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[Climbing The Hierarchy]
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| Weeks later… |
...
As always, the dojo was filled with the steady rhythm of children swinging bamboo swords and calling out in unison.
"Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei...!"
—Clap!—
The sound cut cleanly across the room, and the class came to a stop. Koushirou stood at the front, his hands folding behind his back as the last echoes of the clap faded.
"Alright, kids. Time for our usual monthly dueling class."
A ripple of excitement ran through the students—eyes lighting up, backs straightening. Something that only occurred when something other than repetitive swinging was on the table.
Dan, still resting with both hands leaning on top of his bamboo sword, blinked once.
'Dueling class... I almost forgot that was a thing.'
A few weeks had passed since he had settled into his new self, and in that time, he had simply thrown himself into training—swinging, adjusting, following Koushirou's occasional and increasingly frequent corrections without overthinking it, running marathons along with the other disciples, performing the usual exercises, learning other types of swinging and their corresponding posture, etc...
He couldn't put a precise number on how much he'd improved, but his swings were noticeably smoother and faster, and his stamina was letting him last longer through practice sessions than several other students now.
He had been caught up enough in the routine that today's dueling class had slipped his mind entirely.
Which was a problem, because Kuina and Zoro weren't the only ones who dueled. Everyone did too—just way less. And they did so today, specifically.
'The last time...'
Dan's eyebrows creased slightly as the memory of the last dueling class surfaced.
'... It didn't go well for me at all.'
That had been barely a month in. His progress at the time had been close to nothing, and he'd had his ass handed to him by most of the other students without much trouble on their part.
He wasn't exactly brimming with confidence this time either—his swings had improved, but swinging in a straight line and actually fighting someone were two very different things.
What he was counting on was two things: whatever edge the training had quietly given him, and the fact that his adult perspective might at least keep him from panicking mid-fight the way a regular kid would. That, or it wouldn't help at all. Either outcome was possible.
'Well, I guess I just have to wait and see.'
He let out a quiet breath through his nose and surrendered to fate.
The class settled along the edges of the dojo. Koushirou took his place at the center, and ran through the rules briefly for the benefit of anyone who had somehow forgotten—a hit to the head, wrists, or torso ended the duel. The throat counted too, but hitting there was frowned upon.
"First duel of the day—Yasui against Shima!"
Both students pushed themselves to their feet and made their way to the center mat, bamboo swords in hand.
A bow to the shrine, a bow to each other, and they were off.
The two kids went at it with the ferocity of a kitten and the bravery of a rabbit. Jokes aside, Koushirou's teaching showed even through the obvious nerves—their footwork had shape to it, their guards were in roughly the right places, and there was at least some discipline behind the swings.
Dan watched them from his spot with squinted eyes, trying to get a rough read on where he stood by comparison.
'No idea.'
He could follow their movements well enough and had a few rough instincts about how he'd counter certain attacks. But he was fairly sure that was just the spectator effect—things that looked obvious from the outside had a habit of vanishing entirely once you were the one in the middle of it.
…He was probably making that up, but he was also fairly sure he wasn't wrong.
"Winner, Yasui!"
Before he knew it, one of the kids slipped, and the other used that to hit him in the torso.
After the victor was decided, both kids went back to their seats, and the next ones stepped up once Koushirou called for them.
The duels continued one after another. Dan sat cross-legged with his chin resting on his fist, watching each exchange with loose attention—his mind going something along the lines of 'that move looks painful, I should avoid that,' rather than anything genuinely tactical.
By the time nearly an hour had passed, he had mostly settled into a comfortable state of mild observation.
Then Koushirou's voice cut through.
"Last duel of the day... Dan against Zoro!"
Dan blinked.
'Huh?'
He turned his head slightly. Across the room, Zoro sat with his arms loosely crossed, looking equally caught off guard—before the confusion gave way to something a lot more like outrage as he shot to his feet.
"Sensei, what do you mean?! Don't I always spar with Kuina?!"
'Yeah, why am I getting paired with the sword gremlin with just two months in...?'
Dan stared at Koushirou with a baffled expression.
"Settle down. I simply thought Dan would benefit from a duel against you—he's been improving quite a bit lately." Koushirou's tone was even, as if the pairing were the most natural thing in the world.
"He is?" Several kids echoed it at almost the same time, glancing over at Dan like they were seeing him properly for the first time.
'I am?'
Dan raised an eyebrow.
Zoro still looked unhappy about it, lips pressed together, but after a moment, he huffed and rolled his shoulders. "Alright, whatever." He moved toward the center, picking up two bamboo swords from the basket on his way.
Dan stood, not particularly enthusiastic. He shot a sideways glance at Kuina, who sat beside her father with her usual composed expression, entirely unbothered by all of it.
'At least it's not her...'
He grabbed a sword from the basket and walked to the center mat.
"Bow to the Gods." Both turned and bowed to a shrine nearby.
