Chapter 4

Chapter 4: getting stronger while preparing for the future

Ose Takeshi then practiced using swords by repeating the same things that the teachers had just shown, just like everybody else.

Being a newcomer in the dojo gave him special treatment by other teachers such as more attention and more advice given to him during his practice, many mistakes were pointed out by the teacher as this was the first time for him to ever held a sword in his hand.

Right after their correction, he immediately goes back to training with his sword while trying to swing it according to what he has been told, every sword move felt sharper and smoother to the eye but not to the point of it looking like a dance move.

"Seem like this kid has some talent."

"Indeed, but it's nothing too impressive if we compared him to Roronoa Zoro."

"Sighh... what do you expect? Roronoa Zoro is a genius that is only seen once in a century, that type of talent is of course really scarce."

Getting better at something right after someone gave you pointers is not a thing that everybody can do, but although Ose Takeshi just accomplished that, a remarkable deed that most people couldn't do, still didn't surprise them much.

But having this type of talent is still a rare thing on this small island which is located in East Blue which is known by many as the weakest sea.

East Blue does indeed have a few talented people but every time there is one, they always end up being a monster like Gold.D Roger, Monkey.D Garp, Monkey.D Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Sabo, and many more that will be standing at the top of this world in the future in every faction such as The Marine, The Pirate, and The Revolutionary army.

So every teacher in the dojo silently took note of Ose Takeshi's presence and decided to pay him special attention in the following days.

...

...

...

Eventually came lunchtime, and everybody started to place down their wooden swords inside the sword shelves.

After lunch, unlike everybody else who will spend their 2 hours of free time doing whatever they love, Ose Takeshi doesn't stay still, instead he heads off to the edge area of the island to find the old man with intentions in his mind.

When he reached the old man's house, he shouted "OLD MAN, can you come out for a moment."

a while later, the door was opened and walked out an old man.

"Ahh, kiddo what's bring you here? Actually no, why don't you come inside first."

...

After he entered the house, the old man pointed to a seat and said "Come sit down."

As he sat down, Ose Takeshi started the talk with the old man about their recent life, afterward they talked about some worldly affairs that had happened out there in the sea.

"Kid..... you have really grown up, your parent would be proud of you if they were to be here."

"No, I shouldn't have said that...." The guilty old man mutters quietly to himself.

 "It's alright old man, everything will come to an end one day." Said, Ose Takeshi after hearing that with a sad look on his face that he just put on.

"You know... my dream right now is to get really strong to the point of being able to protect this entire island from those beastly pirates."

"But that's just one big dream that is impossible to achieve, after all I'm not even capable of getting my own food right now."

"I believe that food is not one of your biggest concerns, don't the dojo that you are training in offer enough food for everybody?"

"Logically speaking, yes for anybody who fortunately doesn't have to go through the same thing as me... you think I can become really strong by just that?"

The old man then nodded as he came to a realization.

"Well, then you can always come to me if they don't offer enough food for you."

"Or you can teach me how to fish so that I can continuously feed myself without bothering you"

"Sighh... fishing is not as easy as it looked like, learning how to fish also requires you to learn how to navigate your boat, not only that this career is extremely risky, so why don't you reconsider this first."

"I understand that going out there is extremely dangerous, but what's the difference between that and staying still in one place? They can always come to find you, I meant you, my teacher, and others could maybe protect me, but can they do that for the rest of my life?"

"Even if they could, am I willing to let you all sacrifice that much just for me?"

"Ohh.... kid, you're so damn right, what a foolish man I am."

"Okay if that's what you want then, I of course have no choice but to teach you, but do not ever think about giving up as there is no going back after this."

Next, they both began to discuss the plans and schedule of their fishing lessons.

...

"One more thing old man, can you do me a favor and get me some sort of weights training equipment from the blacksmith? I will be sure to pay you back after I start earning money."

"Sighh... sure why not, but you sure know how to ask people for a favor kid."

"I can't thank you enough old man, I will be sure to repay you back in the future for this."

Afterward, Ose Takeshi bid farewell to the old man and headed off back to the dojo for the evening sparring session.

...

In the sparring room.

Two people are currently facing each other, each holding a wooden sword in their hand waiting for the sound to indicate the start of the spar in the same fighting pose.

"Is copying me all you can do HUH?"

'system scans his stats' Ose Takeshi silently orders in his mind while ignoring his opponent's ridiculed words.

[Sorry host, the scanning function is only available for the targeted hitman.]

"HERE I COME!"

Ose Takeshi sighed helplessly as he prepared to face his opponent.

His opponent rushed forward to within the sword range and he slashed his wooden sword at his torso.

CRACKS.....

The wooden swords collided with each other as Ose Takeshi swung his sword up and blocked it.

After they locked each other swords, his opponent then raised his leg up and kicked directed at his abdomen.

Ose Takeshi then flew backward with a shocked look on his face as he got hit by the kick.

'So you can also fight using your lambs....'

