The Pirate Who Could See Proficiency Became a Legend

The ability he had awakened by accident had cleared the confusion from Dongze's heart. All that remained was to persevere, persevere, and persevere!

Dongze caught the flicker of envy in Kuina's eyes and sighed softly.

"Kuina! Talent is something you're born with. What good does envy do?"

"If we envy this Moss Head's absurdly fast growth in strength, will the heavens give us bodies like his?"

Kuina's eyes dimmed at his words. Dongze was right. No matter how much she envied Zoro, she could never have a body like his.

Seeing her spirits sink, Dongze seemed to recall something. "If we can't change what the heavens have decided, then we'll have to work harder. Maybe that's the only way to stand out from the crowd!"

"Besides, I don't think you're any less talented than Moss Head. Girls may gain strength more slowly, but who said a swordsman's strength is judged by muscle alone?"

"And why do you think Moss Head works so hard? He's trying everything he can to beat you. Until he does, you can't lose heart!"

"Hmph, I know! Besides, do I look like someone who gives up that easily?"

Zoro's movements paused when he heard Dongze.

"Not bad."

A grin tugged at Moss Head's lips, and he plunged back into his frantic, punishing training.

Dongze had meant to encourage Kuina, but he had also kept an opponent who would push him forward. He wouldn't have to worry about losing the drive to improve.

Zoro didn't think much of Dongze, but the guy had managed to lift Kuina's spirits. That made him at least a little useful in Zoro's eyes.

What Zoro couldn't have known was that Dongze, whom he looked down on today, would one day become the man he spent his life chasing, even looking up to. Who could predict a turn like that?

"Hey! Earth to Kuina!"

"Mm..."

"Stop shouting, damn it! I heard you!"

Kuina used her height advantage to pin Dongze by the head and rub it hard. Then, as if nothing had happened, she blew a few stray hairs off her hand. Zoro, who had been watching them from the corner of his eye, felt his eyelid twitch.

At his current level, he wouldn't fare any better against Kuina!

Staring at the hair in her hand, he muttered to himself, Damn. What a tyrannosaurus.

A Father-Daughter Talk, and Dongze's Relentless Proficiency Grind

The sun sank westward, stretching their shadows longer and longer.

"Dongze, do you think girls really can't reach the top? Father says I'll never become the strongest."

Despite everything Dongze had said earlier, Kuina still had little faith in herself.

Isshin Dojo was coming into view. Dongze hesitated, then remembered the accident that would befall Kuina because she couldn't let go of this doubt. At last, he sighed softly.

"Hey, Kuina. I happened to hear a few names around the village. They say these women are among the strongest people on the seas. If you're still unsure about your future, ask Master about them."

Kuina hesitated. "They're all women?"

This time, Dongze offered no further explanation. He simply named them. "Charlotte Linlin!"

"Tsuru!"

"Gion!"

"Amazon Lily!"

"..."

"You really heard about them in the village?"

"Kuina, girls can become the strongest. They just have to work harder. Believe that the road is there for you to walk, and your future is bright!"

The next day at Isshin Dojo, Kuina seemed like a different person. Her bearing, her energy, her very spirit had changed.

It was as though something inside her had transformed overnight.

Koshiro sat kneeling in the center of the dojo while the others practiced the most basic sword movements: drawing, lifting, parrying, striking, thrusting, tapping, snapping, stirring, pressing, chopping, intercepting, and sweeping.

Thinking back on the previous night still gave him a start!

Koshiro came from the Shimotsuki Family of the Grand Line's second half, and he was no weakling himself. He might not have matched the world's greatest swordsman, Hawkeye, but he was a Great Swordsman in his own right.

He had certainly heard of the people Kuina had named.

"Charlotte Linlin came from the Rocks Pirates. Her forces are immense, and she rules part of the Grand Line's second half!"

"Her fighting strength is roughly on par with that person's!"

