"Kuina."
Koushirou waved her over.
Kuina, who had been leading the younger children through their training, walked over. She gave a proper bow before asking,
"Father, did you need me for something?"
With both hands tucked inside his sleeves, Koushirou stepped aside, revealing Rowan beside him.
"Starting today, every morning, you'll spar with this... gentleman once."
Rowan wasn't wearing his mask today.
Instead, he was using the Transformation Technique to maintain the appearance of an ordinary man.
The face belonged to a random pirate from the New World whose soul had long since been drained of Sin Points and disappeared.
It was also the appearance Rowan had consistently used during the past year in the East Blue.
After all, walking around the East Blue wearing a mask meant there was always a chance a bounty hunter or passerby might recognize him and leak his whereabouts.
Shimotsuki Village had been a long-time ally of the Revolutionary Army.
Reducing the risk of exposing them was the least Rowan could do.
"Sir."
Kuina didn't know Rowan's real name.
Her father had only instructed her to address him as "Sir."
Although he was mysterious, she also knew how powerful he was.
She had personally witnessed him split enormous waves with effortless sword strikes.
She knew she couldn't possibly defeat someone like him.
But if her father had said so...
Then no matter how impossible it seemed, she would still try.
Rowan looked toward Koushirou.
"Aren't you worried I'll fail to hold back and accidentally kill your precious daughter?"
"Are you kidding me?"
Koushirou wore his usual gentle smile.
"If you can't control your own strength, Sir, then there's no point discussing swordsmanship at all."
"Perhaps you should begin with learning to dodge."
Adjusting his glasses, he continued,
"If I remember correctly, one of your abilities allows you to place teleportation markers on people."
"So Kuina won't be in any danger."
"And it will also let her witness what a truly overwhelming gap in strength looks like."
"Heh."
Rowan laughed.
"You've really thought everything through."
"But showing a child such an overwhelming difference in ability isn't necessarily a good thing."
Just then, a loud childish voice rang out from the dojo entrance.
"Anybody here?!"
"I'm here to challenge your dojo!"
The moment he heard that voice, Rowan turned toward the entrance with a grin.
Sure enough...
A little green-haired brat.
Judging by the timing, it was about right.
Someone challenging the dojo didn't bother Koushirou in the slightest.
He simply arranged for Kuina to face him instead.
It also gave Rowan a chance to see Kuina's current level.
Five-year-old Zoro had selected over a dozen bamboo swords.
Five were clutched in his hands...
Several more were tucked under his arms...
And with his mouth stretched wide open, he tried to bite down on even more.
When he bowed before the match the bamboo swords kept falling out one after another.
The sight instantly made Rowan burst into laughter.
Combining the ridiculous scene before him with the Zoro from his memories...
It was simply too hilarious.
"You jerk!"
Little Zoro glared furiously at Rowan.
He had laughed the loudest.
Everyone else had at least tried to hold it in.
The moment he shouted, however two more bamboo swords fell from his mouth.
Rowan struggled to suppress his laughter and casually waved a hand.
"It's fine, it's fine."
"Go on."
"But... how exactly are you planning to swing that many bamboo swords?"
"It's not like carrying more automatically means you'll win."
Zoro shot Rowan another glare.
Pointing the five bamboo swords in his hands toward him, he declared,
"After I beat this woman you're next!"
How did I become his target?
After thinking for a moment, Rowan turned to Kuina.
"Kid, beat him up for me!"
"The harder you hit him, the bigger the reward!"
Kuina sighed helplessly.
Meanwhile, Koushirou narrowed his eyes and instructed both children to take their positions and bow.
The next moment...
Smack!
Zoro, still burdened by more than a dozen bamboo swords, didn't even have time to react.
Kuina's bamboo sword lightly tapped him squarely on the forehead.
"You lose."
For a moment...
Zoro stood there with his eyes wide open, completely unable to believe what had just happened.
Watching the two children, now just a little older and far more entertaining...
Rowan couldn't help but feel a mischievous urge beginning to surface.
Soon enough, since he had promised Koushirou that he would join the dojo if he lost, little Zoro straightforwardly became a disciple.
