Between Justice and Family

The line of text on the Sky Screen burned across the skies of the entire world for a full ten seconds.

[Hint: This regret concerns the color of a flag and a man who chose a third path between justice and family.]

The corridor in Marine Headquarters was dim, with only half the duty lights on. Outside the windows, the Sky Screen's glow dyed the floor gold.

Garp stood in that golden light, his shadow stretching out behind him.

The two young Marine soldiers following him had stopped, too afraid to go any farther. The pressure radiating from Garp's back was making their legs go weak.

It wasn't Haki.

It was something an old man's body instinctively released when an old wound was laid bare.

"Vice Admiral Garp."

One of the soldiers called out tentatively.

Garp didn't turn around.

He looked up at the Sky Screen outside the window, the words of the hint reflected one by one in his pupils.

A third path between justice and family.

He chewed those words over three times, each time harder than the last.

Then he laughed.

It was a difficult laugh to describe. It wasn't a laugh of amusement, nor a bitter laugh. It was the kind of laugh a man gave when he had carried a burden for so long, only for someone to suddenly lift it from his shoulders and show it to the entire world, leaving him unable to do anything but laugh.

"A third path, huh."

His voice was quiet.

"I've walked it my whole life, and it turns out that's what you call it."

The name on the Sky Screen had finished forming.

[Top ten regrets, number four]

[Marine Hero, Monkey D. Garp]

When the name appeared, the atmosphere at Marine Headquarters was more complicated than during any of the previous rankings.

Because Garp wasn't an outsider.

He was a pillar of Marine Headquarters, a legend who had pursued Roger, an unshakable mountain in the hearts of all the young Marines.

But over the past while, the Sky Screen had already split several cracks in that mountain.

During the first ranking of war criminals, Garp had been named as indirectly responsible for Ace's death.

His reputation had been stripped away, and his sense of justice shaken.

Now he had appeared on the list of regrets as well.

Sengoku stood at the window of the Fleet Admiral's Office, looking at the name on the Sky Screen. He had set his teacup on the desk and hadn't picked it up again.

"Garp."

He spoke his old friend's name, his tone carrying something even he couldn't quite put into words.

Staff Officer Tsuru stood beside him, the fan in her hand folded shut.

"You and I both know what his greatest regret is."

Sengoku didn't answer.

Because he did know.

A question appeared on the Sky Screen.

[Question: What was Marine Hero Monkey D. Garp's greatest regret in life?]

[A. Failing to save his grandson Ace during the Paramount War]

[B. Failing to stop his son Dragon from taking the path of revolution]

[C. Standing beneath the flag of justice all his life, only to personally push the people he cared about most to the opposite side of that flag, one by one]

[D. All of the above]

The four options hung in the sky for the whole world to see.

But unlike the previous rankings, this time no one rushed to answer.

Because each option left a weight on the chest after it was read.

Option A: Failing to save Ace.

That had already been shown during the earlier ranking of war criminals. Garp had been sent flying by Luffy's punch in front of the Execution Platform and watched helplessly as Ace died at Akainu's hands.

Option B: Failing to stop Dragon.

Dragon's ranking had mentioned it too. Dragon had once been a Marine, but left because he questioned justice. Before leaving, he had dumped Luffy, who was not yet two, on Garp.

But option C was the quietest of them all, so quiet it made people's hearts ache.

Standing beneath the flag of justice all his life, only to personally push the people he cared about most to the opposite side of that flag, one by one.

In the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy looked at option C and said nothing for a long time.

Zoro stood beside him, also silent.

Rayleigh leaned against a wall, the bottle in his hand halted halfway to his mouth.

"That old man."

Rayleigh's voice was soft.

"Roger and I fought him dozens of times. Whenever Garp was chasing him the hardest, Roger always said the same thing."

Luffy turned to look at him.

"What did Roger say?"

"Roger said, 'That guy Garp doesn't chase me because he wants to catch me.'"

Rayleigh lowered the bottle.

"'It's because chasing me is the only time he doesn't have to think about things at home.'"

After hearing that, Luffy lowered his head and stared at his fists for a few seconds.

"Grandpa."

He spoke the word quietly.

His voice wasn't loud, but Zoro heard it, and so did Rayleigh.

In the New World, on the deck of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard looked at option C on the Sky Screen, his hand pausing in midair with his cup of wine.

"Monkey D. Garp."

He set the cup on the armrest.

"I've faced that old man on the battlefield countless times. Every time, his fists were as hard as iron, and he never held back."

Marco stood beside him.

"But Pops, the Sky Screen is right. He pushed everyone he cared about most to the other side."

"Because he believed in that flag."

Whitebeard's voice grew deeper.

"But that flag never protected his family."

The countdown reached zero.

People all over the world made the same choice in silence.

[Correct answer: D, all of the above]

The footage on the Sky Screen began.

The first frame showed no battlefield, no Marine Headquarters, no grand scene of any kind.

It was a very small house.

The wooden house on the mountain behind Foosha Village in the East Blue.

Garp was young in the footage, forty years younger than he was now. He had fewer wrinkles and less white hair, but the shape of his eyes was exactly the same.

He stood in the doorway of the wooden house, holding a child who was not yet two.

The child was crying, his voice hoarse from it.

"All right, all right, stop crying."

Garp's voice was gruff, and the way he held the child was rough too. One big hand supported his bottom while the other steadied the back of his head. He looked more like he was holding a sack of rice than a baby.

"You didn't cry this hard when your dad dumped you on me."

The child ignored him and kept crying.

Garp sighed, shifted the child into a different position, and looked down at the little face scrunched up in a ball.

"Your dad left."

His voice grew a little softer.

"He said he was going to change the world."

"Change the world."

He repeated the words, his tone carrying a faint trace of something—it was hard to tell whether it was mockery or understanding.

"I couldn't stop him, and I don't intend to."

"Because I know why he left."

He looked up at the distant horizon. The child in his arms gradually stopped crying, his little hand clutching Garp's collar.

"But this is all I can do."

"I'll raise you and make you into a good Marine."

"That way, you won't have to follow your dad's path."

He looked down at the child.

The child looked back at him with wet eyes and hiccupped.

Garp smiled.

It was exactly the same smile the Garp of today occasionally showed, a trace of softness hidden in its roughness that even he was unwilling to admit to.

The footage cut.

Time stamp: Fifteen years ago.

It was the same wooden house, but now there were two children in the scene.

One was Luffy, around five or six years old, sitting on the floor eating meat, a ring of grease smeared around his mouth.

The other was Ace, around ten, sitting with his back against the wall and dragging a stick back and forth across the floor. His eyes held a coldness no one his age should have had.

Garp stood in the doorway, salt stains from seawater on his uniform. He looked as though he had just gotten off a ship.

"Grandpa!"

Luffy dropped the meat and ran over.

Ace didn't move or even look up.

Garp scooped Luffy up and raised him over his head.

"Kid, have you been training hard?"

"Yeah! I chased a wild boar all over the mountain today!"

"Did you catch it?"

"No, it chased me instead."

Garp laughed a couple of times and put Luffy down, then looked at Ace in the corner.

"Ace."

Ace didn't respond.

Garp walked over and crouched down in front of him.

"Fighting again?"

"It's none of your business."

"Dadan said you knocked three boys in town who were older than you into the river."

"They said things they shouldn't have."

Ace's voice was cold, and the stick carved a deep mark in the floor.

Garp looked into his eyes for a few seconds.

"What did they say?"

Ace didn't answer.

Garp sighed.

He knew what they had said. It was nothing more than things like Roger's son didn't deserve to live in this world. Such words had never stopped since the first day Garp brought Ace back.

He reached out and placed his hand on Ace's head.

Ace's body tensed, but he didn't pull away.

"You're my grandson."

Garp's voice was much quieter than before.

"No matter what anyone says, you're Garp's grandson."

Ace raised his head. His eyes were red, but he forced back his tears.

"I don't need your pity."

"This isn't pity."

Garp didn't take his hand off his head.

"It's a fact."

The footage paused there for two seconds, then cut to the next scene.

Time stamp: Three years ago.

Marine Headquarters, the Fleet Admiral's Office.

Garp sat on the sofa with his Marine cap pulled down over his face, apparently asleep.

Sengoku stood opposite him, holding a document, his expression grave.

"Garp, Dragon has appeared in Baldimore."

A muffled response came from beneath Garp's cap.

"I know."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"What else?"

Garp took his Marine cap off his face and sat up.

"You want me to go capture him?"

Sengoku's lips moved, but he said nothing.

They both knew the answer.

Garp would pursue him, but he would never catch him.

He never did.

"Sengoku."

Garp's voice changed. His joking tone was gone.

"I've been a Marine all my life. I've fought battles all my life."

"I've chased Roger, chased Rocks, and fought every big-name pirate in the New World."

"I've smashed my fist into the face of everyone who defied justice."

"But I've never smashed it into my son's face."

Sengoku looked at him.

"Or my grandson's."

Garp stood up and pulled his Marine cap back onto his head.

"You ask if I have any regrets."

"I'll tell you."

He walked to the door and rested a hand on the frame, his back to Sengoku.

"My greatest regret isn't that Dragon took that path."

"Nor is it that Luffy wants to be a pirate."

"It's that I wore this uniform and spent my whole life protecting this flag."

"And in the end, this flag couldn't protect a single member of my family."

He pushed the door open and walked out, and it closed behind him.

In the final frame, Sengoku stood in the empty office, staring at the closed door as the document in his hand slowly fell to his side.

The Sky Screen paused there for three seconds.

Then a line of text appeared.

[This was the only time Garp told Sengoku the truth]

People all over the world looked at the words. No one spoke.

In a corridor at Marine Headquarters, the present-day Garp was still standing in that golden light.

His Marine cap was pulled so low that his eyes were hidden.

But his chin was trembling.

New text began to appear on the Sky Screen.

[This concludes the first part of the analysis of Garp's regrets]

[The second part will reveal what Garp truly went through during those thirty seconds on the Execution Platform on the day of the Paramount War in the original timeline]