Next Bonus, 100!!
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BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion cracked like a thunderbolt.
Jin and Garp's fists met in a cataclysmic collision. The resulting shockwave was swift, tyrannical, and absolute, tearing the very heavens and earth apart.
Their Haki erupted into the sky.
The sheer, terrifying magnitude of the power on display was incomprehensible.
Sand and stone were violently whipped into the air. Surrounding ruins pulverized into dust. The bedrock beneath them fractured and splintered.
The sheer concussive backdraft alone was enough to send several arriving Marine Vice Admirals tumbling through the air.
DOOOM!
As the dust from the violent clash settled...
Jin stood his ground, absolutely immovable. He hadn't yielded a single inch.
Garp, on the other hand, was stunned.
The impact had launched him backward. His boots skidded across the ruined earth for several paces before he could finally stop his momentum.
A sharp, throbbing ache radiated through his "Iron Fist."
He had actually taken the worse of that exchange.
This was a fist he had spent an entire lifetime forging. It was his pride, his legend.
And yet...
Just moments ago...
It felt as if his "Iron Fist" had slammed into a solid block of impenetrable adamantium.
The recoil had been brutal. He had taken a heavy hit.
Garp quickly suppressed his shock, forcing his expression to remain impassive.
He had recognized Jin's potential early on, but he now realized that the young king's growth had vastly exceeded even his wildest estimations.
It was too fast!
How many years had it been??
Back during their training, Jin possessed immense latent potential, but he was nowhere near Garp's level. He wasn't a true threat.
But potential and actual combat power were two entirely different beasts.
Having limitless potential didn't guarantee you could actually harness it in battle.
Take Charlotte Linlin, for example. Her latent potential was arguably unmatched, yet her actual combat execution rarely brushed the absolute ceiling of what she was theoretically capable of.
In this era, the only monster who had perfectly, absolutely weaponized every ounce of his latent potential was Kaido.
But Kaido's ceiling simply wasn't high enough.
And now, Jin stood before him—an entity demonstrably stronger than Kaido. A man with both terrifying potential and the horrific combat power to realize it.
Having undergone his fourth evolutionary leap, Jin's physical constitution had been holistically overhauled and massively upgraded.
Facing Garp now, he felt absolutely zero pressure.
However, Jin had no desire to engage in a protracted duel with the old hero.
"Garp," Jin said, his tone conversational. "I did just save Luffy's life. Do you really need to try so hard?"
Garp's fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. He glared at Jin. "Shut your mouth! Aren't you the architect of this entire disaster??"
"Am I?" Jin chuckled softly.
"Humanity always loves a scapegoat. You need somewhere to place all your sins, someone to label as the absolute 'Evil'!"
"Just like you did with Roger!"
"And now, Garp, are you trying to pin all of this on me? Is that how you maintain your fragile, hypocritical sense of 'Justice'?"
Jin locked eyes with the old hero, his gaze piercing.
"Don't forget who initiated this war! It was the Marines! It was the World Government!"
Garp's jaw tightened, but he offered no rebuttal.
Because Jin was stating absolute facts.
How could he deny it?
Garp wasn't Sengoku or Sakazuki. He wasn't a blind zealot for the World Government's brand of 'Justice.'
If he were, he would never have honored Roger's dying wish to protect Ace.
He wouldn't have deliberately thrown his fight with Luffy during this very war.
He wouldn't have threatened to murder Sakazuki...
"You decided how this war would begin, and now you expect it to end on your terms?" Jin turned his gaze to the ruined battlefield. "Unfortunately for you, I'm the one calling the shots now!"
Garp swallowed his mounting fury. "Jin... what is your endgame here?"
"Are you truly willing to drag the entire world into a quagmire of endless war just to satisfy your own ambition?"
"A quagmire??" Jin threw his head back and laughed.
"This world has been a rotting quagmire for eight hundred years."
"And the Celestial Dragons—your precious World Nobles—are the absolute stench at the bottom of it."
