Chapter – 17 Shimotsuki Village

"Land Ahoy… Land Ahoy! Ryuma, I can see it…!" shouted Rio, as he flew down from the Crow's nest and landed on Ryuma's shoulder, "Ryuma… there is an island ahead."

"I know." Nodded Ryuma as he looked at the vague shadow of the land on the distant horizon, and muttered, "Hopefully we are at the right place."

They had been sailing the seas of East Blue for the past week.

Because Ryuma had studied navigation a little bit and also made sure to take some tips from Building Snake (the navigator of the Red Hair Pirates), therefore, sailing did not prove to be too difficult, and because Ryuma had spent a few thousand berries to acquire a map of the nearby islands from the Merchant Guild, so finding the place that he was looking for wasn't difficult either.

How did the Merchant Guild have the map of the surrounding island? Well, if they did not, how would they do their business? So, yeah, even if they did not have the map of the entire East Blue, or the entire World for that matter, this doesn't mean a map of some nearby islands and prominent locations in East Blue is unavailable.

The island on which the village he wants to go to is not too far away from the Dawn Islands, therefore, it has been charted by the Merchant Guild. Heck, this is the village famous for two things, Swords and Rice.

So, for various reasons the map of some so the islands near the Dawn Islands was available at the Merchant Guild, and Ryuma was able to acquire it after paying a few thousand berries.

With the map, and the knowledge of navigation that he had acquired from books and from Building Snake, Ryuma had set out to sea.

Of course, even if he had the map and the knowledge of navigation this is not to say that his sailboat did not lose its course several times, unexpected weather and sea storms are really troublesome… someone as kingly powerful as Golden Lion suffered terribly from the unexpected weather and sea storm, how could a novice like Ryuma be spared.

Though the weather changes in the East Blue Sea are not as unstable and unpredictable as the Paradise and the New World, they are there and created some problems for Ryuma. But having Observation Haki and extraordinary strength did help him a lot while sailing as he was able to steer his way through all the trouble with wit and brute force.

A sword slash with a circumference of over a hundred meters can do wonders, and when dozens of such sword slashes are used a lot of things become possible.

With these ups and downs, after a week of sailing, he has finally arrived at the land for which he had set out, hopefully.

As the sailboat approached closer and closer to the land, the shadow of the island became clearer, and the silhouettes of a few fishermen became clearer.

"Oi… old man…!" shouted Ryuma and waved both his hands into the air, trying to attract the attention of one of the fishermen.

"Huh?" An old man was sitting on his fishing boat and was about to throw the fishing net into the sea suddenly heard a voice and turned around.

"Old man… Here… here…!" Ryuma once again called out.

This time, the old man spotted the small sailboat approaching the island, and upon looking closer, he noted the silhouette of a kid and a parrot on the sailboat calling out to him.

As the old man looked in his direction, Ryuma questioned him, "Old man… what is the name of this Island? Is there a village by the name of Shimotsuki on this Island?"

The old man nodded, "Eh? Ahh… yes… yes… you are at the right place lad…"

"Yosh! We are at the right place Rio!" cheered Ryuma as he high-fived Rio.

Rio also nodded excitedly, "That's awesome… our first voyage was a success!"

The old man smiled looking at the energies of the two. Though a talking parrot out here in the East Blue did surprise him, he didn't care about it too much. He has seen his fair share of the wonders this world has to offer, and a talking parrot is nothing compared to those furry-humanoid creatures called mink, right?

As Ryuma's sailboat approached the old man's fishing boat, the old man looked up and down at Ryuma with a scrutinizing gaze, and after a while of silence, he asked "Lad who are you… and what brought you to the Shimotsuki Village?"

His experience during his younger days tells him that the young man before him isn't ordinary, and he wanted to gauge the child's intention.

Ryuma answered with a smile, "My name is Ryuma… and this guy here is my buddy Rio… I heard rumors about a few excellent Dōjōs here in the Shimotsuki Village… I wanted to learn a thing or two about Swordsmanship here…"

"That's so?" muttered the old man. He had a feeling that this wasn't the entire story, but he could see that the kid doesn't seem to have any bad intentions, so he nodded, "Fair enough…" then pointed at a cliff not far away, and said, "You see that cliff boy… on top of that cliff is the best Dōjō of this Village… It's Isshin Dōjō… just go there and you will find the place you are looking for."

