The East Blue, A Tranquil Sea Area.
A standard Marine warship flying the seagull insignia of the World Government cut smoothly through the gentle waves, its bow distinguished by a massive, sculpted dog-head emblem clutching a bone.
Crunch, crunch...
Reclined lazily across a canvas deck chair on the main deck, the legendary Marine hero Monkey D. Garp had his legs crossed comfortably, idly tossing high-purity rice crackers into his mouth while dry crumbs stuck to his grey beard.
The old Vice Admiral had returned to the East Blue for a temporary leave of absence. Within these waters, traditionally logged as the weakest and least volatile of the four seas, his daily schedule consisted entirely of sleeping, eating, and the occasional unannounced visit to Windmill Village to terrorize the local bandits—a thoroughly comfortable routine.
"Vice Admiral Garp."
His adjutant, Bogart, stepped from the interior communications bay onto the wooden deck. He wore his standard wide-brimmed top hat, his Marine mantle shifting slightly against the breeze, though his sharp features were locked in an unusually solemn focus.
"We just intercepted a high-frequency report from the 16th Marine Branch stationed in this quadrant. Their scouts have identified a cluster of displaced floating islands in the upper air. These masses have bypassed standard atmospheric drift patterns, remaining anchored at a static altitude of ten thousand meters for over a month in a highly unnatural formation."
"Oh?"
Garp paused his hand mid-bag, his bushy grey eyebrows lifting slightly as he chewed. "What's that old mad lion Shiki playing at up in the clouds now?"
"The intelligence cuts deeper," Bogart adjusted the brim of his hat, his voice dropping an octave. "Our surveillance grid captured a distinct thermal and structural signature in that exact airspace. It matches the profile of the Eclipse."
"The Outlier's hull?!"
Hearing the name, Garp stuffed the remaining half-bag of crackers into his mouth in one motion, pulling his massive frame upright from the chair.
Only weeks prior, those brat rookies had executed the World Nobles within the streets of Sabaody before breaking through an Admiral's deployment. How had their tracks suddenly manifested inside the East Blue, and what linked them to the remnants of the Golden Lion?
Thinking of the brat who carried a 1.57 billion berry bounty—the child who called himself Portgas D. Ace—a brief, unreadable flash of relief and deep helplessness crossed the old man's eyes. But as a symbol of Marine justice, his expression hardened into an uninhibited, aggressive line.
"Bogart. Keep the warship anchored in this grid. Standby status."
Garp ripped his white Justice coat from his shoulders, tossing the wool onto the deck chair before rolling his broad, thick shoulders until his joints popped like dry beans.
"Vice Admiral Garp, your trajectory?" Bogart asked, his hand instinctively steadying his hilt.
"Since those little bastards have turned the capital upside down and dare to bring their circus into my backyard, it's only right I climb up there myself," Garp grunted, his boots tracking to the lip of the deck. "It's about time I give them a little taste of my fists of love!"
Boom!
The words had barely cleared his lips when Garp drove his heels down into the steel plating.
The colossal dog-headed warship shuddered violently under the raw reaction force of his launch, the entire bow sections dipping several meters into the sea as a massive wall of white water erupted along the hull. Garp's burly frame shot upward like an intercontinental missile cleared for deployment, tearing through the cloud layers of the East Blue at a terrifying, concussive velocity as he targeted the ten-thousand-meter threshold.
Ten Thousand Meters Up, The Main Island of Merveille.
Beep—
A clean, high-frequency tone resonated within the consciousness of every officer anchored on the plateau simultaneously. It was the standard connection protocol established by Carina through the mental communication channel she had woven using her fruit ability.
"Everyone! I have a verified update from the laboratory!"
Ace's cheerful, unbothered voice vibrated through the telepathic grid. "Chopper and Indigo have successfully balanced the equation. The perfect human potential enhancement serum is finalized. Your limits are about to change. I'm clearing the port in the South Blue now to rejoin the camp."
"Incredible work, Doc! Captain!" Carina shouted back through the mental link, her fingers resting on the composite frame of her sniper rifle at the edge of the palace ruins.
Sabo, Leona, and Enel all paused within their respective training sectors, a shared sense of anticipation rising through the link.
But a fraction of a second later, Carina's full-map surveillance array—designed to isolate the most minute atmospheric ripples—triggered a high-frequency, shrieking mental alarm.
"Wait... freeze the channel! Freeze the channel!"
Carina's smile vanished, her head snapping around in pure horror as she stared down into the white fog lining the southern cliff face. Her telepathic voice cracked with an intense, raw panic: "Something is rising from the lower sea! The velocity is completely illogical! No... it's not an object, it's a living baseline! The Haki footprint is monstrous!!!"
Ace, listening from the South Blue port, paused. "Carina? Define the signature."
"A breach! Someone has scaled the altitude! The pressure... it feels like an absolute demon!" Carina yelled, her breath turning shallow.
A brief, heavy silence hung over the telepathic link before a low, dry chuckle from Ace cut through the grid—a sound thoroughly laced with a brother's schadenfreude.
"Ah. At this hour, the only creature capable of stepping through empty air to claim a ten-thousand-meter peak without a ship—especially inside the East Blue sector—is that old bastard."
"The old man? Give us a name!" Enel hissed, his fingers tightening over his golden staff as his own perception finally caught the incoming heat.
"Monkey D. Garp," Ace stated, his mental voice carrying a distinct shrug as he prepared to step onto the Eclipse's deck miles away. "The Marine hero. Also known as the old relic who used to bounce my skull off the floorboards back when Sabo and I were children. I'm still clearing the South Blue waters, so I won't be there to buffer the impact."
"Listen to me, Sabo. The old man's hands are brutal, but he doesn't draw blood from family. This is a prime, tier-one training opportunity on the high seas. The line belongs to the vanguard now. Good luck, I have total confidence in your survival."
Click.
The connection was unilaterally severed from the bow of the Eclipse, leaving the officers standing in the high wind with completely blank expressions.
"Are you insane?! The capital is under siege and the Captain just logged out?!" Buggy wailed in pure, unadulterated despair, his hands clamping over his cheeks as his jaw dropped. "We're being hunted by a living myth!"
Across the palace square, all training ground drills came to an immediate halt.
"Is this a joke...?"
Enel's jaw was tight, his standard confidence faltering as his perception isolated the sheer mass of the entity rising through the fog. "How can a mortal without an elemental fruit generate that much kinetic density through pure muscle tissue?!"
Before a single officer could realign their stance, the air along the southern edge of the plateau ruptured. A powerful, suffocating physical aura burst from the cliffside, turning the surrounding air heavy and tangible.
Boom!!!
A burly, silver-haired figure slammed directly into the center of the flagstone square like a falling meteorite.
The sheer, unadulterated shockwave sheared the stone slabs from the earth layer by layer, launching a massive cloud of gray dust that expanded into the upper sky like a mushroom cloud. Under the weight of that undisguised, violent presence, the mutated beasts held within the iron pens dropped their jaws into the dirt, shivering in absolute silence, too terrified to manage even a low growl.
Jeno kicked the door of his laboratory open, his right forearm instantly reconfiguring into a heavy, dark-rimmed mortar barrel that locked onto the center of the dust cloud. Leona, Urouge, and Shark stepped into their respective combat frames, a dense coat of black Armament Haki sliding over their skin.
The gray veil slowly receded.
An elderly man wearing a loud, tropical floral shirt beneath his build strode out of the clearing, casually rubbing his massive palms together as if preparing for a common street brawl. He bore a short crop of gray hair and a distinct, weathered scar tracking across his left eye.
"Ah, my joints are definitely feeling the winters. A ten-thousand-meter leap leaves the legs a bit stiff," the old man grunted. He paused to pick his nose with a pinky, his sharp, tiger-like gaze sweeping across the line of highly guarded outlaws. "Well, look at that. The little brat Ace isn't in the yard."
Though Ace's brief had clarified the intruder's identity, the hearts of the Eclipse officers still skipped a beat as they faced the physical reality of the Marine hero who had hounded the Pirate King to the very edge of the world.
Especially Sabo.
Staring at that scarred, familiar face, his azure eyes widened to their limits, a line of cold sweat escaping his forehead despite the sub-zero high altitude. A deep, psychological conditioning stemming from his childhood winters at Mt. Colubo caused his fingers to tighten instinctively over the alloy handle of his long pipe.
"Old man..." Sabo ground out through his teeth, forcing his mind to override the primitive alarm in his blood.
"Oh? Well, if it isn't Sabo!"
Garp's eyes locked onto the top hat, his lips splitting into a wide, boisterous grin that sent a visible chill down the young man's spine.
"Long time no see, kid! I turn my back for five minutes and you're out on the sea running with Ace, making a complete mess of my ledger!" Garp clenched his right fist, his knuckles letting out a sharp cadence of pops.
The grin slowly faded from his features, replaced by a terrifying, dominant weight of absolute spiritual authority that caused the entire island mass to tremble under his boots.
"Since that brat Ace decided to skip the meeting..." Garp stepped forward, his boot coming down with a thud that locked the gravitational space of the courtyard.
"As your grandfather, it's only right I test the quality of the company he's been keeping!"
"Brace your ribs, you little rookies! The iron fist of love is clearing the field!!!"
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