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Marineford, Marine Headquarters
"Wahaha, Sengoku!"
With a loud bang, a burly old marine with short white hair burst in energetically, pushing open Admiral Sengoku's office door.
Sengoku sat behind his desk with his arms crossed, motionless like a mountain, eyes closed in quiet rest. On the desk in front of him, a Den Den Mushi mirrored his expression, also seeming to doze.
Hearing the noisy entrance, Sengoku frowned, opened his eyes, and said irritably, "Garp! Have you got nothing better to do all day? Why do you keep running over here every few days?! And don't bother looking, my senbei are gone!"
"Huh? You didn't restock?" Garp looked shocked. Sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed, he said in disdain, "You're way too lazy. Senbei are a top priority, you know!"
"..." Sengoku took a deep breath to steady himself. "By the way, what about your little grandson? You left him in Foosha Village; you haven't gone to see him in quite a while, have you?"
'If you've got so much free time, go bother your grandson instead! Always coming here to steal my senbei, do you really think the Great Buddha never gets angry?!'
Foosha Village was a town on Dawn Island, not too far from Marine Headquarters Marineford. Back then, Garp found it troublesome that rumors about "Vice Admiral Garp's grandson appearing out of nowhere" were spreading around headquarters, so he sent Luffy there to be raised. Every month, Garp would make time to visit Dawn Island and spend time with his lively, adorable grandson, who was also quite fun to "play with."
"Oh, you mean Luffy!" Garp picked his nose casually, still lounging with his legs crossed. "His mom keeps coming to visit him every now and then, such a hassle. So I've already dumped him back in my hometown in the East Blue."
Sengoku nodded slightly. "That makes sense. It's better for the mother to have easier access to take care of her son. If I remember correctly, your hometown is the Goa Kingdom…"
Garp flicked away whatever he dug out of his nose. "Wrong! I moved him because I didn't want it to be too convenient for her…"
"Hm?" Sengoku froze, sensing something off. His gaze sharpened. "Garp… Luffy's mother wouldn't happen to be…?"
Garp laughed loudly. "That's right, she is a pirate! Think about it: a pirate showing up every year on an island so close to Marine Headquarters… that's pretty inappropriate, isn't it? Wahaha!"
"The hell are you laughing for?!" Sengoku nearly leapt over the desk to punch him. Leaning back in his chair, he groaned, "Garp, you really know how to make trouble for me… First your son, and now this…"
The Buddha Admiral rubbed his temples helplessly and sighed. "Let's just hope your grandson doesn't cause any major trouble in the future…"
"Don't worry about that!" Garp said confidently. "Luffy's going to become an excellent Marine!" He grinned. "I've been training him properly the whole time."
Sengoku replied, "Let's hope so. You didn't come here just to talk about your grandson, did you?"
Garp blinked. "Wasn't it you who brought Luffy up first?"
"…Oh. Right." Sengoku held his forehead. "I'm getting old…"
"It's about Whitebeard, isn't it?" Garp's tone turned serious. "Sending a battleship to monitor the seas near that 'legend' is extremely dangerous."
Sengoku sighed. "I know it's risky. I've ordered them to stay as far away as possible and observe only through high-powered telescopes. If Marco took Giorno there for the reason we suspect, to use the Phoenix Fruit to restore Whitebeard's health…"
He continued, "With Whitebeard's size, even from a distance, we should still be able to see something…"
As they spoke, the Den Den Mushi on Sengoku's desk suddenly opened its eyes and began ringing.
Sengoku picked up the receiver at once.
"Strawberry, anything to report?"
The Den Den Mushi mimicked the appearance of Vice Admiral Strawberry, complete with a black beard, speaking in a grave tone: "Admiral Sengoku… what you feared may really be about to happen…"
Sengoku's heart sank.
"Just now, we witnessed Marco the Phoenix arriving at the Moby Dick…"
In the New World, aboard a Marine battleship maintaining a careful distance, Vice Admiral Strawberry continued: "…And if my Observation Haki is correct, flying alongside Marco toward the deck of the Moby Dick… was a pitch-black figure."
"A shadow… a ghost…" Sengoku's expression darkened. "In reports about Giorno, such descriptions appear frequently. Vice Admiral Momonga and the others who encountered him in the South Blue mentioned the same thing."
Garp said gravely, "In other words, it's definitely Giorno! He really did arrive at the Moby Dick with Marco."
Sengoku nodded and ordered, "Maintain distance and continue observing!"
