"Little brats, hand over your stuff or big bro's gonna beat you up~~"
"You, kid—carrying a sword is dangerous. Let big brother keep it safe for you!"
Seeing only three eight-year-olds in front of them, the gangsters didn't take them seriously at all.
Two thugs, one swinging a chain and the other holding a mace, stepped out of the group. They walked toward El with what they thought were "kind" smiles, threatening him like they were doing everyone a favor.
"Idiots. You should be thanking yourselves—today is your lucky day."
El shook his head and rested his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
With just a thought, Life Return (Seimei Kikan) pushed his strength and bodily control to the limit.
Whoosh—
In the next second, both Nami and Carina at his side, as well as the gangsters in front of him, saw El vanish like a gust of wind.
Some of the men with better reaction speed thought they caught a glimpse of an afterimage—like a streak of light flashing past them.
When El reappeared, he was already standing behind the group of gangsters, his posture that of a swordsman returning his blade to its sheath.
The moment the sword clicked into place—
There was a strange sound, like cloth being quietly torn apart.
The gangsters trembled.
Their tendons and hamstrings had been cut clean through.
And the one who crippled them, of course, was El.
These men had only planned to rob the trio. A few of them had nastier ideas, wanting to sell the three kids to rich perverts. But they hadn't actually considered killing them.
And unlike at sea, here on land, El had other factors to consider.
He had already decided to recruit Nami and Carina. He didn't want the two girls, who had only just stopped being afraid of him, to see him as a brutal, bloodthirsty monster.
So—
For the first time in three years, El chose not to kill.
During his training in the forest, he had always killed with a single clean blow. But now, instead of taking lives, he simply cut their tendons and hamstrings, ensuring that these scum would never again be able to commit evil.
Life Return (Seimei Kikan) allowed El to control his body perfectly. With a single thought, he could raise his speed and strength from zero to the maximum his body could output.
In other words—
As long as his body met the physical requirements and he had a training method, El could theoretically master any martial art in the world with ease.
This perfect control, combined with his terrifying natural sword talent, allowed El to reach a very high level of "cutting" at a young age.
So… what kind of "cutting" could be called an extremely high level?
Is it cutting steel?
Is it releasing flying slashes?
No. Neither of those alone is enough.
Both cutting steel and flying slashes are forms of cutting—they sever things.
A swordsman who can do those things has certainly reached a strong level. But those techniques only show the hard side of cutting, not the soft.
So what is "soft" cutting?
To borrow the words of Zoro's master, Koushirou:
"In this world, there are two kinds of swordsmen… One is a swordsman who can cut anything. The other… is a swordsman who can cut nothing."
When Koushirou said that, he demonstrated by trying to cut a piece of paper with a real sword—and "failed."
That kind of swordsmanship, which looked weaker than a beginner's slash, was actually the highest form of swordsmanship.
This supreme swordsmanship is a fusion of hard and soft.
A swordsman who has reached that realm can cut anything he wants to cut… and leave even a piece of paper unharmed if he doesn't.
Such a person can be called—a Master Swordsman.
Like Koushirou, who swung one of the world's sharpest blades at Zoro and yet didn't split him or even injure him. Like Mihawk, who perfectly controlled every slash, even at his most serious.
They are master swordsmen who have reached the pinnacle, freely combining hardness and softness in each cut.
El dared to say his "cutting" had reached a very high level because he had already grasped this kind of control.
In other words… it was precisely because he had mastered this skill at his age that he could be called a "born swordsman," someone truly favored by the world.
If the range of his Breath of All Things were wider, he would already be at the level of Mihawk and Shanks—able to slice icebergs apart with a single swing, even without Armament Haki.
But as El's body continued to grow, the range of his Breath of All Things would expand as well. Naturally, he would be promoted to a true master swordsman—someone who could choose not to cut even a sheet of paper.
That was why those thugs now lay on the ground with their tendons severed but no visible wounds or spurting blood: El had used a slash that combined hardness and softness, cutting only what he wanted—tendon and muscle—without even breaking the surface of the skin.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH—!!"
The moment their tendons were severed, agony exploded through their bodies. These bullies who only knew how to pick on the weak collapsed.
They rolled across the ground, screaming miserably, unable to stand, unable to even form clear words.
"...Let's go."
With his sword already sheathed, El turned and casually waved to Nami and Carina.
"Ah… o-okay…!"
The two girls, still in a daze, were snapped back to reality by El's voice and answered on reflex.
Then, fully waking up, they nodded frantically, exchanged a look, and ran up to El's side—eyes filled with indescribable shock and excitement.
Under El's heart-reading Observation Haki, their thoughts rang clearly in his mind:
—we've struck gold!
That's right. The thought echoing in Nami and Carina's hearts was simple:
They had found a treasure.Their lives were about to change.
The cyan flying slash from their first meeting…And just now, the speed so fast their naked eyes could barely register even an afterimage—