Refusing Zoro's Request to Become His Disciple: You're Too Weak, Stay Out of This

"P-please... take me as your disciple! I want to learn true swordsmanship! I want to become stronger!!"

Zoro's trembling yet incomparably resolute roar echoed across the ruined deck of the sea restaurant.

Everyone was stunned.

They watched the usually proud and unrestrained three-sword-style swordsman press his arrogant head firmly against the feet of that mysterious young man, like the most devout believer.

This was Roronoa Zoro, the "Pirate Hunter" who feared not even death!

Lei En looked down at the green-haired man kneeling before him, stroked his chin, and secretly curled his lips into an exceedingly devious smile.

"Take him as my disciple?"

Lei En quietly weighed it in his mind.

If it had been some ordinary transmigrator, they would probably have been overjoyed to see a future top-tier powerhouse practically deliver himself to their doorstep.

But Lei En lived for amusement.

If he lured Zoro aboard too, wouldn't that "muscular rubber tyrannosaurus" he had painstakingly nurtured on Mount Colubo end up without even a decent right-hand man when he finally set out to sea?

If the Straw Hat Pirates fell apart, how much entertainment would this sea lose?

With that in mind, Lei En wiped away his smile and put on an utterly cold, lofty expression.

"Become my disciple?"

Lei En's voice was not loud, but his tone carried an icy chill that kept people at arm's length.

With blatant disdain, he glanced at the three swords at Zoro's waist. Ordinary people might consider them decent, but to him, they were no different from scrap metal.

"Are you worthy?"

Those three words struck Zoro's heart like a heavy hammer.

Zoro abruptly raised his head, his eyes filled with unwillingness and humiliation.

"I admit I'm weak right now! But I'll train with everything I have! I'll prove that I..."

"Stop making empty promises, green-haired idiot."

Lei En cut him off without mercy, his tone dripping with mockery.

"You can't even beat one of my attendants. What makes you think you're qualified for me to teach you?"

"An attendant?"

Zoro froze.

Only then did he notice the blue-haired girl who had been quietly following Lei En.

Kuina!

After years of frenzied training, Kuina's temperament had changed completely. Coupled with Zoro having focused all his attention on Lei En and Hawkeye, he had failed to recognize his childhood rival at first!

"Kuina, someone's looking down on you."

Lei En stepped back and casually pointed at Zoro on the ground.

"Go on, wake him up. Just don't kill him."

"Yes, my lord."

Kuina walked forward expressionlessly, without the slightest emotional ripple in her clear eyes.

She looked at Zoro kneeling on the ground and slowly placed her hand on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji at her waist.

This sword had originally been intended by Koushirou for her, but now it had become the personal blade Lei En had bestowed upon her.

"Roronoa Zoro."

Kuina's voice was soft, yet it carried an incredibly sharp pressure of the sword.

"You're too weak."

Hearing that familiar voice and seeing the face etched deeply into his memories—

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.

"You... weren't you dead?!"

"Dead?"

Kuina sneered and drew a section of snow-white blade.

"My lord pulled me back from hell and granted me new life. Now, I am merely the sharpest sword in his hand!"

Before her words had even faded—

Clang!

Wado Ichimonji fully left its sheath!

There was none of Lei En's heaven-destroying lightning, nor any of Hawkeye's suffocating sword aura.

Kuina's sword had only two qualities—speed and purity!

It was a silver streak like the aurora!

So fast that even Zoro's reaction speed, which he had always prided himself on, could not catch it!

"So fast!"

Zoro's expression changed drastically as he instinctively tried to draw his swords and block.

But his three prized swords had not even fully left their sheaths.

Splat!

An incomparably sharp streak of sword light instantly tore across his chest!

Blood sprayed!

Zoro did not even feel the pain before he was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, blasted away by that sword pressure of ultimate purity!

With a bang, he crashed heavily into the deck railing, his senses reeling.

One move!

Just one move!

The girl he had once regarded as his lifelong rival at the Shimotsuki Village dojo, the girl he had sworn to surpass—

Now, she had utterly defeated him with a single move!

Even his sword-drawing motion must have looked as laughable as a crawling snail in her eyes!

"Cough, cough..."

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 unflinching Kuina as a tide of frustration drowned his heart.

The gap was too great.

So great that he was not even qualified to look up at her.

"Do you see now?"

Lei En walked up to Kuina, looking down at Zoro from above, his tone carrying an almost cruel sense of crushing defeat.

"Right now, you're not even qualified to guard my backyard."

"With your pathetic skills, you still dream of touching the pinnacle of the world's greatest swordsman? Stop making a fool of yourself."

Every word from Lei En pierced straight into Zoro's heart.

But Zoro did not bow his head in despair like an ordinary loser.

On the contrary!

He clenched his teeth, ignored the agony in his chest, and forcibly straightened his body.

The eyes that had once held a trace of confusion showed no surrender. Instead, they blazed with unprecedented, insane fighting spirit, like wildfire sweeping across the plains!

Kuina was alive! And she had become this strong!

That monster named Lei En was even powerful enough to drive people to despair!

But he was Roronoa Zoro!

The more hopeless the gap, the more it stirred that wild, unyielding madness in his bones!

"I understand now..."

Zoro wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes fixed on Lei En as though he wanted to devour him alive.

"The current me really is trash, not even qualified to draw my sword."

He picked up the swords from the ground and sheathed them at his waist once more.

"But listen carefully!"

Zoro took a deep breath. His voice was hoarse, yet every word rang like iron.

"One day, I'll reclaim the humiliation I suffered today tenfold, a hundredfold!"

"I'll cross the mountain that is all of you and become the true world's greatest swordsman!"

Watching Zoro stand stubbornly like a wounded wild wolf, Lei En nodded in satisfaction to himself.

That was more like it. That unyielding spirit was exactly what he needed.

"Fine. You've got backbone."

Lei En waved casually and turned toward the Heavenly Court Thunder God.

"But before you come to challenge me, you'd better find a reliable captain to help you level up first."

When he reached the gangplank, he seemed to suddenly remember something. He turned around and left behind a clue with an exceedingly devious grin.

"I heard there's a muscular 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 can't make it in East Blue, you might as well team up with him. Maybe the two of you can make a pretty decent punching-bag duo."

Lei En laughed loudly and boarded the ark with Kuina and Kuro.

After Zeff's severed leg was regenerated, Sanji had also wholeheartedly followed them aboard, officially becoming Heavenly Court's personal chef.

Just as Lei En was about to order the ship to set sail and leave this troublesome place—

"Buru buru buru..."

The exceptionally 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 terrible has happened!"

From the other end came the frantic voice of the newly appointed financial director, Kuro, who had remained behind.

"An urgent message just came through the intelligence network. Something happened at Cocoyasi Village!"

"What happened? Why are you panicking?" Lei En asked unhappily.

"Fish-men! An extremely brutal Fish-Man Pirates crew has occupied 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 is being 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, and Arlong is forcing her to draw maps..."

Lei En's originally indifferent eyes instantly turned icy and sharp upon hearing the words "a little girl who draws sea charts."

A tangible killing intent burst violently from his body.

"Arlong? That lowly rotten fish dared touch someone I've set my sights on?"