"G-Grandpa?!"
The moment Luffy realized the person holding him by the collar was Garp, he cried out in shock.
Garp completely ignored him.
Holding one grandson in each hand, he lifted Luffy and Ace up and looked them over from head to toe, his face full of disgust.
"Good thing this old man sensed you two fighting and came over ahead of everyone else."
"Otherwise, how are you supposed to meet anyone looking like this?!"
Garp had sensed Luffy and Ace fighting from afar and rushed over on his own first to see what was happening. If things had gotten too serious, he had intended to stop them.
But now that he saw what the two of them looked like…
Luffy was covered in soot and scorch marks, filthy from head to toe, with his hair sticking up in every direction.
Ace was not much better. His face was covered in stubble, weeds and dirt clung to his clothes, and several scrapes marked his body.
'There's no way I'm letting you two greet your little sister looking like this.'
With that thought, Garp released Luffy.
"Go clean yourself up! Wash properly! And fix that damn hair!"
The moment Luffy was back on the ground, Garp turned toward Ace.
The longer he stared, the more something bothered him.
He leaned closer.
Ace instinctively shrank back.
"G-Grandpa! What are you doing?"
"Just as I thought… it really is starting to grow."
Garp shook his head.
"No, no. This won't do."
As he spoke, he raised his free hand.
"What's starting to grow? What the hell are you talk—GWAAH!"
Garp jammed a finger straight into Ace's nostril, hooked his nose, and flung him several meters through the air.
"Go shave those nose hairs and that scratchy beard!"
"Keep letting those nose hairs grow and they'll turn into a mustache! Are you seriously planning to copy Roger and wear your nose hair like a pair of udon noodles?!"
Ace steadied himself in midair and landed while clutching his nose in disbelief.
"My nose hair is nowhere near that bad!"
"And even if I wanted to shave, there's nothing here to shave with! Can't you wait until we actually have the tools?"
Then he suddenly froze.
"No, wait! Why does any of this matter to you?! Aren't you supposed to be in the New World?"
"How does it not matter to me?"
Garp turned toward Murakumogiri, which was planted in the ground some distance away.
He strode over and pulled it free.
"Who do you think I came all the way here for? You, Ace!"
"And who said there's nothing here you can shave with?"
He lifted Murakumogiri.
"Here we go. This old man will shave you himself."
Ace's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Wait! Don't come any closer! That's Pops's weapon!"
He immediately turned and ran.
"You don't have the right to use something that belongs to the Whitebeard Pirates! Put Pops's weapon down!"
"Huh? You're not even calling me Grandpa anymore?"
Garp slammed Murakumogiri back into the ground.
"Fine! I won't use it!"
Ace had barely breathed a sigh of relief when he glanced back.
Garp really was no longer holding the weapon.
Unfortunately, the old man had already appeared behind him.
Garp grabbed Ace by the back of his collar and began dragging him toward Murakumogiri.
"This old man isn't using the weapon."
He shoved Ace's stubbled face toward the blade.
"I'm using you."
Luffy's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
He lunged forward and hooked both fingers into Garp's nostrils, yanking backward with all his strength.
"Grandpa, stop! You're gonna kill Ace!"
"GWAAH! Let go, you brat!"
Garp's nose stretched absurdly far backward, yet he refused to release Ace's head.
Ace braced both hands against the shaft of Murakumogiri.
The blade was barely two centimeters from his face.
Sweat poured down his forehead.
His voice rose several pitches.
"Old man, STOP! Are you seriously trying to kill me?!"
"Of course not! This old man knows exactly how much force to use!"
Garp kept pressing Ace downward even as Luffy stretched his nose behind him.
"I'm just trying to shave your face!"
"How are you supposed to meet your little sister looking like that?!"
"Huh? LITTLE SISTER?!"
Luffy was so shocked that he instantly released Garp's nose.
With the resistance suddenly gone, Garp failed to control his strength.
His hand slammed Ace's head straight onto Murakumogiri.
Shhk!
The blade split Ace's head directly down the middle.
"ACE IS DEAD!!!"
Luffy screamed in horror and fell onto his backside.
Garp panicked too and hurriedly released Ace's neck.
"Oh no, oh no! Ace! This old man didn't mean to do that!"
Flames suddenly burst from the cut running through Ace's head.
The two halves gradually turned to fire, flowed back together, and reformed.
Ace stood up while rubbing his skull, his face dark with fury.
"Seriously, old man! Explain what you're talking about!"
