Chapter 36: Golden Lion: "Garp, Let's Team Up!" Garp: "Get Out of the Way, I'm Looking for My Son!"
(Disregarding Movie Canon)
Punk Hazard, The Abandoned Research Institute.
In a hidden room, there was dead silence.
Puru Puru Puru... Puru Puru Puru...
The black Den Den Mushi sitting on the table rang without warning.
In the hermetically sealed room, the ear-piercing ringtone sounded like a thunderclap.
The four of them held their breath instantly.
The Den Den Mushi's eyes snapped open. Its mouth opened and closed, mimicking the shape of a person's lips. A steady, calm, yet somewhat familiar voice transmitted from within.
"This is Sabo. What is the situation?"
"Sabo?"
Nami's mind buzzed, going completely blank.
"Which Sabo?"
Sanji took a sharp drag of his cigarette, forcing himself to calm down. "Could it be... that guy from the newspaper... the Revolutionary Army's Number Two?"
Franky's voice cracked with tension.
"This is Sabo. What is the situation?"
Receiving no response, the Den Den Mushi repeated the phrase mechanically.
The air in the room seemed to freeze into solid ice.
The four of them looked at each other, then back at the table. No one dared to touch the snail.
Pick it up, or don't pick it up?
If we pick it up, what do we say?
That we are the Straw Hat Pirates and we accidentally broke into your secret base?
Would countless Revolutionaries burst out of the ground the next second and arrest them?
"What do we do?" Nami asked silently, mouthing the words.
"Hang up?" Sanji mouthed back.
"No! What if it's something important?" Franky shook his head frantically.
Puru Puru Puru...
In the moment of their hesitation, the Den Den Mushi's ringtone changed. It seemed as though another call had forcibly intercepted the line.
This time, the mouth shape mimicked by the snail changed. An urgent female voice burst through.
"Sabo-kun! It's a disaster! A Big Mom Pirates ship has appeared near Dressrosa!"
"Also, we've lost contact with the CP0 squad that was trading with Kaido!"
"Most importantly! Mr. Garp... Mr. Garp, he..."
Kacha.
The voice from the Den Den Mushi stopped abruptly.
It wasn't hung up.
It was as if the internal components of the snail couldn't withstand the shock of the information or some external force, and simply burned out.
The room fell into a deathly silence once again.
The four of them stood there, brains completely blank.
The amount of information contained in those few sentences was simply too massive.
Any single piece of that news was enough to set off a monstrous wave in the New World.
And they, purely by accident, had heard it all.
The New World, An Unknown Sea Region.
A Sea King, with a body size comparable to a small island, was breaking through the waves at extreme speed.
On top of its head, Garp sat in a beach chair, leisurely eating senbei.
"Hurry up, or we're going to miss dinner."
The moment his voice fell—
The sky suddenly darkened.
It wasn't storm clouds.
It was a pure, absolute darkness that stripped away all light, massive beyond description.
Garp paused mid-chew.
He slowly raised his head.
A colossal floating island, looking like a kingdom of gods from legend, appeared directly above him, casting a shadow that blotted out the sun. Immediately following it was a second island, then a third...
Dozens of islands of varying sizes formed an airborne fleet, blockading the entire sky.
"Jiehahahaha!"
A laugh, arrogant and rampant to the extreme, crashed down from the sky like rolling thunder.
"Old friend! It's been a long time, Garp!"
A figure slowly floated down from the highest floating island.
He had a mane of golden hair that resembled a male lion. A comical ship's steering wheel was embedded in his head. Instead of feet, two long swords glinting with cold light served as his legs.
The legendary Great Pirate, "Golden Lion" Shiki.
"Shiki?"
Garp didn't even bat an eyelid. He shoved another rice cracker into his mouth.
"You guy... you crawled back out of hell? You're not dead yet?"
"Jiehahahaha!"
The Golden Lion landed on the surface of the sea, not far in front of Garp. The blades on his legs treaded water, yet he didn't sink even a fraction of an inch.
"I heard you betrayed the Navy, and even beat up both Mary Geoise and the new Admiral. beautifully done!"
"What 'Hero of the Marines'? What World Government?! They are all just fools locked in a cage!"
"You and this old man are the only ones who truly understand this world! Those Celestial Dragons are nothing but trash!"
The Golden Lion grew more excited as he spoke, spreading his arms wide with a fanatical expression.
"How about it, Garp? Join me!"
"If you and I join forces, combined with the power this old man has accumulated over the years, it is enough to completely overturn this world!"
"When that time comes, the entire world will grovel at our feet!"
"Jiehahahaha! That is what it means to be a true pirate!"
Garp finally finished the senbei in his hand.
He dusted the crumbs off his hands and stood up.
"Idiot."
One word.
It made the Golden Lion's maniacal laughter come to a screeching halt.
"What did you say?" Shiki's face darkened.
"This old man has no interest in ruling the world."
Garp dug his finger into his ear, looking completely impatient.
"I just want my family to be able to live freely under the sunlight, that's all."
"Jiehahahaha!"
The Golden Lion paused for a moment, then erupted into an even more piercing, mocking laughter.
"Boring! That is a truly boring reason!"
"Family? That sort of thing only becomes a weakness for the strong!"
"Garp, you really have gone senile!"
"Sengoku isn't here today!"
His face instantly turned hideous.
"Since you refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit, then this old man will just have to beat you into submission first!"
"Then, I will go find your son, and that straw-hat-wearing grandson of yours!"
"I will make them understand the consequences of defying me!"
As his voice fell—
In the sky, from the dozens of floating islands, countless black cannon muzzles extended from the rocks.
In unison, they aimed directly at the lonely figure on the surface of the sea.
A battle of Legend against Legend was about to erupt.
(To be Continued)