Garp smiled.
He had been here for less than ten seconds.
Already, he was having fun.
Before he had taken five steps, a wall of pirates flooded into the main thoroughfare.
They blocked the road from one side to the other.
There were swordsmen, riflemen, men carrying axes, pirates wearing mismatched armor, and veterans covered in scars. Some were infamous names within the New World. Others were criminals whose reputations had never extended beyond this island.
To Garp, they were all simply in the way.
"Let's mount his head on the Skull Dome!"
The crowd erupted with laughter.
Garp stopped.
He reached up and casually unbuttoned the top of his collar.
Then he rolled his shoulders.
The joints in his back popped.
The sound was surprisingly clear.
Several pirates near the front stopped laughing.
Garp took another step.
Still no weapon.
No stance.
No dramatic declaration.
He simply walked.
A pirate broke from the crowd.
The man came in fast, a jagged cutlass raised above his shoulder. He swung for Garp's neck with enough force to split a man from shoulder to chest.
Garp didn't stop walking.
His weight shifted backward.
The blade passed in front of his throat.
At almost the same instant, his palm snapped upward.
It struck beneath the pirate's jaw.
Crack.
The pirate's head jolted backward and his feet left the ground.
Garp caught him by the belt before he could fall.
He pivoted.
The pirate became a projectile.
Garp threw him across the street.
The unconscious body slammed into a group of riflemen who had just taken position on a rooftop.
The wooden structure collapsed.
Pirates disappeared beneath a cloud of dust.
Garp continued walking.
"You're going to need more than that, brats!"
He cracked his knuckles.
Seven pirates rushed him together.
One swung a halberd.
Another came from the side with an axe.
Two swordsmen attacked low.
Garp ducked beneath the first swing and stepped into the attacker's space.
His fist struck the man's chest.
The impact folded the pirate around the blow and launched him backward.
He crashed into three of his own allies.
Garp turned.
Bullets were already coming.
He tilted his head.
The first shot passed his ear.
The second crossed where his chest had been.
The third missed by inches.
A pirate with a spiked club reached him.
Garp caught the weapon with one hand.
The wooden handle cracked in his grip.
The pirate stared.
Garp headbutted him.
The shock rattled the windows of the tavern beside them.
The pirate dropped.
The mob hesitated.
Only for a moment.
Then they surged again.
Garp laughed.
He stepped forward.
The difference between him and the crowd quickly became obvious.
He wasn't simply stronger.
He was experienced.
Every attack announced itself before it came.
Every shoulder movement told him where the weapon would travel.
Every shift in footing revealed an intention.
A swordsman dropped from a balcony above him.
The strike was aimed at the back of Garp's head.
Garp did not look up.
His left foot slid backward.
The sword struck the ground where his spine had been.
Garp reached behind himself and caught the swordsman's wrist.
He turned.
The swordsman flew across the street.
A pirate carrying a bazooka happened to be charging from the opposite direction.
The two collided.
The bazooka fired.
The shell flew into the sky.
The resulting explosion brought down a stone archway.
Garp moved through the falling debris without breaking stride.
On a distant rooftop, a sniper settled his rifle.
Garp's eyes shifted.
The man's shoulder tightened.
Garp leaned sideways.
The bullet passed through empty air.
A dual-wielding pirate came next.
His first blade was a feint.
The second was aimed at Garp's ribs.
Garp ignored both.
He stepped on the pirate's foot.
The man's attack collapsed.
Garp flicked two fingers against his forehead.
The pirate went limp.
There was nothing elegant about the technique.
There didn't need to be.
Garp simply kept walking.
He used the streets against them.
He forced the pirates into narrow alleys.
He stepped around corners just as cannon fire came through them.
He kicked weapons into the path of charging men.
He shoved one pirate into another and used the resulting confusion to break through the center of the formation.
Soon, the pirates weren't fighting one Marine.
They were fighting each other.
The Marines watching from the harbor stared.
Prince Grus lowered his clay construct.
His expression changed.
Koby's eyes remained fixed on Garp.
They had all heard the stories.
Everyone knew the name Monkey D. Garp.
But this wasn't the Garp they had grown accustomed to seeing.
The old Marine wasn't stiff.
He wasn't slow.
There was no hesitation in his movements.
His back was straight.
His steps were light.
His body moved with an explosive ease that didn't fit the man they knew.
Koby swallowed.
"This..."
Grus didn't answer.
He was watching the same thing.
Garp hadn't simply regained his youth.
His body had returned to something it had been decades ago.
