While Cain and the others were talking nearby, Hancock kept staring in Luffy's direction.
Then she glanced at Koala, who had taken the initiative to speak with Uta, and for some reason, the girl looked a little familiar. Hancock could not help frowning.
"Koala? Isn't that Koala?"
A greeting rang out.
Everyone turned and saw Jinbe, the blue-skinned whale shark fish-man, striding over.
Katakuri followed behind him.
"Jinbe! Long time no see!"
Koala immediately stepped forward and began chatting warmly with Jinbe, not forgetting to introduce Uta beside her to him as well.
Luffy also recognized Jinbe.
After all, they had broken through Impel Down together, so he took the initiative to go over and greet him too.
Seeing Katakuri arrive as well, Cain understood that the matter on Fish-Man Island had more or less been handled.
He also figured out why Jinbe had come along, he was probably guiding Katakuri here.
That made sense.
Jinbe had already known the agreed time and place, and Katakuri had done Fish-Man Island a great favor. On top of that, there was the matter of him being Cain's older brother.
If Jinbe had not brought him here, that would have been harder to explain.
Katakuri was likely here to wait for Cain to fulfill his promise.
After all, when Cain had asked Katakuri to help save Ace, he had promised to visit Totto Land with him afterward.
This saved Cain the trouble of going out of his way to find him.
At that moment, Sabo spoke quietly.
"Koala has always wanted to meet Jinbe. I wasn't sure whether Jinbe would come or not, so I simply brought her with me."
"Since we have the newest flying device developed by Dr. Lilith, or rather Vegapunk, and I can turn into lightning, our speed shouldn't be slow."
As Sabo spoke, he looked at the jetpack Koala had taken off and set aside, then asked, "I'm not late, am I?"
Cain shook his head and looked up at the sky.
"No. We're only missing Ace now. I just don't know whether the time left for them will be too tight."
…
On the Red Line, atop a stretch of red earth with no buildings in sight, hundreds of kilometers away from Mary Geoise—
The place was desolate, with nothing but red rock and soil stretching far into the distance.
"Waaah! Waaah!"
"Waaah! Waaah!"
The cries of two babies rose one after another!
Marco clutched his head and shouted in frustration.
"DAMN IT, I WAS WONDERING WHY MY BACK FELT WARM! ACE, YOU BASTARD, DID YOU PEE ON ME?!"
After all, Marco's phoenix form was nowhere near as enormous as Cain's dragon form.
In order to increase speed and reduce stamina consumption, Bonney had voluntarily turned herself into a child.
While she was at it, she had also shrunk Yamato and Ace down to baby size.
On top of that, they had already been flying for an entire night.
Even though Yamato and Ace still had their original memories and awareness, they could not control their bodies at all.
Aside from crying, they could only wriggle around and pee everywhere.
Bonney quickly figured out what was going on.
Yamato was clearly hungry.
She immediately raised her hand, restored Yamato to the appearance of a seven-year-old, and took out some prepared food from the backpack she carried, handing it over.
On the other side, Marco had already taken off Ace's wet pants.
After washing them with clean water, he pinched Ace's little finger and used Ace's flames to dry the pants, his face full of helplessness.
"You brat. Even as a baby, you still can't behave."
Ace was stripped completely bare, his little face flushed red as he babbled nonstop.
He was anxious beyond words, but all that came out of his mouth were baby noises.
'Why do you even need to help me dry them?! Just change me back and I'll do it myself! Being naked like this is way too embarrassing!'
Unfortunately, Marco ignored all of that.
While drying the pants, he looked toward the other side of the Red Line and said,
"It won't be long now. We're almost there. Hopefully nothing else goes wrong halfway."
…
On the surface of the Calm Belt in the Grand Line—
"GARP, ROW FASTER! ROW FASTER! WE'RE STILL NOT FAST ENOUGH! SPEED UP, SPEED UP!"
Sengoku shouted at Garp.
At this moment, the two of them were crammed into a small wooden boat, each rowing with an oar in hand.
Garp was rowing with all his strength, his oar churning up waves of white spray, yet Sengoku still frowned and kept urging him to go faster.
Rowing a boat through the Calm Belt was something no one had ever done before.
