ZoKu

ZoKu
GENERAL
One Piece
Character	Roronoa Zoro
Character	Shimotsuki Kuina
Canonical?	Canon
Status of Relationship	Friends, Rivals/Second cousins; Kuina is deceased
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Family
Also Known As	KuZo

1

Zoro – “Promise me! One day either you or me will be the greatest swordsman in the world! We will compete to see who does it!”

Kuina – “Stupid, saying that even though you are weak... It's a promise!”

ZoKu is the family ship between Roronoa Zoro and Shimotsuki Kuina from the One Piece fandom.

Canon

Zoro and Kuina were childhood friends and rivals, and second cousins. The two started off on hostile terms due to their competitive nature with one another, however, they grew to have great respect for each other. They saw one another as rivals and contenders for the title, “World’s Greatest Swordsman”, and promised each other that they would work to achieve this dream.

They first met when a young Zoro wandered into a dojo owned by Kuina’s father. Zoro, who made a frequent habit of defeating a dojo’s best swordsman and taking their banner, requested to face the best swordsman they had to offer. Kuina stepped up and effortlessly defeated Zoro. As a result, Zoro chose to join the dojo and train until he could defeat Kuina. Despite his great improvements, and his determination in his training, Zoro still lost to Kuina, frustrating him. Eventually, Zoro called her out in the middle of the night to face him once again, this time with real swords, and once more, he was defeated. Kuina then confided in Zoro the reality of being a female swordsman and how he would inevitably surpass her. Angered, Zoro made Kuina promise him that they would both work hard to become the best swordsman they could and reach the number one spot. The next day, however, Kuina died after falling down a set of stairs.

Despite their relationship not getting the chance to truly flesh itself out across the series, the pair shared a close bond that was forged in the heat of their rivalry. Zoro was frustrated that he could not beat Kuina, whilst Kuina herself would mock him. However, Kuina began to begrudgingly admire Zoro’s stubbornness and always accepted his request for a match. By the time of their final spar, Kuina felt close enough to Zoro to tell him about her insecurities of being a woman after her father told her she could not be the best swordsman in the world. She took great comfort in Zoro’s blunt retort and promised him that she would do everything she could to become the best and remain Zoro’s rival.

Zoro was evidently frustrated and angry with Kuina for being better than him, suffering an inferiority complex. However, he had great respect for her and viewed her as genuinely better than him and a true rival. When she revealed to him that she believes she will never be the best because she is a girl, Zoro was furious and berated her for making excuses, especially after just defeating him, and made her promise him that they would become the best. Zoro was crushed by her death and was angry that she did not stand by the promise they made. He initially held back his tears until he broke down in front of her father when he asked to have Kuina’s katana. He would occasionally believe she is watching him whilst training and screamed in anger when she wasn't around. Before leaving on his journey to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman, he visited her grave and promised to carry her dream along with his. Due to his unorthodox three sword style, he puts Kuina's katana in his mouth.

While it wasn't always clear how close Kuina and Zoro were, the three boys from the same dojo personally came to Zoro to tell him of Kuina's passing, implying that the other students saw Zoro and Kuina as close friends. It is also implied that Zoro isn't aware of his family connections towards Kuina or Shimotsuki family.

Fanon

Before Zoro's family tree was revealed, for years ZoKu was shipped more as a potential romantic relationship and was positively received ship among the One Piece community but lacked any popularity due to Kuina being dead. Supporters of the ship believed that Kuina might still be alive due to her death being off-screen, however, the probability of this remains still extremely low as her body was shown in the manga (albeit with her face covered). In SBS volume 105 it was revealed that Zoro and Kuina are second cousins, causing fans of the ship to collapse and lose the probability that it can become canon in romantic way.

However, ZoKu already had also fans for its potential platonic familyship which only made the same fans happy when Zoro and Kuina's relations were revealed. As a familyship ZoKu has always been positively received as well and there are some AU fanfics where Kuina stays alive. In some fan stories, Kuina is depicted as Zoro's sister or sister figure, cousin or other relative.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Kuina & Zoro tag on AO3

Trivia

• Kuina shares major connections to Tashigi, as both are swordsman, they have a direct relationship with Zoro, both their names come from flightless birds, they share an insecurity about being female swordsman and both have similar appearances.
• Popular theories have emerged across the One Piece community that Tashigi, who shares major similarities with Kuina, is actually Kuina herself but there is no evidence for this. Furthermore, both Kuina and Tashigi were drawn differently as children.
• Another theory is that Kuina and Tashigi are twins, or are related in some way, but no evidence has emerged proving this and its been stated that Kuina is an only child.