"By the way, Grandpa, what are you doing here?" Luffy suddenly asked.
"Oh, us?"
Garp scratched his head and said casually:
"We received an invitation from the Mermaid Kingdom to some celebration of its twentieth anniversary. I didn't want to come at first, but when I heard you'd be here too, I figured I'd drop by and see you."
"Huh? You're here for the celebration?" Luffy froze.
"Yeah." Kuzan yawned. "We're just here to join in the fun, though. What about you, Luffy? What brought you here?"
Luffy opened his mouth to answer, but Shanks reached out to stop him.
"We were just passing through," Shanks said evenly. "We heard there was a celebration here, so we thought we'd take a look."
"Is that so?"
Kuzan gave Shanks a meaningful look but asked nothing more.
Of course they knew Shanks and Luffy hadn't come for the celebration.
But since the two didn't want to talk about it, there was no need to press them.
They weren't on the same side, after all.
"All right, I won't pry." Garp waved a hand. "Luffy, you'd better watch yourself! Don't go causing trouble again!"
"I know, I know!" Luffy waved impatiently.
"We'll be going, then," Kuzan said, turning to leave.
"Wait!"
Robin, who had remained silent until then, suddenly called out.
Over the past two years, although she had continued traveling with Luffy and the others, she had never forgotten to secretly contact and rally the remaining resistance forces.
Even though she knew it might well be a dead end, doomed to failure.
At least she had tried. She had tried with everything she had.
"Hmm?" Kuzan turned back languidly, his eyes beneath his sleep mask settling calmly on Robin.
"What do you really think of the World Government? Where exactly do the