Following the position reported by the Marines who had encountered "Kaido," Garp was now piloting the Marines' newest warship at full speed across the Calm Belt, determined to drive this suddenly appeared "Emperor" back into the New World.
To keep Morgans from butting in and stuffing all kinds of nonsense and false reports into the papers, they had not launched a large-scale operation.
Only a single warship had been dispatched.
Vice Admiral Tsuru slowly stepped forward, raised a hand, and patted Garp on the shoulder.
"Ace's situation isn't your fault," she said gently. "But when dealing with Kaido, avoid direct confrontation if possible. Negotiation and persuasion should come first."
In truth, the Marines still had no real way to restrain Kaido.
That monster's defenses were simply too overwhelming.
Even when shackled with Seastone, he could still break free, and every attempted capture had ended with him violently forcing his way out.
Kaido was currently in his prime, while Garp was already old and no longer had a truly effective means of dealing with him.
If they really fought, not only would the Marines gain nothing, it could easily trigger a chain reaction among the Four Emperors and plunge the New World into total chaos.
That was also why the Marines had secretly been preparing the SWORD unit.
After all, without orders from above and permission from the World Government, the Marines had no right to casually go to war with one of the Four Emperors.
This "expulsion mission," with Garp along, was essentially relying on his 'Iron Fist' reputation.
The real one meant to control the situation and defuse the crisis was always the wise Vice Admiral Tsuru.
Only if negotiation became impossible would Garp actually make a move.
…
As for Cain, he had already gone over every method he could think of to save Ace.
That identity—the son of the Pirate King—had to be completely erased from Ace.
It was also the identity Ace himself had always wanted to cast off.
So…
...
Egghead Island, Science Division.
"Hey now, Vegapunk-san~ Are you really planning to make this research public?" Kizaru leaned lazily against a table, idly poking the booklet lying there with one finger.
"If something like this gets out, won't it stir up conflict between all the races?"
"It's not like that," Vegapunk replied calmly. "This is being released precisely to promote harmony among the different races."
"In a certain sense, its purpose is similar to the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. It won't cause unrest."
"And you're saying the information in here is completely accurate?" Kizaru raised a brow, clearly still unconvinced.
"You doubt my research, Borsalino?" Vegapunk looked up and shot back. "This is the result of years of detailed study into every race. The accuracy is naturally one hundred percent. Of course… if there really is some margin of error…"
"Then that could only be called a miracle."
Kizaru said no more.
He flipped through the manual with one finger—Fish-Men, Merfolk, Humans, Giants, Long-Arm Tribe, Long-dick tribe… each race's detailed report was laid out with perfect clarity.
Page after page, he read in silence.
Then his finger stopped at the section on humans, where details about physiological structure and pregnancy cycles were clearly recorded.
He recalled the intelligence he had received from Fleet Admiral Sengoku about Fire Fist Ace—the rumor of that "sinful bloodline" who had only been born after a twenty-month pregnancy.
Kizaru's fingertip paused.
His expression grew unusually grave as he muttered under his breath, "It seems… miracles really do exist in this world…"
"What did you say?" Vegapunk turned at the sound.
"Nothing, nothing~" Kizaru immediately returned to his usual careless tone and waved it off, though doubt stirred in his heart at the same time.
'Just what is it that makes you go this far, Vegapunk?'
…
After confirming that Buggy had been recaptured by the Marines and had not exposed his Devil Fruit ability, Cain took Uta and openly flew among the clouds for several days.
At last, a Marine warship appeared on the sea below.
He assumed it was just an ordinary transport ship—after all, with Sakazuki's style, how could a capture mission involve only a single vessel?
But just as he leaned down to inspect it, a figure suddenly launched up from the deck like a cannonball!
It was Garp.
His chest was still full of pent-up anger and frustration, and he'd been looking for somewhere to vent it.
The moment he saw that blue-green dragon, he completely ignored Tsuru's earlier instructions about "negotiating a retreat."
Conqueror's Haki instantly wrapped around him, his iron fist clenched tight as he smashed forward with a shrieking blast of wind!
But the instant before the punch connected with the dragon's body, Garp caught sight of Uta sitting atop Cain's head.
"Why's there a little girl up there?"
Instinctively, he forcefully withdrew most of his power—but the remaining momentum of a fist forged through countless battles was still monstrous.
And Cain, seeing who it was, looked stunned.
He had just been about to shout—
"GRAN—PFFT!"
Bang!
The punch landed square on Cain's face.
A sharp crack rang out, and one of his teeth flew straight out.
Cain's enormous dragon body was blasted backward several hundred meters, falling from the sky until he finally managed to steady himself just above the sea.
Uta lost her balance in midair and tumbled downward with a scream.
Seeing that, Garp quickly reached out and caught her.
He recognized the girl at once—the recently famous songstress Uta.
He had seen her photograph from Aokiji of all people.
Garp immediately concluded that she was not a pirate and must have been kidnapped by "Kaido."
In the same instant, he also thought he understood why "Kaido" had appeared here.
'So that was it—he had come because he coveted the girl's beauty and her singing voice!'
Looking at the frightened Uta in his grip, Garp softened his tone as much as he could.
"It's alright now, little girl. That evil dragon has already been beaten down by this old man!"
But Uta was not listening at all.
She struggled to break free from Garp and shouted downward.
"CAIN!!!!"
"WAIT—WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!"
The name Cain hit Garp like a thunderbolt to the head.
He froze in shock, his limbs flailing wildly, nearly falling out of the sky together with Uta.
…
Above the clouds, on a patch of flame cloud, Cain and Uta were now both holding cups of milk.
Uta was huddled tightly behind Cain, only daring to peek out a little.
Cain, meanwhile, frowned at the grinning Garp in front of him and spoke with obvious annoyance.
"Grandpa, don't you think you went a little too hard?"
"Haha! Well, you brat painted yourself up like you'd just been dragged out of a dye vat. One look and I thought you were that bastard Kaido, so my hand slipped a bit!" Garp laughed loudly, not taking the "friendly fire" seriously at all.
Tsuru sat nearby, calmly looking at Cain.
"So the reports from the past few days about 'Kaido' appearing in the first half of the Grand Line… that was all your doing, wasn't it, Cain?"
"Yeah. Pretending to be Kaido makes it a lot easier to use my abilities without people meddling. Very convenient i say." Cain lied without changing expression.
"But I heard from Sengoku that 'Kaido' attacked a transport vessel and fled without staying long," Tsuru said, her eyes probing.
"You're not going to tell me that had nothing to do with you too, are you?"
She clearly did not believe all of this was merely coincidence, especially not at a moment like this.
"NO, NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Cain shook his head vigorously.
Tsuru stared at him for a while before finally letting the matter drop.
Then her gaze shifted to Uta, who was still hiding behind Cain, and she gently asked.
"And this little girl is…?"
"Yeah, Cain!" Garp immediately perked up and leaned in to inspect Uta. "Don't tell me you've actually started imitating those pirates and kidnapping innocent girls?"
At the sight of Garp's fierce face, Uta pressed herself even closer to Cain.
When she was little, Garp would occasionally return to Foosha Village without warning.
Shanks had always taken her to hide from this Marine whenever that happened.
On top of that, Luffy's endless exaggerations about Garp had only made things worse.
Bit by bit, she had come to fear this old man from the bottom of her heart!