One Piece: Starting with Kenpachi Zaraki's Legacy

Even Nami and Carina poked their heads out from the corner in curiosity.

What was this monster, who had just cleaved the sea apart with a single slash, going to do now?

Yet Lin Xuan merely raised the battered wooden sword high.

His eyes focused, and he cleared his mind of stray thoughts.

"Since I've got nothing else to do..."

He murmured, his arm muscles suddenly tightening as the wooden sword swept through the air with a dull whoosh.

"I'll start with ten thousand swings."

Chapter 20: Only a Fifty Percent Chance of Winning? Now That's Interesting!

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight."

Sweat slid down Lin Xuan's jawline and dripped into the grain of the scorching deck, instantly evaporating into a wisp of white vapor.

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine."

The wooden sword in his hand had become an extension of his arm, as though it were part of his body.

Every muscle fiber screamed, and his joints ground with aching friction, yet Lin Xuan's mind was completely blank.

This utterly monotonous task reminded him of Kenpachi Zaraki's long periods of lying low before fighting in Rukongai.

That monster had not been born knowing how to wield a sword. He simply wanted to hit his target more than anyone else, so he stripped away every unnecessary movement.

"Ten thousand."

He swung down one last time.

There was no sword energy, nor any sound of air being torn apart.

This swing was frighteningly quiet. The wooden sword silently sliced through the air and stopped half an inch above the deck.

[Basic sword-swing training complete (10000/10000)]

[Kenpachi Zaraki template proficiency increased slightly: 7.8%-7.82%]

[Evaluation: The body has remembered this feeling.

Only when every swing is pure can killing be efficient enough.]

"Phew..."

Lin Xuan let out a long, stale breath, his chest heaving.

He casually slicked his sweat-soaked bangs back. The sticky feeling all over his body made him want nothing more than to jump into the sea for a bath or down a huge barrel of chilled rum.

Even for a transmigrator with a system, the soreness from lactic acid buildup was very real.

"Hey."

A dry voice came from behind him.

Lin Xuan turned and saw Zoro standing in the shadows, leaning on a mop.

Moss Head was staring fixedly at the wooden sword in Lin Xuan's hand, his gaze complicated, as though he were looking at a monster he could not comprehend.

At first, when Lin Xuan had practiced his swings like a beginner, Zoro's eyes had been full of disdain.

To him, those sloppy downward chops were a complete waste of time. This was not sword practice at all, just someone flailing a branch around.

But as the count reached two thousand, five thousand, eight thousand...

The disdain in Zoro's eyes gradually vanished, replaced by horror.

Starting from the five-thousandth swing, every swing this man made had been exactly the same-the angle, the force, even the sound of the blade cutting through the air.

He was like a machine, every swing impossibly precise, without the slightest sign of hesitation or fatigue.

"You..." Zoro swallowed, finally unable to hold back the question. "Is this really your first time practicing with a sword?"

That frightening concentration did not belong to a novice who had just picked up a sword. He seemed more like a madman who had spent his entire life swinging one.

"Who knows?"

Lin Xuan casually tossed the wooden sword to Zoro, without caring whether he could catch it one-handed. "Maybe I was a blade in my past life."

He rolled his stiff neck, his joints cracking sharply.

Night had fallen completely, and the sea breeze swept away the day's sweltering heat, bringing a hint of coolness.

The ship's lamps had not been lit yet. Only moonlight spilled over the rolling sea, edging the waves in silver.

At a time like this, dinner should have been waiting for him.

Lin Xuan frowned and glanced around.

The deck was empty except for him and Zoro, who was still questioning his life.

Carina, the purple-haired girl who should have been busy in the kitchen, was gone. As for the orange-haired Cat Burglar, there was not even a trace of her.

"Where is everyone?" Lin Xuan asked.

"No idea." Zoro caught the wooden sword and turned his head away awkwardly. "The purple-haired one went up to the lookout to find the orange-haired one a while ago. She hasn't come down since."

As soon as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps came from the stairs leading below deck.

Carina rushed onto the deck in a panic. She relaxed when she saw Lin Xuan, only to grow nervous again immediately.

"S-sir!" Carina panted, her eyes shifting. "Nami... Nami's gone."

"Gone?" Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow. "Where could she go out here at sea? Jump overboard to feed the fish?"

"N-no! There's no one at the lookout, and she's not on deck either. I looked all around..." Carina's voice grew quieter and quieter. She knew it was a terrible excuse too.

On a ship this small, a living person could not simply vanish into thin air.

Unless she was hiding somewhere no one wanted-or dared-to go.

Lin Xuan's gaze passed over Carina and landed at the far end of the passage-the captain's cabin, which was now his room.

Inside were the large iron chest full of Beli he had just taken from Zoro and the Demon Sword Murakumo.

"Heh."

Lin Xuan chuckled and headed below deck. "Looks like our navigator's occupational habits are acting up."

A mouse would always follow the scent of cheese and burrow toward it, even if a cat might be living inside.

