When he is just a brat, headstrong and foolish, he marches into the Isshin Dojo in Shimotsuki Village and declares,
"I am Roronoa Zoro, and I am the greatest swordsman!"
For all that he wishes it was true, he doesn't actually believe his own words. He knows, however, that the dojo's strongest swordsmen will flock to him immediately.
(One day his words will be truth, and for that to happen he will pick as many fights as he needs to.)
"Greatest, huh? Watch your mouth or that will get you killed, kid."
A boy barely older than him—well, he assumes it's a boy—points a shinai at him in challenge. He grins, anticipating another easy win. He's strong enough to take down adults. What does he have to fear?
The match is over in a second. His opponent's shinai moves quickly and efficiently, and he can't even land a hit. His knees hit the floor, and he hears the boy say mockingly,
"Better luck next time."
He doesn't know that this is the first of many losses, or that his opponent is actually the dojo master's daughter. What he does know is that this is his first real test. If he ever wants to accomplish his dream, he needs to win.
He bows to the man that's been watching him since he charged into the building. He asks to join and gets a smile in return.
...
He can honestly say he hates Kuina. Hates how she rolls her eyes when she thinks she's above something, and how she's quick to cut people down with acidic words. She rebuffs advice given to her and trains by herself.
He can't stand that he constantly loses against someone so awful.
"She's a real bitch," Takao, one of his classmates, says while nursing a bruised arm.
He nods, never questioning why Kuina felt the need to punish the boy through a spar. He just adds it to the mental list of reasons he needs to beat her. He grabs his bamboo swords and starts swinging with renewed determination, ignoring the rest of Takao's complaints.
(He knows Kuina could have broken Takao's arm if she wanted to; that she has her reasons. He's more upset over the fact that she never issues a challenge to him.)
...
Kuina doesn't know his name. He's known that since day one, but it's never really bothered him before. She'll have to acknowledge him after he beats her. That's what he tells himself.
The days go by, and he never defeats her. Not in a duel, a spar, or even with words. His dream has never been farther and out of reach. He just doesn't understand what he's doing wrong.
"You're putting too much energy into your swings and losing control," Kuina tells him one day. "Your left hand is weaker than your right. You need to fix that."
"Shut up," he hisses as his strikes against the training dummy falter.
"Whatever, kid," Kuina says, walking off.
Embarrassed, he roars at her back. He doesn't need her help, doesn't want it. There's nothing wrong with how he's doing things. Come back and face him like a man!
(His name is Zoro. Not kid, not "You" or any variation of it, and it's certainly not boy. Why won't she say it?)
It gets to him, being so weak in the face of someone so strong. He takes every opportunity he sees to fight, to spar. The only one who gives him a challenge besides Kuina is her father. Since his sensei rarely spars with students, he's left with one option.
"Come back later," she says, burrowing her face into a book.
Blood rushes to his ears and he raises a single shinai without thinking. He refuses to let his dream come second to books of all things. Kuina leans back in time, and his shinai misses its mark. He's left staring into furious eyes.
(In retrospect, yeah, he deserved the beating, but as a result, he got a duel with real swords. It was completely worth it.)
...
"I have to learn any way I can. I refuse to be stuck here."
Kuina's smiling face under the moonlight hardly looks happy. He thinks about what life would be like if no one was willing to help him—he has plenty of friends while she has none, it's kind of sad—and knows he'd be grouchy too.
How many people have approached her just to tell her she can't do something? Of course she doesn't give anyone the time of day. She's not training so hard to prove them wrong either; it's so she can leave.
He hears her for the first time since he's met her. He wonders if she'll hear him too.
"I'm Zoro," he tries again, "and I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman."
He holds out a hand and wants to tell her that he'll listen from now on, that she doesn't have to keep him at a distance anymore.
"Kuina," she says, and I am going to fly.
She takes his hand.
...
"There's some good stuff in today," Kuina tells him.
"No there isn't."
He looks over the merchant's table with a critical eye. No swords or exotic food. Just a bunch of junk. Ignoring his disdain, Kuina grabs his arm and pulls him over to the bolts of cloth.
Yeah, that's not happening. His training gi is good enough until he outgrows it. He's also not that good at sewing, so it'd be a waste of money and time.
"Not for you, for me," Kuina says, exasperated.
He doesn't know what's wrong with her normal shirt and shorts, but he crosses his arms and waits as Kuina sifts through the fabric.
