Chapter 313: One Sword Style: Great Dragon Shock!

Inside the steel corridor of Building B, the temperature had already dropped below the freezing point.

The howling cold wind, mixed with ice and snow as sharp as blades, raged within the dark, enclosed space.

Monet had completely abandoned her human form, transforming into a massive snow monster with sharp fangs.

She moved like a ghost through the dancing snow, utilizing the advantages of the Logia Snow-Snow Fruit to launch fierce attacks on Zoro from his visual blind spots.

After several exchanges, the meticulous Monet keenly noticed something unusual about Zoro's moves.

She discovered that although the Marimo swordsman before her possessed superb swordsmanship and unleashed peerless sword energy...

With every swing of his blade, that sharp edge capable of cutting through steel seemed to be deliberately avoiding her vital organs.

Monet suddenly flapped her wings, coming to a halt amidst the wind and snow in mid-air.

She stuck out her long tongue, licking her cold lips, and let out a light chuckle from above:

"I've heard of your great name, the Great Swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates."

"Although your bounty is terrifyingly high and your strength is indeed impressive, you... at your core, you don't cut women, do you?"

"Having such a naive bottom line on a life-and-death battlefield like this is truly the height of stupidity."

Just as Monet prepared to increase her intensity to completely bury this merciful swordsman...

A sudden burst of hurried footsteps came from the other end of the corridor.

Tashigi, attracted by the sounds of the intense battle here, arrived panting for breath.

She took in the two people facing off in the field at a glance, her mind racing as she instantly made a decision:

In her current state, she would definitely not be able to survive this dangerous facility alone.

She had to first help this Marimo pirate deal with the Snow Woman before her.

Then, she could borrow his powerful combat strength to go to the SAD Production Room and rescue Vice Admiral Smoker, who was in a desperate situation!

Tashigi took a deep breath and suddenly drew the famous sword, "Shigure."

Without the slightest hesitation, she stepped onto the thick snow and charged toward Monet in mid-air with unwavering resolve.

Looking at that familiar face running recklessly through the wind and snow, her eyes filled with incomparable stubbornness and tenacity, Zoro's brain momentarily short-circuited.

The cold wind ruffled Tashigi's short hair, and the figure of the short-haired girl in the depths of his memory—who had held a bamboo sword and defeated him countless times in the Shimotsuki Village dojo—perfectly overlapped with the Tashigi before him at this moment.

An unprovoked irritation and a mysterious panic instantly seized Zoro's heart.

He subconsciously reached out his hand and roared as if he had lost his reason:

"Hey! Don't go over there! Kuina!"

Hearing the commotion, Monet gave a cold laugh and suddenly flapped her wings in mid-air, forcibly changing direction.

She abandoned Zoro and spread her snow-white wings, like a bird of prey, diving down at high speed toward the charging Tashigi.

Her sharp, bird-like claws pressed down on the blade of "Shigure" like iron pincers.

Immediately after, Monet opened her massive mouth filled with terrifying fangs and bit down hard on Tashigi's slender shoulder.

"Ah—!"

Tashigi let out a scream of agony.

Hot blood gushed from her shoulder like a fountain, instantly staining the white, cold snow beneath her red.

"Stop it!!!"

Seeing Tashigi fall wounded in a pool of blood, Zoro's fury was completely ignited.

In that instant, his figure suddenly transformed into a blurry black afterimage, flashing in front of Tashigi.

A cold light flashed in Zoro's eyes as he swung the Wado Ichimonji gripped in his hand forward.

An unstoppable, sharp sword energy whistled out, directly forcing back Monet, who was about to continue her attack.

Monet tumbled and landed on the snow not far away.

When she looked up, she met a pair of eyes that made one feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.

Zoro lowered his head slightly, his eyes devoid of even a shred of warmth.

In Monet's eyes, the surrounding wind and snow seemed to have come to a standstill.

The man before her seemed like a terrifying Ashura slowly crawling out from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, radiating an aura of endless destruction.

A sense of terror originating from the deepest part of biological instinct instantly seized her heart.

"You've certainly seen the kind of tame beast that has had its teeth pulled..."

Zoro gripped the hilt of the Wado Ichimonji tightly with one hand as he walked toward Monet step by step.

"But who can guarantee you that when a real beast enters a state of berserk rage, it won't actually eat people?"

Hearing this declaration that sounded like the whisper of a Shinigami, Monet discovered in terror that under the pressure of this pure killing intent...

Her body, which was made of the Snow-Snow Fruit she was so proud of, was actually so stiff that she couldn't move even a single finger.

That bone-deep fear stripped her of all her mobility.