Ryuma nodded, "Thanks, Old man…" then he steered the boat toward the port of the island.

…

Isshin Dōjō, Shimotsuki Village

After docking the boat at the harbor of the island, Ryuma and Rio went to inland. Shimotsuki Village is a typical rural village with Japanese-style houses and stores from the Sengoku Period. Though Ryuma has never been to Japan, he did see some videos on YouTube that pictured similar houses so recognizing the similarity wasn't too difficult for him.

After walking for a while alongside the many rice fields, Ryuma arrived in front of a large Japanese-styled building. Outside the house, a wooden board with the sign, 'Isshin Dōjō' was placed.

From inside the Dōjō, various sounds such as disciples training with weights, the sound of Shinai beating the wooden poles, the sound of the collision of Shinai with each other et cetera could be heard.

As Ryuma entered the place, he heard some children giggling as they talked about something, slightly interested at the mention of familiar names, he stopped and paid attention to them.

"Did you see that… Zoro once again lost to Kuina…"

"Yeah… this was his 1000th defeat… That kid doesn't know when to give up…"

"I still remember the day when he arrogantly walked into the Dōjō and challenged Koushirou-sama… and I have to say, for a moment I imagined him defeating Koushirou-sama… but turns out he couldn't even defeat Kuina!"

"Ehhh? You thought he that kid would be able to defeat Koushirou-sama?"

"You can't blame me… there were rumors about Zoro… Before coming here, he had challenged so many Dōjō, and without exception, he defeated all of them… heck, he even had all those signs from different Dōjō that he defeated…"

"Yeah, now that you mention it… even Zoro is one hell of a monster."

"No way… he isn't no monster compared to Kuina… I doubt anyone except Koushirou-sama can defeat that arrogant girl!"

"I guess you are right…"

Such was the conversation.

'So… Zoro and Kuina have already started their rivalry, huh?' thought Ryuma as he picked up his pace and walked deeper inside the building.

…

Not long after Ryuma was sitting in front of Shimotsuki Koushirou with a Majin no Gekko placed between the two.

Koushirou stared at the sword for a long while. Even though the Odachi was sheathed, and wrapped in a layer of covering, Koushirou's eyes still did not move from the five meters long Odachi.

Ryuma did not disturb Koushirou, he did not know what the sword master was thinking and looked around the hall.

Currently, it was already past sunset, most of the disciples had left for the day, and Zoro had gone to the back mountain for his special training following his 1000th defeat, as for Kuina… she was in the courtyard training against a wooden pole with her Shinai, though she would occasionally glance in the direction of the hall wondering what was so serious that her father didn't even allow her inside the house.

So, technically, only Ryuma and Koushirou were sitting in the hall.

The minute Koushirou had sensed the presence of Majin no Gekko, Koushirou had made sure that it was only the two of them in the hall.

After more than half an hour passed, Koushirou finally spoke, "This Odachi… Is it really what I think it is…?"

Ryuma nodded, "It is one of the twelve Supreme Grade Blades."

Koushirou took a deep breath. He never expected that he would have the opportunity to lay his eyes upon something so precious. There are only twelve Supreme Grade Blades in the World, and it is every master swordsman's dream to be able to wield one, but those who get such an opportunity are truly exceptional swordsmen.

Because it's not just strength, it also takes great luck to be able to get one's hand on such a famed blade.

Therefore, seeing the blade before him, and looking at the young man who is the owner of this blade, Koushirou knew that the person who was sitting in front of him is meant for greatness.

With all these thoughts in mind, Koushirou looked at Ryuma, and questioned, "Your name was?"

"Ryuma!" answered Ryuma.

"Ryuma…?" Koushirou muttered, recalling another great swordsman with the same name, and questioned, "So Ryuma… child what brings you to Isshin Dōjō?"

Ryuma truthfully answered, "I wish to meet the legendary Swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo."