Pirates: I Can See Proficiency and Become a Legend

"The Ice-Ice Fruit's power?"

"Yeah! He even forced me to awaken my powers in the end!"

"Don't tell me he has another Sword Intent? That kid is terrifying!"

"Sword Intent?"

"Ah, you misheard me! I didn't say anything!"

"I plan to recommend him for the Shichibukai!"

"That kid agreed?"

"He wants to keep Nico Robin with him. That's not a bad option!"

"It could work. The kid has no real record of wrongdoing, and he's strong. Just don't expect him to obey the World Government!"

Garp remembered all too well what Dongze had said when they spoke about the Celestial Dragons.

It would be a miracle if Dongze met one and didn't cut them down.

"Hmm. Mr. Garp, there may still be obstacles. Let's discuss it when we meet!"

"Ah, it's rare to find a young man even I admire. I don't mind putting in a little effort! Hahaha!"

Aokiji and Garp's Conversation, Robin's Shock

At the edge of the East Blue, Garp arrived at the Marine branch in Loguetown wearing his favorite Dog-Head Hat.

"Harry!"

"Go buy me some doughnuts! Today, I'm going to break my record of eating ten thousand in one sitting!"

"Sir, don't your teeth hurt?"

"Tch."

"Honestly, when did you start sounding like Tsuru? Now you're telling me what I can eat, too?"

"Uh, Vice Admiral Tsuru told me to! Last time, you ate through the G-4 branch's entire monthly food budget, and we almost couldn't get reimbursed. If Vice Admiral Tsuru hadn't paid out of her own pocket, everyone at G-4 would've been living on scraps!"

"Uh, Sengoku wouldn't be that stingy, would he?"

Harry's mouth twitched. The Fleet Admiral isn't stingy, but he's run off his feet. How could he be happy when you're over here spending like this?

"Ah, Mr. Garp, you got here pretty quickly!"

Just then, Aokiji pushed open the door and walked in.

"Hey, Kuzan! You're here!"

"Mr. Garp, looks like a warship is faster after all!"

"Hahaha!"

"Kuzan, you haven't worn your legs out, have you? I told you to take a ship, but you went cycling across the sea instead!"

"Colonel Harry, I caught a few pirates on my way back. Go take a look."

"Hey, Bogard, go with Harry and see which unlucky brats Kuzan caught!"

Harry and Bogard exchanged glances and shrugged. Neither said a word as they tactfully left together.

At the same time, Garp and Kuzan activated their Observation Haki.

They didn't want anyone else to hear what came next.

"Kuzan! What was that proposal of yours about?"

"Mr. Garp, the main obstacle isn't Dongze. It's Nico Robin! If the World Government looks into it, my proposal will probably be rejected!"

Garp picked his nose, unconcerned. "Kuzan, she's just a survivor of Ohara. Do you really think the World Government cares that much about her?"

Aokiji froze. "Surely they do?"

"It's about making a statement. The Ohara Incident was the government's warning to the world! They won't allow anyone to research the history of the Void Century!"

"If Nico Robin really mattered that much, they would've sent Admirals after her long ago!"

"Would that little girl still be aboard Dongze's ship?"

"Don't think your standing means that much. Those Celestial Dragons who call themselves the rulers of the world don't care whether you're an Admiral!"

"Is that so?"

Aokiji's expression darkened at Garp's explanation.

After following Garp for years, he knew the man wasn't some musclehead who never thought things through. Most days, Garp simply had no need to think; he could charge straight ahead.

Garp's insight into politics even surpassed Fleet Admiral Sengoku's. If he said this was how things stood, he was almost certainly right.

"What you're worried about won't be a problem. That kid's sharp. A slippery little rascal!"

Aokiji raised an eyebrow, intrigued by Garp's praise.

"Haha!"

Garp laughed, then went on. "Pirates in the East Blue call that kid 'the one who leaves nothing standing,' but he knows exactly where to draw the line!"

"Take Buggy the Clown, the Chop-Chop Fruit user. They were even in the same restaurant, and the kid pretended not to see him!"

Aokiji narrowed his eyes, searching his memory. "Buggy... the Clown?"

"An apprentice on Roger's ship, and a friend of Shanks, one of the Four Emperors! Speaking of that Red-Hair bastard, I'd love to smash his damn head in!"

Aokiji's mouth twitched. Only Garp could talk so casually about smashing an Emperor's head in.

"And then there was the Fish-Man incident in Cocoyasi Village. Everyone but one of them died!"

"Hachi the octopus. I heard he's close to Silvers Rayleigh! I happened to overhear it while running up a tab at Shakky's bar!"

"Hey, Mr. Garp, you shouldn't do that!"

Garp laughed. The bar was called Shakky's Rip-Off Bar; a glass of whiskey cost ten million Beli. He wasn't an idiot. Why would he pay?

Besides, given their friendship, Shakky wouldn't really ask him for the money.

