The Pirate King and the Great Swordsman

Inside the base, Luffy drags Helmeppo from room to room in search of the confiscated blades, keeping the captain's son between himself and the chasing soldiers so they cannot fire. Helmeppo eventually admits the weapons sit in his quarters. Down in the yard, a bleeding Koby will not run while Zoro remains tied, and he confesses that Helmeppo had never planned to free the prisoner. Marines circle the two and label them traitors. Glancing through a window, Luffy catches sight of Morgan ordering both deaths. With his end seemingly near, Zoro drifts into memories of the boy he once was and the path that made him.

The flashback opens on a young Zoro sprawled across the dojo floor, taunted by Kuina after a loss that marks his two-thousandth defeat to her. Friends rush to defend him, yet Kuina answers that besting grown men counts for little while she still outmatches him. After dark, Zoro dares her into a real duel with live katana, and she puts him down in one stroke for victory number 2,001. Tears follow as she confides her dread of falling behind once boys outgrow her, wishing aloud that a boy's body had been hers from birth. Stung, Zoro tells her she has no business complaining after winning, and the pair pledge that one will rise to the top of all swordsmen. Tragedy strikes the next morning when Kuina dies from a fall on the stairs. Heartbroken, Zoro begs the sensei for her sword and swears to seize the title for her sake.

Back in the present, the soldiers fire, only for Luffy to leap into their line and let the rounds rebound off his rubber frame, leaving every witness stunned. He hands over the three swords grabbed from Helmeppo's room, admitting he could not tell which one was Zoro's, and the swordsman reveals he wields a trio of blades at once. Picking outlaw life over a meaningless death, Zoro signs on as the captain's first follower at sea, marking the very start of the crew. The cover's Animal Theater shows Luffy and Zoro drinking beside friendly dolphins, with Luffy trying to siphon more from a dolphin's glass.