"P-please... take me as your disciple! I want to learn true swordsmanship! I want to become stronger!!"
Roronoa Zoro's trembling yet incomparably resolute roar echoed across the ruined deck of the sea restaurant.
Everyone was stunned.
They watched the usually wild and arrogant Three-Sword Style swordsman press his proud head firmly against the feet of that mysterious youth, like the most devout believer.
This was Roronoa Zoro, the "Pirate Hunter" who did not even fear death!
Lei En looked down at the green-haired man kneeling before him, rubbed his chin, and secretly curled his lips into an exceedingly devious smile.
"Take him as my disciple?"
Lei En silently weighed it in his mind.
If it had been some ordinary transmigrator, they would probably have been overjoyed to see such a future top-tier powerhouse willingly come knocking.
But Lei En was someone who lived for entertainment.
If he lured Roronoa Zoro onto his ship too, then wouldn't that "muscular rubber tyrannosaur" he had painstakingly raised on Mount Colubo be left without a decent right-hand man when he eventually set sail?
If the Straw Hat Pirates fell apart, how much entertainment would be lost from this sea?
With that thought, Lei En reined in his smile and put on an extremely cold, lofty expression.
"You want me to take you as my disciple?"
Lei En's voice was not loud, but his tone carried an icy chill that kept people at arm's length.
He glanced at the three swords at Roronoa Zoro's waist with immense disdain. They might have been decent in the eyes of ordinary people, but to him, they were no different from scrap metal.
"Are you worthy?"
Those three words struck Roronoa Zoro's heart like a heavy hammer.
Roronoa Zoro suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with unwillingness and humiliation.
"I admit that I'm weak right now! But I'll train with everything I have! I'll definitely prove that I..."
"Quit making empty promises to me, green-haired fool."
Lei En cut him off mercilessly, his voice dripping with mockery.
"You can't even beat one of my attendants. What right do you have to ask me to teach you?"
"An attendant?"
Roronoa Zoro froze for a moment.
Only then did he notice the blue-haired girl who had been quietly following behind Lei En.
Kuina!
After several years of frenzied training, Kuina's temperament had undergone a complete transformation. Combined with how all of Roronoa Zoro's attention had been on Lei En and Hawkeye, he had failed to recognize his childhood rival at first!
"Kuina, someone looks down on you."
Lei En took a step back and casually pointed at Roronoa Zoro on the ground.
"Go on, wake him up a little. Just don't kill him."
"Yes, my lord."
Kuina walked forward expressionlessly, without the slightest emotional ripple in her clear eyes.
She looked at Roronoa Zoro kneeling on the ground and slowly placed a hand on the hilt of the Wado Ichimonji at her waist.
This sword had originally been intended by Koushiro for her, but it had now become the exclusive blade Lei En had bestowed upon her.
"Roronoa Zoro."
Kuina's voice was soft, yet it carried an exceptionally sharp pressure of the sword.
"You are too weak."
Hearing that familiar voice and seeing that face etched deep into his memories—
Roronoa Zoro was struck as if by lightning!
"Ku... Kuina?!"
His eyes widened as he stared at the girl before him as though he had seen a ghost.
"Y-you died, didn't you?!"
"Died?"
Kuina sneered and drew a section of snow-white blade.
"My lord pulled me back from hell and granted me a new life. Now, I am merely the sharpest sword in my lord's hand!"
Before her words had even faded—
"Clang!"
The Wado Ichimonji was fully drawn!
There was none of Lei En's world-destroying lightning, nor any of Hawkeye's overwhelming sword aura.
Kuina's sword possessed only two qualities—speed and purity!
It was a silver streak like an aurora!
It was so fast that even Roronoa Zoro's reaction speed, which he had always taken pride in, could not catch it!
"So fast!"
Roronoa Zoro's face changed drastically as he instinctively tried to draw his swords and block.
Yet his three prized swords had not even been fully drawn from their sheaths.
"Slash!"
An incomparably fierce flash of sword light instantly tore across his chest!
Blood splattered!
Roronoa Zoro did not even feel the pain before his entire body was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, blasted away by that utterly pure sword pressure!
With a loud bang, he slammed heavily into the deck railing and crashed down in a daze.
One move!
Just one move!
