The Little Straw Hat

Chapter 18

While put on sea, Luffy finds a box off cannon balls in the Going Merry store room and brings it on deck. Nami finds a place on the map where they can go practice cannon shooting.

This gets Luffy excited. "This is gonna be fun!" Causing y/n to wake up from her little nap.

"Huh?" The small girl says to no on in particular, causing Luffy to look at her.

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you." Luffy apologises.

"It's ok. What are they?" Y/n asks while pointing at the cannon balls.

Luffy replies with, "Those are cannon balls and ww are gonna practice shooting them."

Nami puts in, "We are going somewhere, where it will be safe to to practice."

After this Zoro, who is still napping, starts to remember his childhood.

Young Zoro was a Doujouyaburi, collecting dojo sign boards. 

"I challenge you for your dojo." Young Zoro challenges the owner, Koushiro.

"I accept your challenge, but my daughter Kuina will be your opponent." Koushiro says.

Young Zoro grabs a bunch of shinai to prepare. Kuina just has one shinai. Before the match even begins he drops some shinai, unable to hold so many at a time.

Kuina goes in for an attack, which Young Zoro barely manages to block with his shinai collection. The second vertical strike Kuina delivered is much more powerful than the last, knocking Young Zoro to the ground causing him to drop all his weapons.

"I won't lose." Young Zoro proclaimed as he stood up ready to fight.

As Zoro prepares to attack, he stands in the two sword shinai pose. This causes visible surprise in the master and his daughter.

The master asks him, "Have you been trained before?"

Young Zoro explains, "This is the first time I have held a shinai before."

He charges towards Kuina and gets smacked between the eyes ending with him loosing.

"Would you like to join my dojo?" The master offers him.

"Yes." Young Zoro accepts the offer.

He then looks at Kuina and states, "Someday I will beat you."

Kuina tells him, "You will have to train a few years before you'll be able to wield two swords."

Zoro remembers how he would work himself to exhaustion on a daily basis, regardless of it being hazily hot, pr chilly cold.

In addition to smacking a training post, young Zoro would be seen competently fighting off adult male members of the dojo.

Young Zoro could be seen standing on a pair of rocks with a stream running between them. As he is training, Kuina would watch him from the shadows.

"You are weak." Kuina tells him after he lost his two thousandth consecutive fight.

"I'm not weak! I can defeat the older guy students that are here." Young Zoro replies.

Young Zoro walks up to Kuina's father and asks, "Are you giving her special training on the side?"

"No I am not, she is getting stronger." Her father replies.

Kuina overhears her father with another man, "A female sword fighter has many barriers, I will not let her inherit this dojo."

This visibly angers her, causing her to break in, allowing her presence to be known to the men.

"I will become the strongest swordsman, I deserve to inherit this dojo!" 

Kouishiro looks at his daughter and replies, "A women would not be able to become the worlds best."

Kuina's eyes glaze over, leaving her shocked and stricken as she walks out.

Young Zoro sees Kuins sitting in the middle of the road, appearing to be crying. He approaches her caring two metal katana instead of pf the wooden shinai.

"I challenge you to a fight." 

"I accept." Kuina says as she goes into her family's shrine and retrieves the Wado Ichimongi for their duel.

As the first exchange young Zoro manages to cut some of Kuina's hair off with his second blade.

After fighting for awhile, he is visibly gasping while Kuina in the other hand is not breathing heavily at all.

She comments, "Two swords must be heavy and you still lack stamina."

In response to his usual rude reply, Kuina lunges and is able to disarm both of his weapons in a single blow and intentionally plunges her weapon into the ground an inch from his cheek.

Still undefeated, Kuina consoles young Zoro, "As we grow older you will eventually surpass me."

"A women can never be the worlds greatest swordsman." Kuina adds.

"No, I challenge you to see which one of us will become the worlds greatest swordsman." Young Zoro states. Kuina accepts.

Kuina practices enthusiastically while beating an older male student. Young Zoro is seen doing another weird exercise by himself where he holds a dumbbell in his mouth while pulling down a pair of ropes slung over a tree branch to lift a pair of boulders to his stamina.

It is at this point that some younger students approach with gaunt looks on their faces and inform him, "Kuina is dead."

He later found out that Kuina had died, falling down the storage room stairs while looking for her katana.

After her funeral, the master says, "Thank you for joining my dojo and motivating Kuina to train her hardest."

"May I have Kuina's katana?" Young Zoro asks.

He also adds, "I swear that I will keep my promise to Kuina.'

Kuina's father leaves her soul and dreams with him. Now eight years have passed and it's time for Zoro to leave the dojo to fulfil that promise.

Back with Luffy and Usopp who are practice shooting cannons, Usopp hits the target in a single try. 

Unknown to them that they hit someone. Later back in the cabin the crew have a discussion about adding more crew member either a cook or a musician, while Y/n runs around bored out of her mind and says.

"We need a cook more, because Luffy is eating everything."

Before anyone can answer, they hear a commotion on deck, Luffy goes out to check. A guy who's partner was hit, is seeking revenge.

Thats when the small girl mumbles, "Luffy and Usopp must've hit them wihtout knowing."

Zoro wakes up recognising the voice. Turns out they were friends back in the day when Zoro was a pirate hunter.

"Jonny why are you here alone? Where is Yosaku?" Zoro asks.

Y/n looks around wondering if the other guy is here but see anyone else.