Somewhere in the East Blue.
A small sailboat drifting on the sea suddenly erupted with a loud, hearty laugh.
"Hahahaha! Vice Captain Rayleigh really hasn't lost his edge!"
A young man wearing a straw hat and sporting a head of fiery red hair sat on the deck, gripping a newspaper with a gleeful expression as he read.
"Hey! Shanks! What's going on?"
Yasopp, who had just been eating nearby, leaned over and looked at the World Economy News in Shanks' hand.
Right there on the front page was an in-depth report on the founding of the Cross Guild and the execution of the Celestial Dragons.
Yasopp shivered at the brutally graphic images shown in the newspaper.
"Shanks, your old vice captain really is something else—he actually dared to execute Celestial Dragons!"
"And took out twenty-five of them in one go!"
"Only one was rescued by a Marine Rear Admiral."
Shanks nodded, but his attention didn't linger long on Rayleigh or the execution scene. Instead, his eyes moved to the reverse bounty poster beside it.
Marine Rear Admiral Michael, bounty: one billion Belly.
Shanks said with interest, "Now this… this is intriguing."
"Intriguing?" Yasopp picked up on Shanks' tone instantly and grew curious.
"They say the reason the Celestial Dragons came out of the Holy Land themselves this time was because the human trafficking and mafia collusion on the Sabaody Archipelago were wiped out by the Marines stationed there." Shanks pointed to the reverse bounty poster, to Michael's face. "And the ones leading the charge were Vice Admiral Gion and this Marine Rear Admiral named Michael."
"This is just a little too..."
"Coincidental."
Yasopp was no fool—he immediately caught Shanks' implication.
"You mean, this Marine… isn't so clean?"
"That, we'll have to wait and see. But what's certain is… from now on, this man will definitely have a place in the world."
...
"Ora ora ora!"
"Brats! Why are you all running away?"
"Look me in the face, you little punks!"
Sabaody Archipelago, SWORD Secret Special Force Headquarters.
Garp, who hadn't appeared before Sengoku in ages, was suddenly here!
But instead of a Marine uniform, he was wearing a floral beach outfit!
Members of the SWORD Secret Special Force unit were being chased and beaten by an old man in gaudy beach shorts.
Michael, on the other hand, was lying leisurely under the shade of a tree, watching his beloved subordinates get driven like refugees. His mood was absolutely joyous.
Sure enough, once you've endured training under Garp, you can't help but pick up a little of his sadism.
It was true for Dragon, and true for Michael as well.
"Michael! I'll hate you for the rest of my life!!"
The one who screamed was none other than the infamously stubborn Smoker.
Now in his smoke form, he was caught mid-air by Garp with a giant leap, and in just a few moves, was buried in the dirt with only his head sticking out.
After a brutal beating, Smoker didn't even have the strength to turn into smoke anymore.
Beside him, three of his teammates were already buried neatly into the ground.
Hina, Shu, and T Bone.
Bang!
"Ah!"
With a burst of dust and a fresh scream, Smoker blankly glanced to the side.
Another figure, transformed back from gold to human form, was slammed into the ground.
Ah, Rosinante.
That made four.
Across the entire training field, only Stella was still barely holding on.
"Hahaha! Stella! Looks like it's just the two of us now, master and disciple! You might as well surrender!"
"Don't even dream of burying me!"
Normally soft-spoken, Stella would somehow always go berserk in front of her teacher Garp—like he triggered her second personality!
As she spoke, she suddenly transformed into a cloud and turned, launching ice-tipped bolts of lightning toward Garp like a storm.
If she were facing some pirate with a bounty over a hundred million, they might've backed off at such a fierce attack.
But Garp didn't care at all. His hands instantly darkened with Armament Haki, turning a blackish-purple.
Instead of smashing through the barrage with a single punch as expected, he rapidly waved his hands, slapping all the icicles aside.
That was bad news for the others still buried in the ground nearby.
Frozen and electrocuted—this secondary wave of damage was worse than Garp's punches!
The unluckiest of them all was Rosinante.
Because of his large size, he took the brunt of the collateral damage!
His eyes rolled back—completely unconscious.
Michael rolled his eyes, pulled out a little notebook, scribbled for a moment, and then called out to Garp:
"Hey, old man! That's enough for today!"
Garp, hearing Michael's voice, nodded and laughed loudly:
"Perfect timing! I was wondering how to go easy on my disciple. If I hit too hard, she might stop acknowledging me!"
Saying that, Garp walked over to the buried SWORD unit members and pulled them up one by one like yanking up radishes.
"To be honest, they've done pretty well," Garp finally said something halfway decent. "Last time, they didn't even last half the time before I buried all of them."
"Buried means weak. Weak means more training."
Michael smiled. There wasn't the slightest trace of mercy in his eyes.
Potential...
Is something you squeeze out!
Since returning to the Sabaody Archipelago, Michael had been giving the SWORD unit members extra-special training.
It started with assigning them suitable weapons—among the weapons sent by Charlos, there were plenty of weird ones.
For example, a massive jitte with Seastone embedded at the tip immediately caught Smoker's eye.
And the finest among them, a sword ranked among the 21 Great Grade Blades—"Bamboo"—was a giant sword that naturally went to T Bone.
As for the Devil Fruits, T Bone felt neither of the two fruits suited him.
Rosinante, after careful consideration, chose to eat the Gold-Gold Fruit.
Then came the real hellish training.
Michael didn't consider himself a misguided teacher like Rayleigh.
But his teaching methods… well, they weren't much better.
This was when his network came into play.
Besides Vice Admiral Gion, who often visited to smack the trainees around, Michael also invited many elite Vice Admirals to join in.
Like Borsalino and Kuzan.
And, of course, the man in front of them now—Garp.
Even the least likely one, Sakazuki, had come twice...
Naturally, those were the two worst days for Michael's subordinates.
They were practically half-dead.
But Michael never blamed Sakazuki.
Better to get injured now than to die on the battlefield.
Because the sea ahead…
Will only grow more dangerous as time moves forward.
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