comes, grow stronger. Surpass this blade, overcome every obstacle in your path. And when you are ready…" Mihawk turned to leave. "Come find me again."
Zoro was defeated, just like in the original story Marcus remembered. Even though he'd already known what the result would be, seeing it happen in person carried a completely different feeling.
For a moment, he considered going up to spar with Mihawk himself, but quickly dismissed the thought. This had been a pure clash between swordsmen, and he wasn't even close to being a real swordsman. If he went up there, it wouldn't just be embarrassing, it would be pathetic.
Instead, he walked over to Zoro's side and pulled some grilled fish from his inventory.
Zoro didn't hesitate. He started eating immediately.
Ten minutes later, he was able to stand up again, though the vicious scar across his chest remained glaringly obvious.
"A scar like this won't heal properly."
"It doesn't matter. This wound is proof of my defeat. I need to remember it," Zoro looked toward the small boat carrying Mihawk, now drifting farther away. "This scar will remind me never to lose again."
---
Inside the restaurant, Sanji had witnessed the entire battle as well. He too had been shaken by the fight between the two men.
He walked over to Zoro's side, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and asked, "You're not afraid of death? All this just for some dream and promise?"
"I went out to sea precisely for that dream and promise. If I die on this path, I won't regret it." Zoro retied his bandana, and spoke in a calm tone.
"Won't regret it, huh..." Sanji repeated the words thoughtfully.
Zeff had seen everything from start to finish, and he'd made his decision.
"Sanji! From this moment on, you're fired."
"What?! What kind of stupid crap are you saying? There's no way I'm leaving this restaurant!" Sanji shot back.
After a brief period of chaos and argument, the Baratie reopened for business.
But this time, Sanji no longer had a place in the kitchen. The dishes he usually cooked were quickly replaced by other chefs.
In the end, Sanji was truly "driven out" of the only home he'd known for years.
The story kept moving forward.
Meanwhile, Marcus had walked over to where Krieg lay embedded in his ship's wall, still half-conscious and badly injured.
At this point, both Krieg and his remaining crew were on their last breath, completely defeated.
He approached the fallen pirate captain with interest.
"So these really are diamonds," he muttered, directly stripping off Krieg's spiked gloves.
Embedded in the knuckles were one large diamond and four smaller ones.
When he checked his inventory, they didn't show up as "usable" diamonds in the crafting interface, probably because they were still mounted in the gloves.
Marcus didn't care about the details. He pried them out anyway and fed them into his transmutation system.
After spending about 500 EMC points, he now had five diamonds in his inventory.
This surprised him more than he'd expected.
He hadn't thought the four smaller gems would qualify as proper diamonds. After all, when he'd tried to transmute some of the tiny diamonds from Nami's treasure collection, the system had only produced a blocky, Minecraft-style ring. The diamond had indeed changed form, but it was completely useless for his purposes.
Clearly, transmutation had certain minimum size or quality requirements that needed to be met.
But these five diamonds satisfied those conditions perfectly.
After logging the sale in his system, Marcus immediately began purchasing more diamonds with his accumulated EMC.
He spent every point he had in one transaction.
In the end, he managed to exchange for 24 diamonds total.
"Why are diamonds so damn expensive?" he grumbled, looking at the 1,236 EMC value. And that was just the selling price, if he wanted to buy, the cost doubled.
Still, it was far cheaper than it would have been in the actual Minecraft game, where diamonds were incredibly rare.
But watching roughly 60,000 EMC points vanish like that was painful to witness.
"Whatever. At least it's exactly enough for one complete set of diamond gear."