Gyukimaru of Bandit Bridge

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In Wano, on the road between Kuri and Udon, O-Lin rides forward with Chopper, Kiku, Tama, and Momonosuke, laughing with huge innocent hunger as the group heads toward the prisoner mine. Tama excitedly praises oshiruko, comparing the shining mochi pearls to frog eyes and remembering the sweetness of the red beans filling her cheeks. O-Lin answers with equal delight, saying she cannot wait to eat it, but Chopper is shaken by the danger hidden inside that simple craving. He realizes that if O-Lin becomes Big Mom again after learning there is no oshiruko, their rescue plan could turn into a disaster and put Luffy in even worse danger.

At the Udon prisoner mine, Luffy keeps testing himself in Queen's brutal arena. More Pleasures lie beaten around him, yet Luffy is dissatisfied: what he just did is not the refined force Rayleigh once showed him. He remembers Rayleigh stopping a charging elephant without touching it, describing the idea as invisible armor. Watching Luffy chase that memory, the prisoners can only wonder what sort of technique Straw Hat is trying to grasp. Luffy understands that Rayleigh's Haki was far beyond the basics, and if he can reproduce that level now, it may become the weapon he needs.

Queen laughs over the arena, pleased that Luffy continues to survive. His men want a quick execution, but Queen rejects that as boring: to him, only time and numbers make a battle entertaining. He keeps demanding updates on how many bowls of oshiruko have been eaten, because the food is precious to him, almost like oxygen. Luffy, still focused on training through combat, simply calls for the next opponent. Queen boasts that he brought a huge amount of oshiruko and that nobody else is getting any because it is his favorite.

In Ringo, at Bandit Bridge, Zoro clashes verbally with the bandit warrior monk Gyukimaru. Zoro insists that he met Ryuma, though the situation involved another soul inside Ryuma's body. Gyukimaru refuses to accept it, reminding him that Ryuma lived and died hundreds of years ago. He describes Ryuma as an unmatched swordsman who settled his fights with a single flash of the blade, then turns the argument back to Shusui: a fool like Zoro, he says, cannot understand the value of that famed sword.

Gyukimaru explains why Shusui is not merely a weapon. Long ago, Wano was known outside its borders as a golden country, coveted by pirates and nobles alike, and Ryuma's strength protected it from those who came to seize it. The legend even says he cut down a dragon in the sky above the capital. After Ryuma died, he and Shusui were enshrined together, making the sword a treasure of Wano itself. Zoro listens, thanks him for the history, and then bluntly says it does not change his goal: he wants Shusui back, because without all three of his swords something feels wrong.

Gyukimaru pushes further, saying Shusui is a black blade that became what it is through Ryuma's battles. Zoro catches on that this may answer something that has been bothering him about black blades, but before he can press the question, cries for help tear through the snow. A woman and child are fleeing for their lives. Gyukimaru uses the distraction immediately, striking at Zoro's opening while accusing him of greed for Shusui. Zoro snaps back that he was clearly distracted, but the new danger has already entered the fight.

The woman and the child rush through the snowy bridge road, begging for someone to save them. The little girl laughs even while crying out, calling for a samurai, and the woman pleads with the swordsman in front of her. Gyukimaru declares that distractions decide battles and keeps aiming at Zoro's openings. Zoro complains that the monk is attacking while he is plainly distracted, but then he sees the blood dripping from the woman's wound. Her fear is not an act. Zoro's face hardens as he understands that the two are truly being hunted.

The pursuer launches spinning scythes through the snow with a sharp whistling motion, forcing the woman and child to scream and stumble. Zoro cuts into the attack path and blocks the killing blow just in time, taking the pressure onto his own swords instead of letting it reach them. The attacker grins through his bandages and tells Zoro to wait, while the woman pants behind him, shaken but alive. The duel at Bandit Bridge has now become a three-sided fight: Zoro against Gyukimaru, Zoro against the killer, and the woman and child caught in the center.

Gyukimaru is furious that Zoro's attention has shifted and demands that he focus on their duel, but Zoro snaps that he will deal with him after surviving the immediate attack. The bandaged killer laughs with a repeated, broken cackle and recognizes Zoro as Zorojuro, the wanted criminal. His title appears: Kamazo the Killer, wanted man of the Flower Capital. Kamazo then questions why the woman protects the child, while Zoro judges that another strange opponent has entered the bridge. Gyukimaru still has not withdrawn, leaving Zoro surrounded by two hostile fighters.

Kamazo reveals that he has come for the laughing girl and means to take her life. The woman deduces that no one but Orochi would want O-Toko dead and realizes that Kamazo is acting as Orochi's assassin beneath the public image of a killer. Kamazo mocks her for speaking the shogun's name so openly, while O-Toko laughs in fear and confusion. The woman turns to Zoro and begs him to save them, promising any thanks she can give. Zoro answers in his own plain way: he will not let a woman and child be killed in front of him, and he would not refuse food and sake. She accepts the bargain immediately.

Zoro squares himself against Kamazo, noting that killing someone who fights with a scythe usually creates trouble later, but the assassin does not care. Kamazo has orders to kill anyone standing in his way. Zoro promises the woman and child that they do not need to worry, then meets Kamazo head-on in a burst of blades and scythe arcs. The snow and impact lines swallow the bridge as the two trade blows, with Zoro making it clear that if someone dies here, it will be Kamazo.

Kamazo tests Zoro's strength and admits to himself that this opponent is formidable. Zoro, meanwhile, keeps one eye on Gyukimaru, who still circles for an opportunity instead of standing aside. Zoro warns that if the monk is going to interfere, then he has chosen to become a serious enemy too. The fight explodes across the snow: Kamazo presses from the front, Gyukimaru waits for an opening, the woman and O-Toko watch in terror, and the bridge becomes a trap where Zoro cannot fully turn his back on anyone.

Gyukimaru finally takes the opening and swings in from behind, forcing Zoro to react. The woman and O-Toko gasp as Zoro is split between threats. That instant costs him: Kamazo drives one of his scythes into Zoro's shoulder from the front. Blood bursts across the snow. Zoro grimaces, trapped between the weapon buried in him and Gyukimaru's pressure behind him, but his expression does not break into panic. The wound is serious, yet it also gives him direct control over Kamazo's weapon.

Blood drips from Zoro's mouth and wound, but he bites down and refuses to let the scythe go. Kamazo tries to pull it free and panics when it will not move. Zoro says he will have to make do with that single stolen blade, then grips it between his teeth and completes Santoryu. The woman realizes what he is about to attempt, but Zoro is already counting the rhythm of the strike. With a three-sword stance restored by the captured scythe, he unleashes Oni Giri. The blow cuts through Kamazo in a decisive flash, ending the chapter with the assassin smashed down into the snow under Zoro's righteous counterattack.

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