Zoro Stared in Stupor: This Was What a True Swordsman Looked Like

"Rumble—!"

The seawater forcibly driven away by Lei En and Mihawk's god-punishing clash came flooding back like a burst dam once it lost the support of that terrifying power.

Two massive walls of water, enough to swallow small islands whole, crashed together in midair. The spray they kicked up even blotted out the sun!

"Hold on tight!"

Zeff's hoarse yet powerful roar exploded across the deck.

His right leg, which Lei En had just healed with a miraculous method, was planted firmly on Baratie's wooden deck like an old tree with deep roots. Both hands gripped the thick mast tightly.

The usually incomparably sturdy fish-shaped restaurant ship now resembled a fallen leaf tossed about in a violent gale amid the tsunami's apocalyptic aftershocks.

It rocked and bucked wildly, letting out teeth-grating creaks as if it would be torn apart by the might of heaven and earth at any moment!

"Aaaah! Help!"

"The ship's capsizing!"

The restaurant's patrons had long since been scared out of their wits, screaming in terror like pigs at slaughter.

Some clung desperately to table legs bolted to the floor, while others simply sprawled on the ground, trembling and weeping.

Even the combat chefs who usually boasted of their courage were pale-faced now, frantically searching for something to anchor themselves to.

The terrifying tsunami caused by the clash between two top-tier swordsmen raged for nearly ten minutes before gradually subsiding as the sea calmed once more.

When everything finally fell silent.

The deck was covered in standing water, a complete mess.

Yet amid that chaotic scene.

One person had stood frozen in place like a weathered stone statue for a thousand years from the moment Lei En swung that earth-shattering strike until now.

Roronoa Zoro.

His distinctive moss-green hair had long since been drenched by the cold seawater, wet strands plastered against his sharply defined face.

Water dripped from his chin, but he did not notice at all.

Those eyes that had always brimmed with a beast's wildness, untamable pride, and absolute confidence in his own strength...

Were now filled with unprecedented confusion, emptiness, shock, and even a trace of deep... despair.

Yes, despair.

He had watched that brief battle, one that resembled a clash between gods, from beginning to end without daring to blink even once.

That world-destroying spectacle, that supreme power that tore open the heavens and split the sea...

It was like an incomparably cruel hammer, smashing every bit of understanding, pride, and faith in the sword that he had painstakingly built over the past twenty years into pieces in an instant!

Not even scraps remained!

He had once thought that his Three-Sword Style, honed through years of grueling training, had finally begun to take shape.

He had once thought that after challenging dojos all across the East Blue, defeating countless so-called swordsmen, and earning the illustrious name of Pirate Hunter, he had already reached the summit of these seas.

He had even confidently believed that once he officially set sail and entered the Grand Line.

Once he found the man seated upon the throne of the world's strongest swordsman—Hawkeye Mihawk.

He would be able to defeat him openly and honorably with the three swords in his hands, seize that supreme title, and fulfill the solemn promise he had made to his late dear friend, Kuina!

But today.

Reality had delivered a deafening slap so brutal and unreasonable that it could shatter his soul!

Was Hawkeye Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, strong?

Strong!

So strong that he seemed like a god high above all others!

With a casual swing, he could split a massive three-masted pirate ship in two as easily as cutting tofu. Zoro knew that even if he gave it everything he had, he would never be able to withstand a single strike!

Yet that man, whom Zoro had regarded as his ultimate goal, an insurmountable mountain...

Had not even possessed the strength to fight back before that black-haired youth named Lei En, who looked even younger than Zoro himself...

He had been beaten down! Mocked mercilessly!

In the end, even after using every ounce of his strength, all his attacks had still been shattered by a single stroke from that youth, sending him flying away in humiliation!

And that black-haired youth... Lei En.

He was the true monster of these seas!

No, calling him a monster was practically an insult to him.

A casually swung dead branch could slice apart impregnable golden armor along with a pirate's ambitions.

And when he got serious, a single strike wreathed in lightning and domineering power could forcibly cleave a bottomless abyss through this vast, boundless sea!

Was this... was this really power a human being could possess?!

This was supreme might that existed only in myths!

Zoro slowly lowered his head, his gaze falling upon the three famous blades at his waist that he had always taken such pride in.

Wado Ichimonji, Yubashiri, Sandai Kitetsu.

Those three swords had once been his most loyal companions, the source of his confidence in cutting through every obstacle before him.

But now.

As he looked at those cold weapons, Zoro felt a deep sense of powerlessness, like maggots clinging to bone, spreading frantically from the depths of his heart.

"A frog at the bottom of a well..."

Zoro's lips trembled as he uttered those words with immense bitterness and self-mockery.

His voice was quiet, yet it seemed to drain every last bit of strength from his body.

That was right.

He was that foolish frog sitting at the bottom of a tiny well, looking at the patch of sky above his head no bigger than his palm and smugly believing he had seen the whole world!

Today, he had finally been kicked out of that well.

He had seen the truly vast, endless sky beyond it, filled with boundless terror and storms!

He had seen those two true gods standing atop the heavens, looking down upon all living things!

Lei En's peerless bearing as he cleaved apart the sea with one stroke, that domineering presence which regarded all things beneath him as ants, had completely shattered Zoro's once immensely proud swordsman's heart.

But at the same time.

That shattering was like a bloodstained key.

