The Grand Line
"Oi, Nami, the weather is changing. It's about to snow."
Hearing Yuna's words, Naomi tilted her head in confusion as she paid closer attention to the weather. Nevertheless, no matter how hard she tried to find any indicators that it was about to snow, she couldn't find
anything.
"Are you sure, Yuna? I can't see any signs of that happening."
"Of course, you can't. Predicting the weather on the Grand Line is impossible, after all. No idea where that woman got the idea that it is about to snow from; it can only be a random guess."
While Nami only had some doubts about Yuna's statement, Mister Prince surprisingly directly contradicted her claim, causing Yuna's eyebrows to rise.
"Seems like one of our passengers prefers swimming next to our ship instead of traveling on the deck."
"I apologize for acting cocky."
The moment the threat of swimming beside the ship left Yuna's mouth, Mister Prince's courage vanished instantly, and he apologized, resulting in Yuna snorting in disdain.
"Anyway, I'm not a navigator, and I have no clue how to predict the weather, but there is one thing I can say with 100% certainty: If I say it's about to snow, it's about to snow."
Nami briefly glanced at Yuna, and seeing the confidence clearly visible on her face, Nami shrugged her shoulders and prepared herself for snowfall. After all, there was no point in Yuna lying about this, so she might as well prepare herself.
And, unsurprisingly, it took only another minute for now to start falling from the sky, dumbfounding the Miss Wednesday and Mister Prince duo.
However, what surprised the duo even more was that despite more and more snow falling from the sky, not a single snowflake landed on the Merry's deck.
"Eh? Why isn't the snow piling up?"
Noticing that it had started snowing, Luffy became excited as he wanted to play in the snow; however, he quickly noticed that none of the snow had landed on the deck, confusing him a little.
"Well, since it could be troublesome if too much snow piles up on the ship, I decided to make it not fall on us."
Hearing Yuna's explanation, a pout appeared on Luffy's face as he looked skyward.
"But I wanna play in the snow!"
Yuna chuckled in amusement due to Luffy's childlike attitude, and seconds later, a chill went through Luffy's spine due to a snowflake bypassing his clothes and landing on his back.
However, Luffy quickly overcame the uncomfortable feeling as he noticed snow slowly piling up around him, causing him to laugh out loud.
"Shishishishi! That's what I'm talking about!"
Watching Luffy happily playing in the snow, Yuna smiled lightly, while noticing from the corner of her eyes that Usopp had started playing in the snow as well. Meanwhile, Zoro was deep asleep while a sheet of snow slowly covered him.
Sanji, on the other hand, was currently in the kitchen, cooking something to warm up the rest of the crew, and Miss Wednesday and Mister Prince were still looking at Yuna, dumbfounded at how she managed to predict the weather.
"What the hell!? We need to turn the ship around!"
Suddenly, Nami exclaimed in surprise, drawing everyone's attention.
"What's wrong, Nami? Did you forget something?"
"Nonsense! We are sailing in the wrong direction! How did that even happen!?"
Hearing Nami's words, an arrogant smirk appeared on Mister Prince's face, and he was just about to open his mouth and taunt Nami when an arm was casually placed on his shoulders.
"Say, exactly how good are you at swimming~"
A chill went through Mister Prince's spine while Yuna softly whispered those words into his ear.
However, before he could answer, Yuna felt a gentle breeze rustling her hair.
'A spring breeze? The hell?'
Suddenly, the clouds that previously were emitting snow vanished almost instantly and were replaced with a few small clouds that allowed gentle sunlight to cover the Going Merry.
'The weather here is an absolute mess.'
"Nami, I can see fog in the distance!"
"Damnit, there is a huge iceberg in our way!"
"I'll deal with it!"
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS SEA!?"
Following the gentle spring breeze, Usopp noticed dense fog in the distance, but before they could even reach the fog, Sanji spotted a massive iceberg blocking the Merry's path. Luckily, an iceberg wasn't really an obstacle for Yuna, and she managed to move it out of the way easily.
"CAREFUL! A STORM IS COMING!!!"
Things were far from over since as soon as the Straw Hat's managed to pass through the dense fog, the ship was hit with massive waves and a heavy storm, forcing them to furl the sails.
The chaos continued for another hour, and only then did the weather return to its initial calmness. While most of the Straw Hats were more or less semi-passed-out sprawled on the Going Merry's deck, Yuna couldn't help but laugh due to the chaotic situation.
