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Chapter 68: Garp vs. Garp
The face of Marine Fleet Admiral Sengoku turned a deep purple. He was trembling, not from fear, but from extreme rage!
He raised a trembling finger, pointing at the figure laughing wildly on the enemy ship, his eyes shot with blood.
"Gar...p..."
He squeezed the two words through his teeth, his voice as hoarse as a broken bellows.
"You... damn old bastard!!!"
"What the hell are you doing?!?!"
Sengoku's roar, broadcast by the Den Den Mushi, echoed across the battlefield. The collapse and madness in his voice made the hearts of every Marine sink.
Even the Fleet Admiral had lost his composure!
Could it be... could that really be Vice Admiral Garp?!
The "real Garp," sitting beside Sengoku, had not said a word from the beginning.
He just sat there, his broad back ramrod straight.
No one could see.
The complex expression on his wrinkled face: shock, confusion, envy... and finally, all of it melted into a subtle, relieved smile, hidden at the corners of his mouth.
He watched that "other him" in the distance, watching him do what he himself had always wanted to do... but could not.
His iron fists, resting on his knees, had, at some point, quietly unclenched.
...
On the execution platform.
Ace, who had been bowing his head, awaiting death, froze completely when he heard the words, "I'm taking you home!"
He snapped his head up, looking in disbelief at the giant whale ship in the distance.
He saw him.
He saw that figure, so familiar... yet so alien.
That bastard old man who had only ever used his "Fist of Love" on him, who had tried to force him to become a Marine.
And now... he was standing on an enemy ship, on the opposite side of the entire world.
For him.
"Grand... pa..."
Ace's lips trembled. His eyes instantly turned red.
Two streams of hot tears rolled uncontrollably down his stubborn face.
Why...
Why did you come!
And just as the entire battlefield was frozen in a strange stalemate from this sudden turn of events.
The man who had caused it all... moved.
"BWAHAHAHA!"
Garp laughed wildly, taking a fierce step forward!
Bang!
The deck beneath his feet instantly exploded!
His entire body shot up like a black cannonball, crossing the thousand-meter bay in a brutish, unreasonable arc, hurtling straight toward the center of Marineford's plaza!
"First, a greeting for you brats!"
In mid-air, Garp's wild voice boomed like thunder!
He clenched his right fist.
No Armament Haki.
No extra techniques.
Just a simple, ordinary punch.
He aimed it at the tens of thousands of elite Marines below!
"Fist Bone Meteorite!"
In that instant.
The entire Marineford plaza fell into an unprecedented, dead silence.
No.
It wasn't silence.
It was that all sound... had been crushed... by the terrifying, unstoppable pressure descending from the sky!
Every single one of the tens of thousands of Marine elites looked up, their faces pale, staring at the sky.
In the sunlit sky, a black dot was growing larger, falling with unstoppable momentum!
No.
That wasn't a dot.
It was a fist!
A fist... wrapped in a terrifying power... capable of destroying everything!
"You're... kidding me..."
A young Marine's rifle clanged to the ground.
His legs trembled like leaves, his teeth chattered violently, but he couldn't make a sound.
His pupils reflected the ever-expanding shadow of the fist. His mind was blank.
This is...
This is the full-power attack... of the legendary Marine Hero, "Garp the Fist"?
This is... the terrifying power... that the legends of Roger's era had to face?!
"What... what kind of joke is this... It's just one punch..."
"This is... the 'Marine Hero's' iron fist?"
"I see... I see..." a battle-hardened Vice Admiral, after resisting for a few seconds, finally buckled, falling to one knee. He muttered, "So... the pirates... that Mr. Garp chased all over the world... this is the monster they faced every day..."
At this moment, every Marine in the plaza, rookie or veteran, had the same absurd, yet undeniably real, thought.
Being a pirate...
Is way too hard!
How did they survive... facing this kind of unreasonable monster?!
"Dodge!!"
"Get out of the way!!!!"
Finally, a Marine commander broke free from the suffocating pressure and let out a heart-tearing roar.
But it was too late!
It was too fast!
The "meteorite" was already upon them!
The furious fist-wind, before it even landed, was already cracking the ground. Countless Marines were blown about, unable to even stand!
Doom.
It had arrived.
Just as everyone closed their eyes, preparing for death.
On the execution platform.
The figure who had been sitting in silence, like a statue, moved.
He slowly... stood up.
It was just a simple movement, but it made the towering execution platform groan under the strain.
He looked up, glancing at the "meteorite" that carried the power of destruction.
His wrinkled, old face... held no expression.
He just spoke, his voice flat.
"Such a... familiar move."
As his voice fell.
He... also... clenched his right fist.
The same stance.
The same angle.
Facing the black "meteorite" falling from the sky, he didn't dodge. He met it head-on!
"Fist Bone Meteorite!"
BOOM!!!
If the first Garp's punch was a black meteor, destroying all.
Then the one rising from the execution platform... was a reverse-falling white comet, intending to shatter the sky!
The two powers were identical in essence!
Both were pure, unadulterated, brutish, and tyrannical destructive force!
The next second.
Under the gaze of the entire world.
Under the horrified stares of Whitebeard, Sengoku, the three Admirals, all the commanders, the Shichibukai... every top-tier powerhouse present.
Two fists, one black, one white, both representing the ultimate power of the "Iron Fist."
In the sky above Marineford plaza.
They slammed into each other!
There was no fiery explosion.
There was no deafening roar.
At that moment, the entire world lost all sound, all color.
Space... like a shattered mirror... cracked apart.
A visible, pure-white, circular shockwave... exploded outward from the point of impact!
Wherever it passed, the atmosphere wailed, and the clouds vanished!
The entire sky... had been punched clean, leaving a giant, bizarre, circular hole!