Demon Slayer Virgil [Isekai One Piece]

"Shave! Finger Pistol!"

Accompanying the shout of a Six Powers technique name from a candidate on one of the circular platforms, his figure flashed and instantly disappeared from his original spot, leaving only a wisp of dust swirling near his feet.

His female opponent across from him revealed a trace of surprise on her face when faced with this sudden move. She hurriedly placed the long blade in her hands horizontally in front of her chest.

But the male candidate who had disappeared from his original spot suddenly appeared right in front of the female candidate. His right index finger shot out like a bullet.

Ding! Crack! 

The sound of metal colliding rang out as the finger collided with the blade. In the next moment, cracks appeared on the blade.

As the male candidate instantly exerted force with his index finger, more cracks emerged on the blade held by the female candidate. Then her entire person was sent flying backwards.

"The match is decided!"

Accompanying the referee's words, the male candidate emerged victorious. Enthusiastic shouts immediately erupted from the spectator stands.

"Not bad, a decent talent. His mastery of Shave and Finger Pistol from the Six Powers isn't bad."

Sitting atop the building, Sengoku looked at the victorious cadet with a satisfied smile on his face. The others around him nodded in agreement, except for Kuzan who had the face of someone not fully awake.

"He's indeed a good prospect, worth paying more attention to. Who's next?"

While nodding his head in approval, Garp also voiced his praise for this cadet before asking.

"I think it's that recently famous brat next. His name was...Zavia, if I remember right."

Kuzan yawned and tried recalling in his mind for a bit before answering Garp's question.

However, upon hearing the next match was Zavia, Sengoku, Garp, and Zephyr's expressions suddenly froze for a moment, but quickly reverted to normal.

"Oh? What's the matter? Is there something special about this cadet named Zavia?"

Noticing this slight abnormality, Vice Admiral Crane leaned in slightly and quietly asked Garp.

"Erm...Little Crane, I'm not really sure how to answer that question either. Just watch the match later."

Unable to answer, Garp gave Vice Admiral Crane a look signaling her to see for herself during the upcoming match.

Although Vice Admiral Crane felt Garp's reply was a bit strange, due to her understanding of him over the years, she chose not to say anything and returned her gaze back to the arena grounds below.

"Next group."

Accompanying the referee's voice, the two candidates headed onto the circular platform.

One of them had white hair swept back in a haircut. Holding a wooden sword in hand, his handsome face held a trace of an icy sneer, seemingly detached from all things in the world.

This youth was naturally our protagonist—Zavia.

Meanwhile, Zavia's opponent was an ordinary looking male marine with average features. He was the kind of person who would instantly vanish into a crowd.

He also held a blade in hand, but it wasn't a wooden sword like Zavia's and was instead a real sword. Though it wasn't some famous blade, just an ordinary longsword.

This male marine with ordinary looks was currently in a combat stance, solemnly staring at Zavia with his entire body in a fully guarded state.

His name was Moore. He was an youth from a more average family background who had witnessed Garp defeat pirates when he was little. From then on he was determined to join the marines.

Zavia looked at Moore with the eyes of someone long dead, completely devoid of life.

It wasn't that Zavia had lost his life ambitions. He just wanted to rapidly grow stronger, then head out to sea to search for the Demon Core. He didn't want to remain in this prison-like academy anymore.

The current Zavia still wasn't considered very strong. If he met a Warlord level pirate he still wouldn't be able to win because he hadn't learned Armament Haki yet.

Although the Warlords in the original anime/manga seemed to lose face by being defeated by non-Haki users like Luffy, that was purely a main character halo issue.

If speaking truthfully, just the first strong foe Luffy met, Crocodile, would have been enough to deal with Luffy.

Back in Alabasta, Crocodile had an excellent chance to kill Luffy but he didn't know how to follow up properly. Luffy ultimately relied on his protagonist halo to survive and learned of Crocodile's weakness, defeating him.

The key point here wasn't the end result, but Crocodile's first fight with Luffy. Crocodile had the strength to kill Luffy!

It was a pity Crocodile was destined to be defeated to facilitate the main character's growth. Otherwise Luffy would have died long ago back during the Buggy incident.

Of course, Crocodile was used as an example here. If he learned Armament Haki, Zavia was confident he could beat Moria and Crocodile. But as for the other 5 Warlords, Zavia didn't have that confidence.

It wasn't that Zavia was too weak, but even if Zavia learned Armament Haki, in the eyes of the other 5 he would still barely make waves, especially Doflamingo and Hawkeye Mihawk. Victory against them was practically impossible, at least for now.

Back to the present, Zavia looked at Moore before him. Then he glanced up at the 5 judges above before returning his gaze onto Moore.

(How about messing with him a bit?)

Suddenly, this thought emerged in Zavia's mind. He wanted to play around with his opponent a little.

