"Huh?! A great—great-great-great-granddaughter?! Her name is B-B-Bella?!"
Garp stood frozen with the Den Den Mushi in his hand, his tongue practically tying itself into knots.
There was a brief silence on Cain's end before he corrected him.
"Great-granddaughter. Not great-great-great-great."
"I don't care how many 'greats' there are! What you're saying is—you two finally had a kid?! Wait, didn't you only propose recently? Don't tell me you already—?!"
Garp's eyes bulged as the implication finally hit him.
Cain grimaced and shook his head.
"That's not actually what happened. Bella is—"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before Cain could finish, thunderous footsteps erupted behind Garp, followed immediately by a desperate scream.
"AAAAH! OLD MAN, HELP ME!!"
Garp hadn't even finished processing Cain's explanation before he turned around and found an even bigger problem charging straight toward him.
Thor was barreling over at full speed, clearly aiming for the Den Den Mushi.
For some inexplicable reason, the Ancient Giant's mind had become unusually sharp at that exact moment. He had picked Cain's voice out from an enormous distance and immediately sprinted over in excitement.
"BIG BROTHER CAIN!!"
Coming from the opposite direction was Ace, his entire body wreathed in flames as he rushed toward Garp in a panic.
"Old man! Save me!"
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Garp looked at the two enormous problems charging toward each other and instantly jumped straight upward.
BAM!
Thor and Ace collided head-on.
Both crashed to the ground with stars spinning around their heads.
Garp landed beside them, stared at the two idiots sprawled on the ground, then glanced back at the Den Den Mushi in his hand and clicked his tongue.
Thor hadn't even been alive for very long, yet he had recognized Cain's voice from that far away.
Had his Observation Haki awakened already?
If so, the kid really did have incredible potential.
"Old man, what's going on over there?"
Hearing the chaos, Cain immediately asked,
"Is everything all right?"
"Yeah, it's nothing—"
Before Garp could finish, Ace scrambled across the ground on all fours, grabbed onto his trouser leg, and clung there desperately.
"Old man, save me!!"
Garp looked down at Ace.
Then at the Den Den Mushi.
For a moment, he genuinely didn't know which problem to deal with first.
He was just about to shake Ace loose and continue the conversation when flames suddenly burst across Ace's body.
Garp hurriedly raised the Den Den Mushi over his head.
Fire didn't bother him, but it certainly bothered the snail—and Garp wasn't interested in losing another set of clothes either.
The instant he lifted it high enough, an enormous hand reached in from the side.
Thor gently plucked the Den Den Mushi from Garp's fingers.
Then he turned and ran.
"Hey, old man? It sounds really chaotic over there. Are you sure nothing happened?"
Cain was still asking questions from the other end, his voice carrying a trace of concern. He had started wondering whether Garp was angry about Cain hiding Bella from him.
Then Thor's excited voice suddenly came through the connection.
"Big Brother Cain! Thor missed you so much!"
Cain froze.
"…Huh?"
"Thor???"
'There's a Loki in this world, sure, but when the hell did Thor show up?'
…
"HEY! THOR! GET BACK HERE!"
Garp tried to chase after him.
Unfortunately, Ace was still attached to his leg like a stubborn piece of luggage.
"Old man, help! Look, look!"
Ace frantically pointed at his stomach.
"There's a face growing out of me! Look at it! Hurry!"
Garp glanced down.
There was nothing there.
He looked toward Thor, who was rapidly disappearing into the distance.
Then he looked back at Ace's completely sincere expression.
A vein bulged on his forehead.
BAM!
The Iron Fist of Love came down.
"Idiot! This is not the time to prank your grandpa, Ace!"
Garp shook out his fist and prepared to chase Thor again.
Ace lay on the ground clutching his head.
He looked down at his stomach.
The face really was gone.
He had just started to relax when a faint giggle drifted past his ear.
"Hehehe…"
Ace's eyes slowly shifted downward.
At some point, another pair of eyes and a mouth had appeared just beneath his left eye.
Ace shot upright and grabbed Garp's clothes again.
"Old man! Look at my face! Look!"
Garp had already taken a step forward.
Ace's sudden tug sent him face-first into the ground.
