Chapter 625: The Death of Koushirou!
Puff.
The sound was dull, almost small.
Koushirou's longsword drove straight into Zoro's chest.
Blood spread in a hot bloom.
For a heartbeat, the world froze.
Koushirou stared at Zoro, disbelief flashing across his face.
"Why… didn't you dodge?"
In Koushirou's eyes, Zoro had more than enough ability to avoid that strike. After everything they had just exchanged, Koushirou understood Zoro's current strength better than anyone.
Zoro lifted his head.
His gaze was steady, even as his breath shook.
"This is how I repay you… for the blade you stabbed into me, Koushirou sensei."
His voice hardened.
"From this moment on, there is no master and disciple between us."
As he spoke, Zoro drew his twin swords again.
Wado Ichimonji remained quiet in its scabbard.
"You…"
Koushirou tried to speak, but his expression twisted in shock.
He could not pull his sword out.
Not at all.
Zoro's chest muscles tightened like iron.
Armament Haki gathered around the wound, compressing, locking, jamming the blade in place.
Koushirou's sword was pinned by Zoro's body.
Slash.
Zoro brought his twin swords down.
Koushirou had no choice but to let go of his weapon and retreat, barely slipping out of the killing range.
"Sensei."
Zoro's voice was calm, terrifyingly so.
"You once told me the sword is a swordsman's life."
"Now I will return your life to you as well."
"I will not hold back anymore."
With a harsh pull, Zoro yanked the longsword out of his own chest.
Crimson spilled down his torso.
He did not even flinch.
He threw the sword back.
It spun through the air and landed in Koushirou's hands.
Koushirou caught it instinctively, but his heart was chaos.
He had schemed against his own daughter.
He had used Zoro's trust and then wounded him with his own hands.
All for something distant, intangible, something he could not even hold.
Was it worth it?
For the first time, Koushirou's resolve trembled.
"Is it worth it, Koushirou sensei?"
Zoro's voice came from behind him.
Koushirou's pupils shrank.
Zoro had been in front of him a moment ago.
Now he was behind.
Koushirou turned slowly, as if the weight of his own sins had become chains.
"Yeah… is it worth it…"
He swallowed, eyes glassy.
"Zoro, perhaps only now do I understand what I truly wanted."
"Not strength. Not power."
"Family… and friends."
His voice cracked, filled with a regret that arrived far too late.
"If only you were my son."
With shaking fingers, Koushirou pulled out a rhombus shaped crystal.
It gleamed coldly in the air.
"The Key…"
Zoro's eyes narrowed.
"The Key of the Gods," Koushirou whispered. "The key that opens the Island of Gods."
He forced his gaze up, as if looking past Zoro and into the distance.
"When you see Captain Ryuunosuke… tell him I am sorry."
"If you could have come sooner…"
His legs gave out.
Koushirou fell straight to the ground.
Zoro understood.
Just moments ago, he had compressed the power of Asura into his body, unleashed his fastest speed, and struck silently.
By the time he asked that question, Koushirou was already at the end of his breath.
Everything he said after that was not strength.
It was obsession.
Zoro stepped forward and grabbed him, pulling him up.
His hands were rough, trembling despite the force in them.
"Why… isn't Kuina among the ones you apologized to?"
Zoro's voice shook.
"In your last words, you did not mention her even once."
In Zoro's eyes, the one Koushirou owed the most was Kuina.
Her trust.
Her effort for the Shimotsuki clan.
Her loyalty to the dojo.
And Koushirou had used all of it to cut her down.
Koushirou's eyelids fluttered.
"Kuina…?"
"My daughter…?"
His lips curled, not in grief, but in something colder.
"She died a long time ago."
Those were his final words.
His head tilted.
His breath stopped.
Zoro fell to his knees.
For a moment, he looked like a man whose bones had been pulled out of his body.
Kuina's fake death was not a fake death at all.
It had been Koushirou's decision.
If Kuina wanted to keep walking the path of the sword, she had to die first, erase herself, change her identity, and continue her training as someone else.
Koushirou was a complete chauvinist.
He despised that Kuina was a woman.
Her excellence was not pride to him. It was provocation.
So even if she wanted to become stronger, even if she wanted to become the strongest female swordsman, she could not do it as Kuina, Koushirou's daughter.
Her existence had crushed the confidence of the other children in the dojo.
All of it had piled together into this outcome.
And even now, Koushirou did not believe he had wronged her.
Because in his heart, Kuina had never mattered.
"Zoro."
Luffy walked up and extended his hand.
"Zoro."
Sanji followed, doing the same.
One by one, the Straw Hats came forward and held out their hands to him.
Zoro lifted his head slowly, staring at them through red eyes.
"What are you doing?"
He tried to keep his grief buried.
He tried to keep it from spilling out.
But seeing their faces, seeing how they stood there like idiots who did not know how to leave someone alone, something inside him finally broke.
Tears surged.
His voice rose, raw and angry.
"Hahaha… aren't we partners?"
Luffy's grin was wide, shameless, exactly like always.
"If you have to cry, then you only cry in front of your friends."
"Go on and cry."
"I will hold off the others."
He inhaled, then inflated his body into a huge, rounded form, blocking the view from one side like a living wall.
"Luffy… you bastard…"
Zoro's voice cracked.
Then he threw his head back and roared at the sky.
The sound was long, violent, and full of grief.
Tears streamed down his face as his howl tore through the battlefield.
"Koushirou died by Zoro's hand. A fitting end."
Ryuunosuke spoke slowly, his tone flat, controlled.
"Do not tell Kuina the truth."
"When the time comes, we will say Koushirou died in battle."
"Zoro killed his enemy. That is all she needs to know."
Kuina had only just begun to sense a trace of familial warmth from Koushirou.
If that small thread snapped immediately, it would be too cruel.
Some lies could heal wounds.
And now, the truth was nothing but salt.
"Understood, Captain!"
The responses came immediately.
"Um?"
At that moment, Ryuunosuke sensed something familiar.
Before he could pursue it, a violent presence crashed into the field.
Kaido charged straight toward the Straw Hat crew.
The ground trembled.
The shock forced Luffy and the others to snap out of comforting Zoro.
Luffy instantly activated Gear Fourth and launched himself directly at Kaido.
The remaining Straw Hats followed, surging into battle.
"The Key of the Gods…"
Nami's eyes locked onto the crystal on the ground.
"This is what Ryuunosuke and the others need."
"We should take it first, then hand it over to the Dragon Hunter Pirates."
"With our current strength, we cannot protect it."
She clenched her teeth.
"And Momonosuke… I do not trust him."
"Hmm…"
Someone's voice cut in, casual and strange.
"Where did this apple come from?"
Boom.
A bright red apple exploded.
Purple poisonous smoke surged outward, swallowing Koushirou's corpse.
In the next instant, the ground turned pitch black.
A thick, black fluid spread like living ink.
Koushirou's body, and the Key of the Gods beside it, were dragged down and swallowed whole.
.....
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