He set the receiver aside but did not hang up.
Garp grinned. "If those two troublesome pirates, Giorno and Jolyne Cujoh, end up accidentally joining the Whitebeard Pirates, that would be a real disaster."
"That's exactly what I want to confirm, that's why I took the risk of sending a battleship…" Sengoku said gravely. "They don't even need to join the Whitebeard Pirates. Even if the JoJo Pirates simply become friendly with Whitebeard, that's already a situation we absolutely don't want to see… You should understand, this is different from Rayleigh."
"Yeah. The Dark King has already retired…" Garp agreed. "But Whitebeard is still one of the Emperors of the Sea. And if he regains his health, he'll become…"
"My god…"
"Could that be…?!"
At that moment, startled cries came through the Den Den Mushi, voices of the marines aboard Strawberry's battleship.
Sengoku immediately grabbed the receiver and demanded, "What happened?!"
The Den Den Mushi, mimicking Strawberry's bearded face, inhaled sharply and muttered, "Those enormous phoenix wings… they've almost covered the entire Moby Dick… There's no mistake, Admiral Sengoku, Giorno really has swapped Marco's and Whitebeard's Devil Fruits! Whitebeard… he's now the 'Phoenix'!!"
"…He'll become the truly strongest one." Garp quietly finished what he had been about to say.
'Just how strong would Whitebeard be once fully restored?'
'Or rather, how invincible was Whitebeard at his peak?'
Suddenly, panicked shouts erupted again from the Den Den Mushi, mixed with the roaring of violent waves.
Sengoku shouted, "Strawberry! What's going on?!"
"It's Whitebeard!" The Den Den Mushi's eyes seemed to stare into the distance, its pupils vividly reflecting terror, as if witnessing something horrifying. "Admiral Sengoku… Whitebeard… he's truly regained his peak strength!"
In the New World, on the deck of the violently pitching battleship, Vice Admiral Strawberry clutched the railing with one hand and the Den Den Mushi with the other, staring fixedly ahead,
At the horrifying sight of the sea being split apart as if cleaved in two, revealing a deep abyss beneath.
Cold sweat formed on his face as he said gravely, "With just one slash, he split the sea… Massive waves are heading toward our battleship, we've likely been discovered!"
"This is developing in the worst possible direction for us!"
Sengoku felt a headache coming on and sighed. "If only, back at the Sabaody Archipelago, Giorno hadn't provoked the Celestial Dragons…"
Soon, the Den Den Mushi transmitted continuous sounds of crashing waves and the battleship rocking violently, mixed with the shouts of marines desperately trying to keep it steady.
"Unbelievable… unbelievable…" The Den Den Mushi spoke in Strawberry's voice, Sengoku had never heard such loss of composure from the usually steady Vice Admiral. "What are they doing? The Moby Dick is constantly emitting the sounds of quake power being used, but the intensity keeps rising and falling, it's nothing like Whitebeard's usual level…"
On the turbulent sea, Strawberry observed through his telescope. Sure enough, cracks of tremor energy appeared intermittently.
"Could it be… Giorno is repeatedly swapping the Tremor-Tremor Fruit among Whitebeard's crew?" The Vice Admiral muttered to himself.
It was utterly absurd, since when had Devil Fruits become something like toys that could be freely exchanged and tested?
And that was… the Tremor-Tremor Fruit!!
Back at Marine Headquarters, Garp laughed with a shadow over his eyes. "Looks like… Giorno's having quite a bit of fun with them!"
Sengoku clenched his fists, his face dark and miserable, feeling as if he'd swallowed something utterly foul.
Here he was in his office, metaphorically "eating dirt" all afternoon, racking his brain and pulling at his hair trying to predict what kind of chaos would erupt if a pirate at the level of a Warlord allied with, or worse, directly joined, the Whitebeard Pirates…
Then, toward evening, Strawberry's astonished voice suddenly came through the Den Den Mushi:
"Admiral Sengoku, the Moby Dick… it looks like a battle has broken out!"
"It's Whitebeard, who has already become the Phoenix, and… Giorno! They've suddenly started fighting each other!!"
......
Whitebeard swung his Supreme Grade blade, Murakumogiri, slashing down with tremendous force. Haki flowed along the naginata's blade as it clashed head-on with the iron staff Liam swung with full strength!
BOOOOM!!
Black-and-red Haki lightning burst between the naginata and the iron staff, crackling wildly across the deck of the Moby Dick.
(End Of This Chapter)
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