Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Arrival
"Shimotsuki Village? ah, you mean the 'Swordsmen' Village'?"
"Swordsmen Village?"
"Yeah, that what most people know it as, that village is filled with swordsmen, it's said that it's because there is a dojo located in the village that have a very strong swordsman heading over it, and the bar for entry is low, so alot of the village children inrole in that dojo and a lot of swordman came out of it"
'Hm? that dojo must be Shimotsuki Dojo that trained zoro, and the strong swordman that is heading over it must be Koushirou'
"So can you take me there?"
"Yes, actully, it's not that far away from here, it happens that we are heading to that island on our next stop so you lucked out, we shouldn't take more than a week to get there"
"Right now you should go rest, what was a child you're age doing to get injurys like that? go lay down and don't over do it"
Simon said that while glancing at the bandages around Hotaru's shoulder and chest.
"Yes, sir"
With that, Hotaru went to a small room that was assigned to him to take a very needed rest, because tomorrow he intended on start training again, and being tired will only hinder his training.
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Waking up, Hotaru saw the sun was starting to rise up, signaling the start of a new day.
So, Hotaru got out of bed and went to the shared bathroom of the ship to prepare for today, since it had been more than a week since he last trained and he was still injured he intended on keeping it simple.
So he started doing the same training regime he had been doing for the last 2 years, just with a lower intensity than normal since he didn't want the risk of having his wounds getting worst and delay him more of his training.
"So that's why you want to go to Shimotsuki Village, you're a swordman, and by the look of it a very talented one!"
Doing his sword training, Hotaru was to absorbed in his training to notice someone watching him, which was also a sign of lack of concentration on his part, since the person who snuck up on him was Simon, who was a normal person without any training.
"Yeah, I've been training with the sword for 2 years now"
"And you became this good? that dojo will gonna be thrilled to have you!"
"Why? didn't you say there were a lot of swordman there?"
"I never said they were good, they know how to swing a sword but most of them lack the talent to actully be good at it, altough I'm not a swordman myself, with my 40 years of working as a merchant I've seen alot of swordsman, and I can say I have a slight experience and I'm capable of telling if someone is talented or not, and I can tell that you do"
"Anyway, I'm not gonna annoy you more, so I'm gonna leave you to you're training, and go beat some sense into my still sleeping crew, having an injured child wake up earlier than them is embarrassing, and it shows how lazy they truly are!!"
"haha..."
Laughing awkwardly while Simon stomped back into the ship, Hotaru felt bad forthe crew that was probably gonna get a good beating from Simon.
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Looking at the island slowly getting closer to them, Hotaru marveled at how fast this week went by.
He had spent all week training, and if he wasn't training he was resting to recover as fast as possible, and in the process he talked and befreinded most of the people on the ship, since they traveled alot, everyone of them had a diffrent story to tell, so he didn't feel the week passing by.
Slowly the ship got closer to the island harbor before it docked in one of the harbor's empty slots.
Getting of the ship, Hotaru had to admit, while being on a ship was nice, nothing beat the feeling of standing on solid ground.
"Oi, kid"
Turning to look at who was calling him, Hotaru saw Simon walking over with a teenager who was carrying a katana on his hip.
"This is Cassius, he is going to Shimotsuki Village, I talked to him and he's willing to take you with him"
Observing the young man, Horaru found him to be an 13-year-old looking guy standing at 160 cm tall with black hair and black eyes, his strength was also nothing special, so Hotaru wasn't worried he might try something since he could beat him.
"Hi my name Hotaru Haganezuka, nice to meet you"
"I'm Cassius Steelgrave, nice to meet you too, so why are you going to Shimotsuki Village?"
"I heard there are a very good dojo there and I would like to enroll"
"oooh, really? I'm in that dojo too, hehe, thats good, most of the students there are between 7-10 years old, so most of them are still children, it'll be a nice change to have a person of the same age around"
"Actully, Hotaru is also 10 years old"
"What??"
Turning from Simon to Hotaru, Cassius looked him up and down, inspecting him with his mouth and eyes wide open.
"B-But you're my height!!"
"Ahaha, well, what can I say, I'm fast grower"
'What do you want me to do? blame the screwed up one piece genes!'
"Sigh~, I though I could finally have someone my age around, their all either way older or much younger than me"
"Well, I'm about to rent a horse from a shop nearby, since you are this big it won't fit both of us and I only have money for one so you're gonna have to bay for yourself"
"Yeah, I have money so you don't need to worry"
"Good, I'm ready to go when you are"
"Ok then let's go now, goodbye uncle Simon, and tell the guys again that I said goodbye"
"Bye, kid take care of yourself"
Walking behind Cassius, Hotaru observed the scenrey around, this was the first time for him outside the island so he was curious about a lot of stuff, but after 5 minutes Hotaru couldn't help but ask and strike up a conversation to break the silence.
"So how far away is this place?"
"We'll reach there in about 5 minutes"
"Do they just give people hourses?
"No, they rent them"
"Yeah, but how do they make sure the horses don't get stolen?"
"It's actully simple, they are a family company with one stable withing each village, they vary in size depending on that villages demands, the more it is the bigger and more horses they have, and near each village entrence there are a booth that a person stand there and watch the entring horses their aren't a lot of horses on the island since most villagers don't travel around the island so its of no use"
"They marked their horses with a special sign that only the workers recognize, and when they see it and if the person using the hourse try to enter without returning it, they stop them and take it back, and if they want to continue traveling with it they pay again since the price only include one trip"
"And it works?"