"Bow to each other." Both turned, facing each other, and bowed.
"Then..." Koushirou let the pause stretch just a moment.
Dan held his breath. Zoro's grip tightened around his swords.
"...Begin!"
"Orya!"
The duel started frenetically, with Zoro already moving before the word had fully left Koushirou's mouth.
—Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack!—
Dan got his sword up just in time to block the first strike, but the ones that followed came too fast to properly track.
His grip nearly gave out more than once through the flurry, his arms absorbing each impact with barely enough resistance to keep the sword in his hands. The sheer relentlessness of it left no room to think.
In a desperate bid for space, he started backing away.
It didn't help much. Zoro matched every step, keeping the pressure constant.
But the small gap it created was enough to let Dan's head clear for just a second—enough to actually watch the rhythm of Zoro's attacks instead of just bracing against them.
Something caught his eye. A moment, a tiny break in the pattern.
His instincts told him it wouldn't come again. So he stopped retreating and swung—a clean downward strike, the one he had repeated probably a thousand times by now.
Whether it was because Zoro hadn't expected him to stop running or hadn't expected him to swing back at all, the barrage stuttered. He was forced to break his rhythm and block in a hurry, bringing one sword up to meet it.
—Tack!—
Sadly, one sword was all it took to stop it. The other came around a half-second later and whacked Dan cleanly on the torso.
Thus, marking the duel over.
As the defeat settled in, Dan lowered his sword and pressed a hand to the spot with a wince. Zoro had held back noticeably—it would bruise, but nothing worse than that. He let out a breath and looked back up at Zoro, who was watching him with a mildly curious expression.
Koushirou called for the bow. Both of them turned and gave it, and when they straightened, Zoro tilted his head slightly.
"Oi, what's your name?"
"Dan."
"You're new, right?" Zoro asked, still looking him over.
"This is my second month here."
"Second month." He repeated it once, as if testing the weight of it, then nodded, a grin spreading across his face. "You're pretty good. Those guys—" he jerked his chin toward the rest of the students without looking at them "—still can't manage to swing back, and half of them have been here longer than I have."
Dan glanced over. Several of the other disciples had found something very interesting to look at on the floor.
So he had done something even they couldn't, while only a month since he got his hacks?
'I wouldn't call that a success exactly, but at least I know the hack is working.' He thought, feeling a bit refreshed through some of the bad aftertaste of losing the duel.
"Thanks," Dan said, turning back. "And for holding back, too."
He wasn't under any illusion about what had actually happened. Zoro had been fighting adults regularly. If he'd wanted to send Dan's sword spinning across the dojo in the first two seconds, that would have been well within his ability.
The fact that Dan had lasted long enough to even find an opening was as much Zoro's restraint as it was anything else.
Zoro didn't deny it, which was confirmation enough. He gave a short nod, and they both returned to their seats.
Dan dropped back onto his with a thud, more tired from that brief exchange than he would have liked to admit. As he did, a few glances from nearby students were directed at him, looking at him as if he were a weird animal.
He ignored them and simply closed his eyes to rest while he still could.
Meanwhile, across the room, Koushirou's gaze settled on him.
'I was not wrong, then. That kid really is talented.'
On the surface, what Dan had done didn't look particularly impressive. But Koushirou had been teaching long enough to read what was underneath it.
To start with, staying composed under that kind of pressure—arms getting battered from the mere recoil, sword nearly wrenched away, no space to breathe—was already uncommon for a child his age.
Most would have locked up or turned their back on it entirely. The instinct to keep looking for an opening rather than simply endure or escape was something that couldn't be drilled into someone easily.
Then there was the matter of actually spotting the gap. Finding a moment to strike in the middle of Zoro's barrage required both sharp attention and fast enough judgment to act on it before it closed. Very few of the students in this dojo could do that, regardless of how long they had been here.
And then, there was the matter of executing it. Forcing Zoro to block, even caught slightly off guard, still required enough speed and weight behind the swing to make him respond to it. A month ago, Dan wouldn't have been able to do that.
Now he could.
It was a small thing. But it was the kind of small thing that told Koushirou what direction someone was heading in.
'I'll need to keep a closer eye on him.'
While Koushirou sat quietly with that thought, Kuina—still beside him—let her gaze drift from her father's face over to Dan, her eyes narrowing slightly before she looked away.
"Oi, Kuina, let's duel!"
Zoro's voice snapped her attention back. He was already on his feet, sword in hand, looking at her with the particular expression he reserved for these moments—impatient and single-minded.
She glanced at her father. Koushirou gave a faint nod.
"Very well." She reached for her bamboo sword and stood.
That day, they completed their 1178th duel.
Zoro's loss.
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: Overslept quite heavily today. I dunno why I was so tired when I didn't feel as such.
But well, who knows?
Anyway, back to the chapter, we start losing, but as someone wise once said, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and Dan is going to become stronger.
... That was kinda corny, I admit.)