c1: Dreaming of the East China Sea
The autumn wind swept over the fallen leaves, bringing unspeakable loneliness to the whole land. Under a tree not far from the Isshin Dojo in Shimotsuki Village of the East Blue, an ordinary little boy was basking in the sun in boredom, a quiet melancholy lingering in his gaze an unspeakable depression.
The boy's name was Dong Ze, and as expected, he was a man marked by fortune.
Upon arriving in the world of One Piece, he had thought that his knowledge of future events would grant him glory and dominance crushing Marineford's Whitebeard with one hand, and kicking Blackbeard out of his rise to infamy. But alas, reality was far from kind, and cultivation like Haki or swordsmanship was not just about foresight, but talent.
He had trained in the Isshin Dojo for two years. Day and night, he endured the grind, bearing heavy loads on his back, repeating endless sword swings. But despite it all, he couldn't defeat Kuina, the dojo master Koushirou's daughter nor could he even keep up with that annoying green-haired swordsman-in-training, Roronoa Zoro.
It was miserable.
And that made him sigh deeply perhaps he truly lacked the talent for swordsmanship! Just the day before, he had lost to Kuina again during a sparring match. Though still a child, Kuina's blade was swift, unyielding like a glimpse of the future "world's strongest swordswoman" she never became. Dong Ze couldn't help but question whether he was truly inferior to her.
Frustrated, he used a short break to sneak away from the dojo, hoping to ease his gloom.
"If this keeps up, forget beating Whitebeard I won't even make it past that clown Buggy in Orange Town!"
"Heh heh!"
...
A little purple squirrel perched on the tree above stared mischievously down at him. With a flick of its nimble paws, it hurled a gnawed pine nut straight at Dong Ze's head.
Caught off guard in his daydream, the nut struck him squarely between the brows.
In a daze, he seemed to hear a strange chime in his mind.
"Ding dong!"
Startled, Dong Ze leapt up, shouting reflexively, and began scanning the branches in search of the little troublemaker.
But the squirrel was far from intimidated it squeaked twice, mockingly, then vanished into the foliage.
Dong Ze glanced around, then shook his head helplessly. Spotting the pine nut on the ground, he gave a dry laugh at himself.
"Really now... Good thing it wasn't a pine nut from Monk Xu Zhu—if that heartless monk was around, I'd be dead by now!"
But whether it was bad luck or just a series of misfortunes, fate wasn't done with him yet. Not long after he lay back down, a ripe fruit, loosened by the breeze, plummeted from a branch and thudded hard against his forehead.
This time, it wasn't some light pine nut.
Dong Ze saw stars. He was nearly knocked out cold.
"I don't want to…"
Dizzy, he groaned but then, his eyes suddenly focused, his pupils contracted, and he froze.
Before him, strange characters shimmered in his vision.
"Iron Head Technique Proficiency 20/1000!"
Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he blinked and searched again the message was still there.
A strange idea struck him. Without hesitation, he turned to the tree beside him, narrowed his eyes, clenched his jaw, and smashed his forehead into the trunk.
Spinning slightly from the blow, he staggered back and opened his eyes once more his heart pounding with anticipation.
"Iron Head Technique Proficiency 21/1000!"
His eyes lit up.
"So this is my cheat my golden finger?"
"If I can see the proficiency of my training… I've got a chance! But I'll need to test more to understand the limits."
After a few rough trials, he began to grasp how this mysterious system worked.
...
By rough estimation, he identified two major functions.
First, it allowed precise tracking of his training progress every technique, every move broken down into points of advancement. This alone would help him sharpen his will and advance with clarity.
Second, it appeared to allow him to unlock techniques or areas of training beyond his current ability like Observation Haki (Kenbunshoku Haki), which typically took years to awaken. And ironically, he had only triggered it due to Xiao Li.
Now sitting smugly atop his head, Xiao Li the purple squirrel was the source of chaos. Just yesterday, it had stirred up a mob of monkeys deep in the dojo's rear forest. Dong Ze had taken a barrage of stones like a Marine deserter under Buster Call. In the midst of pain and panic, a switch flipped and his awareness expanded. He felt the movements before they happened. He had, somehow, awakened the faintest trace of Observation Haki.