"What little sister?!"
"If I hadn't turned into fire at the last second, you really would've split my head open!"
Luffy sprang off the ground and wrapped both arms around Ace's waist.
"Ace! You're alive! Thank goodness!"
"I WAS NEVER DEAD!"
Ace shoved Luffy away and turned toward Garp.
"Now explain what you—AGAIN?!"
The moment Garp realized Ace was fine, he reached forward to resume shaving off the stubble.
Ace already knew Tama.
If Garp revealed everything now, the long-awaited reunion would lose its surprise.
So naturally, he intended to deal with Ace's beard and nose hair first.
He could explain afterward.
Fortunately, Ace reacted quickly and jammed two fingers into Garp's nostrils.
"Why do all of you keep sticking your fingers up people's noses?!"
"You started it!"
Ace pulled fiercely on Garp's nose.
Garp, unwilling to lose, hooked his own fingers into Ace's nostrils.
Then, with Haki, he began forcefully destroying Ace's nose hair strand by strand.
The two struggled back and forth.
But Garp had not forgotten that Luffy had joined in earlier.
Almost simultaneously, his other hand hooked into Luffy's nostrils and stretched his nose a ridiculous distance.
"Grandpa! OW, OW, OW!!!"
"I told you to go wash up!"
"You stood here watching the show instead! Get going!"
"No! Let Ace go first and then I'll wash!"
Luffy struggled furiously.
Garp immediately refused.
"Then Ace has to let go of my nose first!"
"Not unless you let go of mine first!" Ace shouted.
"You first!"
"No, you first!"
"Both of you first!"
And so three famous men of the sea—
Garp, the legendary Hero of the Marines;
Fire Fist Ace, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and former Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates;
and Straw Hat Luffy, one of the notorious rookies of the Worst Generation—
ended up wrestling on the ground with their fingers shoved into one another's noses.
That was exactly what Tama and the others saw when they arrived.
"Ace?"
The instant that familiar voice reached him, Ace instinctively looked up.
Garp turned at the same time.
Both of them froze solid.
Tama was slowly approaching beside Tashigi, staring at the three men tangled together on the ground with a very strange expression.
It looked somewhere between amusement and disbelief.
How should one describe it?
In Garp's imagination, this reunion had been beautiful.
There would be affectionate cries of "Big Brother!" and "Little Sister!" everywhere.
Tama and Ace had both spent so long looking forward to meeting again.
Tama wanted Ace to praise her for becoming stronger.
Ace wanted her to see how much more dependable he had become.
It should have been warm.
Heartfelt.
Full of mutual admiration.
That lovely image shattered into dust in a single instant.
Before anyone could recover from the embarrassment—
A cloud of white smoke suddenly exploded outward.
It burst from Smoker's fist like an enraged python and shot directly toward Luffy's face.
"Straw Hat!"
"AH! It's the Smoke Guy!"
Unlike everyone else, Luffy had not remained frozen for long.
The moment he saw Smoker, his pupils contracted and he twisted aside to avoid the attack.
Grandpa showing up was already bad enough.
Why was the Smoke Guy here too?!
Were the Marines here to arrest them?
Obviously!
If Smoker and Grandpa teamed up, then both he and Ace were going straight to Impel Down!
Knowing perfectly well that he had no chance against Garp, Luffy immediately grabbed Ace by the leg and tried to run.
"Wait, Tama—!"
Ace stumbled from the sudden pull.
As Luffy dragged him backward, Ace desperately reached toward Tama, his face caught somewhere between despair and pleading.
"Luffy, let me go!!!"
"No way!"
Luffy did not even look back.
His legs spun like a pair of windmills.
"Didn't you see Grandpa bring Marines with him?! They're obviously here to arrest us!"
"Running like this isn't going to work!"
By the time Ace said that, Luffy had dragged his body into a tilted starfish shape.
And it hurt like hell.
Because both Ace's nose and Luffy's nose were still firmly hooked around Garp's fingers.
Luffy's nose stretched farther and farther.
No matter how hard his legs ran, his body remained almost perfectly in place.
"Huh?!"
Only then did Luffy notice the problem.
His stretched nose suddenly began pulling the rest of his body backward.
"WHOA—!"
BOOM!!!
Luffy snapped back like a rubber band and crashed directly into Smoker, who had just rushed forward to attack again.
Smoker hit the ground beneath him.
Grinding his teeth, he glared furiously at Luffy sprawled across his body.
"Was this part of your plan too, Straw Hat?!"
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