The merchant spies her interest and begins making his sale pitch,
"I've got a lovely pink floral one here for a very good price, or how about this blue one with seashells? It's normally expensive, but luckily for you, I got a good deal on it."
Ignoring the man, Kuina pulls out a dark purple bolt with minimal design. It'd make a nice yukata, he thinks. Shame it isn't green.
"This one, please. I'll need all of it."
"That? Are you sure? It's for men," the merchant smiles condescendingly. "Girls should wear something pretty."
He reaches for his bamboo swords only to realize they're at the dojo. He gives the merchant his best glower, but the man doesn't even flinch. Just wait until he's taller.
"I'll take this one too," Kuina says, picking up a bolt of lavender silk.
The merchant's eyes light up and no more words are said. He scowls through the entire purchase, feeling personally wronged. Kuina hefts both bolts over her shoulder and tells him to lighten up.
"You didn't have to buy it!" He growls.
"Why not? I like it. It is pretty. I think I'll make a kimono out of it," Kuina says, and that's that.
He grabs at his hair in frustration. No matter how much he tries, he can never figure her out. He'll never win against her at this rate.
He wants to say that he's only sticking so close to her to find her weakness, or that he just wants to memorize her moves. Truth is hanging out with her is like a breath of fresh air after standing in a stuffy room.
It takes him a long time to figure out, but Kuina is special. It's not because she beats him into the ground consistently, or because of the books she's always carrying around.
Kuina defies everything around her. She doesn't behave like any girl or boy on the island, doesn't care to try to fit in. She won't allow anyone to decide her fate.
Kuina would make a good pirate except for the fact that she'd defy even that. She can't be labeled which makes her interesting.
Speaking of labels, he still doesn't know why she doesn't want to be the greatest swordsman. She's got the strength and the discipline. So he asks.
"I don't care that much. It's just a way out for me. When I leave, I'll probably become a waitress or something," Kuina says as if she's commenting on the weather.
It's a stab of betrayal, and he doesn't talk to her for the rest of the day.
When he looks up at the stars instead of sleeping—maybe looking for something or just being unable to sleep—he comes to a realization.
Kuina is lying. She just doesn't know it.
If it wasn't for Kuina's defiant nature, for her resentment in being forced to wield the sword, she'd be just as passionate as he is. It's in her eyes, in her movements, and in the way she hates to lose.
He'll just have to drag that passion out, he decides, even if it means gaining a rival for the world's greatest swordsman.
...
"You're hanging out with that bitch all the time. You tryin' to get on Sensei's good side?"
He opens his eyes and considers today's meditation exercise yet another failure. He barely understands it, but meditation is supposed to make him better at fighting.
"Hey!"
Really, how is clarity of mind supposed to do anything? Sensei keeps saying it'll help with his temper and fighting techniques, but it feels an awful lot like napping to him.
"Don't ignore me, Zoro!"
He grabs Takao by the ankle and pulls the boy down. He cracks his elbow against Takao's shin, and slams a shinai into the boy's throat to silence his scream.
"You want to try saying that again?" He asks calmly.
Hm, perhaps there is something to this meditation thing. He'll have to experiment later. Right now, he needs to take out the trash.
...
"Zoro, if you were given an amazingly awesome sword, what would you do with your other katana?" Kuina asks him one day.
"I'll wield three swords," he replies immediately. "I have teeth."
He keeps lifting weights as Kuina begins laughing so hard she pounds a fist against the ground. They ignore the other students giving them odd looks.
"Knew you'd say that," she gasps, "you get so attached."
He grunts something unflattering, and she pulls down an eyelid while sticking her tongue out.
Kuina keeps looking out to the sea, and he doesn't like it. She laughs now when they spar, and he's so close to getting her to admit she's having fun.
He still hasn't won against her even one time. She can't leave until he's beaten her, has made her say she wants to be the greatest swordsman too.
(He doesn't want to go back to breathing in stuffy air. He's too attached.)
...
The dojo master, Koshiro, asks to meet with him, and he ends up in Sensei's house, kneeling on a tatami mat. He fidgets, not knowing what to expect. He hopes that Takao didn't suddenly decide to snitch—Takao deserved the beat down.
Sensei sits across from him, smiling like always. Even so, the room feels heavy for some reason.
"My daughter has made a request," Sensei says.
"A request?" He blinks.
"For the Wado Ichimonji to be given as her dowry to the world's greatest swordsman."
He doesn't understand even as Sensei gets up to retrieve the sword. When the sword is presented to him, the only thing he can do is stare.
