One Piece Swordsman's Heart - Chapter 16

Vir walked down the empty corridor, lost in thought. He pondered why he had developed such a twisted personality. Was it the environment? No, he hadn’t experienced any significant trauma. Perhaps there was always a demon inside him, and coming to this new world had unleashed it. Free from his past restraints, he had released his true self, no longer wearing a mask to live.

Thinking about this, Vir smiled. Although he couldn’t say he was free, his heart certainly was. He did what he wanted, and thought what he wanted.

It didn’t take long for Vir to find the target’s daughter’s room on the third floor.

Entering the room, he found it painted in soft pink hues with a large bed in the middle. A pink-haired girl was huddled on the bed, trembling.

The closer Vir got, the more violently she shook.

“Are you here to kill me? Please, don’t hurt us. My father can give you money, a lot of money. Just don’t hurt us. We haven’t done anything wrong,” the girl stammered, thinking Vir was just a robber like the ones she’d heard about before.

“That’s not possible anymore. Your father is already dead. As for your mother, she likely tried to escape but was probably caught by my senior sister. She’s likely dead as well. Now, it’s just you. You have thirty seconds to say your last words,” Vir said coldly, looking at the innocent girl.

The girl hadn’t done anything wrong. The fault lay with her father, who was involved in the slave trade—a business not only morally wrong but also illegal and extremely dangerous. Being rich without power was perilous in this world where strength ruled.

“Can you bury me with my parents? I can tell you where the family’s treasure is,” the girl said, mustering all her courage after hearing about her parents’ deaths. Her once lively eyes turned dull.

“Sure. Goodbye—or rather, farewell forever,” Vir said as he slashed her throat. He didn’t cut her into pieces as he usually did for some reason.

Blood gushed from her throat, and she fell lifelessly onto the bed, her pink hair spreading out like a blooming rose, soon to wither.

Vir collected the treasures from the basement, including gold, silver jewelry, antiques, and some Beli. He then headed to find his senior sister, assuming the target’s wife couldn’t have escaped through the front gate since Vir had entered that way.

Before reaching the back gate, he heard a woman’s screams from a distance. Approaching closer, he saw his senior sister using a curved knife to skin a middle-aged woman alive. The woman’s body, except for her face, was already flayed, and she begged for death to end her hellish agony.

It was Vir’s first time witnessing someone being skinned alive, something he had only heard about before. Intrigued, he watched with great interest.

Seeing her junior brother arrive, the senior sister guessed he had completed his task. Noticing his interest in her actions, she asked, “Do you want to learn? I can teach you. My torture techniques are quite advanced in the East Blue.”

“Sure. If I encounter uncooperative people, I’ll use your techniques on them,” Vir replied, eager to learn this new skill.

As the two discussed their methods with the tortured woman screaming in front of them, their senior brother, Roy, arrived.

“Hey, junior, did you experience some trauma as a child, like having your family massacred or something? You’re too brutal. Apart from that girl, I haven’t seen a single intact body. What’s with this hobby?” Roy said, exasperated.

It was his first mission with his junior brother, and he realized that Vir was as twisted as his wife, who had been traumatized into this behavior. But Vir seemed naturally inclined to such brutality.

“Of course, it’s a hobby of mine. It started because my lightning ability made my slashes too powerful. Eventually, I got used to it,” Vir replied nonchalantly while focusing on learning from Ann.

“You’re already twisted enough. Why learn torture techniques? Let’s go and report back to Master,” Roy said, turning towards the inn, seemingly tired.

Vir and Ann could only follow. Before leaving, Vir buried the unknown girl with her parents, fulfilling her final wish.

A few days later, the brothers returned to the dojo and reported their mission to their master. Roy specifically mentioned Vir’s habit of cutting people into pieces, leaving Master Ryugyo at a loss for words. He thought to himself, “As expected, this kid isn’t a saint either.” But he didn’t say anything.

Thus, Vir continued his daily training and occasional missions. Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

In those three years, Vir became accustomed to killing. He also learned many torture techniques from Ann. If someone disobeyed, he’d show them what pain worse than death felt like.

One day, his master approached him seriously, saying he might have reached the stage of cutting through iron.

Throughout numerous life-and-death missions, the most dangerous was against a Devil Fruit user. This opponent could transform his entire body into spears, regrowing them at will as long as his stamina held out. These spears could even bend like snakes. In the end, Vir used Swallow Return to decapitate him, narrowly avoiding a fatal strike to his heart. He felt the cold touch of death that day.

Since then, Vir had a strange feeling. Aside from a few materials like diamonds or very hard metals, he could sense the essence of objects. This sensation grew clearer over the days, transforming from a vague feeling to a distinct perception.

That day, his master confirmed it. “Cutting through iron involves sensing the breath of steel and then cutting it.”

Casually picking up a sword, Vir sliced a large steel plate in half, officially reaching the level of cutting through iron.

Finally, after years of training, he had achieved this milestone. The next stage involved cutting even harder substances, like seastone or diamonds.

Just as he celebrated this achievement, he received a new mission. This time, it was special.

Unlike previous missions involving one or three people, the entire dojo—including his master—was mobilized.

Curious, Vir asked his master why.

“The enemy this time is the one responsible for making your senior brother despondent and your senior sister cruel—the ‘Stuart’ family. A family that hides like rats but has finally been found.”

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