He had nothing to prove to this kid, nothing at all. Zoro was secure in his strength, all recent weakening aside. Their fight with Sai only strengthened his need to improve himself. After all, he should’ve already reached the point where even a little loss of his strength wouldn’t affect his performance. Even after that big step back, Zoro would have to take leaps forward to catch up to Mihawk. He had to.

Not that that meant he was too good to smack some mouthy little kid on the head. Which he did. Hard.

"Maybe you need to re-think a few things, brat." Zoro growled, putting down one tightly clenched fist.