Crack—
The oar smashed against Garp's head and snapped cleanly in two. Half the wooden paddle fell into the sea, landing right on top of a fish.
The fish was knocked belly-up and took a long while to right itself.
A round lump swelled on its head as it glared viciously at the two of them.
Garp and Sengoku both froze for a moment.
The awkwardness had arrived far too suddenly.
"It's just a fish. About the same size as that brat Luffy, what's there to be scared of?"
Garp scratched his head, completely unconcerned, and even made a face at the fish.
Sengoku pushed up the glasses that had slipped to the bridge of his nose and was just about to agree when his peripheral vision caught the fish's appearance, and he suddenly stiffened.
That fish had horns!
No matter how one looked at it, it was not an ordinary fish.
More importantly, this was the Calm Belt, the nest of the Sea Kings.
That fish was clearly—
Before his thoughts could finish turning, the little boat beneath their feet suddenly shook violently.
A tremendous force surged up from below the sea and lifted the entire vessel.
As the seawater churned, a massive Sea King emerged, large enough to blot out the sky. With a sweep of its enormous fin, it sent both men and their boat flying high into the air.
Midair, Sengoku's body flipped uncontrollably.
He clutched Ace's Vivre Card tightly while golden light gathered around his other hand, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "DON'T PANIC! WATCH THIS! BUDDHA PALM—"
"TOO NOISY! THIS OLD MAN'S GOT IT! FIST BONE—"
Garp did not listen at all.
He swung his thick arm in a wide arc, twisted his body in the air, and sent a fierce punch blasting down toward the Sea King below.
The force of Garp's punch collided with Sengoku's Buddha Palm shockwave, and the two powers exploded in the air with a thunderous boom.
A gigantic lump instantly swelled on the Sea King's head.
It rolled belly-up and sank straight back into the sea, not even twitching.
As for their little boat, it had also been blasted into fragments by the aftermath. The pieces of wood drifted across the sea a few times before vanishing from sight.
"GARP! YOU DESTROYED THE BOAT! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIND THEM ACROSS A CALM BELT THIS HUGE WITH ONLY GEPPO?!"
Sengoku stepped on the air with Geppo, suspended high above the sea.
"HAH? SO IT'S MY FAULT NOW? YOU WERE THE ONE SWINGING THE OAR FOR NO REASON. IT BROKE, HIT THE FISH, AND DRAGGED A SEA KING OVER FOR NOTHING!"
Garp also used Geppo and immediately snapped back.
"WASN'T IT BECAUSE YOU MADE A FACE AT THE FISH? OTHERWISE, WOULD ANY OF THIS HAVE HAPPENED?!"
Sengoku was so angry that golden light flared from his body.
The two of them hovered in the sky with Geppo, arguing endlessly. Before long, however, both of them stopped talking.
After all, they could not stay in the air forever.
Once their stamina ran out, they would eventually fall into the sea, so they could only sulk in silence.
Just as Sengoku frowned and tried to think of a solution, Garp stared at his glowing golden body, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
As if he had made some enormous concession, he took the initiative to "admit fault," though there was not the slightest trace of apology in his tone.
"All right, all right. This old man knows he was wrong. Stop clinging to it! You spend all day rushing around and panicking over everything. What are you so afraid of? If the sky falls, this old man will hold it up!"
He reached out and grabbed Sengoku's arm.
A method Cain had casually mentioned to him long ago flashed through his mind, and his eyes grew even brighter.
He immediately had an idea.
"Hurry up and check which direction Ace's Vivre Card is pointing. So what if we don't have a boat? That's nothing. This old man will bring you there. I guarantee it'll be faster than rowing!"
Sengoku stared at Garp's confident expression, his eyes full of suspicion.
After decades of knowing Garp, he understood this bastard too well.
Whenever Garp had that look, nothing good ever came of it.
But there was no other option right now, so Sengoku could only frown and pull out the Vivre Card to check. Irritably, he asked,
"Really?"
"Of course!"
Garp nodded seriously, looking incredibly sincere.
...
Sure enough, just as Sengoku had suspected, Garp was still completely unreliable.
"BWAHAHAHA! SENGOKU, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY METHOD? MUCH FASTER THAN ROWING ALONE, RIGHT?"
Garp's laughter echoed through the sky.
