What the hell! I ran into that old man Karp the moment I entered the village

"Mr. Karp... can't you use the door properly for once?"

Makino looked at the tavern door, which had gloriously sacrificed itself and shattered into wooden splinters across the floor, then helplessly rubbed her forehead.

Her gentle face was filled with resigned frustration. Clearly, she had long grown accustomed to this kind of violent entrance.

"Wahahaha! Sorry, sorry, Makino! I'd just gotten off the warship and couldn't rein in my feet in time!"

Amid the flying wood chips, an old man wearing a ridiculous dog-head hat and built like an iron tower strode in with a booming laugh.

He wore an immaculate white high-ranking Marine uniform, draped in a great coat embroidered with the enormous word "Justice." With a face full of stubble, he looked rough and unruly, yet immensely bold and heroic.

He was none other than the legendary vice admiral known as the "Iron Fist," Monkey D. Garp—the Marine Hero who had driven Pirate King Gol D. Roger into desperate situations countless times!

He happened to be on leave this time, so he had stopped by his hometown, Foosha Village, to visit family and check on his two troublesome grandsons.

"Makino! Forget that nonsense! Bring me a bag of the rice crackers you made yourself, and a cup of hot tea!"

Karp carelessly plopped down in front of the bar and shouted in a booming voice so loud that the glasses displayed around the tavern began to hum in resonance.

"Honestly... can't you keep it down? You'll scare the customers."

Though Makino complained, she still smiled and nodded before turning toward the kitchen.

She knew that this Marine Hero had always been this careless and unrestrained.

Karp crossed one leg over the other without a care and casually swept his gaze across the small tavern.

Then, suddenly, his eyes settled on the black-haired boy sitting in the farthest corner of the bar, slowly cutting into a piece of grilled sea beast meat with a knife and fork.

Hmm?

Karp's eyes, narrowed from years of hearty laughter, opened into a slight slit.

Since when had Foosha Village gotten an unfamiliar little brat like this?

The boy looked quite spirited. He was far more pleasing to the eye than Karp's two monkey-like grandsons.

Lei En, who had been concentrating on his grilled meat, sensed Karp's highly aggressive gaze and cursed inwardly. What the hell.

No matter how much he calculated, he had never expected that on his first day in the village, before he had even caught sight of Monkey D. Luffy, he would run headfirst into Luffy's unreasonable grandfather, an old monster whose strength was unfathomable!

He had been careless!

Lei En quickly lowered his head and did his utmost to restrain the powerful aura that naturally radiated from years of training. He pretended to be nothing more than an ordinary young tourist visiting town for the first time, drawn in by good food.

However, it was already too late.

A terrifyingly sharp glint, like that of an eagle, flashed through Karp's seemingly cloudy old eyes!

His beast-like battle instincts, honed through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, were frantically sounding alarms in his mind!

Danger!

Extreme danger!

That harmless-looking, even somewhat handsome brat actually gave off a bottomless, terrifying aura—one Karp had rarely felt even from the great pirates in the New World with bounties exceeding a billion!

Though the aura had been hidden well, before a powerhouse on Karp's level, it was like a bonfire in the dead of night. No matter how it was concealed, its scorching heat could not be completely hidden.

It felt as though an ancient ferocious beast wearing the harmless skin of a sheep was lazily dozing in its own territory.

"Interesting... very interesting..."

Karp grinned, revealing a deeply interested smile filled with the thrill of finding worthy prey.

Without drawing attention to himself, he rose to his feet and pretended to head for the kitchen to hurry Makino along with the rice crackers. Then he slowly walked over to Lei En.

"Kid, you're not from around here, are you? Where'd you come from?"

Karp's voice sounded friendly, like an ordinary elderly neighbor making conversation with a younger person.

But Lei En could clearly feel an oppressive force as heavy as a mountain slowly spreading from the old man and locking onto him.

This was the probing of a top-tier powerhouse before making a move!