And the mind controlling it was still the same mind that had spent a lifetime fighting monsters.
The pirates finally understood that numbers were useless.
They began retreating toward the town square.
Then the crowd split.
A shadow entered the street.
The pirate was enormous.
Nearly thirty feet tall.
His arms were thick enough to resemble tree trunks, and he carried an iron hammer in both hands.
A dozen heavily armored pirates marched beside him.
These weren't ordinary subordinates.
They were New World veterans.
The giant raised his weapon.
"Don't get cocky, Marine!"
He brought the hammer down.
The veterans charged behind him.
The attack came like an avalanche.
Garp stopped.
He planted his feet.
His grin widened.
His right arm moved backward.
His fist tightened.
Black Haki wrapped around his knuckles.
Red lightning snapped across the air.
For an instant, the pirates nearest him stopped breathing.
Garp jumped.
He cleared the entire charging formation in one movement.
For a moment, he hung over the town square.
His fist came down.
"Galaxy Impact!"
The punch never touched a person.
It struck the air.
The world seemed to compress around his fist.
Then it exploded outward.
The sound came a fraction later.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave tore through the square.
Black lightning raced along its edge.
The giant's hammer disintegrated before the attack reached him.
The veterans vanished beneath the wave.
The giant himself was thrown off his feet.
He crashed backward through the roof of a five-story fortress.
Stone collapsed.
Garp's shockwave continued through the street.
Cobblestones ripped from the ground.
Buildings cracked.
Taverns folded inward.
Weapons shattered inside armories.
Pirates were thrown through windows, across rooftops, and into one another.
A plume of dust rose over the town.
When it cleared, the street was gone.
A wide crater stretched through the center of Hachinosu.
Garp landed lightly at its edge.
He looked at his fist.
Then at the devastation.
"Woops."
He scratched the back of his head.
"Put a little too much shoulder into that one."
He laughed.
"Still getting used to the spring in my step."
The Marines stared.
Garp looked toward the island.
He hadn't even started fighting seriously.
The remaining pirates scrambled out from the wreckage.
Some were bleeding.
Others were barely standing.
But desperation had replaced fear.
They came again.
Garp met them.
This time, there was no amusement in his movements.
A pirate attacked from behind.
Garp turned before the blade arrived.
Another came from the side.
Garp stepped between the attacks.
A cannon fired from a rooftop.
He shoved one pirate into the line of fire.
The cannonball flattened the man and blasted through a wall.
Garp caught another attacker's wrist.
He twisted.
The pirate hit the ground.
Then came a sudden drop in temperature.
Garp stopped.
The breath of the surrounding pirates turned white.
Frost spread over the stones.
The remaining puddles froze.
Ice formed along broken walls.
The noise of the battlefield slowly disappeared.
From the remains of a collapsed tavern, a figure walked through the mist.
Tall.
Calm.
Hands in his pockets.
Frost trailed behind his boots.
Kuzan who just got out of the whole.
The pirates backed away immediately.
The former Admiral looked around at the destruction.
"You've made a mess of our new home, Garp-san."
Garp wiped a speck of dust from his jaw.
He looked at his former student.
"You shouldn't build your houses so fragile, Kuzan."
Kuzan's eyes moved over him.
He studied Garp's stance.
The breathing.
The shoulders.
The absence of fatigue.
He remembered what the man had once been.
He remembered fighting beside him.
Training with him.
Being beaten by him.
But the Garp standing across the square wasn't simply the same man from those memories.
He was young again.
And he hadn't lost a single year of experience.
"I know exactly what you were capable of back then," Kuzan said.
His expression became serious.
"I never thought I'd have to stand across from this version of you."
Garp grinned.
"Then you should've brought a thicker jacket."
Kuzan raised one hand.
"Ice Age."
The square disappeared beneath ice.
Glaciers erupted from the ground.
Buildings vanished behind walls of frost.
Ice spears rose from the streets and tore through rooftops.
Kuzan turned the battlefield into his territory.
Garp remained in the center.
A wall of ice came toward him.
His fist struck it.
The entire structure shattered.
Another appeared immediately.
He destroyed that one too.
Kuzan continued moving.
He rode waves of ice across the battlefield, constantly changing position.
"Partisan!"
Ice spears fired across the square.
Garp smashed some aside.
Others shattered against his Haki.
But the scale of Kuzan's attacks continued to reshape the terrain.
The ground beneath Garp's feet froze.
His footing changed.
A pillar of ice erupted beneath his ribs.
Garp was thrown sideways.
