Splash!
Gojo playfully splashed seawater on Riko's face, causing her to fall back with a startled yelp before turning around to shoot him with a water gun, exclaiming playfully.
"You're gonna get a taste of your own medicine!"
"Heh, try hitting me! How are you going to get through my shield?"
On the beach, dressed in vacation attire, Riko and Gojo's playful struggle was watched from a distance by Geto, Kuroi, Toji, and Zoro.
Sip, Zoro watched the duo without taking his eyes off them while enjoying his coconut juice through a straw.
For Zoro, this was only the second time he'd seen the sea in this lifetime. His first encounter was during a dream on his sixth birthday, filled with the vivid imagery of the ocean.
Toji also watched Riko but pulled Zoro close to lean against his legs.
Kuroi, slightly worried, whispered to Geto,
"Is it really okay for us to be so relaxed?"
"Time Vessel Association is based in Tokyo. In fact, being far away in Okinawa might actually be safer."
Sorcerers might not be known, but for non-sorcerers like Zoro and Toji, detecting danger can be tricky. You can't exactly shut down Tokyo just to keep it safe.
So, traveling by plane to a less frequented, quiet island in Okinawa could actually be easier for guarding duties.
"Well, the main reason we're here in Okinawa is that Riko wanted to see the sea and an aquarium."
Gojo, having picked up a large, wriggling sea cucumber, boasted about it to Riko.
"Look at this! It's a sea cucumber!"
"That's disgusting!"
Zoro watched them, thinking they were having a good time. Their antics reminded him of years ago when Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper would goof around.
Geto suggested,
"Zoro, why don't you join in?"
"No, I'm good."
"Don't like the sea?"
"Not really."
He just wanted to focus on guarding at the moment. It's not like Riko had invited him to play—
"Zoro! Come here and join us too!"
Before he could finish his thought, Riko called out. Gojo gestured for them to come over.
"Yeah, join in! Suguru, you too!"
"I'm fine here."
Geto, not wanting to get into the water, flatly refused.
As Zoro looked towards Toji, Toji shifted his gaze from Riko and looked down at Zoro, a warmth entering his previously impassive eyes.
Toji playfully pushed Zoro forward, being careful not to hurt him, showing no sign of rejection.
"Go have fun. Don't worry about me."
Zoro looked up at Toji hesitantly and responded,
"Don't push yourself."
"Look who's talking."
Go. Bounce around in the sea like a true marimo.
Zoro turned and dove into the playful fray between Riko and Gojo. He joined Riko's side.
"Two against one? That's unfair!"
"If I joined your side, it wouldn't be balanced."
Kuroi cautiously started a conversation.
"Sir… I heard that you're his father, is that right?"
"Yes."
"I heard he is six years old. I'm just a non-sorcerer who can see curses, so I don't know much about the sorcery world, but I understand that even sorcerers don't usually start so young…"
"It's because he's Zoro."
Toji interrupted Kuroi.
The power and will to fight curses and sorcerers at such a young age.
The indomitability that not even adults in the sorcery world can maintain.
Reaching out to others despite everything.
Being fully capable of shouldering the consequences of his own decisions, whether good or bad.
All of that is because Zoro is Zoro.
"Didn't you want to stop him?"
Toji looked at Riko, who was joyfully playing around, no different from any other girl. Occasionally, even Zoro could appear just like a child his age, and those moments made Toji's heart sink. He could somewhat understand how this woman named Kuroi felt.
After all, despite being a growth entity or whatever technical term, to a parent, it's simply their child.
Toji was silent for a long moment before he spoke.
"I did want to stop him."
Always.
He wanted to tell him, whether sorcerer or non-sorcerer, to ignore everything else and live peacefully just with his family, to let others' misfortunes pass by as if out of reach...
But that's not what Zoro would want.
...And it wouldn't be right.
Though it wasn't typical for Toji to concern himself with what was right or wrong, he was slowly learning how to practice it.
It's a cursed world where a six-year-old has to save people, but you can't say Zoro's act of reaching out and swinging his sword to save others is wrong.
Especially since he was the first person in this world to be saved by that hand.
Drenched, Zoro twisted the water out of his clothes with a sulky expression. When Toji looked at him, Zoro defensively said,
"I didn't lose. It's a draw."
Toji chuckled lightly and hugged the wet marimo.
...
After a hearty meal together, Amanai visited the aquarium.
As Riko pressed her hands against the thick glass separating her from the enormous fish, Zoro's face turned sullen. Riko turned to him and asked,
"Why are you looking like that?"
"…No, it's just that you remind me of someone."
A pain-in-the-neck chef with curly eyebrows who always smoked, who used to look at the Sunny's aquarium with the same kind of longing and desire mixed into his gaze.
Of course, compared to that chef, Riko was far less irritating. Zoro even felt a bit guilty for associating him with her.
Hmmm, Amanai chuckled.
"Was he a friend?"
"That's ridiculous. Why would I be friends with him?"
Zoro grimaced and shook his head. Friend. There could hardly be a term less suitable to describe the relationship between that guy and Zoro.
"You seem to know a lot about him though."
"Had to face him even if I didn't like it."
They were on the same ship, so it was inevitable to see each other, though they fought every time they did.
"Why did he look at the aquarium?"
"It was related to his dream."
All Blue. The mythical sea where fish from all four seas meet. That guy's dream was to find it.
The aquarium was a place to temporarily keep the fish they caught during their voyage, so it naturally contained a variety of fish, likely reminding him of All Blue, Zoro thought. Of course, with Luffy's appetite, no matter how much it was stocked, the aquarium was quickly emptied.
Upon hearing about All Blue, Riko's eyes sparkled.
"A sea where all the fish in the world gather? Does such a place really exist?"
"It does."
Zoro recalled the sight of All Blue he had seen long ago. It was a magnificent place. The curly-eyebrowed one cried for quite a while.
"He eventually opened a restaurant in All Blue."
After the crew disbanded, the chef opened a maritime restaurant in All Blue. Zoro had eaten there a few times. Of course, as always, they ended up fighting afterwards.
"It seems you were quite close."
"I told you we weren't close!"
Zoro absolutely, absolutely could not accept that he was close to curly eyebrows.
"Even though you were there when he achieved his dream?"
"It wasn't just me."
The entire Straw Hat crew saw it together.
"You must have had many friends."
Amanai muttered, recalling the faces of her friends she had seen recently and would never see again. Despite the short time, she missed them already. She longed to doodle in textbooks with them, to chat about nothing in particular.
She turned to Zoro.
"So, is he doing well?"
Zoro looked into the innocent eyes of Amanai for a moment and then responded calmly.
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
"I haven't seen him in a long time. I don't know how he's living."
He's probably fine. He's not the type to go down easily. When Zoro faced death, he took all those who could be a burden to the New Era and the crew to the afterlife. Among those knocked out by his Conqueror's Haki, there were quite a few survivors, but such people couldn't pose a threat to the era right away.
Zoro had no idea where those who were his comrades, including curly eyebrows, were now living.
'The worlds have split.'
It was natural. They were all capable enough to look after themselves, so he had to assume they were all right.
There was no way back. No matter what he did, even if he died again, he could never return to the world of his previous life.
That was Zoro's intuition.
Amanai, unaware of all this, looked at Zoro's calm face. What she understood was that the child in front of her also had dear people he could never meet again.
That was enough for her.
Riko casually remarked,
"You must miss them."
"..."
"If they were your friends, it's natural to miss them, isn't it?"
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