A cannonball rapidly grew larger in Zoro's eyes, accompanied by a piercing whistle.
He had no room to dodge.
Sweat plastered his green hair to his forehead. His throat felt as dry as swallowed sand and every breath carried the taste of blood.
He could clearly make out the rusty patterns on the approaching iron surface.
"Get... the hell out of my way!" Zoro roared.
Gripping Wado Ichimonji with both hands, he squeezed the final ounce of strength from his muscles and swung sharply upward.
Clang—!
The piercing sound of metal striking metal made his eardrums ache.
A massive recoil shot up his arms.
Zoro felt his bones threatening to shatter as the force sent him sliding backward.
His back slammed heavily against the small boat's gunwale, nearly knocking him into the sea.
The altered trajectory sent the cannonball plunging into the water thirty meters away, creating a column of water that drenched him entirely.
"Hah... hah..."
Zoro knelt on the waterlogged deck while black spots danced in his vision.
His grip on the sword trembled. His body had reached its absolute limit.
'Was this how it ended?'
'Blown to bits by a cannon in this quiet corner of the East Blue?'
In a daze, the promise made under a moonlit night echoed through his mind.
'It's a promise! One day, one of us will become the World's Greatest Swordsman!'
The girl's voice remained incredibly clear to him, and the Wado Ichimonji in his hand seemed to emit a warm glow.
Zoro's unfocused pupils contracted sharply and a ruthless glint re-emerged in his eyes.
Even in death, he would drag his enemy down with him!
"Still struggling, are we? Pirate hunter."
On the pirate ship ahead, a scowling man stood upon the figurehead with a massive black double-bladed axe resting in his grip.
He looked down at the battered Zoro and laughed wildly.
"Your luck ends here, Roronoa Zoro! Running into me, 'Black Axe' Buck, is the worst misfortune of your life! Men, bring the ship over. I'm going to personally cut off his head and use it as a wine cup!"
"Wrrryyyyy! The boss is mighty!"
The pirates on deck raised their cutlasses and flintlocks, letting out excited roars.
The roaring stopped abruptly, as if invisible hands had choked their throats.
Between the pirate ship and Zoro's dilapidated vessel, a small single-masted sailboat cut through the waves at an uncanny speed.
No one rowed the boat, and its sails remained furled, yet it charged directly into the battlefield.
A young man stood at its bow.
He looked sixteen and bare-chested, keeping a somewhat comical wooden sword tucked at his waist.
The ordinary longsword he had left Foosha Village with was still strapped beside the mast of his own boat, for the past two days, he had been training with a blunt wooden practice sword and had not bothered switching back.
He looked as though he had just woken up for a morning stroll and accidentally wandered into a slaughterhouse.
A thoroughly lazy expression rested on his face.
"Hm? Where did this rat come from?"
Black Axe Buck froze for a moment, then noticed the wooden sword. His face twitched before he burst out laughing!
"Hahahaha! Hey, kid! Are you here to play house? You dare to sail out to the sea with a wooden toy?"
The pirates joined in, roaring with laughter as whistles and jeers filled the air.
"Probably just a lost kid!"
"Hey, brat! Go home and drink your milk! The sea is no place for you to run wild!"
Standing on the swaying bow, Zaraki dug a finger into his ear, finding the noise irritating.
His gaze ignored the clamoring Black Axe.
Instead, it passed over the pirate ship to the small boat looking ready to sink at any moment.
The green-haired swordsman was staring right at him.
Even from dozens of meters away, Zaraki could feel a faint yet incredibly tenacious fighting spirit emanating from the swordsman.
"Is this the resilience that comes with destiny?" Zaraki muttered, a corner of his mouth curling up.
"You're more beaten up than I expected, future greatest swordsman."
"Boss, what should we do? Should we take care of him while we're at it?" a pirate lackey asked, raising his flintlock and aiming at Zaraki.
Black Axe Buck spat disdainfully as a vicious glint flashing in his eyes.
"Since he saw something he should not have, he can only blame his own bad luck. Turn cannon number two! Send that piece of junk and that reckless brat to the bottom of the sea!"
Crank... crank... crank...
With the grinding of gears, the heavy cannon's dark muzzle slowly swiveled and locked onto the young man standing at the bow.
"Hey! You with the wooden sword!"
A hoarse shout broke through from the side.
Zoro propped himself up with his sword hilt, struggling to stand straight.
He yelled in Zaraki's direction, "Get out of here! Don't get in the way! These guys are crazy! Run if you want to live!"
He was on the brink of death, yet he still worried about a stranger.
Zaraki raised an eyebrow, his grip on the wooden sword tightening slightly.
'Aye, this 'pirate hunter' had a good heart.'
"Run?"
Zaraki looked at the dark cannon muzzle and listened to the sizzle of the lit fuse.
He showed no fear, instead, he bared his teeth in a wide grin.
The smile was cold and wild, like a beast ready to hunt.
"If I run, finding another decent target to test my blade on will be a pain."
