In the dead of night, the boulder slid up and down under the pull of the ropes, Zoro's training had not stopped, even as a burning sensation of tearing came from his muscles, he continued to mechanically repeat a movement, until he no longer had the strength to continue.
And when he collapsed to the ground, he seemed to see, an old man with a ponytail and straight eyebrows appearing here.
This person often sat by the sea daydreaming, and Zoro had no idea who he was, speaking words he couldn't understand, but there was a rumor in the dojo that he was a samurai.
In fact, that was indeed the case, his name was Shimotsuki Kozaburo, a famous swordsmith from Wano Kuni, who had left Wano Kuni 40 years ago against the country's laws and successfully reached the East Sea, becoming part of the Shimotsuki Family.
He was also Kuina's grandfather, but upon seeing this silhouette, Zoro slapped himself on the face.
He knew the man was Kuina's grandfather only from the funeral of this person years ago, and it was from Kuina that he learned of the identity after Kozaburo's death.
"Saw a ghost..."
Not merely an idiomatic expression, but in the true sense of the word, first was a bizarre search for a black apparition seeking the Netherworld, and now seeing a dead old man, Zoro began to question some things in this world.
But he quickly realized it wasn't the long-dead Kozaburo, but was Koshiro.
The current master of the dojo, and his teacher.
"Zoro, what are you doing?"
With his father and daughter both gone, Koshiro had become a lonely person, with only the children of the dojo to care for, especially Zoro, his face resembling someone from Kozaburo's past words.
"Master, I probably...really saw a ghost...."
As he spoke, he recounted his experiences during the day, including the supernatural sighting of Kozaburo.
"So Master, do you think the Netherworld really exists?"
"I don't know, but whether it exists or not, the living and the deceased reside in two worlds, Zoro, that's not a place us living beings should tread."
Zoro stared blankly at the distant grassland, the place where he and Kuina once dueled. She truly defeated him 2001 times, and there was also that promise of becoming the world's greatest...
"Master, could you entrust Wado Ichimonji to me?"
"Hmm?"
"That is...our previous agreement, since she's gone, I should strive for with her share, even though they're two worlds that never intersect, I want to echo our name in the Netherworld."
Seeing Zoro respectfully kneeling and pleading, Koshiro's thoughts seemed to be drawn elsewhere, his deep gaze holding his thoughts hidden.
He could see that Zoro hadn't let go of that promise entirely, yet ultimately he agreed to Zoro's request, passing Wado Ichimonji to him.
From that point onward, in every battle, as a practitioner of the Three-Sword Style, he would always have Wado Ichimonji gripped in his mouth.
Darkrai didn't know that his appearance had subtly caused some impact, and in this world, there may be one more individual seeking the entrance to the Netherworld.
And in a prison on the Grand Line, Who's-Who began to plot his jailbreak plan.
With the emergence of Hundred Beasts, the changes in The Sea became more intense, and with Red Hair, Big Mom, Hundred Beasts, Whitebeard, and various remnants starting their actions, this made the World Government increasingly dissatisfied with his failure.
Due to the fruit's characteristic, they did not dispatch a stronger force to escort it, but the plunderer was Red Hair Shanks, strictly speaking, whoever undertakes this task is ill-fated.
Initially, after Who's-Who's mission failed, he thought it wasn't a big deal, even CP9 couldn't guarantee 100% mission success, he felt that with his capability, the higher-ups wouldn't care too much, at most just some punishment.
But upon his return, he was directly imprisoned, the only good news being that he was not incarcerated in Impel Down, but in the prison of the CP Mechanism.
Then came torture and interrogation; at first, he harbored the idea of being released after punishment, but lately, a prison guard mockingly told him, "Instead of hoping for upper forgiveness, you might as well pray for Nika to come save you."
This was a legend from ancient times, ancient slaves believed it was a savior who would bring smiles and freedom to their miserable lives, but whether he truly existed, no one knew?
Having endured too many hardships, Who's-Who chose to believe, as long as he could be rescued, he didn't care about the details, but a few days later, the guard disappeared without a trace.
Who's-Who, originally doing the darker jobs for the World Government, understood clearly what such a situation meant, that term was probably taboo.
Now the guard had vanished, they might not yet have thoroughly realized how many people were aware of that term, but given the World Government's efficiency, it wouldn't be long until he was found.
Thus he risked early escape, even killing those who might have overheard the phrase during his break-out to reduce the probability of being eliminated.
He succeeded, even escaping the prison months earlier than the original timeline, then set sail under the banner of the Who Pirates.
As an agent, he already had his plans, first would be to lay low for a while, then make a name, followed by seeking a patron in the New World, only this way could he feel more secure.
The reason for lying low is he knew a lot of secrets, and many of these secrets had a shelf life, once the time limit passed, the World Government would relax the hunt, if he acted immediately after breakout, the consequences might be unbearable.
With the passage of time, the World Conference convened again, more Kings recognized the perils of the Great Pirate Era, aside from the few kingdoms truly annihilated, some pirates sought to replicate such actions for fame.
Those lacking the strength faced catastrophic defeat, but it brought troubles to many countries, yet they remained oblivious to Dragon's threat, regarding it as mere trifles.
Some Kings even believed these rebels were agitated solely due to insufficiently high taxes, leading them to raise domestic taxes further, considering leisure as the root cause of rebellion.
Uta gradually integrated into the Hundred Beasts Fruit's performance division. Tesoro planned her debut concert upon the ship's completion next year, and on Ghost Island, Setsuna's due date approached...