Still sore all over from that misadventure, he realized something vital.
This power of his came at a cost.
Unlocking future techniques would not be handed to him easily. He concluded that only under duress under beatings, perhaps could his system be triggered to reveal greater potential.
Yet, the mechanism for increasing proficiency remained elusive. Not every action increased the counter. Even his latest headbutt only gave him one additional point. Just like a real swordsman in One Piece progress wouldn't come without hardship.
Then he looked around and found that beneath him was a green bluestone about half the size of a full-grown man its surface weathered smooth over years. His eyes lit up at the sight, some insane idea forming but before he could act, he was sent flying with a grunt!
"Dongze!"
"Do you have a death wish?!"
Just as the words fell, an orange figure sprang over and launched a spinning kick that sent Dongze flying like a sack of rice. The moment she landed, the heavy green stone slipped from the branch where it had been precariously balanced, crashing into the spot Dongze had just vacated the ground shook slightly with the impact. Her heart skipped a beat luckily, she'd made it in time.
"You idiot! You think your skull is harder than seastone or something?!"
Maybe the kick had been too heavy, or maybe Dongze was just that fragile either way, he didn't recover immediately and remained sprawled on the ground in an unflattering pose, dust clinging to his clothes.
"Kuina!!"
"You demon!"
"Tyrannosaurus girl!"
…
"What did you just say?!"
At the sound of his deliberately provocative words, Kuina's fists clenched. A crackling sound followed as her knuckles tensed. Her face darkened and she stomped toward him, clearly not amused.
Dongze struggled to turn over, groaning. Looking up at the fierce yet undeniably cute girl before him, he weighed the current power gap between them, then spoke solemnly, "Kuina, don't get me wrong!"
"I was praising your strength!"
Kuina's footsteps halted, just slightly. Those words hit closer to the heart than Dongze knew.
As the only daughter of Koushirou, master of the Isshin Dojo, Kuina had long wrestled with her identity. Her father calm and traditional once said that women couldn't surpass men in swordsmanship, and though she never accepted it outwardly, inwardly the words echoed like a curse. There were few female swordsmen in the world, and even fewer who became great. Despite her tireless training, deep down she sometimes hated being born a girl.
So to be recognized even if in Dongze's roundabout, clumsy way meant more than she'd admit.
Still, Kuina wasn't foolish. She knew Dongze's tone reeked of survival instinct more than sincerity. But seeing him fly over ten meters from her kick, well… she couldn't stay mad.
"Hey! You just got your butt handed to you by that green-haired blockhead was that not enough punishment for one day?"
Watching Dongze struggle to sit up again and fail repeatedly, Kuina's cheeks flushed with faint guilt. That kick may've been a bit too strong...
"Oi! Are you even alive?!"
Dongze gave a crooked smile.
"If you took a kick like that from me out of nowhere, would you be fine?!"
Kuina pouted and furrowed her brows, hands planted firmly on her waist. "As if you could kick me like that!"
Dongze shook his head slowly and laughed under his breath. Their thought processes were running on completely different circuits.
"Help me up, would you? I seriously can't move right now."
"Yeah, yeah!"
"But seriously, with that little stick figure body of yours, don't go picking fights with Chlorella again. That guy's a monster. I'm struggling to keep up if you keep testing him, you're just digging your own grave."
While talking, Kuina extended a hand and helped pull him up. Her expression faltered for a moment, revealing a rare flicker of worry.
Zoro who'd just recently joined the dojo had already started pushing himself with brutal, almost inhuman training regimens. The number of swords he wielded kept increasing from one, to two, and now three. His raw strength, fueled by relentless discipline and ambition, grew more terrifying by the day. His attacks weren't just strong they were wild and relentless. Sometimes even Kuina, with all her refined technique, avoided meeting him head-on. Instead, she used her superior control and precision to outmaneuver him.
History seemed to be slowly sliding back onto its destined tracks.
The Isshin Dojo had produced two rare talents both refusing to back down. One would eventually fall, leaving behind a legacy, and the other would carry that legacy forward, forging a path to the world's strongest swordsman.
And as for Dongze? No one could say where he'd end up on that path… or if he'd make one of his own.
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