Chapter 186 (Patreon)

At dusk, around five in the afternoon, Hinata returned from the Hyūga residence.

When she saw that Mihawk was back, the two settled into the living room and quietly enjoyed each other’s company for a while.

During that time, Hanabi emerged from the guest room with Saeko Busujima, giving Mihawk the opportunity to introduce her to Hinata.

Hinata was gentle, considerate, and naturally suited to caring for others, while Saeko had been raised with many of the same qualities. Both carried the refined air of a traditional Yamato nadeshiko.

The moment they met, they got along as though they had known each other for years.

Their compatibility became even more apparent while preparing dinner. Hinata and Saeko worked together in perfect harmony, each naturally understanding what the other needed without having to ask.

For the first time, Hinata found a female friend besides Mihawk with whom she could speak comfortably.

Unlike Hanabi, who had quietly decided that she held seniority over Saeko, Hinata and Saeko treated each other as equals.

Saeko called her Hinata instead of formally addressing her as her teacher’s girlfriend, while Hinata also called Saeko by her given name.

Mihawk was slightly surprised by how quickly they became close, though after considering their similar personalities, it made perfect sense.

After dinner, Hinata and Hanabi took Saeko out to buy clothes and other daily necessities.

Mihawk, meanwhile, went to the dojo as usual. He sat down for sword meditation and resumed his study of Return to One Swordsmanship.

After replacing the killing intent at its core with Conqueror’s Haki, his Killing Sword had finally reached completion.

Now, Mihawk had turned his attention toward perfecting his new swordsmanship.

Unlike the Killing Sword, which relied on overwhelming power, Return to One Swordsmanship had been created by combining the Breath of All Things with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

It was an entire form of swordsmanship in its own right, but it was also Mihawk’s strongest trump card—his one and only ultimate sword technique.

Its principle was to continuously sever the lines of death within the surrounding airflow at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Every time the airflow was severed, a slash was produced.

By repeatedly severing the airflow and layering those slashes together, Mihawk could accumulate an enormous amount of power before releasing it all at once.

This principle could be applied to ordinary sword strikes as well as the Ranged Slashes of a great swordsman.

The path toward perfecting Return to One was straightforward.

Internally, Mihawk needed to deepen his mastery of the Breath of All Things or improve his understanding of the death within the airflow.

Ideally, he would improve both at the same time.

The more clearly he perceived the lines of death within the air, the more slashes he could create and combine. At the same time, reducing the strain caused by the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception would lessen the technique’s side effects.

If he accomplished that, he would no longer have to worry about exhausting himself after using Return to One only once.

External improvement depended on strengthening his body and increasing the number of Ranged Slashes he could produce and layer together.

There was also one more aspect he needed to improve.

His sword-drawing technique.

The faster Mihawk could draw and swing his sword, the more slashes he could perform within the same amount of time.

However, Mihawk had already mastered ordinary sword-drawing techniques ten years ago, and his skill in that area was anything but shallow.

Before awakening the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, he had killed most of his enemies with a single draw of his sword.

If he wanted to surpass his current level, ordinary training methods would no longer be enough.

For that reason, Mihawk began practicing his sword draw while blindfolded.

It was not simply a matter of drawing the sword as quickly as possible. He also needed precise control over the strength and speed of every strike while learning to draw and attack several times within a single second.

He divided the training into three stages.

The first stage focused on increasing his speed.

The second focused on improving his accuracy.

The third was applying everything he had learned in actual combat.

Even then, sword-drawing practice was only one of the most effective ways to improve the external foundation of Return to One.

If Mihawk wanted Return to One Swordsmanship to reach the same degree of completion as his Killing Sword, he still had a long way to go.

In other words, he had returned to the fundamentals and begun building the technique from the ground up.

Mihawk continued practicing his sword draw until ten o’clock that night.

Before he could finish, however, another presence appeared inside the dojo and interrupted his training.

Mihawk removed his blindfold and turned toward Saeko, who had entered alone.

“You came at the right time. Go and bring your bokken and the sword I gave you.”

“Yes, Sensei!”

Saeko nodded eagerly before turning and leaving the dojo.

Less than a minute later, she came jogging back with both weapons held in her arms.

Mihawk took the white-oak bokken from her.

He gave it a light swing before calmly stating, “It’s 101.5 centimeters long and weighs roughly seven hundred grams. With the natural durability of white oak, it would make a useful self-defense weapon in your era without being treated as a real sword.”

Saeko’s eyes widened slightly.

Mihawk had determined the bokken’s measurements and material after examining it for only a moment.

His eyesight and familiarity with swords were both extraordinary.

Sensei’s mastery of swordsmanship truly stood at a level she could barely comprehend.

After giving his assessment, Mihawk looked at Saeko.

“I haven’t had time to properly speak with you over the past two days. Now that you’re here, I’ll see how strong your foundation in swordsmanship is.”

“Yes!”

Saeko responded loudly, unable to conceal her excitement.

Mihawk took several steps back and pointed the bokken toward her.

“Come. I’ll assess you through actual combat.”

Saeko gripped the bamboo sword Mihawk had given her and assumed her stance.

Mihawk stared at her with his red eyes.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to hold back. Use the real blade. At your current level, you couldn’t cut a single hair from my head.”

Without another word, Mihawk coated the white-oak bokken in Armament Haki, ensuring that it would not be accidentally severed.

“Yes, Sensei!”

Saeko swung the bamboo sword through the air.

A cold gleam flashed across its surface as it transformed into a real sword.

The sight created a striking contrast between past and present. Mihawk had once used that weapon as his first sword, and now his student stood before him wielding its true blade.

“Sensei, I’m coming!”

Whoosh!

Saeko rushed toward Mihawk and swung the sword as decisively as she would have swung a practice weapon.

More than ten years of training took over the moment she attacked. For an instant, she forgot both the true nature of the weapon in her hands and how terrifyingly powerful the opponent before her was.

The atmosphere inside the dojo changed.

Saeko’s movements carried a sharp intensity that an ordinary person in this world could never have possessed.

Mihawk frowned slightly and raised the bokken to meet her descending strike.

Boom!

The force of the collision sent Saeko stumbling backward until she fell heavily onto the floor.

“Ugh—!”

Despite being thrown back, Saeko never released her grip on the sword.

The faint displeasure that had appeared on Mihawk’s face immediately faded.

Saeko’s beautiful face flushed with embarrassment as she awkwardly rose to her feet.

In the end, only two days had passed since she met Mihawk. Even after encountering zombies and traveling to another world, she had not yet had enough time to truly adjust to everything she had witnessed.