By this time, Marine Headquarters had already received the news. "I see. All right, I'll send people over to support you right away." Marshal Kong nodded as he looked at the Den Den Mushi in front of him.
"Make it quick. Dealing with pirates is the Navy's responsibility, isn't it? If the king dies, we'll refuse to pay Heavenly Gold for the next twenty years." The Den Den Mushi spoke coldly, then hung up. It was the eldest prince. Even when dealing with the Navy, he had to maintain the dignity of a great nation.
"Will it be all right? Can these Marines really get here in time?" asked the second prince, Belinda. His eyes were full of distrust, and the third prince, Laimer, felt the same.
"Don't worry. They have to come. If we stop paying Heavenly Gold, the World Government won't let it go. The Navy will end up paying the price through its budget." The eldest prince, Sabre, watched the battle inside the palace and smiled confidently. He knew the Navy well.
Just as Sabre had said, Kong's expression stiffened at the Den Den Mushi's abrupt hang-up and its final words. He clenched his fists, but had nowhere to vent his anger. They had him completely cornered.
"We should send someone over first. If things really turn out as he said, the Navy may have to bear the consequences." Tsuru sighed and calmly analyzed the situation. As a strategist at Marine Headquarters, she didn't need to appear on the front lines unless something major happened. For now, she was helping Marshal Kong handle matters.
"Mm. Of course I know that." Kong rubbed his temples and sighed. Then he said angrily, "That Kaido—he must have nothing better to do than cause me trouble." He turned to Tsuru and asked, "Who's closest to the Kate Kingdom right now?"
Tsuru handled most of the Navy's intelligence. She answered without hesitation. "That would be Garp. At full speed, he could get there in an hour." "Then notify Garp at once and tell him to put aside what he's doing," Kong said. He was confident Garp could handle Kaido. "All right." Tsuru nodded and left.
In the New World, "Roger, you won't get away this time!" shouted the Marine hero Garp from aboard a gigantic battleship with a dog's head. Holding an iron ball imbued with powerful Haki, he hurled it fiercely at the Roger Pirates' golden ship, the Thomson.
"Hahaha! You're still a long way from catching me. It's been more than twenty years, and nothing's changed!" Roger laughed, drawing the sword at his waist. Clang! He knocked the iron ball into the sea with a single swing. But he wasn't facing just one or two iron balls—he was up against dozens, even hundreds. On either side of Garp stood two large crates packed with iron balls, and they were emptying at a visible rate.
Garp kept hurling iron balls at tremendous speed, his hands moving so fast they blurred. "Don't even think about running! I came prepared this time. You got away last time because I ran out of ammunition!" he shouted with a laugh.
One huge iron ball after another rained down from the sky, moving so fast that friction heated them to a fiery red glow. They looked like shooting stars. "This is terrifying! How are we supposed to dodge that? Run! I'm going to die!" A short child with a big red nose like a clown's darted around the ship in a panic, apparently searching for somewhere safe.
"Hey, Buggy, calm down! Don't run around. Trust the captain—we'll be fine. He's a legendary pirate!" A red-haired boy grabbed Buggy by the arm and tried to sound calm. He watched the falling stars, though he wasn't nearly as composed as he looked. Buggy stopped and glanced down at the boy. Then he burst out laughing and pointed at his legs. "Shanks, you have no right to say that! Your legs are shaking!"
"Idiot, they're not! You're seeing things." Shanks blushed, then protested. "No use. I saw it." Buggy laughed, delighted to have the upper hand.
The two of them started bickering about it, and the tense atmosphere aboard the ship began to ease.
"They've got plenty of energy," said a blond man with glasses, smiling as he watched them squabble.
"But thinking you can take us out that easily is wishful thinking." It was Rayleigh, the first mate of the Roger Pirates. "Let's go, everyone. Don't let those iron balls hit the ship." Compared to Roger, Rayleigh seemed more like the one in command.
"Hahaha, I've been itching to get moving!"
