Forget it.
I'll just wait here.
After all, he was an outsider visiting Shimotsuki Village. Who knew if Koushirou was busy with something private right now? It would be rude to barge in uninvited and disturb him.
Judging that Koushirou might take a while to return, Nao sat back down on the wall, casually pulling out a stack of wanted posters to pass the time.
Zoro, meanwhile, eagerly took on the role of host. He dashed back into the dojo, quickly boiling water and preparing tea for Nao.
These wanted posters had been given to him by Buggy — detailed records, covering nearly every known pirate crew currently active in the East Blue.
As expected, Nao found plenty of familiar faces among them.
"Don Krieg, 'Admiral of the Krieg Pirates', 34 years old, bounty: 9 million Berries. Hmph, that face looks like it's just asking to be punched…"
"Cook Pirates, Zeff, 57 years old, bounty: 12 million Berries… Oh? The old man with the red leg still looks pretty young and full of energy…"
"Sniper Star Pirates, Van Augur, 17 years old, bounty: 18 million Berries… The highest bounty in the East Blue right now, huh? Already famous at that age — no wonder Blackbeard noticed him later and made him one of his ship captains…"
While Nao was flipping through the posters, Zoro returned with the tea. He carefully placed the cup beside Nao and then plopped down next to him, curiously craning his neck to look.
I don't know him, don't know him, still don't know him…
Shimotsuki Village was so isolated that most of the pirates who were infamous across the East Blue — the kind of names that made children stop crying at night — meant absolutely nothing to Zoro.
That was, until they reached the last wanted poster — the one featuring a red-nosed clown. Zoro's eyes went wide.
"It's him!"
"Hm?" Nao turned his head, surprised. "You know Buggy?"
In his memory, in the original timeline, Zoro had never crossed paths with Buggy before joining Luffy's crew. Could this be one of those butterfly effect changes caused by his own interference?
"I've seen him!"
Zoro frowned as if recalling something unpleasant, a flicker of wariness flashing across his face.
"That guy came here about half a year ago — brought a whole bunch of his men. Said he wanted to set up some kind of delivery relay point here in Shimotsuki Village, or maybe a distribution hub or whatever. I don't remember exactly."
"At the time, Sensei wasn't around, and the way they showed up — loud, arrogant, looking all fierce — we thought they were here to rob us! So we all rushed out to fight them head-on."
"But that guy didn't even take us seriously! He didn't dodge or defend, just told us to go ahead and slash him however we wanted… Do you know what happened next?"
"What happened?"
Nao already had a pretty good guess, but he played along, pretending to be curious.
"Nothing worked!"
Zoro gritted his teeth. "No matter what we did — even me, even Kuina — all our strikes hit him and did nothing! Even when we cut him into dozens of pieces, his body just came back together right away. He didn't even bleed a single drop!"
"When Sensei came back, he handled the situation and made that guy leave. Afterward, he told us that this Buggy fellow was a very powerful Devil Fruit user — that no matter how strong a swordsman was, they couldn't hurt him at all."
"Sensei said Buggy wasn't the only one — that there were many Devil Fruit users across the sea, people that a sword alone couldn't defeat. To fight them, one had to master deeper, higher powers."
"I tried asking Sensei what that kind of power was, but he wouldn't tell me. He just said it wasn't something I could reach yet, and told me to focus on my sword training instead of worrying about it. But…"
Zoro lifted his head, his dirty young face filled with frustration — and a faint trace of confusion.
"Uncle, I know that, as a swordsman, thinking like this isn't right… but during training, I can't help wondering — if it's really like Sensei said, that even the strongest swordsman can't hurt someone like Buggy…"
"Then what's the point of getting stronger with a sword?"
"I've always dreamed of becoming the world's greatest swordsman… but if even that kind of swordsman can't defeat a Devil Fruit user…"
"Then what's so great about that title?"
As he spoke, his tone grew more and more dejected.
It was obvious that the strange encounter with Buggy six months ago had left a deep impression — even a kind of trauma — on this little boy who had been obsessed with swordsmanship since childhood.
Nao didn't respond right away. His brows furrowed slightly.
What on earth was Koushirou thinking?
