Grandpa's Fist
The words of the Sky Screen's judgment appeared line by line.
[Judgment: Monkey D. Garp is neither a traitor nor negligent in his duty. His actions are, in essence, those of a man who compromised as much as he could in an impossible situation.]
[He chose neither justice nor his family.]
[He chose to give up on neither side, and was crushed by both at once.]
The two lines hung on the Sky Screen. As people across the world read that assessment, the weight pressing on their hearts grew heavier.
In a corridor at Marine Headquarters, Garp pulled his cap lower.
The corner of his mouth twitched as he read the two lines three times.
"Gave up on neither side."
He repeated the words, his voice as rough as sandpaper.
"That's a nice way to put it."
The rewards began to appear on the Sky Screen.
[Reward recipient: Monkey D. Garp]
[First reward: The shaken heart of justice state imposed by the previous punishment will be removed. Garp's conviction and Haki will be fully restored to their peak.]
Garp swayed when the notice appeared.
A warm current surged from deep within his chest, like a long-blocked river suddenly breaking free.
He clenched his fist, and his knuckles cracked in a crisp succession of pops.
That sense of strength, that solid feeling from deep within his bones, had returned.
He hadn't felt like this in days.
Ever since the Sky Screen first descended and stripped him of his prestige and weakened his conviction, his fists had been soft, as though he were punching through a layer of cotton and couldn't use his full strength.
Now that layer of cotton was gone.
Two young Marine soldiers in the corridor stepped back at the same time. The density of the air around Garp was visibly changing, and the grain of the wooden floor trembled.
"All right."
Garp's voice grew deeper.
"That's been returned to me."
The second reward appeared on the Sky Screen.
[Second reward: Passive ability granted, Guardian's Fist. When Garp attacks an enemy threatening the life of a member of his family, the hardness and penetrating power of his Armament Haki will increase by fifty percent. This boost is also effective against Admiral-level enemies.]
When the reward appeared, Whitebeard raised his cup aboard the Moby Dick.
"This system has at least a bit of a conscience."
Marco stood beside him, his expression easing somewhat.
"Pops, this means Garp might not be standing against us in the Paramount War anymore."
"No, he'll still stand with the Marines."
Whitebeard took a drink.
"But his fist will land on Akainu."
In the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy froze for two seconds when he saw the second reward, then slammed his fist into the ground.
"Grandpa!"
His shout carried something hard to describe. It wasn't anger or happiness, but the release of some long-blocked emotion that had finally found an outlet.
Zoro looked at him, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"What are you so worked up about?"
"I don't know."
Luffy lowered his head, his fist still pressed against the ground he had cracked.
"But I think Grandpa should get this."
"He deserves it."
The third reward appeared on the Sky Screen.
[Third reward: The system will open a one-way communication for Monkey D. Garp, lasting three minutes, with Portgas D. Ace in Impel Down. Only Garp may initiate this communication. Ace can hear him but cannot respond.]
The air across the world froze at that instant.
Not because of how much fighting power this reward offered.
But because everyone realized what it meant.
Garp could speak to Ace.
Three minutes.
One-way.
Ace could hear him, but he couldn't answer.
In the corridor at Marine Headquarters, Garp stared at the reward, and his cap slipped from his head.
He didn't reach for it.
The cap rolled twice across the floor before coming to rest in a corner.
His fingers were trembling.
"Three minutes."
He said it aloud.
"That's enough."
A notification appeared on the Sky Screen.
[One-way communication will begin in ten seconds. Garp's voice will then be transmitted through the Sky Screen to Level 6 of Impel Down. Only Ace will be able to hear it.]
[Ten]
Garp leaned against the corridor wall, his back pressed to the cold stone.
[Nine]
He raised a hand and rubbed his face, deepening its lines and wrinkles.
[Eight]
He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
[Seven]
He looked down at the cap on the floor.
[Six]
He bent down, picked up the cap, and turned it once in his hand.
[Five]
He put the cap back on his head.
[Four]
He took a deep breath.
[Three]
His Adam's apple moved.
[Two]
His lips parted.
[One]
Level 6 of Impel Down.
Ace was curled up in the corner of his cell. The Seastone Handcuffs left his whole body weak and aching. Darkness surrounded him, along with the snores and groans of the other dangerous prisoners.
Then he heard a voice.
The voice came down from the ceiling with a strange vibration, as though it had passed through the earth's entire crust and the seawater to reach him.
"Ace."
Ace's body jerked.
His eyes snapped wide open in the darkness.
"Grandpa?"
The word slipped out, but there was no response.
