Swordsmanship Training at the Dojo

Although he was living in seclusion under a hidden identity, Koushirou showed a swordsman's decisiveness and accepted Wright as his disciple.

It had to be said that this decisiveness would, in the near future, benefit Koushirou himself immensely in certain ways.

"Then, Wright officially joins our One Heart Dojo today and will practice swordsmanship alongside everyone else."

"Wright, you joined last, so you're the youngest disciple. Make sure to look after your senior brothers."

Huh? Wasn't something wrong here? Shouldn't he, the youngest disciple, be the one looked after by his senior brothers?

Suppressing the urge to complain, Wright looked over these "senior brothers"... Well... several still had snot running from their noses, several more looked utterly dull-witted, and the normal ones... merely seemed to have solid fundamentals. If they really fought, he could beat the whole bunch with one hand.

"...Understood, Master," Wright said weakly.

His "happy" life at the dojo began.

"'Pirate King' Gol D. Roger will be publicly executed in Loguetown, escorted there by the Marines!"

"'Golden Lion' Shiki, admiral of the Flying Pirates, attacked Marine Headquarters Marineford! He was defeated by Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Hero Garp working together, then thrown into Impel Down!"

"Before his execution, 'Pirate King' Roger revealed a shocking secret—the great treasure known as 'ONE PIECE'!"

"The Great Pirate Era has arrived!"

"The World Government establishes the Shichibukai system! The first Shichibukai—great pirate 'Sir' Crocodile!"

The pirate world's media system was incredibly advanced. Magical birds like News Coos and bizarre creatures like Den Den Mushi were practically cash-on-delivery autonomous delivery drones and mobile phones, with even more advanced projection versions...

Thus, in this extraordinary year, several major events that would alter the course of world history swiftly became known across the globe.

Over the past few months at the dojo, Wright had trained diligently in swordsmanship under Koushirou's guidance, gradually making up for the mistakes and hidden dangers left behind by his previous self-training.

With the healing and restorative effects of Holy Light Power, Wright had greater endurance than swordsmen of the same level and was less afraid of injury. As a result, he trained even more recklessly.

Many times, Wright had his senior brothers gang up on him to train his combat reactions. Although Wright's foundations were solid and his physical ability far surpassed ordinary people's, the elite disciples Koushirou had taught could still break through his defenses when they joined forces and beat Wright—who was using only swordsmanship—into a swollen mess.

Wright became more and more convinced of Koushirou's teaching ability. He trained even harder, sparred with his senior brothers to test himself, and continued improving.

History had entered the Great Pirate Era. The panic of civilians, the shortage of Marine forces, and the revelry of pirates were slowly changing the world's balance.

To survive on these increasingly dangerous seas, let alone fulfill his dreams, he needed formidable strength—enough to join the ranks of the world's strongest!

There were still more than twenty years until the world's greatest period of upheaval, the point at which the story began. Wright had ample time to grow stronger—strong enough that the changing era could not shake him, or even... strong enough to shake the era by himself!

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was Sea Calendar 1502. That year, a major event took place—the World Government, on the charge of "illegally researching Poneglyphs and attempting to revive Ancient Weapons," instructed the Marines to launch a Buster Call and erase the archaeological holy land of Ohara from the map. The Tree of Omniscience, which had stood for over five thousand years, was destroyed.

Wright naturally knew the details behind this, but fully aware of the importance of strength, he merely displayed the same limited surprise as everyone else. Like an ordinary person, he privately "condemned" the "evil deeds" of the World Government and the Marines for shelling civilian refugee ships with his senior brothers, before throwing himself back into harsh training.

The results of his efforts were gratifying. After correcting his previous flaws, Wright's swordsmanship began advancing by leaps and bounds once more, and he naturally arrived at an extremely crucial bottleneck.

"The realm of a 'swordsman'... cutting what one wishes to cut, and not cutting what one does not wish to cut..."

Swordsmanship could never reach the realm of a swordsman through merely one or two pieces of advice. Otherwise, as a veteran ONE PIECE fan, Wright had memorized the famous lines of Swordsman Koushirou, Great Swordsman Hawkeye Mihawk, Swordsman Hyouzou, and others. Why would he need to take a master and train?

The cultivation of swordsmanship was an all-around improvement. Physical training and spiritual training were both indispensable. Physical training required proper guidance to avoid leaving lasting problems, while spiritual training demanded even more from one's environment and directional guidance.

The methods of physical training were relatively uniform, but methods of spiritual training came in countless forms.

Some tempered their spirit through battle, forging their will as tough as steel. Some stimulated their spirit through slaughter, believing that one could not live without becoming consumed by madness. Some honed their spirit through meditation, recognizing themselves until their minds became complete and harmonious. Others were born with extraordinary talent, experiencing a flash of insight from a single emotion or scene and attaining enlightenment overnight, and so on.

Orthodox methods of spiritual cultivation focused mainly on battle and meditation. Movement and stillness complemented each other, progressing step by step. But if one explored alone without guidance, not only would twice the effort yield half the result, all manner of mistakes and hidden dangers could arise.

Ordinary people rarely noticed the mistakes and hidden dangers within their own thoughts and spirit in time, much less correct them proactively, unless they encountered a major opportunity. Yet in this world, so-called major opportunities often meant having to pay a painful price. That was when the importance of an outstanding mentor became clear.

Wright possessed Holy Light Power, something that had never appeared in this world. Its ability to recover from injuries and restore stamina was unprecedented, and Holy Light Power was an energy closely tied to spiritual attributes such as one's spirit, faith, and will.

Holy Light Power healed physical injuries, restored stamina, and strengthened the spirit, while training the body and spirit in turn promoted the development and advancement of Holy Light Power. In that sense, it was rather similar to a Devil Fruit ability.

Now that Wright also had an excellent swordsmanship mentor, he no longer needed to take detours in his spiritual cultivation. And so—

"The breath of all things... and their voices..."

As long as all things existed, they had a "breath" and made a "sound." More precisely, all things were constantly "pulsing."

By perceiving this pulse, one could gain the power to cut what one wished to cut, as well as the power not to cut what one wished to protect.

The pulse of stone;

The pulse of leaves;

The pulse of the breeze;

The pulse of flame;

The pulse of the stream;

The pulse of grass and trees;

And... the pulse of countless lives...

No, it was not only that.

Sitting cross-legged before a massive boulder for his regular meditation, Wright felt as though his consciousness had left his body. His body relaxed, yet vague images seemed to emerge before his tightly closed eyes. All kinds of mysterious, faint, wondrous "information" seemed to enter through his eyes and ears, or perhaps directly into his mind...

What a marvelous feeling. It's like... the legendary soul leaving the body.

Wright had been in this state for some time. He knew that this was the threshold he needed to break through—the threshold from "swordsman" to "Swordsman," or perhaps something more...