Episode 19

"Past of the Three Swords! The Promise Between Zoro and Kuina!" is the 19th episode of the One Piece anime.

Short Summary
Zoro naps and dreams of his childhood, his relationship with the late Shimotsuki Kuina and his ambitions. Meanwhile, Luffy fires a cannon at a rock, angering Zoro's old friend, Johnny.

Long Summary
After Luffy finds a box of cannonballs onboard, he and Usopp decide to play with the ship's cannons. As they do so, Zoro takes a nap, where he dreams about his childhood.

Zoro was a dojoyaburi at Shimotsuki Village, challenging local dojos to duels. However, after challenging the dojo of Shimotsuki Koushirou, he faced defeat at the hands of Koushirou's daughter, Kuina, and as promised had to join the dojo as a student. After training much more rigorously than his peers, he became strong enough to defeat the adults at the dojo, but was still unable to defeat Kuina.

One day, Zoro challenged Kuina to a duel using real swords as opposed to shinai. Kuina defeated Zoro for the two-thousandth time. However, she lamented she would never become a powerful swordfighter as she was a woman. Zoro and Kuina promised to each other to train harder and become stronger, and one of them would become the world's greatest swordsman.

Both kept their promises and increased their training efforts, but Kuina tragically suffered a fatal fall down a flight of stairs. With Kuina deceased, Zoro decided he had to become the world's greatest swordsman to honor his promise. Koushirou entrusted Zoro with Kuina's prized heirloom katana, the Wado Ichimonji, for him to further his training. Zoro would train for another eight years before leaving the dojo to become a pirate hunter.

Back in the present day, Luffy fires the cannon at a distant rock. They then go to the kitchen, but they find themselves raided by Johnny, Zoro's old friend. Johnny accuses the Straw Hats of attempting to kill his friend.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Usopp
 * Nami
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Roronoa Zoro
 * Koushirou (flashback)
 * Kuina (flashback)
 * Johnny

Anime Notes

 * Zoro's past is revealed.
 * This is the first episode of the Baratie Arc.

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Episodi 19 Santōryū no Kako! Zoro to Kuina ni Chikai!