Lei En silently cursed, Old fox, but his expression remained unchanged.

He did not even raise his head. He continued cutting the meat on his plate with his knife and fork as though he had not felt the pressure at all.

"None of your damn business, old man."

His exceedingly rude, even arrogant answer caused the smile on Karp's face to freeze instantly.

Well, damn!

This little brat had quite the temper!

These days, there were not many people who dared speak to Karp like that!

"Wahahaha! You've got character! I like brats with character!"

Rather than getting angry, Karp laughed even more happily. His booming laughter shook dust from the ceiling.

Without any warning, his palm-sized hand landed on Lei En's somewhat slender shoulder.

Yet the sensation beneath his hand startled Karp.

The boy's shoulder looked thin, but it was actually as hard as iron, with a density so high it was frightening!

"Since you've got so much character, let this old man see whether your bones are as hard as your mouth!"

Before his words had even faded!

Karp's eyes instantly sharpened like blades!

His free right hand made no unnecessary windup. It was merely an incomparably simple, brutally direct punch, carrying a terrifying shriek that could rip apart the air as it smashed toward Lei En's temple!

That punch was unimaginably fast!

And unimaginably fierce!

Karp had not held back at all. This was the "Love Fist" he had used to discipline countless arrogant pirates throughout his decades roaming the seas!

A terrifying strike powerful enough to punch through the armor plating of a steel warship!

"Mr. Karp! Don't!"

At the kitchen entrance, Makino had just emerged carrying a steaming plate of rice crackers. Seeing this, her face went pale with fright. The plate in her hands crashed to the floor, scattering rice crackers everywhere.

Yet faced with that terrifying punch, one that could easily kill him, Lei En's face remained completely calm.

He did not even move his backside from the barstool.

At the very instant, one hundredth of a second before Karp's fist, capable of smashing mountains, struck his temple!

Lei En's gaze sharpened!

With lightning speed, he raised his right hand and threw an equally unadorned, simple, brutally direct punch straight at Karp's iron fist!

Boom—!!!

One large and one small, two utterly disproportionate fists collided violently within the tavern's cramped space!

In that instant, the air throughout the entire tavern seemed to freeze.

Then!

A visible white ring of air erupted from the point where their fists met, spreading wildly outward in all directions like an exploding bomb!

The wine glasses, plates, and bottles atop the bar shattered with a bang the instant they touched the shockwave, turning into fragments that filled the air!

The tavern's thick glass windows shattered with a crash under the horrifying impact, sending glass shards flying more than ten meters outside!

An incomparably dense black Armament Haki, like boiling ink, instantly covered Lei En's entire fist and radiated a heart-stopping metallic gleam!

And that was not all!

Crackle! Crackle!

Ominous black-red lightning erupted, leaped, and tore through the air within the narrow gap between their colliding fists!

"This... this is?!"

Karp's eyes, wide as bells, were filled with unprecedented shock and horror.

He stared fixedly at the incomparably pure Armament Haki wrapped around Lei En's fist, as well as the black-red lightning that only appeared when legendary top-tier powerhouses fought with everything they had. He felt as if his mind were about to shut down.

This was something he had only seen on monsters on Roger and Whitebeard's level!

"Conqueror's Coating?!"

Karp cried out in shock, his voice trembling from utter disbelief.

"What kind of joke is this?! How could a brat who looks no older than ten possibly master a technique that even this old man... hasn't fully comprehended yet?!"

Before he could finish.

Lei En looked at the old man before him, whose face was filled with shock as though his entire worldview had collapsed, and a highly arrogant curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

He suddenly exerted force through his wrist, and that domineering power fused with the power of lightning erupted in an instant!

A force several times more terrifying than before surged wildly up through Karp's arm!

"Old man, surprised?"

Lei En's voice was not loud, yet it carried a wild arrogance that looked down upon the world.

"If you're surprised, then get the hell out of my face!"