The next morning, Will woke up feeling full of energy after sleeping through an entire afternoon and night.
A few small meals during that time had also brought his body back to a normal condition.
Sitting on the bed, he slowly began to think about how he should become stronger.
In his previous life, Will had always been fascinated by the swordsmen of the One Piece world.
So I’ll start with swordsmanship.
And use physical training as a supplement.
Most importantly, Haki.
Once I’m a little older, I absolutely have to get my hands on a method for training Haki.
Especially Armament Haki.
In Will’s opinion, Observation Haki and Conqueror’s Haki were secondary.
Only when one’s Armament Haki was powerful could one truly be considered strong.
The best examples were Zephyr and Garp.
With their formidable mastery of Armament Haki, one had risen to the rank of Admiral, while the other had chased Roger across the entire world.
So Armament Haki is a must.
Observation Haki comes second.
As for Conqueror’s Haki…
I’ll just leave that to fate.
It’s not something you can deliberately pursue.
But at nine years old, with a body that had virtually no physical stamina to speak of, trying to learn Armament Haki was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Swordsmanship was a much more realistic choice.
It would also help improve his physical strength.
I’ll look around first.
Let’s see what kind of swordsmanship dojos there are in Loguetown.
Finding a famous master is completely unrealistic, so I might as well start with the basics.
Although this world didn’t have things like spiritual energy, chakra, or other miraculous cultivation techniques, Will was a modern man who had watched most of the One Piece story.
He knew what it meant to become strong.
And more importantly, he knew that becoming strong required hard work.
Will went downstairs, greeted Red, and headed outside.
Well, I’ll start by getting a general understanding of Loguetown.
The entire morning passed in the blink of an eye.
By then, Will was walking through the streets with a huge skewer of meat from some unknown animal in his left hand and a strange fruit he had never seen before in his right.
He ate as he walked.
This is delicious.
Even though the meat skewer had come from an ordinary roadside stall, it tasted many times better than the meat he had eaten on Earth.
The fruit was sweet and sour as well.
When Will looked up, he realized that he had somehow reached the outskirts of Loguetown.
He was just about to turn back when he noticed a relatively small swordsmanship dojo beside the road.
It had a modest courtyard and an ordinary signboard.
Three large, boldly written characters were displayed across it:
One-Sword Dojo.
Will had already visited several other swordsmanship dojos.
None of them had really met his requirements.
Two of them had even been teaching swordsmanship purely as a form of performance.
It had left him completely speechless.
Well, let’s take a look at this one.
The moment he entered the dojo, he found himself in a small courtyard.
More than a dozen children around his age were sweating profusely as they practiced sword swings, while several older youths stood nearby, correcting their movements.
After only a few steps, a muscular man in his twenties approached him with a friendly smile.
“Little fella, are you here to sign up and learn swordsmanship?
I can show you around.”
Will nodded.
“Yes.
I’d like to enroll.
Are there any specific requirements?”
The young man’s smile grew even wider.
“Our One-Sword Dojo has a pretty good reputation in Loguetown.
We’ve even produced a Marine officer who reached the rank of Lieutenant.”
“My name is Kahn.
If you enroll, you can call me Senior Brother Kahn.
I’ll take you to meet the master.”
“Oh, by the way, what’s your name, little brother?”
By the time Kahn had upgraded his address from “little fella” to “little brother,” Will had already been carefully observing his surroundings.
He felt that this place was quite suitable for basic training.
Still, he wanted to meet the dojo master before making a final decision.
Following behind Kahn, he replied,
“My name is Will.
I work at Red’s shop.”
Kahn looked surprised.
“Really?
You’re this young and you’re already working?
That’s impressive.”
Will smiled and answered,
“My family is all gone.
What else could I do except work?
Fortunately, I learned a trade from an uncle when I was very young.”
Kahn nodded.
“Ah…
things are like that nowadays.
The seas are so chaotic, and the Government doesn’t have much control over the Four Blues.”
“This is Loguetown, after all.
In other places, the streets are practically crawling with pirates.”
Will merely smiled and said nothing.
He followed Kahn across the courtyard until they reached a traditional Japanese-style building.
Kahn gently knocked on the wooden-and-paper sliding door.
“Master, there’s a new student who wants to enroll.”
A steady voice soon came from inside.
“It’s Kahn.
Come in.”
Will removed his shoes and entered the room with Kahn.
The room was spacious and almost empty.
There were more than twenty cushions arranged neatly in rows.
Only one cushion had been placed at the very front.
Sitting upon it was a burly old man with his eyes closed.
He wore a black kimono, and his hair and beard were completely white.
Normally, an elderly man of his age should have carried an unmistakable air of decline.
This old man had none of it.
Instead, he gave Will the impression of an old leopard.
He might no longer possess the ferocity and speed of his youth, but he was still unmistakably a beast of prey.
The old man opened his eyes and looked at Will.
“Little fella, you want to come to my dojo to learn swordsmanship?”
Will nodded.
“Yes.
I want to learn swordsmanship.”
The old man didn’t bother asking any clichéd questions about why Will wanted to learn the sword or why he wanted to become stronger.
“Very well.
The tuition is 10,000 Beli a month.
Clothing, food, and lodging are charged separately.”
Will was momentarily dumbfounded.
Wait.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
In anime, shouldn’t he ask me why I want to learn the sword?
Why I want to become stronger?
Then I give some passionate speech.
Afterward, the old master realizes that I have extraordinary potential and accepts me as his personal disciple for free.
Despite the completely unreliable fantasies running through his head, Will answered directly,
“All right, Master.
When can I start learning swordsmanship?”
“My name is Will.”
The old man smiled.
“Go with Senior Brother Kahn and complete the enrollment procedures.
Come back at seven tomorrow morning for your first lesson.”
“My name is Ado Niss.
You can call me Instructor Niss, or simply Master.”
Will nodded.
“See you tomorrow, Master.”
He then left with Kahn.
In an adjacent room, Will paid 13,000 Beli.
In return, he received a set of training clothes, a wooden sword, and a small wooden plaque identifying him as a student of the dojo.
It looked somewhat like a receipt or enrollment token from his previous life.
Will turned around and left the dojo.
Not long after Will had departed, Niss opened the door and called for Kahn.
Back inside the room, Niss stood with his back toward Kahn.
“Do you know anything about the new student’s background?”
“Go into town later and ask around.
Make sure we haven’t taken in someone we shouldn’t have.”
Kahn nodded respectfully.
“Master, I asked him about it earlier.
He said he works at Red’s shop, although I don’t know exactly what he does there.”
“He’s also an orphan.”
“There shouldn’t be any problem.
After all, he’s just a kid.”
Niss nodded and thought for a moment.
“Then find an opportunity to verify his story with Red.”
“If everything checks out, accept him.”
“As for his initial training, leave it to Bart.
Isn’t he relatively free lately?”
Kahn nodded.
“Understood.”
He then withdrew from the room.
Once he was alone, the old man reached for a sword that had been resting behind him.
Both the scabbard and the hilt were completely black.
A series of purple circular markings ran from the bottom of the scabbard all the way to the top of the hilt.
Inside each circle was a black Y-shaped pattern.
The old man held the sword in his hand and let out a long sigh.
He stared at it as though speaking to himself.
“Where are you?”
“I searched for you all my life, yet I never found you.”
“Could you still be in the hands of someone from my family?”