It had violently opened a gate before him, a gate leading to a higher realm of swordsmanship filled with thorns and blood!

This was what a true swordsman looked like!

This was the supreme peak that he, Roronoa Zoro, had to pursue and climb for the rest of his life, even if it meant being crushed to dust!

Zoro's eyes, once confused and hollow from the overwhelming shock, gradually cleared after a brief struggle and silence.

Replacing them.

Was an unprecedented conviction and obsession, blazing like an erupting volcano, nearly mad in its intensity!

"Clang!"

He suddenly extended both hands, drawing Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu from his waist while clamping Wado Ichimonji firmly between his teeth.

He bent his knees slightly and lowered his center of gravity, taking the opening stance of his most familiar and strongest Three-Sword Style!

His entire body radiated the brutally sharp, resolute aura of a beast driven into a corner!

However.

When he raised his head and directed his battle-hungry, crazed gaze at the black-haired youth slowly descending from the sky atop lightning.

The fighting spirit he had just ignited, the desire to risk his life in a desperate fight, was doused from head to toe as though someone had poured a bucket of ice water over him.

Cold sweat seeped uncontrollably from his forehead and ran down his cheeks.

He realized.

He actually... no longer had the courage to swing his sword at the other man.

The hands gripping his sword hilts were trembling violently beyond his control.

Not from fear.

But because of the visible, despair-inducing gap in strength that stood between them.

The gap was too vast.

It could no longer be described with words like "chasm" or "insurmountable divide."

It was the helplessness and sorrow that came from the depths of one's soul when an ant looked up at a divine dragon in the ninth heaven.

He knew very well.

If he charged in now, let alone challenged him, he probably would not even be able to touch a corner of the other man's clothes before the terrifying sword pressure that casually radiated from the youth's body crushed him into a lump of flesh.

"Damn it! Damn it all!!!"

Zoro let out an unwilling roar in his heart, like a trapped beast.

He bit down hard on Wado Ichimonji's hilt, his gums even beginning to bleed, yet he still could not quell the crushing sense of defeat within him.

At this moment.

The aftershocks of the battle on the sea had completely subsided.

Hawkeye Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, stood aboard that tiny coffin-like boat, which was nearly falling apart and could sink at any moment.

His once-neat wine-red shirt was now tattered and soaked with seawater and his own blood.

He raised a hand and casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of it.

Then he lifted his head, his yellow-brown eyes still sharp but now lacking some of their arrogance and carrying a little more fervor, and looked toward Lei En, who had just landed on Baratie's deck.

He showed no anger or humiliation over his defeat.

Instead.

The man standing at the pinnacle of the world's swordsmanship openly and calmly admitted his defeat before everyone.

"Lei En, you've become stronger again."

Mihawk's voice was somewhat hoarse, but his tone was incomparably serious.

"My current strength... is still not enough to defeat you. I accept this loss wholeheartedly."

After saying that.

He did not spare another glance for the surrounding crowd, whose jaws had dropped in shock.

Nor did he look at the moss-haired youth, who also practiced the sword and was staring at him intently.

He merely looked deeply, deeply at Lei En, as if he wished to carve the image of this "lifelong rival," who had left two indelible marks upon his path of the sword, into the depths of his soul forever.

Then.

He turned around, gripped Black Blade Yoru, which had also suffered severe damage, and guided that battered little boat onward.

With his back still proud despite his defeat and burning with renewed fighting spirit, he slowly sailed into the vast sea mist.

Watching Hawkeye depart.

All the restaurant's patrons and chefs, including Zeff and Sanji, let out a long breath as though a massive burden had been lifted from their shoulders, as if they had just sent away a plague god who could bring calamity down at any moment.

And Zoro.

He stared fixedly in the direction Hawkeye had vanished, then slowly turned his head toward Lei En, who stood on the deck surrounded respectfully by Kuina and Kuro, as though nothing had happened.

His eyes were full of incomparably complicated emotions, churning like stormy waves.

There was profound reverence for the strongest.

There was unwillingness and humiliation over his own weakness.

There was confusion over the unknown road ahead.

But more than anything.

There was an almost deranged longing for that supreme realm!

He abruptly closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath of air tinged with the salty scent of the sea.

It was as if he had made a momentous decision that went against every bit of pride and principle he had upheld for twenty years.

"Clang!"

A crisp metallic sound rang out.

Zoro simultaneously sheathed Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu, which he held in his hands, along with Wado Ichimonji, which he had clenched between his teeth.

Then.

Before the stunned eyes of everyone at Baratie, including Zeff, Sanji, and even Lei En himself!

This man who had always been untamable, who would rather die than yield, the future world's greatest swordsman.

Suddenly went weak at the knees.

With a "thud."

Without the slightest hesitation, cleanly and decisively.

He dropped heavily to his knees before Lei En!

The deck let out a dull thump beneath his knees.

He lowered that proud head that had never bowed to anyone.

His forehead pressed firmly against the wet wooden deck, still carrying the fishy scent of the sea.

His hands clenched into fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his flesh.

His voice trembled faintly from his overwhelming desire, yet it was incomparably resolute and thunderous as he shouted the deepest wish in his heart at the black-haired youth who seemed like a god!

"Please... please take me as your disciple!!!"

"I want to learn true swordsmanship! I want to become stronger! I want to know... what the view is like at the summit where one can split the sea apart!!!"