"Well nobody tried to figure out what the sign is just to steal the horse since most of them don't need it, I'm not saying it didn't happen but they earn a lot more than the costs of losing a single horse once in a while"
"Hmm..."
"It's not perfect but it's better than nothing, right? oh we already arrived"
Looking at the big stable infront of him, Hotaru followed Cassius inside and payed a certain amount of Berrys to rent a horse.
"It's gonna take us 5 hours to get there, so you might as well make yourself comfortable"
And with that they finally set off.
----
"We arrived!"
Observing the village getting closer, the designs instantly attracted his attention, the building decoration were in a japanese style which he didn't expect to see in the east blue, but he loved that type of designs so it was a welcomed surprise.
"Come on, we need to return the horses"
Following Cassius to a booth on the side of the village's entrance, Hotaru handed his hourse to the worker that was in the booth and followed Cassius into the village.
"The dojo isn't far from here it'll only take a couple of minutes walking"
Walking for a couple of minutes, what appeared was a big fence surronding a building with a yard, and on top of the fence there was a sign hangging there with the words " Isshin Dojo".
Cassius Knocked on the door and then they heared a sound of hurried footstep rushing to the door, before the door opened.
Creak~
What appeared was a girl that looked to be around 8 years old, she had short dark blue hair and large, dark eyes, she stared at Hotaru with questioning look before she saw Cassius and her face looked like she recognized him.
"Cassaius-san you're back, but who is this guy with you?"
"Hey, kuina-chan, this is Hotaru-san and he wants to join the dojo, so I borught him with me to meet Koushirou sensei and enroll into the dojo"
Raising an eyebrow at Cassius, Kuina gave Hotaru a skiptical look, and fully opened the door that have only been half open.
"Most people join the dojo when they are still 8-10 years old, how old are you? 13? 14 years old? I think it's a little to late for you"
"Well, Kuina-chan, actully Hotaru is only 10 years old"
"What?"
Kuina's eyes shot wide open, she turned to look at Hotaru with a surprised look on her face.
"But you're as tall as Cassius, and he's 13, how can you only be 10!!"
"Ahaha, this how I am"
'I TOLD YOU BLAME THE STUPID ONE PIECE GENETICS!'
Seeing the all to familiar reactipn from kuina, Hotaru wondered when will people stop asking him the same questions.
"Ok, then come on in, my father is in the training room finshing up the students training, let's go there and he'll deiced if you join or not, but I don't think he'll make it easy for you since our enrollment period had ended, and you're too late to register"
"oh, I don't mind, I'll think I'll be okay"
Saying that with a smile Hotaru followed kuina to the building, he followed Kuina and Cassius example and took off his shoes before entering, he then walked down the hallway.
HAA, HAA, HAA
Hearing shouts coming from one room, Hotaru shortly arrived to that room where a bunch of children were swinging bambo sword, and infront of them stood two people: one man and one teen.
The man had black hair tied back in a long ponytail, his face was wrinkled and he wore glasses with circular frame.
The boy had black hair and black eyes, he was about 170 cm tall, he also had a small scar above his left eye, he was standing infront of the other children swinging his sword as if to showcase how to the children.
"Hm?"
The man turned around when he noticed Hotaru and the others entering the room, he raised his hand signaling for the children to stop what they were doing.
"Ah, Cassius you're back, but who's the kid with you?"
"Father, that kid wants to join the dojo"
When Cassius was about to answer the guy question, Kuina beat him to it and recounted to the man their previous conversation.
"Hm? aren't you a little to old to join now?"
"Sigh~, I'm 10 years old~"
"Really?"
Nodding to the man who he gussed was Koushirou since Kuina refered to him as her father, Hotaru couldn't help but release a resigned sigh, giving up at the hope of someone gussing his real age.
"Well, Hotaru was it? unfortunately, you are a little too late, our enrollment period have just closed up a week ago, and the next one is a year from now"
"Is there really nothing you can do??"
Asking that with a pleading tone, Hotaru felt a little unwilling to leave just like that without even trying out for the dojo.
"hmmmm, Sachiyo come here"
"Yes, sensei"
Calling out to the boy who was leading the children before, the kid Sachiyo came running when Koushirou called him.
"Hotaru-kun this is Sachiyo, currently his our best student, he can even hold his own weight even fighting boys older than himself, I'll test you, you'll fight Sachiyo, I'm not asking you to beat him, but if you are able to hold on for 5 minutes then I'll allow you to join the dojo"
'Isn't he understmating me?'
By this point, all the approximately 20 children in the room were watching their conversation, and from the looks of it he's gonna have to fight the kid if he wanted to enter the dijo and for Koushirou to help him train.
"Fine"
"Good, then pick up a sword from the barrel over there"
Hotaru followed Koushirou instructions, grabbed a bambo sword, then payed respect to the gods and stood in the center of the room that all the children have emptyed the space and were sitting around to watch the fight.
"Are you both ready?"
"Yes"
"Sigh~, yeah"
Sachyio Responded enthusiastically، while Hotaru lazily responded.
"Okay began"
"Here I come, HAAAA~"
Sachiyo started to yell before he started running at Hotaru, which made Hotaru eyebrows twitch with annoynce.
'so loud'
Swish
Suddenly Hotaru disappeared from Sachiyo vision, before he reappeared behind him delivering a fast blow to the back of his neck knocking him out cold.
"Is that all?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone