Chapter 59: Kill two birds in one stone.

What the heck is wrong with him/this boy...?

That was the thought going on in Kuina and Koushirou's head right now after the strange pale-yellow hue appeared in Edam's once profound black eyes.

It was not only the color that had changed, the feeling he was giving too had changed, it now fell more sharp and focused somehow.

Swish...! The monkey-boy burst out forward like a cannon ball once again to attack Zoro who had already got to his feet.

However, in contrast to before his speed had slow down by a large margin. Zoro saw this attack of his clearly and even had the time to parry this time around.

Tah! Tah! The shinais clashing sound rang out again as the two were now facing each other closely while Zoro exclaimed angrily.

"You ! Why do you go easy on me !?"

Instead of replying Edam took one step forward forcefully to overpowered him as he easily pushed him back and rushed again to strike again by the top.

Zoro "Sh*t..."

Pah...!

Luckily for Zoro, he could now reacted to his speed and power and so managed to block it now.

But even though, Edam had considerably lessen the strenght, his slash were still fierce and brutal... powerfull enough to make Zoro struggle a lot to maintain his guarding posture as he block it.

Ugh dammit...! Zoro was sweating all the sweat his body could muster as he struggle to resist.

Seeing him blocking his strike, Edam took a step back before striking once again... to the side this time going for Zoro's ribs this time.

Swooch...! Tah...! Tah...!

Zoro had once again block it but even then, he was forced to take a step back. If he didn't have two shinais to block it but just one, the shinai would maybe have broken by now, he thought with an incredulous face.

And then the small sparring continued on for half an hour as it then reach a conclusion.

The two were once again in front of each other, with about two meters separating them.

"Haaa...Ha...haa...ugh..." The poor Zoro was panting hard as he tried to catch his breath but still maintain his stance with his two shinais.

On the opposite, Edam was perfectly fine with not a single sign of being exhausted at all. He stood right there with a rather indifferent expression on his face as if he had never move since the beginning, holding the shinai in his hands tightly.

Seeing this, Zoro couldn't held it in anymore and snapped as he rushed rashly to attack Edam.

"HAAAAAA....!" When he was at the best range, he jumped as he run forward as he first swung his left shinai going from top to bottom.

However the strike was blocked by Edam who parried the slash easily with no efforts at all.

Seeing this Zoro snorted with a "Humph !" as he then suddenly spinned around in the air to then strike with his right shinai this time.

Swish...! The sound of the shinai tearing the air reverberate in the atmosphere threathening to put a nice bump to whoever was stroke by this slash.

This imprevisible move would have have work on most people...but unfortuntely for Zoro... Edam was not most of the people out there.

Seeing this move from him, a faint smile appeared on Edam lips as his voice rang out.

"Not bad...but not enough..."

He loosen up his tight grip on the shinai and then suddenly took a step to the side as he avoided it narrowly but with still some strands of hairs touched in this process as he then gripped his shinai again, and then slashed upward powerfully going for Zoro's opened belly !

Zoro gritted his teeth and closed his eyes to endure the pain but... the pain never arrived as he believed it would... there was just a little press he felt as he opened his eyes to look.

And obviously, Edam had stayed his shinai at the last moment of course because, if not then Zoro would have to stay in bed for a few days at least.

Zoro then fell down on his butt as the conclusion of this fight was...

A bitter defeat for Zoro...

The thing he was most proud about... his strenght that he had polished again and again and again... to be undefeatable seemed to be a phenomenal joke compared to Edam's.

And not only that, Edam had gone really easy on him...and yet...he was still defeated...he was defeated by another person other than Kuina... such a bitter reality was... worse than anything for the green-haired boy.

And worse of all was that...

He felt it, throughout the fight... Edam was improving with each strikes he was sending his way. He was improving his swordman's skills at a tremendous speed...!

The next strikes was always better than the previous one and because it was becoming better and better, It seems that Edam always had to lower the speed and strenght each time he swung his shinai, to make it so that it wouldn't be too much for Zoro to handle.