"Marine Vice Admiral Tsuru is even more formidable. She has the power of the Wash-Wash Fruit, and she's the Marines' chief strategist!"

"The other two have made waves across the seas as well. Koshiro knew Gion: her talent for swordsmanship was monstrous, and she had earned a name among Swordmasters while still young. She was a rising star in the Marines!"

"As for Amazon Lily, he had heard Monkey D. Dragon mention it. Almost everyone there could use Armament Haki!"

When Kuina first rattled off those names, his scalp had tingled. His whole body had gone numb; he had nearly lost control of himself.

Only when she explained that she merely wanted to know who they were and had never met them did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, Koshiro was a Great Swordsman. He couldn't bring himself to lie about them. Once Kuina learned who those people really were, her outlook changed completely.

But afterward, as Koshiro thought back over the conversation, something began to bother him.

Those people were famous across the seas, but news of them would never reach the East Blue, supposedly the most peaceful sea of all.

Kuina's claim that she had heard their names in the village was clearly a lie. When he pressed her for details, she gave him a name he hadn't expected.

"Dongze!"

Koshiro had barely noticed Dongze before. He remembered a diligent child, but not one who stood out. The boy had always been unremarkable.

Only a few days earlier, Dongze had lost to Zoro, who had been at the dojo for less than a year. That defeat was what had brought Dongze's name back to Koshiro's attention.

Now that he thought about it, Dongze also seemed fairly close to Kuina.

Others might not understand what those names meant, but Koshiro did. If Dongze understood their significance too, then the child's background might be anything but ordinary.

Light flashed across Koshiro's round lenses as he studied his ordinary student again. Still, he saw nothing remarkable.

Dongze performed the basic moves by the book, stiffly and without spirit or any interpretation of his own.

Kuina and Zoro were different. Both had begun to develop their own styles. Kuina favored agility and was already weaving it into her basic sword moves. Zoro's approach was fierce and forceful; with his talent, his future looked bright too!

Could I be wrong?

Koshiro fell into thought as he watched the boy. But then how did Dongze know those names?

While Koshiro's attention wandered for an instant, Dongze's eyes suddenly brightened. Unlike the others, he wasn't practicing all thirteen moves in rotation. He had focused solely on the thrust, and in that brief instant, something about it changed.

Koshiro looked back just as Dongze thrust again. His eyes nearly popped out.

"Impossible!"

"How could that happen?"

Dongze's form was still precise, but it was no longer what it had been. Before, the move had been lifeless. Now, the sword seemed to come alive.

It was as if a lifeless object had suddenly been given a soul!

This was different from the spirit Kuina and Zoro brought to their swordwork. If basic sword moves could be measured by proficiency, an ordinary person would reach ten percent and go no further. Talented people could break through that limit by practicing and adding their own understanding and style.

They refined how they applied force, the angle of the blade, their breathing, which muscles they engaged, even whether they drew power from their whole body through the spine. They adjusted the angle by a degree or half a degree, to the left or right, then matched it to the rhythm of their breathing, improving bit by bit.

But Dongze's thrust had skipped all those intermediate steps and gone straight to the end.

For a swordsman, it was like a mortal becoming an immortal in a single leap. No wonder Koshiro was stunned.

Koshiro, however, had no idea what had just happened to Dongze!

Dongze could see proficiency, but not every repetition raised it. Pointless practice accomplished nothing; it didn't add even a fraction to his proficiency.

He had noticed that yesterday. Once his basic thrust hit a bottleneck, he began working out how to raise its proficiency instead of repeating movements that got him nowhere.

Drawing on what he knew, he deliberately adjusted every swing of his sword: his breathing, angle, strength, and state of mind.

That last thrust had broken through his bottleneck. It was a leap in quality, one that would make anyone on the seas who had mastered a basic move to that degree worthy of being called a Swordmaster.

A line of small red text appeared on the invisible screen before him.

Basic Swordsmanship—Thrust: 1000/1000

That was all it showed. There was nothing else.

