Up on the second-floor terrace, both Ronan and Luffy wore expressions of absolute solemnity.
"Ronan…" Luffy clenched his fist. "Zoro, he…"
"Watch, Luffy."
Ronan's voice was low, his eyes never leaving the battlefield for even a moment.
"This is the hurdle Zoro must cross. After today, he'll be reborn."
Beside them, Johnny and Yosaku shouted:
"No way anyone can beat big bro! Big bro is the strongest!"
But reality was cruel.
Facing Zoro's killing intent that could split gold and jade, Hawkeye didn't draw the massive black blade on his back.
Instead, he absentmindedly reached up and removed a pendant from his neck—
A small, cross-shaped knife, barely the size of a palm.
Zoro froze. His eyes were bloodshot.
"You… what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Mihawk idly spun the tiny blade—so small it wasn't even as big as a proper kitchen knife—and said flatly:
"I'm not like those foolish beasts who use their full strength to hunt rabbits."
"Even if you're a somewhat famous swordsman in the East Blue…"
His gaze held a deep, lonely boredom.
"This is still the weakest of the four seas—East Blue."
He sighed faintly.
"Unfortunately, I didn't bring a blade smaller than this."
Humiliation. Naked humiliation.
Zoro felt blood rush to his head. In that instant, rage burned his reason to ash.
"Don't you dare… look down on me like that!!"
Zoro roared, his aura exploding to its limit like a god of war enraged.
"Don't regret it… when you die!!!"
"Three-Sword Style—ONIGIRI!!"
He stomped—cracking the deck.
His body became a violent cyclone, blades crossed, steel clenched between his teeth, charging Mihawk with the strongest power and the fastest speed he had!
This strike could cleave steel!
This strike carried all his pride and all his dream!
"…A frog in a well."
Mihawk watched Zoro rush in, a trace of resignation flickering through his eyes.
"Come and see… how vast the world really is."
"CLINK!"
A crisp, almost shrill metallic sound rang out across the dead-silent bay.
Time seemed to freeze.
Ronan's pupils shrank hard. Even knowing the outcome, seeing it with his own eyes was still a shock.
Zoro's Onigiri—stopped.
Stopped right in front of Mihawk.
And the thing that blocked three famous blades, that blocked that raging, all-in strike—
Was merely the tiny cross-shaped knife in Mihawk's hand.
Mihawk didn't even step back.
His arm was steady as a mountain, the tip of that little blade pressing precisely into the core point where Zoro's three swords converged.
"W-what?!"
Zoro remained locked in the charging stance, eyes wide, pupils trembling violently.
No matter how he forced power into his arms, his blades felt like they were biting into an immovable divine peak—unable to advance even a fraction.
"N-no… impossible…"
"How… how is this possible…"
Zoro's worldview shattered on the spot.
"This is… Onigiri!!"
"This is the move that's never failed me… not once!!"
"And it's being stopped by… some toy like this?!"
Cold sweat poured down Zoro's face and dripped onto the deck.
The gap.
So this was the gap Ronan had described—like a natural disaster.
On the deck, Johnny and Yosaku clung to each other, pupils shaking.
"H-how can this be…"
Johnny's voice cracked as he pointed at the hopeless scene ahead.
"Big bro's 'Onigiri'… got blocked?! That move always sends the enemy flying—every time! What the hell is going on?!"
At the far end of their vision, Zoro held his Onigiri stance, every muscle in his body stretched to the limit, veins bulging on his forehead like writhing worms.
"I… I can't move…"
Zoro's teeth ground together. Sweat slid down his cheek and hit the dry wood.
He couldn't accept it—no, he refused to accept it.
Just a week ago, under Ronan's brutal training, he had awakened basic Observation Haki.
He could predict Luffy's punches. He could sense Ronan's iron spear.
But now—
In his world of perception, the man called Mihawk was like a bottomless void.
Zoro couldn't read Mihawk's next move.
He couldn't even see when that tiny knife appeared.
"How… how can the distance be this far?!!"
Zoro's inner world churned. That was the sound of faith collapsing.
"The world… can't be this far away!!"
With a roar of defiance, Zoro yanked his blades back, retreated sharply—then lunged again like a mad tiger.
But Mihawk only shifted slightly, and the tiny blade danced like a butterfly through flowers, slipping effortlessly through Zoro's airtight blade net.
"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"
No matter how Zoro attacked, no matter how vicious his angles, that toy-like knife became an impassable wall, dissolving every strike.
"He's… too strong…"
On the second-floor terrace, Nami covered her mouth, her eyes full of disbelief.
To her, Zoro was already a monster among men.
Even Arlong—the nightmare itself—might not have been stronger than him.
And yet now, that powerful Zoro was being suppressed like an infant being toyed with, unable to fight back at all.
Ronan stood with arms crossed, eyes sharp as fire.
"Do you see it now, Luffy?"
Ronan's voice was low.
"This is the pinnacle of 'technique.' No wasted motion—every action strikes straight at the flaw."
Ronan himself was shaken.
He knew the plot—but watching this kind of crushing dominance in person still made his blood boil.
He could feel it clearly: Zoro's aura was in chaos, while Mihawk's aura…
didn't ripple even once.
"This is Zoro's trial," Ronan thought. "Only by seeing himself clearly in despair can raw iron truly be quenched into steel."
"SHK—!"
In the center of the battlefield, the outcome was decided.
Zoro's fearless, never-step-back "Tiger Hunt" was seen through effortlessly.
The cross-shaped knife pierced cleanly into Zoro's right chest.
Blood instantly soaked through his white shirt.
But he didn't retreat.
Mihawk stared at the young man trembling violently, still holding an attacking posture despite being stabbed.
For the first time, something flickered in those golden hawk eyes.
"Do you want your heart pierced directly?" Mihawk's voice remained calm, but now carried a questioning edge. "Why don't you step back?"
"Step… back?"
Blood spilled from the corner of Zoro's mouth. He let out a bitter laugh, but his gaze gradually cleared—becoming firm, unshakable.
"I don't know… I don't even know myself…"
"I just feel like… if I step back even once here…"
"Every vow, every promise… everything that's mattered up to now…"
"…will disappear."
Kuina's smile. Luffy's trust. Ronan's expectations. That oath—to become the world's greatest.
"If I retreat… I'll never be able to come back to this place again."
Mihawk looked into the fire in Zoro's eyes—the light of a true contender.
"That's right." Mihawk nodded solemnly. "This is called defeat."
"Hah…" Zoro grinned through blood. "Then I…"
"…can't retreat even more."
"Even if it means death?"
"Better to die!"
The sea wind swept past, tugging at Zoro's blood-stained clothes.
A long-forgotten respect rose in Mihawk's heart.
In the weakest sea, he had found a will this strong.
Rather than be defeated… he would choose death?
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