He crashed through the remains of a watchtower.
Before he could rise, Kuzan appeared above him.
A condensed mass of ice descended.
It slammed into Garp's chest.
The frozen ground beneath him cracked.
Garp vanished under the ice.
Kuzan landed.
Silence returned.
Then the ice moved.
A fracture appeared.
Another followed.
Kuzan's expression didn't change.
But his eyes sharpened.
The glacier exploded.
Garp burst through it.
Ice scattered around him.
Blood ran from a cut across his cheek.
He wiped it away.
His smile returned.
Kuzan barely had time to react.
Garp kicked the ground.
The bedrock shattered beneath him.
He disappeared.
Kuzan raised an ice barrier.
Garp hit it.
The wall exploded.
Another appeared.
Garp smashed through it too.
Then another.
He continued straight ahead.
The ice wasn't slowing him.
It was simply being destroyed.
Kuzan's eyes widened.
He manifested a blade in his hand and swung.
Garp ducked.
The freezing edge passed over his hair.
He stepped inside.
His fist struck Kuzan in the stomach.
The blow was wrapped in Armament Haki.
Kuzan managed to coat his body in Haki just before impact.
It wasn't enough.
His feet left the ground.
He flew backward.
The shockwave tore through his back and blasted a hole through the frozen structure behind him.
Kuzan twisted in midair.
His leg came around toward Garp's head.
Garp blocked it with his forearm.
The impact rang through the battlefield.
He caught Kuzan's leg.
Twisted.
Then drove his knee into Kuzan's ribs.
Kuzan flew across the ice.
He stopped himself.
His palms lifted.
Cold gathered.
He was preparing to widen the distance.
Then he realized Garp was gone.
Kuzan's Observation Haki flared.
Too late.
"Too slow."
The voice came from behind him.
Garp's hammer-fist struck between Kuzan's shoulder blades.
Kuzan flew forward.
He smashed into the stone foundation of the Skull Dome.
The rock cracked.
Kuzan pushed himself out of the rubble.
Blood touched his lip.
He wiped it away.
He knew this rhythm.
He had spent years training with Garp.
He knew the heavy right hand.
The shifting left.
The low sweep.
He knew what came next.
Or at least he thought he did.
Garp charged.
Kuzan watched his shoulder.
There.
The movement.
The beginning of the right cross.
Kuzan stepped inward.
He intended to slip the blow and freeze Garp's torso at point-blank range.
But Garp stopped.
Not completely.
Just enough.
A tiny break in his rhythm.
Kuzan's prediction failed.
His counter found nothing.
Garp was already there.
The uppercut hit beneath Kuzan's chin.
Kuzan shot into the sky.
His ears rang.
For a moment, the battlefield disappeared below him.
And then the realization came.
This was not simply the body Garp had possessed decades ago.
It was a prime body controlled by decades of additional experience.
The speed was familiar.
The strength was familiar.
The instincts were not.
Garp had spent fifty years learning.
Kuzan hadn't been fighting the Garp he remembered.
He had been fighting an improved version.
Then Garp felt something behind him.
A strange silence.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose.
He turned.
Nothing.
Then Raiu appeared.
Shiryu's body materialized from the air behind him.
His sword was already moving.
The blade aimed for Garp's spine.
At the same time, Kuzan corrected himself in the air.
His arm extended.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!"
An enormous bird of ice descended from the opposite direction.
Garp was trapped between them.
He moved.
Not backward.
Not forward.
Sideways.
His torso twisted.
His left hand snapped behind him.
His fingers caught Shiryu's wrist.
The sword stopped.
But not completely.
Raiu cut through Garp's coat.
The blade grazed his side.
Blood sprayed across the ice.
At the same instant, the ice bird slammed into his back.
The frozen construct exploded.
Garp staggered.
For a second, everything went quiet.
Shiryu stared at the hand gripping his wrist.
Then Garp looked down at the blood running from his side.
He breathed out slowly.
A grin appeared.
"Hiding in the dark."
Garp turned his head.
"You pirates really love your cheap tricks."
Shiryu tried to pull himself free.
He couldn't.
Garp squeezed.
Crack.
Shiryu's wrist broke.
His grip loosened.
Garp yanked him forward.
Their faces collided.
Garp's forehead struck Shiryu's nose.
Blood exploded across the ice.
Shiryu staggered.
Garp seized the collar of his coat.
He lifted him.
Then slammed him into the ground.
The ice cracked.
Garp dragged him up again.
He spun.
Shiryu flew.
