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The East Blue Sea is near the Goa Kingdom.
Garp's ship, the Doghead Warship (also known as the "HQ-3"), sailed across the azure sea with a bone clenched in its figurehead's mouth.
"That brat Luffy! He actually dared to lay hands on his own grandpa! What a stubborn temper; who did he learn that from?!"
Garp, wearing his dog-head cap, sat on the deck eating rice crackers, still looking dissatisfied.
"..."
Beside him, his adjutant, Bogard, remained silent.
The Marine Commodore, dressed in a suit and wearing a fedora with a long tachi at his waist, glanced helplessly at Garp.
Was there even a need to ask who he learned it from?
Naturally, from the grandfather who would punch his disobedient grandson into the mountains and leave him there.
Out of respect for Garp, however, Bogard stayed quiet for a moment before reluctantly saying, "You could have simply knocked Luffy out and taken him with you."
"Kacha. Hm?"
Garp chewed on his senbei, glanced at Bogard, and grinned.
"What's the point of doing that?"
If you forcibly bend a mast, can the ship survive the storm at sea?
Garp wanted his grandson to become a Marine, but in the end...
"That brat's path...he has to choose to walk it himself!"
Garp smiled and tossed over the now-empty bag of senbei.
"Bogard, get this old man another bag!"
"... "
Bogard took the bag and smiled helplessly.
"As expected of you."
Shaking his head, Garp stood up and casually swept his gaze across the surrounding sea.
Then...
"Hm?"
His eyes suddenly froze.
At that moment, he faintly saw a figure standing on the water far out on the sea.
The figure was extremely far away and appeared to be just a tiny black dot on the surface of the sea. In fact, even the Marines assigned to watch the surrounding waters hadn't noticed it yet.
But for someone as strong as Bogard, it was enough to be detected.
But at this moment…
"Life Return: Hawk Eyes!"
Sensing something wrong, Bogard decisively used Life Return.
And then—
After clearly seeing the figure in the distance, his expression drastically changed.
Because he could now see clearly—
That person was not standing on the sea.
More precisely, he was standing on top of a ceremonial vessel.
That ceremonial craft looked extremely unusual.
It was like a small single-person boat, yet steam continuously sprayed out from all around it as it traveled across the sea.
But that wasn't important.
After all, there were all kinds of strange ships on these seas—Bogard even knew that one of the Warlords, Dracule Mihawk, liked to ride around on a gloomy coffin-shaped boat like some kind of ocean vagrant.
The real issue was—
That person was wearing a pig-head mask!
A Sea Beast mask!
And without a doubt, within the Marines recently, something like that—so commonly found all over the world as a South Blue specialty—was an extremely sensitive item.
"A pig-head mask… not any known individual… just someone who happens to be wearing a Sea Beast mask?"
Murmuring under his breath, Bogard placed his hand on the hilt of his tachi.
"We'll know once we confirm it."
As the words fell, he had already drawn his blade.
"Iaijutsu Slash: Flowing Water!"
A flying sword slash burst out from the deck, its power far surpassing Lanli's slashes.
Yes—although both held the rank of Marine Commodore—
Bogard was only a Commodore because Garp himself was a Vice Admiral, and Bogard had never chosen to be promoted in order to continue serving at Garp's side.
If one truly spoke of strength, even among Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals, he would not be considered weak!
And now, as his slash flew forward, it shifted like flowing water, constantly changing form, circling around the figure on the sea surface.
It was obvious…
Since the situation was still unclear, he didn't intend to harm the other party directly. He only planned to trap him with the flying slash.
But in the next instant, his pupils suddenly shrank.
Because he clearly saw that the moment his slash drew close to the target...
"Buzz!"
Without a sound, the slash that should have split the surface of the sea apart vanished into thin air.
"!"
Seeing this, Bogard's heart immediately turned cold.
He could almost confirm it now: There was a powerhouse capable of silently annihilating his flying slash was definitely one of "The Twelve Zodiac," the unheard-of fourth member that the Marines had never known about!
Why had they appeared in East Blue?
Why near the Goa Kingdom?
Bogard didn't know.
But he had already tightened his grip on his sword.
Yet, right at that moment...
"Bogard."
He heard a voice.
When he turned around, Garp was already standing.
"Hold this for me."
Garp took off his dog-head Marine hat, tossed it to Bogard, and stepped onto the deck.
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
He clenched his fists, producing loud cracking sounds.
A bold and heroic grin appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Perfect timing. That brat Luffy made this old man a little angry. I'll handle this guy personally."
"So we really did run into one..."
At that moment, far out on the sea...
Beneath the pig-head mask, Roy's expression was grim.
In East Blue, as a criminal, encountering the Hero of the Marines... Although he had vaguely sensed it might happen, seeing the worst possibility come true still gave him a serious headache.
"Fighting this old man is meaningless, but luckily, we're still very far apart."
"I need to find a way to retreat immediately."
As he thought this, Inoshi looked down at the ceremonial craft beneath his feet and felt slightly reassured.
The ceremonial craft beneath him was essentially a "forged object" created by the Munch-Munch Fruit, which fuses two things together...
He ate a single-person speedboat and a Marine hat and used them to create it.
It could store items, and it sailed quickly. At this distance, it should be more than enough for him.
"Hmmm?"
But right at that moment, Inoshi's expression suddenly changed.
He could feel the entire sea surface trembling violently.
Something was coming!
"A slash... No, what the hell is that?"
He immediately turned his head and saw it clearly.
On the bow of the distant Doghead warship—
With his Marine coat flapping fiercely in the wind, the white-haired Marine was preparing to throw a punch.
The Haki condensed and compressed to an extreme degree from that fist, and it was the reason the entire sea was now in chaos.
Seawater splashed endlessly. The sea currents raged wildly. Roy could even hear the air above the sea crackling with explosive pi-pa sounds.
"Hahahahaha! The Twelve Zodiac...! The troublemaker who's been giving Sengoku and the government a massive headache lately... Let this old man see how much you really weigh!"
He laughed loudly, his voice echoing across the sea.
Black-and-red Haoshoku Haki exploded from his fist like lightning.
Then he swung his fist forward.
"Fist Bone: Meteor!"
(End of Chapter)