She couldn't even perform the most basic elementalization to escape.

Zoro suddenly stopped his pace and raised his sword high with both hands.

Without any Haki infusion, relying solely on the peak, ultimate sword energy of a swordsman and that pure killing intent enough to sever a soul—

"One Sword Style: Great Dragon Shock!"

A dazzling, peerless sword light flashed out.

In Monet's desperately shrinking pupils, this sword light passed through her body without any obstruction.

In the next second, Monet's massive snow monster body was split perfectly in two down the middle.

Because it was not imbued with Armament Haki, this snow body did not shed a single drop of blood.

However, the extreme mental terror brought about by the immersive experience of watching oneself be split open alive caused Monet's brain to completely shut down instantly.

Accompanied by a shrill scream that went out of tune, Monet's psychological defenses completely collapsed.

The two halves of her body fell limply to the ground, and after a series of violent tremors, she was directly scared unconscious by this soul-level death pressure.

Tashigi, sitting on the cold snow, pressed her trembling hand tightly against her still-bleeding shoulder.

She looked up blankly at the broad back of the man standing in front of her with a long sword.

In deep shock, only one pure thought remained in her mind:

So cool...

...swordsmanship.

However, this shock only lasted for a moment.

In the next second, a deep sense of inferiority, humiliation, and unutterable sorrow completely overwhelmed her.

She hated herself! She hated her own incompetence and weakness!

To protect her, Vice Admiral Smoker was currently being unilaterally and brutally beaten by that traitor in the SAD Production Room.

And now, she, a Marine Captain representing the world's justice, actually had to rely on a pirate to save her.

The tears she had held back for so long finally broke through the dam of her eyes.

Tashigi lowered her head deeply, buried her face in her uninjured arm, and began to cry out loud with "wuwuwu" sounds.

Hearing the low sobbing from behind him, Zoro slowly returned the Wado Ichimonji to its scabbard.

He turned his head and looked at Tashigi, who was sitting in the snow crying like a fountain, and let out a long, somewhat helpless sigh.

He reached out and irritably scratched his short green hair, muttering in a small voice:

"Women and such are really a hassle."

"And this face..."

He walked up to her and looked down at her.

Although his tone still sounded stiff, there was a trace of tenderness between the lines that even he didn't notice:

"Well, stop crying."

"Your current unwillingness and pain... I can understand your feelings."

"This feeling of watching yourself be powerless is indeed unpleasant."

"But if you don't want to stay this weak for the rest of your life, then wipe away your own tears, pick up your sword again, and go train as if your life depends on it."

Looking at Tashigi sitting on the ground, Zoro's thoughts involuntarily drifted back to his distant childhood.

In his memory, the weakling back then who could only hide under the moonlight crying because he couldn't beat others was none other than himself.

And the one who had brandished a bamboo sword, was incredibly strong, and stood before him smiling to encourage and comfort him was Kuina.

However, fate is a fickle thing; time had passed, and now the roles of the two seemed to have completely swapped.

He had become the one strong enough to protect others, while she, with the same face, was crying on the ground.

What a pity...

Kuina, who had promised to become the World's Greatest Swordsman together with him, was already gone forever.

At this thought, Zoro's usually resolute eyes dimmed slightly.

A flash of hard-to-detect sadness and loneliness quickly passed through the depths of his eyes.

Hearing these words that carried a hint of scolding yet were inexplicably sincere, a surge of intense shame and annoyance rose in Tashigi's heart:

She, a dignified Marine Captain, had actually fallen so low as to be educated and pitied by a pirate!

But it was undeniable that Zoro's words, which struck directly at her soul, also ignited that unyielding fighting spirit deep within her.

She clenched her teeth and haphazardly wiped the tears and snot from her face with the back of her hand.

With her uninjured hand, she tightly gripped the hilt of "Shigure," which had fallen to the side.

Supporting herself on the cold ground, she shakily stood back up.

Tashigi struggled to steady her breathing.

In order to get this powerful combatant to go save Vice Admiral Smoker, who was in a desperate situation...

This female Marine, for the first time in her life, went against her principles and told a clumsy lie to a pirate:

"That... your Captain is currently facing a great danger!"

"He needs your help! Please come with me!"

After saying this, Tashigi didn't look at Zoro's eyes but instead turned around, turning her back to the man who had just saved her life.

Then, she slightly turned her head, revealing half of her profile.

The cowardice and tears in her eyes had completely faded, replaced once again by the determination of a swordsman and the pride of a Marine.

She looked at Zoro and corrected him seriously:

"And one more thing."

"My name is not Kuina. I am Tashigi, a Marine!"

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