Chapter 21

I should have taken a taxi.

Toji naturally caught Zoro by the nape of his neck as he tried to veer off onto a different path, pulling him back to his side. This was the eighth time he had to do so.

A few hours earlier, when Zoro mentioned he wanted to show his power—what he called Haki—Toji had asked:

"Can't you show it here?"

"It's a bit problematic to show it at home or in crowded places."

It would be better to find a place with fewer people.

Following that, Toji took Zoro out of the house after the nanny arrived, heading to a suitable location.

...Of course, he hadn't anticipated getting lost so frequently on a journey that should have taken about 30 minutes by foot.

'Does he have no sense of direction at all?'

Toji seriously wondered.

"Zoro, make sure to take a taxi if you're going somewhere."

"...? Why?"

"Because you're directionally challenged."

"Whaa?!"

After watching Zoro attempt to enter dead-end alleys three times in a row, Toji was convinced. Zoro was severely directionally challenged.

"Have you never been around here?"

"I have."

"How many times?"

"Hard to say."

"What were you doing?"

"Looking for you."

Zoro's response made Toji close his mouth. Carrying a heavy sense of guilt, he felt diminished in front of his child.

Toji, once again, saw Zoro trying to wander off into a secluded alley and massaged his temples.

...No helping it.

Toji grabbed Zoro by the nape of his neck and hoisted him up onto his shoulders. Zoro, suddenly finding himself in a piggyback position, looked bewildered.

"What's this?"

"If you keep walking like that, you'll get lost. Stay put."

"I can walk on my own!"

Toji ignored Zoro's kicking feet as he continued walking. The body perched on his shoulder was small and light. Four years old. The weight felt true to the age.

...With this body, his son had killed someone yesterday.

"Zoro."

"Hmm?"

"Yesterday, you killed someone."

"I did."

There wasn't much emotion in his response. Since Zoro started wandering the East Blue in search of Mihawk, he had killed quite a few people. To the bloodthirsty monsters, the people of the East Blue would murmur about him. What people said about him didn't matter, not really.

"Was it your first time?"

"Well..."

In this life, yes. Zoro swallowed the rest of his words.

"..."

Toji was silent for a moment. The one killed had hesitated, and Zoro, being quite skilled, wouldn't just kill anyone... But still, murder was murder.

Toji couldn't bring himself to ask how it had happened. He feared the answer might be, "You weren't there."

He feared his absence had cornered Zoro into a dead end.

So, Toji asked something else.

"Are you okay?"

When Toji first committed murder, he was seventeen. It was his first assignment after leaving the Zenin family, and his target was a class 2 sorcerer. Toji had hidden in the sorcerer's residence in advance, ambushed him, and cut his throat.

As the sorcerer's head fell to the ground, a whirlwind of emotions swept through Toji's mind.

An instinctual repulsion to murder, doubt over whether he was truly dead, a base thrill and pleasure that even someone as blessed as the sorcerer ended up dead by the hands of someone like him, a realization that he could never go back to the past.

Even Toji, of all people, felt such things during his first kill. But Zoro, he seemed unnervingly unfazed.

After all, Toji was seventeen at the time, and Zoro is now only four. Even those in the sorcery world who are put through rigorous training to become strong sorcerers from a young age don't usually take on the task of killing people at four. It wouldn't be strange for them to cry and make a fuss... No, that would be the expected reaction at that age.

There might be more insane people in the sorcery world than sane ones, but even considering that, Zoro was excessively... calm.

Zoro blinked.

"Who. Me?"

"Yes."

"I'm okay."

A sword is a weapon made to kill. From the moment he first held one, aspiring to reach the pinnacle as a swordsman, he was prepared to accumulate the karma of killing and to pay its price.

Though Toji wouldn't know. Silently looking down at Toji's head, Zoro suddenly asked.

"Afraid?"

"Of what?"

"Me."

He knew it might seem strange. But it was only a matter of time before it was revealed, just a bit earlier than expected. After all, Zoro was such a person. A swordsman who finds exhilaration in battle and, while avoiding indiscriminate killing, feels little for the death of an enemy.

No matter how Toji reacted to Zoro, there was no intention of leaving him. But, as with the people of the East Blue in the past, if Toji were to avoid and fear Zoro...

"No."

Toji quickly responded.

"It's not you that I'm afraid of."

Regardless of what he was, Zoro was Toji's son. That's why Toji was not afraid of him. How he acquired such power was a mystery.

Being a sorcerer killer himself, Toji was not so faint-hearted as to be scared of his son for killing a sorcerer. He was absolutely not afraid.

It's just that he was...

"Worried about you, Zoro."

That was all there was to it.

"...I'm sorry."

If he hadn't left in the first place, Zoro wouldn't have encountered the sorcerer. And after doing so, Toji couldn't be shameless enough to question his son about killing a sorcerer.

Looking at the back of Toji's head for a moment, Zoro snorted and said.

"I'm okay."

He really was okay. The time to be shocked by killing had long passed.

"Don't leave again."

Toji sighed, hesitating before continuing.

"Don't just kill anyone recklessly. It's difficult to manage, you know."

"A sword that only brings destruction is not a strong sword. I know, so don't worry."

"..."

Where did such a person come from? ...What a question, he came from me. Toji closed his mouth and walked on.