Ren turned his gaze over and looked over the injuries on Zoro's body.
After a moment of thought, he still asked, "How do you feel? About your fight with King."
"There's still a gap."
Zoro tossed aside the empty bottle, his expression a little helpless. "His swordsmanship is fierce, but what's even stronger is his physical ability.
The Pteranodon form is incredibly fast, and very troublesome too.
But... I feel like he wasn't going all out. It was like he was still hiding something."
"That guy's a Lunarian. What he's best at is fire. His swordsmanship and Devil Fruit ability are actually secondary."
"No wonder... Looks like my training still isn't enough."
"You've only had one year. Wanting to catch up to decades of someone else's effort in that time is a bit unrealistic."
"It just feels like... I'm still lacking."
Zoro let out a sigh.
To him, what happened in Dressrosa had still been a blow.
He had pushed himself to train with everything he had, only to still run into an opponent he couldn't defeat in the end.
Even though he knew very clearly that among the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the lower five—meaning everyone other than Kuma and Mihawk—
were no longer truly formidable enemies to him.
Enemies he would definitely defeat the moment he drew his sword.
But the pressure he felt when facing King still filled him with a sense of powerlessness.
At the core of it, it seemed his situation had not really changed.
If that blind man hadn't happened to pass by, then once King revealed his final strength, he likely would still have ended in defeat.
And the captain he was chasing after had already become someone capable of fighting a Yonko...
"There's no need to be overly harsh on yourself, Zoro."
Ren saw through the green-haired swordsman's thoughts at a glance. "Even the strongest people need a process of growth.
Even the Yonko, powerful as they are, could still have been killed when they were young.
Their strength, and the strength of every other great powerhouse, all came from slowly turning their potential into reality over a long period of time.
No one stands above the sky from the very beginning, just like me in the past, when I was even weaker than you.
Even I needed time to become stronger.
What's more, I failed too. Against Kaido, I didn't truly win.
But challenging a Yonko is only a small step necessary to witness the peak.
The greatest meaning of setbacks like this is to let us know what we'll face in the future, and what level we need to reach.
In truth, we haven't yet reached the stage where we really need to kill a Yonko.
For now, you already have strength more than sufficient for our current situation.
After all, what we're about to do next is what matters most right now."
"Alright, Ren. I'm not the kind of person who needs comforting, or who doesn't understand reason.
I'm just feeling a little emotional, that's all. It just makes me want to work even harder."
Zoro gave a bitter smile as he defended himself.
"Hopefully."
Ren shrugged and said no more.
But he knew very well what kind of person Zoro was.
In a certain sense, he was someone extremely "proud and self-centered."
Only, that pride and self-centeredness were all directed inward, at himself.
If he couldn't beat an opponent, then it had to be because he hadn't worked hard enough, causing him to partly overlook the realities involved.
For example, the fact that he had only been on this path for a few years.
Yes, he had gone through the intensive training of the Space-Time: The Creator card, but that had only amounted to one year.
In the original timeline, Zoro had trained under Mihawk for two years before gaining the strength to defeat King.
Here, however, it had only been one year, and he hadn't even had Mihawk's guidance.
That was probably the drawback of being too much of a genius.
Zoro seemed to notice Ren's attitude as well, and spread his hands before changing the subject. "Speaking of which, when will that matter begin?"
"Soon. The Marineford War."
Ren thought of the report Robin had sent over.
A clear internal conflict had broken out within the Whitebeard Pirates. One member had killed another and then fled.
Anything beyond that couldn't be investigated any further.
The Revolutionary Army's intelligence network couldn't yet reach into a Yonko's forces.
Especially not Whitebeard's side, whose family system was the exact opposite of BIG MOM's.
Most of the internal members were extremely united.
That much could be seen from the fact that the Whitebeard Pirates launched a war against Marine Headquarters just to rescue Ace.
However,
for Ren, the inside story of this matter was perfectly clear.
To put it bluntly,
Blackbeard's storyline had begun.
Just like in the original plot, he had killed another commander for the Yami Yami no Mi and fled before Whitebeard could react.
And at this moment, Blackbeard was holding the trump card of "Ace is the Pirate King's bloodline."
Ace had most likely already begun his hunt for Blackbeard as well.
If nothing unexpected happened,
Ace would lose to Blackbeard and be handed over to the World Government in exchange for a position among the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
And at the same time, that would naturally set off the great event known as the Marineford War.
Everything was fated, as though destiny itself had already ordained it.
Ren had no intention of interfering in this matter. He, too, was waiting for the Marineford War to begin.
Every plan at present existed to serve the coming Marineford War.
"Is that so? Then it looks like the other plans need to be sped up as well..."
As Zoro said that, his gaze shifted toward one corner of the deck aboard the Judgment.
A certain harmless-looking little girl was tightly bound in Seastone chains.
On the surface, she was just a little girl in a spotted dress, with a monocle over her left eye and short aqua-colored hair.
