The clang of steel was the only prayer Zoro knew. Sweat stung his eyes, his muscles screamed, and his world had narrowed to the girl standing across from him, her wooden sword held steady. Kuina. Two thousand duels. Two thousand losses.
Panting, he pushed himself up from the dojo floor for the two-thousand-and-first time. "Again!"
Kuina didn't smirk. She never did. Her dark eyes were solemn as she lowered her practice blade. "It's pointless, Zoro."
"What's pointless is you giving up before I beat you!" he shot back, hefting his own sword.
"I'm not giving up on today," she said, her voice quiet but cutting through the humid air. "I'm giving up on forever." She turned away, looking out at the setting sun painting the hills gold. "Father says it's biology. As I get older, you'll get stronger. I'll fall behind. Because I'm a girl."
The words landed like a physical blow. Zoro stared at her back, the straight line of her shoulders that had thrown him, disarmed him, humbled him every single day.
"I wish I'd been born a boy," she whispered, the confession hanging in the air, fragile and devastating.
Rage, hot and sudden, erupted in Zoro's chest. He stomped forward, spinning her around to face him. "Don't you dare say that!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "You don't get to complain! Not after you've beaten me two thousand times! Every bruise, every loss… you saying that is like spitting on all of it! On *my* work!"
Kuina's eyes widened, not in fear, but in shock at his fury.
His hands were fists at his sides. "If you want to be the best, then *be the best*. Man, woman… what does it matter to a sword?"
A long silence stretched between them, filled with the echoes of their clashes. Then, a fierce, determined light ignited in Kuina's eyes. She extended her hand, not for a handshake, but as a vow. "Then let's promise. One of us. The greatest swordsman in the world."
Zoro gripped her hand, his small, calloused fingers locking with hers. "It'll be me."
"No," she said, a real smile finally touching her lips. "It'll be me."
***
The next day, the dojo was silent. Not the peaceful quiet of meditation, but a thick, suffocating stillness. Zoro found his sensei staring blankly at a wall, his face ashen.
"Where's Kuina? We have a duel," Zoro demanded, his promise still burning in his heart.
The old man didn't look at him. His voice was a hollow rasp. "Gone. A fall… down the stone stairs. A tragic accident."
*No.* The word was a stone in Zoro's gut. He ran, feet pounding on the wooden floors, bursting into the back room. There, on a low table, lay a small, sheet-draped form.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be.
He stumbled forward. "Kuina?" he called, his voice too loud in the deathly hush. He yanked the cloth back. Her face was pale, peaceful, and utterly, terribly still.
The world tilted. His promise shattered.
"You liar!" he screamed at her lifeless body, tears of fury and despair blurring his vision. "You promised! You ran away! You left me here alone!"
Sobs wracked his small frame. The future they'd sworn to fight for had been stolen by a stupid flight of stairs. Grief hardened into something cold and unbreakable. He wiped his face roughly on his sleeve and marched back to her father.
"Give me her sword," Zoro commanded, his voice no longer that of a child.
"Zoro…"
"Give it to me!" The shout echoed in the silent dojo. "I will become the greatest. For both of us. I'll carry our dream. So give me the sword!"
The sensei, seeing the fire of a lifetime's dedication in the boy's wet eyes, silently nodded.
***
**Present. Marine Base, Shells Town.**
The memory of that cold, still face superimposed over the grinning, rubbery one in front of him.
"Join my crew!" Luffy beamed, as if he weren't surrounded by a hundred Marines with rifles aimed at their hearts.
Zoro, bound and bleeding, tasted iron and defeat. Death was here. He'd failed. The promise to Kuina would die on this filthy plaza.
"Fire!" Captain Morgan bellowed.
A wall of smoke and lead erupted. Zoro braced for the impact.
It never came.
Instead, a straw-hatted idiot leaped in front of him, arms spread wide. *THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!* The bullets struck Luffy's chest… and bounced away, pinging off into the dirt.
A collective gasp sucked the air from the plaza. The Marines stared, dumbfounded.
"See?" Luffy grinned, turning back to Zoro as if he'd just performed a neat card trick. "So, join my crew!"
In that surreal, impossible moment, Zoro made a choice. A criminal's life was better than a dead man's failure. "Fine… I'll join you." The words were a key, turning in the lock of his destiny.
"Devil Fruit!" Morgan roared, understanding dawning. "He's not human! Take them down with blades!"
As Luffy fumbled with the ropes, a wave of marines surged forward, swords gleaming under the sun. Koby, who had fainted at the gunfire, chose that moment to wake up. "Luffy! Zoro! Look out!"
The ropes fell away. Luffy shoved three familiar hilts into Zoro's waiting hands. The weight of Wado Ichimonji—*Kuina's sword*—settled in his mouth. The other two filled his palms.
Freedom. And with it, a storm.
The charging Marines met a whirlwind of steel. *SHING! SHING! SHING!* In a blink, a dozen blades were locked, trapped by Zoro's three. He stood at the center, a statue of controlled violence, his gaze promising extinction.
"Move," Zoro growled, the word vibrating around Wado's hilt, "and you die."
Terror, raw and pungent, filled the air. Marines wept, their courage dissolving.
"I've already said I'll join you," Zoro stated, eyes never leaving the cowering soldiers. "After this, the World Government will brand me a criminal. But hear my conditions, pirate. My goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman. If your dreams ever get in the way of mine… I'll leave. Or I'll kill you."
Luffy's answer was a wide, unshakable grin. "Great!"
"You fools! Attack! Kill them both!" Morgan screamed, his axe-hand glinting.
"Zoro," Luffy said, his tone shifting. "Duck."
Zoro dropped. Luffy's leg became a blur. "Gomu Gomu no…"
The Marines, their swords still locked with Zoro's, had a split second to realize their peril.
***"…WHIP!"***
A rubbery leg scythed through the air, not at Zoro, but at the *handles* of the Marines' trapped swords. The impact was catastrophic. The force traveled up the locked blades, vibrating into the Marines' arms, shoulders—
A chorus of sickening *crunches* and agonized shrieks tore through the plaza as wrists and arms snapped from the transferred force. Swords clattered to the ground, followed by men writhing in pain.
"CAPTAIN!" one soldier wailed, cradling a bent arm. "We can't… we can't defend the base! Our swords are useless!"
Morgan's face purpled with apocalyptic rage. He hefted his giant axe-hand, his eyes locking not on Luffy, but directly on the still-kneeling Zoro, who was wide open.
"ENOUGH!" Morgan roared, and with a speed belying his size, he launched himself across the plaza, the massive axe-blade aimed not to capture, but to cleave Zoro in two. "YOU DIE FIRST, PIRATE SCUM!"
The shadow of the axe fell over Zoro, and Luffy was too far away.
**TO BE CONTINUED…**