Shimotsuki Kozaburo

The fight resumes at "Zoro vs. King." Enma flares up in Zoro's hand and drains his strength, making Zoro shout, "Enma!! Stop draining my energy... without permission!" A caption frames the danger: "Zoro has to deal with a rogue sword?!" Zoro struggles to steady himself while King watches and asks, "Trouble in paradise?" Even with King in front of him, Zoro's immediate problem is his own blade. Enma is pulling Haki out of him by force, leaving Zoro huffing and vulnerable while King's dark, winged form closes in through the smoke and rubble outside Onigashima.

King looms over Zoro with his wings spread and flame still burning on his back. Zoro, still fighting Enma's drain, asks, "What're you tryin' to pull?" King suddenly launches a beam-like attack directly at him, and King reacts with surprise when it lands: "Ahh... a direct hit." Zoro is knocked into a massive explosion that tears through the exterior wreckage of the island. The blast leaves a towering black plume of smoke and debris, while Zoro is momentarily swallowed by the impact. The page shows how dangerous it is for Zoro to lose control of his sword even for an instant against an opponent as fast and destructive as King.

Inside the Skull Dome's left brain tower, in the pleasure hall, bystanders react to the huge explosion outside and laugh that Zoro is the "pirate hunter." They say he does not stand a chance against King. Sanji, still fighting Queen nearby, hears the discussion. Queen explains that King is a surviving Lunarian and that the Lunarians were once considered gods in the distant past. He says those monsters could thrive in any inhospitable environment the world threw at them, but they were all supposedly eradicated. Sanji asks how beings like that could get wiped out, and Queen answers, "That's something... you'll have to find out for yourself!"

Back outside, Zoro survives the explosion and thinks that it was a close one: he would have been a goner if he had used Armament Haki even a second later. He also notices the impossible part of the exchange, asking how King is still unscathed when King just blew himself up. Zoro shifts to one-sword style and launches "Lethal Lion Song!!" directly at King. The attack cuts in hard at close range, but King's body and flame-backed durability continue to make the fight feel wrong. Zoro is not only trying to land a clean strike; he is trying to solve what King is before his own stamina and Enma's demands run him dry.

Zoro's strong technique appears to do nothing, and he stares in disbelief, saying, "Nothing?!" King stretches his pteranodon head and beak again, preparing the bizarre elastic strike from the previous battle. Zoro is stunned that one of his strongest techniques did not work, but Enma interrupts him again, flaring and pulling at his arm. Zoro yells, "Stop it!! Enma!!" while King builds another attack with "Imperial... Tempura..." Zoro realizes he cannot afford this distraction now and cries, "Not now!!" The page stacks two threats on top of each other: King's lethal body mechanics and Enma's refusal to stay quiet.

King fires the stretched-beak attack with "Udon!!" and hammers Zoro into the wreckage again. The impact drives Zoro through stone and smoke while his swords scatter. King mocks him: "A swordsman beaten by his own sword!! That's a first!!" As Zoro tumbles, he spots one of his blades and calls out, "Sandai Kitetsu!" The page makes the danger personal for Zoro. Losing his swords would mean losing the foundation of his fighting style, but diving after them while King keeps attacking leaves him open to being crushed. King sees that and sneers at him for risking himself to save a sword.

As Zoro reaches for Sandai Kitetsu, he remembers the day in Loguetown when he first took it from Ipponmatsu. Ipponmatsu warned, "You already wield Sandai Kitetsu. That is one of mine." Zoro called it cursed, and Ipponmatsu panicked that he could not sell it because Zoro would end up dead and Zoro's blood would be on his hands. Zoro answered, "I'll take it," accepting the risk. In the present, King attacks again and asks whether Zoro has lost his mind, shouting, "Risking yourself to save a sword?" Zoro still burns from Enma's drain, but the memory reminds him that he has always chosen dangerous blades knowingly.

Zoro grabs Wado Ichimonji and remembers asking his teacher for Kuina's sword after her death. He pleaded, "Sensei!! Please let me have her sword!" and Koshiro answered, "Okay, it's yours." The memory shifts to Zoro and Kuina's vow: Zoro declares he will get stronger, "stronger for the both of us," until his name reaches the heavens, and says, "I am going to be the world's greatest swordsman!!" In the present, Zoro connects Wado Ichimonji to Enma. Tenguyama Hitetsu had told him that the white katana is Wado Ichimonji, forged by the same man who made Enma: the master swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo. Zoro wonders how a sword from Wano wound up in the East Blue.