The girl he had once regarded as his lifelong enemy at the Shimotsuki Village dojo, the girl he had sworn to surpass—
Had now utterly defeated him in a single strike!
To her, even his sword-drawing motion was laughably slow, like a snail crawling!
"Cough, cough..."
Roronoa Zoro clutched the wound on his chest. It was not deep, but it was enough to rob him of his ability to fight as he struggled to rise from the ground.
He stared blankly at the unruffled Kuina, and the crushing sense of defeat flooded over him like a tide.
The gap was too vast.
So vast that he did not even have the right to look up at it.
"Do you see now?"
Lei En walked to Kuina's side and looked down at Roronoa Zoro, his tone filled with cruel, crushing contempt.
"Right now, you aren't even qualified to guard my backyard."
"With your pathetic skills, you dream of touching the pinnacle of the world's greatest swordsman? Stop embarrassing yourself."
Every word from Lei En pierced straight into Roronoa Zoro's heart.
Yet Roronoa Zoro did not lower his head in despair like an ordinary loser.
On the contrary!
He gritted his teeth, ignored the intense pain in his chest, and forcibly straightened his body.
The confusion that had once lingered in his eyes was gone. Instead, an unprecedented, frenzied fighting spirit burned within them like a wildfire sweeping across the plains!
Kuina was alive! And she had become this strong!
That monster named Lei En was even stronger to the point of despair!
But he was Roronoa Zoro!
The more hopeless the gap, the more it stirred the wild, unyielding madness buried in his bones!
"I understand..."
Roronoa Zoro wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes locked onto Lei En as if he wanted to devour him alive.
"Right now, I really am trash who isn't even qualified to draw a sword."
He picked up his swords from the ground and slid them back into his waist sash.
"But listen carefully!"
Roronoa Zoro took a deep breath, his voice hoarse yet resolute.
"One day, I will make you repay the humiliation I suffered today tenfold, a hundredfold!"
"I will cross over the mountain that is all of you! I will become the true world's greatest swordsman!"
Watching Roronoa Zoro remain stubborn like a wounded wild wolf, Lei En nodded in satisfaction to himself.
That was more like it. This was exactly that unyielding spirit.
"Fine, you've got some backbone."
Lei En waved a hand casually and turned toward the Heavenly Court Thunder God.
"But before you come challenge me, you'd better find a reliable captain and level up first."
As he reached the gangplank, he seemed to remember something. He turned around and left behind a particularly devious clue.
"I heard there's a muscle freak in East Blue who wears a Straw Hat and only knows how to charge in with his fists. He's looking for companions everywhere."
"If you think you can't make it in East Blue, why not team up with him? Maybe the two of you can make a pretty good pair of punching bags."
Lei En laughed loudly and boarded the ark with Kuina and Kuro.
With Zeff's severed leg restored, Sanji had also wholeheartedly followed them aboard and officially became Heavenly Court's exclusive chef.
Just as Lei En was about to order the ship to set sail and leave this troublesome place—
"Buru buru buru..."
The incredibly luxurious Pure Gold Den Den Mushi in his arms suddenly began ringing urgently.
Lei En frowned, took out the Den Den Mushi, and answered it.
The Den Den Mushi's face instantly changed into that of a bespectacled man filled with anxiety.
"Boss! Something huge has happened!"
From the other end of the Den Den Mushi came the frantic voice of Kuro, the newly appointed financial director who had remained behind.
"An emergency message just came through the intelligence network. Something happened in Cocoyasi Village!"
"What happened? Why are you panicking?" Lei En asked unhappily.
"Fish-Men! An exceptionally brutal Fish-Man Pirates crew has taken over Cocoyasi Village!"
There was a rare trace of fear in Kuro's voice.
"Their captain is called Arlong, and his bounty is as high as twenty million Beli! The entire village has been enslaved by them!"
"And..."
Kuro paused, his tone becoming even more urgent.
"The intelligence says there's a little girl in that village with extraordinary talent for drawing sea charts. Arlong is forcing her to make maps..."
Lei En's previously indifferent eyes instantly turned ice-cold and razor-sharp when he heard the words "little girl who draws sea charts."
A nearly tangible killing intent erupted violently from him.
"Arlong? That lowly rotten fish dared touch someone I've set my eyes on?"
Before you continue