"Vice Admiral… the legendary hero Garp is actually Luffy's grandfather?!"
Nami cried out in shock, her brain completely freezing for a moment.
She looked at the massive man dominating the entire room with his overwhelming presence, then at the Justice coat draped over his shoulders. She simply couldn't connect the "Hero of the Marines" with their goofy captain.
Standing nearby, Ronan put away the Zhangba Serpent Spear. The caution in his expression shifted into deep sympathy.
Looking at the two faces with almost identical features, he sighed helplessly.
"Judging from that entrance and that completely lawless personality… they really are from the same family."
Garp folded his arms across his chest like an immovable mountain as he looked down at Luffy rubbing his head. His tone turned somewhat dissatisfied.
"Luffy, shouldn't you apologize first when you see your grandpa?!"
Outside the ruined doorway, the Marines guarding the entrance also exploded into chaos.
"Vice Admiral Garp's grandson?!"
"This is the first time I've ever heard about this!"
Luffy looked at Garp and instinctively shrank backward. It was a fear engraved deep into his soul.
"Ronan… Sanji… Zoro… don't attack him."
"When I was little… he almost killed me countless times."
The crew's expressions instantly became even more horrified.
But Garp looked completely calm, even laughing proudly.
"You brat, saying it like that is gonna make people misunderstand!"
"When I threw you into bottomless ravines, it was to teach you how to climb!"
"When I abandoned you in primeval forests at night, it was to train your survival instincts!"
"When I tied you to balloons and launched you thousands of meters into the sky, it was all to forge a strong man's spirit!"
Listening to this string of torture-level "parenting methods," the corner of Ronan's eye twitched violently.
He turned toward Luffy's face, which was practically covered in PTSD, and suddenly understood everything.
"No wonder Luffy's obsession with freedom is practically pathological… A childhood like that would've broken an ordinary person mentally."
"The fact that Luffy survived and still grew into such an optimistic idiot is basically a miracle in human evolution."
Sanji looked at Luffy sympathetically.
"Now I finally understand where Luffy's terrifying vitality comes from!"
"I originally wanted to train you into the strongest Marine soldier! Then I entrusted you to a friend so you could train alongside Ace, and before I knew it, you turned into this sneaky pirate-looking brat!"
The more Garp spoke, the angrier he became, his voice booming like thunder.
"I already told you! I wanna become a pirate!"
Luffy finally exploded, jumping up and roaring back.
"I'm gonna become the Pirate King!"
"You little bastard! That red-haired brat corrupted you!"
"Shanks saved my life! Stop talking crap, old man!"
The air froze.
Garp's expression instantly became terrifyingly ferocious. He stepped forward in one stride, his massive hand grabbing Luffy by the collar like a steel clamp and lifting him into the air.
That enormous fist once again aimed directly at Luffy's head.
"You dare tell your grandpa to stop talking crap? Your guts really have grown, Luffy!"
The previously fearless Luffy completely lost all fighting spirit the moment he was lifted up. Pressing his hands together desperately, tears and snot streamed down his face.
"I'm sorry!!"
Just as Chopper screamed, "Luffy got captured by the Marines!" and everyone prepared to intervene—
The world stopped.
Garp's fist froze halfway through the swing. The furious old man suddenly tilted his head and let out an absurdly loud snore.
Meanwhile, Luffy, who had been struggling in his grasp, also seemed to lose his soul entirely as his head drooped limply.
"Fwooo… fwooo…"
Two synchronized, thunderously loud snores echoed throughout Dock One.
Huge snot bubbles slowly inflated from the grandfather and grandson's noses, expanding and shrinking rhythmically with each breath.
Sunlight streamed through the shattered windows and doors, illuminating the utterly ridiculous scene.
Outside, the sea breeze still blew gently while distant seagull cries sounded strangely hollow.
Usopp and Chopper's eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets as they screamed in unison:
"They actually fell asleep!!! At a moment like this?!!!"
Ronan held his forehead and couldn't help but complain.
"This kind of airheadedness encoded into their genetic sequence… really proves that family members flock together."
"…Their nerves have already surpassed the limits of human understanding."
About ten seconds later—
Pop!
The snot bubble on Garp's nose suddenly burst.
He jolted awake, blankly looking around before realizing what happened.
"Oops… fell asleep."
Then he looked down and saw Luffy still hanging in his hand, fast asleep and snoring away.
The anger that had already faded instantly multiplied several times over, even fiercer than before.
"You dare fall asleep while being lectured?! Wake up, Luffy!!"
Without any flourish, Garp's love-filled fist once again smashed into Luffy's forehead with a low air-ripping boom.
BANG!!
Luffy was instantly awakened by the massive force, his entire body twitching violently in Garp's grip.
The pain reaching straight into his nervous system made him scream like a slaughtered pig.
"How can someone fall asleep while being scolded?! And you still dare disrespect your grandpa?!"
Like punching a sandbag, Garp unleashed several more heavy blows from both sides.
Nami, Sanji, and Robin stood side by side watching the absurd family drama expressionlessly.
"…Sigh. Let them do whatever."
Nami sighed helplessly.
"This is family business. We can't interfere."
Eventually, Garp got tired.
With a casual toss, he threw Luffy back toward the edge of the crater.
Luffy crouched beside the pit with three or four massive swollen lumps stacked on his head, tears filling his eyes like a pitiful three-year-old child.
"It… it hurts so bad…"
"Luffy, do you even understand what kind of terrifying pirate that red-haired man really is?!"
Garp's voice became low and heavy.
"Among the countless pirates in this era, he's one of the monsters capable of standing on equal footing with Whitebeard himself."
Luffy had still been rubbing the giant lumps on his head, but the moment he heard Shanks' name, his eyes instantly lit up as he urgently interrupted.
"Shanks? Are Shanks and the others okay? Where are they?!"
Garp sighed and stared deeply out toward the vast ocean beyond the window.
"Okay? They're not just okay… They're the four monsters the world calls the Four Emperors."
"They reign over the second half of the Grand Line like emperors."
"The only forces capable of opposing them are Marine Headquarters and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Once the balance between these three great powers collapses, the resulting shock would instantly plunge the entire world order into chaos."
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