Just then—
Boom!!!
The battle between Yu and Imu shook the world once again.
The entire ground of Marineford split apart, huge cracks spreading in all directions.
The violent shaking caused the nameless soldier to stumble. He was about to fall into a crack in the ground and drop into the endless abyss.
"Look out!"
Ace's expression changed. He wanted to save the man.
But someone was faster than him.
Garp.
He used Geppo, stepped into the air, grabbed the nameless soldier by the back of his collar, lifted him up, and threw him back onto the ground.
The nameless soldier hit the ground, rolled twice, and lay there, gasping heavily.
He looked up at Garp standing before him, his eyes full of disbelief.
"Why..."
Garp did not answer.
He just looked down at this young man, silent for a moment.
Makoto casually dealt with Nika's attacks. Watching this, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Is this atonement?"
Although Rouge had been intercepted by Makoto's group back then, Garp hadn't reported the information, leading to the same situation as in the original work, where the pregnant women and infants from that year were slaughtered by the World Government.
And now, with the victim's relative coming to him, did Garp want to atone?
Like how Nami and Hatchan acted in the later parts of the original work.
Makoto suddenly became curious. Would the nameless soldier forgive Garp, just like Nami forgave Hatchan?
"Hey, old man! He saved you. Are you going to forgive him?"
Makoto asked with a smile.
Just then, Nika above him used [Gomu-Gomu no… White Machine Gun], sending countless rubber Armament fists covered in white smoke flying toward Makoto in a flurry.
But Makoto didn't even look. He just lightly turned his body, causing every fist to barely brush past his clothes.
Each sidestep was perfectly timed to avoid Nika's attacks.
Nika's fists hit the ground, blasting open huge craters, rubble flying, smoke billowing.
But not a single speck of dust touched Makoto's clothes.
"You must be joking?!"
The nameless soldier, having narrowly escaped death, shouted, raising his gun barrel again and pointing it at Garp's forehead.
"I live for revenge!"
He still remembered the scene from years ago: his pregnant sister being taken away by World Government's agents, crying and begging him for help.
Her husband had tried to stop them, but the World Government's agents shot him in the head.
Both his parents had been killed by pirates. After his sister and brother-in-law died, he had no family left.
He lived for this moment.
To find out the truth, he had joined the Marine, determined to understand why the World Government had done that back then.
It was only today, through Yukino's earlier speech, that he finally learned the truth.
To be honest, before this, he had quite admired Garp.
But after learning the truth, that admiration had transformed into endless hatred.
"Why? Why did you know the truth and not make it public? Do you know how much tragedy such behavior caused?"
His voice trembled. Tears wouldn't stop flowing down his face.
"Do you know how many victims like me appeared because of your actions?"
And just now, seeing Garp smash the execution platform to save his grandson, any remaining illusion he had about this Marine Hero was completely shattered.
No one cared about the life or death of little people like him.
Not even the Marine, which claimed to represent 'Justice'.
What bullshit justice? What bullshit Marine Hero?
"Die!"
Bang—!
The nameless soldier fired another bullet.
Just like before, this attack was no different from a mosquito bite to Garp.
However—
This bullet pierced the forehead of the Marine Hero.
Everyone was startled.
Because no one had expected such an attack to actually work.
"Father..."
Dragon looked at his father in disbelief.
Garp, with a hole in his head, looked down at the equally incredulous nameless soldier, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned.
"Take my head and go pay respects to your sister."
With that, Garp's body fell heavily to the ground.
Thud.
Dust flew.
The nameless soldier stood frozen, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
He still held the gun in his hand, the muzzle still smoking.
His lips trembled, tears welled in his eyes.
Just then, the battle between Imu and Yu shook all of Marineford once more.
Yu flew into the air and unleashed a calamitous continuous barrage.
Bang bang bang bang bang—!
Countless bullets poured down like a storm, shattering the entire island.
Giant rocks flew like meteors, crashing heavily downward.
