Over a thousand meters from Marine Headquarters, someone lay sprawled across a plank from a shattered warship, drifting on the sea and groaning nonstop.
That someone was, of course, our dear Marine hero, Iron Fist Garp.
Without the unmistakable Coat of Justice, hardly anyone would have connected this drowned rat to Garp, the most renowned Vice Admiral at Marine Headquarters.
As for how he had ended up like this, Garp had simply been unlucky.
Let's go back over what happened.
It began with the plan Loa and Zephyr had made a few days earlier.
The plan boiled down to one thing: Loa would become a Pirates and do things he could never touch as a Marine.
Even if he could not cleanse the seas and end the Great Pirate Era, he could at least root out a few entrenched problems and give the Marines more room to act.
Given Loa's talent and strength, the plan had a good chance of succeeding. That was why Sengoku had taken the risk and agreed.
But Loa could not simply switch sides overnight. The Pirates would grow suspicious, and with the truth kept secret even from their own people, Loa would end up distrusted by both sides.
Loa had always been a troublemaker, and he had even made a name for himself with the World Government. So Sengoku decided to have him take his defiance of authority to the absolute limit.
That was how he came to kill a pirate in a fit of rage.
Only four people knew the truth: Loa, Zephyr, Sengoku, and Vice Admiral Tsuru.
Sengoku had originally intended to tell Garp, but because of Dragon, he ultimately decided against it. Garp believed Loa was ruthless and might well become the next Akainu.
Ace had also declared that he would settle