He tugged at his collar, feeling the surging spiritual pressure inside him being greedily drawn out and compressed by the garment.
"This thing's a glutton. It constantly drains my stamina and aura, storing them in its fibers."
Lin Xuan grinned, a trace of chilling anticipation in his smile:
"When I meet someone worth cutting, all I have to do is undo the buttons, and the power stored inside will come back doubled. It'll feel like opening the floodgates."
The corners of Koshiro's eyes twitched slightly at that.
He treated fighting as a pleasure, even burdening himself with such heavy shackles at his age just to pursue an instantaneous burst of power.
This boy was a complete lunatic.
"Since you've found a training method that suits you, Lin Xuan, I can rest easy." Koshiro shook his head with a wry smile, then looked past Lin Xuan toward the distant bushes.
The Weighted Wrist Guards Zoro had just thrown away lay there.
"Still, compared to that Demon Garment, I'm more interested in those two wrist guards. Their density isn't quite as outrageous as that coat's, but for conditioning new students..."
A green blur shot past Koshiro in an instant.
Before the dojo master could finish, Zoro had charged into the bushes like a stray dog guarding its food.
He didn't even care that the thorns scratched his skin. He clutched the two black wrist guards with both hands, practically sprawling over them.
"Those are mine!"
Zoro raised his head, his face covered in dirt and bits of grass, but his eyes shone with startling intensity. He stared fixedly at his teacher, as though he would draw his sword and fight to the death if Koshiro dared take one step forward.
"But you just said you didn't want them..." Lin Xuan watched, somewhat amused.
"Shut up! I changed my mind!"
Zoro gritted his teeth, his face flushing red.
Feeling the heavy weight in his arms, his pride still stung faintly, but another feeling-longing-gained the upper hand.
These weren't just two lumps of iron.
They were things that monster had used, one of the secrets behind his strength.
Since that bastard thinks they're too light, I'll carry them!
Until one day... I can throw them away like trash too!
"All right, all right, they're yours."
Watching his disciple's pathetic display, Koshiro pressed a hand to his forehead with a slight headache. He was just about to say something else to ease the awkwardness of the dojo having been wrecked.
"Trouble! Trouble!"
Urgent shouting suddenly came from beyond the bamboo grove, interrupting the three of them.
The old village chief, who looked to be in his sixties and wore a shabby linen shirt, stumbled into the backyard.
He had run so hard that he had lost a shoe, and his wrinkled face was filled with terror.
"Master Koshiro! Something terrible has happened!"
The old village chief gasped for breath, his hands braced on his knees and his cloudy old eyes bloodshot. "The docks... over at the docks..."
"Don't rush. Take your time." Koshiro's expression grew solemn. His laid-back air vanished instantly, replaced by the composure of a dojo master.
"There... there are Marines!" the old village chief panted, pointing a trembling finger toward the village entrance. "A warship docked, but... but it's a wreck! The Marines aboard are covered in blood, like they've just crawled out of a pile of corpses. They're evacuating the people at the docks!"
"Marines being hunted?" Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow. That was something new.
Here in the East Blue, the Weakest Sea, the Marine Branch should still have enough deterrent power, unless...
"It's pirates! There's a terrifyingly huge pirate ship following them!"
The old village chief swallowed, the fear in his eyes deepening. "That ship... that ship is so strange! Thick iron chains are wrapped all around its hull, and the deck railings are studded with all kinds of gems and gold. It's dazzling out on the sea! They... they've already forced the warship into the harbor!"
Gems? Chains?
Lin Xuan had been paying little attention, but his eyelid gave a sharp twitch the instant he heard those two keywords.
That nouveau-riche taste, along with such a brazen display of wealth, seemed to match a name in his memory-a thoroughly irritating name, yet one perfectly suited to testing his blade.
"Heh..."
Lin Xuan lowered his head, a deep chuckle escaping his throat.
He raised his hand and gently stroked the black coat he had just put on.
Its rough texture made his fingertips tremble slightly, and excitement slowly climbed his spine.
He had thought he would have to spend a few more boring days in this peaceful village. He hadn't expected a suicidal experience pack to come knocking right after he bought new equipment.
"A pirate ship studded with gems?"
Lin Xuan turned to face the sea.
Dark golden flames once again burned in his previously calm eyes. The savage grin on his lips frightened the old village chief, who was still panting beside him, so badly that he fell onto his backside.
"Sounds... pretty rich."
Before his words had faded, he had vanished.
All he left behind was a deep footprint stamped into the ground by his instantaneous burst of strength, and a lingering trace of heart-pounding pressure in the air.
"Wait! What's that lunatic going to do?!"
Only then did Zoro react. He fumbled to tuck the two dead-heavy wrist guards into his belt, grabbed Wado Ichimonji from the ground, and started after him.
But after just two steps, the scene the old village chief had described suddenly flashed through his mind.
Chains... gems...
Zoro stopped dead. His face, flushed with anger a moment earlier, turned deathly pale.
Those features... could it be him?!
Zoro's throat went dry. The fragments in his mind about "chains" and "gems" finally pieced together into a chilling wanted poster.
"Trejer... it's Trejer the Crazy Treasure!"
