The Palm Print Cannot Consent for Someone Else

"This handprint is not Receipt."

Garp spread the red thread on the table, then pressed his right hand against the screen. The old scar on the base of his palm ran horizontally across his Life Line, but the seal on the Receipt slip was intact.

During the Sengoku, two images were superimposed.

"The palm prints match, but the scars don't."

"This scar on my body was left thirty years ago."

"Then it's not a matter of time."

Ace stared at coffin number 1968.

"Someone took his earlier handprint."

Garp curled his fingers and tapped them twice on the table.

"I've handled countless documents in my youth: enlistment records, warship handover documents, mission confirmations, and a whole bunch of damned guarantee letters."

Buggy took over the conversation.

"Do I have to leave my fingerprint to pay for drinks?"

"Ask me one more time, and I'll come find you and say it to your face."

"I'm just helping with the investigation."

Robin flipped the Receipt over.

"The edge of the palm print has a second layer of paper texture; it was originally pressed onto another document, but was later peeled off along with the paper."

Vegapunk adjusted the light, revealing several lines of worn-out old text beneath his palm print.

[Witnesses confirm the deceased has been buried.]

Garp looked up.

"Witness statement from the day Rouge was buried."

Ace's hand left the beaded necklace.

"Did you press it?"

"Press it."

"You just said the coffin hadn't been opened."

"Witnessing a burial does not require opening the coffin."

"So what did you witness?"

Garp picked up the red thread flower and put it back on the table.

"Witness her name being laid to rest, witness the townspeople sealing her grave, witness all those who participated departing."

Whether she's in the coffin or not, you don't know.

"Right."

Whitebeard looked at Ace.

"Keep asking, don't answer for him."

Ace approaches the Den Den Mushi.

When did you discover the grave was empty?

Two months later.

Who notified you?

"No one notified us."

"Then why did you go back?"

Garp rubbed his thumb against the old scar on the base of his palm.

"Someone delivered this flower to Marine Headquarters."

Who sent it?

There was no name on the envelope.

What's written inside?

"Go back and take a look."

Ace paused for a moment before speaking.

"When you got back, the tomb had already been opened?"

"The burial mound remained untouched, but the coffin was empty."

Sengoku immediately asked, "There are no signs of tampering?"

"A waterway was added to the side of the tomb chamber, and the coffin was dragged away from underneath."

Nami dragged the Baterilla coast map onto the screen.

How far is that cemetery from the sea?

"Half a mile."

Waterways cannot form naturally.

"That's what I think too."

Ace asked, "How far have you gotten in your investigation?"

"A local doctor has gone missing, and two townspeople who helped with the burial have died one after another. All body transport records point to the Calm Belt."

"Then what?"

"The order has been issued."

Sengoku, he turned to the documents directly under the Five Elders.

"Investigation halted; related matters transferred to the Roger Bloodline Investigation Case."

Ace shifted his gaze from Garp to the Receipt.

"So they used your handprint from when you were buried to stamp the child's acceptance form."

Robin separated the two layers of paper completely.

The inscription on the upper part reads, "Garp witnessed Rouge's burial."

Only half a sentence remains at the bottom.

[The child was taken away by Garp]

The Little Patch spun around the spool once.

"The sentence below has no handprint."

"They pieced the two records together."

Lin Qi sent the stratification results to the five-seat channel.

The Throne covers the page first.

[The handprint is genuine, the witnessing behavior is genuine, the child was indeed taken away by Garp, Receipt relationship is established.]

Garp raised his hand and pressed the veto button.

The page avoided his hand.

[The original holder of the seal and the recipient had a relationship of raising each other.]

"I raised Ace."

Ace is Rouge's son.

"That's correct."

Therefore, the receiving relationship is valid.

"If the first two lines are correct, then the third line will also be correct?"

Buggy flipped the stamp over.

"I understand, it sewed the two accounts into one."

Nami said, "That's rare."

"I've always understood what 'rare' means."