It was just Buggy, after all. Sure, the Chop-Chop Fruit allowed him to be immune to slashing to some extent, but to a great swordsman whose strength was on par with a Yonko, would that even matter?
A single strike with the back of the blade — or even just a punch — would be enough to turn him into mush.
So why hadn't Koushirou explained that clearly to his students? How could he allow such a misunderstanding to shake their faith in the ultimate heights of swordsmanship?
Did he think Zoro and the others were still too young, too small-town to need to know that?
Or did he believe that even the most gifted among them — Kuina and Zoro — would never reach a level of swordsmanship strong enough to defeat a Devil Fruit user anyway?
Maybe Koushirou had his own deeper reasons or plans.
But as Nao looked at the downcast boy in front of him, he shook his head and decided to let those thoughts go.
What mattered now was helping Zoro rediscover his confidence in the way of the sword.
"There's no such thing as a Devil Fruit user that swordsmanship can't deal with."
He ruffled Zoro's hair gently and spoke in a calm voice:
"Want to see for yourself just how powerful a swordsman's strike can be?"
"Eh?"
Zoro looked up in surprise — and then, realizing what the man meant, his eyes suddenly lit up.
But before he could say anything, Nao smiled, patted his shoulder, tucked away the wanted posters, and stood up.
"Come on. I'm not very familiar with Shimotsuki Village's layout. Take me to a quiet spot by the coast — I'll show you."
…
Half an hour later.
At the edge of the forest south of the village.
Nao stared silently at the large wooden gate of the Isshin Dojo in front of him, a few black lines forming on his forehead.
"…Eh? Eh?! No way! We're back here again?"
Beside him, Zoro looked around in confusion.
"That's impossible! I swear we kept going northeast the whole time! How did we—?"
Why did I even think it was a good idea to let this kid lead the way…
Nao sighed heavily, then turned to glance north through the trees.
"You said the northeast side is the most secluded, right?"
"Uh-huh."
Zoro nodded earnestly.
"There's a steep cliff over there, and below it is the ocean. Hardly anyone ever goes there — not even during the day."
"Good enough."
Nao turned his head, then suddenly reached out and placed a hand on Zoro's shoulder.
"Close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you to."
"Huh?"
Zoro blinked in confusion.
"Why, Uncle? What are you—AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Before he could finish, he let out a high-pitched scream.
In an instant, the world around him blurred and twisted — light and shadow shifting wildly.
He suddenly found himself hundreds of meters in the air, the wind howling past his ears, while the houses and trees of Shimotsuki Village rapidly shrank below his dangling feet.
The dizzying sense of weightlessness and adrenaline made his legs clamp together instinctively — tears nearly flying out of his eyes.
"Flying?! I—I'm flying?!"
"No! Wait—it's you, Uncle! You're the one flying while carrying me!!"
"No way!! Hey! Uncle! You can fly?! Tell me I'm not dreaming—AAAHHHHHHH!!!!"
…
Two minutes later.
Zoro landed unsteadily on the cliff top, his mind still dazed. Below him, waves crashed furiously against the rocks, while above, the familiar full moon bathed everything in silver light.
Yet despite it all, the green-haired boy felt as if the entire world around him wasn't quite real.
"Uncle… just what are you?"
He stared at Nao's back, unable to hold in his burning question—but before he could finish, Nao had already drawn a pure white sword from his side. Without looking back, he said quietly:
"Focus. I'll only swing once. Watch carefully."
At those words, Zoro swallowed whatever he was about to say.
His curiosity gave way to concentration; he widened his eyes and didn't dare blink, terrified he might miss even the smallest movement.
The next instant—
Nao moved.
His gaze was calm and steady. With a textbook-perfect iaijutsu stance, he unsheathed his blade in one smooth motion and swung it toward the open sea before the cliff.
—Vmmm!—
The air itself trembled violently.
Zoro felt an overwhelming pressure hit him square in the chest, a suffocating force as if every bit of air along the coast had been sucked away.
Then the slash came.
A blinding white arc of sword energy—vast and coiling like a celestial serpent—roared forth, devouring everything in its path.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Explosions rolled endlessly across the night. Under the moonlight, the ocean's surface erupted into dozens—no, hundreds—of towering water columns that shot skyward, completely obscuring the horizon.