"Hahaha, what's wrong with this sea!? This so fun~"
Hearing Yuna's words, Nami briefly glanced at her before checking the Log Pose to make sure they were still sailing in the correct direction, and after making sure that was the case, she decided that she was no longer willing to move.
Meanwhile, Zoro, who had been sleeping this whole time, woke up with a lazy yawn. He stood up while stretching his arms and back a little, and feeling the warm sunlight on his skin, he couldn't help but smile.
He briefly looked around Merry's deck and saw almost everyone sprawled on the ground; he shook his head with a wry smile on his face.
"I can understand that you want to be lazy due to the nice weather, but isn't this too much? Are we still on the correct course?"
The moment those words left Zoro's mouth, deep-seated hostility was directed at him, and before he could do anything, Nami's fist descended on his heart, causing him to exclaim in pain.
"You sure have some guts saying that after sleeping through all of that trouble."
"Haa~ What did you just say!?"
The moment the pain the bump on his head caused him faded away, Zoro confronted Nami due to her hitting him, but unfortunately, that encounter ended in an additional two bumps appearing on Zoro's head, causing him to roll around in pain while holding his head.
Apparently, the ship's navigator was the most powerful member of the crew as long as it was outside of actual combat.
Seeing the duo's brief interaction, Yuna only chuckled in amusement before ignoring the situation. Since the sea was currently calm, she decided to rest for a while.
However, as Yuna was sitting cross-legged on the ground, with her head resting against the Going Merry's mast, she felt someone approaching her, resulting in her opening her eyes.
"Zoro, do you want something?"
While Yuna was resting, Zoro occasionally stole a few glances at Yuna, and after seemingly making up his mind about something, he decided to approach her with a conflicted expression on his face.
"I have a few questions, and I hope you can answer them."
"Sure."
Not really bothered about Zoro wanting to know something, Yuna causally answered him positively and awaited his questions. Frankly, she could more or less guess what he wanted, but for now, she decided to wait for him actually to ask about it.
"Previously, when we were pulled inside Laboon's mouth, you made the suggestion to cut him. Could you really have done that? Are you capable of cutting something that big?"
"Mhh? Yeah, I could have done it, but make no mistake, if I had done so with my current body, I probably wouldn't be able to move my arms for a while."
Hearing Yuna's answer, Zoro nodded his head in understanding. Obviously, he still remembered Yuna's story about remembering her past life. Although he still had some trouble believing Yuna's words about her past life, it would explain the difference in skill level and strength of her body. Well, to be frank, Zoro didn't care all that much about the circumstances anyway.
"I see, so it's like that. In that case, can you help me improve my swordsmanship... No, not 'help'. I hope you can point me in the right direction."
Unlike his canon counterpart, after being defeated again and again, who got desperate for strength to such a degree that he was even willing to ask his goal, Mihawk, to train, the current Zoro is far from that point.
So, instead of straight up asking Yuna to teach him how to improve his swordsmanship, he only wanted her to point him in the right direction. This much, his pride still allowed.
Digesting Zoro's words, Yuna nodded in understanding, already having a rough outline of what kind of person Zoro was. So, without further delay, she stood up while drawing one of her blades, the unnamed one.
"Well, I don't mind. I can somewhat guess what kind of person you are, so instead of bothering with any long-winded speeches, I'll give you a rough explanation and demonstration of the different levels of swordsmanship. Additionally, keep in mind that what I'm about to tell you is how things were seen in my first life and might have some inaccuracies."
Zoro didn't bother answering and simply nodded his head, eager to see what Yuna would do. He felt like his swordsmanship had been stuck in the same place for quite some time. He was pretty sure that fighting someone powerful would help him advance further, but unfortunately, the enemy he met was Hawkeye, who was so overwhelmingly strong that Zoro got very little from that fight.
Now that the wound he got that day was pretty much healed, he felt like he was about to reach the next level. One little push was all he needed to advance further, to get even stronger. He didn't know if Yuna's words would be able to enable him to go further, but he felt like this would be a good start.
"Well, skill with the swordsmanship is roughly divided into five levels. Obviously, there are quite a few sub-levels to each level, but I won't bother you with those due to the differences this place has compared to my first life. Frankly, I feel like the right direction to go regarding your skill should be the same, while the finer details might vary to some degree.
Well, that being said, the first level is pretty much just basic swordsmanship. How to swing a sword, how to properly manage your center of gravity, and come up with some normal sword techniques. Pretty much the normal stuff a swordsman should be capable of. From what I can tell, you are at the peak of that level. You are a peak Swordsman."