"Then tell me how to dismantle it."

"First, tear the handprint off the Receipt slip, then separate the child and the mother. Neither of them can accept the delivery according to the other's wishes."

Lin Qi changed Buggy's words into the title.

[Can the handprints bearing Garp's burial witness be used for the child's Receipt and body reception 22 years ago?]

[A: Yes, the palm print is real]

[B: Yes, Garp later raised Ace.]

[C: Yes, kinship can supplement the Receipt procedure]

The Throne does not provide a fourth option.

Lin Qi picked up his pen and added the missing part.

[D: No, a handprint can only prove witnessing behavior in the original document; any copying, stripping, splicing, or use across different documents is invalid.]

"Navy Seats, D."

Before Garp could even lower his hand, Akainu had already completed the confirmation.

"You're pretty quick."

"The old handprint can be used across documents; all naval orders will lose their boundaries."

Dragon chooses D.

"The Revolutionary Army Seat this; the facts of raising children cannot be retroactively applied to the authorization given twenty-two years ago."

Makino pushed the old ledger of the Tavern onto the table.

" For the Civilian Witness Seat elected D, anyone who has ever bought alcohol on credit from me cannot use that signature to sell their house."

Buggy asked, "Is this example aimed at me?"

You haven't signed it yet.

"Then I won't sign any more."

Lumi received her fourth vote.

Buggy looked at his seal.

"Pirate Seat selection: D. Also, please note that any IOUs I've previously signed are only valid for that specific IOU."

Nami said, "Nobody asked about your IOU."

"Write it clearly first."

The fifth vote has been cast.

The handprint on the Receipt curled up from the edge, carrying the burial witness paper away from the coffin, and returned to Garp.

Garp did not reach out to take it.

"Place it on Rouge's Evidence Page."

Ace asked, "You don't want it?"

"That's a testament to her burial."

"It's also your palm print."

"I know I pressed it; there's no need to bring it back to remind me."

Lin Qi sealed the original document in a separate piece of evidence.

Inside coffin number 1968, the Receipt slip lost its fingerprint, and the line where Garp took the child began to fade.

A muffled thud came from the hull of the White Ship.

The Kuja warriors behind Boa Hancock immediately tightened the Seastone net.

"The ship is sinking."

Vegapunk looked at the scale.

"It's not sinking; it's abandoning Garp's reception route."

The red lines on Blank's body broke off, and scattered sobs came from the still-unconscious Black Cup.

Ace asked, "What about the saying that a mother is received by her child?"

"Still there."

Robin flipped the Receipt slip over to the back.

"Garp's handprint only covers the first half of the sentence; there's another space for his signature on the second half."

Who signed it?

There was no name on the paper.

There was only one baby's footprint.

Garp moves closer to the screen.

"This isn't Ace's."

"Have you seen his footprints?"

Rouge kept one.

Ace looked at him.

"You've never shown it to me."

"It was burned when you were little."

Why did I burn my own footprints?

"Use it to light a fire and grill the meat."

Luffy out laughing on the other side.

"Ace was like this when he was little."

"Shut up."

Vegapunk magnifies the differences between the two footprints.

"Garp is right, this footprint is larger than a newborn's, so it must be from a child at least three months old."

Little Patch Red Knot peeks out from the spool.

"Be mine."

Chopper asked, "You remember?"

"Every time the coffin was closed, they would press down on my feet."

"You already had a body at that time?"

"Have."

"Where did the body go?"

Little Patch pointed to the still-open coffin compartment number 1968.

"Inside."

Boa Hancock looked at the White Ship.

In the center of the empty coffin, the Receipt was lifted up by the seawater.

Five curled fingers were visible beneath the paper.

The Little Patch Red Knot is tightly wrapped around the spool.

He's awake.

The hand inside the coffin touched the Receipt slip and pressed it twice at the spot where Garp's palm print had disappeared.

Then, a child's voice came from inside the White Ship.

"Garp, you took Ace away."

What about me?