"Let's stretch a little." The Roger Pirates laughed, rubbing their hands together. Faced with the incoming iron balls, each member used their own method to deal with them. The crew quickly knocked all several hundred balls out of the sky. Garp's ship ran out of ammunition, after all—one man couldn't hurl iron balls as quickly as the entire Roger Pirates could knock them away.
Garp reached out for another iron ball, but his hand closed on nothing. He turned around and saw that the crates were empty. A Marine officer beside him said, "Vice Admiral Garp, we've used up all the iron balls we prepared."
"What? We're out? Then bring that thing over." Garp's eyes widened. Then, as if remembering something, he gave the officer an order.
"Vice Admiral Garp, are you sure? If this goes wrong, the battleship could sink," the officer warned him.
"Hahaha, don't worry. I'll control the force," Garp said with a hearty laugh.
"Clear the deck! Make room in the center! Vice Admiral Garp is going to use the 'Juggernaut'!" Hearing Garp's words reassured the officer, who shouted out the order. The Marines all reacted at once when they heard the name. They hurried to the edges of the ship.
Boom, boom! A mechanism was triggered, and the deck opened. All the Marines peered down through the opening. Gasp! One after another, they drew in a sharp breath. Many had never seen it before; they'd only heard that Vice Admiral Garp had prepared a devastating weapon to use against Roger.
They hadn't expected something so enormous. It certainly lived up to the name Juggernaut. It was a colossal iron ball stored beneath the battleship and enclosed in a coating. It was only a little smaller than the ship itself. A thick iron chain was attached to it. Garp had even had his battleship remodeled to carry the massive iron ball.
Garp grabbed the chain and lifted the enormous iron ball high over his head with his monstrous strength.
"Hey! It's been quiet for so long. Did that guy Garp give up?" Rayleigh said, puzzled.
Just then, Garp's familiar voice rang out. "Roger, I made this special gift just for you. Hope you can catch it! Hahaha!"
"Hey! We're going to die!" When they looked toward the battleship, they saw that a super-sized iron ball, larger than their own ship, had appeared there. It was covered in powerful Armament Haki, its metal gleaming in the bright light. Buggy's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and a chill ran down Shanks's back.
"How did they get such a huge iron ball out here? There was nothing there just a moment ago." Rayleigh adjusted his glasses, a cold sweat appearing on his brow.
"We have to take this seriously. We can't let it land on the ship, or the Jackson will be crushed." Roger spoke gravely. The iron ball's sheer size, combined with Garp's monstrous strength and Haki, made it a formidable threat.
"Right." The Roger Pirates answered one after another, readying themselves to act.
"Go—Shatter the Stars!" Garp gripped the chain and put his whole body into the throw. With an unstoppable force, he hurled the colossal iron ball toward Roger's Jackson. It blotted out the sky, and Garp sent it with deadly accuracy sailing over the pirate ship, crashing down toward the Jackson.
"We're doomed! We're going to the bottom of the sea!" Buggy burst into tears and clung tightly to Shanks. Shanks looked a little disgusted. "Idiot, let go! Your tears are getting on my clothes." But he didn't struggle very hard. He had faith in the captain and the others, yet this attack terrified him.
"It's coming! Knock it off course!" Roger shouted, leaping straight at the iron ball. "Kamunabi!" His sword flashed as he unleashed one of his strongest moves. It was a close-range sword technique. He struck the left side of the iron ball. The crew understood their captain's intention perfectly: they needed to use overwhelming force to shift the ball's trajectory to the right. The helmsman turned the wheel, steering the ship to the left.
Then the powerful crew members took action one after another. Boom! Bang! Each impact unleashed a powerful shockwave. The sea churned, and the world seemed to darken. Garp's strength was no joke. Changing the trajectory of an iron ball with such powerful momentum required even greater force—like altering the course of a comet.
Powerful attacks slammed into the giant iron ball's left side. Its falling path shifted, slowly moving to the right. The Roger Pirates saw it and were delighted. It was working.
