"Hey, Kurocam, you can't slander me like that! I never once told you Garp is stronger than Whitebeard."
Shirakawa hurriedly shouted his denial, because he could see that Garp looked like he was about to start swinging at him again.
"Captain, but you clearly said Whitebeard is the strongest man in the world."
Kurocam sat up from inside the crater at that moment, looking at Shirakawa with an utterly innocent expression. I just took the meaning of what you told me and put it another way—what's wrong with that?
"Shirakawa, you little brat, my mood right now is seriously foul."
Garp cracked his knuckles, producing a series of pops and cracks, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
"Vice Admiral Garp, you can't blame me for that. Whitebeard being the world's strongest man seems to be universally recognized, and that title probably came from you Marines, didn't it?"
"Bullshit." Garp spat out a curse.
"The Marines said it? How come I don't know about it." If Garp had known, there was no way he'd have let the Marines spread a title like that.
"Then what do you want to do about it, Vice Admiral Garp?"
Shirakawa had figured it out by now—Garp was just looking for any excuse to deal with him personally.
"Heh heh, I still haven't had my fill from that fight just now. How about you go another round with me?"
Garp flashed a sly, crafty grin.
"No." Without a second thought, Shirakawa flat-out refused. If he could actually beat Garp, he wouldn't mind teaching the old man a lesson, but the key problem was that he couldn't win right now.
"Hmph, whether we fight or not isn't up to you."
Garp raised his fist and charged straight at Shirakawa. Shirakawa hadn't expected Garp to be so impulsive and immediately threw up his Sanctuary.
A thunderous boom rang out as Garp's fist smashed into Shirakawa's Sanctuary. It didn't break through, only sending several ripples rippling across its surface.
The other crew members inside the Sanctuary were also badly startled—if the captain's Sanctuary had shattered, wouldn't every single one of them have been in serious trouble?
"Yo, didn't expect your turtle shell to be this tough."
Seeing that his single strike hadn't shattered Shirakawa's defense, Garp showed a flicker of interest in Shirakawa's defensive ability. He stood in front of Shirakawa's barrier, tapping his knuckles against the Sanctuary the way one knocks on a door.
"Interesting."
Garp grinned again. The moment Shirakawa saw that grin, a bad feeling crept over him.
"All of you, get out of here now!" Shirakawa shouted at the crew behind him.
"Alright, Captain, we'll leave this to you!"
Jora called out to Shirakawa, then hastily led the rest of the crew out of Garp's attack range—the farther away, the better.
Garp didn't stop them. In his eyes, those people would only get in the way of the fight, hindering their performance.
This time, Garp raised his arm again, as if gathering power, and then swung it forward with full force. Shirakawa's Sanctuary shattered like glass, blasted apart with a crash.
And Garp's fist didn't stop there—it hurtled straight toward Shirakawa's head. This time, the thought of taking Shirakawa down outright wasn't absent from Garp's mind.
But Shirakawa's reaction speed wasn't slow either. The moment Garp threw that punch, Shirakawa already knew his Sanctuary wouldn't hold this time, so he had drawn his blade and braced himself long before.
"As expected of a Supreme Grade Sword."
When he clashed with Shirakawa, Garp felt a slight sting where his fist met the blade's edge.
"Shouldn't you be praising me instead?"
Hearing Garp compliment his sword, Shirakawa felt a bit miffed. Sure, the blade was his possession, but he was the sword's master—who praises the tool without praising the master?
"Hah, your strength is just so-so."
Getting a "so-so" evaluation from Garp's mouth was probably pretty decent already. After all, among the opponents Garp had fought, Shirakawa likely ranked somewhere in the lower-middle tier.
"You guys head back to the capital first. Leave this place to me."
At that moment, Shirakawa suddenly leaped backward, then shouted to his crew. Truth be told, he was still a bit worried.
"Tch, you really are a slippery little brat."
Of course Garp understood exactly what Shirakawa was getting at. His plan had already fallen through.
"Then I'm done with this fight too."
Garp then said to Shirakawa as well.
"As I thought—you were trying to capture us just now."
With Kurocam already out of fighting shape, if Shirakawa were defeated too, not a single one of the remaining crew on the scene would be able to escape from Garp's grasp.
"Didn't think you'd figure it out, haha."
Garp laughed heartily, without the slightest embarrassment that his covert operation had been exposed. Shirakawa's crew also felt a bit disappointed—they'd expected to witness an earth-shattering, soul-stirring battle, and now it had fizzled out.
But Shirakawa silently raised Garp's danger level one notch in his mind. He'd originally thought this guy was a simple-minded brute, but it turned out he was a cunning and devious old man.
After that, the group returned to the capital. This time they didn't bounce around leaping over walls, but walked straight in through the main gate. That also exposed the Silver Pirates to the eyes of many more people.
However, when those people learned that the hero Garp was present, they felt at ease.
Before long, a month had passed. Today was the very day of the wedding preparations. Over the past couple of days, the nobles attending the wedding had been arriving one after another, and they even caught sight of kings from other countries.
"Say, what if we took all these people out in one fell swoop?"
Jora suddenly tossed out an incredibly bold idea.
"Heh heh, do it yourself if you want. Don't drag me into it."
Yuristine, hearing Jora's wild raving, immediately distanced himself a few steps away.
"I'm just saying—I wouldn't actually do it."
If they really wiped out all these kings and nobles in one go, he'd absolutely become the Marines' number one priority target, probably right below Roger. After all, the other nobles would never allow pirates who massacred nobles to exist, and they would definitely put immense pressure on the Marines.
The wedding banquet soon began. The Silver Pirates were assigned to a remote corner, and all around them were Marines in plainclothes disguise.
"We've been here for a whole month, and this king still doesn't trust us."
"Heh heh, after that crazy thing you just said, it'd be weird if he could trust you. The Marines who overheard that sentence probably already delivered your words to Garp verbatim."
"No way?" Jora said with a hint of terror. Garp still cast a shadow over his heart.
"Who knows?"
/-\
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