Bogard and Zoro stood apart from the crowd, the green-haired swordsman's eyes were hard, like a man marching to war. Nobody could see the other's eyes.
There were Marines among Garp's retinue that had never seen them. There was even a silly rumor that Bogard didn't even have eyes, and that's why he kept his hat so low. Rumors that he could hear currently being whispered.
His already taciturn expression twitched a millimeter lower.
With an exhale, he rested a hand on the blade at his hip, dismissing the whispers.
It wasn't his fault they couldn't appreciate his style.
The training field was still settling. Dust drifting, grass flattened in rings from Luffy's last strike, a few Marines rubbing their ribs with wounded pride as they climbed back to their feet. Garp's laughter rumbled in the background as Luffy was still catching his breath, leaning heavily on Nami's shoulder as she still supported him.
Zoro barely spared any of it a glance.
His eyes were on Bogard.
Not at the justice cape fluttering in the wind, nor on the immaculate uniform. Not even on the sword at the man's hip.
No, Zoro's focus was solely on the way Bogard stood.
It was a masterpiece of balanced calm. Perhaps only a fellow swordsman could truly appreciate it. Bogard was centered, like even the earth itself had agreed to stop shifting beneath him.
Zoro's fingers flexed. He had seen speed in this town. He'd felt Morgan's brute strength. He'd watched Luffy blur like a fired cannonball.
But Bogard…
Bogard felt quiet in the way the best killers did.
"Greetings, swordsman-san," Bogard said again, the politeness so perfectly measured it almost felt like mockery.
Zoro drew in a slow breath.
"I told you, my name is Zoro," he answered flatly. "And don't talk like we're at a tea party."
Bogard's mouth lifted from its usual serious expression. Not quite a smile, but closer.
"As you wish."
Zoro planted his feet in the dirt and rolled his shoulders. He hadn't fought seriously since the day he'd been tied to that post. His muscles were loose now, fed and warmed, but the hunger for battle hadn't left. If anything, it had sharpened.
Luffy's earlier words echoed in his head.
Plenty of opponents to hone your skills against.
Zoro didn't care about the quantity; he cared about the quality, and everything about the man in front of him spoke of an exceptional level of swordsmanship.
He reached down to his swords, fingers brushing their hilts like they were old friends. Wado Ichimonji sat clean and familiar at his side, the white sheath steadying him the way it always did. The other two, hard-worn steel, were strong enough for the East Blue, strong enough for most men.
But Zoro knew better than to assume "most" meant anything here.
Bogard took a single step forward and the air tightened.
Zoro's instincts screamed, and he didn't wait for permission.
Steel sang.
"Ittoryu!"
He drew one blade, one of the two non-Wado swords, and cut forward in a brutal straight slash meant to test distance and timing.
Bogard didn't draw, he simply shifted a half-step. A barely visible sway, and Zoro's blade cut through air where a torso had been.
Zoro's eyes narrowed.
Bogard's voice stayed calm. "Good."
Zoro felt his lip twitch.
"Don't grade me," he growled, and lunged again, faster.
This time, Bogard's hand moved.
Still not to draw his sword, simply to tap two fingers lightly against the flat of Zoro's blade.
Clink.
The sound was small.
The impact was not.
A shock ran up Zoro's arm like he'd hit a wall made of iron. His wrist numbed for a split second, and his blade's path bent off-line.
Zoro skidded back, boots digging ruts into the dirt.
"What the…"
Bogard didn't answer, he merely walked forward again, cape trailing behind him like a shadow.
Zoro's pulse climbed.
That wasn't just strength, the level of control and precision was astounding. He tightened his grip, drew his second sword, and the world narrowed to a single point.
"Nitoryu," Zoro hissed, "Nigiri!"
He rushed.
Two blades slashed in a horizontal pattern, one high, one low, a trap meant to box Bogard in and force a response.
Bogard finally drew steel then. A smooth draw, devoid of flair or fancy names. A single blade slid free of its sheath with a soft, whispering sound.
The moment it cleared the scabbard, the pressure in the air changed.
Zoro's pupils tightened.
Bogard's sword wasn't ornate. It was a marine officer's blade, clean, practical, perfectly maintained. But it felt heavy.
Like it carried the weight of every battlefield Bogard had survived beside Garp.
Bogard's sword moved once.
Zoro's two slashes died.
They simply… failed to complete.
Bogard's blade had slid into the space between them, angled so perfectly that both of Zoro's swords met it at the same time, their momentum bleeding away like water poured into sand.
Zoro's arms jolted, the impact stinging.
Bogard's eyes flicked over Zoro's posture, his stance, the tension in his shoulders.
