Shadow of Your Style

"Spare with me."

"Ah, Zoro-san, you're not fully recovered yet! You should rest," Brook replied to the request, more a demand really, from the swordsman lazing on the deck beside him with barely a pause in his music.

Zoro had only woken from his sacrifice on Thriller Bark two days ago and he was managing walking around the ship alright, but he was stiff and the ship's young doctor seemed rightly worried for him in Brook's eyes (not that he had any, yohohoho).

"I'm fine," Zoro insisted. "Come on."

"We really shouldn't. Chopper-san was quite clear on how you should be resting," Brook reminded the young man, hoping the youngest's earlier threat of mummification if the swordsman was caught pushing himself would put the idea to rest for now.

"We'll be quick," Zoro decided with a nod, getting to his feet.

Brook actually stopped playing and sat up straight, tilting his head up just a bit to look the younger pirate in the eyes. "Zoro-san, you are still severely hurt from what you did. I will not add to that injury nor reopen any of it just because you are bored with resting."

Brook's tone was firm and left little to no room for argument and for once Zoro could see how the skeleton had once been the highest authority on that large, old ship they found him on.

"It's not 'cause I'm bored," Zoro mulishly replied. Brook's head tilted the slightest bit and it took Zoro a moment to realize that it was his equivalent to a raised eyebrow. "I wanna see your sword style."

"You've already seen it when you fought my zombie, "Brook dismissed as he started playing again, a sign that he believed the argument over.

"No, that was a cheap imitation. Ryūma didn't even use the same kind of sword as you," Zoro refuted with a stubborn shake of his head, a hand resting on Shusui's hilt.

Brook stopped playing again with a sigh. It was now clear that Zoro would not drop this, not until he got his measure of Brook's sword style. Brook supposed it made sense in a way. If Zoro was to be the world's greatest swordsman, he would naturally need to be knowledgeable of many different sword styles, able to effectively counter them and even use at least the basics of them.

"How about a compromise?" he suggested. "You will sit here and rest, per doctor's orders, and I will do some drills and forms."

Zoro considered for a moment. "Fine, but we will spare later."

"Of course, Zoro-san," Brook easily agreed. "After you've recovered."

Zoro sat back down next to Brook's violin and watched, comparing as best he could Brook's swordsmanship with his short experience against Ryūma. And like he knew it would be, Brook's style was different. It was the same concepts, the same moves, but the execution of it was all too revealing of Moria's incompetency with placing shadows in a zombie that would most benefit the shadow's style.

The body of Ryūma was more powerful, his flying rendition of Aubade Coup Droit was proof enough when Brook had admitted to never achieving that, but that power clashed with the pure speed Brook, and thus his shadow, based his fighting around. Seeing Brook's skill now, Zoro could tell that Ryūma had compensated for lacking speed with superior power. Ryūma had been a touch slower than Brook, he had flesh to weigh him down, so his parries had been stronger, more than capable of bouncing back and disrupting the rhythms of someone as light as Brook, basically erasing the speed difference by adding to Brook's recovery time.

Ryūma was also built differently than Brook. The samurai zombie was shorter and broader, not that that was difficult, so his attacks had to be aimed differently and lacked the lanky musician's reach. Brook's height saw to it that he was almost always facing down his enemies literally, which meant that Ryūma had to learn to adjust his aim upward to hit the same points. How the muscles, or whatever the hell Brook had in the place of muscles, would be employed in the strikes were different because of that, not to mention that Ryūma's body was conditioned for a different sword style in the first place.

And their reach, that was certainly a difference. Brook's reach was nearly twice as long since his arms were longer and his shikomizue was longer than Shusui as well. For a person of average height to score a hit, they would have to maintain a strong guard or move incredibly fast to get in close without taking a hit themselves first. Actually, the easiest way to negate Brook's reach would be to knock him off balance or at least open his guard up before charging in. Which actually wasn't that easy when Brook's style generally avoided contests of strength via locking blades, favoring the more subtle art of redirection and parries for a guard instead. Add in that the average step back for Brook was two steps forward for his enemy and there was a lot of chasing the musician to get in close.

Zoro was sure now that Moria had done both Ryūma and Brook a disservice. Ryūma had been animated with a sword style that ill-suited him and his legend, not that Zoro should complain. He was pretty strong anyways, but as someone aiming to be the world's best, Zoro would have preferred a real taste of a legendary swordsman, not a shorter man's power version of a tall man's speed style. Meanwhile Brook was defeated by a bastardized version of his own carefully honed sword style all because his enemy had such a vastly superior physical strength.

Zoro knew that Brook would never be a master of the sword, his life (death?) was music, not the blade, but he was skilled anyway. Zoro could appreciate the work put into creating such an accurate and speedy style that adjusted for the general height difference Brook had to face.

After a while Brook finished his drills and reclaimed his seat and violin. "So?"

Zoro didn't look at him, just closed his eyes and leaned back some more, enjoying the soft tune Brook had started.

"Ryūma definitely only had a shadow of your style."

Brook laughed at the joke and Zoro just smirked.


Author's Note

Yeah, so I decided to explore some of the differences that Brook and Ryūma would have because unless the builds are really similar there would totally be a noticeable difference between two people using the same basic style. And it should be really noticeable when Brook is a few inches short of three feet taller than Ryūma (he and Zoro should be roughly the same size since Shusui is properly sized for both), not to mention the whole speed vs. power thing. Seriously, Moria is a bit of an idiot matching Brook to Ryūma. The only thing they have in common is that their main weapon is a single sword and it's not even the same type of sword! Oh well, all's well that ends well.