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mekachu04The ruling family of the east was the roronoa clan. while they ruled with an iron hand, they where well loved by the people, and times were peaceful and prosperous in the kingdom
Shimotsuki was a minor country bordering the Roronoa’s lands, and the lord Isshin Koushiro, was a long supporter of the ‘revolutionaries’ the leader - dragon - suggests isshin allies with the Roronoas, citing an upcoming era of turmoil. The Roronoa family agrees to such terms, and their only male heir is to be married to Isshin's young daughter.
Since both children are still very young, the Roronoa family sends a child of the court, one of the young prince’s playmates, to the isshin court as a measure of good will. The young eunuch was a few years older than the prince, but still younger than Isshin's daughter. He'd been at the prince’s side since he’d finished his training at age eight - two years prior- and was to be a guard and servant to the future Roronoa bride.
Koushiro found the young servant quite charming, and despite her best efforts to hate him, young Kuina found the boy to be a welcome relief. the lord put the young servant's ‘pao’ on the highest shelf of his armoury, standing tall over the king's sword displayed on the room’s main wall - the blade Wado Ichimonji
While Zoro was mostly Kuina’s servant, he was also a focused student of several sword forms, something Kuina herself had training in. During the years he was a servant of the isshin court, zoro and Kuina became close friends, and he became her trusted confidant. While she easily bested him in their sparring, she voiced her concern that one day, he would have to fake letting her win; that as a woman, she could only grow so strong. She even asked Zoro if he was merely letting her win now, so as not to upset the balance of the court.
enraged, zoro raged against her, demanding to know how she could possibly think so little of him - even confiding to her that he would one day be the strongest, a powerful warrior. cruelly, she asked how a bed-wetter could be a warrior at all. how could a child ever be a fighter, if his voice would never even drop.
days before her wedding to the Roronoa heir Saga, zoro challenged Kuina to a real fight - not with training swords but real blades. She accepted his challenge, and utterly defeated him. She chose not to cut him, to cut without cutting, asking him openly about his ‘emasculation’ The two spoke candidly throughout the night, talking not only about him, but Kuina’s fears on her upcoming marriage. Despite saga being his childhood friend, and soon to be his king, Zoro swore his loyalty to kuina alone.
in the time that Zoro had served in the isshin court, the young roronoa heir had grown into a fine young man - a young man whose heart was swayed not to his betrothed, but a young priestess named maya who had lifted his spirits in the depression that started once the weight of the upcoming marriage sunk in.
While Saga and Kuina did wed - he being 15, and she 18 - and while there was no animosity between them, there was little endearment to the other either. while zoro and kuina butted heads in a way to solve their problems, no solutions ever came about then it was her and saga. Any attempts Zoro made to smooth things over with his king - and once dear friend - left him flogged for not respecting his place.
After a punishment escalated to lashing, Kuina called saga out - accusing him of bedding the priestess instead of her - not realizing that was indeed what was happening.
it was a wake up call to saga, and he and kuina had a private discussion of their marriage, and the alliance it represented. At age 17, Saga took maya as his second wife; he and kuina remained married for the sake of the safety of both countries - and because he had taken from her the most worth most countries saw in a woman - but they freed each other from all other bonds, and she was free to leave the roronoa court to do as she pleased. In exchange for her blessing to his second marriage, he would love Shimotsuki as his own.
On the eve of her 20th birthday, Kuina was granted to most freedom a woman of her era could be granted, and made to start her life in her own way. she never made it. a tragic fall in the grand hall that night took her life.
refusing to accept her death, zoro turned to the new queen, maya, demanding that as a priestess, she return kuina to life. horrified that she could do nothing, maya prayed and pleaded with the gods, only to return to the distraught eunuch to inform him kuina’s soul could not be returned from the afterworld, because it never made it there in the first place.
She told him that Kuina’s soul had become bound to the vessel of Wado Ichimonji, and that the spirit of the sword had fled. to free her soul, he would have to find the spirit of wado,and beg for it to return to it’s steel form.
with saga’s blessing, zoro left to find the wandering spirit. Maya told him there was a powerful medium lives in Shikkearu Kingdom.
he befriends two ‘warriors’ on his way, a couple named johnny and yosaku - after he defeats a bandit plaquing their home - and the two help him navigate his way to shikkearu. on Kuraigana Island zoro finds her, the ghost princess perona. she confirms kuina’s soul is inside the blade, and even takes him to the island’s master, and terrible and strange man - mihawk dracule.
