"He doesn't know what's good for him. Is he trying to commit suicide?"
On the deck of the flagship, Vice Admiral Bastille's pupils shrank as a sly, sinister grin spread across his face. He prepared to savor the spectacle of Garp being shredded by the relentless cannon fire.
But!
The heavy cannonballs, powerful enough to sink steel warships, were heading straight for Garp's charge. When they came within ten meters of him, they seemed to collide with an invisible, absolute wall of pure force!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! …No violent explosion, no flash of fire.
Only a deep, muffled sound of shattering, like countless glass beads striking the hardest granite.
The colossal shells, capable of leveling fortresses, twisted and deformed the moment they hit the pure force field created by Garp's charge. Then, with a chilling screech of metal, they bizarrely disintegrated into countless tiny iron shards and dust.
Riding the violent air currents stirred by Garp's charge, a gray-black dragon of metallic dust surged forward toward the G-5 flagship!
In the blink of an eye, Garp had carved a straight path through the hail of cannon fire.
He moved like a blazing meteor, utterly indifferent to the overwhelming barrage that could have destroyed the entire fleet.
He came to a sudden halt less than one hundred meters from the massive flagship!
Hovering! Garp's figure froze eerily in midair before the ship.
The abrupt transition from supersonic motion to absolute stillness made every onlooker feel their hearts violently squeezed!
His right fist clenched tight, arm muscles coiling like a waking ancient serpent.
A faint crimson glow, molten and tangible, intertwined with an eerie, light-absorbing blackness, spiraled and compressed around his fist.
The concentrated energy warped the surrounding light, twisting and collapsing space around him.
The calm ocean below began to rise and churn under the sheer pressure of his power, forming the nascent shape of a colossal water vortex!
A deep, resonant hum, beyond human hearing, vibrated in the hearts of all present, as if the universe itself was reacting.
[Alert: Host exhibiting extreme combat intent. Target group locked. Threat assessment Level A!]
[Emotional core drive compatibility increased. Approval granted for maximum conventional attack power!]
[Heavy fist strike, 30% charge confirmed. Technique: Impact dispersion!]
"One punch!" Garp's voice was cold and deep, a declaration of apocalypse itself.
"Send all of you "
His fist, brimming with world-shattering energy, did not strike the flagship directly. Instead, it slammed into… the seemingly empty sea just ahead of the ship.
" into retirement!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A cataclysmic explosion erupted, indescribable in human terms, yet the detonation point was not the impact point.
It occurred the instant Garp's fist, like a black hole, met the air.
The destructive energy compressed to its limits, erupting outward in a fan-shaped supernova of force.
Space itself seemed to fracture like glass under a god's mighty hammer.
Within a tenth of a second of the strike, countless spiderweb-like black cracks appeared in the air.
And then!
Was the torrent of physical destruction purer, more direct, more hopeless than space itself fracturing?
An unimaginable, supremely violent shockwave erupted.
The sea beneath did not collapse.
Instead, it split into deep ravines as if plowed by an invisible giant's ferocious hand.
A terrifying vacuum trench appeared, over a kilometer wide, plunging through the entire G-5 fleet.
Billions of cubic meters of seawater were instantly flung aside, shooting skyward in a mad surge!
Crash! Crash! Crash!
As the water walls rose hundreds of meters, nearly a kilometer high, gravity and residual shockwaves held them aloft, forming twin colossal blue walls of water, like heaven-shattering, life-erasing forces, crashing toward both sides!
Beneath the momentarily exposed vacuum seabed, chaos reigned.
Every obstacle in the shockwave's path was obliterated.
The massive G-5 flagship was first.
Faced with the shockwave, its steel hull, weighing thousands of tons, shattered like a child's toy blocks.
The ship's body was cleaved instantly, as if an enormous, invisible guillotine had sliced through it.
It emitted a series of deafening, horribly distorted sounds: Snap crack boom!
Steel armor? Torn to pieces!
Internal framework? Pulverized!
Compartments? Annihilated!
The entire flagship, along with the grinning Vice Admiral Bastille, countless soldiers, and heavy artillery, was cleaved at the waist in a precision so clean it stunned the world's Marine forces and global viewers alike.
Cut!
At!
The waist!
Flawlessly!
The bow, propelled by momentum, was hurled high into towering waves.
Meanwhile, the stern moaned like a crushed tin can, then collapsed into the churning sea.
The flagship was instantly dismembered!