But in reality,
she was the Donquixote Family's most important officer, the Paramecia-type Toy-Toy Fruit user—Sugar!
She was one of the spoils of war they absolutely had to obtain from Dressrosa.
At the same time, she was also another crucial tool for helping Kuma escape his predicament.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Seeming to realize she was being watched, Sugar began struggling with the cloth stuffed in her mouth.
But because of the Seastone, all she could do was glare furiously at her enemies.
"Yes. Kuma's matter needs to be settled first. Only after that comes the position of Warlord."
Ren walked over and pulled the cloth from Sugar's mouth.
"You bastards! Just wait and die! Young Master will never let you off!"
The moment she was freed, Sugar immediately started screaming curses, with none of the cuteness someone her age ought to have.
"Oh, give it up. Your Young Master is already dead. Though maybe he'll have a chance to live."
Ren left behind a sentence that sounded utterly baffling to Sugar, then stuffed the cloth back into her mouth and manually shut her up.
Then,
Ren left the deck and entered the interior of the Judgment.
From the outside, it looked like a winged cup, but the actual interior space was enormous.
The structure running through the center—the "base" of the cup, or rather the central body of it—was the main cannon of the Judgment.
All the other facilities had been built around that cannon.
Most of them were supporting systems such as mechanical power units, electrical equipment, and the like.
For example, the Lightning Core taken from the Ark had been placed inside the central engine room as the energy source for the main cannon and the ship's various weapons.
Aside from its combat facilities, the living quarters also took up a considerable proportion of the ship.
Its overall shape resembled a hollowed-out square biscuit. The excavated central portion housed the weapons systems, power systems, and other such facilities.
The surrounding area formed the living quarters, for a total of five and a half levels.
The uppermost level was the largest; the lowest was the smallest.
The half level was located on the deck of the Judgment—in other words, an extra half-floor had been built above the deck.
That was Ren's own domain. The facilities inside leaned toward private use, though there were concealed passages leading to every other level.
The first floor was the public area, its upper side connected to the deck of the Judgment and part of the living facilities.
This included the kitchen, the lounge, the meeting room, and so on.
The second floor was also a public area, but the facilities there were devoted to work, training, sparring, and similar purposes.
Training grounds, combat arenas, and the like.
The third floor was where the crew lived.
Zoro, Vivi, Nami, Nojiko, Robin, Urouge, and the others all had their own spaces there.
Incidentally, Nami's room, Nojiko's room, and Vivi's room all had direct passages leading straight to Ren's half-floor.
The fourth floor was a little different. It belonged to the Angels of Glory.
Under normal circumstances, the Angels of Glory rotated shifts to carry out all kinds of work.
Internal patrols, facility maintenance, engine room inspections, electrical checks, and so on.
The fifth floor was where the miscellaneous rooms and storage facilities were located.
Some of the Iron Knights also moved about there.
At this moment, Ren arrived at the first-floor infirmary.
Vivi and the others were all here, resting and receiving treatment in the lounge.
In truth, there hadn't been many injured people in the battle of Dressrosa.
It was just that Nojiko had a large hole torn through her body, an injury left by King, but Zoan users had powerful self-healing abilities.
Combined with the treatment she had received, she was already almost fully recovered.
Vivi, meanwhile, was helping treat Nojiko. She herself had suffered no major injuries.
The Donquixote Family officers were no longer particularly strong opponents for the current Vivi.
"So, there's nothing serious anymore?"
Ren confirmed the situation.
"It's fine. King wouldn't have gone for the kill."
Nojiko smiled, telling Ren not to worry about her condition. "You should go handle your own business. Robin has already brought back the other target.
They're in the lounge area now. As for Sugar, you should have already seen her on the deck.
There's no way she can escape under Zoro's watch.
As for Nami, she's in the control room, using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power to steer the Judgment."
"Understood."
Ren left right away and headed for the lounge.
Within his perception, the Judgment had already left the clouds and was now advancing through the distant sky.
In the lounge area,
he saw two people: Robin and Violet.
"Ren, are you alright?"
Robin greeted him, her gaze sweeping up and down over his body.
Of course she knew exactly what her captain had gone off to do.
But it seemed that even a Yonko had no way to inflict any truly substantial injury on her captain.
"Of course I'm fine. Though if we'd fought to the death, I probably would've been killed by Kaido."
Ren shrugged, sat down on the sofa, and looked at Violet, whose face was filled with conflicted thoughts, as though she wanted to speak but didn't know how.
The second princess of Dressrosa,
formerly an officer of the Donquixote Family,
and also the user of the Paramecia-type Glare-Glare Fruit, an overwhelmingly powerful support ability that allowed her to see events up to 4,000 kilometers away!
"Doflamingo, he..."
"He's dead."
Ren took out a shattered pair of red sunglasses.
"You... really did it?"
Violet stared fixedly at those glasses. "Doflamingo hardly ever took them off..."
No,
it couldn't even be called "hardly ever."
She had practically never seen the eyes hidden behind Doflamingo's glasses.