That powerful pressure made the air feel thick and heavy.
The Beasts Pirates froze instantly, as if an invisible force had pinned them in place.
Behind his mask, King's eyes narrowed.
Garp's gaze was not even on him, yet that presence had already locked him down.
King knew very well that the moment he made the slightest careless move, what came for him would be a thunderous blow.
For a moment, even the wind seemed to stop.
Garp did not look at King at all.
He simply rolled his neck, his bones cracking loudly. His calm gaze swept over the sea, and his tone was certain.
"It was just a test."
He sounded as if he were talking to himself, but also as if he were telling everyone present.
"That brat just wanted to feel for himself how big the gap still was between him and the so-called World's Strongest Creature."
Those words stunned Gion and Yamakaji.
A test?
Piercing Kaido's defense with his life on the line, then ending it by throwing himself into the sea... that was a test?
"The next time they meet," Garp said, the corner of his mouth pulling into a fierce grin that showed his white teeth, the trust in his eyes even more exaggerated than Zaraki's own confidence, "that'll be when they really fight to the death."
At this point, it was no longer just contempt.
It was taking Kaido of the Beasts' pride, throwing it to the ground, and grinding it under his heel.
You are nothing more than a whetstone on my brat's road to growth.
"Worororo..."
Kaido's savage dragon head slowly lowered, its shadow covering the coastline.
His laugh was low and hoarse, like rocks grinding together, making everyone's eardrums tingle.
"Garp... you're still so good at telling jokes."
There was no clear expression on Kaido's enormous dragon face, but the air around them seemed to grow colder.
King the Wildfire caught the shift in his captain's mood.
He stepped forward and spoke coldly.
"If he is a Devil Fruit user, then the sea has already made him a corpse. Garp, can you really bear the responsibility of dragging the Marines into an all-out war with an Emperor of the Sea for the sake of a man who may already be dead?"
After speaking, King did not give Garp a chance to answer. He turned toward the dragon in the sky and bowed slightly.
"Kaido-san, we should leave."
Kaido's eyes remained fixed on Garp.
King continued in a lower voice, meant for Kaido alone yet still cold enough to carry.
"Doflamingo is dead. The SMILE factory is compromised. Zaraki has vanished. Garp is already here, Kizaru is on his way, and the whole world is watching through Morgans's relay. Our fleet is not assembled for a full war."
His meaning was clear.
Staying here would no longer be revenge.
It would be letting the World Government choose the battlefield.
Kaido stared at the sea one last time, his killing intent still boiling so fiercely that the clouds above Dressrosa twisted under it.
Then his enormous dragon head turned back toward Garp.
"Garp. Just you wait."
Leaving behind that chilling sentence, his massive dragon body swung through the air and no longer lingered.
He turned into a streak of azure light, rushing toward the Beasts Pirates' warship on the horizon.
King and the other Beasts Pirates followed closely behind, withdrawing without another word.
As that sky-covering pressure moved away, the string stretched tight over everyone's nerves finally snapped.
Several young Marines' legs went weak, and they collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath as if they had just been dragged back from the edge of drowning.
Their bodies would not stop trembling.
"Whew... they're finally gone."
Yamakaji wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at the distant black dots with lingering fear.
"Gahahaha! Big news! This is huge news!"
Not far away, Big News Morgans flapped his wings excitedly, ordering his subordinates to pack up every Camera Den Den Mushi.
"A rising Marine star clashes head-on with an Emperor and vanishes into the sea! Presumed dead, maybe alive, either way the world will never be the same! Marine Hero Garp challenges Kaido in fury! My god, the headlines alone are going to sell like crazy this month!"
As he spoke, he was already impatiently leading his team toward his airship.
He had enough.
The rest could be speculation, and speculation sold even better than certainty.
With Morgans broadcasting, Marine Headquarters and the World Government had already lost the power to choose what the world knew. All they could do now was fight over what the story meant.
In a burst of smoke and wind, Morgans's airship rose from the coast and vanished into the sky.
The scene finally returned to a temporary calm. Only the waves lapping against the scorched-black shore and the lingering sulfur in the air remained.
Gion walked to Garp's side and looked at the sea, which was still faintly steaming from the intense heat.
Her gaze was complicated.
"Garp-chan, Zaraki..."
Before she could finish, a rapid purupurupuru suddenly rang out.
Click.
Behind Garp, Bogard answered the Den Den Mushi with a grave expression.
After listening for only a second, his face changed. He quickly stepped forward and handed the receiver to Garp.
"It's the Fleet Admiral."
Garp took the receiver.
The Den Den Mushi's face immediately mimicked Sengoku's frantic, distorted features, and a roar blasted out of it.
"Garp! You bastard! Do you have any idea what you just said on a live broadcast?! Threatening war with Kaido? What do you think Marine Headquarters is, your private army?! The Five Elders' call already reached my office! You—"
"Too loud, Sengoku."
Garp impatiently dug at his ear, cutting off his old friend's roar.
"Haven't those old geezers always been your problem? Just handle it like usual."
"How can this be like usual?!" Sengoku was so angry his beard practically bristled. "This time, it was broadcast to half the damn world! You—"
"I don't have time to listen to you nag."
Garp's gaze returned to the turbulent sea, and his tone became more serious than ever.
"I have to go find that damn brat."
"..."
On the other end of the call, Sengoku clearly froze.
His roar stopped abruptly, and when he spoke again, his voice had sunk.
"Garp, calm down. If he really is an ability user, he jumped into the sea that Kaido boiled over. The chance of survival is..."
"I know better than you whether that brat can swim," Garp said flatly.
"But in that situation—"
"No buts."
Garp cut him off directly.
"That damn brat's life is tough as hell. Even the King of Hell couldn't take him. Kaido? He's still not enough."
Those words left Gion and Yamakaji looking at each other.
They truly could not understand where Garp's confidence came from.
Could it be... Zaraki jumping into the sea really had been a way to escape?
But who could guarantee that someone in that condition could survive after falling into the ocean?
The world had seen strange powers and assumed Devil Fruit.
Garp knew better.
Zaraki was not a Devil Fruit user.
And Garp knew something else too: that brat could hold his breath like a monster and had survived worse punishment than any sane man should.
"Bogard."
Garp ignored Sengoku's complicated silence from the Den Den Mushi and gave his aide an order.
"Ready the warship. Search pattern around the boiling current. Move now."
No ordinary diver could enter that water yet, but Garp did not care.
They would follow the current, track the steam line, and search every reef cave along the coast.
He turned around, his coat snapping in the sea wind. On that weathered face, only a deep calm remained.
Garp looked toward the distant horizon, as if his gaze could pierce through endless waves and find the figure who was now somewhere unknown.
Only then did he raise the receiver again and speak to Sengoku in a tone that allowed no argument.
"Anyway, I'm going to find him."
"As for the rest of this mess... you clean it up, Sengoku."