Strolling as if on a casual walk,
Ozz held a stick that looked thin and flimsy, yet no matter how Kuina swung at it, she could not cut it.
Even when she kept hammering at the exact same spot, pouring in every last bit of strength she had, it was completely useless.
On the ground, Zoro gritted his teeth and pushed himself back up, swaying a little as he stood.
He was not the kind of guy who admitted defeat easily.
Especially not when Kuina was still stubbornly holding on.
"You can still stand? You already know how to do sit ups at your age?"
Like this, Master Ozz casually dealt with their attacks, looking lazy and unbothered on the surface.
But every now and then his stick would move in a way that was practically feeding them techniques, subtly pulling their swordsmanship upward without them even noticing.
Almost half an hour passed like that.
Ozz glanced at the sky, then patted his stomach.
"Hey, you two. You should have a rough idea of the gap by now, right? Hurry up and admit defeat so we can go eat."
Hearing that, Zoro and Kuina both clenched their teeth. Unwilling to give in, they stepped in at the same time, bamboo swords crashing down together, their eyes locked on the utterly relaxed Ozz.
"We are betting our resolve as swordsmen to challenge you in a duel"
Kuina's voice was respectful and serious. Zoro's was much simpler.
"You bastard, take this seriously"
Ozz froze for a moment, then the corners of his lips curled up.
"Take it seriously, huh"
Bang.
With one swing of the stick, he knocked both of their full powered strikes away. He did not hold back much. Kuina hit the ground and rolled hard.
Zoro, who took the brunt of the hit, had his bamboo sword blown straight out of his hand and his whole body sent flying up into the air.
He flew right off the edge of the cliff, tumbling toward the sea below.
At that exact moment.
As if it had been lurking there all along waiting for prey to drop, a Sea King around a few dozen meters long, looking somewhat like a smaller version of the Lord of the Coast, burst out of the water.
Its jaws opened wide, lunging straight toward the falling Zoro, clearly intending to swallow him in one bite.
"What"
Zoro's face went green to match his hair.
"Zoro"
Kuina's eyes went wide. She screamed his name, her voice cracking.
For an instant, time itself seemed to freeze.
Ozz, however, calmly reached out and ruffled Kuina's hair.
"It is fine, it is fine."
In the shadows, Koushirou showed no sign of panic either. In fact, he looked interested, his gaze fixed on Ozz as if waiting to see something.
The same thin wooden stick as before…
Yet when it rested in Ozz's hand, it gave off a feeling that made your scalp crawl. It looked unchanged, but now it radiated a dangerous pressure.
He slowly swung it from his upper left to his lower right, the motion no different from an ordinary sword swing.
In the next instant.
Along the path of that swing, a black flying slash suddenly tore into existence, accompanied by the sound of air and earth being sliced apart.
Kuina's eyes widened. She stared, stunned, as if watching a miracle.
Zoro, suspended above the sea, even forgot to be afraid. All he could feel was a suffocating sense of death wrapping around him.
The blackened slash, shrouded in ghostlike aura, expanded rapidly, growing from ten meters to a hundred.
It brushed right past Zoro's side, effortlessly cleaving the Sea King's body into two pieces. The attack did not slow down in the slightest.
It continued forward, cutting straight into the ocean. The slash grew to a length of kilometers, carving open the sea as it flew into the distance.
Frozen in midair, Zoro did not even have time to wonder why he had not fallen into the water. He could only stare, mouth hanging open, at what lay behind him.
Silence.
It was like the entire world had been ripped apart by that single strike.
His head turned mechanically. His mind blanked.
Kuina, struck dumb with shock, dropped to her knees without realizing it, her pupils shaking wildly.
The ocean… no, the world…
Had it just been cut apart?
The stick in Ozz's hand slowly crumbled away into dust and scattered on the wind. He blinked.
"Ghostly aura, huh. Interesting."
He looked out into the distance. His long hair fluttered in the sea breeze as the ocean in front of him lay split into two.
Between the two walls of water, a long ravine stretched where the sea should have been, waves steadily pouring in from both sides but unable to fill the wound for a long time.
Dozens of meters wide, stretching for thousands of meters.
With a small flick of his finger, Ozz pulled the dazed Zoro back from midair and grabbed him by the back of his collar.
In the suffocating stillness that followed.
Snap.
Sss.
Ozz snapped his fingers, lit a cigarette, and took a slow drag while standing calmly in front of the disaster he had just created.
His expression did not change in the slightest.
"This world is far more vast than you can imagine, brats."
His unhurried voice finally pulled the two kids' attention back.
Seeing Kuina's legs trembling, Ozz snapped his fingers again. Her small body vanished from the ground and reappeared in the crook of his arm.
One arm holding the girl like his own daughter, the other hand carrying Zoro by the scruff of his neck, he walked back toward the dojo.
Neither of them struggled.
They just stared blankly at this man. Aside from being tall and annoyingly handsome, he really did not look that special.
Especially now that they had seen the power he wielded.
Ozz only chuckled.
"What is with those weird looks you are giving me?"
"Do I not look like a strong guy to you?"
…
Time flowed quietly by.
Ozz ended up staying in Shimotsuki Village for a while, taking a proper vacation. During that time, young Zoro and Kuina kept pestering him to teach them swordsmanship.
Ozz turned them down every time.
He only let Zoro keep drilling the basics.
This time, he really was acting like a mediocre teacher.
After a while, Zoro gave up asking him and instead threw himself into crazy physical training and fundamental cutting practice. Whenever he had free time, he would challenge Kuina again.
Until one day, after a bout fought with real swords, the two of them sat together in the courtyard.
"I really envy you, Zoro. You are a boy."
"Father says a girl can never become the strongest in the world."
Leaning back against a wooden pillar with his arms folded, Ozz listened quietly.
Zoro, teeth clenched, said.
"You already beat me. Do not say stuff that pathetic."
"It is way too cowardly. You are my goal. How can being a boy or a girl be a reason for anything?"
"Stop saying things like that."
Zoro hefted a sword almost as tall as he was and walked over to Kuina, looking straight at her tearful eyes.
"Let us make a promise."
"One day, one of us is going to become the world's greatest swordsman."
"We will see who gets there first."
"You have that kind of ambition too, Zoro."
At some point, Ozz's figure appeared beside Kuina. He sat down on the steps.
"Huh You were listening this whole time, Mas… Master"
Zoro forced out the word "Master" with great reluctance, his face full of embarrassment. For some reason, he found it especially mortifying to let Ozz hear this kind of thing.
"But of course."
Ozz rubbed both their heads.
"After all, you just said it yourselves."
"The dream the two of you want to achieve someday…"
"Is to replace me."
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