The swordsman crashed through a stone wall, crossed an entire street, and disappeared through the reinforced doors of a weapons armory.
The building shook.
Garp looked toward the ruins.
"One down."
Shiryu remained conscious.
Barely.
That was enough.
The Blackbeard Pirates finally understood what they were dealing with.
They couldn't allow Garp to isolate them one by one.
Orders were shouted.
Kuzan raised his hands.
Ice spread across the ground.
Shiryu disappeared.
Three pirate captains charged from different directions.
Garp's eyes moved.
The first attack arrived.
He blocked it.
The second came.
He stepped aside.
The third came from behind.
He caught the pirate by the belt and swung him around.
A blade suddenly appeared in the air.
Shiryu.
Garp threw the captain directly into him.
Shiryu's sword cut his own ally.
His invisibility broke.
Garp punched him in the chest.
Shiryu flew again.
A wave of ice surged beneath Garp's feet.
He jumped.
A giant pirate swung a ship's mast like a bat.
Garp raised one hand.
The mast struck his palm.
He stopped it.
The giant pushed.
Garp's feet didn't move.
The pirate's muscles bulged.
Garp looked up.
"Is that really all you've got in that oversized arm of yours?"
He twisted his wrist.
The mast snapped.
The giant stared at the broken timber.
Garp jumped.
His fist hit the giant's sternum.
The massive pirate flew backward and crashed through a stone building.
From the harbor, another cannon fired.
An enormous iron cannonball crossed the battlefield.
Garp turned.
He caught it against his chest.
His boots slid several feet.
He looked down.
Then smiled.
He threw it back.
The cannonball flew across the harbor.
It struck the pirate ship that had fired it.
The vessel exploded.
Pieces of timber scattered across the water.
Garp laughed.
Then his eyes moved toward the Marine ship.
A stray burst of musket fire landed near Koby.
Koby was helping a wounded Marine toward the vessel.
The bullets struck the stone beside him.
Garp stopped laughing.
The change was immediate.
The amusement disappeared.
His face became still.
The air around him seemed to thicken.
One by one, the pirates closest to him froze.
Then collapsed.
Conqueror's Haki spread through the battlefield.
It wasn't directed at anyone in particular.
It simply came out.
Pirates dropped across the streets.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Some didn't even understand what had happened.
Windows shattered.
Weapons rattled across the stones.
Even the stronger pirates felt pressure pressing against their bodies.
Kuzan's eyes narrowed.
Shiryu emerged on a distant rooftop.
For the first time, his expression showed caution.
Garp looked toward the Marine ship.
Then he turned back.
His fists darkened.
Black Haki flowed across his arms.
He struck the ground.
The stone beneath him exploded.
Garp launched forward.
He tore through the pirate formation.
One captain flew.
Another was smashed into a building.
A third was knocked across the harbor.
Garp didn't chase any of them.
He simply cleared a path.
Until he stood between the pirates and the Marine vessel.
"Listen up!"
His voice carried across the island.
"Set sail immediately!"
Grus stepped forward.
"Vice Admiral, we can't leave you here alone!"
Garp backhanded a pirate into the sea.
"Take Koby and get off this rock."
He glanced over his shoulder.
"That's an order."
Koby gripped the railing.
"Garp-san..."
His voice broke.
"Please!"
Garp's expression hardened.
He looked at the younger Marine.
"You're a Marine, aren't you?"
Koby's lips trembled.
Garp's voice lowered.
"Then start acting like one."
He looked toward the ship.
"Get your people home."
Koby couldn't answer.
Garp turned back toward the island.
Kuzan was standing again.
Shiryu was cleaning blood from his mouth.
The remaining pirate captains were spreading through the ruins.
Garp rolled his shoulders.
"Once you're all clear..."
He paused.
Then smiled.
"...I can stop worrying about what's standing behind me."
The Marines understood.
Garp had been holding back.
Not because he was weak.
Because he had been protecting them.
Prince Grus finally lowered his head.
"All hands!"
The engines came alive.
The Marine battleship began pulling away.
Koby remained at the railing.
He stared at Garp.
The distance slowly widened.
Garp never looked back.
He waited.
He watched the ship move beyond the harbor.
Only when the vessel had cleared the bay did he finally exhale.
The sound was quiet.
Then he smiled.
The Marine ship continued toward open water.
Garp turned.
The smile became wider.
There was no one left for him to protect.
No reason to defend.
No reason to retreat.
Kuzan stood ahead.
Shiryu stepped from the shadows.
The remaining captains surrounded him.
