Seeing Hera's ability, Zoro became interested and said, "What's the use of all those fancy tricks? Have a duel with me and let me see your real strength."
Looking at the battle-hungry Zoro, Hera didn't really want to fight him. She said, "I don't want to fight you. In terms of swordsmanship, I'm definitely no match for you, but if I use my abilities, I have no interest in bullying a child."
Zoro was unconvinced upon hearing this. "Tch, you talk big. I think you're just scared. Besides, aren't you a kid too? If you don't want to fight, fine. If you admit defeat directly without making so many excuses, I'll let you off. How about it?"
Kuina was a bit angry. "Zoro, if you want a duel, I'll fight you. She just got here and you're already challenging her? If you're so capable, win against me in our next duel."
Hearing this, Hera no longer demurred. "Alright then. I didn't want to use my abilities to bully you, but since you've said so, let's go." With a leap, she stepped onto the arena.
Holding two wooden swords with a reverse grip, Zoro also stepped onto the arena and said, "We won't compare swordsmanship today. Use your ability and try to defeat me."
Hera didn't reply. With a flick of her wrist, she fired a First Bullet that hit Zoro. She stood there watching Zoro as he tried to move, then walked over and sent him flying off the arena with a kick.
The reason for this situation was simple: Hera's strength at this stage was too great. Zafkiel's power against a hothead like Zoro, who didn't have Haki, meant that if he couldn't escape the control of the Second Bullet, he was nothing more than a punching bag.
However, if the opponent had the defensive power to block the energy bullets fired by the Hour Hand and minute hand, or the Haki to break through the ability, the boost provided by Zafkiel might not be as dominant as it was now.
Furthermore, Zoro was careless facing a young girl like Hera. He failed to dodge Hera's Second Bullet, and after being hit, all that awaited him was defeat within the slowed time.
Currently, the only thing Hera lacked was offensive power. However, Haki only gradually became common in the New World, let alone in the East Blue. For the current Hera, perhaps only Arlong the Fishman in the East Blue could cause her some trouble with his natural defense.
Glancing at Zoro, who was still slowly falling through the air toward the ground, Hera also left the arena and said to Kuina, "Let's go to the room and pack our things. My ability will wear off automatically after a while."
Zoro slowly landed on the ground, and after some time, he finally recovered. From his perspective, after being hit by a shot, he felt no pain; instead, he felt himself suddenly slow down, and even his ability to think became much slower. Hera across from him seemed to teleport as she kicked him down.
This kind of humiliating defeat—where he was ready to go but got one-shotted—made Zoro's eyes turn red with anger. When he wanted to find Hera for another round, he discovered that Hera and Kuina had long since disappeared.
After this, Hera settled into a monotonous training life. Under the guidance of Genzo and Kuina, her swordsmanship improved by leaps and bounds. Compared to Shanks, who would only have you clash with him or tell you to swing your sword following your momentum, Genzo, who focused more on systematic training, was undoubtedly a better teacher for a beginner.
In the time that followed, Zoro challenged Hera several more times. In matches where they only used swords, Hera went from being instantly defeated at the beginning to being able to trade several moves later on.
However, when devil fruit powers were used, although Zoro consciously tried to dodge the special Second Bullet, after Hera buffed herself with the First Bullet, her sudden increase in speed disrupted Zoro's rhythm, making him unable to dodge the Second Bullet's attack.
Furthermore, after Hera noticed Zoro was consciously dodging the Second Bullet, she very unscrupulously stopped calling out the move names and interspersed Second Bullets among ordinary bullets, making it even harder for Zoro to react.
During this period, every time Genzo asked Kuina to go to the warehouse, Hera accompanied her. Although Kuina felt a bit embarrassed letting Hera help her every time as it happened more often, she stopped refusing under Hera's persistence and instead made it a habit.
Once, when Kuina went to the warehouse to get a Whetstone, the warehouse stairs suddenly broke. Hera, who was nearby, hurriedly summoned the City of Devouring Time and used the dark shadows to catch Kuina, preventing the tragedy from occurring.
Genzo arrived just in time as he sensed Kuina was in danger. Seeing that Hera had saved his daughter, he was repeatedly grateful to her. He even wanted to give the Great Grade Sword, one of the 21 Excellent Grade Meito, the wado ichimonji, to Hera. Hera immediately refused multiple times, but she simply couldn't withstand...
...Genzo's enthusiasm.
However, after accepting it, Hera gave it to Kuina to use first on the grounds that her own swordsmanship was not good enough. Kuina accepted, but in her heart, she felt she would return it to Hera once Hera's swordsmanship reached the level of a Master Swordsman.
Aside from this small interlude, Zoro decided to become a Pirate Hunter. He felt that what he had learned at the dojo was enough and decided to set out to sea to roam and perfect his own Way of the Sword. Genzo also prepared three famous swords for him. Kuina was also ready to go to the Marine to fight against the strong, only she was still waiting for Hera's training to conclude.