“Alright, you don’t have to say it.
I get it.”
One look at Zoro’s expression told Rocks everything he needed to know.
The kid had clearly racked up a lot of losses in the time since they’d last seen each other.
No need to pile on.
He’d let it go.
Zoro’s expression darkened.
His tone came out flat: “What exactly do you think you get?
I’ll beat Kuina fair and square one day, unlike you.”
“Fighting isn’t a dinner party.
It isn’t essay writing or embroidery.
It doesn’t call for elegance, or patience, or good manners and restraint.
Fighting is a craft, a craft built around killing.
Hitting your opponent hard and fast before they can react.
That’s technique.
That’s tactics.
You’ve still got a lot to learn, Zoro.”
Zoro went quiet, thinking it over.
There was something to that, maybe.
Rocks clapped him on the shoulder.
“Keep at it.
I genuinely believe you’ll be a powerhouse someday.
The title of the world’s third greatest swordsman is yours for the taking.”
Why third?
Because first was his.
Second was Kuina’s.
Third was the best Zoro was going to get.
Zoro’s expression shifted into something hard to read.
“You’re not seriously saying the world’s greatest swordsman is going to be you, and the second greatest is going to be Kuina.”
Rocks looked at him with genuine surprise.
“Not bad.
A few years and you’ve actually gotten smarter.”
Zoro had nothing to say.
Where did this guy’s confidence even come from?
He’d admit Rocks was strong.
Just not in swordsmanship.
That was the one area he really couldn’t bring himself to comment on.
“Alright, enough standing around talking.
I need to get to the Isshin Dojo to see Teacher Koushirou and Kuina.
Coming?”
“I’m heading to the dojo too.”
“Still saying you weren’t lost?
Relax, I’m not going to make fun of you.
Everyone around here already knows you can’t find your way out of a straight road.”
Zoro said nothing.
He very much wanted to fight this person for three hundred rounds.
He quietly made up his mind: the moment they got to the dojo, he was showing this guy exactly what his Three-Sword Style could do.
And so the two of them, not having seen each other in years, fell into a loose, intermittent conversation and walked toward the Isshin Dojo together.
It took them about fifteen minutes to get there.
Looking at the familiar building, Rocks felt something stir in him.
“Same as always.
Hasn’t changed much.”
He said it half to himself, then let his eyes flicker with a faint red light as he spread his Observation Haki out across the entire dojo.
Two familiar presences, in the same location.
After eating the Mythical Zoan, Black-Winged Hollow Demon fruit, Rocks had awakened Observation Haki.
Hollows possessed a natural ability to detect spiritual pressure.
In this world, that ability had manifested as Observation Haki.
It was the reason old Dick had always believed Rocks was born with it awakened.
“I’m going ahead to find Teacher Koushirou and Kuina.”
He said it to Zoro, then pushed off the ground.
His figure vanished from the spot as if he’d teleported.
That was one of the Hollow’s abilities: Sonido.
“That’s fast.”
Zoro’s pupils contracted sharply.
His expression froze.
He hadn’t even seen Rocks move.
One moment he was there, and then in the span of a blink he was gone.
That speed was something else entirely.
If they were in a fight right now, could he even react in time?
“How is he this strong?
Don’t tell me his swordsmanship has actually caught up too.”
Zoro muttered under his breath, and felt, unexpectedly, a weight settle on him.
His goal wasn’t just Kuina anymore, the one person who had never lost to him.
It was also this person, who had once beaten Kuina.
At the same time.
In the back courtyard of the Isshin Dojo.
At the exact moment Rocks’s Observation Haki swept through the grounds.
A middle-aged man in a kimono, sipping tea and watching a slender girl with a ponytail run through her sword forms, paused.
Something flickered in his expression.
“Hm.
Observation Haki?”
A man of his experience knew very well what Haki was.
It was just that in the East Blue, Haki was extraordinarily rare.
He placed his teacup down and smiled.
“That would be the boy.
Years away, and his Haki use has gotten considerably sharper.”
He paused.
“Now the question is whether that swordsmanship of his has…
improved at all.”
Of all the students the Isshin Dojo had ever produced, none had left a deeper impression on Koushirou than Rocks.
Set aside the question of sword aptitude entirely.
In every other regard, he had never seen anyone more remarkable.
Born with awakened Observation Haki, carrying some kind of Mythical Zoan ability.
The one regret was the swordsmanship talent, or the lack of it.
The sword simply was not his path.
“Father, is something the matter?”
The girl with the ponytail paused her forms, curious.
She was tall and well-built, with a clean, striking face that carried a natural sharpness to it.
She hadn’t quite caught her father’s murmured words.
“Something about swordsmanship improving?”
“The boy’s come to fulfill his promise with you.”
Koushirou pushed up his glasses and smiled.
“By the timing, the three-year mark is less than two months out.”
“The promise?”
Kuina repeated the words.
Then her eyes lit up.
She clearly remembered.
A smile crossed her face, genuine and warm.
“It’s Rocks?
I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“Are you confident?”
“In swordsmanship, I won’t lose.”
“Three years is enough time to change a great deal.
Rocks’s swordsmanship might not be the same as it was.
Don’t take it too lightly.”
“I won’t.
Not this time.”
Kuina sheathed the Wado Ichimonji and pushed the hair back from her face.
Her voice was serious.
“This time I’ll win.”
“Sounds like you’ve got quite a bit of confidence there, Kuina.”
Rocks appeared in the back courtyard as if from nowhere, catching the tail end of her words.
He smiled.
“Though it’s been nearly three years since we last saw each other.
That’s a long time.”
“And I haven’t let my swordsmanship go to waste in that time.”
That was the truth.
He had never set the sword down.
His swordsmanship had genuinely improved since they last crossed blades.
He turned and raised a hand toward Koushirou.
“Teacher Koushirou.
It’s been a while.
You look the same as ever.”
Koushirou looked at the young man he hadn’t seen in nearly three years, handsome as ever, and chuckled.
“You’ve changed considerably.
I find it rather difficult to read you now, Rocks.”
The burst of speed just now had genuinely surprised him.
That kind of movement wasn’t something an ordinary person could produce.
What level had Rocks reached in three years?
Even Koushirou found himself genuinely curious.
Compared to three years ago, everything about how Rocks carried himself had shifted completely.
Reading him clearly was no longer simple.