Silence.
A strange, heavy stillness filled Isshin Dojo.
No one spoke.
No one even breathed loudly.
The gathered children and teens stared wide-eyed at the two figures in the center—Ryukawa standing calmly with a wooden sword in hand, and Zoro… frozen stiff, a red mark blooming on his forehead where the sword had struck.
The disciples' gazes shifted from Ryukawa—
—to the stunned Zoro.
Then back again.
Their expressions were the same:
Total confusion.
Total disbelief.
What… just happened?
This wasn't right.
This wasn't POSSIBLE.
This duel had gone in a direction none of them could have predicted even in their wildest dreams.
From the moment the fight began, Zoro had unleashed everything he had, fighting with full force.
And yet—
He didn't win.
In fact—
It looked like he was the one being overwhelmed.
How could that even be real?!
"Senior Brother… might actually be strong!"
"No, be confident—remove 'might.' He's VERY strong!"
"Zoro went all out, and he STILL couldn't beat him. And Senior Brother… he looks like he hasn't even used half his strength!"
The spectators were trembling.
They felt their worldview collapse.
The idea that Zoro—the strongest in the dojo aside from Kuina—had lost…
To their previously ignored, seemingly mediocre Senior Brother?
No one could have predicted that.
No one.
Not in a thousand years.
"I… I lost…"
Zoro muttered blankly, staring forward as if his soul had escaped from his body.
He could accept losing to Kuina.
But losing to Senior Brother Ryukawa?
That was something his brain refused to process.
He had always believed:
Aside from Kuina, he was the strongest in Isshin Dojo.
But reality had just slapped him hard across the face.
Everything he thought he knew—
Had become a joke.
Around him, disciples aged from childhood to adulthood were frozen in shock. Even the older trainees looked like their minds had crashed.
None of them could quickly digest the horrifying scene they had just witnessed.
"Zoro… actually lost."
"Am I hallucinating?"
"I thought only Kuina could beat him. The rest of us don't even qualify to challenge him."
"But he lost… to Senior Brother?!"
Their voices trembled.
This battle turned their understanding upside down.
The "ordinary" Senior Brother they'd ignored for years—
Had just effortlessly defeated Zoro.
"Wait… this isn't an illusion."
"It's REAL!"
One of the disciples pinched his thigh so hard his eyes watered. The sharp pain confirmed it.
This wasn't a dream.
Zoro really had lost.
And not just lost—
He had been overwhelmed.
The shock intensified.
Especially because…
The one who beat him was the same Senior Brother they had decided was average, forgettable, harmless.
Yet that same Senior Brother had just defeated Zoro—
Instantly.
"This… this!"
Everyone's tongues tied themselves into knots.
"Zoro didn't just lose—he was one-shot!"
"Senior Brother only attacked ONCE. And Zoro was done!"
"My god…"
"How strong IS Senior Brother?!"
"One strike. Just ONE STRIKE to take down Zoro."
The realization hit them like a thunderbolt.
Zoro wasn't just defeated.
He was down in one hit—
Instantly killed (figuratively), one strike KO.
"Think about it—how strong must someone be to one-shot Zoro?!"
No one answered.
Because they COULDN'T.
Zoro was a mountain to them.
Someone unreachable.
But now…
Ryukawa had climbed above that mountain with a single step.
"Senior Brother always seemed so unremarkable. We thought he was average at best. But he was hiding THIS level of swordsmanship?!"
"He one-shotted Zoro! One strike!"
"Doesn't that mean…"
A disciple swallowed hard.
"Holy crap… Senior Brother was pretending to be weak this entire time!"
"And he actually fooled ALL of us!"
The dojo erupted.
Shock turned into chaos.
Chaos turned into excitement.
Excitement turned into complete worship.
Dozens of admiring gazes locked onto Ryukawa as if he were glowing.
"I KNEW Senior Brother wasn't ordinary! He must have been hiding his strength the whole time!"
"No wonder he beat Zoro so easily! Senior Brother's been keeping a low profile!"
"You guys don't understand—Senior Brother was being HUMBLE!"
"Do you realize how lucky we are? If Senior Brother had fought us seriously back then, we wouldn't even be good enough to polish his shoes!"
"I get it now! Senior Brother must've thought our swordsmanship was too weak. That's why he never used his real strength during training!"
"He didn't want to crush our confidence!"
"Senior Brother… he's too considerate!"
The crowd's imagination went wild.
And in the blink of an eye—
The once "average" Senior Brother had become, in their eyes, a mysterious, unfathomable hidden master.
Their shift in perception was so extreme it almost defied berryef.
But that was the power of overwhelming strength.
One sword.
Just one.
And Ryukawa had rewritten his entire image in their hearts.
Ordinary?
Mediocre?
Forgettable?
Those labels shattered instantly.
If someone could still call Ryukawa "ordinary" after this—
Then every other disciple here might as well call themselves idiots.
Because anyone capable of instantly defeating Zoro…
Could never—
EVER—
Be called mediocre.
It would be the joke of the century.