When at last the sea settled and the spray fell back down, what remained before them was something that defied belief—
A gaping trench, hundreds of meters wide, carved straight across the ocean's surface, stretching all the way to the distant horizon.
It looked as though the entire sea had been split in two by that single swing—its end lost beyond sight.
"Th–This…"
Zoro's jaw dropped so wide it could have swallowed a basket of eggs.
He stared blankly, trying to speak, but words refused to come. For several long moments, his mind was completely blank.
Wait—
Suddenly, Zoro's pupils shrank. He looked up sharply—and what he saw made his eyes go even wider.
High above, across the night sky itself, a faint rift had appeared.
A dark, jagged line stretched upward from directly above the cliff, continuing past the horizon—
and in the distance, it seemed to connect perfectly with the end of the ocean trench.
Under the bright moon, sea and sky aligned as one—split cleanly in half.
Zoro's scalp tingled, his throat dry. He swallowed hard, his whole body trembling.
Was… was this really happening? Not a dream?
To cut the sea.
To cleave the heavens…
Could swordsmanship—mere swordsmanship—truly reach such heights?!
"Now then."
Nao slid his blade smoothly back into its sheath and turned around with a gentle smile.
"Do you still think that no matter how far you go in swordsmanship, it's meaningless?"
Zoro's mind was a blur.
He nodded instinctively, then caught himself and shook his head furiously like a rattle drum.
"And tell me—do you think a Devil Fruit user, say… that clown Buggy—could withstand that slash?"
That snapped Zoro completely back to reality.
He shook his head without hesitation.
To take that slash?
What kind of joke was that!
With a sword strike like that—forget one Buggy—even if there were ten of him, a hundred, a thousand, they'd all be pulverized in an instant, reduced to dust and scattered on the wind!
Zoro glanced again at the distant ocean that had been split apart, then turned back to Nao, who was smiling faintly. His eyes were shining like stars.
No wonder…
No wonder this "uncle" insisted on demonstrating his swordsmanship only after they'd found a secluded stretch of coastline, instead of staying back at the dojo grounds.
If he'd unleashed that strike there, it wouldn't just be the Isshin Dojo that got destroyed—no, the entire ShimotsukiVillage… no, the whole island might've been sliced in two like the sea before them!
If earlier, back in the dojo, Zoro had felt simple gratitude for Nao's guidance,
Then now, in this moment, what filled him was pure awe—utter, heartfelt worship toward this mysterious swordsman before him.
...
"Uncle, just who are you really?"
"Nao? Never heard that name before! But don't worry, I've got it memorized! Still, can't you just tell me straight what your real identity is? Hmm… let me guess—you're the current world's number one swordsman, aren't you?"
"And judging by all those bounty posters you're carrying around, maybe you're also the strongest bounty hunter in the world, right?!"
"Hey, hey, hey, Uncle! Don't just stand there smiling and saying nothing! At least nod or something!"
All the way back, Zoro's childlike nature was on full display—he was like a little sparrow, chirping nonstop, firing off one question after another.
At first, Nao patiently answered each one. But as the questions got stranger and stranger, he just smiled quietly and stopped replying altogether.
They followed the narrow country path, and since Nao was leading the way this time, they didn't get lost again. Soon, the lights of Shimotsuki Village appeared ahead.
In the distance, the Isshin Dojo glowed warmly with light.
"Looks like Sensei's finally back!"
Zoro's voice beside him was full of excitement.
"Mm."
Nao nodded slightly. Even without using his Observation Haki intentionally, he could faintly sense a powerful aura emanating from the dojo.
Finally—someone worth crossing blades with.
As that thought crossed his mind, a sudden buru-buru-buru ringing came from inside his coat.
"Hello?"
He casually answered the call.
He had assumed it would be Buggy calling to report progress on their latest operation—
—but then he noticed the Den Den Mushi's face morphing into that of an old man with white hair, who immediately started nonchalantly picking his nose.
As expected—
A familiar, raspy voice burst through the receiver a second later:
"Hello? Hello? Hello? Is this Nao? Have you reached the East Blue yet?"