Dongze sighed inwardly. After years of effort, he had finally perfected the basic thrust.

By his reckoning, he would probably have to master all thirteen moves before the next stage opened naturally.

There was, however, a shortcut of sorts: Koshiro, whose true strength Dongze couldn't gauge.

If he could swallow his pride and get himself beaten by Koshiro every day, he might unlock the next stage early. But Dongze knew a tall building needed solid foundations. Without them, everything would come crashing down. He needed to master all thirteen moves first, so he abandoned that dangerous idea.

A Rematch That Stunned Everyone

The days that followed were a monotonous grind for proficiency. Dongze was so absorbed in it that he barely noticed time passing. He chopped again and again without tiring of it, and without his realizing it, his gaze grew razor-sharp.

To everyone else, though, each of his movements still looked strictly conventional.

That was how the other students saw him, at least.

Koshiro was the exception. Over nearly a month, he had watched Dongze improve at a staggering pace. His initial shock had turned to alarm, then numbness. By now, he almost didn't want to see the boy.

Why?

Frankly, it was disheartening!

Koshiro appreciated talent, certainly, but this boy was improving far too fast. If Zoro was running and Kuina was riding a bicycle, Dongze was on a rocket.

He changed from one day to the next, mastering all thirteen basic sword moves in an astonishingly short time.

It was as absurd as a man and woman preparing to explore the mysteries of yin and yang, only for the man to finish before the woman had even taken off her clothes.

To outsiders, Dongze merely swung his sword mechanically, stroke after stroke, day after day, without any apparent progress. The truth was the opposite. He was making minute adjustments measured in fractions of an inch: to his angle, his breathing, even his state of mind.

Those changes nearly made Koshiro jump to his feet. In training, the slightest error could lead one miles astray. A difference of a fraction could be the difference between heaven and earth.

Two people could undergo the same training, yet one would break through and become a Swordmaster while the other faded into obscurity. That tiny difference might be all that separated them.

As a Swordmaster who had found his own path, Koshiro could hardly believe an apprentice was capable of such fine adjustments, especially one who had shown so little natural talent.

Having discovered Dongze's secret, Koshiro felt his long-calm heart stir at last.

Watching Dongze sheathe his sword, Koshiro thought, Perhaps he can help me fulfill that dream...

Time slipped by. Before he knew it, two months had passed. With the help of his Golden Finger, Dongze had practiced day and night, mastering each of the thirteen basic sword moves. He had also used proficiency to temper his body.

It showed him exactly where his training fell short and which muscles he had neglected. Work that accomplished nothing did not raise his proficiency.

Gradually, his strength began to surge. By now, he wasn't even sure how much explosive power he could produce.

The equipment Zoro had used for training now felt effortless to him. He could even handle two or three times the weight with ease.

Dongze joked to himself between training sessions that he had become a beast of burden too.

Unfortunately, he was never picked for combat practice again. He didn't know whether Koshiro had arranged it that way or fate simply had.

Just as in the original story, Zoro suffered his thousandth defeat and then some.

One day, Dongze mastered his tenth basic sword move. Whether because he had hit a bottleneck or not, he made no progress on the eleventh even after half a month of work.

About a week later, Koshiro, who had begun keeping an eye on Dongze, noticed.

And so the scene played out again.

Koshiro paired Dongze with Zoro, the same opponent who had beaten him two months earlier.

"Father!"

"You know Dongze can't beat Zoro!"

Kuina's rapid improvement over the past months was thanks in part to the names Dongze had given her. They had helped her emerge with new resolve. Despite Zoro's intense training, he still hadn't closed the gap between them. He had lost to her more than a thousand times.

Because she knew just how strong Zoro was, Kuina couldn't understand her father's cold-hearted decision, and it made her furious.

If he knew Dongze couldn't beat Zoro, why put him through that humiliation?

Koshiro sighed softly at Kuina, whose cheeks had flushed with confusion and anger.