Mihawk is the name he has chosen for himself, the body build around him by sheer will (and perona’s unwilling help) - he is the spirit of wado - and he has no intention of returning. Zoro ly challenges him to a battle, despite the warnings of yosaku, perona, and johnny, and is beaten swiftly. But, unable to back down, zoro refuses to accept his loss, and fights on, using wado to try and defeat mihawk.
He is disarmed, and Mihawk holds his old vessel curiously, pondering the soul trapped inside it. He tells Zoro of his own dreams, and how he refuses to return, even for the sake of someone else. distraught, zoro kneels before the swordmaster. he begs that instead of kuina, to please take his soul instead. Mihawk is struck dumb by the request.
he tells the boy to rise, and asks that zoro repeats such a statement to his face. unfaltering, soro does.
he asks one last time, drawing wado from its scabbard. Zoro says nothing, but holds out his arms wide.
oblivious of johnny and yosaku’s screams, and to perona’s own turning away in horror, he cuts zoro down, the blade slicing quick though bone and ripping him open..
Zoro’s soul is torn free, trapped in the blade, and Kuina's is forced out. Perona commands the Lady to return home quickly - her body is mended, but will die again without her soul at hand.
Johnny and yosaku challenge mihawk then, to avenge the death of their friend. Mihawk regards the sword in his hand - the weary, but accepting soul now trapped within its confines, and hands it instead to perona. He refuses the two men’s duel, but invites them inside instead.
Perona looks down on the corpse with pain and discomfort. She made a body for the spirit of wado when he first found her - perhaps even now she can help.
Later, she meets JoYo and Mihawk in the castle, and a staggering and catatonic zoro follows behind her. He's messily bandaged - joyo stepping in a rush to fix it. she watches, before regarding to white sword she still carries.
‘his soul is bound to the sword until the true master returns, even i can’t draw him from it now’
Joyo demands to know what she means, and even mihawk looks on curiously.
‘if his body recovers, he will live, but only if the vessel containing his soul remains close at hand
“In Shimotsuki, my balls are in a jar within the court of isshin. My soul torn from me in Kuraigana, and preserved in the blade of wado ichimonji. my heart lays still beating in the ruins of thriller bark, and my blood fertilizes the soil of Cocoyashi. my legs left me in little garden, my right arm in long-ring long-land; Even my eye was bartered for passage to Sabaody”
Shimotsuki was a minor country bordering the Roronoa’s lands, and the lord Isshin Koushiro, was a long supporter of the ‘revolutionaries’ the leader - dragon - suggests isshin allies with the Roronoas, citing an upcoming era of turmoil. The Roronoa family agrees to such terms, and their only male heir is to be married to Isshin's young daughter.
Since both children are still very young, the Roronoa family sends a child of the court, one of the young prince’s playmates, to the isshin court as a measure of good will. The young eunuch was a few years older than the prince, but still younger than Isshin's daughter. He'd been at the prince’s side since he’d finished his training at age eight - two years prior- and was to be a guard and servant to the future Roronoa bride.
Koushiro found the young servant quite charming, and despite her best efforts to hate him, young Kuina found the boy to be a welcome relief. the lord put the young servant's ‘pao’ on the highest shelf of his armoury, standing tall over the king's sword displayed on the room’s main wall - the blade Wado Ichimonji
While Zoro was mostly Kuina’s servant, he was also a focused student of several sword forms, something Kuina herself had training in. During the years he was a servant of the isshin court, zoro and Kuina became close friends, and he became her trusted confidant. While she easily bested him in their sparring, she voiced her concern that one day, he would have to fake letting her win; that as a woman, she could only grow so strong. She even asked Zoro if he was merely letting her win now, so as not to upset the balance of the court.
enraged, zoro raged against her, demanding to know how she could possibly think so little of him - even confiding to her that he would one day be the strongest, a powerful warrior. cruelly, she asked how a bed-wetter could be a warrior at all. how could a child ever be a fighter, if his voice would never even drop.
days before her wedding to the Roronoa heir Saga, zoro challenged Kuina to a real fight - not with training swords but real blades. She accepted his challenge, and utterly defeated him. She chose not to cut him, to cut without cutting, asking him openly about his ‘emasculation’ The two spoke candidly throughout the night, talking not only about him, but Kuina’s fears on her upcoming marriage. Despite saga being his childhood friend, and soon to be his king, Zoro swore his loyalty to kuina alone.
in the time that Zoro had served in the isshin court, the young roronoa heir had grown into a fine young man - a young man whose heart was swayed not to his betrothed, but a young priestess named maya who had lifted his spirits in the depression that started once the weight of the upcoming marriage sunk in.
