One Sword Style: Birao Ranbu

"Wait! Handle my affairs?"

Yaen was slightly startled and was just about to ask and object.

"Hold on, Old Man..."

Unfortunately, before Yaen could finish, Sengoku seemed to be taking revenge. He grabbed Yaen by the back of the neck and hurled him toward the center of the training ground.

Under Sengoku's nearly irresistible strength, Yaen was thrown into the air like a parabola.

"Damn Old Man!"

Yaen cursed angrily. Then, to avoid landing face-first in the dirt, he suddenly stomped both feet against the air.

With two somewhat strained Marine Six Powers: Moon Walk steps, Yaen borrowed the force in midair to adjust his posture and landed smoothly.

"Old Man, what are you trying to do?!" Yaen asked after landing, inexplicably sensing that something was wrong.

"Didn't you want a stronger woman as your partner? Naturally, I'm fulfilling your wish," Sengoku replied.

??

Yaen's eyes widened. Was Sengoku trying to arrange a blind date for him when he was only sixteen?

The next moment, Yaen's Observation Haki suddenly sensed something, and his body instinctively shifted to the side.

"Whoosh!"

In the next instant, a golden Flying Slash skimmed past Yaen, leaving a deep mark in the ground.

Yaen turned toward the source of the Flying Slash. It was none other than the young woman who had been standing quietly beside Vice Admiral Tsuru the entire time.

Under Yaen's gaze, the tall girl in a pink shirt and a "Justice" cloak walked toward him with a golden longblade in one hand and spoke.

"Navy Lieutenant Gion. Please instruct me."

Gion?!

The future Marine Admiral candidate, "Momousagi" Gion?

Yaen was stunned at first, but he quickly understood why Gion had seemed somewhat familiar when he looked at her moments ago.

However, the current Gion differed greatly in appearance from the beautiful, long-legged woman with a Japanese-style hairstyle she would become in the future.

Well... aside from the fact that her legs were already just as shapely and slender.

The current Gion had long, straight black hair and looked more like a big-eyed girl from the neighborhood.

Yet at that moment, Gion's expression was calm but carried a trace of resentment, as though she had a deep grudge against Yaen.

"Wait, Lieutenant Gion! Don't attack yet. Let's talk this over."

Yaen waved his hands repeatedly, hoping to gain some time for a peaceful conversation with Gion instead of being forced into such a brutal clash of blades.

"There's nothing to discuss. Admiral Sengoku's proposal to Sister Tsuru was that you and I have a match. If you lose, you'll marry into my family, become my husband, and join the Marines," Gion said.

"Then what if I win?" Yaen asked instinctively.

At those words, Gion's expression became even uglier.

In the distance, Sengoku wore an expression of anticipation. While secretly enjoying the spectacle, he called out loudly.

"Brat, if you can even defeat Lieutenant Gion, the 'rising star' of this generation of Marines, that will prove you have the ability to protect yourself. Naturally, you can then obediently join the Marines."

"You damn Old Man! I object to this unfair fight! I refuse!" Yaen shouted.

"Sorry, your objection is overruled."

As Sengoku finished speaking, Gion's shapely, slender legs pushed off the ground. She instantly appeared before Yaen, and her golden longblade came cleaving down with a chilling glint.

What astonishingly skilled Marine Six Powers: Soru!

Yaen's heart jolted. He activated his Observation Haki, judged the trajectory of the famous blade Kompira in Gion's hand, and narrowly dodged toward the rear.

The hairs on Yaen's body stood on end. He shouted somewhat awkwardly, "Hey, hey, hey! You're not trying to defeat me at all. You're trying to kill me outright, aren't you?"

Gion responded with a rather cold, beautiful smile as Kompira continued chasing after Yaen.

Every slash targeted a vital point. Some even headed straight for Yaen's most sensitive areas.

"Don't be like this. I'm a victim too."

Yaen dodged each attack in an extremely sorry state, leaping back and forth across the training ground as he hurriedly explained.

Strangely, although Gion's attacks came like a violent storm and Kompira swung faster and faster, seeming capable of disemboweling Yaen at any moment, he always narrowly avoided them with movements pushed to their limits.

For a time, Yaen seemed like a black butterfly dancing on the edge of a blade.

Gion, meanwhile, was like a pink rabbit constantly trying to catch that black butterfly.

At the edge of the training ground, Vice Admiral Tsuru could not help commenting, "Sengoku, he really is as you said. His flaws are obvious, but he can still be considered an excellent child."

Sengoku watched the battle on the training ground without blinking. While remaining ready to intervene and rescue Yaen at any moment, he spoke in a deliberately casual tone.

"That's right. This brat's physique is his greatest weakness. Because of that, his Armament Haki and Marine Six Powers are limited to a superficial grasp, and he can barely make any further progress. But his attainments in Observation Haki are already no lower than those of an ordinary Marine Vice Admiral. In fact, they may even be greater."

"Then why don't you have the child specialize in firearms? With his excellent Observation Haki, he could snipe from a distance. Even with a weak physique, his combat strength wouldn't be affected at all. Instead, he could make the most of his own advantages," Vice Admiral Tsuru asked in confusion.

"This brat refused. His reason was, 'Rather than spending my whole life shooting a gun alone, I might as well take up swordsmanship.' It's a little strange, but I can only let him have his way," Sengoku said helplessly.

Vice Admiral Tsuru did not quite understand, so she could only assume that this was Yaen's personal interest.

After dodging more than a hundred slashes in succession, Gion's gaze grew increasingly sharp.

The next moment, Yaen's eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses. Through his Observation Haki, he sensed something.

One Sword Style: Birao Ranbu.

In an instant, a vast number of wild Flying Slashes erupted from Gion as their center, completely engulfing a wide area that included Yaen almost instantly.

"Rumble..."

A cloud of smoke rose into the air.

"What remarkable Observation Haki, Yaen," Gion praised as she stood with her blade in hand, her aura fierce.

"Thanks for the compliment."

Yaen's voice came from within the smoke. As a sea breeze swept past, it also revealed his figure once more.

At that moment, countless dense blade marks covered the ground around Yaen, packed so tightly that they were terrifying to behold.

Gion tilted her head slightly and surveyed Yaen's condition. "You're the first person to be caught within this technique who responded in a way other than resisting it head-on, and... emerged completely unscathed."

"Sorry, my circumstances don't allow me to use Marine Six Powers: Tekkai to withstand someone else's attack head-on. Besides..."

Yaen raised his hand, revealing a sleeve that was somewhat tattered, and said, "I'm not completely unscathed. My clothes are ruined, and my arm was almost severed."