"She wants you to have it. She believes you have what it takes to wield Wado Ichimonji," Sensei tells him gently.
A dowry is when girls marry, right? So then the significance of giving the sword to him means—
He feels his brain freeze even as Wado Ichimonji finds its way into his arms. He's not entirely sure what marriage actually means, but he knows it's a promise of forever. It's Kuina's promise.
"A marriage needs time, but women can't wait forever. Twenty-five is a good age for them," Sensei says breezily.
I have until I'm twenty-five, he thinks with a paralyzing fear.
If he doesn't make it, Kuina will take back Wado Ichimonji and marry someone else. If she does that, doesn't that mean she no longer believes in him? That he'll never become the greatest?
"I will definitely become a husband that Kuina won't regret!" He promises, gripping Wado Ichimonji tightly.
Sensei pats his head, and he never notices the satisfied eyes peeking through the bars of the window.
...
He waits for Kuina the next day. Waits and waits until he can't stand it anymore. Charging into Sensei's house, he's prepared to yell his lungs out until the girl stomps down the stairs with her familiar scowl and seething, "What?"
Sensei's serious face stops him in his tracks. The man stares him down without a hint of emotion, and the noise dies in his throat.
"There's a letter for you from Kuina," the man says, reaching into a sleeve.
Handing him an envelope, Sensei leaves. The soft click of the door leaves him with a bad feeling, and he opens the letter warily.
Goodbye, it says.
Goodbye means Kuina's gone, leaving him with no answers to his many questions. He knows she's been ready to leave for a while, but he didn't think she'd leave like this. With the promise of a life together, yet no promise to see each other again.
It leaves him reeling like no punch to the gut has ever done. There's not much to the letter, but he has to read it twice because his eyes start itching. Her penmanship sucks, he thinks with a sniff.
His fingers grip the paper so hard it leaves crinkles, and a sudden leak from the roof leaves wet spots. Part of him wants to hurry up and become the world's greatest swordsman so she can come home; part of him wants to chase after her.
(By home, he means by his side. She hates this island and this dojo; he knows that.)
He folds the letter back into the envelope and carefully tucks it inside his belt. He'll find a better place for it later, but for now, he should go train. He's going to need every minute he can get.
(He attacks the training dummy so hard it breaks; he falls to the ground and shouts, "I still haven't beaten you yet!")
...
His calloused fingers smooth out the weathered paper, and he wonders if she's seen his bounty poster. He hopes so. He wants her to know he's one step closer to his dream.
"Hey, Zoro! What's that?"
He doesn't move, choosing to give his fiercest glare to the shadow above him.
"Don't touch it."
Luffy freezes even as rubber fingers wiggle, ready to swipe the letter from his hands. He glances to the straw hat resting on his captain's head. Luffy nods slowly, and reels his arm back in.
"I have until I'm twenty-five to become the world's greatest swordsman," he says, tucking the letter back into a pocket inside his boot. "It's a reminder."
"Zoro can do it," Luffy tells him seriously before whining, "but why do you have to? You're always training. You don't even have time to fish!"
His captain practically melts into a pouting puddle, ranting about food and playtime. Still, behind that grumbling he hears genuine concern over his zealous amount of training.
So he explains,
"My betrothed will marry Mihawk instead if I fail."
"EH?!"
"I won't let that guy touch Wado Ichimonji either."
He leaves for a nap, ignoring the wide-eyed gaping expression of his captain. He decides to sleep outside today, weather's nice enough.
The rest of the crew ignores Luffy's howling theatrics, neither believing nor understanding the claims about Zoro being engaged to a sword that might marry Hawk-Eyes.
He smirks and runs a hand over Wado Ichimonji. Even if he can't make the deadline, he'll just have to defeat Mihawk and steal Kuina away later. He is a pirate after all.
(He'd rather be her first husband though.)
...
Zoro,
I've finally done it. I'm off to find my future. Take good care of Wado Ichimonji for me, or I'll have to find someone who will!
I'm not good at goodbyes, but there's nothing for it. Goodbye. You already knew I couldn't stay, but it's not like you can either. Stagnation kills dreams. If we want to grow we have to have the courage to find our wings and fly away.
We might not see each other for a long time, but we are both warriors out to achieve our goals. I look forward to seeing your face when you accomplish your dream only to realize you'll have to make another one!
Who knows what the future holds? Maybe when you've become the world's greatest swordsman you can pass on your skills to the future. Maybe when I'm finally satisfied I'll come back to the dojo.
Keep looking to the future and don't ever stop,
Kuina