章 32: Frog In The Well
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"Calm down will you?"
Zoro heard Rei voice from his back, however the former couldn't speak! He knew his body would be crushed in instant if he were to open his mouth!
Both Rei and Zoro keep their silents for a while, until Rei finally opened his mouth, "I don't have any grudges against you Pirate Hunter."
Rei paused as he saw the famous Meitō sword lays besides Zoro's mouth on the ground, then he took it much to Zoro displeasure!
Rei scrutinized the beautiful white handle sword in interest, then he clicked his tongue, "tsk*, Such beauty, i wonder if it will fetch a good price if sold?"
Zoro suddenly gathers his strength from who knows where! Veins protruding out of his every muscle fibres in his body. He tried to push his body up once more!
Rei felt Zoro's body rised slowly. However, much to Zoro's dismay! Rei simply increase his chakra output into his technique.
'BAM!'
Once again Zoro's body was being pressed onto the ground! This time with the weight so heavy he felt like a mountain rested on his back!
"UAAAAKH!" Zoro grunted while vomited blood once again.
Rei saw Zoro struggling in amusement and who knew that Zoro would spoke albeit in difficulty.
"huff* huff*, Let, go! Of wheeze* that sword!" Zoro gritted voice was seemingly full of rage!
'Crack! Crack! Creaaack!'
As the air leaves Zoro's lungs, his ribs began to crack with chilling sounds.
"Seems like you have some stories with this sword?" Rei raised his eyebrow.
Without carring about Zoro underneath, Rei enjoyed the moon which shone brightly in the darkness of night.
Zoro who felt extremely indignant could hear Rei's spoke lightly. "The world is such a huge place, you can meet and see incredible things within it..."
".....When i was coming 'here' for the first time, i couldn't believe with what i saw. I even asked to myself, 'Is this the real scenery? Is this how it looks like when you're traveling?'....."
He sighed and continued, ".....You know? I used to always daydream back then, travelling under the sun, meeting with new acquaintances, or just lazying around without care on the grass, i thought i could never experience it....."
Rei paused for a few moments, then he swung Zoro's Meitō around seemingly having fun.
"...And now, i finally don't need to keep my daydreaming any longer...."
Rei then looked towards Zoro's head with interest, then he asked, "...Whats your dream Roronoa? I don't believe your dream is to only scrounging for food right? What would you become? What had you become? What's the future will offer? The mysteriousness of those questions has fascinate me greatly..."
Zoro keep silents as he heard Rei mumbled non-stop, however Rei's next sentence actualy managed to picked his interest.
"....Swordsman huh? Do you know about the strongest swordsman currently alive in the world Roronoa?"
Rei chuckled as he narrate the stories, "...Unlike you 'Pirate Hunter', that man has 'Marine Hunter' as his nickname. With his huge black sword and gaze as sharp as those of hawk's, he become a threat towards the world's marine."
Rei couldn't help but wanting to have a conversation. After all, Zoro would become "Pirate King" crew of the future! So Rei took his time having a "conversations" with Zoro albeit one sidedly.
Then Rei sighed, he put down the Meitō right besides Zoro's eyes and patted the later's head lightly, and of course Zoro didn't appreciated it.
Soon after, Rei slowly released his technique and stood up while patting his long formal black yukata from dust.
Feeling the weight has gone, Zoro turned his body around with difficulty. He saw Rei folding his arm under his yukata's sleeve which gave him a slight trepidation.
Under the moonlight, Rei's smiling figure with his black yukata and ponytail reminds him slightly of his sword's Master, Shimotsuki Koushiro.
However Zoro shook his head soon after, seeing Zoro didn't have any intention to continue their fight and only sitting there on the ground, Rei turned around to leave only to be called by Zoro.
"Do you know him?" Asked Zoro with hoarse voice, he felt lots of his ribs were cracked after Rei sat on top of him.
Rei paused on his track, he tilted his head towards Zoro, "...Him?"
"The man, the strongest swordsman in the world."
Rei glanced upwards, and said, "..Ah, you mean 'Him'? Unfortunately, i'm not familiar with him, i just 'heard' here and there."
"Then why did you speak of him earlier?" Grunted Zoro.
"I wonder why?" Rei replied with meaningful smile.
"Can you tell me where he is right now?" Zoro raised his voice.
Rei smiled hearing the question, then he chuckled slightly, "Why? Do you want to meet him?"
Zoro actualy nodded! Then he explained, "In order to become the strongest swordsman, i need to defeat him!"
Zoro thought Rei would laugh at his words, who knew Rei's expressions were still calm with a smile.
"Thats impressive Roronoa, rarely any souls brave enough to speak such a bold claim."
Zoro impressions towards Rei changed slightly when he saw the later didn't admonished him or even mocked at him. The former could see the later eyes shone in earnest when he spoke it.
"Why do you wants to defeat him? To become the strongest swordsman so everyone will talk about you? Become rich and famous? Or something else?" Rei asked only to hear Zoro answered in determined maner.
"To fulfill a promise..."
Rei paused as he smiled in earnest. Then he turned around and said, "The 'you' right now won't even last for more than 5 minutes at his presence..."
Seeing Rei leaves, Zoro couldn't help but called him, "Wait! Tell me whe..."
Rei however, cut Zoro's sentence short, "...Heed my advice Pirate Hunter! You're no threat for me! Much less for 'him', don't be a frog in the bottom of the well! Train hard! Hard enough you wanna die! Then maybe we can talk."
Zoro gritted his teeth, and heard Rei's trailing voice from afar, "...For your informations, i bet he only need a small knife to cut fruit in order to deal with you! Farewel, hope we'll see each other in the future, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro!"
'WHAM!'
Zoro slammed his fist so hard towards the ground while gritted his teeth its bleed, he saw Rei silhouette getting fainter and fainter under the moonlight towards the town's pier.
"White Ghost Rei!" He grunted as he tried to stood up with difficulty.
As for Rei, he decided to just leave from the town after the exciting encounters with the familiar characters he knew from the series.
「Ding! congratulations, you have defeated the enemy. you got 10 G-pts, current G-pts : 91」
Humming a little tune, he step inside his boat and began to set sails once more to find out any other exciting encounter he might find in the future.
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After the mess had passed, the bar owner could be seen holding his tears when he saw his bar condition right now.
Gathering his will, he began to swipe the debris and clean up his bar with listless manner. Just as he reached towards the corner which Rei seated upon, his eyes couldn't help but opened wide! With tears streaming down on his cheeks he reached towards the stacked bills of bellies rested on the sofa!
As for the duo Johnny and Yosaku, after witnessing how the 'White Ghost' manhandled the infamous 'Pirate Hunter'. Both were seen helping Zoro to stood up and leave from that place. Then after the duo ran back and carefuly took Billy's body out of the bar and exchange it to the island bounty center.
There was always bounty center at each island in Onepiece, ones could exchange the body of the wanted target to any bounty center and exchange it to a coupon. The coupons were the stamped proof of captured or deceased criminal, it's valuable as each coupons could held an enormous amount of money. However it couldn't be used to exchange for common goods and only by exchanging it back to the bellies from the closest marine base, one could finaly enjoyed their fruit of effort.
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