A cold, guttural snort rolled out from Garp's side like molten lava rising from the depths of the earth.
A blinding red light erupted, casting twisting waves of heat that seemed to warp the very air itself.
A dark crimson figure appeared on the ground not far ahead of Garp, exuding a suffocating weight that pressed against the world.
Sakazuki rose to his full height, his deep red coat emblazoned with the word Justice billowing behind him like an active volcano in human form.
The sweltering heat rippling from his magma made the scar across his face look even more savage. His eyes were sharp, molten blades that locked onto the enraged Garp without a trace of hesitation.
"Vice Admiral Garp."
His voice was low, dense like the rumble before a volcanic eruption and heavy with crushing authority. "What are you doing? The final cleanup phase of the Buster Call is still underway. And these…"
His cold gaze swept over the unconscious soldiers and the rigid figure of Rear Admiral Rekton, then rested on the dying prisoner. "These are threats that must be eliminated. You are obstructing the World Government's orders."
He did not care in the slightest whom Garp's fury was aimed at. To Sakazuki, Garp's anger itself was an unforgivable transgression.
Garp did not even turn his head. His frozen stare locked onto Rekton's raised boot and the dying man beneath it, as hard and sharp as an icicle carved from the coldest winter.
Sakazuki's arrival did nothing to calm the storm. Instead, it was like dumping a bucket of boiling oil into a raging inferno.
Sakazuki stepped forward with crushing force. The ground beneath him instantly liquefied into bubbling magma, hissing and cracking as the stench of sulfur filled the air. "Look at this wasteland. It is the result of pirate violence and chaos. And you…"
His voice suddenly rose, sharp as a verdict crashing down. "Your indulgence toward the Straw Hat crew, your personal attachments rooted in blood… even after all that, you dare interfere with the iron-blooded orders of Absolute Justice? Vice Admiral Garp, your actions are no different from betraying the very Justice you represent."
Every word landed like a brand of burning iron searing into the hearts of everyone who heard it. "Anyone who shelters criminals, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is a criminal. This is the iron rule that upholds Absolute Justice and it cannot be stained."
Those words reignited something twisted within Rekton. His rigid body shuddered back to life with a warped burst of resolve. His foot, frozen midair by Garp's overwhelming presence, suddenly descended with murderous intent.
Garp's cheek twitched. A smile, cold enough to freeze a soul, slowly curled on his lips. It was the kind of smile carved by the howling winds of hell.
"The same crime?"
Garp's voice ground out like two giant boulders scraping against each other. "Heh… hahaha."
The laugh began low, harsh, restrained. Then it stretched, cracked, and erupted into wild, unrestrained madness filled with bitterness and sorrow.
The rubble beneath his feet creaked and shifted. His laughter cut off abruptly as though severed by an invisible blade.
Garp slowly pulled his right hand from his pocket. His fingers curled into a fist so tightly that his knuckles cracked like snapping steel wires.
There were no flashy particles of light, no glowing build-up, no dramatic aura.
Only pure will.
A will born from the instinct to protect life, trampled before his eyes. A will forged to reject the twisted version of Justice being used to justify cruelty.
That will gathered into an invisible force field around his fist.
The ground beneath him split, inch by inch.
"Today I will teach you what the real meaning of 'the same crime' is."
The world shook.
He punched.
He did not strike Sakazuki. His fist slammed into the sea behind him, the vast expanse lit red by magma and swallowed by darkness.
In that instant, the space between his fist and the target point folded and compressed under an overwhelming, unstoppable force.
A deep humming thundered through existence, shaking the air and echoing into the soul.
Sakazuki sensed the threat 0.01 seconds before the fist even touched the air.
A top-tier fighter's instincts acted instantly. Without hesitation he fully transformed into magma.
His body erupted into roaring, seething molten rock.
But Serious Punch 10 Percent was not an energy blast, not heat, not fire.
It was pure physical force compressing space itself.
The shockwave ignored elemental form entirely.
Sakazuki's magma tried to expand into the space around him, but the instant it touched that vibrating force, it hit an invisible, absolute barrier.
Even worse, that force carried a powerful repulsive and tearing effect that bypassed his elemental nature.