Kuina

They had not kept Locke and the others waiting long. A kindly-looking middle-aged man with glasses soon approached, accompanied by a girl about Locke's age.

After walking over, he first nodded to Dragon, then said to Locke, "Are you two here to study swordsmanship?"

"No, I'm the only one studying swordsmanship," Locke explained.

"Alright. You can go wait inside the dojo with Kuina first. I'll come over shortly to assess your swordsmanship." After speaking, Koushirou glanced at Kuina beside him.

"Follow me!" Kuina said to Locke before heading inside.

Locke hurriedly led Carmen after her.

After following Kuina for a while, they arrived at a large courtyard surrounded by wooden posts for training. Several students were practicing there with wooden swords. Locke looked around but did not spot any green-haired brat among them.

But judging from the timeline, that moss-head should have already been studying here by now. Why wasn't he around?

As Locke's thoughts wandered, a figure that had appeared at some point blocked Kuina's path and said, "Come on, Kuina! Accept my 1,888th challenge!"

Kuina did not answer. Instead, she glanced at Locke and Carmen behind her.

The moment the person blocking the way appeared, Locke recognized him. He was the childhood Roronoa Zoro whom Locke had just been wondering about.

Seeing Kuina look over, Locke made a go-ahead gesture and stepped aside, leaving them a wider space.

"Come on!" Kuina said to Zoro after seeing Locke move aside.

The two faced each other.

With a loud roar, Zoro charged at Kuina with two wooden swords raised.

Yet Kuina did not move at all. Holding her wooden sword, she merely gave a light parry and blocked Zoro's attack.

Then, with a light hook of her foot, she knocked Zoro to the ground. She pointed her wooden sword at his face, freezing Zoro in place just as he was about to get back up.

"Fine! 1,888 battles, 1,888 losses." After Kuina moved her wooden sword away, Zoro rose from the ground and said this.

"I'll definitely beat you!"

After sheathed her sword, Kuina ignored Zoro's words and said to Locke, who had been watching from behind, "Alright, I'm done here. Follow me."

Hearing Kuina's words, Locke nodded and followed behind her. But Zoro, who had just lost the challenge, watched Kuina leave with an unwilling expression. "Kuina, are you even listening to me?! And who's that brat behind you?"

Kuina showed no reaction to that and continued maintaining her cool demeanor, but Locke, walking behind her, spoke up.

"What did you just call me, runt? Don't call me brat. You should call me big brother!"

Looking at the short childhood Zoro, Locke, who had already grown to around five feet tall, spoke without any politeness.

"Tch, you're just a little taller!" Zoro said, rolling his eyes at Locke.

"..."

"We're here!"

Kuina led the way until she reached a spacious room, only then stopping. Meanwhile, Locke and little Zoro had bickered behind her the whole way.

At Kuina's voice, Locke stopped trading barbs with Zoro and began carefully examining the room.

The room was extremely spacious. A large area in the middle was covered with wooden flooring, while weapon racks lined both sides, neatly holding wooden swords.

This seemed to be the dojo's sparring hall. As for the courtyard from before, it was probably a place specifically for students to practice.

After arriving, Locke and Carmen found a place to sit in the room under Kuina's arrangements, waiting for Koushirou's assessment.

When little Zoro heard that their master would soon assess Locke, he stayed as well. He wanted to see how capable this brat who had acted so cocky in front of him really was. If Locke was strong, Zoro would definitely challenge him later.

Locke and the others did not have to wait long before Koushirou arrived. Locke did not see anyone from the Revolutionary Army behind him, so it seemed they had finished talking.

After Koushirou entered the room and took his seat, he said to Locke, "You are Locke?"

After seeing Locke nod, he continued, "A few months ago, I received your letter. You said that you wanted to come study swordsmanship at my dojo."

He glanced at Locke sitting nearby and continued, "Then how did you learn of my little dojo?"

"I..." Locke had just begun to answer when Koushirou raised a hand to stop him.

"Of course, that isn't important. Since you've come here, I will certainly do my best to teach you!"

Koushirou paused before continuing, "Now tell me, why do you want to study swordsmanship?"

"To become stronger!" Locke answered seriously.

"Why do you want to become so strong?"

"When I was very young, I understood that in this world, only the strong can control their own fate and live better. Besides, does wanting to become stronger really need a reason?" Locke asked in return.

Hearing Locke's answer, Koushirou nodded in satisfaction.

"You mentioned in your letter that you had practiced swordsmanship on your own for some time. Can you demonstrate it?"

Hearing Koushirou's words, Locke immediately stood and took out the wooden sword he used for practice from his luggage. Locke had made this wooden sword himself in the style of a Tang Dao. In his previous life, he had greatly liked the design of Tang Dao, and even after transmigrating, he could not forget it. So he had specifically made one from wood, then asked the town blacksmith to forge him a real one from a piece of iron he had found in the sea that carried a chill. He had even had the words "Thousand Chill" engraved on it in Chinese, as a remembrance of his previous life.

"Kuina, go test him," Koushirou said. His pupils contracted slightly when he saw Locke take out the Tang Dao, but he quickly recovered.

Upon hearing this, Kuina directly picked up the bamboo sword beside her and stood opposite Locke.

Looking at Kuina standing before him, Locke felt a little nervous. After all, this girl was a swordsmanship genius in the anime! Could his self-taught swordsmanship really beat her?

But this was not the time to think about that. She was already standing before him in an attacking stance. If he backed down now, wouldn't everything he had just said become a joke?

With that thought, Locke tightened his grip on his wooden sword, stepped forward, and slashed at Kuina.

His swing was extremely fluid and fast. After all, for the past five years, he had swung his sword like this more than 5,000 times every day.