4 Chapter 4

Zoro was in a crowded place for the first time in a long while.

It was a tall and large building called a "supermarket", a place that sold a variety of items. It was like having a market inside a building. Everywhere you looked, there were people bustling about, each carrying baskets or pushing carts made of metal, filled with goods.

It was a sight he had never seen in his previous life.

'It makes sense, given the different world.'

Not long ago, Zoro had realized that the place he was born into was not somewhere in the world of his previous life but an entirely different world altogether.

'I did think it was strange.'

There were too many things he had never seen before, and none of the things he knew existed here. Things like Devil Fruits, Haki, pirates, or the endless expanses of sea.

For a place supposedly in one of the four Blues, unreachable by the sea's information, there were too many advanced technological items, such as machines called TVs that functioned like Den Den Mushi for visual communication, or elevators, pulleys that moved on their own with the press of a button.

And then, there were things he had never felt in his previous life.

It was too odd to be one of the Four Blues, so he had wondered if it might be an island in the New World, inaccessible to outsiders...

'To think it was an entirely different world.'

Truly, it was astonishing.

With a flash.

Toji lifted Zoro into a small space in the metal cart designed for small children like Zoro to sit in, fitting him perfectly. After making sure Zoro was comfortably seated, Toji instructed him.

"Don't ever try to get out of the cart."

Zoro made a sullen face but eventually nodded. At 16 months old, he could walk, but he didn't have the stamina to wander around the vast interior of the building continuously.

Glancing around.

Passersby sneaked peeks at Zoro. Their gazes were filled with curiosity.

Zoro touched the top of his head. Between his fingers, thin strands of grass-like green hair peeked out. Even in this life, his hair was green. It was puzzling why, even though his parents had changed, this hadn't.

"...!"

Zoro turned his body, sensing the ominous aura. Toji, who was pushing the cart from behind, gripped the cart as if he was about to crush it, glaring at the people sneaking glances at Zoro. Chie, busy selecting fruits on the other side, was unaware of Toji's state, but Zoro noticed.

"Toji."

At Zoro's soft call, the menacing aura surrounding Toji dissipated. Toji forced a smile at Zoro, but it was colder than usual.

'It's okay.'

It didn't matter what others whispered. If he had cared about such things, he wouldn't have become a great pirate with wanted posters spread across the seas. Even when he wasn't a pirate, Zoro had seen countless people tremble in fear of him. The sneaky glances meant nothing.

"I'm fine."

Toji looked at Zoro for a moment, then ruffled Zoro's hair with his thick hand. As soon as Chie approached, he moved the cart to a less crowded area.

Since the shopping was mainly done by Chie and Toji, Zoro essentially just sat there. He tried sneakily to add a bottle of alcohol to the cart, but Toji, almost like a ghost, noticed and removed it, thwarting the attempt.

"Should we make chili shrimp or fried shrimp?" Chie's voice floated from afar, asking Toji. Zoro half-listened, half-ignored, when suddenly...

"Mommy, it hurts."

Zoro turned his head towards the sound. A few steps away from the cart, a girl slightly older than Zoro, clung to her mother's skirt, whining.

"Mommy, my head. My heeaad."

"What's wrong with your head? Does it hurt?"

"Someone, someone chewed it up. My head, my heaad."

"Does your head hurt? You took medicine earlier, is it still hurting?"

"It hurts. It keeps hurting. I hate it, uh, I hate it..."

Soon, the girl burst into tears. Her mother, unsure of what to do, held her and tried to comfort her, but the girl's crying did not stop.

Zoro's gaze naturally drifted to the girl's head. Her hair, tied in pigtails with pink bands, showed nothing unusual.

But just because it's not visible, doesn't mean it's not there.

"...."

Zoro's proficiency in Observation Haki was the weakest among the three types of Haki, and it hadn't developed in a way that allowed him to sense others' emotions.

—However, he was not so feeble as to miss detecting pure malice of that magnitude.

Especially if 'it' was coiling its long body around the child, opening its massive maw to chew on the child's head with blunt teeth.

Eek, eek.

A sound was heard. Or could it be called a sound? It wasn't something heard with the ears but rather a presence felt, something revolting, armed with pure malice.

The child's mother was still busy comforting her crying child, not removing the 'something' gnawing at the child's head, which felt bizarrely odd.