Without mentioning the weight of the shinai that he had to add in the equation too...

That was unbelievable to say the least...

To the side, Koushirou and Kuina were shocked stricken for the same reason. But it was especially the case for Kuina because, as she observed Edam's every movement during the sparring, she and koushirou began to notice something.

It wasn't really obvious at first, but as the fight was going on, both of them, father and daughter began to see that Edam's movement were slowly but surely coming to look just like the movement of a certain someone...

Indeed...! It was clearly Kuina's swordstyle being displayed right in front of them, albeit to some minor details but still...it was amazing nonetheless, to copy the style of another person in this short amount of time was a feat that no ordinary person could do.

"You... how did you learned those moves ?" Kuina asked questioningly as she approached Edam and Zoro.

"Well I look at your fight earlier and I tried to reciprocate them, though it's not exactly the same but..." Edam said to Kuina as he then asked. "Anyway... do you want to spar too ?"

"Hah ? uh, yeah... sure why not... ?" Kuina seemed to hesitate a bit but decided to do it in the end. What did she have to lose right ? Or so she thought...

*Half an hour later*

Kuina was lying on the ground exhausted by this spar too.

'This... this... he... how is this possible...? This is unfair, how can he learned so quickly...?' She thought with a lot of frustration in her heart.

The thing was that... during this second spar Edam had improved even more.

As the seconds passed and passed, his swordmanship was coming closer and closer to her own but this time it wasn't a copy of her style but an assimilation and improvement of it to match his own style this time.

She had in this fight saw no way, but really no way to defeat Edam at all, there was not even the shadow of a chance to win.

He was too much of a monster...both in talent and in inborn strenght and speed, it was just like she said unfair... the heaven was favoring him too much...

'So it's true huh...father was right...' Kuina thought sadly as she looked down. Her current appearance was really too pitifull to look at. The confident and proud Kuina was now nowhere to be seen and was replaced by this frail-looking Kuina.

"Say... Do you think that the strong peoples doubt of themselves ?"

A sitting Edam asked her as he looked at the shinai in his hands.

"Huh...? What are you...?" She asked as she looked at him from the corner of the eyes, still lying down.

"I mean, is your resolve to become the strongest swordman so weak that it can be flustered by a few words of your father...?" He glanced at her in the eyes and asked.

"How do you know-...?"

"Sorry, I overheard it the other day..." Edam apologize and then said.

"You know, I would say that what matter the most is the spirit and not the body. Of course the body is important... but a strong body without a strong spirit is useless and weak." He paused a bit and then continued.

"Anyway, if you do not changed quickly, Zoro will overcome you in the blink of an eye and you won't even notice it... it would be such a shame don't you think ?"

"And beside no one is qualified to say if you can or not become the strongest..."

"That's all the advices I have to offer to you... As for the rest, it's up to you...."

"So...fight on and prove to your father that you are stronger than he think you are..." Edam said as he looked at her with a faint smile.

"You... are so strong... so what is...what is your goal...?" Kuina asked curiously drawing Zoro's attention too on him.

They were really wondering about what could be the goal of someone as strong at nearly the same age as themselves.

"I...I'm not that strong..." Edam replied with a pained face and the murmure at the end "What's more, I'm not even able to use this power properly... to protect what I hold dear to me so... what's, what's the point..." He looked at his hands with a bit of disappointment and even a tinge of disgust in his eyes.

Zoro and Kuina looked at him with puzzled faces as Edam then added.

"But if you want to know my goal right now then it would be to bring back my brother from the dead..." He say with even more pain on his face.

"..." Kuina and Zoro didn't say anything and just kept listening.

"If only it was possible but... this is impossible so... my goal is to..."

He looked with a resolute gaze at the vast sky... the sky, the only thing that was envelopping the earth and the sea at the same time, the thing that seemed to restrain both the sea and the earth from bursting out, just like a bubble containing the air in it.

"Change this world...!"

...

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Okay guys, here is a chap.

Please do tell me my mistakes and whatnot thanks. 👍