Garp spun around furiously—
then his expression immediately hardened.
A strange face was moving across Ace's skin.
It slid down his neck, traveled onto his arm, then vanished beneath his shirt and reappeared across his chest, swimming freely around his body.
Garp's entire demeanor changed.
"What kind of monster dares possess my grandson?!"
His body tensed.
Something capable of attaching itself to a human body and freely moving beneath the skin was most likely some kind of Devil Fruit ability.
And someone had dared attack Garp's grandson right in front of him?
That took nerve.
Only now did Garp finally understand why Ace had been screaming for help.
His fist clenched.
"Fist Bone—!!"
"Yes! Old man, use your Iron Fist!"
Ace immediately shoved himself forward.
He was fully prepared to let Garp punch whatever bizarre creature had infested his body straight out of him.
Then the smiling face began sliding slowly down his stomach.
Lower.
And lower.
A chill shot from the top of Ace's skull all the way to his feet.
His face instantly went pale.
Both hands flew to his crotch.
"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!"
"Let me turn into fire first! Elementalize! ELEMENTALIZE!"
Garp showed absolutely no sign of stopping.
Ace froze in place, his entire expression distorting into pure horror.
With the last shred of concentration he possessed—
his body turned into flames.
"—IMPACT!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAH—huh?"
Ace looked down.
His entire body was covered in fire.
He quickly checked himself.
Still there.
Everything important was still there.
He let out a huge sigh of relief before turning toward Garp with an aggrieved expression.
"Old man, you scared the hell out of me!"
He lowered his voice.
"Even if you really don't want Ro—"
Ace abruptly stopped.
He glanced around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear.
Then he leaned toward Garp and whispered,
"Even if you don't want his bloodline continuing, you don't need to physically remove anything!"
"Huh?"
Garp looked at him strangely while picking his nose with one hand.
The other hand was holding something small.
"What are you talking about?"
"If I'd actually wanted that, then from the moment your mother handed you to me, you wouldn't have grown up as Ace."
Garp snorted.
"You'd have been Ann. Understand?"
"Besides, my fist never actually hit you."
Ace blinked.
Then he thought back.
That was true.
He had felt the terrifying shockwave tear through his entire body, but Garp's fist itself never made contact.
Instead, Garp had used the force of his punch and Conqueror's Haki, combined with Ace's own elemental transformation, to blast the strange thing out from inside him.
"So that's the culprit?"
Ace leaned closer.
Garp was holding what looked like a tiny sun.
The little thing was completely dazed, hanging limply from his fingers with its eyes spinning.
"Prometheus?"
Garp brought it closer and frowned.
"You went to Totto Land once and somehow brought Big Mom's Homie back with you?"
"And it's been hiding inside your body this whole time?"
"…Actually, it isn't Prometheus."
Ace definitely wasn't about to admit that he had secretly created this thing himself using experimental technology.
Still—
so it had become a miniature sun, an embodiment of flame?
That was unexpected.
Ace stared for a moment.
Then everything clicked.
The Homie had been created using his own soul.
And Ace himself was a Logia user whose body could become fire.
The Homie's flames and the flames within his body were fundamentally born from the same source.
That explained why it had been able to swim around inside him like a fish, and why even Haki hadn't been enough to force it out.
But if Ace didn't give Garp some kind of explanation, the old man was absolutely going to confiscate the little sun on the spot.
So Ace lied.
He claimed that during the fight with Big Mom, she must have somehow used his own soul to create a Homie without him realizing it.
Technically, the important part was true.
It really had been created from his soul.
After listening, Garp relaxed slightly.
Then his brows drew together again.
If it wasn't Prometheus, then this had nothing to do with the Totto Land mess.
But if the creature contained part of Ace's soul, Garp was already considering destroying it and returning that soul to his grandson.
Ace saw the look in his eyes and immediately intervened.
"Just give it to me."
He glanced at the unconscious little sun.
"After what it was doing inside me just now, I think I've figured out who it takes after."
Ace remembered the note Sabo had included when he sent the Green Blood.
Then he looked down at the warm little fireball.
Everything made sense.
The way it had caused trouble inside him, the smug little laugh, the absolute refusal to behave—
it was basically Ace himself as a child.