The only problem was he didn't have any money to pay the tuition.
Immediately afterward, Koushirou arranged for Rowan and Kuina to spar.
Rowan simply waved his hand.
"There's no point."
"Even without Observation Haki, my reflexes have already become instinctive. She can't touch me."
"And the difference in our raw strength is simply too great."
"So great that I don't even need to exert any force. She'd just..."
Before he could finish speaking, the always respectful Kuina stepped forward.
Her expression was complicated, but her eyes burned with determination.
She bowed toward Rowan.
"Sir."
"I want to challenge you."
Meanwhile, Koushirou quietly stepped closer and spoke in a low voice.
"In truth, Sir's swordsmanship isn't much different from Kuina's."
"Your power system has already become habitual."
"So perhaps by observing Kuina's growth, you'll discover your own path in swordsmanship."
Soon...
The match between an adult bullying a child officially began.
Just as Rowan had predicted, however every time he even considered making a move, he worried that he might accidentally send Kuina flying.
Combined with the ridiculous possibility of her dying from something as absurd as falling down a staircase.
He ended up doing nothing except effortlessly dodging every attack.
He even had enough spare time to casually pat Kuina on the head now and then.
However when it came purely to swordsmanship and only the swordsmanship they had both practiced for the past two or three years.
There were indeed subtle things worth noticing.
After setting aside raw physical strength.
Rowan realized his actual swordsmanship wasn't much better than Kuina's.
An hour later.
Kuina was breathing heavily, completely exhausted.
She still hadn't even touched the corner of Rowan's clothes.
Yet Rowan himself had become increasingly excited.
Because during what had essentially been nothing more than an hour-long game of dodging a child...
He felt as though he'd discovered something.
After thinking for a moment, Rowan pulled out a Healing Dandelion.
With a flick of his wrist, he pressed it onto Kuina's forehead.
Earlier that morning, he had just delivered another batch to North Blue.
He had intentionally kept two Healing Dandelions on himself.
Now they finally came in handy.
Healing Dandelions couldn't be stored forever.
But carrying one or two extras for emergencies usually worked out perfectly.
The golden sphere of light instantly stunned every child in the dojo.
Kuina, who had just moments ago been panting in exhaustion returned to perfect condition in an instant.
Smiling, Rowan looked at her.
"From today onward..."
"Beat that brat up once every day."
"Then spar with me once."
"And I'll give you one of those golden light spheres each time."
Kuina was still astonished by what she had just experienced.
The golden sphere had entered through her forehead and her entire body had immediately recovered.
Instinctively, she looked toward her father.
Koushirou, still smiling with narrowed eyes, silently gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"So..."
"Shall we continue?"
Rowan beckoned with a finger.
At the same time, he tossed Kuina a real sword.
Drawing the blade, the now seven-year-old Kuina immediately launched another attack.
Another hour passed.
Today's game finally came to an end.
Rowan pointed toward Zoro, who was sitting nearby with a blade of dogtail grass hanging from his mouth while watching the excitement.
"You've already received today's reward."
"Now you have to beat that brat up."
Having once again exhausted every ounce of her strength, Kuina felt as though her entire body had been drained dry.
Even so, she stood back up, exchanged her sword for a bamboo one, and looked at Zoro.
"Want to fight?"
Zoro shook his head.
"I won't take advantage of someone who's exhausted."
"Even if I beat you now, it wouldn't mean anything."
Kuina merely glanced toward Rowan.
Then, carrying the bamboo sword she walked straight toward Zoro.
No bow.
No formalities.
She simply attacked.
Standing nearby, Koushirou made no attempt to stop them.
Instead, he watched everything unfold with a gentle smile.
People were selfish by nature.
Compared to the heights his daughter might reach in the future occasionally ignoring the dojo's rules didn't seem like much to Koushirou.
"If you want your physique to improve besides exhausting yourself like this every day, you'll also need plenty of meat from this sea to replenish your body."
Rowan glanced at Koushirou.
"Long periods of exhaustion followed by nutritional replenishment combined with sufficient mental willpower allow a person to sense every tiny part of their body."
"Once someone reaches that level even something as absurd as drinking milk and growing new teeth wouldn't seem strange."
