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[Subtlety]
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| Two weeks later... |
...
Life at Shimotsuki Village remained as simple as ever.
Every day, villagers continued their rounds around the village, watching out for their sworn enemy, while others farmed or fished.
Trades occurred in small amounts over the days. But they still happened every now and then. Mostly with travelers, cargo ships, or passing marines who needed to restock.
On that same routine, the cries of the students at the dojo as they swung their swords remained a constant in the people's daily life. They were the hope of the village, one more layer of security for its future and its people—hearing them filled the villagers with hope.
Today in particular, however, those cries sounded a bit more harsh.
"Argh!"
-Thud!-
At that same moment, inside the dojo, a certain greenhead hit the floor after a sword caught him square in the face.
Standing next to his defeated body, Koushirou gave a faint nod before pointing at the person not too far away who had delivered the finishing blow.
"Winner, Kuina!"
Who was, of course, Kuina.
The girl in question heaved a long sigh as she cleared the sweat from her forehead. Then, without even looking back at the half-unconscious, half-sulking figure of Zoro on the floor, she turned around and began walking back to her seat.
"Do those two not get tired? That's the 1,952nd duel already."
"Ask Zoro, he's the one issuing the challenges every day."
"Maybe he likes getting beaten up. My mom told me about such people, and said to stay away from them."
"Who would even like getting beaten up?"
"Dunno, but I agree with her. Whatever's wrong enough with his head to make him like getting roughed up like that is reason enough to maintain a safe distance."
Kuina caught the tail end of the students' conversation as she walked past, her mouth curling slightly.
As always, she remained unbeaten, proving her father's beliefs wrong.
Zoro was improving—she couldn't deny that. But so was she. No matter how much he chased her, she'd continue to be ahead.
She'd make sure of it.
As she had that thought, her smile widened slightly.
But as she finally approached her seat, her eyebrow twitched as the smile on her face dropped a little.
"..."
Something was ruining her sweet moment of victory.
Slowly, her eyes dragged to the corner of her vision, glaring at Dan.
Instantly, the boy's eyes shifted, looking elsewhere as if he hadn't just been openly glaring at her.
'What's wrong with him?'
Her brows creased slightly, a huff leaving her nose in dissatisfaction.
This had been going on for a while now. For some reason, a few weeks ago, the boy shifted from looking lost in his own world to glaring at her constantly.
She didn't notice at first. But eventually those long gazes became too noticeable and too piercing to stay ignorant of.
And no matter how much time passed, no matter how many times she made it clear she'd noticed by glaring right back at him, he never brought it up—just looked away, and whistled like an idiot, as if trying to feign innocence.
For a while, she wondered if she was being paranoid. But eventually it became clear she wasn't.
And it was starting to get on her nerves.
Narrowing her eyes, she let out a huff and turned back to her seat.
Calmly, she sat back down, her back straight and posture perfect, a clear show of discipline, just like her swordsmanship.
As she did, however, she shot yet another look at Dan.
The boy dodged her gaze again, suddenly looking at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting point in the dojo.
Kuina's eyes narrowed.
Whatever it was, he'd better bring it up soon. Otherwise, her patience was going to snap one of these days.
...
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| Hours later, in the afternoon... |
...
Sitting on a rock by the backyard of the dojo, Kuina let out a scoff as she placed a bamboo sword down beside her.
"You're so weak."
"K-kgh...!"
In front of her, flat on his back on the ground, was a beaten Zoro with a bump on his head still sizzling from the recent blow, his expression extremely sour.
Seeing his unwilling face, she grinned, resting her head against her palm. "Why won't you learn, Zoro? You can't beat me. The 1,952 duels before this one should've made that clear by now."
"S-shut up, only losers give up!" Zoro grunted from the ground, slowly pushing himself upright and pointing a finger straight at her. "Besides, I'm catching up to you sooner or later! If you're scared, just say so!"
She sneered, crossing her arms and looking at him with a suspicious gaze. "You know, earlier, after I beat you, I heard some of the boys saying how there are people who enjoy getting beaten up, and assumed you must be one of those... Is that true, Zoro?"
"What?! I'm not a freak!"
"Well, the nearly two thousand duels with zero victories in your favor until now say otherwise."
"Shut up!"
She smirked at how easy it was to frustrate him.
"Well, I'll beat you up whenever you want. So don't hesitate to ask."
"Enough! Let's duel again, and I'll show you who enjoys getting beaten up!"
...
In the end, he ended up sprawled on the ground again, this time more pathetically than before, making that the 1,954th.
Kuina chuckled at the pitiful sight—only for her smile to freeze as she caught sight of something.
Inside the dojo, sneakily staring at them from the door frame, was Dan.
"Alright, that's it!" She stood up.
Zoro looked up at her as if she'd lost her mind, then stared in confusion as she left him behind and made her way inside.
"...What did I do?"
Back inside, she stomped her way over to Dan—who was now sweeping the dojo, acting as if he hadn't done anything.
She stopped right in front of him, arms crossed, staring him down with an upset expression, clearly waiting for him to acknowledge his weird behavior first.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Clearly, she hadn't accounted for Dan having the resolve to keep ignoring her blatant stare without issue for a full minute.
In the end, she broke the silence first.
"What's up with you?!"
Only then did Dan turn to her—his face looking completely puzzled and tilting to the side.
"What's up with me?"
A thick mark appeared on her forehead. "You even have the nerve to deny it?! This is like the one hundredth time I've seen you staring at me!"
