Zephyr was furious. Rage filled his entire body, and his breathing grew rapid again.
His asthma was acting up.
"Huff! Huff!"
Breathing heavily, Zephyr took out his asthma medication with practiced ease. Only after taking it did his heaving chest begin to settle.
"Why? Why did Marine Headquarters let outsiders in again?!"
Zephyr growled. It was a nightmare that had haunted him all his life.
More than twenty years ago, a band of pirates had broken into Marine Headquarters and murdered his entire family.
"Not this time. I won't let it happen again..."
Zephyr gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, veins bulging along his arms. He would not let that tragedy repeat itself!
[Flender: @Fading Navy Veteran, sir, please calm down. We aren't your enemies. If anything, you could call us uninvited friends?]
[Fading Navy Veteran: Someone who barges into another person's territory and interferes with his mind is no friend of mine!]
[Flender: Hmm... I'm very sorry about that. But please believe me, we mean no harm. We only came to make friends.]
[Fading Navy Veteran: We? There's more than one of you?!]
Zephyr seized on the word. Flender could only slap his forehead. They were talking straight past each other.
[Flender: All right, sir. Let's be frank. Forgive me for asking, but are you Zephyr?]
[Zephyr: I'm Zephyr! A Marine Admiral! Whatever tricks you have, use them!]
[Flender: Then there's no problem.]
Knowing this Marine Admiral's tragic past, Flender understood his anger.
[Ding! The One Piece series has been released. It matches member Zephyr's world and has been automatically completed by the Chat Group, becoming a record of real events. Only member Zephyr can view it for now.]
[Flender: All right, Zephyr. This is your story. Take a look first. Once you've finished, I'm sure we can talk properly.]
[Zephyr: What game are you playing?!]
Several times, Zephyr slammed his Haki-coated fists into the translucent panel before him. Neither the force he drove through it nor the Haki he projected outward had any effect. The panel did not so much as tremble.
That, strangely enough, calmed Zephyr. The composure he had cultivated as an Admiral and a teacher returned.
He took a deep breath and forced down his anger. Whether he believed what was happening no longer mattered. He had no way to deal with whoever was behind it.
He studied the panel before him. What it displayed left him wary.
One Piece...
Roger, you've been dead for years. Are you still haunting us?
He clenched his fist, released it, then clenched it again.
After a long hesitation, Zephyr sprinted off in one direction.
"Garp, do me a favor. If anything strange happens to me, take me down!"
Aboard the Dog-head Warship, Zephyr spoke gravely to Garp, who happened to have returned to Marine Headquarters that day.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Zephyr? Did you eat something bad?"
Garp stared at his old friend in bewilderment, but his expression turned dead serious as he finished speaking.
"I don't know what's going on either, but I have a feeling something big is about to happen."
Zephyr's reply was grim. He wanted to tell Garp about the strange things he had seen, but the Chat Panel prevented him. Until he had truly joined, he had no right to reveal its existence.
After warning Garp a couple more times, Zephyr opened the One Piece story without hesitation. His old friend watched him anxiously.
Buzz...
A tremor ran through his mind, and the scene before Zephyr changed at dizzying speed.
The sea appeared. A small merchant ship cut through the waves, while a little wooden barrel bobbed on the water...
A sailor aboard the ship spotted the barrel by chance. Thinking it might hold supplies adrift at sea, he hurried to haul it aboard. He never expected to find a person inside.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"
The Straw Hat Boy burst out of the barrel, spread his arms, and thrust out his chest, declaring his ambition to the world.
But that declaration made Zephyr frown.
Monkey, and a D... Could this be that bastard Garp's grandson? Given Dragon's age, it would fit...
But King of the Pirates?! How the hell did that bastard Garp raise his family?
Zephyr flew into a rage. Garp was a Marine hero and Vice Admiral. His son Dragon had deserted the Marines and formed the Revolutionary Army to oppose the World Government. And now his grandson wanted to become a pirate—even King of the Pirates?!
Before Zephyr could dwell on it, the Straw Hat Boy's story was already underway.
He sent an obscure little pirate flying with a punch. (Gum-Gum Fruit, huh? Good power behind that punch. His hand-to-hand combat barely passes.)
He faced off against a corrupt Marine captain. (East Blue's Marines... No, he must be one of a few bad apples. That green-haired boy's swordsmanship is good, though. The makings of a master. Who taught him?)
He confronted a remnant of Roger's crew... Buggy the Clown? (Zephyr was baffled. Did every ship have its own disgrace?)
The straw hat? Shanks?! (Zephyr erupted in fury. So you're the bastard who led Garp's grandson astray!)
Kuro of a Hundred Plans... (Zephyr seethed. That treacherous scoundrel slaughtered an entire ship of Marines just so he could disappear and live in peace? He was behind that Marine's fall earlier, too!)
Red-Haired's Sniper? (Zephyr shook his head. Nothing could stop a man from going to sea? Since when was family an obstacle?!)
Barefoot Zeff. (Zephyr gave a half nod. He wouldn't seize food even when chasing treasure, so he had some conscience left. But he was rough at raising a child. And why was the boy such a lecher?)
A duel with Mihawk. (Zephyr nodded approvingly. He hadn't been wrong about that green-haired boy. He had real promise. Shame Garp's grandson, already led astray by Red-Haired, had led him astray too. A bounty hunter was a respectable profession, after all.)
Arlong. (Zephyr's face darkened. Every ship really did have its disgrace. Fisher Tiger was a Fish-Man Zephyr himself respected. He had never imagined one of his men could be so vicious!)
The blonde girl. (Zephyr sighed. A child had carried an entire village's hopes, only to be crushed by Marines and pirates working together. How cruel could they be?)
Nezumi? (Colluding with pirates, framing his own people, forcing a decent group of youngsters down the wrong path... I'll remember you.)
The Millennium Dragon. (Zephyr's gaze sharpened. Even an East Blue commodore was this rotten? East Blue had been defiled...)
As Zephyr watched, his wariness and grief faded without his noticing. The story of Garp's grandson held him fast.
A crocodile's plot to seize a desert kingdom, the lightning of a "god" on Skypiea, the brutal clash of fists between agents and pirates on the judicial island, and the Paramount War...
Without realizing it, Zephyr learned many of the world's secrets.
The tragedy of Ohara, the white terror of Flevance, the Great Kingdom, Imu, ruler of the Celestial Dragons, Poseidon and Pluton, the signposts to Laugh Tale...
At last, he saw himself die at the hands of his "least agreeable" student, Borsalino—the Marine Admiral Kizaru. Zephyr was silent for a long while, then broke into a grin.
"Looks like I misjudged you, Borsalino. Your hand-to-hand combat isn't bad at all. You still rely on your Devil Fruit, but it would be absurd to expect a Devil Fruit User not to use his powers."
Buzz...
Another hum sounded in his mind, and Zephyr's awareness returned to his body.
Garp stood before him, picking his nose. Yet his eyes were fixed on Zephyr, worry lurking in them. Zephyr smiled without a word and clenched his fist.
"Black Arm: Shatter!"
Bam!
"Aagh! Zephyr, you bastard! What are you doing?!"
"Shut up, you bastard Garp! What the hell have you been teaching your children and students?!"
Before you continue