BOOM!
With a muffled roar, the cannon spewed smoke and fire.
The iron cannonball flew straight toward him on a gust of hot air, carrying enough kinetic energy to shatter the sailboat completely.
Zoro forgot to breathe.
He was exhausted, his eyelids felt heavy, but he forced them open.
He wanted to see what would happen to this reckless kid.
He expected blood to explode in the air.
Instead, he saw the boy run straight toward the cannonball!
"Dangerous?"
The curve of Zaraki's lips stretched to his ears. Within his eyes, a dark golden light surged forward.
It marked the sign of Kenpachi's Reiatsu coursing through his veins!
"Get your facts straight, small fry. I am the most dangerous thing on this sea!"
Zaraki completely ignored dodging as the wooden planks of the bow beneath his feet exploded.
Harnessing the reactive force as he launched forward to meet the whistling iron ball head-on.
He applied zero fancy technique to his wooden sword. He simply raised it high and delivered the most direct form of violence.
He brought it down.
CRACK!
For a moment, time seemed to stop.
Right before everyone's eyes, the wooden sword split the cannonball clean in half!
The bisected iron halves lost all momentum.
They fell past Zaraki's sides and splashed into the sea, creating twin towering columns of water.
Zaraki burst through the smoke and landed heavily on the pirate ship.
THUD!
Wood splinters flew as the deck cracked in a spiderweb pattern beneath his feet.
Zaraki straightened up. He twirled the wooden sword in his hand, producing a sharp whining sound in the air.
He looked up.
His dangerous, smiling face rested less than five meters from Black Axe Buck.
The deck fell deathly silent.
The pirates stood dumbfounded. Their cutlasses clattered faintly in their trembling hands.
A guy just split a cannonball with a wooden sword!
Even Zoro was stunned, his pupils trembling violently.
Not even his master, Koushirou, had ever demonstrated such domineering force.
The strike defied conventional swordsmanship entirely.
It relied purely on overwhelming power.
"Bas... bastard!"
Black Axe Buck snapped out of his shock first.
As a pirate with eight-million Beli bounty, he had never suffered such humiliation.
His face twisted with anger and shame as he slammed his axe onto the deck.
"What are you all standing around for! He is just one man holding a piece of broken wood!"
Buck roared, spittle flying from his lips. "Shoot! Cut him down! Chop him into meat paste! I will double the reward!"
"Kill—!!"
Spurred on by the promise of money, the pirates suppressed their mounting terror.
A hundred-strong mob of blade-wielding thugs let out beastly roars.
They surged like a tide toward the young man standing in the center of the deck.
"Yes, just like that Kahahahha..."
Facing the blades coming at him from all directions, Zaraki let out a low laugh instead of retreating.
An exhilarating release of long-suppressed energy washed over him.
He didnt need to think, what he only needed was to swing his arms!
"Too slow."
The instant the first cutlass threatened to touch Zaraki's skin, the wooden sword had already pierced the wielder's throat.
The strike moved so fast the wound lacked the time to spurt blood.
Zaraki's figure vanished immediately after.
He plunged directly into the crowd.
The rough wooden sword transformed into a terrifying blunt instrument in his hands.
The sound of cracking bones and bodies thudding against the deck accompanied every single swing.
BANG!
A horizontal sweep of the wooden sword struck an ambushing pirate square in the chest.
His body launched backward like a broken rag doll.
The impact caved his sternum in completely, sending him flying over ten meters and knocking down a wide swath of his comrades.
"Too light! Your swords are way too light HAHAHAHA!" Zaraki laughed maniacally.
He caught an iron rod swung by a burly man with one bare hand.
With a backhand swing of his sword, he shattered the man's wrist, snapping the bone entirely.
He rampaged through the crowd with no form and zero defense, favoring a style that actively traded wound for wound.
The steel blades striking his skin only left faint white marks.
Conversely, his every counterattack extinguished a life.
Ten seconds.
Only ten seconds passed.
The once-crowded deck suddenly grew incredibly spacious.
Over half the pirate crew lay on the ground.
Some groaned in agonizing pain, others remained permanently silent.
The thick stench of blood spread quickly on the sea breeze.
The remaining dozens of pirates froze in their tracks.
Their hands trembled around their weapon hilts as absolute terror replaced the bloodlust in their eyes.
They stared at the young man standing in a pool of blood.
Bits of flesh spattered his body, and blood dripped steadily from his wooden sword.
A sharp chill shot up from the soles of their feet directly to their scalps.
They were facing a monster.... wearing a human skin!
Zaraki breathed out slowly, still excited from the fight.
He shook the blood off his sword and looked at the remaining pirates with disappointment, like someone inspecting bad goods.
"Why have you stopped?"
He took a single step forward.
That single step made every pirate's heart tighten.
A corpse with a completely mangled face lay directly before his foot.
The gruesome mix of red and white would make an ordinary person vomit on the spot.
But Zaraki ignored it completely, stepping over the body as if it were a mere stone.