Garp's Fist

On the way from the coast to the Galley-La Company's temporary headquarters, the residents of Water 7 enthusiastically guided the Straw Hat Pirates and Rain. That green-haired swordsman Zoro had gotten lost at some intersection again and had split off from the group early on.

Rain walked beside Luffy, his calm gaze sweeping over the bandage-covered Straw Hat.

"Now, there's something else I need to tell you. It's about your brother, Ace."

The moment he heard the name "Ace," Luffy's unfocused eyes, dulled by extreme exhaustion, instantly lit up. He abruptly looked up and pressed a hand to his straw hat. "Ace? You've seen Ace?! Where is he now? Is he doing okay?"

Nami, Sanji, and the others nearby also pricked up their ears, looking curiously at the mysterious bounty hunter beside them.

"A few days ago, I saw him at Marine G-2 Branch in the first half of the Grand Line. The commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division was actually disguised as a Marine errand boy, mooching food and drink in the base." Rain stated it calmly. "He told me he was tracking down a traitor named Marshall D. Teach, the man now known as Blackbeard."

At the mention of "Blackbeard," Nami's expression changed slightly as she recalled that strange man from Mock Town on Jaya.

As they spoke, the group entered a spacious lounge. Luffy plopped down cross-legged on the sofa, his brow furrowed. "Ace went after that bastard? Did that guy make Ace mad?"

"It's more than just making him mad. Teach broke the Whitebeard Pirates' most unforgivable iron rule: he murdered a crewmate." Rain set his heavy pack by his feet, pulled over a chair, and sat down. His voice turned unusually grave and cold. "Your brother is in a very dangerous situation."

Even with Luffy's carefree nature, he understood that murdering a crewmate was an unforgivable crime. Still, he said, "It's fine. Ace is strong. That Blackbeard guy definitely isn't a match for him."

Rain paused. The terrifying scheme Blackbeard had endured in silence for decades surfaced in his mind, and he said in a low voice, "Marshall D. Teach endured aboard Whitebeard's ship for over twenty years. The strength he's hidden is far more frightening than he appears. Although Ace is a Logia user with the Flame-Flame Fruit, he relies too heavily on his Fruit powers, and he's far too arrogant at heart. If he runs into that man unprepared..."

Rain drew a deep breath, preparing to state the conclusion that could change the balance of the world. "Once they fight, Ace won't just lose. He'll become the fuse that ignites the most brutal war this sea has ever seen. He..."

"Snore... snore—"

A steady snoring sound with an obvious rhythm suddenly rang through the quiet room.

Rain frowned slightly and turned his head.

Luffy, who had just been sitting on the sofa with a serious look on his face, had somehow already closed his eyes. His head drooped weakly against his chest, and a crystalline snot bubble as large as a fist inflated and deflated from his nostril with every breath.

He had actually fallen asleep sitting up! Maybe it was his absolute faith in Ace, or maybe he was simply too exhausted after the battle, but he had actually slept like the dead while listening to Top Secret intelligence about whether his own brother would live or die!

The air seemed to freeze.

Rain's usually expressionless face twitched faintly. He suddenly felt that the grave atmosphere he had just built up was nothing but a joke.

Bang!

"You single-celled rubber idiot! Listen when people are talking to you!" Nami instantly transformed into a sharp-fanged demon, bringing down a powerful iron fist on Luffy's head and raising a steaming lump at once.

"S-sorry! This idiot caused such a huge mess earlier that he's completely exhausted! He definitely didn't mean to ignore you!" Sanji explained to Rain with cold sweat pouring down his face as he repeatedly kicked Luffy, terrified that the hunter who killed without blinking might slaughter them all while they were weak.

"Snore... meat... delicious meat..." Even with his head covered in lumps, Luffy kept mumbling in his sleep with his eyes closed.

Rain let out a long sigh. He had hunted countless vicious pirates in his life, yet this was the first time he had met such an utterly exasperating oddball.

"Forget it."

Rain waved a hand with little enthusiasm. Since Zoro was absent, he could only look toward the relatively reliable Sanji. "Sorry for the trouble, but you'll have to pass this on for me. If Luffy gets a chance to contact Ace or his grandfather, perhaps the tragedy can still be prevented. That's all I have to say..."

Before Rain could finish speaking—

Rain's pupils abruptly contracted. His hunter's instincts made every hair on his body stand on end. An unfathomably deep, suffocatingly heavy, terrifying presence had appeared outside the wall without warning!

Rain stomped on the ground, and five stone walls instantly rose before everyone.

Boom—!

With an earth-shattering blast, the lounge's thick stone-brick wall and the stone walls Rain had just raised were smashed to pieces from outside by a violent force, as though they were made of paper!

Broken stones and dust came surging into the room.

Amid the flying sand and rubble, a burly figure burst into the room at a terrifying speed that defied all physical sense. Too fast! It was the speed of a body trained to the absolute limit, so fast that even Rain, who had remained on guard the entire time, could not react at all. Even his instinctive move to raise his right arm and block with Petrification came half a beat too late!

The figure ignored everyone in the room and charged straight at Luffy, who was still snoring on the sofa, then drove down a completely unadorned fist.

"Wake up! Take this old man's Fist of Love!"

Bang!

"It hurts!"

As a rubber man, Luffy should have been immune to most blunt physical attacks, yet he now let out a pig-slaughtering scream. Clutching the lump that had instantly risen on his head, he rolled wildly across the sofa in pain.

The dust gradually settled.

A white-haired Marine vice admiral with a scar over his left eye stood brazenly in the gap in the shattered wall, wearing a dog-head T-shirt and a Marine coat. He dug at his nose and laughed loudly.

"Wahahaha! You little bastard, you actually dared to wreak havoc on Enies Lobby! You've really grown some nerve!"

"G-grandpa?" Luffy clutched his head, staring wide-eyed in terror.

The entire room fell silent. Sanji and Nami's jaws nearly dropped. This terrifying old man who had smashed through a wall with one punch and beaten a rubber man until his head was covered in lumps was actually Luffy's grandfather?

Meanwhile, a trace of deep wariness flashed through Rain's eyes.

The Hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp.

That punch just now had been wrapped in terrifying Armament Haki, representing one of the undisputed strongest powers in the world today.

"The peak strength of the old era really doesn't play by the rules."

Rain restrained every trace of his presence. While everyone's attention was drawn to Garp's absurd "grandfather-grandson reunion" and the Marines who arrived afterward, he silently retreated.

With one hand, he lifted the heavy Seastone pack. Like a gray shadow, he slipped through the blind spot by the hole Garp had smashed through the wall and quietly vanished into Water 7's maze of streets and buildings.

The storm of the Great Age of Pirates had been completely ignited. Before the bloodshed and turmoil of the New World arrived, the hunter needed to hide in his nest, digest his astonishing spoils, and complete his crucial transformation.