Hearing the pleasant voice beside his ear, Zoro could not help but shiver.
With great difficulty, he turned his head.
The moment he saw who it was, he immediately struggled to roll away, escaping the soft embrace beneath him.
He was already a married man. How could he casually lie in a woman's arms?
"Y... you! What do you want, woman?!"
His face was bright red as he pointed a trembling finger at her.
The woman was not angry.
She simply raised a slender hand and brushed a few loose strands of hair from her forehead.
With a gentle smile, she said,
"Hehe, long time no see, Zoro."
Zoro looked completely confused.
"No! Who are you? We just..."
However, after taking a closer look at her face, his expression instantly froze.
"You... you... you female Marine! How could you look like this? Do you think I wouldn't recognize you just because you took off your glasses?!"
A brief shadow crossed the woman's face.
It disappeared almost immediately.
Suppressing her emotions, she asked,
"What female Marine?"
Zoro sat on the ground and instinctively scooted backward.
"What are you trying to do? Even if the Marines are now allied with Rolan's forces, we're not familiar with each other."
The more she listened, the stranger she felt.
From Zoro's tone, it was obvious that he knew this female Marine.
Something significant had likely happened between them.
For some reason, an unfamiliar irritation began to rise in her heart.
At that moment, Zoro pointed directly at her face.
"Don't think that just because you look exactly like her, I won't attack you."
The woman touched her chin in confusion.
"Look like her? What are you talking about, Zoro?"
Zoro covered his forehead with one hand, looking visibly distressed.
Memories from his childhood continuously surfaced in his mind.
The woman before him already resembled that person.
Now that she was not wearing glasses, the resemblance was no longer merely similar.
She looked exactly like the girl from his memories after growing up.
It was enough to make his head spin.
Seeing the pain on his face, the woman swallowed the questions she wanted to ask.
Instead, she stepped forward and pulled him into her arms again.
"Hey! What are you doing, female Marine? Your name is Tashigi, right? Don't do this. We're not even on the same side."
Only then did she finally understand.
Zoro had mistaken her for the Marine named Tashigi.
She immediately frowned.
"What Tashigi? I'm not Tashigi. Have you really forgotten me?"
Zoro quickly broke free and crossed his arms defensively.
His eyes were filled with caution.
"Stop pretending. I don't know what happened to you, but if you're trying to get revenge this way, I'll look down on you."
He tightened his grip on his sword.
"A swordsman's grievances should be settled like swordsmen. Right now, I'm still ready to fight."
As he spoke, he used his sword to support himself and force his weakened body upright.
His face remained pale from exhaustion.
The sight made the woman feel a sharp ache in her chest.
At the same time, Zoro's vigilance left her uncertain whether she should feel happy or disappointed.
Just then, a female Marine in uniform arrived nearby.
When Zoro noticed her back, confusion immediately appeared on his face.
He looked at the woman before him.
Then at the female Marine.
Then back again.
His mouth slowly fell open.
"W... what's going on?!"
The woman also turned toward the newcomer curiously.
The female Marine had just knocked back a Cipher Pol agent and was about to speak.
"Are you two not..."
Before she could finish, she froze.
Her eyes widened.
"You... who are you?"
She pointed directly at the woman standing beside Zoro.
At the same time, the woman stared back in equal shock.
Even she now realized that this must be the female Marine Zoro had been referring to.
Because the woman before her looked almost identical.
Aside from the glasses, there was practically no difference.
Zoro rubbed his eyes repeatedly.
The two women remained standing there.
Clearly, this was not some illusion caused by exhaustion.
For a moment, all three of them wore equally bewildered expressions.
At that moment, a cloud of smoke drifted over from the distance.
"Hey! Princess Tashigi! What are you doing over here?!"
A Marine officer with two cigars in his mouth approached.
When Smoker got close enough to see clearly, he also paused briefly.
The similarity between the two women was astonishing.
The woman recovered first.
She stepped forward and extended her hand.
"Hello, Kuina."
The female Marine instinctively reached out as well.
"Y... you... hello..."
Then she hesitated before saying,
"Tashigi."
Zoro's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
"What did you just say your name was?!"
The woman turned toward him and smiled brightly.
"Long time no see, defeated opponent."
Zoro collapsed back onto the ground.
"Ku... Ku... Kuina?!"
"You said your name is Kuina?!"
His voice rose several octaves.
He simply could not believe what he was hearing.
The woman smiled softly.
"Did you really think I died in that so-called accident?"
Zoro's mind was in complete chaos.
As children, Kuina had supposedly died after falling down the stairs.
He had personally attended her funeral.
So how could she be standing here alive?
Kuina tilted her head.
"It was only a fall from that height. Even an ordinary person would hardly be seriously injured, much less someone who trained regularly."
Nearby, Tashigi finally began piecing everything together.
Now she understood why Zoro had reacted so strongly when they first met.
Why he had once told her not to stand before him with that face.
The answer had always been right in front of her.
These two had known each other since childhood.
And judging by everything she had seen, their relationship was far from ordinary.
At that moment, Smoker's voice interrupted the atmosphere.
"Come on, Princess. This isn't the place to be jealous."
Tashigi's face instantly turned bright red.
She shot Kuina a deep look.
Then, completely ignoring Smoker, she turned and walked away.
Meanwhile, Zoro continued staring at the woman before him in disbelief.
"You... you're really Kuina."
Kuina smiled.
"The genuine article."
She was indeed Kuina.
The girl who was supposed to have died years ago.
The girl who had appeared countless times in Zoro's dreams.
"Why?" Zoro asked again.
He still could not fully process it.
A gentle expression appeared on Kuina's face.
"If that hadn't happened, would you have grown this much?"
Zoro blinked.
"Why?"
A trace of warmth appeared in Kuina's eyes.
"Because you're the most important person in my heart."
Zoro immediately turned red.
Kuina had always occupied a special place in his heart.
She was his first love.
The woman he had never truly forgotten.
Even after her supposed death, she often appeared in his dreams.
Her loss had shaped the path he walked.
It was one of the reasons he devoted himself entirely to becoming the world's greatest swordsman and carrying on the promise they once shared.
As for Perona and Gion...
Those relationships had developed much later and under circumstances he never expected.
But now, standing before Kuina once again, how could he fail to understand her feelings?
The problem was that he no longer knew how to respond.
Perona and Gion already held important places in his heart.
He did not know how to face Kuina's emotions.
Kuina seemed to understand exactly what was troubling him.
Her gaze softened.
"Zoro... don't you love me?"
"I... I..."
He wanted to deny it.
Yet the girl he had longed for all these years was alive and standing right before him.
How could he lie to himself?
How could he lie to her?
He had already lost her once.
The thought of losing her again was unbearable.
In the end, he remained silent.
Seeing his reaction, Kuina smiled gently.
Then she spoke the words she had held back for so many years.
"Zoro-kun, I love you."
...