Garp, Who Couldn't Be Reasoned With

Over the past six months, the endless stream of rookie pirates had provided Rayne with abundant nourishment.

Thanks to the dawn of the Great Pirate Era, although most of the pirates appearing in the East Blue were weak small-timers, there were simply too many of them. Over those six months, Rayne had still been lucky enough to encounter a few who knew the basics of Armament Haki.

After successfully unlocking Basic Armament Haki through an execution, he had not hesitated to spend Sin Points, raising his Armament Haki all the way to the limit his current [Physique] could support—[Top-tier]!

Thanks to the pirates, big and small, from the past six months, even after exchanging for Top-tier Armament Haki, he still had a surplus of over 150,000 Sin Points.

The only slight disappointment was that after his [Physique Realm] reached [Advanced], its progress had slowed considerably.

Even Rayne had lost count of how much N-rank and R-rank "nourishment" he had absorbed, including several SR-rank ones, yet he had never managed to break through to [Top-tier].

Still, those six months of frenzied growth had shot his height up to two meters sixty! He was not far from the nearly "perfect" three-meter standard height commonly possessed by the top powerhouses of the pirate world.

"Even if I'm only [Advanced] for now..."

Rayne sensed the powerful strength within him, utterly incomparable to what it had been six months ago, and silently made an estimate.

"I should be about at the average level of a Marine Headquarters vice admiral by now."

"But..." Several figures from the manga of his previous life surfaced in Rayne's mind. "I wonder what positions Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru hold now."

"I'm probably still quite far from true 'monsters' like them."

Thanks to Vice Admiral Tsuru's heroic rhetoric about "resisting Haki head-on to preserve the Marines' honor," after recovering from his injuries, Rayne had not only avoided any punishment for his hesitation, but had instead become something of a hero at the Loguetown branch.

Not long afterward, a symbolic commendation order arrived from Headquarters, promoting him directly from private second class to sergeant.

However, at Rayne's strong insistence, he was not transferred away from the executioner position that everyone else considered terribly unlucky.

Rayne had no particular ambitions regarding rank, and the meager allowance of a sergeant was nothing but pocket change in his eyes.

To him, nothing was more important than continuously "judging evil" in a legitimate manner.

After all, executing criminals was like a bloody but clearly profitable job. Every strike earned him "Sin Points" and "optional rewards."

But fishing...

Thinking of that, he lifted his fishing rod and looked at the completely empty fish bucket by his feet, letting out an irritated sigh.

"Sure enough, I have absolutely no talent for fishing."

He got to his feet, put away the rod, and silently planned, One day, I need to keep an eye out for a pirate with a [Fishing] skill.

With that unrealistic thought in mind, Rayne piloted his small boat back toward Loguetown's harbor.

At the central berth of the harbor, a place usually reserved for important figures from Headquarters, a massive Marine warship was quietly docked.

"A Headquarters ship? At that size... which vice admiral has arrived?"

A trace of doubt flashed through Rayne's mind. But as his gaze slowly traveled up the enormous hull and finally landed on the unmistakable figurehead—

It was an enormous, imposing dog-head sculpture.

Across the entire Marine force, and indeed the whole sea, there was only one warship bearing that symbol.

It belonged to the man known as the "Marine Hero."

Rayne guided his small boat slowly toward the harbor.

He discovered that every Marine soldier was staring at the Dog-Headed Warship with a mixture of "admiration," "excitement," and "awe." Even their routine patrols had become absent-minded, as though getting one extra glimpse of that ship was an immense honor.

Rayne's confusion deepened. "Garp... what is he doing in Loguetown?"

He then moored his boat in an inconspicuous corner and quietly returned to the base.

The moment he stepped through the gates, his immediate superior, Captain "Scarface" Stork, scrambled out from the side as if he had seen a ghost.

"Y-you brat! You... you're finally back!" Stork grabbed Rayne, his voice trembling. "Where the hell were you?! We've been looking for you forever!"

Rayne expressionlessly pointed to the fishing rod in his hand. "Fishing."

"Fishing?" Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Stork instantly bristled. He snatched Rayne's rod and slammed it viciously to the ground. "At a time like this, you still have the damn mood to fish?! Hurry! Come with me! Vice Admiral Garp... he specifically asked to see you!"

Under the envious, jealous, and resentful gazes of countless Marines, Rayne boarded the Dog-Headed Warship alone.

He saw that the legendary "Marine Hero" was sitting cross-legged on the deck in a white suit, stuffing his mouth with senbei while impatiently waving him over.

"You made me wait forever, Rayne!"

Garp's voice, like the man himself, carried an unrestrained, carefree quality.

"Reporting to Vice Admiral Garp! Sergeant Corvo Rayne of the Loguetown Marine Branch, reporting for duty!"

"Ah... Little Tsuru said you're an interesting brat." Garp waved a hand, yawned, and spoke indistinctly. "Seems some Elite Training Camp is starting, and she had me pick you up on the way. Anyway, just come with me."

