One Piece: Starting with Kenpachi Zaraki's Legacy

A dazzling shaft of light fell between them, illuminating the dust kicked up by the shock wave.

Lin Xuan held his sword in one hand, maintaining his downward slash. His arm muscles had turned dark red as blood surged through them.

The Demon Sword Murakumo trembled slightly, giving a low, bloodthirsty hum. The recoil from their clash traveled through the hilt into his palm, and a long-unfelt numbness crawled along his nerves to his spine.

This was the feeling.

This was different from cutting down those weak pirates, and different from slashing waves that offered no feedback.

The seemingly fragile piece of bamboo before him was as hard as a chunk of Seastone infused with Armament Haki.

The bamboo sword in Koshiro's hand held Murasame's blade at bay. His perpetually smiling eyes were now nothing but cold slits.

The wooden floor beneath Koshiro had shattered completely, and his feet had sunk three inches into the ground, but his body remained firmly rooted in place, not budging an inch.

"Don't want your students seeing you in such a sorry state?" Lin Xuan grinned, his teeth gleaming white in the sunlight. "Or are you afraid of scaring the little guy rushing back here?"

His words had barely fallen when hurried footsteps and heavy panting came from beyond the dojo's shattered entrance.

"Hey! You bastard! What are you trying to do to that idiot with the glasses?"

Someone had called Zoro back all the way from the docks.

When a villager told him, "A Marine carrying a demon sword blew the dojo's roof off," only one image filled his mind: Lin Xuan, that monster of a man, was one-sidedly slaughtering his teacher Koshiro, who did nothing but smile foolishly.

How could a softhearted man who knew nothing except lecturing people possibly withstand that lunatic who could split the sea?

Zoro stumbled into the dust-filled dojo, not even having time to draw the Wado Ichimonji in his hand.

But the sight before him left his mind blank, and the cry of "Stop!" on the tip of his tongue lodged in his throat.

His teacher Koshiro, who was always holding a teacup and taking his time, was now gripping a bamboo sword in one hand, firmly holding back that demon sword with its ominous red glow.

Two powerful auras pressed and collided in the center of the dojo.

Even the air between them warped under the impact of their auras. Zoro had barely taken a step forward when the oncoming shock wave forced him two steps back, his cheeks stinging from the wood splinters carried on the wind.

This was... his teacher?

The teacher who normally couldn't bear to step on a bug?

"Zoro, get back."

Koshiro's voice was still quiet, but the gravity in his tone jolted the dazed green-haired boy awake like a bucket of ice water. "As you are now, getting too close will kill you."

With that, Koshiro's wrist gave an extraordinarily strange twitch.

There was no large windup, nor any warning.

"One Sword Style: Star Point."

The bamboo sword seemed to vanish, becoming a streak of light too fast for the naked eye to follow. It slid up Murasame's blade at a treacherous angle, thrusting straight toward Lin Xuan's throat.

The strike was astonishingly fast, but more frightening was the force it contained. He had concentrated all his killing intent into a single point, displaying terrifying control.

The old Lin Xuan might well have had his throat pierced by this move.

But now, the Beast Instinct of Kenpachi Zaraki within Lin Xuan's mind sensed the danger before his eyes did.

Just as the bamboo sword's tip was about to touch his skin, Lin Xuan's pupils contracted sharply. His neck bent backward at an unnatural angle as he clenched his left fist. Armament Haki instantly coated his knuckles, and his pitch-black fist slammed into the side of the bamboo sword with an explosive crack that tore through the air.

A muffled thud rang out.

Koshiro felt the web of his hand go numb as that brutal force knocked his attack off course.

He used the momentum to leap backward, landing lightly on a broken wall five meters away. The look behind his lenses finally changed completely.

In that instant, Koshiro had sensed no trace of swordsmanship in this young man.

There was no school, no method. He fought purely with beastlike reactions and terrifying brute strength.

This approach was practically an insult to the way of the sword, yet it was highly efficient.

"So this is your softness?"

Lin Xuan rolled his neck, producing a sharp series of cracks.

Rather than rush after him, he casually planted Murasame in the floor, then raised his right hand and began undoing the black wrist weight around it.

"That thrust wasn't bad. A bit like a snake flicking its tongue." Lin Xuan watched Koshiro, the red light in his eyes growing brighter. "An ordinary person would probably be dead by now. But for me, it was still too light."

"Too light?" Koshiro frowned as a pitch-black sheen slowly coated the bamboo sword in his hand.

It was advanced Armament Haki. That fragile piece of bamboo had now become a Black Blade capable of cutting through anything.

"Since you insist, I have no choice but to act against you for the peace of the village."

"Don't rush into the pretty speeches."

Lin Xuan undid the wrist weight's clasp.

The black metal ring, which looked like nothing more than ordinary training weights, dropped straight down the instant it left his wrist.

Boom!

It was not the sharp clang of metal hitting the floor, but a dull, booming impact.

The entire dojo floor suddenly sank. Spiderweb cracks spread wildly outward from the wrist weight, sending rubble flying and dust billowing.

At the entrance, Zoro's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

That thing... only weighed fifty kilograms?

What a joke!