While Saga and Kuina did wed - he being 15, and she 18 - and while there was no animosity between them, there was little endearment to the other either. while zoro and kuina butted heads in a way to solve their problems, no solutions ever came about then it was her and saga. Any attempts Zoro made to smooth things over with his king - and once dear friend - left him flogged for not respecting his place.
After a punishment escalated to lashing, Kuina called saga out - accusing him of bedding the priestess instead of her - not realizing that was indeed what was happening.
it was a wake up call to saga, and he and kuina had a private discussion of their marriage, and the alliance it represented. At age 17, Saga took maya as his second wife; he and kuina remained married for the sake of the safety of both countries - and because he had taken from her the most worth most countries saw in a woman - but they freed each other from all other bonds, and she was free to leave the roronoa court to do as she pleased. In exchange for her blessing to his second marriage, he would love Shimotsuki as his own.
On the eve of her 20th birthday, Kuina was granted to most freedom a woman of her era could be granted, and made to start her life in her own way. she never made it. a tragic fall in the grand hall that night took her life.
refusing to accept her death, zoro turned to the new queen, maya, demanding that as a priestess, she return kuina to life. horrified that she could do nothing, maya prayed and pleaded with the gods, only to return to the distraught eunuch to inform him kuina’s soul could not be returned from the afterworld, because it never made it there in the first place.
She told him that Kuina’s soul had become bound to the vessel of Wado Ichimonji, and that the spirit of the sword had fled. to free her soul, he would have to find the spirit of wado,and beg for it to return to it’s steel form.
with saga’s blessing, zoro left to find the wandering spirit. Maya told him there was a powerful medium lives in Shikkearu Kingdom.
he befriends two ‘warriors’ on his way, a couple named johnny and yosaku - after he defeats a bandit plaquing their home - and the two help him navigate his way to shikkearu. on Kuraigana Island zoro finds her, the ghost princess perona. she confirms kuina’s soul is inside the blade, and even takes him to the island’s master, and terrible and strange man - mihawk dracule.
Mihawk is the name he has chosen for himself, the body build around him by sheer will (and perona’s unwilling help) - he is the spirit of wado - and he has no intention of returning. Zoro ly challenges him to a battle, despite the warnings of yosaku, perona, and johnny, and is beaten swiftly. But, unable to back down, zoro refuses to accept his loss, and fights on, using wado to try and defeat mihawk.
He is disarmed, and Mihawk holds his old vessel curiously, pondering the soul trapped inside it. He tells Zoro of his own dreams, and how he refuses to return, even for the sake of someone else. distraught, zoro kneels before the swordmaster. he begs that instead of kuina, to please take his soul instead. Mihawk is struck dumb by the request.
he tells the boy to rise, and asks that zoro repeats such a statement to his face. unfaltering, soro does.
he asks one last time, drawing wado from its scabbard. Zoro says nothing, but holds out his arms wide.
oblivious of johnny and yosaku’s screams, and to perona’s own turning away in horror, he cuts zoro down, the blade slicing quick though bone and ripping him open..
Zoro’s soul is torn free, trapped in the blade, and Kuina's is forced out. Perona commands the Lady to return home quickly - her body is mended, but will die again without her soul at hand.
Johnny and yosaku challenge mihawk then, to avenge the death of their friend. Mihawk regards the sword in his hand - the weary, but accepting soul now trapped within its confines, and hands it instead to perona. He refuses the two men’s duel, but invites them inside instead.
Perona looks down on the corpse with pain and discomfort. She made a body for the spirit of wado when he first found her - perhaps even now she can help.
Later, she meets JoYo and Mihawk in the castle, and a staggering and catatonic zoro follows behind her. He's messily bandaged - joyo stepping in a rush to fix it. she watches, before regarding to white sword she still carries.
‘his soul is bound to the sword until the true master returns, even i can’t draw him from it now’
Joyo demands to know what she means, and even mihawk looks on curiously.
‘if his body recovers, he will live, but only if the vessel containing his soul remains close at hand
“In Shimotsuki, my balls are in a jar within the court of isshin. My soul torn from me in Kuraigana, and preserved in the blade of wado ichimonji. my heart lays still beating in the ruins of thriller bark, and my blood fertilizes the soil of Cocoyashi. my legs left me in little garden, my right arm in long-ring long-land; Even my eye was bartered for passage to Sabaody”
