After another fierce, high-speed clash, Bardock and Koushirou simultaneously disengaged, taking a moment to catch their breath. Their pure exchange of swordsmanship technique had officially reached its limit. If they continued fighting any further, they would be forced to start fighting for real.
Off to the side, Zoro and Kuina simultaneously let out heavy, desperate gasps for air. They had been so incredibly tense that they had literally forgotten to breathe. Aside from the first few initial strikes, the ensuing high-speed duel had been completely invisible to their unrefined eyes. Yet, they hadn't dared to look away, desperately watching the two blurry silhouettes violently clashing back and forth in an impossibly fierce battle.
"Shall we continue?" Bardock asked, a confident smile resting on his face.
Koushirou's expression was incredibly conflicted. Personally, his swordsman's spirit deeply yearned to continue. It was incredibly rare to encounter such a terrifyingly strong opponent; going all-out in a spar in the East Blue was practically an impossible luxury. However, if they escalated the battle any further and started utilizing Haki-infused shockwaves, they would absolutely obliterate his dojo—and likely his entire estate.
With a heavy sigh, Koushirou lowered his bamboo sword, ultimately deciding to put an end to the sparring session.
"It is far too cramped in here," Koushirou said, pointing toward the massive, rugged mountain range situated directly behind Shimotsuki Village. "How about next time, we head up into the mountains and fight a proper duel with live steel?"
Looking at the distant peaks, Bardock nodded in agreement. "Sounds perfect. Honestly, I was just about to say that fighting with bamboo is a bit dull." He casually tossed the bamboo swords back onto the rack. "My crew is going to be anchored here for a few days. Let's have a final, all-out duel right before I set sail."
Koushirou smiled warmly. "Then it is a promise."
With the date of their official duel set, Bardock and his crew turned to leave and explore the rest of the island. Koushirou had politely offered to act as their tour guide, but Bardock declined. Shimotsuki Village wasn't exactly a sprawling metropolis; the crew preferred to just wander freely and enjoy their time ashore.
Stomp, stomp, stomp...
Heavy footsteps suddenly rapidly approached from behind them as they left the dojo courtyard.
"Hey! Are you a master swordsman too?!" Zoro yelled, panting heavily as he caught up to them. "I'm going to defeat you someday! I'm going to become the World's Greatest Swordsman!"
Bardock turned around, looking down at the fierce-eyed boy. It was honestly a miracle that Zoro had managed to sprint after them on his own without getting utterly lost.
"That is an incredible dream," Bardock smiled encouragingly. "But if you want to become the World's Greatest Swordsman, how can you possibly achieve that without a real sword of your own?"
Bardock smoothly unbuckled Yubashiri from his waist and casually tossed the beautiful, black-lacquered scabbard to the boy. "I'll lend this to you. Whenever you finally feel strong enough to challenge me, bring this sword and come find me on the Grand Line."
Zoro clumsily caught Yubashiri, looking completely bewildered. Usually, whenever he aggressively declared his dream of becoming the absolute greatest to the adults in the village, everyone except his Sensei would laugh at him and call him a delusional brat. He hadn't expected this terrifyingly strong stranger to not only take his dream completely seriously, but to actually entrust him with a real, high-quality weapon!
'He's actually a really nice guy!' Zoro thought, his chest swelling with pride.
"Thank you! I absolutely swear I'll bring this sword to you for our duel!" Zoro bowed deeply, his eyes burning with absolute determination, before spinning around and sprinting back toward the dojo to show off his new blade.
Under the utterly incredulous, deadpan stares of Bardock and his crew, Zoro aggressively sprinted in the exact opposite direction, rapidly disappearing down a path that led entirely away from the Isshin Dojo.
"That boy..." Perona trailed off, violently racking her brain trying to find a word to accurately describe the sheer level of directional incompetence she had just witnessed, but came up completely empty.
"I am absolutely convinced he is suffering from a highly specific, geographic curse," Galdino said, pushing up his glasses with utmost seriousness. "However, when the heavens close a door, they usually open a window. If his 'window' is pure, unadulterated swordsmanship talent to compensate for his lack of spatial awareness... he might actually become the World's Greatest Swordsman."
"Or perhaps his 'window' is an exceptional talent for reciting edgy poetry and giving his attacks excessively long names," Bardock chuckled.
"Huh?" The rest of the crew gave Bardock highly weirded-out looks. Was that even a real talent?
Bardock just flashed a mysterious smile and didn't explain further, turning to lead the group toward the center of the village. The crew exchanged curious glances but decided not to press the issue. They would figure it out eventually.
Meanwhile, back inside the quiet Isshin Dojo, Koushirou gently presented the legendary Black Blade to Kuina.
"Please do not resent me for trading away the Wado Ichimonji," Koushirou said softly. "It is the ancestral blade of our Shimotsuki clan; recovering it was an absolute, non-negotiable duty. Here. I am officially entrusting the maintenance and care of Shusui to you."
Kuina lowered her head and reverently accepted the heavy Black Blade. Her current sorrow and suffocating chest pain were only partially due to losing the white sword she had grown up with. The vast majority of her despair was rooted in a profound, paralyzing uncertainty regarding her own future.
She was already feeling intense psychological pressure from Zoro's rapidly closing skill gap. But today, after personally witnessing her father's apocalyptic clash with that terrifying outsider, she finally comprehended the absolute, monumental chasm between herself and the true apex of global power. If her father—a man possessing such unfathomable, god-like strength—firmly believed that a female swordsman was biologically limited and could never achieve the title of the 'World's Strongest'... was her dream truly doomed from the start?
Gently placing Shusui back onto its stand, Kuina stood up and walked silently toward the storage room. "I'm going to fetch the whetstone."
Koushirou instinctively raised a hand to stop her, wanting to remind her that a permanently forged Black Blade physically cannot be sharpened by a standard whetstone. However, sensing the intense emotional turmoil swirling in his daughter's heart, he lowered his hand. The repetitive, rhythmic action of sharpening a blade was a meditative practice; it might help calm her turbulent thoughts.
"AHHH!"
A sudden, terrified scream violently echoed from the back hallway.
Koushirou vanished from the tatami mat in a fraction of a microsecond.
A few agonizing moments later, Kuina walked back into the main room, her head bowed in shame, closely following behind her father.
"If I hadn't caught you in time, tumbling backwards down that steep staircase would have resulted in a severe injury," Koushirou reprimanded gently, though his face was entirely pale with lingering panic.
"I'm so sorry. I was distracted and completely missed a step," Kuina trembled slightly, her heart still pounding frantically in her chest from the near-death experience.
"It's alright. As long as you are safe," Koushirou sighed heavily, picking up Shusui. "Your state of mind is far too fragile right now. Just sit down and watch. I will demonstrate the proper maintenance for this specific blade. While I work, let me tell you the legendary history of its original owner, the Sword God Shimotsuki Ryuma. These are tales I heard directly from your grandfather. Listen closely..."
Koushirou should have considered himself incredibly fortunate. Bardock's sudden arrival and the subsequent high-level duel had severely accelerated Kuina's existential crisis, causing the infamous 'staircase incident' to happen prematurely—specifically while Koushirou was fully alert and in the adjacent room, rather than asleep or away.
Furthermore, Koushirou's belief that she would have merely suffered a "severe injury" severely underestimated the lethal, logic-defying lethality of the dojo's staircase. In this bizarre world, some individuals could literally survive point-blank explosions that wiped out a 5-kilometer radius without a single scratch... while others could instantly break their necks and die from simply tripping down a short flight of wooden stairs. Where was the logic in that?
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