Sandai Kitetsu

Ranked among the Grade blades, this katana belongs to the cursed Kitetsu family and came from the hand of Kouzuki Sukiyaki, who forged it as a copy of the higher Nidai Kitetsu. The blade curves moderately, bearing a white edge and a blue hamon patterned like flames. A golden guard shaped as a rounded cross tops the reddish-brown hilt, which carries a gold clasp and pommel, and the deep red scabbard mirrors that look with matching gold fittings.

Zoro pulled the sword from a bin of cheap katana in a Loguetown shop after sensing its worth, a value Tashigi would later confirm from a catalog. Warned of the curse, the shopkeeper balked at selling it until Zoro offered a wager, flinging the blade skyward and stretching out his arm to dare it to cut him. The edge whirled clear of his arm, and the impressed owner threw in Yubashiri alongside it at no charge.

Even seated in the lowest grades, the sword surpasses common blades in both quality and strength. The Kitetsu curse supposedly promises a gruesome death to whoever holds it, and Zoro can genuinely sense that cursed aura, once feeling the sword's presence while Chopper carried it at Water 7. Its prized trait is keenness: it split a Sea Train car in two and stood up to Kaku's Six Powers strikes, to the Great Grade Shusui, and even to Shodai Kitetsu, a blade three ranks above, without a scratch.

Zoro brands it a problem child, since it hungers for blood and tries to cut without his say-so, which pushed him to rein it in. As his power climbed, the sword wounded Hody Jones underwater, helped block a dragon's bite at Punk Hazard, and, hardened by Armament Haki, carved the mountain-sized Pica. At the Raid on Onigashima it took the combined Hakai of Kaidou and Big Mom without harm and, charged with Supreme King Haki, helped scar Kaidou and cut into the near-invulnerable King.

Ownership ran from the smith Kouzuki Sukiyaki to the merchant Ipponmatsu and at last to Roronoa Zoro, who has swung it through countless duels. Its opponents span Daz Bonez, Enel, Kaku, and Oars, along with Pica and Hody Jones, and reach up to Kaidou, the lunarian King, and finally Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro. Official English editions label the sword Kitetsu III, reading Sandai as a marker of generation. In SBS Volume 92, Oda personified the blade as a smirking man with stubble, a nearly bald head, and a dark topknot.