"You're strong for your sea," Bogard said quietly.
Zoro's teeth ground. "I'm strong for any sea."
Bogard's blade snapped forward.
Zoro barely saw the reflection of the sun on steel.
A cold line kissed the front of Zoro's shirt, and stopped. The cloth split cleanly, leaving only a shallow mark on skin beneath. It wasn't deep, not even a drop of blood was shed.
But it was enough.
Zoro froze for a heartbeat, staring at the cut. He knew Bogard had held back immensely, even a single inch of difference would have left a grievous wound.
That realization hit harder than the sting.
Zoro's stomach twisted.
The crowd around them had gone unnaturally quiet.
Koby watched like he was afraid to breathe. Marines stood at attention without being told. Morgan's eyes were narrowed, reading the fight like a report.
Nami, still supporting a grinning Luffy, looked between Bogard and Zoro with an expression that said I don't like that my sense of danger keeps getting recalibrated.
Luffy, raised his head and watched with a grin that wasn't goofy anymore. This would be good for Zoro. He would still see what waited for him at the peak of swordsmanship, without depending on the whims of Mihawk to survive the encounter.
Zoro exhaled.
Then he smiled. A hungry, predatory smile.
"Good," he said, echoing Bogard's earlier word like a challenge.
Bogard's eyebrow lifted a fraction.
Zoro moved.
Wado Ichimonji flashed into his mouth, the familiar weight settling between his teeth, grounding him. The moment the third sword joined the rhythm, Zoro's whole body shifted into something more complete, like he'd stopped pretending this was training and started treating it like a war.
"Santoryu!"
He burst forward, three blades moving in a brutal harmony. The first strike was meant to force Bogard's guard high.
The second was meant to cut low.
The third, Wado, was the true kill line hidden behind the other two.
Bogard watched the change in Zoro's stance, and stepped in.
His foot slid through the dirt like he was gliding. He entered Zoro's guard in an instance, the first blade meeting Bogard's steel with a hard clang.
The second blade met nothing, Bogard's shoulder was no longer there.
And Wado…
Wado bit toward Bogard's neck…
…and stopped.
Bogard's blade was there again, perfectly placed, not blocking by strength but by certainty. Zoro felt the pressure run up Wado's length and into his jaw.
For a moment, it was like biting down on a mountain. His eyes widened in disbelief.
Bogard's voice was low enough that only Zoro heard it.
"Your spirit is sharp."
Then Bogard twisted his wrist.
The contact shifted.
Zoro's blades were thrown off-line, not violently, but with awful precision that felt like Bogard had simply "answered" Zoro's technique and corrected it.
Zoro stumbled back a step, boots scraping.
His heart pounded, pushing blood to his burning muscles.
In his chest, something flared.
It was that sensation he'd felt only once before in his life: standing in front of an opponent whose existence made his ambition feel small.
Zoro's teeth clenched around Wado.
No.
He refused to let that feeling win.
He surged again, more aggressive, less measured. His style became a storm, slashes chaining together, each one feeding the next, the dirt exploding beneath his feet as he forced speed and power into every angle.
Bogard met it all with one sword, gripped in one hand, with seemingly minimal motion. Each time Zoro thought he'd found an opening, Bogard's blade was already there, waiting like it had been born into that space.
Zoro's breathing turned harsh.
He forced more.
His arms began to tremble.
Bogard's cape fluttered, untouched, as if even the wind knew better.
"Observe," Bogard said calmly, as if lecturing.
Zoro snarled. "Shut up."
Bogard's blade snapped forward again, Zoro raising one of his own in an instinctive parry. The force that met him was overwhelming
A push that wasn't muscle. It was a weight, a pressure, presence layered onto the steel itself. Already hearing Garp's explanation, and with his senses pushed to their limits, he could just barely make out a dark sheen layered across the attacking sword.
His eyes narrowed.
That was Haki.
Not the Conqueror's blast Luffy had accidentally unleashed, it was more refined. Focused, almost artful in its application.
Zoro's arms jolted back as he dug his heels in, sliding half a meter and carving lines in dirt.
He could feel his own frustration spike.
Luffy was learning this, in fact he had already stumbled upon it before Garp even began teaching him.
Which meant that he was behind.
No.
He refused that, too.
He drove forward again, teeth bared in a vicious snarl, forcing his body to keep up with his will.
Bogard moved forward another step to meet his charge, sweeping his blade in a clean diagonal arc.
Zoro crossed two swords to block this time, and the impact exploded through him like someone threw a ship at him.
His arms went numb, his stance nearly buckled.
He felt Wado shudder in his mouth, the vibration rattling his teeth.
Zoro staggered back again, breath ragged.
