Though a Bird Can't Fly

Though A Bird Can't Fly, That Doesn't Mean It Never Will is a One Piece Alternate Universe Fic in which Zoro's deceased childhood friend Kuina survived her tragically anticlimactic accident, only to be struck blind instead.

With Zoro's encouragement, Kuina struggles to overcome her impairments and become as good a swordswoman as she ever was. Years later, she finally catches up with Zoro, only to discover he's fallen in with Straw-Hat Luffy and his crew. Kuina, in turn, is driven to join up with the Marines (to be more precise, with Captain Smoker's crew) in order to pursue Zoro and either bring him to his senses... or bring him down. Kuina's pursuit of Zoro ends up taking her on the journey of her life, weaving a tale that crosses paths with the familiar chronicle of the One Piece series in interesting ways.

This fanfic provides examples of:
 * Blind Weaponmaster: Kuina evolves into one of these quickly.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: An inverted example for the pirates. Kuina is a lowly marine recruit but she can cut a sea-king in half.
 * Disability Superpower: Apparently being blind makes it easier to have super hearing and
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Nico Robin
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: One of the fights has a marine being beaten up with his own broken-off arm. Ouch.
 * Hope Spot: ! Nope, it's just.
 * Imagine Spot: Kuina has some hilariously wrong ideas about what Luffy is like.
 * This soon turned into even more off-target ideas about what Luffy's crew is like. Her gullible imagining of 'Prince' Sanji especially deserves a mention.
 * Living Emotional Crutch: It's obvious that Zoro and Kuina are crutches for each other.
 * Major Injury Underreaction
 * My Childhood Rival Is Off Limits: Zoro has this to say in response to Sanji flirting with Kuina.
 * OC Stand In: Kuina herself. In canon, she barely appears in a few flashbacks.
 * Parody Sue: Kitty Raven the Hunter from Chapter 4, who quickly gets her ass handed to her by Kuina.
 * Power Incontinence: Ironically, developing  proved to be an even bigger handicap than blindness.
 * Retired Badass: Kuina's sensei, Ichii.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Played straight, complete with a Tragic Keepsake, even.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Kuina's sword teacher is clearly inspired by (and named for!) the protagonist of Zatoichi.
 * During one of Kuina's fantasies about Luffy, she imagines him as posing dramatically with a notebook while boasting about his ability to kill anyone whose true name he knows.
 * Skilled but Naive: Kuina is extremely skilled with swords, but her ignorance of the world outside her village and interpersonal relationships is occasionally worse than Zoro's.
 * Stern Chase
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You