Training. Not the conventional kind. Not what he'd bruised himself for, back on Kuraigana Island. But he's already burned to ash in this place once, his self-discipline and single-minded focus withering to nothing like a Vivre card turned to dust.
When he thinks on it too hard, shame smolders in the pit of Zoro's stomach.
"Corruption," the old-man Hunter — the one who'd bested him — had called it. "Once it invades your bloodstream, that's it. You lose yourself. Someone either pulls you back, or puts you down. I see the look in your eyes, and I know what you're thinking. But I'll tell you right now! There's no brute-forcing your way through that, son. Not on your own."
Because if it was just a matter of willpower...Zoro would have held onto himself. No question, just as there's no doubt about the floor beneath his boots. He'd rather be flayed alive like a fish writhing on a cutting board than turn into a mindless Beast that can't think for itself.
"Didn't expect this whole pony-show scene," he dryly adds, nodding toward the spread of baubles, trinkets and flowers from adoring spectators littering the stage.
no subject
Training. Not the conventional kind. Not what he'd bruised himself for, back on Kuraigana Island. But he's already burned to ash in this place once, his self-discipline and single-minded focus withering to nothing like a Vivre card turned to dust.
When he thinks on it too hard, shame smolders in the pit of Zoro's stomach.
"Corruption," the old-man Hunter — the one who'd bested him — had called it. "Once it invades your bloodstream, that's it. You lose yourself. Someone either pulls you back, or puts you down. I see the look in your eyes, and I know what you're thinking. But I'll tell you right now! There's no brute-forcing your way through that, son. Not on your own."
Because if it was just a matter of willpower...Zoro would have held onto himself. No question, just as there's no doubt about the floor beneath his boots. He'd rather be flayed alive like a fish writhing on a cutting board than turn into a mindless Beast that can't think for itself.
"Didn't expect this whole pony-show scene," he dryly adds, nodding toward the spread of baubles, trinkets and flowers from adoring spectators littering the stage.