【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Luffy, you have to stop him!" Usopp said nervously. Noticing that Luffy didn't answer him, he turned to look at Qi, "Hey, Qi, Merry's ship is getting farther and farther away."

Qi did not respond to Usopp, but just stared at Zoro who was confronting Hawkeye, holding the railing under his hands tightly. There was no way Zoro could beat Hawkeye.

"It's him! Pirate hunter, Three Swords Style Roronoa Zoro!" Some Creek pirates noticed Zoro's three swords and talked loudly.

"Pathetic... weakling." Hawkeye stood up from his boat and jumped towards the floating wreckage. "If you were also a swordsman, you would have seen the gap between us at a glance, but you still challenged me. Is it out of your courage or ignorance?"

Qi held the railing tightly under his hands, not noticing that cracks had appeared on the railing under his hands. Zoro might very well die, but he didn't need to tell Luffy the consequences of the matter.

He watched Mihawk remove the necklace from his neck and pull out a knife from it. He wanted to stop it, but he also knew that this was the battle that Zoro had to go through for his dream. He would not stop it, and he would not stop Luffy, someone's dream.

"Hey, what do you mean?" Zoro's eyes became gloomy, staring at the knife in his hand and asked angrily.

"I'm not one of those stupid beasts who would use all his strength just to catch a hare." Hawkeye said simply, as if he didn't know that his words were insulting and angering Zoro, and continued, "Unfortunately, this is already my smallest sword."

"There has to be a limit to looking down on others!!" Zoro shouted angrily, and then rushed towards Hawkeye with his sword waving, "Don't regret it when you die!!"

"Frog in the well, let me teach you how vast this world is!" Hawkeye said, not caring about Zoro who was rushing towards him.

"Demon Slash!!" Zoro roared and attacked Hawkeye, but was blocked by the small dagger he stretched out.

"Zoro!!" Usopp shouted in shock.

"Brother, Ghost Slash doesn't work!!" Johnny and Joseph shouted in shock.

He couldn't move. What did he do? No one could see through his moves, but he was beaten with a toy-like knife... How is this possible? Zoro thought in disbelief.

He couldn't be so far behind, he didn't believe the gap between them could be so big, there couldn't be such a big gap in the world. In anger, Zoro kept swinging his sword at Hawkeye, but his sword was blocked by Hawkeye until he fell down.

He didn't hold the sword until now just to fight against this toy...!! Zoro stood up again and continued to attack Hawkeye. In his mind, he kept thinking about Kuina's words, that she also wanted to be the strongest... but she couldn't because she was a woman, and what he promised to his master when Kuina died, that he would take her to become the world's number one swordsman and let his name resound through heaven.

"What are you carrying? What do you want after becoming strong? Weak people..." Hawkeye asked casually.

"You actually said my big brother is weak, you bastard!" Johnny roared, followed by Joseph who also roared, "Let us tell you, big brother is..."

"Stop, don't go over there! Joseph, Johnny!!" Luffy pressed Joseph and Johnny, who were about to rush over, on the deck, and at the same time restrained himself from interfering in the battle, gritting his teeth and shouting, "Hold on!"

Zoro was once again repelled by the knife in Hawkeye's hand. He took an attacking stance and rushed towards Hawkeye, "I absolutely cannot lose!"

Luffy's words when he invited him to the ship rang in his ears. As a crew member of the Pirate King, if he couldn't become the world's number one swordsman, it would be difficult for Luffy to deal with it. "Tiger Hunter!!"

This time his attack was not repelled, and his chest was pierced by the knife, just above his heart. A little more would have killed him, but he was not afraid of it.

"Do you want to be stabbed through the heart like this? Why don't you retreat?" Hawkeye asked.

"It feels like if I take a step back, everything will disappear, as if I can never come back here again." Zoro replied, more blood flowing from his mouth.

“Yes, this is failure!”

"Then I can't even retreat!"

"Even if it means death?" Hawkeye asked, staring into the man's eyes, trying to find any fear or lies in them.

"It's better to die!" said Zoro with a smile.

"Tell me your name!" Hawkeye drew out a knife.

"Roronoa Zoro!" Zoro replied as he readjusted the sword in his hand, preparing for the final blow.

"I will remember this. I haven't met a strong man for a long time. I will use the etiquette of a swordsman and give you the final blow with the world's strongest black sword!" Hawkeye pulled out the knife from his back and rushed towards Zoro who was also attacking him. At the moment their attacks met, a bloody mark was cut on Zoro's chest. At the same time, except for the knife he was biting, the other two knives in his hand were broken into two pieces.

Zoro sheathed the intact Wado Ichimonji. Until this moment, he completely understood that he was no match for Hawkeye, at least not now. He turned to face Hawkeye with open arms and grinned. Blood dripped from his mouth onto the deck. "A wound on the back is a shame for a swordsman."

"Great!" Hawkeye smiled and swung his sword at Zoro's chest.

"Zoro!!" Luffy yelled.

Qi dodged and rushed over to catch Zoro as he fell into the sea, and then shouted to Johnny and Joseph, "Quickly row the boat over here!"

"Yes, sir!" Johnny and Joseph shouted excitedly, and then quickly rowed the boat to the side of Brother Sauron and Brother Qi.

Qi quickly put Zoro on the boat, and then applied the medicine that had been prepared in advance to stop the bleeding, but the blood was still flowing too fast.

He pressed his hand around the wound and applied pressure, trying to stop the blood flow, but was unsuccessful. As time passed, Zoro's face became paler and paler. Qi pursed his lips, then made up his mind and placed his hand on Zoro's wound. He focused his attention completely on Zoro's wound and did not pay attention to the movements around him until Zoro woke up and called out Luffy's name.

"I will never lose again, before I defeat him and become a great swordsman... I will never lose again!!" Zoro raised his sword, covered his eyes with his arms, and shouted with tears in his eyes, "Do you have any objections? Pirate King!!"

"Hehehe! No problem!" Luffy showed a bright smile on his face.

Qi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw this scene, and then he started laughing. As he laughed, the wound on his body was pulled, and he couldn't help but frowned.

In his current state, the ability he used was not enough to transfer the wound to another person, but only to alleviate part of it. Since he was a shadow, he could only transfer the wound to himself when he used this ability. I hope Luffy won't find out anything, after all, he can be quite perceptive sometimes, especially when it comes to his injury.

"You have a very good team." Hawkeye curled his lips slightly, turned away, and said to Luffy with his back to him, "Looking forward to seeing you again..."

"Hawkeye!" Creek suddenly stopped Hawkeye who was leaving and said arrogantly, "Aren't you here to take the head of me, the overlord of the East China Sea?"

"Did I say that? But I've had enough fun now and I'm going back to sleep." Hawkeye said.

"You've had enough fun. I've been getting beaten all the time." Creek raised the guns in his hands and shoulders and shot at Hawkeye. "Die before you go back!"

"What a... guy who doesn't know how to live or die..." Hawkeye waved his knife towards the water, letting the current carry him and his boat away. On the same side, Joseph and Johnny's boat were also pushed to the center of the sea. On the boat, Kit, Usopp and Zoro followed the boat away.

The moment the water rushed over, Luffy stretched out his arms, grabbed the railing and jumped onto the restaurant deck. He looked at Qi on the boat and shouted, "Qi, you must bring Nami back!"

"Of course! I'll leave the cooking to you, Luffy!" Qi said with a smile.

"After this, we will go to the Grand Line together!!" Usopp smiled and waved at Luffy on the restaurant deck and shouted.

"Okay! Let's go together!" Luffy said with a grin.