"Elite Training Camp? Vice Admiral Tsuru? So even after I refused the promotion, they still arranged this..." Rayne thought to himself.

But he immediately reacted, standing at attention and saluting. An expression of grateful determination appeared on his face. "Reporting to Vice Admiral Garp! I am deeply grateful for your and Vice Admiral Tsuru's high regard! However, I believe I still need to continue honing myself in Loguetown! I hope to keep contributing to the Marines here!"

Garp paused in the middle of picking his nose, glanced at him, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"Cut the crap! Even I have to listen to Little Tsuru's orders sometimes! If she says you're going, then you're going. Pack your things and depart in ten minutes!"

The entire speech Rayne had prepared was instantly choked back by Garp's completely unreasonable response.

Looking at the Marine Hero before him, picking his nose and laughing without a care in the world, Rayne felt utterly helpless.

Damn it... I've met my nemesis.

The act I use on smart people like Vice Admiral Tsuru is completely useless on this guy!

He doesn't reason with you or listen to your declarations of loyalty. He has one answer—if he says you're going, you're going.

Rayne sighed inwardly, knowing he could not avoid this today.

"Yes, Vice Admiral Garp." He could only stand at attention and salute helplessly.

Unable to find any reason to refuse, Rayne could only return to his dormitory and pack his luggage.

All his important belongings were in his ring, so he casually found a few clothes and pretended to pack them. Then, under the envious gazes of the entire Loguetown branch, he boarded the Dog-Headed Warship.

The warship slowly set sail, leaving Loguetown's harbor.

Rayne stood alone by the rail, watching the "Town of Beginnings and Endings" grow farther and farther away. He felt no reluctance, only a sudden sense of unreality.

"Getting dragged out of the beginner village so suddenly with only an [Advanced] physique really doesn't make me feel safe."

He sighed inwardly, but quickly suppressed that unease.

"Still... from another angle, being forcibly transferred to a new class might not be entirely bad."

His [Physique Realm] had been stuck at [Advanced] for some time. The pirates around Loguetown were almost all N-rank and R-rank fodder, with even SR-rank ones rarely seen. The nourishment they could provide had become negligible.

Continuing to stay in the East Blue would be the real waste of time.

"Going to Marine Headquarters... The Elite Training Camp will not only let me systematically learn the Six Powers. Useful or not, learning them can't hurt. More importantly, once I graduate, I'll most likely be assigned to some branch on the Grand Line."

"Then, the quality of pirates I can execute will be completely different."

Thinking of the powerhouses on the Grand Line with bounties reaching tens of millions at a minimum, Rayne's eyes could not help but grow heated.

While Rayne was lost in thought, calculating his future "growth route," Garp had somehow already come to stand beside him, wearing a faintly amused expression.

He patted Rayne on the shoulder and casually made conversation. "Kid, Little Tsuru said you're an orphan?"

Alarm bells rang in Rayne's mind, but his face immediately took on an expression of gratitude toward his benefactors. He stood at attention and replied, "Yes, Vice Admiral! The Marines took me in. Without the Marines, there would be no me today!"

"Mm." Garp gave a noncommittal response and did not continue the subject.

He turned around and stood shoulder to shoulder with Rayne, likewise gazing out at the endless calm sea.

"What a peaceful sea." Garp suddenly spoke, his usual energy gone from his voice, replaced by a complicated hint of emotion. "Yet from this weakest of seas came the most troublesome guy."

Rayne remained silent and did not respond. He knew whom Garp meant.

Garp seemed completely immersed in his memories as he continued speaking to himself. "That bastard... spent his entire life causing me trouble. I never expected that even after dying, he'd leave me and the world with such a huge mess."

His tone sounded like a complaint, but Rayne heard within it a trace of mutual appreciation between strong men, one that even Garp himself had never noticed.

"The whole world says I'm the hero who captured him." Garp's tone suddenly became somewhat self-mocking. "But even now, I still can't figure him out."

"Kid." Garp suddenly changed his tone and asked a seemingly unrelated question. "When he died, you were the closest person to that guy. In your eyes, what kind of person was Gol D. Roger?"

This was a trap.

Calling him a hero would be betraying the Marines. Calling him a villain would make Rayne seem shallow and foolish.

Rayne was silent for several seconds, as though organizing his thoughts, before slowly speaking.

"Reporting to Vice Admiral Garp. I... cannot judge him."

"From a personal perspective, perhaps he was a successful adventurer who reached the end of his dream."

"But judging from the outcome," Rayne paused, "he used his own death to pry open an even more chaotic and evil era. His crime lies not in what he did while alive, but in... what he would trigger after his death."

After hearing those words, Garp's face, which had always worn a casual smile, turned serious for the first time.

He abruptly turned his head. Those eyes that usually looked sleepy had become incomparably sharp, as though they intended to see straight through Rayne.

He finally understood why Tsuru had said this brat was interesting.

"Speaking of which, kid..."

Garp's expression became utterly serious.

"Before Roger was executed... he didn't actually use Conqueror's Haki on you, did he?"