One was about to hit the nameless soldier—
At that critical moment, Ace charged forward.
He drew his sword and swung, crushing all the falling rocks.
The rocks turned to powder in the flash of Ace's blade, scattering in the wind.
The nameless soldier looked at Ace's back in disbelief.
Ace half-turned his head, looked at him, and said softly, "Consider this my atonement as well."
The nameless soldier was stunned.
He looked at Ace's profile, that face that bore some resemblance to Roger, and finally squeezed out two words.
"Thank you."
Watching this scene, Makoto couldn't help but reflect inwardly.
Garp's death was quite interesting.
In the original work, although Garp said, "If I weren't in the Marine, no one would protect the Marine's soldiers," he did the opposite. He didn't care about the lives of ordinary soldiers or civilians.
Yet he died at the hands of a victim who hadn't even appeared in the original work, a man whose name no one knew.
He paid the price for what he had done back then.
Seeing Garp fall, a brief silence fell over the battlefield.
Sabo stood in the distance, watching the elderly figure in the white uniform crash heavily to the ground, dust flying. His eyes reddened slightly.
Sabo took a deep breath, preparing to say something.
Just then—
"Hahahahaha!"
A shrill laugh came from the air.
Everyone looked up.
Nika bounced in mid-air, white smoke and clouds rolling over his body. He slapped his forehead, the corners of his mouth stretching to his ears, his whole body like an out of control monkey.
"Hahaha! Grandpa is dead! Grandpa is dead too! Hahahahaha!"
He clutched his stomach, laughing uncontrollably, the laughter sharp and piercing, echoing across the battlefield.
"Shanks is dead! Koby is dead! Grandpa is dead too! Hahahahaha!"
Sabo stared blankly, unable to say a word.
His face turned pale. The sadness in his eyes was gradually replaced by confusion and shock.
"..."
Sabo's body trembled slightly. A sense of inexplicable coldness welled up from the bottom of his heart.
"Are you... really Luffy?"
No one answered him.
Nika kept laughing.
"Hehehehehe! Hehehehehe!"
The laughter was indescribably eerie, indescribably horrifying.
Even the members of the Straw Hat Pirates didn't know what to say.
Because they weren't sure either… if the person before them was still the Luffy they knew.
Listening to Nika's incredibly foolish laughter, watching his face twist in a grin identical to that of a mentally handicapped child, the amused smile that had been playing on Makoto's face gradually faded.
Replacing it was an indescribable... disappointment.
The women who noticed the change in Makoto's expression quietly swallowed.
To be honest, compared to Makoto getting angry, his silence scared them more.
"Commander... what's wrong with him?"
Miyuki whispered to Beam beside him.
Beam shook his head, only saying, "Stay away from Chainsaw-sama right now."
Beam was also confused, 'Before coming to the battlefield, Chainsaw-sama had seemed quite excited. Why did he seem unhappy now?'
It was true. When he first arrived, Makoto had indeed been quite excited.
After all, many of the characters he had wanted to kill in his past life were now gathered at Marineford. He had just killed Shanks, Yasopp, Koby, and the others.
But facing Nika, he couldn't bring himself to be happy.
To be honest, when he had followed the manga in his past life, Monkey D. Luffy, as the main character, had been second only to Goku in his regard.
Although he occasionally did stupid things, he never hesitated when it came to major issues of right and wrong. He was a protagonist full of charisma.
But when had he turned into this?
Although every time he saw Nika's form in the original work, he would want to punch him.
Now that he was actually seeing it, Makoto felt surprisingly little anger, more disappointment and speechlessness.
How to put it? If he had to find a word to describe it… like seeing a celebrity you admired get caught in a scandal?
Even though Makoto wasn't a fan of celebrities, he did feel a little bit of that.
He looked at the figure in mid-air, covered in white, smiling eerily, and a complex emotion welled up in his heart.
Disappointment.
Finally, Makoto let out a long sigh. He looked up at Nika in mid-air.
"Farewell."
"Boy who pursued freedom."