Even a one-ton boulder crashing down would only make this much of a commotion!

This was not merely physical weight.

As the wrist weight hit the floor, Lin Xuan's aura changed.

If he had been a hungry wolf just waking up before, then now, the Spiritual Pressure he had kept suppressed suddenly erupted.

It was the shackle Kenpachi Zaraki deliberately imposed on himself to enjoy the thrill of battle.

Although Lin Xuan could not yet devour spiritual energy with an eyepatch the way Kenpachi did, he had specifically sought out a craftsman to incorporate high-density lead blocks into this wrist weight, and throughout his daily training, he constantly kept his muscles intensely contracted to resist that weight.

Now, the restraint was gone.

"Whew..."

Lin Xuan let out a long, stale breath, and the stream of air actually formed a visible white ribbon.

His body felt so light he could almost float. Every cell cheered, greedily devouring oxygen from the air and converting it into fuel called "violence."

"Come on. Round two."

Lin Xuan pulled Murasame out of the floor.

This time, there was no probing.

His figure vanished instantly, moving so fast that even his afterimage blurred.

So fast!

Koshiro's heart lurched, his Observation Haki screaming warnings.

Almost instinctively, he raised his blackened bamboo sword to block.

Sparks flew.

The tremendous impact instantly collapsed the broken wall beneath Koshiro's feet.

But before he could adjust his balance, Lin Xuan's second, third, and fourth slashes came crashing down in rapid succession.

There were no flashy techniques.

Just slashing.

Left slash, right slash, rising cut, downward chop.

Every strike carried suffocating wind pressure. Every strike seemed intent on severing everything before him, along with space itself.

The pillars, floor, and racks inside the dojo were shredded by the aftershocks of their clash.

Zoro had to retreat outside in a sorry scramble, clinging desperately to the doorframe to keep from being blown away.

As he watched that figure swinging his sword wildly amid a sky full of wood chips, everything he had known about swordsmanship began to crumble.

Was this really swordsmanship?

No, this was a fight to the death, two monsters tearing into each other.

"Hahaha! That's it! That's the feeling!"

Lin Xuan laughed loudly, Murasame becoming a red storm in his hand.

He paid no attention to the flying splinters cutting his cheeks, nor to the shallow bloody wounds Koshiro's occasional counterattacks left on his body.

Pain only excited him further.

The longer Koshiro fought, the more alarmed he became.

This young man's stamina seemed endless. As the battle continued, his strikes grew heavier and faster, and an uncanny rhythm even began to emerge from those chaotic attacks.

He was evolving.

Learning in battle, growing through deadly combat.

This couldn't go on.

Koshiro drew a deep breath, his gaze turning incomparably sharp.

He stopped retreating and gripped his bamboo sword in both hands. His aura instantly drew inward, and everything around him fell deathly silent.

"One Sword Style: Secret Art..."

But Lin Xuan gave him no chance to prepare his ultimate move.

Seeing Koshiro take his stance, the red light in Lin Xuan's eyes flared. He had no intention of defending. Instead, he abandoned all evasion and threw his entire body forward, raising Murasame high in both hands. Like a lunatic trying to cleave the sky, he charged straight into Koshiro's lethal strike.

"Let's see which is tougher-your secret art or my bones!"

For an instant, all sound vanished. Only then did a deafening explosion flood their ears.

Accompanied by the teeth-grating sound of snapping timber, the Isshin Dojo's thick roof was blown straight into the air by the raging blast!

Countless tiles broke apart in midair, turning into a clattering rain of rubble.

At the center of the billowing dust, Lin Xuan felt Murasame cut into something extraordinarily resilient. It was a defense Koshiro had forcibly constructed with Armament Haki.

But that defense lasted less than half a second before pure strength tore it apart completely.

"Get-out of my way!"

Lin Xuan roared, veins bulging along his arms as the monstrous strength stored in his body poured out through the blade.

There was no skillful redirection of force, nor any room to maneuver.

Before that brute strength capable of shaking mountains, Koshiro's sword defense, famed for its softness, collapsed completely.

The normally gentle, refined dojo master was blasted bodily away by an irresistible force!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Koshiro's body smashed through the dojo's three remaining wooden walls in succession, each impact accompanied by an explosion of wood chips.

A final muffled crash sounded as his figure disappeared deep into the dense Bamboo Grove behind the dojo, leaving only a devastated trail violently plowed through everything in his path.

"Hah... hah..."

Lin Xuan held the finishing posture of his swing, his chest heaving violently.

The blast had completely shredded the clothing on his upper body, exposing muscles as solid as granite.

The small wounds scattered across his body seeped blood from his intense excitement and engorged muscles. It ran down the contours of his muscles, giving him the savage air of someone who had just emerged from a bloody battle.

Exhilarating.

So exhilarating.

That feeling of every bone groaning, every inch of muscle burning.

Lin Xuan casually wiped the blood from his face, his dark red eyes fixed on the distant, shadowy Bamboo Grove.

He had no sense of having killed his opponent.

In that instant, the narrow-eyed middle-aged man had adjusted where he took the force at the last possible moment. Though he looked battered, his formidable Armament Haki had protected his vital points.