It's not that they are pretending not to see; they truly cannot see it.

Neither the child nor the child's mother.

The 'something' on the child's head turned towards him. Nothing was visible to the eye, but Zoro could tell their gazes had met.

The 'something' slithered towards Zoro like a snake, filled with a murderous intent as if it would kill him on the spot. But it was slow. Exasperatingly slow.

Facing an 'enemy' after so long, Zoro's grey eyes deepened. The adversary had chosen poorly, but Zoro was not merciful enough to let it go.

He reached out his hand. The oblivious 'something' opened its mouth wide towards Zoro's hand.

Just before Zoro's hand touched the 'something',

Schlick.

The 'something' was silently sliced in half, dying instantly. The presence detected by his Observation Haki disappeared, leaving only the bisected corpse.

Tsk, Zoro clicked his tongue.

'Boring.'

It ended too anticlimactically. Of course, it was nothing more than trash, not even worth the level of a Navy colonel, but to die without putting up any fight was unexpected.

"Mommy, it doesn't hurt anymore."

"It doesn't? Maybe the medicine is finally working. That's a relief."

Seeing the relieved mother hug her child, a faint smile appeared on Zoro's lips. Well, that turned out well.

Ah, Toji had arrived. Realizing this, Zoro turned around.

"..."

Their eyes met.

Toji seemed very surprised. He was so startled that he stood frozen in place, holding a dagger. His face was pale, and his green eyes trembled as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

'Why?'

Zoro tilted his head in confusion.

Even though Toji's presence was somewhat faint, anyone with a degree of training in Observation Haki should not fail to notice someone as strong as Toji approaching from behind. It wasn't a movement so fast that it couldn't be noticed; he had walked over slowly.

'Especially with a weapon in hand.'

The sight of the dagger made Zoro's eyes sparkle. Being born in a country with stable public order in this life, and with Chie and Toji absolutely not allowing any weapons near Zoro, seeing a proper weapon was almost a first for him in this life.

Noticing Zoro's gleaming eyes, Toji quickly stashed the dagger away.

"Zoro, you…"

Toji started to say something but then bit his lip, seemingly debating whether to ask. What could there be that he couldn't ask Zoro?

"Did you see it?"

"See what?"

Ah, was he talking about the 'something' that was just killed? To be precise, he hadn't seen it. He had felt its presence through Observation Haki, but with his naked eyes, he saw nothing.

Toji examined Zoro's face as if searching for something.

His expression, marked by scars, twisted. It was unclear whether he was happy, disappointed, or relieved.

Toji exhaled deeply and then roughly ruffled Zoro's hair with his large hand.

"If you didn't see it, that's good."

That settles it.

Toji held his head, a flurry of emotions crossing his face.

"It can't be. Must be a mistake."

Unable to see it... Toji murmured more to himself than to Zoro.

Zoro wanted to ask what he meant, but just then, Chie appeared with a bottle of sauce in hand.

"Toji, should we buy this too? Last time, it seemed like Zoro liked it."

"Sure."

The moment Chie faced him, Toji's face returned to normal.

Zoro stared at Toji for a while, then slowly shifted his gaze to Chie.

Just as things that were commonplace in his previous life did not exist here, there were things in this life that had not existed in his previous one.

For instance, the dark energy tangled inside Chie's stomach.

This energy usually resided quietly inside a person's body, but when they became angry or sad, it would seep out a little. Zoro didn't know what became of this energy once it escaped.

'...But now, I might have some idea.'

Zoro thought back to the 'something' from earlier. Not a creature housing the energy in a physical form, but one made entirely of that sinister energy.

In his previous life, Zoro had neither seen, heard of, nor felt such things. The world was vast, and all sorts of things happened, so perhaps it existed somewhere in his previous world, but it certainly wasn't a widely known power, at least not to Zoro's knowledge.

Everyone in this world possessed that energy. Chie, passersby, everyone Zoro met in the supermarket, and even Zoro himself.

...Except for Toji.

Zoro stopped his train of thought there. It was pointless to think about it now.

Knowledge only becomes useful when one has the situation and power to utilize it. Knowing about it now, when he hadn't even turned two, meant there was nothing Zoro could do.

'Next time.'

If he encountered such a thing again, he would have to observe more closely. That's what Zoro thought.

However, after that day, Zoro never again encountered such a 'something'.