The captain's cabin was pitch-black.

Nami crouched in a corner, tightly gripping a thin piece of wire as she picked the iron chest's padlock, her forehead covered in sweat.

Hurry... hurry...

She repeated the words silently, her fingers trembling slightly with nerves.

That man, Lin Xuan, was as terrifying as a monster, but greed was her instinct-and the driving force that kept her alive.

As long as she got this money... as long as she got this money, together with the sea chart she had hidden away, she would have a chance to escape that devil's control.

Click.

With a soft sound, the lock opened.

Nami's eyes lit up. Just as she reached out to lift the lid, the door behind her was suddenly pushed open.

Creeeak-

The old hinges screeched, and the light from the corridor stretched a tall, slender shadow across her and the iron chest.

Nami froze, like a frightened mouse, without even the courage to turn around.

"Good evening, Cat Burglar."

Lin Xuan leaned against the doorframe, an apple having appeared in his hand at some point. He ate it unhurriedly. "Up instead of sleeping this late at night? Checking whether my property is secure?"

Behind him, Carina covered her mouth, her face deathly pale. Zoro wore a dark expression, holding Wado Ichimonji in one hand as though ready to strike at any moment.

"I... I was just..."

Nami spun around, pressing her back against the iron chest and hiding both hands behind her in an attempt to conceal the picked lock.

Her face was chalk-white, and tears filled her large eyes as she put on a pitiful look. "I just went into the wrong room! Really."

"You went into the wrong room and ended up in the keyhole?"

Lin Xuan entered the room without looking at the picked chest. Instead, he walked straight to a chair, sat down, and crossed his legs.

"Enough. Stop acting. Tears are only a weapon against people who don't know the truth. With me, they're just a waste of water."

He took a bite of his apple, the crisp crunch especially jarring in the deathly quiet room.

"I'm more curious about something else than this little bit of money."

Lin Xuan swallowed the apple, his gaze sharpening like a blade as it pierced through the two girls' disguises. "Why is that mad dog Trejer so determined to hound you? Don't tell me it's for money. He's greedy, sure, but chasing you this long over a mere few million Beli, even risking offending the Navy? That doesn't add up."

Carina and Nami both shuddered.

The air in the room seemed to freeze.

Zoro also noticed something was wrong with the atmosphere. He frowned at the two girls. "Hey, just what kind of trouble did you get yourselves into?"

Nami bit her lip until she tasted blood.

She glanced at Carina, then at the man who exuded a suffocating pressure despite merely sitting there.

Lying before someone this powerful would only get her killed faster.

"It's... it's because of this."

Nami took a deep breath and shakily pulled a small cloth bundle from inside her clothes.

As she unwrapped it layer by layer, a strangely shaped fruit appeared before them.

It looked like a cantaloupe, its skin covered in spiral patterns and giving off an eerie purple sheen in the dim light.

Simply looking at it was enough to feel an inexplicable pull.

"Is that..." Zoro's eyes widened. As a bounty hunter in the East Blue, he had naturally heard rumors about such things. "A Devil Fruit?"

"We... we stole this from Trejer's ship." Carina lowered her head, her voice very quiet. "We originally thought it was just ordinary jewels or antiques. We never expected..."

"Never expected a huge headache," Lin Xuan finished for her.

As he looked at the fruit, the interest in his eyes finally deepened a little.

No wonder.

With Trejer's temperament, if ordinary treasure had been stolen, he would at most have thrown a tantrum.

But a Devil Fruit, something that meant power on the seas, was enough to drive him mad.

"It's contraband from the Grand Line," Nami added quietly. "I heard Trejer originally planned to offer it to some important person... but then we..."

"You snatched it out from under him." Lin Xuan toyed with the apple in his hand, his gaze moving between the Devil Fruit and the two girls. "You've got some nerve, daring to steal from a mad dog like that."

"We... we had no choice!" Nami suddenly shouted, losing some control of her emotions. "If I don't get enough money, the village will..."

She stopped abruptly, apparently realizing she had said too much.

"That's a separate fee. I'm not interested." Lin Xuan waved a hand, cutting her off.

He stood, walked up to Nami, and reached out-picking up the Devil Fruit.

The system notification he had expected did not sound.

It seemed simply possessing it could not be directly converted into benefits, or rather, this thing provided no direct boost to his current template.

"Trejer must have gone mad by now."

Lin Xuan tossed the fruit in his hand, feeling its substantial weight. "With that mad dog's nose, it probably won't take long for him to follow the scent here. Add in the commotion from my earlier slash... and these waters will be getting lively very soon."

"Th-then what do we do?" Carina's face was pale. "Give the fruit back to him? Or..."

"Give it back?" Lin Xuan scoffed. "Once something's aboard my ship, there's no reason to spit it back out."

He turned and looked out at the pitch-black sea beyond the window.

Though he could not see it, he could feel a wave of malice rapidly approaching through the darkness.

It was Trejer-and perhaps something else even more troublesome.