The moment Yuna finished speaking, Zoro couldn't help but be stunned. After all, he was just at the peak of the first level of swordsmanship!? He had trained over a decade, and yet he had only reached such a low level? Wasn't he one of the strongest in the East Blue? What was going on?
Obviously, Yuna noticed the dismay in Zoro's eyes but didn't bother to comment on it as she continued her explanation. She was certain that after she was done, Zoro would understand why Yuna claimed that he was only at such a low level.
"The next level, the level of a Master Swordsman, is the real of cutting the equal. Basically, that means that you are capable of cutting something that is made of the same material your sword is made of. A wooden sword cutting through wood, and a steel sword cutting through steel."
Zoro's eyes shone in recognition when he heard Yuna's words, as he recognized what she was talking about. The ability to cut steel is something Zoro has been chasing after for quite a while, without the skill to obtain it. Now that Yuna had told him that "cutting steel" was the next level, he could somehow accept that he had indeed not stepped into the second level of swordsmanship yet.
As these thoughts passed through Zoro's mind, Yuna raised her blade and slashed down, causing Zoro to tilt his head in confusion. He had no idea why Yuna just did that.
However, Yuna raised her blade yet again and made another cut. This time, Zoro couldn't help but furrow his brows. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but that second slash felt different.
Seeing Zoro's facial expression, Yuna nodded in approval.
'He noticed, huh? Although he is a bit of a muscle head, he certainly has a talent for the sword.'
"Seems like you noticed. The first attack was a normal sword slash, while the second one was imbued with the concept of 'Cutting the Equal'. I won't tell you what exactly I did since I can tell that would go against your pride, so good luck getting it with just a demonstration."
Although Zoro was a little annoyed by the grin Yuna was currently giving him, he still nodded his head in understanding, knowing full well that he wouldn't be satisfied if Yuna simply told him how to progress his skill level.
"Well, following that is the 'Flying Slash'. The ability to send your sword strikes flying beyond the reach of your blade. A Grandmaster Swordsman."
The moment Yuna finished speaking, Yuna yet again slashed down her sword, resulting in a somewhat small flying slash being sent skyward, causing Zoro's eyes to widen in recognition.
'That's how Mihawk cut Don Krieg's ship!'
Naturally, Mihawk's slash was colossal, big enough to cut through a giant warship, but the technique still seemed somewhat similar.
'So Mihawk it at the very least at the third level defined by Yuna. A Grandmaster Swordsman. As expected, he is really far away, but that's fine. Someday, I'll definitely catch up to him.'
Seeing the determination in Zoro's eyes, Yuna couldn't help but smile lightly, appreciating Zoro's strong spirit.
"Well, I won't bother much about the last two realms since they are rather far away for you, but I might as well give you a little peek."
Yet again, Yuna raised her sword, but this time, Zoro felt incredibly strong pressure descending on him. He felt like someone was pressing a blade against his throat.
He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he could instantly tell that the level of swordsmanship Yuna was currently showing him was far beyond everything he had ever witnessed, as just raising her sword was already enough for Zoro to feel death.
However, as soon as the overwhelming pressure came, it was gone, as Yuna lowered her sword with some sweat on her forehead and a somewhat labored breath.
"*Phew* As expected, displaying that kind of level with this weak body won't even allow me to perform the attack. Well, what do you think, Zoro?"
Frankly, displaying this level of power was somewhat risky, bearing the possibility that Zoro would lose motivation and despair, but if that was all it took to take down the self-proclaimed "Future Greatest Swordsman", then Zoro wasn't worthy of that ambition in the first place.
Zoro, on the other hand, had cold sweat flowing down his back, but despite being terrified by what he had just experienced, there was a face-splitting grin on his.
'This power... how incredible. I'll reach that kind of level, no doubt about it. No, I'll surpass it! I'll grow stronger and stronger and stronger until I'll not even flinch in front of that kind of presence. I'll go even further until I myself reach that kind of swordsmanship!'
Seeing the fire of determination being lit within Zoro's eyes, Yuna couldn't help but grin. Initially, the only reason why she joined this crew was due to Luffy's unwavering determination, but now, she felt like Luffy might not be the only interesting character in this crew.
'What a strong will. I like it. Luffy is obviously a monster, but it seems like Zoro isn't far away from him, either. I wonder how the other member of the crew will fare~'