16. Swordsman

Unexpectedly, accessing the training centre isn't free even for official samurais. Everyone needs to pay 100 ryo for an hour, payment at the end.

(A.n: in narutopedia, 1 ryo is equal to 10 yen, so 100 ryo is 1000 yen, around 6.4 USD)

Zoro receives a ticket with the time he enters written on it. They will calculate how much he needs to pay when he finishes by looking at the time he spends inside.

There are also prices for items like swords for rent to dummies for attack training. Things like dummies are often destroyed, so they can't rent them and need to buy them instead.

Of course, there is no need to rent or buy tools if they are here to fight others. Rather, that's what people who come here usually do because they can just train at home if they will only use dummies.

The training ground is a rather wild empty square field with tall walls surrounding it. Zoro sees some adult swordsmen just sitting around, watching 2 people fight in the center.

"Seems like I don't need to worry about asking them for a spar. They come here for the same purpose."

Zoro gets closer to also watch the fight. There is a round line that acts as the arena for the ones who are fighting. The audience sits on the ground around the 10 meters wide arena.

The arena is also clear of snow, very different from the surrounding areas. Though Zoro is more speechless at some of the people there that only wear short pants in this cold place.

He ignores them and just looks at the fighters. Both fighters are using 2 bamboo swords and everyone else also has 2 bamboo swords on their waists.

'Does 2 sword-style the common swordsmanship for samurai?'

While thinking about that, the match gets even more intense. The man with black kimono starts pushing the man with a blue kimono back. His attacks are getting stronger until eventually he makes his opponent's sword fall and places his bamboo sword on his opponent's neck.

"I lost."

Both of them bow to each other before the loser goes out of the arena. The winner doesn't leave and waits for the next challenger. Zoro wants to come forward, but a brown-haired man wearing a grey kimono is taking the chance first.

"Excuse me."

Zoro calls the person on his left who only wears black short pants.

"Yes?"

"What is the rule here? It's my first time entering the training centre."

"Ah, it's simple. We enter the arena based on who comes first. So in this case, you will be the last for now, which is after that person with black-brown clothes. If no one else comes after you, we will start from the 1st person again. Winners stay in the arena if they still wish to continue. As for the fighting rules, there's none. We are trying to imitate real life and death battles so almost everything is alright for victory. You lose when you are hit on the vital spots because we won't really get killed here."

"I see."

Such simple rules are what Zoro likes. Zoro wants to ask why this man is only wearing short pants, but he decides to ignore it.

He watches the next matches very seriously. It's a good chance to learn of others' fighting styles and how they handle things in battles. He never saw skillful fighters' battles, after all, so he learned a lot from them.

Soon, his chance finally comes. His opponent is the person whose turn was before him. This person won in a short time. His opponent might be tired from the previous fight, but his victory is still too fast, so Zoro knows this guy is strong.

"A kid?"

"Please don't hold back just because I'm much younger than you. I came here to gain experience, so it will be useless if my opponents are going easy on me."

"Ho, that's a nice attitude, young samurai. I surely won't hold back. Even rabbits can bite when facing a lion. But why do you have 3 swords?"

Zoro doesn't like to be compared with a rabbit, but he certainly looks much weaker than his opponent whose body is taller and bigger than a 12 year old like him.

"Because I use 3 sword-style."

It intrigues everyone there because they never heard of 3 sword-style swordsmanship. But it's also not impossible because there are those who use more swords.

"Interesting. Then let's see how strong that 3 sword-style of yours is."

The man holds his bamboo swords on his sides and Zoro also gets into a stance with his 3 bamboo swords. The referee, who is a staff member of this training centre starts the match.

Zoro charges first and makes a stab attack with his left sword to the man's stomach. The man parries Zoro's sword with his left sword while stepping to his right. His right sword is raised high and then he swings it down at Zoro.

The sword is coming from Zoro's left side, so it will be difficult to defend because Zoro's left hand is thrusting his sword earlier and getting parried away. Everyone thinks that Zoro will get hit and this match will end very quickly.

However, Zoro surprises them with an unexpected attack. Instead of trying to defend or dodge, Zoro sends an attack. He thrusts his right sword to the man's face in that difficult position.

The man can only jump back to avoid that sword, so his attack towards Zoro is canceled. He looks astonished with Zoro's decision making ability in that situation.

Usually, even adults with experience will get flustered in that situation and when they decide on what to do, it will be too late.

But a kid like Zoro actually remains calm and makes a decision in a split second. Not only that, his decision is so bold because if the enemy doesn't retreat, then both of them will hit each other.

"Are you not worried that I won't even try to dodge so we would hit each other?"

"I believe my sword will reach you first if that happens and that will weaken your swing. Besides, I can just drop myself to the ground at the last moment and you'll miss. I have full confidence in my reflex."

".... Haha, what an interesting kid."

The man now moves first to attack. He swings his left sword diagonally from above. Zoro blocks it, but then the right sword comes from below. Now Zoro doesn't just block it. He swings his sword to counter it.

To everyone's surprise, Zoro's attack actually pushes his opponent's sword back. They never thought that this young man would have such strength in that small body.

Both of them are trading blows after blows. They attack, block, dodge, and sometimes get grazed in non-vital areas. No one there ever thought that the most interesting match of the day was a fight against a 12 year old boy.

What's more unbelievable is the boy keeps getting better as the fight goes on. It's like he finds out his shortcomings and fixes them immediately.

Then adding to the shock, Zoro finally defeats his opponent after 15 minutes. It's the longest battle today and the man looks exhausted. He usually can fight for even 2 hours non-stop, but the pressure from Zoro is draining his energy faster.

"Unbelievable! Kuronuma is exhausted to that extent but the boy only has some sweats."

Turns out Zoro's opponent's name is Kuronuma.

"Not only his strength and speed, even his stamina is high."

"He has a great physique."

"Such a terrifying talent. He must be a disciple of a great master."

The referee asks if Zoro wishes to continue and he nods. His next opponent is an older teenager that seems to be in his late teens, making him the 2nd youngest here after Zoro. This guy entered this training centre a while after Zoro, so he's next in line for the match.

The match starts and this guy's swordsmanship style is different from Kuronuma whose attacks are powerful and heavy. This guy likes using small and quick attacks combined with feints.

It's actually more troublesome, but too bad his physical power can't support that yet. He can't move fast enough to execute his techniques and Zoro can see everything clearly.

Worse, his defense is bad, so Zoro's attacks easily land on him after Zoro gets used to his patterns in a short time. Zoro defeats him in 3 minutes. He could win faster, but he was curious with his opponent's style, so he watched for a while.

"Yeah, that's what normally happens to kids that are training here."

Apparently, that teenager's abilities are the normal level of young samurais. Zoro is just abnormal in their eyes.

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Chapter 36. Named Swords

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