King presses the attack, asking whether Zoro has picked up his three swords. He swings with "Imperial Twin Blades!!" and Zoro has to call out for Enma while being smashed and slammed through more rubble. The shock of the battle triggers another memory from Shimotsuki Village. A child there calls him "Zoro-juro" and says, "I was told not to say 'sunacchi.'" Zoro remembers that he once heard the word from an old geezer in his village but never used it himself. In the present, the connection between Wano sword culture, the forbidden cry "sunacchi," and the old man from the East Blue begins to come together while King continues trying to finish him.

Zoro remembers hearing that the old man by the shore always said "sunacchi," though Zoro never bothered learning his name. He also remembers only finding out that the man was Kuina's grandfather after he died. The narration reveals that the master swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo left Wano illegally over 50 years ago. Thirteen years earlier in Shimotsuki Village, the village dojo students shouted during practice, and the old man explained that "sunacchi" is a battle cry that gives courage. The page reframes a forgotten childhood detail as proof that a Wano swordsman had been living in Zoro's East Blue hometown all along.

In Zoro's memory, young Zoro finds the village geezer strange and asks whether he was really a samurai, because everyone at the dojo says he was. Kozaburo barks, "Quiet, boy!!" and warns Zoro that talking about him will bring the Marines down on his head. Zoro fires back, asking why the old man would care, and insults him as a useless old windbag. Despite their bickering, the old man trains with the children and lets them shout. This memory shows Kozaburo not as a distant legendary smith, but as the cranky old man Zoro knew by the shore. The page also explains why Zoro never understood the importance of the connection until now.

Young Zoro returns to Kozaburo after losing to Kuina again and says he needs to train nonstop. Kozaburo offers him practice swords, saying, "It's fine, take 'em, they're not much anyway," while Zoro protests that he has no money. Kozaburo explains his philosophy: swords exist to cut people down, and when smiths create them, they ensure the blades can take as many lives as possible. Zoro is shocked, but Kozaburo continues that each blade is like a person with a unique disposition, and a swordsman is someone who tames a sword's wild nature and bends it to his will. The memory gives Zoro the key to understanding Enma's behavior in the present.

Kozaburo rejects the idea that deadly swords are simply cursed. He calls it a joke that named blades are said to be cursed just because weak swordsmen fear them. To him, if a blade fulfills its purpose well, that is praise, and weak people can spread whatever nonsense they like. He remembers crafting his magnum opus when he was young, a blade so terrifying that someone would get chills merely holding it. He says he named that blade after "the lord of the underworld": Enma. In the present, Zoro realizes the meaning of the name as Enma continues to burn and pull from him. The old man's lesson turns Enma from a cursed inconvenience into a proud, demanding weapon.

Zoro pieces the history together: Shimotsuki Village was founded by pirates, his grandmother told him about it, and the master swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo left Wano illegally over 50 years ago. He realizes, "That geezer was a samurai of Wano!!" Kozaburo's teaching echoes in his mind: named blades stay vigilant and wait patiently to find a swordsman worthy of them; it is said that a sword chooses its wielder. Zoro finally understands what Enma is doing: "That's what this is... It's testing me...!!" King still advances with the flame on his back, but Zoro's confusion is gone. He sees Enma's draining not as malice, but as a trial.

Zoro concludes that the sword is not acting out of malice; he simply has not been measuring up to its standards. He tells himself that Oden was easily able to wield Enma, even while so much Haki poured out of him. Zoro asks, "Is that it, Enma?!" and understands the price: he can only appease the sword if he keeps going all out with his Haki, but that could kill him. Below, Beast Pirates spot him and shout to King that the Pirate Hunter is there. They rush in, saying they should help take Zoro's head and will surely get promoted. Zoro rejects hesitation, saying, "No... This is how it's meant to be!!"

Zoro releases a burst of Haki so powerful that the surrounding Beast Pirates collapse before they can interfere. King watches and says, "I see..." then asks whether Zoro has also got "kingly ambitions." Zoro briefly remembers Luffy's old expectation that the world's greatest swordsman is perfect for the future King of the Pirates, since the future Pirate King would not settle for anything less. Zoro answers King's question through his grin and resolve: "I guess you're right... after all... I made promises to my captain... and my oldest friend!!" The chapter ends with Zoro embracing Enma's demand, surpassing his limits, and tying his ambition to both Luffy and Kuina.

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