"Wait, that actually happened?"
After hearing the full story, Yamato turned toward Ace with genuine surprise.
Uta, meanwhile, looked at Cain with open sympathy.
"You guys really had it rough."
Cain nodded with the weary acceptance of someone who had long since made peace with his childhood.
"We weren't even the worst off. Luffy had it way worse than the rest of us."
Ace immediately picked up the story, wearing the helpless expression of a man who understood his brother's suffering far too well.
"You know what Luffy's like. He sees Grandpa wearing a gorilla costume, and the first thing out of his mouth is, 'Grandpa!'"
"But Grandpa had absolute confidence in his disguise. As far as he was concerned, there was no possible way anyone could recognize him."
Ace spread his hands.
"So naturally, he beat the hell out of Luffy for exposing him."
Cain slowly continued the story.
"Eventually, Luffy stopped believing it was a disguise."
Everyone looked at him.
"He genuinely became convinced there was an undiscovered species of gorilla somewhere in the world that naturally had Grandpa's face."
Uta's expression almost collapsed.
The corners of her mouth twitched several times before she managed to steady her voice.
"…No wonder you brothers are all so close."
"Yeah."
Cain and Ace nodded together.
Nothing strengthened a friendship quite like sharing both good times and suffering.
The four brothers had certainly enjoyed plenty of good times together, but when it came to suffering—especially the sort personally arranged by Garp—the balance was very heavily weighted in the other direction.
"Even now that we're strong enough to deal with it, the psychological damage is apparently still there."
Cain shook his head at himself, though his tone quickly became more cheerful.
"Fortunately, Grandpa has work to do tonight, so we don't have to worry about any newly discovered gorilla species jumping out at us."
"We should get moving. It'd suck to miss the fireworks."
Then Cain looked at Ace and the wheelchair beneath him.
"Although if all of us walk together, this stops feeling like much of a Test of Courage."
He gestured toward the path.
"Why don't you guys go first?"
"No, no. You two should definitely go ahead."
Ace immediately declined with an overly polite smile.
"We don't mind waiting a little longer."
"You don't need to do that, Ace!"
Yamato cheerfully interrupted, completely oblivious to the subtle battle of wills taking place between them.
"There are several different paths up Mt. Fuji. Once we get past that first bend, we can split up anyway."
"Oh, really?"
Ace nodded.
Then a thought occurred to him, and the corner of his mouth curled upward.
"In that case, we can walk together for a while."
He looked straight at Cain.
"But Cain, let's make one rule."
"No Observation Haki."
"Otherwise the whole Test of Courage is pointless."
Cain immediately saw through him.
A matching grin appeared on his face.
"Sure. Sounds good to me."
After all, a Test of Courage wasn't only about proving how brave you were.
Scaring other people was at least half the fun.
Ace had apparently arrived at the same conclusion entirely on his own.
So when the two groups finally separated at the fork in the path, Cain and Ace were thinking almost exactly the same thing.
'Ace/Cain, I can't wait to see you scared shitless.'
'Hehehe…'
…
BAM!
A heavy impact exploded through the eerie darkness at the foot of the mountain.
Sengoku stared at the faint smoke rising from Garp's fist, then lowered his gaze toward the unfortunate man sprawled on the ground with stars practically circling his head.
His mouth twitched.
"Are you serious?"
"You punched him the instant we arrived!"
"Didn't you just tell me that the Beasts Pirates are on good terms with Ace now and that you weren't planning to attack them?"
"I couldn't help it."
Garp blew the remaining heat from his fist with an expression of utterly shameless innocence.
"He was standing there, and my pirate radar activated on its own."
"At that point, not punching him would've felt wrong."
Garp quickly apologized to the man he had flattened, then inspected the equipment he had accidentally damaged and immediately paid for everything.
Once that was handled, he dusted off his hands and turned toward Sengoku with a smile showing absolutely no remorse.
"Still, thanks for coming with me, Sengoku."
"I didn't expect you to agree after reading that part on the back."
The two of them had, indeed, come to participate in the Test of Courage.
And the unfortunate man Garp had knocked flat with one punch was—
King.
"You kept whining about it until I got sick of listening to you. That's the only reason I came."
Sengoku picked up an oil lamp and started up the mountain without even looking at him.
"There is no other reason. Don't start imagining things."
"Yeah, yeah. I know."
Garp casually took the lamp from Sengoku's hand and strode ahead.
"Hey! Wait!"
Sengoku immediately shouted after him.
"You smashed all the other lamps when you punched King! That's the last one!"
"If you take it, what am I supposed to use?!"
Garp didn't even look back.
He simply laughed.
"Your giant Buddha form glows on its own! What do you need a lamp for?"
"YOU IDIOT! THAT'S NOT THE SAME THING! GET BACK HERE!"
The sounds of the two old men chasing each other gradually disappeared farther up the mountain.
Only then did King finally move.
"As expected of the Hero of the Marines."
He pushed himself up from the cracked ground and rubbed the enormous lump swelling from his head.
"He broke through my defense with nothing but a fist."
There was no particular resentment in his voice. He was simply stating a fact.
King looked toward Mt. Fuji.
The faint lights marking the entrance trail had already disappeared into the darkness.
"The important people are all on the mountain."
He paused.
"Come out."
Several figures who had been hiding in the shadows nearly a hundred meters away began emerging one after another.
Apparently, Garp's so-called pirate radar hadn't activated for no reason.
The newcomers were members of the Flying Six.
Ulti.
Page One.
And Sasaki.
At this point, they were the only three available.
The Flying Six had already been incomplete, with only five members remaining.
Ulti and Page One were reasonably willing to follow orders.
Sasaki was a different story.
He respected Kaido, but he disliked taking commands from almost anyone else—especially the All-Stars.
King had only managed to secure his cooperation by promising him a future opportunity to challenge one of the All-Stars directly.
Who's-Who had been far too ambitious, and his former Cipher Pol background made him impossible to trust. There had been almost no debate before he was shipped straight to Impel Down.
Black Maria, meanwhile, was currently on Mt. Fuji commanding the SMILE users who had been assigned to frighten Cain's group along the route, so she couldn't participate.
Still—
these three would be enough.
King unfolded the list in his hand and looked across the group.
"You already received the names."
"You understand the mission?"
It was now obvious that arranging for Garp, Cain, and the others to receive those Test of Courage flyers had been deliberate from the beginning.
The event on the mountain was real.
But it had never been the true purpose of tonight's operation.
"Eliminate the remaining Kozuki loyalists."
King folded the list again and looked up toward the moon, mostly hidden behind heavy clouds.
"With the celebration in full swing, the ones who still refuse to accept the new order are bound to take advantage of the distraction and make a move."
He slowly drew his broad sword from its sheath.
"This weather really is perfect for a Test of Courage."
The blade gleamed faintly in the darkness.
King's voice turned cold.
"And it's also perfect for a hunt."
"Move."
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