As soon as Kyros called Garp to report the situation, the Vice Admiral, who had just parted ways with Yoriichi and the others and was originally heading back to Marine Headquarters, immediately changed course and rushed straight toward Water 7.
After returning from Shimotsuki Village, Garp had dropped off Yoriichi and his group at the Water 7 harbor and then planned to return to Marine Headquarters with his fleet.
Garp was in his prime and a Vice Admiral of HQ, with an extremely busy schedule. There was no way he could stick around Water 7 just to wait for Tom to finish building the warship.
So after dropping off Yoriichi and the others, Garp went off to handle his own duties.
What he didn't expect, however, was that barely after leaving Water 7, he'd get a call from Kyros reporting that Yoriichi had killed the CP9 squad leader.
Technically, Yoriichi was now also a Vice Admiral, equal in rank to Garp, so there shouldn't have been any need to report things up the chain. But in this case, Yoriichi deliberately wanted to involve Garp.
Having someone like Garp, an unmovable veteran, as a buffer would definitely make Marine Headquarters handle the matter differently.
That was part of Yoriichi's strategy.
While Garp was rushing toward Water 7, Yoriichi, accompanied by Kyros and the others, was interrogating the remaining CP9 agents. Yoriichi had originally thought they were secretly investigating Tom.
But as it turned out, their motives had nothing to do with Tom directly.
Those CP9 agents had their eyes on a piece of Adam Wood Tom had somehow obtained, and under the guise of capturing pirates, they intended to seize it for themselves.
As for why they confessed so easily under Yoriichi's questioning...
The truth was, these CP9 agents didn't even think they were doing anything particularly wrong. In their minds, working to obtain treasure for the Celestial Dragons, whether or not it counted as a great merit, certainly wasn't a crime.
"What has this world come to..." Kyros muttered in disbelief. "You people toss around matters of life and death so casually... and you're government agents, directly under the World Government."
"Was it me? Did I just completely misunderstand what CP9 actually is?"
Learning the truth shattered Kyros's worldview. He truly couldn't comprehend how these men could speak with such righteous certainty while explaining something so despicable.
Kyros had never dealt with Cipher Pol before, and in his heart, the World Government had always been a force for justice. After all, his homeland, Dressrosa, was a member nation of the World Government.
But now, seeing the true nature of these CP9 agents...
Forget justice, these men were no better than pirates. In fact, they were worse.
Pirates at least raised a skull flag and told the world they were criminals. These people…
"Kyros, you're a gentle soul," Fujitora said, smiling faintly as he listened to Kyros's righteous indignation.
Mihawk cast a sidelong glance at Kyros, face indifferent and silent. Shimotsuki Kōshirō, on the other hand, looked visibly shaken. He kept glancing back and forth between Kyros and the CP9 agents, as if struggling to believe that those words had come from their mouths.
With the interrogation done, Yoriichi recorded everything the CP9 agents had said on paper and secretly used a Den Den Mushi to capture the entire process.
When the questioning was finished, he had the agents sign their confessions, and after that, he left it all alone.
From here on out, he'd let Garp handle the headache.
And sure enough, less than an hour later, Garp's warship docked at Water 7's harbor.
Before the ship even fully stopped, Garp jumped off in a fluster and rushed toward the Marines' temporary base.
When he arrived, he found Yoriichi sparring with Mihawk in a practice duel, while Fujitora, Kyros, and the others stood nearby, watching.
"YORIICHI! YOU DAMN BRAT!"
The moment Garp stepped onto the base and saw Yoriichi, he roared in fury, flashing forward and swinging a fist straight at him.
Yoriichi, engaged in a clash with Mihawk, noticed Garp's sudden movement. He parried Mihawk's strike with a sweeping slash, then calmly raised his bamboo sword to intercept the punch.
"Brat!" Garp shouted. "Do you even realize what kind of trouble you've caused?!"
Yoriichi didn't dodge. Instead, he gently smiled and silently coated his bamboo sword in Conqueror's Haki.
Garp's expression darkened as he channeled Armament Haki into his fist.
"BOOM!!"
The moment their attacks collided, there wasn't a metallic clang. Instead, a deep humming vibration filled the air.
A closer look revealed that Garp's fist and Yoriichi's bamboo sword never actually touched, about seven or eight centimeters of empty space separated them. Yet the collision occurred in midair, as if striking an invisible barrier.
"BOOM!!!"
A shockwave of Haki exploded outward. Kyros and Kōshirō instinctively raised their arms to shield their faces from the impact, leaning forward slightly to brace themselves.
Fujitora and Mihawk, standing even closer to the clash, stood their ground without budging, calmly observing the showdown.
For several seconds, the Haki clash raged. Then thunder roared above them, signaling that both had activated their Conqueror's Haki coating.
Realizing that his Armament Haki alone wasn't enough to suppress Yoriichi, Garp grinned and upgraded to Advanced Conqueror's Haki.
That thunderclap was the result of their supreme Haki colliding head-on.
Once Garp made that switch, Yoriichi's bamboo sword began to bend, unable to withstand the pressure, even though it was coated in his own Conqueror's Haki.
From Yoriichi's ultra-clear, world-penetrating perspective, he could see fine cracks forming along his sword.
"My Haki still isn't strong enough," he thought, frowning.
With a swift motion, he withdrew and leapt back.
Just as Yoriichi vanished from the ground, Garp's fist slammed down at full force.
"BOOM!!!!!"
A massive explosion rocked the area. Everyone instinctively felt the tremor beneath their feet, and looking down, they saw the ground beneath them shattered into a jagged mess.
As the dust settled, Garp yanked his fist from the crater and stood amidst the rubble, staring at Yoriichi from across the field.
"I didn't expect... you've already grown to this level?"
"So this is what gives you confidence, huh, Yoriichi?"
Garp's smile faded in an instant, his face suddenly serious, the speed of that mood shift was legendary.
"How could that be, Vice Admiral Garp?" Yoriichi replied gently. "I guess Kyros didn't explain the full situation over the phone."
"My confidence... comes from justice, Vice Admiral Garp."
With that, he turned and called out, "Kōshirō, would you mind bringing those confessions and the Den Den Mushi recordings?"
"I think it's important for Vice Admiral Garp to understand... we had no other choice."
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