Garp gritted his teeth and finally shouted helplessly,
"SENGOKU, STOP RUSHING ME! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU SAID WE'D HAVE PEOPLE WATCHING THEM, BUT THEN CAIN JUST TURNED INTO A DRAGON AND FLEW AWAY. IN THE END, ONLY RAYLEIGH WAS LEFT, AND THAT BASTARD ACTUALLY SWAM STRAIGHT TOWARD THE CALM BELT!"
"AND THEN, FOR THE SAKE OF THAT SO-CALLED SINCERITY, YOU REFUSED TO TAKE A WARSHIP AND FORCED THIS OLD MAN TO ROW A BOAT INTO THE CALM BELT! IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU BEING A DEVIL FRUIT USER WHO CAN'T SWIM, THIS OLD MAN WOULD'VE SWUM AFTER HIM LONG AGO!"
The more Garp spoke, the angrier he became, and his oar slapped the water so hard that spray flew everywhere.
Sengoku retorted without the slightest hesitation.
"Heh. Can you really blame me? In the end, wasn't this whole troublesome plan caused by your entire family from the very beginning? Nearly every major incident can be traced back to you somehow. If it isn't your family, it's someone you know. Hurry up and row!"
"Uh…"
Now that he said it that way, it did seem to be true.
Garp's old face reddened.
Then he suddenly remembered something and asked Sengoku, "Do you remember which direction Rayleigh swam?"
Garp scratched his head, his tone growing weaker.
"How would I know? Weren't you the one watching him the whole time? You do realize I've been facing you with my back to the bow, don't you? Don't tell me you weren't paying attention?"
Sengoku rolled his eyes and snapped back irritably.
"What?! Weren't you the one who kept yelling for me to row faster? How was I supposed to pay attention to that?"
Garp's eyes widened, his voice rising by another pitch.
"So right now, we're…"
Sengoku frowned and looked around at the endless sea in confusion.
Rayleigh was nowhere to be seen.
The two looked at each other, then shouted at the same time,
"WE'RE LOST!"
In the end, neither of them knew how long they drifted at sea.
They went from blaming each other to arguing until their faces turned red, and finally, they simply started wrestling in the boat.
The little wooden boat rocked violently on the waves.
This time, Sengoku had clearly learned his lesson.
Every time Garp swung a fist at him, he tightly protected his head.
At the same time, he did not forget to lock Garp's wrist firmly under his arm.
"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! SENGOKU, I-I-I REMEMBERED SOMETHING!"
Pinned down and unable to move, Garp's eyes suddenly lit up, and he shouted in panic.
Seeing this, Sengoku quickly let go and raised an eyebrow with a cold snort.
He wanted to see what kind of earth-shattering words this bastard had been holding in.
And Garp's next words really did make Sengoku's eyes widen in shock.
"Actually, after the Marines captured Ace, when I went to visit him, I also swiped the Vivre Card from his bag!"
"In other words, we didn't need to ask Cain at all. We could've just used the Vivre Card to find Ace ourselves!"
"YOU BASTARD! WHY ARE YOU ONLY SAYING THAT NOW?!"
Sengoku instantly erupted.
He jammed two fingers hard into Garp's nostrils while stomping one foot heavily onto Garp's stomach, pulling at Garp's nose with all his strength.
"BWAHAHAHA! THIS OLD MAN FORGOT!"
Garp grimaced in pain, but he still laughed loudly while apologizing.
"So? Where is it?"
Sengoku gritted his teeth and looked down at Garp, stopping his movements as he asked,
"You aren't even wearing your Marine uniform right now. Tell me, where could you possibly be hiding it?"
"Right here, of course!"
As Garp spoke, he slowly took off one of his shoes in front of Sengoku and pulled out the entire insole.
Hidden beneath that insole was Ace's Vivre Card.
The thing might be fireproof and waterproof, but it definitely was not stink-proof!
An indescribable smell instantly spread through the air.
Garp openly placed the Vivre Card, filled with the odor of his foot, into Sengoku's hand.
"GARP, YOU REALLY SHOULD JUST DIE!"
Sengoku pinched his nose, his face turning blue with rage.
He grabbed an oar and swung it straight at Garp's head.