The giant iron ball plunged into the sea, and the Roger Pirates successfully avoided the blow. But they didn't escape it completely. Crack! Its edge struck the right Dragon Bone of the Jackson, snapping it in two. The entire ship shuddered, and the crew grabbed whatever they could to steady themselves.
But it wasn't over yet. The giant iron ball crashed into the sea and sent out a massive wave with tremendous force. The closest ship, the Jackson, took the full impact. Before the crew could recover, another powerful surge crashed into them. "Hold on tight! Don't let go!" Roger shouted.
But it happened too quickly. There was no time to react between the two impacts. The wave slammed into the Jackson, tilting it sharply to the left. A torrent of water poured into the ship through the broken right side.
At that moment, though, nobody had time to worry about the damage. A wave nearly a hundred meters high crashed down from above. Fortunately, there were no Devil Fruit users among the Roger Pirates. Otherwise, they would have been in grave danger.
Even a pirate ship built from Adam Tree wood couldn't withstand such a powerful impact. The ship had already taken a heavy blow, and now water was leaking into it from several places. Cracks had appeared in the hull.
"Hahaha, as expected of Roger. You actually managed to stop it!" Garp laughed when he saw what happened.
"Vice Admiral Garp, incredible! The Roger Pirates' Jackson has a broken right Dragon Bone and has suffered damage in several places. Water's getting into the ship. Should we give chase at once?" A Marine looked through a telescope toward the Roger Pirates and excitedly reported what he saw.
"Of course! We can't let the Roger Pirates get away. First, retrieve my ultimate weapon." Garp smiled.
"Hey, is everyone all right?" Rayleigh asked aboard the Jackson. "We're all fine, but those two little guys passed out," Roger said, glancing to the side. Shanks and Buggy were already unconscious on the deck.
"Garp and the others are coming. Get moving and patch up the leaks—we're making a run for it." Roger waved his hand and laughed. He wasn't ashamed to admit they were running away. Wasn't it perfectly normal for pirates to flee when they ran into the Navy?
"Report, Vice Admiral Garp! Marine Headquarters has sent us an urgent message." A Marine ran over, saluted, then spoke. He held a Den Den Mushi in his hands.
"Mm." Garp nodded, took the Den Den Mushi, and opened it. Its appearance changed as soon as the call connected, but Garp recognized it at once.
"Hey, Tsuru. What's up? I'm still chasing Roger," Garp asked with a laugh.
"Put Roger aside for now. Kaido has invaded the Kate Kingdom on Pet Island. He's fighting the king in the royal capital. If the king dies, the Navy will be held responsible, and the Kate Kingdom will refuse to pay Heavenly Gold for twenty years. You know what that means." Tsuru spoke gravely from the other end of the line.
The Kate Kingdom was a great nation that paid a large amount of Heavenly Gold every year. It was powerful and occupied an entire large island. If the lost Heavenly Gold were deducted from the Navy's budget, the impact on the Navy would be obvious. Garp wasn't always reliable, but he understood exactly what the Navy's budget meant.
Still, he didn't want to let the Roger Pirates go so easily. "All right, I understand. I'll head over right away." With that, Garp hung up.
"Quick! Keep chasing the Roger Pirates!" As soon as the call ended, Garp shouted.
"But Vice Admiral Garp, what about the mission Headquarters gave us?" The officer beside him asked nervously.
"Hahaha, we'll do both! Drive the Roger Pirates toward Pet Island, then take care of them and the trouble on Pet Island at the same time. I'm a genius!" Garp roared with laughter.
It sounded a little off, but it was undeniably a good plan. The Roger Pirates also needed somewhere to make repairs.
As the Navy continued to chase them, Rayleigh sensed something was wrong. "Roger, the Navy seems to be herding us in a particular direction. Whenever we turn, they fire cannonballs to force us back on course."
"What island is straight ahead?" Roger heard that and realized something was off as well. The navigator beside him held a chart and an Eternal Pose. "If we keep going straight, we'll reach Pet Island."
"Hahaha! Then let's go. Full speed ahead—we'll make repairs on Pet Island." Roger heard the answer, waved his hand, and laughed.
Before you continue