East Blue, Shimotsuki Village.
The sea breeze carried a damp, salty bite as it swept across reefs and sand.
A green-haired boy stood shirtless by the shore, both hands gripping a bamboo sword taller than he was. Again and again, he swung at the rolling waves.
Sweat soaked his short hair and ran down his cheeks, but he didn't notice. His throat tore out meaningless roars, as if he meant to split the ocean in half.
Every strike used all his strength, kicking up a whistling gust.
Yet the waves stayed the same. They crashed against the rocks, burst into countless white foams, and flowed right back into the sea.
"Boy. Your sword is crying."
A rasping old voice came from a nearby rock.
The boy froze mid-swing and snapped his head around, spotting an old man with straight brows sitting cross-legged.
The old man wore a simple kimono. A gourd of sake rested before him. His eyes were narrowed as he studied the boy.
"What did you say?" Zoro frowned, visibly annoyed.
"I said," Shimotsuki Koushirou took a swig from the gourd, "your sword is crying because of that brute strength of yours. You're not using a sword. You're using a stick."
Zoro's face flushed red. "What the hell are you saying! I'm training!"
Koushirou ignored his shouting. He extended a withered finger toward a reef in the distance, a stone polished smooth by years of waves.
"All things have a breath. Listen. Feel it. Like that stone. If you try to cleave it with force, you'll only shatter your wrists. But if you can find the weakest line in it, then even a sewing needle can make it break."
After that, the old man said nothing more, simply drinking as if the world didn't exist.
Zoro stood there, stunned.
He stared at the reef, then at the bamboo sword in his hands, the words echoing in his mind.
All things have a breath.
He didn't fully understand, but something inside him had been struck.
Zoro drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. He stopped roaring. He simply stood still, sensing the flow of wind, the rhythm of the waves, even the faint tremble of the bamboo sword in his grip.
A long time passed.
He opened his eyes sharply and swung.
This slash carried none of his previous thunderous spectacle, yet it was so fast it left only an afterimage.
The blade cut the air with a crisp, ringing note.
Zoro stared at his own hands, realization flickering in his eyes.
He bowed toward the direction the old man had left, then grabbed his bamboo sword and sprinted toward the dojo, excitement blazing.
"Kuina! Fight me again!"
Inside the dojo, Zoro's shout boomed with full force.
Kuina lowered the bamboo sword in her hand and looked at him calmly. "You've already lost twenty times today, Zoro."
"This time's different!" Zoro spread his stance, his eyes more focused than they'd ever been.
He recalled the feeling at the shore. He lowered his body, becoming a bow drawn to its limit.
"Hah!"
With a sharp roar, he pushed off, exploding forward.
His bamboo sword no longer flailed wildly. It stabbed along a vicious angle, aimed straight at Kuina's chest.
Kuina merely stepped half a pace to the left and lightly turned her wrist.
Thunk.
The dull impact of bamboo rang out. Zoro felt a clever force transfer through her sword, knocking his sure-kill strike off its path in an instant.
He hadn't even had time to change.
A bamboo blade was already pressed coldly against his throat.
Again.
One move.
Zoro dropped to his knees in defeat, the bamboo sword slipping from his hand.
"Why… why can't I beat you!"
Night fell. Moonlight spilled like water.
Zoro and Kuina sat side by side on the dojo steps.
"Hey." Zoro's voice was muffled. "Do you really think… a girl can't become the world's strongest swordsman?"
Kuina hugged her knees and stared at the moon, not answering.
"I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman!" Zoro suddenly jumped up and pointed at the sky, shouting at the top of his lungs. "My name will shake the world! Everyone's going to know it!"
Kuina turned to him. Under the moonlight, the green-haired boy looked half-crazed, like a beast refusing to bow.
For the first time, a ripple crossed her usually calm face.
She stood up too, meeting Zoro's eyes head-on.
"They all say girls are born weaker than boys, and when we grow up, the gap only gets bigger… My father says it too."
Her voice trembled, but the stubbornness inside it was unshakable. "But I don't accept that. Not ever."
She lifted the famed blade at her waist, Wado Ichimonji. Its sheath gleamed like ivory in the moonlight.
"Zoro. Let's make a promise."
"One day… one of us will become the world's greatest swordsman!"
Zoro stared at the fire burning in her eyes and nodded hard. "Yeah. Promise!"
When Zoro returned home, the frustration and defeat in his chest had been swept clean.
He dug out the newspaper, wanting to see what news the seas had brought lately.
A photograph dominated the page.
A man with eyes sharp as a hawk, carrying an enormous black cross-shaped blade on his back.
The headline was printed in bold black letters:
"WORLD'S STRONGEST SWORDSMAN 'HAWKEYES' DRACULE MIHAWK STATIONED AT SABAODY, DOZENS OF CHALLENGERS FALL WITHOUT A SINGLE MOVE!"
The report described in detail how those swordsmen, each with a name that carried weight even in the New World, couldn't last one exchange in front of that man.
"Hawkeyes… Dracule Mihawk…" Zoro traced the name with his finger, his heart thundering against his ribs.
So on the other side of the sea, there were this many swordsmen.
This strong.
And the throne of world's strongest was right there.
He clenched his fist.
The thought of setting sail, of challenging even stronger opponents, took root inside him for the first time, clear and undeniable.
At the same time, at the Shimotsuki Dojo…
Kuina finished her extra training for the day. Sweat had already soaked through her gi.
To make up for the so-called "gender disadvantage" her father talked about, she trained longer than anyone, every day, grinding harder than anyone else.
She carefully returned Wado Ichimonji to the sword rack, wiped the sweat from her brow, and released a long breath.
Fatigue surged over her like a tide. She steadied herself against the wall and started up the stairs to rest.
In the quiet night, the wooden steps gave a faint creak.
As she stepped onto the last stair, her foot hit something she hadn't seen, and she slipped.
"Ah!"
A short, sharp cry.
Kuina lost her balance instantly, her body pitching straight down the stairs.
Weightlessness wrapped around her as the world spun violently.
Her father's regretful eyes, Zoro's furious, unwilling shout, the cold hilt of Wado Ichimonji…
Images flashed through her mind in a blur.
It's over.
She closed her eyes in despair.
The pain she expected never came.
In the moment before her body met the hard floor, she felt as if she'd fallen into something cold and soft.
A formless shadow surged up from nowhere, gently cradling her back, bleeding away almost all of the impact.
The sensation lasted less than a second.
Then her head still knocked against the floor.
Thud.
Her consciousness sank into darkness.
…
After what felt like forever, Kuina's eyelids trembled, and she slowly opened them.
A sharp medicinal smell stabbed into her nose. Thick bandages wrapped her head, and a dull ache pulsed behind them.
She turned her eyes and took in the room.
Her room.
By the bed, a green-haired head was slumped there asleep, breathing deep. Two clear tear tracks marked his cheeks, his eyes red and swollen.
Kuina twitched her fingers as memory slowly drifted back.
She remembered.
She had fallen down the stairs.
But… why did it feel… wrong?
She forced herself to recall that instant as she fell.
That cold, soft thing, gently holding her.
That shadow.
What was it?
A hallucination in the moment before impact?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to add this story to your Library, drop a review, and leave a Power Stone if you enjoyed it!
If you're itching to see what happens next, check out the advanced chapters on my Patron!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"