Zoro lowered his head and sighed, then
set off westward with determination in his eyes.
"Solitude is a form of training too. Kuta, Kuina, wait for me. I'll be on the Grand Line soon."
His swordsmanship had improved at an astonishing pace lately. In fact, he had long since surpassed the realm of Cutting Steel and was only a step away from being considered a Swordmaster.
He had a feeling that day was close.
Not far away, in another direction.
An old wooden cabin stood on a hillside.
Inside it, a boy of fifteen or sixteen, wearing a straw hat, a T-shirt with a Marine flag printed across the chest, and blue jeans, was clutching an enormous roasted leg and taking huge bites.
It came from a beast's carcass he had found in the forest yesterday.
He had been finding carcasses like this all the time these past few days.
Every one had been killed with a single cut. He had no idea who had done it, but those beasts had all been his punching bags.
Now that someone had killed them, he had considered finding the culprit and getting revenge. But looking at the carcasses scattered everywhere, he couldn't bear to leave them there to rot. All he could do was drag them back to the cabin in tears, roast them, and feast on them in tears.
"Hm... what's that sound?"
Just then, the boy, who had been busily stuffing his face, seemed to hear something. With a huge mouthful of meat between his teeth, he kept chewing as he raised his head, his ears twitching slightly.
Gulp!
After swallowing a lump of meat bigger than his neck, the boy shook his head and buried his face in the roasted leg again.
It was as though he didn't