But this was only the beginning!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The devastating vacuum trench spread like a death scythe, effortlessly slicing through the entire G-5 fleet!
Second ship! Cleaved!
Third ship! Waist split!
Fourth ship! Crushed!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Steel snapping, explosions, and super-tsunamis collided in a deafening symphony.
All triggered by a single punch! Residual forces sent kilometer-high waves surging, yet the waters had not fully cascaded.
Twelve massive G-5 warships, fully manned, obliterated in under ten seconds.
On live global broadcast, they were struck down like fragile blocks by an invisible hand cut cleanly in half, perfectly precise.
The twin tsunami walls, a kilometer high, roared like the arms of a god, smashing down upon the shattered, burning, exploding wrecks in a final judgment.
Vice Admiral Bastille's sinister grin, the soldiers' fear, the cold cannon muzzles all vanished under the ocean's weight.
Only floating debris, black smoke, and a slowly closing, hellish sea remained.
Time seemed frozen.
On the sunny deck of the Thousand Sunny, calm prevailed they were miraculously in the gap left by the destructive shockwave.
The massive waves raged only in the distance; apart from some shaking and a thin rain of mist, the ship remained untouched.
The crew Franky, furious yet stunned; Zoro and Sanji, alert but shaken; Usopp and Chopper, huddled together; Nami, gripping her weather rod; Robin, contemplative with her book were petrified.
Every movement froze, eyes wide, mouths agape.
Their bodies trembled with the overwhelming, absolute force displayed before them.
Their minds ceased thinking, replaying only the apocalyptic sight of the fleet's destruction.
The world was silent, save for the waves lapping the hull and the soft, casual clap of an old man on the lion figurehead above. He patted the imaginary dust off, as if warming up for exercise.
"Tsk, thirty… looks like I might've hit a bit too hard?"
Garp furrowed his rugged brow, mildly dissatisfied at the imperfect control of his power. He scratched his head, grinning at Luffy, who was still panting with eyes as wide as saucers.
"Hey, kid, how's that for a greeting? Enough to qualify me as your vice-captain…"
"I've decided!"
Luffy suddenly shouted with unprecedented volume, springing three meters into the air.
His huge, round eyes reflected pure, unfiltered excitement, no fear, no second thoughts like discovering the greatest treasure in the world.
He pointed at Garp, beaming, his voice breaking the stunned silence like a thunderclap.
"Grandpa! From now on "
"You are the Straw Hat Pirates' new first mate!"
Luffy's declaration echoed like a final verdict, reverberating across the unusually quiet sea, littered with wreckage and echoes of the tsunami.
…
Time seemed frozen for three seconds.
Then
"Ah?!" Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Franky, Robin despite her calm façade, eyes flashing and Chopper, wearing his blue wig, were all dumbfounded. The moment Luffy's words fell, they screamed in unison, hoarse with shock, disbelief, and absurdity.
"First… first mate? Luffy, he's he's a Marine legend, a former hero! The one who sank twelve warships with a single punch!" Nami clutched her orange hair in near-panic, seeing the bounty scattered by the world government.
"Idiot captain! Were you knocked out by that punch too? You want this monster-grandpa as first mate?"
Sanji's cigarette fell again. His hand trembled as he pointed at Garp.
"Luffy! Isn't this… a little reckless?"
Usopp felt his tiny heart about to stop.
Franky: "Super ? Straw Hat, are you serious?"
Robin took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "Luffy, Garp's position and status are extremely sensitive. This could cause "
Zoro, still trembling from witnessing the fleet obliterated, glared at Luffy. "Hey! You idiot! The first mate position "
Amid their panic, Luffy laughed, unfazed. He hugged Garp's neck, patting his shoulder. "So what? He's my grandpa! Super strong! He just punched all those ships away! With him as first mate, we'll find ONE PIECE in no time!"
In this frozen, chaotic scene, the crew was collectively stunned, utterly unable to process the captain's audacious decision.
From under Chopper's antlers, muffled by Franky's blue Mohawk wig, a small, trembling voice asked:
"W-wait… can I still be the ship's doctor… and part-time animal trainer? I haven't learned to tame a beast of this level…"
Chopper's tearful, hesitant question added the perfect, absurd footnote to the scene.
Above, a few news drones hovered, faithfully recording everything. On one drone's screen, a breaking news headline flashed:
"Shocking! Traitor Garp Joins Straw Hat Pirates! G-5 Fleet Destroyed with One Punch! Straw Hats Announce New First Mate?"