Garp looked around.
He stood alone.
Against an Emperor's crew.
His clothes were already torn.
Blood ran down his side.
His cheek was cut.
None of it mattered.
He laughed.
"Bwahahaha!"
He cracked his knuckles.
"I was getting tired of chasing you brats while playing babysitter."
The pirates attacked.
All at once.
Garp stepped into them.
A captain swung a spiked club.
Garp ducked beneath it.
His fist punched through the wooden handle.
Then struck the man's stomach.
The captain folded.
Shiryu appeared behind Garp.
Raiu came down.
Garp twisted.
The blade cut across his collarbone.
Garp spun.
His heel struck Shiryu in the chest.
Shiryu crashed through a stone wall.
Ice exploded across the street.
Kuzan was already there.
A punch coated in ice slammed toward Garp's face.
Garp blocked.
Another came.
Then another.
The two exchanged blows at close range.
Every collision sent cracks through the surrounding buildings.
Garp caught Kuzan's wrist.
He pulled him forward.
Their foreheads collided.
Kuzan stumbled.
Garp tore a chunk of bedrock from the ground and threw it toward a group of snipers.
The rock crushed the balcony.
The Blackbeard Pirates changed tactics.
They stopped trying to win individual exchanges.
Instead, they attacked in layers.
Axe from the left.
Ice from above.
Invisible sword from behind.
Cannon fire from the harbor.
Garp couldn't avoid everything.
An axe struck his shoulder.
Ice spears pierced his thigh.
Shiryu's blade opened his chest.
Blood ran across his torso.
His Marine coat finally tore apart.
Pieces of the white fabric fell into the rubble.
Garp stood amid the ruins.
Bruised.
Bleeding.
Breathing harder.
Still smiling.
Every successful hit on him received an immediate answer.
A pirate struck him.
Garp broke his arm.
Another cut him.
Garp sent him through a wall.
A captain tried to restrain him.
Garp threw the man into three others.
The longer the fight continued, the more savage his movements became.
He wasn't getting tired.
He was getting comfortable.
Kuzan noticed it.
During another exchange, the two locked hands.
Ice spread around Kuzan's fingers.
Haki covered Garp's arms.
Neither gave ground.
They stared at one another.
Both were breathing heavily now.
Kuzan looked at Garp.
Then at his body.
"You really did it."
Garp's grin didn't disappear.
Kuzan spoke again.
"Did that magician from your grandson's crew really help you turn yourself back?"
Garp didn't answer.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
He only laughed.
Kuzan narrowed his eyes.
Garp suddenly dropped his weight.
Kuzan's balance shifted.
Garp's elbow slammed into his jaw.
Kuzan's head snapped sideways.
Garp grabbed him.
"Blue Hole!"
He drove Kuzan into the ground.
The earth shattered.
Kuzan disappeared beneath the battlefield.
The impact drove him through the bedrock.
He fell into the caverns beneath Hachinosu.
For several seconds, there was darkness.
Kuzan landed hard.
He groaned.
Then slowly stood.
He wiped the blood from his mouth.
Enough.
Close combat wasn't working.
He placed both palms against the ground.
The cold spread.
Kuzan looked upward.
"Ice Age..."
His expression hardened.
"Absolute Zero."
The cold exploded outward.
The cavern walls vanished beneath ice.
The frozen mass surged upward.
It burst through the streets.
Buildings disappeared.
Ruins vanished.
The square was swallowed by a rapidly expanding wall of ice.
Kuzan pushed the attack farther.
The battlefield disappeared.
Garp vanished beneath it.
A towering frozen landscape rose through the center of Hachinosu.
Then silence.
The remaining pirates stared.
Kuzan stood breathing heavily.
Nobody spoke.
One captain tightened his grip on his weapon.
"Did..."
He swallowed.
"Did he get him?"
No one answered.
The ice mountain remained still.
Then came a crack.
A single fracture appeared near the bottom.
Another spread beside it.
Then another.
Black lightning flashed beneath the surface.
The pirates stepped backward.
The ice exploded.
A section the size of a building was thrown into the air.
More followed.
Garp emerged from the center of the frozen mass.
He landed on the ruined ground.
Ice covered his shoulders.
Blood ran from multiple wounds.
His breathing was heavy.
His muscles trembled from the cold.
For a moment, he looked furious.
Then the expression vanished.
His grin returned.
"Nice breeze you've got there, Kuzan."
He wiped a chunk of ice from his eyebrow.
"Almost cooled me down."
Kuzan stared at him.
He understood.
