Once the fireworks ended, everyone lingered for a while longer before eventually drifting apart by mutual understanding and going off to do their own thing.
Garp wandered leisurely through the festival stalls of the Flower Capital with his well-behaved great-granddaughter Bella in his arms, all while mulling over the problem Sengoku had just thrown at him.
Kaido's defeat couldn't be revealed to the outside world yet.
That meant Cain's bounty couldn't simply be raised through the normal channels either. Headquarters needed a legitimate public reason for suddenly increasing it.
A truly ridiculous idea flashed through Garp's mind.
'Why not blame Cain for attacking a Marine Admiral?'
After all, Garp was the one who had actually punched Aramaki.
Cain could take the blame.
The brat had been looking forward to a new bounty poster anyway, hadn't he?
'Cain's a filial grandson. He'll definitely understand Grandpa's good intentions.'
Garp was almost convinced of the idea when he turned a corner and ran into Sengoku, whose face was twisted with irritation.
The guilt of having beaten up one of their own Admirals instantly resurfaced.
Garp quietly swallowed the idea.
Instead, he greeted Sengoku as though nothing had happened.
"Didn't you say you weren't going to wander around with me? Weren't you heading back to the shogun's residence?"
"Don't remind me."
Sengoku rubbed his forehead, veins throbbing at his temples.
"Your grandson is doing something with Yamato, and they've locked down the entire residence. Nobody can get inside, so I had no choice but to come back out."
Garp immediately laughed.
"Cain's doing the same sort of thing too."
"Young people need their privacy. Old men like us shouldn't stick our noses into everything."
As he spoke, Garp freed one hand and passed over the oil lamp hanging from his waist.
"Here. You can take this one."
He smiled.
"Think of him as Bella's little brother. Help keep an eye on him for a while."
Sengoku had barely interacted with Bell over the past few days, and when he heard that this was Bella's younger brother, he naturally assumed the kid would be just as sweet and easy to handle.
He accepted the lamp and leaned closer to get a better look.
Then he noticed something disturbing.
The Armament Haki coating Garp's hand was rapidly disappearing.
Sengoku's heart skipped.
Before the bad feeling could fully form, Garp released the Haki completely.
A streak of fire shot out of the lamp and latched straight onto Sengoku's beard.
"Hiss—!"
Sengoku reacted instantly, grabbing Bell and ripping the little fireball away before his beard actually caught fire.
He stared down at the squirming flame in his palm, his face turning as black as the bottom of a pot.
"What are you staring at, old man?"
Bell bounced twice in his hand without the slightest fear.
"You planning to shove me into that lamp like the other old bastard did?"
His flames flared.
"Try it and I'll burn your beard off too!"
Sengoku's temper immediately rose.
He turned toward Garp.
"Can we switch? I'll take Bella instead. Where did—"
The street in front of him was already empty.
Garp had vanished with Bella in his arms.
Only his booming laughter carried back from somewhere far away.
"Bwahahaha! Finally got rid of that little menace!"
"Sengoku, I'm leaving him to you!"
Sengoku stood there clutching the still-struggling Bell while another vein bulged across his forehead.
"GARP, GET BACK HERE!"
…
Inside the shogun's residence, candlelight flickered across the walls.
"Ace, harder!"
"Wait, Yamato… are you sure this is the right spot? Something about this feels wrong."
Ace sounded increasingly uncertain, a thin layer of sweat already forming across his forehead.
"This should be it. That's what I heard."
Yamato sounded completely confident, though an unnatural flush colored her own cheeks as well.
"…All right. I'll keep going."
Ace drew in a breath and started applying more force.
After only a few attempts, realization suddenly hit him.
He stopped dead.
"No, this definitely isn't right!"
"Wait—if I keep going, something's going to break!"
"That's fine!"
Yamato grabbed his hand before he could pull it back.
"If it breaks, it breaks."
"But—!"
Ace's entire face turned red. The moment Yamato gave him enough room to breathe, his voice cracked in disbelief.
"If we're looking for a secret underground passage, shouldn't it be on the lowest floor?!"
"Or at least in the basement!"
"Why the hell are we smashing through walls on the second floor?!"
Yamato froze.
Then her eyes widened.
"Oh."
She scratched the back of her head.
"That makes sense."
"No wonder we destroyed half this wall and still couldn't find an entrance."
She looked around at the shattered bricks, splintered timber, and debris scattered across the floor and laughed awkwardly.
By now, the entire second floor looked as though someone had fought a battle inside it.
It turned out the two of them hadn't been doing anything remotely improper.
They had simply become completely obsessed with finding the hidden tunnel containing Wano's Road Poneglyph.
Yamato was about to move their search elsewhere when Ace suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait."
His eyes had landed on one corner of the room.
The shogun's residence was enormous, and this single chamber alone was large enough to hold dozens of people comfortably. That was precisely why the huge rectangular box partially hidden behind old curtains in one ruined corner stood out so much.
Yamato followed his gaze.
The two exchanged a look, then walked over together and opened the dust-covered case.
Inside were two perfectly preserved swords.
Yamato's eyes immediately lit up.
"These are—"
She leaned closer.
"If I remember correctly, these were Kozuki Oden's swords."
"Ame no Habakiri and Enma!"
She looked delighted.
"I can't use swords anyway, so why don't we give them to Cain?"
"He helped us take Wano back and defeated Kaido."
"These would be a perfect way to thank him. I'm sure Kozuki Oden's spirit would finally be able to rest in peace!"
Ace stared at the two blades inside the box.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
In the hands of almost any swordsman, these weapons would be treasured beyond measure.
They were Great Grade Blades, after all.
But Ace knew Cain.
If those two swords ended up in his hands, their fate could be summarized in two words:
Melted down.
Completely.
…
Meanwhile, Cain and Uta were lying quietly side by side on the deck of the Going Merry, gazing up at the cloud-covered night sky.
Cain himself was currently brooding over his bounty.
"They already said they were going to raise it."
He sounded genuinely aggrieved.
"I'm not even asking for Kaido's 4.6 billion."
"Just give me a little over four billion. Enough to pass Shanks would be fine."
"But apparently they 'don't have a proper reason,' so even if Headquarters approves an increase, they won't announce it publicly anytime soon."
Cain frowned.
"That's bullshit."
Uta turned her head toward him and laughed softly.
"You really care about bounty posters that much?"
"Hm? More or less."
Cain shrugged.
"Once you become a pirate, you naturally start paying attention to those numbers."
"Really?"
Uta still looked unconvinced.
Cain smiled at her.
"You clearly don't understand pirates at all."
"Understand what?"
Uta's lips curved upward.
"Is Teacher Cain going to educate me?"
The way she said teacher immediately made Cain's ears heat up.
He hurriedly waved both hands.
"That's not what I meant."
"What I'm saying is that while the Marines mainly calculate bounties based on how much of a threat someone poses to the World Government, pirates see those numbers as a kind of status symbol too."
"A higher bounty is basically one way of showing how strong or dangerous you are."
He chuckled.
"Even Luffy cares a lot about his bounty poster."
"If his bounty ever went down, his entire world would probably turn gray."
"Luffy cares that much?"
Uta thought about it.
"…Actually, yeah. That does sound like him."
She slowly nodded.
Then, without Cain noticing, she quietly filed the information away.
So lowering Luffy's bounty would hurt him.
Interesting.
Maybe Grandpa Garp needed to hear about that.
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator