Chapter – 34 The Saint & the Bittersweet Feeling

Two Months Later

Ryuma sat on the branch of a tall tree in the forest at the back mountain of the Shimotsuki Village, watching the three people fighting not far away. Various sounds resonated through the forest as their Shinai clashed against each other.

Tuk! Tuk! Tuk!

Shaa! Shaa! Shaa! Shaa!

The trio consisted of Kuina, Zoro, and Saga, engaged in a duel. On one side was Kuina, and on the other side were Zoro and Saga, who had teamed up for some reason.

Even though the two of them were working together in a team against Kuina, and the girl was at a two-to-one disadvantage, she not only held her own but also gave both Zoro and Saga a tough time.

This was both surprising and unsurprising at the same time.

Surprising because fighting against both Zoro and Saga simultaneously and still dominating the duel was a significant feat for her. This is because both of them are extremely talented, strong, and hardworking swordsmen and are considered the second and the third strongest disciples at the Dōjō, the first is obviously Kuina. 

There's no need to talk about Zoro; everyone is aware of just how inhumane Zoro can be to himself and his body for the sake of strength. Saga is not too different; he is equally as strong, talented, and hardworking as Zoro, which means both of them are nearly equal in terms of strength. 

In other words, Kuina is fighting against not one but two Zoro, and that too at the same time, yet she does not show any signs of losing. Isn't this surprising?

And unsurprising because Ryuma is aware of the reason why she is able to hold her own with not much difficulty. It's because of the regular training she does with Ryuma. It has been more than three months since Kuina started to train with Ryuma. Because of this special training that Ryuma puts her through, there's got to be dramatic progress in her swordsmanship and strength, right?

Thinking of how far she has come in the last three months, Ryuma couldn't help but think to himself, 'Kuina-chan really has changed, huh?' 

He also noticed the exhilarating smile on her face. She was grinning ear to ear as she gave Zoro and Saga a tough time. While Ryuma continued to watch, soon Shinai fell from Zoro and Saga's hands, and both of them collapsed to the ground due to expending their entire strength and energy.

"Heh, that's another win for me. Both of you are still far too weak!" said Kuina, taunting both Zoro and Saga. She then turned to Ryuma on the tree and showed him a 'V' for victory with a bright smile.

Ryuma clapped, Clap! Clap! Clap! and nodded with a smile, "Good!" He was delighted with her progress. As a member of his crew, the stronger Kuina becomes, the happier Ryuma gets.

While all this happened, suddenly Rio flew by his side and landed on his shoulder. Ryuma scratched Rio's feathers, making the parrot chirp in delight.

A few moments later, Ryuma withdrew his hands and asked, "So, what happened for you to come to me all of a sudden?"

"They are here... that woman and the big guy that accompanied her last time," answered Rio. 

"About damn time, I have been waiting for them to come for the entire day, and didn't really do much! Well since they are here, let's go then," said Ryuma. He jumped down from the tree and landed beside Kuina, informing her, "Come on, Kuina-chan... it's time."

"Got it, Aniki!" nodded Kuina. After saying a few words to Zoro and Saga, she left with Ryuma. The two were heading toward the Dōjō.

Zoro and Saga watched Ryuma and Kuina leave with clueless expressions. They did not know what the two were up to.

In fact, the two did not know much about Ryuma. All they knew was that Ryuma lived in Master Koushirou's house along with Kuina, and they had assumed that perhaps he was their distant relative who came to live with them a few months ago. But other than that, they had no idea who he was or what his deal was. 

Or maybe, Zoro does know a thing or two and looked at Ryuma's back.

Initially, Zoro did not care too much about the stranger. Since he had never once seen Ryuma use a sword, Zoro didn't bother to pay much attention to him. However, ever since that night when he witnessed Ryuma use that Flying Sword Slash, Zoro started to pay quite a lot of attention to Ryuma.

But even then, he didn't know much. This isn't surprising; after all, Zoro still doesn't know that the old man who often watched him train and gave him a pair of iron swords for free is Kuina's grandfather, and he too lives in the same house. So how will he find out anything about Ryuma?

…

Bang! BANG!

Two loud sounds resounded, and the ground shook as Kuina and Ryuma put down two large boxes. The first box was smaller than the second, which was twice as large as the first.

After putting down the two boxes, the two of them looked at the four people present there. They were Shimotsuki Kozaburo, Shimotsuki Koushirou, Belo Betty, and an enormous man with a height of 6.89 meters.

Ryuma wasn't surprised by the fourth person; this was the third time he had seen this man. The first time was two months back, a few days following the agreement Ryuma made with the East Commander of the Revolutionary Army. Back then ne had come to the Shimotsuki Village with a ship to pick her up, and Ryuma only saw him from a distance. However, the moment he laid his eyes on the big guy, he recognized him since he did not need an introduction.

Although he hasn't spoken much with this person, he knew the man from the One-Piece Canon.

Similar to Betty, he is also a member of the Revolutionary Army, but unlike her who joined later, he is one of the founding members. He has a pair of round bear-like ears that protrude from the top of his head. With long curly hair and wearing a pair of spectacles, he is none other than the only remaining Buccaneer in existence. He is the paw-paw man who ate the Paw-Paw fruit, the man who is nothing short of a saint, and probably the kindest man in this world alive. 

That's right, the fourth person, the person accompanying Betty, is none other than Bartholomew Kuma of the Revolutionary Army.

What is this man doing here in the East Blue? And that too at the Shimotsuki Village, you ask? 

The answer is quite simple; he is here with Belo Betty to take the delivery of the weapons Ryuma had crafted. He also came to Shimotsuki Village last month with her for the same purpose. That's when Ryuma had the opportunity to see the man carrying the Buccaneer blood up close, and he had to say, Kuma was the tallest man Ryuma had seen in his life.

After Ryuma and Kuina put down the two wooden boxes, the former said to the scantily dressed woman, "Here is this month's quota, Betty-san... three thousand top-quality bladed weapons, all crafted by yours truly. Do you want to check their quality?"

Betty shook her head, "There's no need..." and added, "But I must say, you work really fast... for you to be able to craft three thousand bladed weapons within a month, it's a hundred weapons per day... are you really a human?"

Ryuma shrugged and pointed at the pair of horns on his head, "I thought it was pretty obvious that I am not a human."

Betty sighed, "I didn't mean it that way... It was just a figure of speech; I was just curious about how you work so fast."

Ryuma chuckled, "I know," then said, "But... that's a trade secret... and even if I told you, it wouldn't be of help to you since this is something only, I can do."

"Oh well... since you don't want to tell, then I won't force you..." said Betty, not caring about Ryuma's little secret.

"Thank you for your understanding," nodded Ryuma in appreciation. 

But really, how does he craft a hundred-bladed weapons each day? 

For a normal swordsmith, crafting an iron sword can take somewhere between a few hours to an entire day. Highly experienced and talented swordsmiths can complete the same task within an hour. But crafting a hundred swords within a day? That's impossible for most if not all. So how does Ryuma do it? 

The secret lies in his devil's fruit. By increasing his physical speed, information processing speed, and other attributes related to speed by a factor of sixty, Ryuma is able to work at an astonishing pace that is something humanly impossible. 

His devil fruit allows him to increase attributes of the things he touches and also enables him to enhance the purity, folding, and layering of the metal along with heat and so many other aspects of the environment he is working on that the speed with which he crafts bladed weapons is just astonishing.

Ryuma does not want to easily reveal that he has eaten the Moa Moa no Mi, hence he chooses to remain silent about how he can work so fast.

At this time, Betty turned to the big guy and requested, "Kuma-san... please..." 

"Hmm," nodded Kuma as he approached the two giant boxes while removing the glove on his right hand. As the glove was removed, a five-digit paw pad was revealed in the palm, of his hand. With his paw-padded hand, Kuma touched the two wooden boxes one by one. The moment his hand touched the two boxes, they disappeared from the spot they were present. In the big guy's own words, 'the boxes were sent flying.'

What happened was that Kuma had used his Paw-Paw fruit to transport the two boxes to the location Betty wanted them to be.

Looking at the vacant spot where the two boxes were present until a few moments ago, Ryuma thought to himself, 'The Paw-Paw Fruit... the power to repel away not only tangible things but even intangible things... it's really an incredible Devil Fruit power... heh... since I am going to join the Revolutionary Army for a few years anyway, I might as well request him to send me to various islands in all four blues that I need to travel to in order to form my pirate crew as well as do other things just like he sent the Strawhats... this way, the scope of things I can do within the next four years will be widened and more efficient compared to what I can do by myself...'

This was also something Ryuma had in mind when he accepted Belo Betty's offer to join the Revolutionary Army for four years. Otherwise, he would have to travel to all four blues using a ship, and that can take a lot of time. After all, time is a very important factor; if he is too late, then he will be too late.

But with Kuma's help, he wouldn't need so much time!

As for the reason why Kuma sent the boxes flying instead of taking them away using a ship? 

Neither the Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary Army nor the master of the Shimotsuki Dōjō wants to risk exposing the connection between the two. Ryuma doesn't know their reasons, but this seems to be the case.

Using ships can be a bit risky as they can be tracked; if they were to be tracked, the CP-0 might also be able to figure out the source from where the Revolutionary Army is obtaining their weapons which would put Shimotsuki Village in danger.

Moreover, the weapons are required to be distributed to all four blues and both halves of the Grandline; carrying them with ships is going to take too long, so that's where Kuma's Paw-Paw Power comes into play.

Another reason is that the Supreme Commander also wants Kuma away from the front line for some time so that Kuma can take some rest. Ever since the incident twenty months ago, he has been overexerting himself to the point of completely draining himself. This responsibility of transporting the weapons in all four blues as well as Grandline serves as an opportunity to send Kuma a few days away from the front line so that he can relax for a while.

Anyway, after both the boxes were sent away, Betty said to Ryuma, "The raw material and other things for the next month, will be delivered to you by tomorrow in the same way as the previous month... and similar to today, we will be here next month on the same date, is that fine?"

Ryuma nodded, "Sure thing, I will be ready by then with the next batch."

"Alright then, since that's out of the way, and nothing more is left to discuss for this trip, we will be taking our leave, Kozaburo-sama, Koushirou-sama, thank you for welcoming us..." said Betty with a bow.

Similar to Betty, Kuma also bowed lightly, though considering his enormous figure, it looked rather weird and scary, as if he was staring down at them.

The two men nodded lightly, "Hmm." They had seen much more of the world to be frightened with just this much.

The two Revolutionaries also nodded to Ryuma and Kuina, then disappeared mysteriously, once again thanks to Kuma's Devil Fruit ability.

With the two people gone, the remaining four people also left to do their own thing. Kuina again went to train by herself, Koushirou went back to the Dōjō, meanwhile, Ryuma and Kozaburo went to the smithy.

There's not much time left for Kozaburo, probably a month or two at most… Everyone knows this; therefore, the old man is spending as much time teaching Ryuma as possible so that Ryuma can really live up to the name of the legendary Swordsmith. 

This makes Ryuma happy and sad at the same time.

Happy because this shows that Kozaburo seems to really care about him and sad because he would have to part ways with the old man. Although he is extremely strict in the smithy, at the end of the day, he is a kind old man and Ryuma has become quite close to him in the seven months that he has spent at the Shimotsuki Village.

Thinking that Kozaburo might soon die soon Ryuma feels saddened. 

He even thought about increasing the old man's lifespan. After all, he is the More More human, so he should be able to increase others' lifespan as well, right?

The result? Turns out he couldn't… at least not yet.

The reason? It's because Lifespan is an abstract and conceptual thing. This was something Ryuma hadn't expected. Initially, Ryuma thought that if he were to increase Kozaburo's vitality, it would increase his lifespan as well since both these things are related to each other, but he was wrong; this is not the case.

The relationship between Lifespan and vitality is not straightforward, it is complex. 'Vitality' generally refers to a person's state of being strong and active, often associated with energy and vigor. While maintaining good vitality can contribute to overall health and well-being, it's not the only factor influencing lifespan.

Ryuma tried to increase Kozaburo's vitality, and certainly, it made him more active and energetic, however, it didn't seem to have any effect on his lifespan.

This made Ryuma realize that 'Lifespan' is a multifaceted concept influenced by various factors, including genetics, environment, lifestyle, and healthcare. Increasing vitality can positively impact overall health and potentially reduce the risk of certain diseases. However, it doesn't guarantee an increase in lifespan.

In some cases, individuals with high vitality may experience improved quality of life and a lower risk of age-related diseases, indirectly contributing to a longer and healthier life. But Kozaburo had already lived a long & healthy life, and his approaching death is more related to his soul dying slowly; he seems to be ready to leave the plane and move to the underworld, and in this case, increasing vitality would have no effect.

Something like increasing the lifespan of a person, Ryuma might be able to do so in the future… perhaps once he awakens his Devil Fruit, but for now, this is impossible.

"Awakening of Devil Fruit, huh? I wonder how a person can awaken their Devil Fruit, and when will I awaken mine?"

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