The fight was reaching its end.
Garp spread his feet.
He planted himself against the bedrock.
His right fist moved backward.
The atmosphere changed.
Black lightning began appearing around his arm.
Not sparks.
Streams.
They raced over his fist and down toward the ground.
The stones beneath his boots cracked.
The pressure continued building.
The remaining pirates abandoned any thought of closing in.
They backed away.
Garp looked toward the center of the island.
His fist tightened.
The air itself seemed to resist him.
Then Garp moved.
He launched forward.
But he didn't aim at Kuzan.
He aimed at Hachinosu.
At the center of the island.
At the ground beneath everyone.
His fist came down.
"Galaxy Divide!"
The impact tore Hachinosu apart.
The ground split open.
A ravine ripped through the town.
Buildings disappeared into it.
Frozen structures shattered.
Stone fortresses collapsed.
The streets broke apart.
The Skull Dome shook.
A crack formed through the enormous carved skull.
It ran straight through the grinning face.
The sea around Hachinosu pulled backward.
Then surged toward the island.
A wave crashed over the harbor.
Pirates were thrown through the air.
Ships were destroyed.
Ice shattered.
Stone walls collapsed.
The western side of the island was transformed into a field of rubble.
When the rumbling finally stopped, there was almost nothing recognizable left.
Dust filled the sky.
The Skull Dome stood fractured in the distance.
The town had been reduced to ruins.
At the center of it all, Kuzan lay among the shattered stone.
He was conscious.
Barely.
His coat was gone.
His body was covered in bruises.
His breathing came slowly.
Then he heard footsteps.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Garp emerged from the dust.
His clothing hung from his body in torn strips.
Blood covered his chest and arms.
His hair was dusted with stone.
But he was still standing.
He stopped beside Kuzan.
The two men looked at each other.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Garp sighed.
"You always were too stiff, Kuzan."
Kuzan let out a weak laugh.
He turned his head toward the ruined island.
Then back toward Garp.
"And you..."
His voice was hoarse.
"...never learned when to quit."
Garp nodded.
There was no mockery in his expression now.
Only pride.
And disappointment.
He raised his fist.
Black Haki covered it again.
Kuzan didn't move.
The fist descended.
The impact shook the ruins.
Kuzan's body disappeared deeper into the rubble.
His eyes closed.
His consciousness slipped away.
Garp remained standing above him.
He looked down at his former student.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he turned.
He walked away.
Far beyond the island, the Marine battleship rode the turbulent sea.
The Marines stood along the rear deck.
Nobody spoke.
The cloud of dust rising from Hachinosu could be seen from miles away.
The Skull Dome was almost completely hidden.
The island itself seemed to be collapsing.
Koby stood at the railing.
His hands gripped it so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
His eyes remained fixed on the distant island.
Tears finally rolled down his cheeks.
Someone behind him spoke quietly.
"Vice Admiral Garp is still there."
Koby didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
He understood exactly what Garp had done.
Garp had remained behind so everyone else could leave.
He had taken the entire crew upon himself.
He had deliberately placed himself between them and the enemy.
Koby wiped his face.
Then stood straighter.
He raised his hand.
He saluted.
The other Marines followed.
Back on Hachinosu, Garp stood alone.
Silence had finally returned.
The battlefield stretched around him.
Broken buildings.
Collapsed fortresses.
Frozen ruins.
Unconscious pirates.
Bloodied weapons.
Kuzan buried beneath the rubble.
Shiryu somewhere beneath the ruins.
The island itself barely resembled the place they had arrived at.
Garp looked around.
He wiped blood from his chin.
Then looked upward.
The sky was gray.
The clouds were slowly beginning to drift apart.
Garp tilted his head back.
A laugh escaped him.
It grew louder.
"Bwahahaha!"
His voice rolled across the ruined island.
He cracked his knuckles.
"Not a bad way to get the blood pumping!"
He rolled his shoulders.
There was still energy in his body.
Still that familiar spring in his legs.
Still enough strength left to fight.
Garp turned toward the harbor.
He brushed dust from his pants.
He took one step.
Then stopped.
His expression changed.
He looked toward the ocean.
The Marine ship was gone.
The pirate ships in the harbor were gone too.
Most of them had been destroyed by his own attacks.
Garp blinked.
He looked left.
Nothing.
He looked right.
Nothing.
He stared at the ruined docks.
Then out toward the open sea.
He scratched the back of his head.
"...Wait a minute."
Silence.
Garp's brow furrowed.
"How am I supposed to get back?"