Zoro whipped his head around and stared at Koshiro, speaking urgently. "Teacher! I know why that guy asked how to cut steel! That pirate... that bastard has the power of the Paramecia-type Chain Chain Fruit! He can turn his entire body into chains harder than steel, and cover himself in them like armor!"
Koshiro's fingers froze in midair as he adjusted his glasses.
Not because of the pirate's name, but because he suddenly realized that the boy named Lin Xuan had already factored his prey into his plans when he asked that seemingly reckless question about "Cutting Steel."
"Reversing cause and effect..." Koshiro murmured, narrowing his eyes behind his lenses. "Deciding what to cut first, then searching for a way to cut it. What an... arrogant swordsman."
The two exchanged a look. Zoro's face was full of urgency, while Koshiro's gaze darkened.
Without another word, Zoro clenched Wado Ichimonji between his teeth, Koshiro took up a bamboo sword, and they rushed out of the dojo one after the other.
Meanwhile, in the woods five hundred meters from the coast.
Lin Xuan hadn't sprinted straight to the docks as Zoro had imagined.
He stood in the crown of a towering tree, the branch beneath his feet giving teeth-grating creaks under a weight it should never have had to bear.
"Observation Haki really is convenient and noisy."
Lin Xuan kept his eyes closed, his brow slightly furrowed.
In his perception, the life forces around the docks were a tangled mess.
One dark red presence was particularly frenzied, devouring the faint blue presences around it.
At the edge of that chaos, a familiar presence was hiding in a corner in panic, so faint it could go out at any moment.
It was Carina.
"Tsk. Stealing from someone this tough-should I call you lucky or unlucky?"
Lin Xuan opened his eyes, his lips curving in a helpless smile.
His speed was currently affected by the weight he carried, and reaching her would probably take another half a minute.
But for that Cat Burglar, whose name death was calling, half a minute was enough for her to die ten times over.
"Can't be helped. I'll say hello first."
Lin Xuan reached back and drew the Practice Wooden Sword he had swiped from the dojo from his waist.
Ordinary white oak, light and insubstantial.
He hefted it, then drew a deep breath.
Beneath the coat called the Demon Garment, his back muscles tightened like a heavy bow drawn to its limit, making taut snapping sounds.
"It's not as handy as Kenpachi's Zanpakuto, but as long as there's enough strength behind it..."
Lin Xuan's gaze instantly sharpened like a hawk's, and he yanked his right arm back. That utterly straightforward throw actually blasted a visible ring of white air outward!
The instant the wooden sword left his hand, the half-meter-thick tree limb beneath Lin Xuan's feet exploded into a shower of splinters.
"Go."
Watching the blur vanish beyond his field of vision, Lin Xuan brushed the wood chips from his hands. His figure flickered as he stepped off the shattered limb and accelerated again.
Smoke hung over the docks of Shimotsuki Village.
The once-peaceful harbor now resembled hell.
Several civilian fishing boats had been blown to pieces, their wreckage burning on the sea.
A battered Marine warship lay across the harbor, stubbornly blocking the pirate ship's path.
"Fire! Don't let those animals ashore!"
Lieutenant Commander Domon's face was covered in blood, and his standard-issue saber had several chips in its blade.
He roared himself hoarse. Behind him, the Marine soldiers were all wounded, yet they continued mechanically loading ammunition.
If only Captain Smoker, the man who always had two cigars in his mouth, were here...
The thought flashed through Domon's mind, only to be interrupted by a deafening blast.
Boom-!
Chapter 26: Is that shell of yours hard enough?
On the enormous pirate ship opposite them, the Shark Super, several thick chains shot out like living creatures, easily knocking away the incoming cannonballs.
"So these are the Marines of the East Blue? They're so weak I can't even be bothered to yawn."
A man in ostentatious golden armor stood at the bow, his hair green and his sunglasses pink.
He toyed with several freshly stolen gold coins, an utterly contemptuous smile on his face.
Trejer, Captain of the Crazy Treasure Pirates.
He looked down at the devastation on the docks as though looking at a bunch of dead things. "Find the little rat who stole from me, then kill... every last one of these Marines in our way."
"Yes, Captain!"
A gang of outlandishly dressed pirates leaped over the side with wild cries.
Meanwhile, behind a pile of cargo crates in a corner of the docks, Carina clamped a hand over her mouth, her face as white as paper.
She clutched a small cloth bag tightly, her knuckles turning blue from the force.
It's over.
I've really messed up this time.
She had thought she could just make a quick score during the fighting between the Marines and pirates and run, like always.
Who knew this sunglasses-wearing freak had such a terrifying obsession with treasure? Even over a small bag of gold coins, he pursued her relentlessly like a rabid dog.
"Little rat... where are you hiding?"
A sinister voice suddenly sounded above Carina's head.
Carina went rigid and slowly looked up.
Atop the shipping container overhead, a layer of camouflage suddenly peeled away like a chameleon's disguise from what had been empty space, revealing a hunched oddball with fanatical eyes.
Sek P, wielder of the Color Color Fruit's power.
He twirled a camouflage-painted dagger in his hand and ran his tongue over its edge, revealing a sickening, savage grin. "Found you, you naughty little thief."
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