"That kid isn't like those hotheaded youngsters. He knows what he's doing. I don't even think he took that little girl aboard out of simple sympathy!"

Garp had only met Dongze once, but he had read him clearly. Dongze saw the world in his own way and had his own line when it came to human life. He acted with extreme rationality and never picked a fight with someone he couldn't beat, even if he disliked them.

Garp had judged him well. Those were the rules Dongze had followed all along.

Why provoke someone you couldn't beat? That was just asking to die.

As for why he had brought Robin along, there was more to it than his attraction to her. There was another important reason: the Poneglyphs.

Their importance to him was obvious. Every one represented limitless possibilities. Even if the World Government put a bounty on him, he wouldn't let Robin leave.

Garp was right about that, too. Dongze's reasons for keeping Robin weren't simple, though as they spent more time together, that particular reason gradually faded.

"In that case, Mr. Garp, there shouldn't be a problem with the nomination?"

"Of course. I'll speak to Sengoku! I just hope the kid doesn't disappoint me!"

"And I'll give things a little extra push for him! Heh!"

Thunderclap roared across the sea. Lightning flashed over a two-masted sailboat, then slowly gathered into a human figure.

It was Enel, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user.

Recently, Dongze had put his other proficiency training on hold to focus on Sword Intent and Meditation. Apart from his daily Sword Intent slashes, he spent the rest of his time meditating.

If they encountered pirates or Sea Beasts, Enel and Robin handled them.

Both had been learning eagerly. After seeing Aokiji's awakened Devil Fruit powers, Enel had come up with new ideas for developing his Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

Under Dongze's guidance, Robin had begun training in Finger Pistol and Armament Haki.

Even before he arrived in this world, Dongze had ideas about the Flower-Flower Fruit.

"Thousand-Armed Kannon."

"Hashirama's Sage Art: Gate of the Great God."

Then there was a Maximum-Round Finger Pistol coated in Armament Haki.

Now that would be something.

Before they knew it, they had been at sea for seven days. That day, Robin picked up a newspaper delivered by a News Coo, as usual.

Her eyes skimmed the page. Then her pupils contracted. The headline was printed in bold type.

That alone was nothing unusual, but its contents drained the color from her face.

"Shichibukai..."

The Sea in Uproar, Swordsmanship Challenges the World

In the New World, the second half of the Grand Line, a group aboard a ship had been laughing and chatting over the newspaper a News Coo had delivered. One startled cry sent them all into an uproar.

"Hey! What's going on?"

"A new Shichibukai!"

"A rookie?"

"Aren't the Shichibukai chosen from the strongest pirates on the seas? That kid can't be more than sixteen! Have the Marines gone blind?"

The day's biggest feature was on the new Shichibukai: Dongze.

The introduction was brief—just a name and a photograph beneath it.

It was the photo a local Den Den Mushi had taken when Dongze collected a bounty in Loguetown some time ago.

Dongze looked young in the picture, with a faint smile on his lips. He had just collected the bounty, so naturally he'd been in a good mood.

There was nothing intimidating about him. He looked harmless, though the long sword strapped to his back marked him as a swordsman.

But beneath the headline came another line in slightly smaller type.

"Swordsmanship Challenges the World—Who Else but Me!"

Even through the newspaper, the pirates could feel the audacity of those words.

Could one sword cut its way through the seas? No one knew. Even Dracule Mihawk, the greatest Swordmaster at sea, wasn't the strongest man. That title belonged to Whitebeard, Edward Newgate.

Of course, those grandiose words hadn't come from Dongze.

Garp, that mischievous old man, had added them. After learning Dongze's dream, he wanted to see how far the kid who had impressed even him could go.

So Garp had tacked on that line. It would bring Dongze no end of trouble. The rowdiest pirates sailed for fame and fortune.

Now that someone had made such a bold declaration in the newspaper, the path was clear: take his head, and they could make a name for themselves overnight.

"Garp! Does this kid have some kind of grudge against you?"

"Sengoku, quit talking nonsense! He's a rookie I've got my eye on. If not for certain circumstances, I'd even try to recruit him into the Marines!"

"You put those words in his mouth without asking. Even the monsters in the New World will want his head now!"

"Heh. They can try. Whether they make it back is another matter!"

"Is the kid really that strong? Aokiji swore he'd surprise me!"

"Haha! Sengoku, when have I ever lied to you?"

News Coos carried the newspaper across the world. When Hawkeye, Dracule Mihawk, received his copy, he paused at the words "Swordsmanship Challenges the World." Even he had never made such a boast. It wasn't that he lacked the nerve; saying it out loud would have been embarrassing.

"The new Shichibukai is a swordsman? That's a pleasant surprise. Perhaps we can spar. I hope he isn't all talk."

At Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Monkey D. Dragon, Bartholomew Kuma, and Ivankov, the Okama King, stared at the newspaper in their hands, shaken by what they read.