Oh please, hes been doing this for a while. Last few chapters he was either sleeping or watching the others fight untill Monet came into the picture and that was after his speech to Luffy.
I'll wait to see the the rest of the fight before judging Zoro though, I'd hate to think he doesn't want to fight a girl same way Sanji does things now. I'd like to think Zoro would fight girls all out like Luffy would. I like the other idea of him not being able to work haki just yet, he might need to train some more.
Zoro never had trouble fighting women, the only instances of that was him holding back from hurting Tashigi because she looks like Kuina.
Pretty sure since Monet looks nothing like her there has to be another reason here. Knowing the way these things are usually done, Zoro simply would have muttered something to himself about not wanting to carve up the building and letting the gas in, and beside not every one of his attacks is a flying slash.
I am guessing it is either some comedic reason, or he has a very good reason for not wanting to hurt Monet specifically.
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i like this idea very much
That only makes sense until Tashigi arrives at the scene and immediately draws blood from Monet.
So either Zoro's haki is supposed to be inferior to Tashigi's, or that theory is plain wrong.