He sat leisurely on Sengoku's back, holding the Vivre Card in one hand while tugging on Sengoku's foot with the other.
"I REALLY SHOULD SINK YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA AND DROWN YOU! THIS IS WORSE THAN ME JUST USING GEPPO!"
Sengoku's roar nearly cracked his voice.
At this moment, he had already transformed into his giant Buddha form, his body wrapped in pale golden light.
Both of his massive palms continuously fired Buddha Palm shockwaves behind him, using the recoil to carry Garp through the sky.
Garp held onto his ankle, occasionally pulling left or tugging right to adjust direction.
The two of them flew through the air like that, one above and one below, wobbling crookedly through the sky like a giant kite being yanked around.
After flying like this for who knew how long—
"HOW LONG ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KEEP FLYING LIKE THIS? WHEN THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO FIND ACE, YOU BASTARD?!"
Sengoku roared while continuing to fire shockwaves.
Even when facing Golden Lion and countless other pirates in his life, he had never fired this many shockwaves before.
"Don't rush. Let this old man take a look."
Garp chewed on a senbei he had found from who knew where and answered vaguely. He lowered his head to glance at the Vivre Card, then looked up at the sea ahead.
"If it's in that direction…"
The sea ahead was completely empty.
There was not even the shadow of a ship.
Just as he wondered where Ace had gone, he suddenly noticed a blue-green bird flying several hundred meters ahead.
He recognized it instantly.
It was that pineapple head from the Whitebeard Pirates!
He had forgotten his name, but as long as they followed him, they would definitely find Ace.
Garp did not bother warning Sengoku, who was still roaring. He simply stood up and stomped hard on the head of Sengoku's giant Buddha form.
Using that force, Garp launched himself forward like a cannonball, crossing several hundred meters in an instant and arriving in front of Marco.
He laughed loudly and waved.
"Ace, Grandpa is here!"
Sengoku, who had been kicked downward, plummeted straight toward the sea, leaving behind a long, grief-stricken roar.
"WHEN WE GET BACK THIS TIME, I'M DEFINITELY USING MY AUTHORITY AS FLEET ADMIRAL TO CUT YOUR RETIREMENT PAY IN HALF, AND THEN I'M STEALING ALL YOUR DOUGHNUTS!"
…
Not far from the direction they had been flying, a pirate ship was sailing steadily across the sea.
"So I'm telling you, Rayleigh actually swam off by himself. Honestly, not one of them was willing to wait for us."
Gloriosa leaned against the ship's railing, looking out at the endless sea as she complained to Shakky beside her, her tone full of helplessness.
"There was no helping it. No one expected things to turn out like this."
Shakky exhaled a ring of smoke and looked toward the direction where Cain and the others were, a trace of worry flashing through her eyes.
"We originally thought only the Marines were secretly watching. But after Cain and the others left, the World Government's CP agents also appeared. It looked as if they had planned this long ago. I don't know who their target is… Roger's old crew? Cain-chan? Uta-chan? Or Fire Fist Ace?"
The moment Ace was mentioned, Gloriosa could no longer sit still.
She immediately urged, "Then what are we waiting for? Hurry up and sail! If something serious happens to him, it'll be terrible."
The moment Gloriosa finished speaking, a furious curse exploded above the sea.
The two of them looked up at the same time and saw a massive golden figure falling straight from the sky.
It was none other than Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
Garp's stomp had been far too powerful. Even Sengoku had been unable to stabilize himself.
With a heavy splash, he crashed into the sea beside the pirate ship, sending water spraying high into the air.
Shakky and Gloriosa looked at each other, both stunned.
Although neither of them had ever liked the Marines, and they had both been pirates in the past, the man was still the Fleet Admiral of the Marines.
Besides, they had known each other for many years.
More importantly, they were not the kind of people who would watch someone die without helping.
So—
"Save him!"
The two hurriedly dragged Sengoku, soaked from head to toe and still gritting his teeth while cursing, onto the ship.
No sooner had they pulled him onto the deck than all three of them turned almost simultaneously in the same direction.
Far in the distance, clouds were gathering and stacking wildly across the sky.
Several bolts of blue-white lightning struck down one after another, tearing violently through the silence of the Calm Belt.
That terrifying display made it obvious that something extremely bad had happened!
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