Shimotsuki Kuina

Cropped dark blue hair and wide, dark eyes gave Kuina a youthful sharpness. Day to day she wore a pale pink short-sleeved top, its three-button placket left open, with deep maroon shorts and brown shoes. For dojo training in the anime, she instead appeared in a sleeveless white shirt and cut-off green trousers.

On the surface Kuina brimmed with confidence, even arrogance, toward the other trainees, but this concealed a deep anxiety planted by her father's notion that grown women cannot rival men in strength. Longing to become the world's finest swordsman, she grew to despise her own physique as a barrier and dreaded reaching puberty. That fear colored her bond with Zoro, whom she belittled as weak while secretly envying him for being male. Once he angrily dismissed her worries and argued that skill, not gender, decides a swordsman's worth, she came to treasure him as friend and as rival.

Small as she was, Kuina ranked as a true child prodigy and held the Isshin Dojo's top spot for a time, defeating the slightly younger Zoro across two thousand straight bouts even though he could already overpower the adult pupils. She normally drilled with a bamboo shinai like the others, yet she handled live steel with confidence, wielding the Wado Ichimonji without difficulty in her final duel. After winning that last match with real swords, she shared her insecurities, and the two swore that one of them would one day reach the summit of swordsmanship. She died the very next day. Zoro then took up her blade, developed the Three Sword Style to honor her, and carried her memory throughout his journey.