"Begin!"

Just as Zavia was pondering how to toy with his opponent, the referee issued the start command.

Immediately, Moore charged at Zavia. His feet kicked up some dust as he moved fairly quickly, though not blazing fast.

(This is...Shave from the Six Powers? Looks like this guy wants to end things swiftly.)

Although a bit unskilled, Moore was clearly attempting to utilize Shave, the explosive movement technique, from the Six Powers. Zavia noticed all this.

Seeing Moore trying yet failing to properly use Shave due to inexperience, resulting in just faster movement, Zavia gently sighed.

Zavia lightly sidestepped, avoiding Moore's downward chop.

But Moore seemed to have anticipated this. His right foot stomped the ground while his left leg gathered strength as he launched a whip kick at Zavia's side.

(This guy--)

This sudden whip kick exceeded Zavia's expectations a little. In that instant, Zavia's impression of Moore changed slightly.

Grabbing the incoming whip kick, Zavia's hands twisted upwards. Moore's entire person spun in midair before Zavia's side kick sent him flying in a V-shape.

Since Zavia held back some power on that kick, Moore just barely landed at the edge of the platform instead of falling off.

Letting down the left leg he had raised in midair, the lifelessness faded a bit from Zavia's eyes. Interest seemed to flicker within them now.

"Cough!"

Lying on the ground, Moore covered his chest with a hand and let out a heavy cough. Then he wiped the dust off his face and stood back up.

"Could it be...this Zavia was going easy on that marine?"

Sitting at the very top, Sengoku stroked his braided goatee and moustache as he spoke.

"Maybe. Based on his strength, if he had gone all out with that kick, it wouldn't have just ended with a cough."

Among the 5, Garp had the longest interaction time with Zavia. In his perspective, Zavia had definitely held back.

"Is this Zavia really that incredible?" Hearing those two's words, Vice Admiral Crane couldn't help feeling some interest towards Zavia. After all, her two veteran comrades clearly thought highly of him.

"I don't know if he's incredible or not, but I do know his strength is at least Lieutenant Commander level, minimum." Watching Zavia below as he continued exchanging moves with Moore, Garp replied.

"Oh? Now this is...interesting." Hearing this, Kuzan also gained some interest for the first time.

On the arena grounds below, Zavia was constantly dodging Moore's slashes back and forth.

"Che, as expected I still can't injure him huh..." Seeing his attacks continually avoided, frustration showed on Moore's face.

In fact, ever since knowing his opponent was Zavia, Moore had already mentally prepared to lose this match. After all, he had personally gone to watch Zavia's duel with Ross.

But even clearly knowing he would lose, Moore still wanted to try experiencing the disparity between himself and an expert firsthand. Though the cruelty of reality was proven now.

"And he hasn't even used his spatial ability at all. Aside from that kick earlier, he's barely attacked me."

What Moore said was right. Other than that kick earlier, Zavia hadn't launched much offense at Moore.

The earlier faint interest had nearly vanished, reverting his eyes back to their lifeless state.

Zavia had originally believed he could find a novel feeling from Moore, like him being a hidden expert with more up his sleeve than the blade and feet he utilized. Using the feet wasn't something just anyone could think of after all.

"Sigh, turns out you're the same as everyone else."

Jumping back to dodge the horizontal slash, Zavia slowly spoke. His tone contained helplessness.

"!?"

Yet it was this single line from Zavia that instantly shook Moore mentally.

(The same as everyone else? Does he mean I'm just an ordinary person? Have my efforts so far still amounted to less than him?)

Seeing Moore suddenly freeze, Zavia narrowed his eyes and gently sighed again.

Lacking mental fortitude.

This was Zavia's evaluation of Moore. Moore indeed had ample talent. It could be seen from how he utilized Shave from the very start, though not skilled enough yet. But if Zavia hadn't guessed wrong, he had probably only started practicing it recently.

Moreover, Moore would occasionally use degraded versions of Rankyaku during their fight. Clearly showing he belonged to those with higher talent.

It was just that his mental fortitude was lacking. Freezing for 2 seconds from Zavia's line, if this were a true battlefield, those 2 seconds would have been enough for enemies to take his life.

"Sigh, although you have talent, you still don't cut it. Go back and reflect on it more later."

Zavia didn't have the habit of comforting his opponents. To him, enemies should just die! Regardless of gender!

Unknowingly, Zavia was becoming colder. Though he didn't notice this himself. Kicking away the longsword in Moore's hands, it drew a beautiful arc in midair before stabbing neatly into the ground.

Seeing Moore frozen stiff from his earlier words and unable to react in time, Zavia's figure started turning illusory. In the next moment, he appeared behind Moore as a knifehand chop struck the back of Moore's neck.

Moore just fainted like that.

"Winner, Zavia!"