The communication was one-way. Garp couldn't hear him.
"Ace, listen to me. I've only got three minutes."
Garp's voice echoed through the cell in Impel Down, the echoes carrying a metallic resonance from the Sky Screen system's transmission.
"I'm not going to say anything pretty. You know I can't."
Ace leaned against the wall, his trembling making the chain of his handcuffs rattle faintly.
"The Sky Screen said my greatest regret in this life was failing to protect you."
"It was right."
Garp's voice echoed through the corridor. He spoke slowly, every word seeming to be squeezed from the depths of his chest.
"When I sent you to Dadan's, you were three years old, and you wouldn't call me Grandpa."
"You kept refusing to call me that."
"Later, you did, but every time you said it, you were so stubborn about it, like calling me Grandpa would put you at a disadvantage."
In the darkness of Impel Down, Ace's eyes grew hot.
He bit his lip so hard his teeth sank into the flesh.
"You asked me something once. Do you remember?"
Garp's voice paused for a beat.
"You said, 'Grandpa, should I even have been born?'"
"I punched you then."
"Because I didn't know how to answer."
"After I hit you, you looked at me with blood running from the corner of your mouth. Your eyes were full of hate, but you didn't hate me. You hated yourself."
"I should have given you an answer then."
"But I didn't."
"Because I was afraid that if I said it, you'd think I was just trying to comfort you."
The chain of Ace's handcuffs shook violently. His hands were clenched into fists, and though the Seastone left him too weak to even pull the chain taut, he kept clenching them.
"I'll tell you now."
Garp's voice changed, taking on a tone Ace had heard only a handful of times in his entire life.
It wasn't the roughness he used during training, the grinning playfulness he showed while eating rice crackers, or the nonsense he spouted when drunk.
It was an old man speaking in his own voice after stripping away every disguise.
"You should have been born."
"Not because you're Roger's son."
"Not because you're anyone's son."
"But because you're Ace."
"You're my grandson."
"What reason would Garp's grandson have not to be born?"
Ace pressed his forehead against the cold stone wall. Tears seeped from his tightly shut eyes, slid down the curves of his cheeks, and fell onto the floor.
He wanted to speak.
He wanted to shout.
But the communication was one-way. His voice couldn't reach Garp.
He could only listen.
"Thirty seconds left."
Something urgent entered Garp's voice, like a man desperately trying to finish saying the most important things as the clock counted down.
"Luffy will come to save you."
"Whitebeard will come too."
"The Sky Screen has already changed everything that needed changing. This time won't be like the future."
"You won't die."
"Do you hear me? You won't die."
"Until then, hang on."
"My grandson isn't allowed to die in a place like that."
Garp said nothing during the final three seconds of the communication.
But Ace heard a sound.
A very soft, nasal intake of breath, held tightly back in the depths of his throat.
The sound lasted two seconds.
Then the communication ended.
The cell on Level 6 of Impel Down fell back into darkness and silence.
Ace curled up in the corner, his forehead against the stone wall, his whole body shaking.
His lips opened and closed, then closed and opened again, until at last he managed to squeeze out one word.
"Grandpa."
Jinbe heard the noise from the cell beside him, and his voice came through from next door.
"Ace?"
"Jinbe."
Ace's voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"My grandpa spoke to me."
"I felt it."
Jinbe's voice was steady.
"He'd want you to hold on."
Ace was silent for a long time.
"I will."
The images on the Sky Screen slowly faded, and Garp's communication record ended there.
The system displayed one final set of lines.
[Garp's regrets end here]
[He spent his whole life standing on the fissure between justice and family]
[He never fell]
[But standing there was exhausting, every single day]
Lin Qi watched the screen in the tavern. The beer can in his hand was empty, but he had forgotten to get a new one.
"This old man."
He stared at the global emotion data panel. Both the sadness and the being-moved values had reached new highs for the night.
"He spent three minutes telling a grandson who couldn't answer him things he'd never said in his whole life."
He rubbed his nose.
"All right, that's one of the top four down."
"Third place."
He scrolled down to the next name, his finger stopping above the confirm button.
New preview text began to form on the Sky Screen.
[The ten greatest regrets. Third place, about to be revealed]
[Hint: This regret concerns a sea burned to ashes, and a father who gave his life to open a path for his sons]
In the New World, on the deck of the Moby Dick, everyone's gaze turned at once to the man sitting on the Prow Throne.
Whitebeard glanced down at the cup in his hand. The liquor swayed gently inside it.
He didn't look up at the Sky Screen.
But the corners of his mouth curved slightly.
"It's my turn."