As for whether Kuta had surpassed Roger, there was no telling. But even if he hadn't, they were likely on the same level.
If Kuta wanted to become the World's Strongest, defeating a Whitebeard whose strength had declined, a Kaido at his peak, and even Shanks—the man said to possess the most formidable Haki, but who was no longer at his own peak—might not be enough.
Shanks had started out using the Two-Sword Style, and Kuta seemed to recall him carrying two swords. If he remembered right, Shanks had been a Two-Sword Style swordsman as a child. Losing an arm must have weakened him.
After Shanks lost his arm, Mihawk had never sought him out for another duel.
When Kuta had sparred with Mihawk, he'd learned that Shanks really had once been an extraordinary swordsman.
So although Shanks's Haki had grown tremendously afterward, until his Conqueror's Haki was the strongest in the world, losing his left arm meant he had never reached the full potential he might have.
(Just my interpretation—don't come after me!)
If Kuta could defeat the old man before him, he would certainly be the World's Strongest.
That was, of course, excluding Imu, who stayed shut away in the Flower Room at Mary Geoise.
For now, Kuta didn't even know whether Imu was a "person."
At the thought, a dazzling light burst from Kuta's eyes. The nebulae in his pupils spun faster with his excitement, as though they were about to become black holes.
Sensing the fighting spirit rising from Kuta, Kuina already knew who the old man rushing toward them was.
Kuta had told her more than once that he wanted to fight Garp.
Crackle!
Electricity spread across her entire body in an instant.
If Kuta was going to fight Garp, she couldn't let him get