"..."
"Among the World Government's CP agents this extreme level of bodily control is known as Life Return."
Koushirou gave a slight bow.
"So you noticed, Sir."
Rowan chuckled.
"Personally, I think the way you raise your daughter is the problem."
"You keep provoking her about being a girl whenever you get the chance."
"Compared to that little moss-head over there, I think Kuina is much more adorable."
Just then, a bruised and swollen Zoro rolled across the floor, sprang to his feet, and charged toward Rowan with a bamboo sword in hand.
"Oh?"
Rowan casually stepped aside and hooked out one foot.
Immediately, the charging Zoro tripped and went flying again.
He slid five or six meters across the wooden floor before smashing face-first into the doorframe.
Unlike Kuina, who in Rowan's memories had died after falling down a staircase...
Zoro's life was unbelievably tough.
Later on, he would survive a slash from a fully powered Mihawk, sleep it off, and continue fighting at Cocoyasi Village.
He could battle while wrapped like a mummy.
Even after taking on all of Luffy's accumulated pain and injuries while already gravely wounded he still remained standing.
Two words described him perfectly.
Ridiculously tough.
"You jerk!!"
Rolling over and climbing back to his feet, the one-eyed, swollen-faced Zoro charged again.
Rowan easily dodged him.
Another hook of the foot.
Down he went again.
After repeating this several times the bamboo sword Zoro had been holding in his mouth was gone.
Now he gripped one bamboo sword in each hand.
Two-Sword Style?
Fifteen minutes later after falling nine separate times Zoro finally couldn't get back up.
He simply passed out.
Yet Rowan looked at the little moss-head with obvious envy.
Sure enough his own talent for swordsmanship really was terrible.
He hadn't attacked even once.
Yet during those nine falls the brat had unconsciously begun grasping the fundamentals of Two-Sword Style.
And this was only Zoro's first day at Koushirou's dojo.
Before today, his so-called invincibility in the neighboring village had amounted to nothing more than wildly swinging a bamboo sword around and bullying other children.
Otherwise...
He wouldn't have shown up carrying over a dozen bamboo swords...
Only to have Kuina tap him on the forehead and defeat him in a single strike.
"Koushirou."
"Sir."
"Do you think I'm really just not suited for swordsmanship?"
"To be honest I do think that's the case, Sir."
Rowan shot him a sideways glance.
"Couldn't you at least say something nice?"
Koushirou gave another slight bow.
"Your talent lies in your reaction speed, which far surpasses ordinary people and in your terrifying physical strength."
"With just those two qualities alone you already qualify as a monstrous genius."
His reaction speed came from the instincts developed alongside Flying Thunder God.
His physical strength came from the Steel Body talent.
Thinking about it the only thing that truly belonged to Rowan himself...
The only talent that genuinely awakened from within was his Conqueror's Haki.
As the founder and teacher of the Revolutionary Army, whose will was aimed at overthrowing the World Government Awakening Conqueror's Haki from that determination truly was his own talent.
Scratching his head, Rowan waved dismissively.
"I'll go catch a Sea King."
"Those two kids need something nutritious."
This time, Rowan didn't use Flying Thunder God.
Instead, he simply walked out of the dojo.
Meanwhile, Koushirou picked up the unconscious Zoro and carried him somewhere he could sleep.
After arranging the younger children's training, Kuina returned to find her father.
The two sat facing each other in seiza.
"Father..."
"Can someone train until they become as strong as Sir?"
Kuina looked at him hopefully.
Koushirou slowly shook his head.
"That kind of strength is an inborn gift."
"I don't know why Sir only revealed it over the past year or two but that level of raw physical power is something people are simply born with."
Disappointment filled Kuina's face.
She lowered her head and murmured softly,
"If only... I had been born a boy."
"Then maybe..."
Koushirou offered no words of comfort.
His rigid mindset had been inherited from his own father, Shimotsuki Kozaburo.
The belief that girls were inferior to boys that girls could not inherit the dojo although he often used it to provoke and motivate Kuina...
Part of him genuinely believed it.
However in today's Wano Country that way of thinking was already beginning to be overturned.
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