Garp looked from the dazed fireball to Ace's relieved expression.
Then he tossed it over.
"Fine. You deal with it."
"While it's still unconscious, soak it in some water for a while and teach it a lesson. Otherwise it'll probably crawl right back inside you."
Garp turned away.
"I still need to chase Thor and get my Den Den Mushi back."
"I haven't finished asking about my great-granddaughter yet."
"Great-granddaughter?"
Ace cupped the tiny sun in his hands.
"You mean Bella?"
Garp stopped.
"You know about her?"
"Yeah. She's a Homie too, like this little guy."
Ace answered casually.
"She was made from Cain's soul."
"…What?"
Garp froze solid.
Ace saw his expression.
Then quietly took one step backward.
…
Far away in Wano, inside the shogun's residence—
Cain had finally finished his conversation with a very reluctant Thor.
At least now he understood who the Ancient Giant was.
What Cain still couldn't understand was why Thor cared about him so much.
Totto Land had been full of people.
Why was Cain the only one Thor kept obsessing over?
It was strange, but Cain accepted the giant's existence easily enough.
Then—
"Achoo!"
Cain sneezed violently.
A chill ran straight up his spine.
He rubbed his nose.
'Yep.'
He knew that feeling.
Someone was talking about him.
And judging by the intensity—
there was a ninety-nine-percent chance Garp had just learned the truth and was currently exploding.
Sure enough—
another Den Den Mushi call came almost immediately.
This time, however, it wasn't the same ordinary communication snail.
It was a Visual Den Den Mushi.
Uta casually opened a section of Uta World, and Merry walked out carrying the device.
The Going Merry itself had been stored inside Uta World for the time being.
Merry placed the Visual Den Den Mushi on the table.
The connection opened.
Garp's roar exploded through the room.
"CAIN! YOU LITTLE BASTARD, DID YOU THINK YOU COULD FOOL THIS OLD MAN?! You actually tried to pass off a—"
He stopped.
Bella had already floated in front of the screen.
She had never met Garp in person before, but she had seen photographs of him.
The moment she recognized that furious old face, her eyes lit up.
"Nice to meet you, Great-Grandpa Garp!"
Bella smiled brightly.
"I'm Bella!"
Her voice was soft, sweet, and impossibly cheerful.
Garp froze.
'What's happening?'
'My chest…'
'Since when do I have heart problems?'
He pressed a hand over his heart and stared in disbelief at the little cloud on the screen.
Every ounce of anger he had been carrying vanished as though someone had poured warm water over a fire.
Not even a spark remained.
"Oh! Great-Grandpa's right here!"
Garp immediately beamed.
"So your name is Bella?"
"As expected of my great-granddaughter! You're adorable! So polite too!"
"Not at all! Bella isn't nearly as amazing as Great-Grandpa says. If Bella ever does anything wrong, please forgive her!"
"No, no, you're already doing wonderfully!"
Garp leaned closer to the screen.
"Ace told me you're Kuzan's student too? Excellent, excellent!"
He grinned.
"Could you call me Great-Grandpa again?"
"Great-Grandpa."
"One more time."
"Great-Grandpa."
"Again."
"Great-Grandpa."
"One more—"
Uta watched the exchange, her mouth twitching.
Why did this feel so familiar?
She turned toward Cain.
When Bella had first been born, Cain had behaved almost exactly the same way.
The two really were grandfather and grandson.
Fortunately, Bella had learned a great deal since then and was far more patient than she had been immediately after her birth. She no longer became annoyed simply because someone repeatedly asked her to say the same thing.
Still, Garp's mood swing was astonishing.
Everyone inside the shogun's meeting room stared at him through the Visual Den Den Mushi with deeply unimpressed expressions.
Just seconds ago, he had been furious and demanding answers from Cain.
Now his voice had completely changed.
Wasn't this wildly inconsistent with the mighty Hero of the Marines?
Garp naturally noticed all the looks directed at him.
He cleared his throat without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
If this little thing had been as troublesome as Ace's tiny sun, then of course Garp would have demanded an explanation.
But this was his great-granddaughter.
And she was so well behaved.
So adorable.
And she called him Great-Grandpa so sweetly.
That was obviously different.