20. Iron Capital
With Torao sitting on his head, Zoro walks around the Land of Iron's Capital City. It's a lively place with a lot of activities.
"So those guys are samurais, huh?"
There are a lot of people who walk around wearing full-body armor. The armor looks heavy, but they also look very warm.
They also gather information while walking around and try some local food.
"The academy?" Asks the oden stall owner while preparing the food that Zoro buys.
"Yeah, it's my first time in the Capital. I'm always curious about the academy, so I want to see it. Is it possible to go there?"
"Well, I don't think outsiders are allowed to enter the academy. But just seeing from the outside should be fine."
"I see. Then, is there a training centre here?"
"Hmm, there are some training grounds for the samurais, but they aren't open to the public. Oh, there's one that can be accessed by the public. But it's more expensive than the ones in other cities."
"No problem. I really want to see the skills of swordsmen in the Capital. It will be much better if there are samurais there."
"Hahaha! Samurais won't go to that training ground. They are too strong, so it will be unfair for the independent swordsmen. And they can use better training grounds for free anyway. So there's no reason for them to go there."
"Hmm, true. So where is this training ground?"
The stall owner tells him the location and he quickly goes there.
On the way there, Zoro finds a weapon shop and decides to check it. There are quite a lot of weapons from the real ones to those used for training. He even sees some other training equipment like wood dummies.
"Excuse me, do you have weights? The ones that can be strapped in arms and legs."
Zoro wants some weights for his training. He usually just uses his body weight and uses heavy things like logs or even boulders. But those things are too big.
"Yes, we have them. But some of them are quite expensive because the heavier weights use Fuinjutsu and they are imported from Iwagakure."
The receptionist, a brown-haired girl answers Zoro's question politely. She thinks he is an academy student, so she is being very polite.
"How much?"
"The 1 kilogram weight bar is 500 ryo, the 10 kilograms bar is 5,000 ryo. There are also 100 kilograms and even 1 ton, but we need to pre-order them. Well, no one has ever bought them and I doubt there are people who can lift those kinds of weights, so we never buy them."
(A.n: 1 ryo is 10 yen or 0.064 USD, so 500 ryo is 5,000 yen or 32 USD, and 5,000 ryo is 50,000 yen or 320 USD)
"Sorry, but bars?"
"Yes, so you put these small bars into the slots in the straps. The straps also have Fuinjutsu to hold these heavy plates so they won't rip the cloth."
She shows a paper with pictures of the straps and plates. They look just like the ones used by Rock Lee.
"Oh, so it's like that, huh? But they are very expensive, aren't they?"
"Yes, it's mainly because of the import fee because we can't produce them ourselves as Fuinjutsu is a shinobi technique. Ah, the strap is 1000 ryo each."
Currently, Zoro has around 82 thousand ryo in his savings. That's all he could save after years of living in this world. But well, he couldn't do high paying jobs and there were lots of things to buy, so it's already good that he even has savings.
"Hmm, then 6 of the 10 kilogram bars and 4 straps please."
He can always earn more money later, so there's no problem spending quite a lot of them now.
"6 of the 10 kilograms? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, don't worry."
"Okay then."
The receptionist girl then calls someone using a bell. A middle-aged man comes out from the back and the girl tells him that Zoro wants to buy those weights. The man looks at Zoro for a while before getting inside again.
Sometime later, he comes out with 2 scrolls in his hands. He opens the scrolls and Zoro sees a lot of writing on the paper. The man makes some ninja hand seals and then some metal bars and cloth straps appear on the scroll paper.
"Wow, are you a ninja?"
"Well, I did train in Iwagakure's ninja academy, but as you see, I don't have much talent as a ninja. So I opened this weapon shop as my trading skill is better. Activating scrolls is not that impressive as it's just a basic skill for ninjas, so no need to be that surprised."
Even though he says that, Zoro can see that the old man seems quite smug about it. Maybe because there's almost no ninja here, so his ninja skills look impressive despite being basic skills.
Zoro ignores the smug middle-aged guy and takes out a small bag from inside his clothes. He takes some money out of it to pay.
Then he tries the weights immediately. He straps 10 kilograms on each wrist and 20 kilograms on his ankles.
The shop owner and receptionist are doubting whether he can even move with 60 kg of weights. But then they see him jump around a little to check the weights, making their jaws drop.
"Oh, they are heavy enough to hinder my movements. Now I can train even when doing daily activities."
The 2 who watch it can't believe what they hear. After all, it doesn't look like Zoro's movements are being hindered at all.
"Thanks guys, I will come again to buy more after getting more money."
Zoro leaves the shop, ignoring the shocked owner and receptionist. He continues his way to the training ground that he finds shortly after.
With an excited face, he enters the training ground to find sparring partners. The fee is a little more expensive than other towns, but it's equivalent to its facilities. This place looks much nicer than the ones he ever visited before.
When he enters the field, Zoro sees a lot of people there. There are those who train alone and of course, there are people who are sparring with others.
He obviously goes to join the sparring and as usual, he asks someone about the rules here because different places usually have different rules.
In here, they use point system for the hits. Each body part gives different points if it gets hit during the 5 minute match.
Then to participate, they need to pull sticks with paired numbers on it. The ones with the same numbers will fight and those who are late to pull sticks need to join the next round unless there's someone without a partner.
Lucky for Zoro, there's someone without a partner in this round. So he can fight that person at the end of this round. It's a muscular bald guy that looks really fierce.
After 3 matches that look quite interesting, Zoro's turn finally comes. His opponent is towering over him, but he doesn't feel scared at all. Instead, he is excited because he can feel that his opponent is stronger than anyone he has ever fought.
Though unlike him, his opponent seems to be underestimating him. The bald guy looks down at Zoro, literally and figuratively.
"Hey kid, you lost? This is a training ground for swordsmen."
But Zoro responds calmly.
"Really? I thought this place was for samurais. No wonder everyone is so weak here. Then I guess I need to move. I don't want to beat a weakling who can't even grow his hair."
Of course, his statement lit the bald guy's short fuse. Even the others are triggered by what Zoro said. He called them weaklings, after all.
"I guess I need to teach you a hard lesson, kid. It's an adult's duty to guide children to the correct path."
Veins popped out of the baldy's shiny head as he says that. The audience also gets riled up.
"THAT'S RIGHT! TEACH HIM A LESSON KOTARO!
"SHOW HIM WHAT HE'LL GET IF HE MESSES WITH ADULTS!"
"WE MIGHT NOT BE SWORDSMEN, BUT WE ARE STILL REAL SWORDSMEN, DAMMIT!"
Zoro smirks seeing them being angry. It helps him make a big scene that attracts everyone's attention.
'Thanks to them, I don't even need to start a ruckus myself. Now, let's show these bumps the difference between us.'
Zoro only takes a bamboo sword and holds it on his right side. He holds it vertically with the hilts beside his face. His left hand on the hilt, right hand on the body. Then with a low horse stance, he waits for the referee to start the match.
"Ready? Start!"
"DIE, KID!"
Zoro looks calmly at the baldy that rushes at him.
"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson!"
(One sword style Acting-Draw: Lion's Song!)
In a flash, Zoro appears behind his opponent. Everyone there is confused, doesn't know what has just happened.
"Gahk!"
Then suddenly, the baldy coughs a little blood. His eyes turn white and he falls forward as he faints.
"Hmph, can't even be my breakfast."
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Chapter 40. After Tragedy
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