"It hasn't been that many times."
"So you accept it!"
"Accept what?"
"Argh!" Kuina massaged her face in exasperation.
While Kuina fumed on her own, Dan's expression flattened slightly.
'Tailing people isn't as easy as they make it seem in media... wonder if the system will have a stealth hack for purchase eventually.'
Sighing, he went back to sweeping the dojo, ignoring the blatant glare and hysterical groans coming from beside him. Koushirou had given him sweeping duty today, so he didn't want to waste much time here.
Of course, he wasn't only sweeping. He was, indeed, observing the blue-haired girl.
As to why he was doing such things? The answer was simple.
To say he was anxious was an understatement.
For starters, the urge to go to Nami's village and unfold his plans there, but having to stay here to prevent the girl next to him from falling down some stairs, had made him grow a bit impatient.
Secondly, yes, the moment of truth was supposed to happen after the 2,001st duel, so there wasn't much reason to be this attentive this early. There were still a few dozen duels left.
However, the thought that things might have already diverted off course from canon without him knowing, and that Kuina's mid-stair tripping tendencies might flare at any second rather than when they originally did in the show, had made him a bit paranoid.
That, plus his urge to get the heck out of there and unfold his plans at Nami's village, didn't help.
Which is why he'd ended up being overly observant of her whenever there was a duel—though maybe a bit too much, seeing as how she had noticed, and clearly wasn't enthusiastic about it.
There were other solutions to his predicament, of course. Like moving the sharpening stone that Kuina had gone to fetch—the one that ended up killing her—down to the first floor of wherever it was, thus making her avoid going up the stairs in the first place.
But who knew if they'd put it back up the moment he turned around.
He could also hide it, for extra security.
But in that case, they could just buy a new one.
Basically, with them being thinking beings, and not robots he could order not to do stuff, this wasn't going to be easy.
Especially because fate in this world was a variable to consider, or at least it seemed like it.
So he wasn't about to take risks. He'd remain on the island—putting all the contingencies he'd previously thought of into motion at the moment of truth—and keep a tight eye until it finally happened, he stopped it, and Kuina learned her lesson around stairs. But not in the lethal way.
Then he'd dip.
If she died even after all that, thanks to fate or whatever... well, he'd feel bad about it. But there was nothing more he could do.
He had a criminal empire to build.
And in it, guilt had no place.
To such thoughts, Dan nodded with his eyes closed, caressing his chin thoughtfully.
But just as he felt he'd arrived at a clean enough conclusion, a sharp voice brought him back to reality.
"Are you listening to me?!"
"...What?" He turned to Kuina, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
"I said I'm not going to put up with your sneaky glances anymore. If you have something to say, just say it! Otherwise, stop stalking me!"
"You've got a lot of nerve, coming from the one who stalked me first..." Dan muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?!"
Dan ignored her, thinking about what to do now that she didn't seem like she was going to overlook his vigilance this time.
He could, of course, just walk away and put an end to this. But given that there was still half a month left before the event he was waiting for, he very much doubted he'd stop his vigilance over her.
So he supposed it was better to deal with the problem now, smooth over whatever wasn't working here, and let his plans sail cleanly from here on.
So, smiling slightly, he turned to her.
"There's a reason I've been acting like this."
"Well?" Kuina asked, eyes squinted.
Dan let a pause follow for a moment, then pointed the tip of the broom at Kuina dramatically.
"I plan on challenging you during the next dueling day."
An awkward silence followed, with Kuina apparently taking in the war declaration.
"You?"
Only for a frown to take over her face the next second.
"I've been training my whole life, since I was a literal kid, and you already think you can beat me? With just nine months of training?"
That sounded a bit assholy when she put it like that, but Dan nodded anyway. If it could get her out of his hair for now, passing off his vigilance as merely "scouting the enemy," it worked for him.
Whether he lost or won that match when the day came, it wouldn't matter—not long after, her death event would happen, and after he did what he could to prevent it, he'd be leaving this island for good.
"I see," Kuina nodded, her expression a bit calmer.
Dan was about to let out a sigh of relief—and even more so when she began walking away.
That lasted until he saw her heading toward the bamboo sword pile instead of the exit.
Soon, she grabbed one and tossed it to him. He caught it, the corner of his eyebrow twitching slightly.
"If you're so confident, how about we test whether you're as ready as you think you are?" she asked, her tone leveled, though Dan could read it clearly enough.
She had taken his challenge pretty close to heart.
'I should have seen this coming.'
He shot a wry look at the bamboo sword in his hand, then back at the approaching Kuina.
After a moment, though, he sneered softly, let go of the broom and kicked it clear of the area around him, then settled into his stance.
'No matter. I've been curious either way. I've improved a lot, after all.'
Kuina took her stance a few steps away.
"Don't you dare hold anything back," she said suddenly.
Dan immediately knew what she meant.
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[Tireless Hack Activated!—Time left: 59 minutes, 59 seconds.]
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"I didn't plan to."
Her frown deepened as whatever slight traces of exhaustion that had been on him vanished from one moment to the next.
Still, she gave a short nod and tightened her grip on the sword.
Without a referee to declare the start, nor any spectators to witness it, they had no way to mark the beginning of the fight.
So instead, the two just...
—Tack!—
Lunged.
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: Since we are on the weekly ranking's reset, +1 extra chapter if we hit 100 powerstones guys.)