'And what is this vision that I just saw, is it what you called an Observation Haki?'

"Is that all you got, junior?" His opponent mocked him.

"Heh... is that all I got?" You will see." He said that as he stood back up on his feet and got into a fighting pose that he just copied off his opponent.

Ose Takeshi then rushed up to his opponent without giving any time for his opponent to react, after he got close enough he chopped down as he jumped up toward his opponent.

"This is too predictable, as expected of a junior" His opponent said mockingly after he blocked it.

Right after he mocked him, he saw Ose Takeshi raise his knee up pretty quickly and strike toward his abdomen.

"Arghhh..." his opponent with a twisted expression fell down on his knee while grinning in pain as he took in all that impact from that knee strike.

'Too weak...'

"Wow, what did I just see? How did this kid got such a good battle sense at that young age??"" Said a teacher excitedly.

"Sigh..... talented people." Another teacher spoke depressingly.

Ose Takeshi then walked toward a wall corner and sat down, he then began to analyze the battle that he had gone through just now.

Even though his Haki was still weak and hard to control, it is still usable but it requires him to put in more effort and thus will result in a stamina-drained if he uses it repeatedly until he gets exhausted, beside the point of sparring is not to win but to gain the experiences.

So Ose Takeshi decided not to overuse it as it could potentially leave him with permanent injuries that might affect how far he could go in the future.

He then started to observe other people fight to improve his fighting capability and battle sense, and when his stamina was fully recovered, he continued his sparring with others.

Afterward, he repeated this cycle of actions for so many times that he lost count of it.

...

During the quiet night, a sound popped up.

{New Target}

Ose Takeshi opened his eyes slightly to check his surroundings, to see whether or not could people hear the system sound.

After making sure that everybody was asleep soundly, he cautiously called out the system in his mind.

'System'

{Hitman System}

Current target: Roronoa Zoro (new)

Time left: 2 years

'Roronoa Zoro... out of all the targets, why does it have to be him? Killing this guy is gonna be extremely challenging....' Ose Takeshi thought depressingly.

There is a saying that goes "Hard work beats talent.", that is essentially true for those talented people who don't put their talent into use, but it's not necessarily true for those talented people who work really hard like Roronoa Zoro.

So, is it even possible to outwork a training maniac like Roronoa Zoro from the beginning? The answer is no, you could work as hard as him but never surpass him, that's the type of guy Roronoa Zoro is.

If Roronoa Zoro proclaimed himself as the number 2 most hard-working person, then the first place would likely be empty, logically speaking. 

But gradually, Ose Takeshi finally accepted his fate, even though it is optional and won't cause him any harm even if he were to fail in fulfilling this contract, however, this would result in him not gaining any rewards which would slow down his overall growth, and that is unacceptable for him.

He knew that Roronoa Zoro had the potential to become the strongest swordsman in the future, because of his swordsman talent, so killing him would definitely gain him a tremendous reward which could, then become one of his important foundations in this world.

...

Eventually, almost 2 years has flew by.

During this period of time, Ose Takeshi spent most of his time training in various things, like weight training that he obtained through the old man as to improve his overall physical strength at his personal training ground that he picked, armament and observational Haki, fishing and navigating from the old man, and especially swordsmanship.

He also constantly challenged Roronoa Zoro every time a sparring took place, he did that as to improve his fighting capability and also to get closer to Roronoa Zoro, so that he could one day issue an unofficial challenge to him without arousing any suspicious from anybody in the dojo.

'system'

{Hitman System}

Strength level: Semi-rookie

Speed level: Rookie

Durability level: Semi-rookie

Stamina level: Rookie

Haki level: Semi-veteran

Sword talent: Above average

Sword level: Semi-rookie

Target: Roronoa zoro

Time left: 3 days

'My hard work has paid off.' Smirked Ose Takeshi.

'Now the time for us to dual has come...'

'System show me my target stats.'

{Hitman system}

Target: Roronoa Zoro

Strength level: Ordinary

Speed level: Semi-rookie

Durability level: Ordinary

Stamina level: Semi-rookie

Haki level: Ordinary

Sword talent: Monster

Sword level: Semi-rookie

After seeing this, Ose Takeshi grinned even harder as he realized that killing Roronoa Zoro was just a matter of trying after all he had all the advantages over his opponent in every aspect thanks to him being older than Roronoa Zoro and knowing how to fish as he had his puberty earlier than his opponent with the support of getting enough nutrition which resulted in him growing stronger and faster than his opponent.

Besides having focused entirely on using and training with 1 sword has helped him with the mastery over the swords which made him have an equal swords mastery to Roronoa Zoro, but if they were to fight based on just using the swords alone then Ose Takeshi would likely have a low chance of winning.

After all Ose Takeshi sword mastery only applied to using 1 sword, on the other hand, Roronoa Zoro sword mastery meant how good he could be at using 1 to 3 swords at the same exact time, and using more swords meant that you would have more options when it comes to attacking, blocking or distracting your enemy.