A path already destined

After a bout of chaos and fierce fighting, the Marine Branch had been turned upside down.

Once Luffy and Zoro had finished causing havoc, they boarded a small boat borrowed from the Marine Base and set sail into the sea breeze.

On the boat, Luffy excitedly fiddled with the sail, while Zoro sat cross-legged on the deck, carefully wiping Wado Ichimonji's blade with a clean cloth.

The gleaming blade reflected his resolute face, and with it, a memory buried deep in his heart.

This was the sword Kuina had left him.

It was also on that night in Shimotsuki Village that he had first truly realized just how vast the world was.

And just how despairingly powerful the people standing at the pinnacle of the seas truly were.

That night, the woman hailed as the World's Greatest Swordsman, Saint Jaygarcia Gion, had descended from the sky without warning, like a deity coming to earth, arriving in that remote village in the East Blue.

The casual aura that woman gave off had been enough to rob his young, hotheaded self of even the courage to hold a sword.

The gap was too great. So great that he could not even draw his sword, let alone fight her.

What shocked and crushed him even more was that this woman at the summit of swordsmanship had recognized Kuina's talent, taken her as a disciple on the spot, and brought her away from the East Blue.

It was only then that Zoro understood.

The East Blue, the stretch of water known as the Weakest Sea, was no paradise for adventurers. It was a vast, sealed cage.

As long as he remained trapped in this cage called the East Blue, he would forever be a frog at the bottom of a well.

He would never