Bogard didn't chase.
He simply waited.
A still point in a storm.
"Enough," Bogard said softly, not to be cruel. "You understand the gap."
Zoro's vision narrowed.
The gap.
The gap.
He thought of Kuina, of every day swinging in that dojo until his palms bled.
He thought of Mihawk, not as the legend, but as a target.
And now Bogard stood in front of him, looming like a mountain, a reminder that targets didn't care about pride.
Zoro lowered his swords slightly.
His shoulders rose and fell.
Then his mouth curved into something that looked almost like a grin.
"Yeah," he rasped. "I understand it."
Bogard's gaze sharpened. "Then stop."
Zoro's grip tightened until his knuckles went white.
"No."
The word came out like a blade.
Bogard didn't move, but the air shifted, like he'd accepted the answer. His expression ticked upward, the faintest hint of approval seeping in.
"First Lieutenant Riza Orikasa!"
A young woman stepped forward from the crowd, her blonde hair pinned up in an efficient style. A justice cloak of her own fluttering in the wind revealed a rifle slung over her shoulder.
Snapping off a crisp salute she replies, "Yes, Rear Admiral Bogard!"
"Hurry back to the ship. Bring back a medic officer, and two spare swords."
"Understood, Rear Admiral!"
To most she simply disappeared from sight. For Zoro, Luffy, and the other officers present, they saw her foot kick off the ground several times in under a second before she dashed off.
Luffy filed the information away. He would ask gramps about it later. Though something was confusing him, he turned his head towards Nami, head tilting like a confused puppy.
"Nami… did that lady kind of sound like me?"
Matching his confusion, she squinted. "You know, now that you mention it, she kind of did."
"Huh…" he tapped his chin. "Strange."
Back on the battlefield, Zoro planted his feet. He wasn't thinking about winning, but he would show everything he had.
More than winning, this was about carving his will into the world, if only for a single strike.
His strongest move, one that seldom needed to be used on the fodder of the East Blue.
He drew a breath so deep it felt like he was swallowing the sea.
"Santoryu…" Zoro whispered.
The wind seemed to still.
Nami's brows pulled together. She didn't understand swordsmanship like Zoro did, but she understood that look, the one people got when they stopped treating pain as relevant.
Koby whispered without meaning to. "Zoro-san…"
Luffy's eyes widened slightly. He recognized the shape of the moment. Not the motion of the swords, but the intent. It was a vow made physical.
Bogard raised his sword, fully prepared for the incoming strike. The kid was good, if he took this next strike and kept his spirit, he would be on the path to true mastery of the sword.
Zoro's eyes locked onto him.
"This is the path," Zoro thought. "This is the summit."
Then he moved.
"SANTORYU: ONIGIRI!"
Zoro shot forward, blades crossing in a violent, threefold slash meant to tear through guard and body alike. His whole frame poured into it. Hips, shoulders, legs, breath, everything aligned behind the cut.
Bogard's sword met it with a swing of his own.
One clean motion, not a single ounce of wasted movement.
A single strike that looked almost gentle.
The sound that followed wasn't the clang of clashing steel.
As Zoro passed, a sharp crack sounded out.
Then another.
And another.
The two swords in Zoro's hands shattered. Steel fractured into glittering fragments, pieces spinning through the air like violent rain. The force of the instant clash exploded through him as a sharp pain bloomed on his chest.
He landed hard on one knee, blood already dripping on the grass beneath him.
Wado Ichimonji remained whole. Its white blade gleamed, unbroken, still clenched in his teeth.
Zoro's breath came in harsh bursts. His arms shook. Not from the physical pain, but from the reality settling into him
Bogard stood a few steps away, sword lowered, expression as composed as ever.
The field was silent. For a long moment, no one spoke.
Zoro lifted his head slowly, eyes burning. He looked at the broken hilts in his hands, then to the shattered steel scattered across the dirt.
Then, finally, at Bogard.
A slow, savage smile pulled across his face.
"…So this is it," he rasped.
Bogard's gaze remained steady.
"This is the beginning," Bogard corrected, voice calm but not unkind. "Your blades were not ready to follow your will, and your will wasn't strong enough to let them."
Zoro's laugh came out rough. "Yeah."
He spat Wado's hilt out into his hand and rose. He was unsteady, but upright. Neither paid much attention to his wound.
He didn't look away or bow, but the respect was there anyway, raw and real, in the set of his shoulders and the stubborn light in his eyes.
"I'm still going to be the world's greatest swordsman," Zoro said, voice low but absolute. "Even if I have to climb over a mountain of monsters like you."
Bogard's lips curved, just slightly.
