One Piece: Start with Zanpakutō

"Hey! Isn't this Zephyr?"

"I heard you gave up being an Admiral to become a teacher."

"Congratulations! If only you had changed careers sooner, maybe your entire family wouldn't have died so early!"

From one of the cells, a prisoner glanced toward the entrance of Infinite Hell. The moment he saw Zephyr, his expression twisted ferociously, and then he grinned wide. His voice boomed like it was amplified by a loudspeaker, instantly echoing throughout all of Infinite Hell.

"Black Arm Zephyr?"

"I didn't even know your whole family was wiped out."

"I'm sorry! I've been locked up here, so I couldn't attend your family's funeral!"

At that moment—

From another nearby cell, another prisoner joined in with a mocking sneer.

The voice dripped venom, each word like an invisible knife, stabbing straight into the old scar buried deep in Zephyr's heart.

More and more voices followed from other cells.

Listening to the vicious ridicule echoing in his ears, Zephyr's face appeared calm and expressionless, but deep within his eyes, faint ripples flickered.

His family's death—

The deepest, most irreparable wound of his life.

How could he not feel anything when faced with these cruel, humiliating jeers?

Zephyr did not respond.

Before setting foot here, he had already steeled himself.

"Senior, what's going on?"

Rosen's expression did not change, but in his eyes, an icy light quietly ignited.

"Those first two prisoners…"

"They were both captured by Zephyr-sensei back when he was still Black Arm Zephyr."

"As for the rest…"

"After rotting here too long, they just bark along with the pack."

Borsalino, for once, did not tease Zephyr.

No one noticed—

Behind his sunglasses, his eyes had turned deathly cold.

"Teacher Zephyr, are their names on your list?"

Rosen turned and looked at Zephyr calmly.

"Although they are prisoners of the sixth level… they are not worthy of being on my list."

Zephyr's voice was cold as steel.

"Then they have no value as Praticing targets."

Rosen nodded slightly, then slowly spread out his palm. A single strand of hair fell from his head, drifting down to his palm.

His fingers curled.

Snap—

The instant his fingers closed, the hair transformed, lengthening into a sword sheathed in a scabbard, resting quietly in his grasp.

"Ohh… I almost forgot you're a Devil Fruit user."

Borsalino's brows lifted in surprise.

Perhaps because Rosen's mastery of Haki was so monstrous—and because he had never used his fruit power in front of anyone—people often forgot he was a Devil Fruit user at all.

Not only Zephyr.

Even Borsalino had only just remembered.

"Speaking of which…"

"This is actually my first time seeing him use his fruit ability."

"I heard it's the Arms-Arms Fruit… He can turn any part of his body into a weapon."

Zephyr, who had been momentarily lost in the shadows of his past, found his attention sharply pulled back as he saw Rosen's transformation.

After all—

He had never seen Rosen use the power of his fruit, and now his curiosity burned fiercely.

Was Rosen as terrifying in his fruit mastery as he was in Haki Mastery?

"Is this his ability…?"

Shiryu's eyes narrowed, staring at Rosen.

A conjured blade?

It looked rather ordinary at first glance.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

Rosen ignored Zephyr and the others' astonished gazes. He slowly drew the Zanpakutō from its sheath and spoke lightly.

He wasn't talking to anyone else—

But to the blade in his hand.

Clang—

As the words of release fell, a dazzling pink light exploded along the blade. From tip to guard, the entire sword turned a shimmering purple—then shattered layer by layer, scattering into countless cherry blossom-like blades.

Those countless petals roared forth like a violent storm, flooding every corner of Infinite Hell.

"Oi…"

"Little navy brat."

"What do you think you're doing?"

The first prisoner to jeer at Zephyr saw the storm of blades rushing toward him. His expression shifted, but then he sneered in contempt.

"I don't know what your fruit ability is, but sorry—"

"I'm not a Devil Fruit user."

"These seastone shackles can bind my hands and feet, these seastone cells can imprison my body—but they can't chain my pride!"

As the cherry blossom blades swept in, he stood up inside the cell. With a cold snort, he punched forward, sending a visible shockwave blasting the oncoming petals apart.

But—

In the next instant, the scattered blades instantly gathered again, like a spirit serpent shooting from a cave.

Their speed tripled.

In the blink of an eye, they tore through the cell's bars and lunged at the prisoner's face, like a python swallowing its prey whole.

"Damn it!"

The prisoner's expression changed drastically.

With nowhere to run inside the cell, he could only channel Armament Haki, hardening his neck and face, forcibly meeting the incoming blades head-on.

Clang—

As the blades struck his face, sparks exploded, and a harsh screech echoed like metal grating on steel.

At first—

His face was only scratched, seemingly unharmed.

"Is that all?"

"Zephyr, is this your so-called student?"

"At this level, he can't even give me a shave—hahaha!"

Just as he was about to laugh triumphantly, he suddenly felt the countless cherry blossom blades pressing against him explode with a terrifying sharpness—

The next second—

The Haki-hardened skin of his cheeks and neck split apart like paper.

From both cheeks to his chin and neck, deep cuts split open. Through the wounds, you could even see his tongue wriggling inside.

Before he could even react, those countless blades surged down his throat, slicing through his tongue and tearing apart his vocal cords like a meat grinder.

Ssssh!

The petals dispersed.

His mouth, once filled with laughter, now only dripped with blood and emptiness.

The tongue, vocal cords, everything had been minced into pulp, forced down his throat and churned into his stomach.

"Hissss—!"

On the other side, in another cell, the second prisoner who had ridiculed Zephyr suffered the same fate.

Though he also used Armament Haki, before Senbonzakura's blade storm, it wasn't enough. His hardened face and neck split, tongue and vocal cords shredded into bloody paste.

"Hissss—!"

Pain and despair flooded their faces as they let out hoarse, broken hisses—yet they could no longer scream.

"The tongue is for speaking. If you can't speak properly… then don't speak ever again."

Rosen flicked the hilt of his blade lightly.

The countless cherry blossom blades scattered across Infinite Hell soared back, like birds returning to the nest, reassembling and embedding perfectly into the hilt.

It was as if—

The Senbonzakura had never left his hand.

Despite slicing tongues and throats just moments ago, not a single drop of blood stained the blade.

Silent.

Flawless.

...

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