"Garp. You're one of the very few high-ranking Marines who actually interacts with both the Celestial Dragons and the common people."
"Look at this world. Look at everything around you. Do you honestly believe that any of this is right?"
Garp remained silent, a tempest of conflicting emotions raging in his chest. "Even so!" he roared. "There are countless innocent people here today!"
"And you're going to drag them all into your vortex of destruction??"
"Innocent?" Jin countered sharply. "Garp, do you consider yourself innocent? Are the Marines here innocent? The pirates? The revolutionaries?"
"Are they innocent?"
"What about the countless millions who just want to live in peace? Are they innocent?"
Jin's voice dropped to a freezing chill. "Do you remember the people hunted for sport at God Valley? Were they innocent?"
"Do you remember Ohara? The scholars incinerated by your Buster Call? Were they innocent?"
"What about Punk Hazard? Dressrosa? The non-affiliated nations? Are they not innocent?"
"And you stand here, screaming about innocence?? Screaming for them?? What have you ever actually done for them??"
"When the Celestial Dragons hunt civilians like animals, what do you, the Marines, and Sengoku do??"
"When the Celestial Dragons rape and pillage, what do you, the Marines, and Sengoku do??"
"When the Celestial Dragons casually obliterate entire islands and nations, what do you, the Marines, and Sengoku do??"
"Answer me, Garp! As their willing accomplices, don't you feel utterly disgusted with yourselves??"
Jin let out a cold, mocking laugh.
"Every single person who set foot on Marineford today—pirate or Marine—not a single one of them is innocent!"
Garp averted his eyes. After a long, heavy silence, he murmured, "We Marines merely follow orders. What can we possibly change?"
"Exactly," Jin stated flatly. "You follow orders. You fight wars."
"At a time like this, the only thing you know how to do is fight."
"But I'm talking about the problem!"
"The pirates are not the problem!"
"The problem isn't caused by a sudden influx of pirates."
"The problem has always been here."
"What is the problem?"
"The problem is that this world is fundamentally broken! It's diseased!"
"It's wrong! It's completely wrong!"
"And when something is wrong, it needs to be fixed!"
"Whitebeard is dead. His crew is broken. So what? Does that change anything for the world??"
"No! Absolutely not!"
"The problem is still there!"
"It won't vanish just because you defeated the Whitebeard Pirates."
"So, I ask you again: what is the problem?"
"This system is the problem! And when the system is broken, what do you do??"
"You fix it!"
"How do you fix it? By moving forward!!!"
"I know the Marines possess the courage to fight the Four Emperors, to maintain the so-called 'order' of the world!"
"But it's exactly your stubborn adherence to this rotting order..."
"That has robbed the world of its courage."
"That is why the Celestial Dragons continue to oppress without fear!"
"I have always believed that the individual soldiers of the Marines are not mindless, black-and-white machines."
"They are people, struggling desperately between the demands of the system, their faith, and their own conscience."
"Will you continue to act as the scavengers and lapdogs of the World Government?"
"Or will you forge a New Marine force that actually protects the people?"
"Or... will you simply collapse under the weight of your own internal contradictions?"
"The choice you make today will determine the fate of the world. Will you continue to uphold this fabricated peace, or will you usher in a true dawn?"
BOOM! BOOM!
The artillery fire roared.
But Jin's words cut through the chaos, broadcast live across Marineford, echoing loudly through Sabaody Archipelago.
Resonating across the entire globe.
His blistering interrogation of Garp rang in everyone's ears. The Marines, the pirates, the revolutionaries—every single combatant fell into a stunned silence.
And for the countless commoners and the oppressed watching worldwide, his words struck a profound, agonizingly true chord.
He was right.
The problem was right there!
It wasn't the pirates!
It wasn't the Marines!
It was the world itself!
It was the Government that ruled it, and the self-proclaimed 'Gods' who stood high above the masses—the Celestial Dragons!
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