"Good," he said again. "Then you'll need swords that won't break when your ambition swings them."
As his words fell, Lieutenant Riza returned with two nondescript swords and a panting medical officer.
Behind them, Garp's laugh boomed again as he clapped Luffy on the back, but Zoro barely heard it.
He was staring at the fragments of his blades, the way they glittered in the dirt like broken promises, he barely noticed Riza approaching.
The two swords she carried were plain, but serviceable. Marine-issue steel, unadorned and honest, the kind meant to be replaced eventually rather than cherished. They rested in her hands with practiced familiarity as she held them out, hilts-first.
"Temporary," she said calmly.
Zoro's gaze flicked up to her for the first time.
"…What?"
"They'll hold," Riza continued, unbothered by the edge in his tone. "They won't shatter under normal use, but judging by your duel with the Rear Admiral, they won't last you very long."
Zoro stared at the swords.
Then, he slowly reached out and took them. The weight wasn't quite to his liking. He tested the balance instinctively, rolling one in his palm, feeling how the steel responded. It wasn't Wado. It wasn't even close.They weren't bad, but the Marine woman was right, they were placeholders.
But they would work for now.
"…Yeah," he muttered. "I figured."
Riza inclined her head once, a small gesture of acknowledgment. "Good."
Behind her, the medical officer finally caught up, wheezing slightly as he skidded to a stop.
"By the seas, will you look at that wound?!" he barked, already digging through his kit. "Sit down, swordsman! You're bleeding all over yourself!"
Zoro snorted. "It's not that bad."
The medic rounded on him instantly. "You were struck by a Rear Admiral wielding Armament Haki. Sit. Down."
Zoro opened his mouth to argue, but paused when he heard Bogard speak up.
"Zoro."
It wasn't loud, but it didn't need to be.
Zoro froze.
Bogard hadn't moved from where he stood, sword still lowered at his side, but his gaze was fixed squarely on the green-haired swordsman.
"That cut was shallow," Bogard said evenly. "Because I chose it to be."
Zoro clenched his jaw.
"But if you ignore it," Bogard continued, "you'll be fighting compromised. Doing so would be disrespectful to your own skill."
The silence stretched.
Then Zoro exhaled sharply through his nose and dropped to one knee.
"…Tch."
The medic wasted no time, kneeling in front of him and pulling the torn fabric aside. The cut across Zoro's chest was clean but angry, skin already swelling where the force had traveled deeper than the blade.
"Hold still," the medic muttered, already working. "I swear, you fighters are all the same…"
Zoro didn't respond.
His attention was on the swords resting beside him.
On the broken fragments still scattered in the dirt.
Riza followed his gaze.
"They broke because you demanded more than they could give," she said quietly. Zoro glanced up at her.
She continued, voice steady. "Take it as a warning. If training with Bogard-san and Garp-san has taught me anything, it's that power doesn't just test the wielder. It tests the tools they rely on."
Zoro huffed a dry laugh. "Guess I've gotta earn better ones."
Riza's lips curved up slightly. "Exactly."
A few paces away, Luffy watched the scene unfold with a thoughtful expression, one hand still rubbing the back of his neck where Garp had clipped him earlier. The Marine Lieutenant was right. Even for hand to hand combat, if your body can't keep up, even Haki wouldn't matter.
He did smile though, looking on at the young swordsman being patched up.
Zoro wasn't broken, he just finally got a measure of how his skill stacked up.
And for someone like Zoro, that was far worse, and better, than defeat.
Garp's voice rumbled behind them, amused and approving. "Not bad, huh? Kid didn't fold."
Bogard nodded once. "No. He didn't."
The medic finished bandaging Zoro's chest with a final firm wrap and stood. "There. Try not to reopen it by challenging any more legends today."
Zoro smirked faintly. "I make no promises."
He pushed himself back to his feet, slower this time but steady, Wado Ichimonji settling once more at his side. He picked up the two new swords, sliding them into place without ceremony.
They didn't fully fit him, but they'd carry him forward for now. He lifted his gaze to Bogard one last time.
"This isn't over," he said.
Bogard met his stare without flinching.
"No," he agreed. "It isn't."
As Shells Town returned to its uneasy calm, something fundamental had changed.
Not just for Luffy, but everyone in his burgeoning crew of heroes .
The summit of the world had never seemed so tangible, and now, they knew exactly how far away they truly were.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's note: As you could probably tell, Riza she is based off of Riza Hawkeye from FMA, I took her surname from the Japanese VA.
Also, my Yamcha fic isn't dead. I've just been super hung up on One Piece for the past month or so. I have another, darker One Piece fic I'll start posting soon. In the mean time, thanks everyone for the comments and support!