Chapter 22: A New Legend is Born!
Deathly silence reigned over Gyoncorde Plaza.
The colossal ark that had blotted out the skies of Fish-Man Island, bringing with it the promise of doomsday and despair, had vanished.
Light returned to this land deep beneath the waves.
Warm sunlight pierced through ten thousand meters of seawater, passed through the massive double-layered bubble, and gently sprinkled down upon every living soul that had survived the catastrophe.
But no one cheered.
Everyone—the Straw Hat Pirates included—stood with their heads thrown back and their mouths agape, their minds completely blank.
Their eyes were locked deathly tight on the sky.
Or rather, they were locked onto that patch of seawater being refilled by the sunlight—that massive, circular void, large beyond imagination, that was slowly healing itself.
Time seemed to have frozen in this moment.
"Wh... what was that just now..."
Usopp's voice was dry and raspy. The weapon in his hand had long since clattered to the floor, and he was slumped on the ground in a heap.
"The octopus... is gone..."
Luffy stared blankly at the sky, his mouth opened wide enough to fit a Sea King's egg. As always, his focus was entirely different from everyone else's.
"That wasn't an octopus. That was the Ark Noah."
Robin's voice was soft, yet in the dead silence, it carried with distinct clarity. She stood with her arms crossed, watching the figure currently walking up from the seabed onto the shore.
Zoro's hand gripped the hilt of his sword so hard that veins bulged beneath his skin, his arm trembling uncontrollably.
The cigarette in Sanji's mouth had fallen out at some point unnoticed. Every muscle in his body was pulled taut.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
Nami's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
She watched the old man calmly walking ashore, his clothes barely even damp, and felt as if her entire worldview was being shredded, piece by piece.
Is that really something a human being can do?
"He... He... the sea..."
A Fish-Man soldier pointed a trembling finger at the sky, then at the old man walking onto the plaza. His throat made meaningless, gurgling clicking sounds.
"He punched... a hole... through the sea?"
This sentence, filled with absurdity and unreality, finally jolted everyone awake from their petrified state.
"What? Punched through the sea?"
"Impossible! That's ten thousand meters of deep ocean!"
"But... But the Ark Noah really is gone!"
"I saw it! I saw it with my own eyes!"
"He threw one punch, and then... and then the ocean just broke open!"
"God... That's something only a god could do!"
The Fish-Man soldier who had first spoken the truth rolled his eyes back into his head amidst the terrified agreement of the crowd. He foamed at the mouth and collapsed backward, stiff as a board, passing out on the spot.
His mind simply could not withstand a scene that so thoroughly defied comprehension.
The panic did not cease with the disappearance of the disaster. Instead, it spread through the crowd in an even more eerie fashion.
If the fall of the Noah was a natural disaster, an apocalypse...
Then the man before them was a terrifying existence walking among mortals—one who could create a natural disaster with a wave of his hand, and wipe out an apocalypse just as easily.
And no one could guess his temperament.
Garp paid no mind to the gazes behind him that looked at him as if he were a ghost.
He simply walked ashore, patted the non-existent dust from his beach shorts, and glanced toward the distance.
Outside Fish-Man Island, hidden within the dark currents of the deep sea.
Inside the bridge of a Navy warship.
All the CP0 members stared at the monitor screens of the periscope, witnessing the scene that overturned their understanding of reality.
One punch.
It pierced through ten thousand meters of deep sea.
It took the Ancient Weapon that carried their entire plan and tossed it from the ocean floor to the surface as if it were a piece of trash.
Silence.
A silence so profound you could hear a pin drop.
"Just now... what was that..."
A CP0 agent's voice shook like a sieve.
"Report... Report! Analysis impossible!"
"Energy readings instantly exceeded maximum capacity! The instruments... the instruments are fried!"
"His power... it's even stronger than it was at Mary Geoise..."
"Monster! He isn't human at all!"
"Fast! Retreat! Evacuate this sea sector immediately! The mission is a total failure!"
The captain's roar finally shattered the silence.
He lunged for the helm, his hands trembling so violently from fear that he could barely grip the wheel.
However, the instant he gave the order to retreat...
A figure appeared on the bow of the ship without a single warning sign.
A floral shirt. Beach shorts. A smile on his face that was so kindly it made their blood run cold.
It was Garp.
"You bunch of bastards."
Garp's voice was flat, sounding like he was merely complaining about a noisy neighbor.
"Because of you, my snacks have gone cold."
As the words fell.
A terrifying power erupted instantly alongside the punch he threw.
The Conqueror's Haki accumulated by [Lazy Justice] poured out in its entirety at that moment.
The warship lurched violently.
A brief, high-pitched scream echoed from the bridge.
Then, everything returned to peace.
That specially-made warship, representing the highest military force of the World Government, along with every CP0 member on board...
In a single instant, they were thoroughly ground into the finest dust by an unreasonable, brute force.
There was no explosion. There was no fire.
They were simply, silently, and completely erased from the depths of the sea.
Gyoncorde Plaza.
Garp's figure returned to his original spot.
It was as if he had never left.
He walked up to Luffy, who was still in a daze.
He raised his hand and slapped the back of Luffy's head heavily.
SMACK!
The crisp sound made everyone's bodies flinch in sympathy.
"Ouch! What was that for, Grandpa?!"
Luffy clutched his head, finally snapping back to reality.
"Let's go, you brat! Time for dinner!"
Garp grabbed Luffy by the back of his collar and dragged him toward the Dragon Palace like a dead dog.
"I heard the Dragon Palace has some Sea King sake aged for hundreds of years! It should go perfectly with some roast meat!"
"Meat?! Really?! Awesome!"
Luffy, who had been complaining a second ago, instantly had stars in his eyes the moment he heard the word "meat."
All doubts and shock were thrown to the nine heavens as he followed along happily.
Grandfather and grandson, arms around each other's shoulders, walked further and further away under the dull, petrified gazes of the crowd.
Leaving behind only the Hody Jones remnants, who were so terrified they had gone limp and lost even the courage to run.
And a Straw Hat crew who had gained a brand-new understanding of the word "strong."
"Did... did we almost die just now?"
Usopp stared at the retreating backs of the pair, muttering to himself.
"No."
Nami held onto a wall for support as she slowly stood up.
She looked in the direction the grandfather and grandson had gone, her face wearing a complex expression that mixed fear, relief, excitement, and absurdity.
"We just accidentally got in the way of their dinner run."
That day.
Madam Shyarly's prophecy came true, and was prevented, in a way that no one could have comprehended.
A new legend was born on Fish-Man Island.
It wasn't a story about a boy in a straw hat destroying the island.
It was a story about a man in a floral shirt who, for the sake of an undisturbed dinner and a bag of snacks that hadn't gone cold, casually punched a hole through ten thousand meters of deep sea.
(To be Continued)