Uncle Bax's swordsmanship

Thanks to the warm hospitality of the Marines, Xie Wen easily achieved his goal of revealing the map. The entire island had been lit up, and more importantly, he had seen a map of the whole West Blue inside the Marine Base, instantly pushing his prerendering progress to seventy or eighty percent.

As for why it hadn't reached one hundred percent, Xie Wen gave it some serious thought and arrived at a rough guess. There were probably still some islands that hadn't been discovered or weren't valuable enough to bother putting on the map.

It was all free progress anyway, so Xie Wen was more than satisfied.

Then...

He realized that, aside from petting cats, he apparently had nothing else to do for the time being.

Although the ocean beyond the island was still pitch-black, Xie Wen wasn't going to consider exploring it until he got himself a proper ship.

Besides, if there was such a quick way to light up an island, there ought to be some other way to handle the much larger ocean as well. Xie Wen suspected it might work like the area occupation system in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV: once he had visited all the islands in the West Blue, the ocean would light up on its own.

Of course, whether that guess was right or not, it would have to wait until he had a ship. For now, he would just keep working for Cody and earn himself a mast or a deck first.

The fleet hadn't departed yet, though, so he didn't need to start work just yet.

But Xie Wen didn't simply idle away the time. While waiting for departure, he reluctantly cut back on his cat-petting time and resumed the training he had neglected for so long...

Yes, alongside Uncle Bax, who had suddenly started putting in some effort himself.

And he successfully sent the man spiraling into self-doubt again.

It wasn't that Xie Wen was deliberately trying to get under his skin. Bax simply had a more complete set of training equipment.

Sure, Zoro mostly trained with rocks, and Garp's school of training was pretty wild too, but a better training environment genuinely improved efficiency. Those freakishly gifted monsters might not care about that little boost, but Xie Wen certainly did.

Besides, after training at Bax's place, he could conveniently spar with him too...

"Another spar?" When Xie Wen challenged him again, Bax looked thoroughly reluctant. "Let's not... Didn't we already get a good enough match in last time? Another round won't make much difference."

Last time, he had pulled out as soon as things started looking bad, which was the only reason he hadn't embarrassed himself in front of his many underlings. Anyone with a discerning eye knew he couldn't beat the kid, but at least he hadn't actually lost, right?

If they went another round, however, Xie Wen, who had all but finished adjusting his fighting style, wouldn't be nearly as easy to deal with.

Yet Xie Wen hadn't thought that far ahead. He wasn't asking Bax to spar because their last fight had ended without a result or anything like that.

"I wasn't using a Long Sword last time..." Xie Wen put down his wooden training sword and pressed his palms together, pleading with Bax. "Your swordsmanship really helps me, Uncle. Please help me out one more time~"

"...I really can't say no to you. These old bones will give you another practice round." Bax shook his head with a wry smile and ultimately agreed.

This spar ended quickly. The Long Sword was, after all, the weapon Xie Wen was most comfortable with, and he had already seen Bax's swordsmanship. After a brief period of getting his bearings, Xie Wen swiftly adjusted.

Bax didn't even have time to retreat when things turned sour as he had last time before Xie Wen struck him square in the face with a Foresight Slash.

"...Hey, Xie Wen, kid. Interested in learning my swordsmanship?"

Bax lay spread-eagled on the floor, staring at the ceiling in silence for quite a while before suddenly speaking.

"Huh? Didn't you learn your swordsmanship in the guard unit, Uncle? Are you allowed to teach it to outsiders?" Xie Wen asked after a moment of surprise.

Of course he was interested in Brook's swordsmanship. Not because he thought it was stronger than his own Monster Hunter style, but because he wanted to understand the differences between the fighting techniques of the two worlds. That was also why he had previously planned to go to the East Blue to find Koshiro.

So learning Brook's swordsmanship wasn't an absolute necessity for Xie Wen. More importantly, he didn't want Uncle Bax, who had treated him so well, to get into trouble over it.

"Of course it's fine. This was never anything we needed to keep secret."

After Bax explained, Xie Wen finally understood. The guard unit Brook and Bax had belonged to had originally taught only basic swordsmanship. But as successive generations of captains and guards refined it, keeping the best and discarding the rest, it gradually evolved into a thrust-focused style. The guards then developed different styles of their own from that foundation.

In other words, although Brook and Bax had learned the same swordsmanship, there were actually plenty of differences between them.

Xie Wen understood that perfectly well. Even the Six Powers had different paths of development, so variations in swordsmanship were entirely normal. Xie Wen himself was the same...

Xie Wen had learned his combat techniques from the inherited memories of various monster hunters, but he hadn't copied their techniques wholesale. Instead, through repeated training and battles, he had continually blended and adjusted them, eventually forming the style that suited him best.

So... I really do have some talent for fighting, right?!

"Ahem..." After letting his ego swell a little, Xie Wen cleared his throat and said, "If it doesn't need to be kept secret, then of course I'd be interested in learning it."

The fleet's rest period soon came to an end. The day before departure, the nodachi Cody had promised Xie Wen finally arrived. Since it wasn't a particularly fine blade, its smith hadn't given it a name. The whole sword was slightly shorter than Fresh Knife: White Calm, but it felt reasonably comfortable to use...

At any rate, it was much better than carrying a salted fish on his back.

As for Bax's swordsmanship, Xie Wen had more or less learned it as well. Of course, he had only just grasped the basics. Mastering it and applying it proficiently would still take some time and experience in actual combat, while integrating it into his own fighting style remained a distant prospect.

There really were differences between the swordsmanship of the two worlds. Combining them wasn't that easy.

While Xie Wen continued honing his strength, his two cats had become big stars on the island, especially Klee Meow. He had originally planned to have several more sets of cute clothes made for her to rotate through when they attended the trade fair later, but the village women had already taken it upon themselves to make her a whole pile of outfits...

Xie Wen wasn't surprised by this. Klee already had that kind of charm, let alone Klee Meow in her feline form.

What truly surprised Xie Wen was...

During all this time, Klee Meow hadn't caused a single explosion!

Well, her trips to the shore to blast fish didn't count.

Although Xie Wen had repeatedly warned Klee Meow beforehand and had Sanji Meow keep an eye on her, he hadn't actually held out much hope that she would obediently listen.

He had even planned to use the half of his wages Cody had paid in advance to compensate the villagers for their losses. Who would have thought he'd end up keeping it all!

"Klee really is the best-behaved kitty in the world!"

Having luckily saved himself a large sum of money, Xie Wen scooped up Klee Meow and showered her with kisses.

Although Klee Meow didn't understand why Xie Wen was praising her, being praised made her happy. So she kissed him several times in return, then kept rubbing her little head against his face.

This was one way Klee Meow differed from the original Klee. Compared with Klee, who was used to entertaining herself when everyone else was busy, Klee Meow was much clingier. He wondered whether that had anything to do with her being a ragdoll cat...

Either way, it was a good thing as far as Xie Wen was concerned, so he couldn't be bothered to dwell on the reason.

"Don't celebrate too soon, meow." Just as the man and cat were happily cuddling, Sanji Meow, who always loved spoiling the mood, popped up again to throw cold water on their joy. "The reason there haven't been any explosions is that little Klee's been researching explosive tags lately, meow. Even so, there were a few small fires. Little Klee just used her ability to bring them under control in time, meow."

"..."

At that moment, Xie Wen was profoundly grateful that he had told Klee Meow the story of "Naruto: Ninja Cats."

A new month is here! Please send some kitty summoning tickets my way! (Monthly votes)