Kuina
Seiyuu / Dub
Summary
Kuina was the childhood friend of Roronoa Zoro. She trained rigorously in kendo, pushing herself beyond normal limits to succeed in the male-dominated discipline, despite her father believing she could never reach the top because of her gender. While they trained at the same dojo, she remained the only person Zoro could not defeat in a sword fight. After overhearing her father’s dismissive comments about girls’ abilities in kendo, she sought out Zoro and challenged him to a duel using real swords. Although she won again, proving herself as the dojo’s strongest while Zoro was second-best, she felt discouraged by the societal bias against her gender. This led to a pact between her and Zoro to hone their skills until they became the world’s greatest swordsmen, at which point they would fight one last time to determine who was truly the strongest. She was originally the owner of Zoro’s white sword, Watto.
