Chapter 32: Marine Admiral? This Old Man Is Here to Beat an Admiral!
The golden streak of light that was the Thousand Sunny vanished at the edge of the horizon.
On the sea, only a solitary figure remained, standing on empty air, surrounded by dozens of steel warships forming a heavy encirclement.
Silence.
An oppressive, suffocating silence.
Aboard the flagship, countless Marine soldiers stared at the old man in the floral shirt floating in mid-air, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
"That's... Monkey D. Garp?"
"You've got to be kidding me! He stayed behind alone?"
"Is he planning to take on Admiral Greenbull and our entire fleet by himself?!"
"Madman! He's absolutely a madman!"
"Stop calling him a Vice Admiral! We all know that rank is just a decoration!"
"How could a guy who slams Celestial Dragons into the dirt be just a Vice Admiral?!"
The soldiers' whispers were filled with a mix of terror and absurdity.
In their eyes, the man who was supposed to be the Hero of the Marines looked more terrifying right now than any of the Four Emperors.
"Ah la la... what a pain."
On his beach chair, Aramaki lazily stood up.
Vibrant flowers bloomed silently from the wooden deck beneath his feet.
He stretched his back and looked at the solitary figure in the sky.
"To think we'd have to roll out such a massive formation just to capture one legend."
"Oh? That's some impressive guts. As expected of the legendary Garp-san."
Aramaki's body began to change.
Countless thick vines and pitch-black branches exploded from his body like beasts breaking free from a cage, spreading frantically outward.
They fell into the sea but didn't sink. Instead, defying all logic, they expanded wildly across the surface of the ocean.
In the blink of an eye, a colossal, writhing, mobile forest appeared upon the seas.
Every vine looked as tough as steel; every movement churned up monstrous waves.
"The justice of the Woods-Woods Fruit is to turn all evil into nutrients for my growth!"
Aramaki's voice grew high-pitched and twisted, echoing from the center of the forest and resonating through the sky.
"You talk too much."
Garp rolled his wrist, his knuckles cracking with a crisp pop-pop sound.
He sank his body slightly, slowly drawing his right fist back.
No fancy techniques. No named moves.
He simply punched toward that terrifying forest that blotted out the sun.
BOOM!
A surge of Conqueror's Haki, condensed to its absolute limit and wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki, transformed into a visible torrent of black lightning that swept horizontally across the sea.
The terrifying forest, capable of crushing steel warships, was split apart like rotten wood before a giant axe.
Starting from the point of impact, countless tough vines and branches were instantly torn apart, pulverized, and annihilated.
A massive gap, a hundred meters wide, was forcibly punched from the edge of the forest straight through to its center by this unreasonable display of brute force!
Sunlight once again poured through the gap.
"What?!"
In the center of the forest, the leisure and self-satisfaction on Aramaki's face vanished for the first time.
It was replaced by pure shock.
"My forest... was pierced by sheer physical strength?"
"That's impossible! That defies the laws of nature!"
"His Haki... how can it deal this much damage to my plants?"
"This old geezer... he's even more absurd than the intel reports said!"
"Is this... the true power of Garp the Hero?"
In that split second of shock—
THWACK!
Aramaki's body shook violently. It felt like he had been hit head-on by a runaway Sea Train.
His massive body, composed of plant matter, was blasted backward by the immense force, ploughing a long trench of white foam across the ocean surface.
"Damn it!"
Aramaki stabilized himself a hundred meters away. A massive fist imprint was caved into his chest, and countless broken branches were writhing madly, attempting to repair the damage.
The look he gave Garp no longer held any trace of his earlier dismissal. There was only gravity and madness.
"You old monster!"
He slammed both hands onto the surface of the sea.
"Wood Ban: Ten Thousand Serpents!"
Rumble!
The entire forest came alive.
Thousands of vines, thick as giant pythons, burst out of the sea from all directions!
With a whistling sound that tore through the air, they attacked from the sky, from underwater, from the left and right, sealing off every inch of Garp's dodge space as they lunged to devour him.
Garp stood his ground, making no attempt to dodge.
He simply raised his hands and spread his fingers toward the overwhelming sea of vines.
"Hah!"
With a single explosive shout, a wave of Conqueror's Haki, even more violent than before, erupted from his body.
Black lightning crackled wildly around him.
The moment the python-like vines touched the shockwave of Haki, it was as if they had been touched by hellfire!
They withered rapidly, carbonized instantly, and finally turned into drifting ash.
Garp's figure vanished again amidst the crackling black Haki.
He took a single step, seeming to cross the very fabric of space, and appeared right at the source of the vines—directly in front of Aramaki's main body.
He delivered a kick.
Simple. Direct.
Aramaki's pupils constricted. He crossed his arms over his chest, sprouting countless roots from his body to form layer upon layer of wooden armor.
CRACK!
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
The layers of wooden armor were pulverized instantly by the kick.
Aramaki's massive body was launched into the air again, tumbling uncontrollably.
Garp gave him no quarter.
Flipping his body in mid-air, Garp dropped an elbow strike!
Like a meteor falling from the heavens, he smashed ruthlessly toward Aramaki's back.
Aramaki, suspended in mid-air with no leverage, could only watch as the elbow strike, wrapped in an aura of destruction, grew larger in his vision.
"Bastard!"
He let out a roar of unwillingness, forcibly twisting his body at the last second.
BANG!
The elbow strike connected solidly with his shoulder.
A dull, heavy thud resonated, sounding sickeningly deep.
Aramaki's entire arm, composed of plant matter, along with half of his shoulder, was completely blasted into flying debris by the blow.
He let out a pained grunt as his body plummeted like a kite with its string cut, smashing violently into the distant Marine fleet.
CRASH!
An unlucky warship was hit directly by his massive body.
The sturdy steel deck instantly caved in and snapped. The entire ship groaned under the unbearable weight, belching black smoke as it slowly began to sink into the sea.
"Admiral Greenbull!"
"The Admiral got sent flying!"
"How is that possible?! That's Admiral Greenbull!"
Panic erupted from the surrounding warships.
Amidst the wreckage, Aramaki struggled to his feet.
At his shattered shoulder, countless new branches were growing rapidly, attempting to reconstruct his limb.
He looked up at the old man slowly descending from the sky.
Garp landed on the sea surface, not a single wrinkle on his clothes. For the first time, the emotion known as "fear" flickered in Aramaki's eyes.
Garp shook out his hand, then grinned, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth.
"Brat, the warm-up is over."
(To be Continued)