Faced with Garp's almost broken plea, Gern offered neither a promise nor an answer.
Or rather, it was not that he did not want to answer. Reality had long since stripped him of the right to do so.
He could only raise his hand and once again pat Garp's shoulders heavily as they trembled with his sobs.
That wordless gesture carried far too much weight to put into words.
As his palm felt the tremors running through Garp's shoulder-
Sengoku's equally heavy request, tinged with a hint of despair, echoed clearly in his mind from their recent meeting in the Fleet Admiral's Office.
"Gern, things have come this far. The Navy has no way back!
This is an open trap laid by the World Government. We have no choice but to go through with it!
I have no other way... I really have no other way." Sengoku's voice was filled with exhaustion and helplessness.
"So you're worried about Whitebeard?" Gern had asked him then.
"No." Sengoku's answer was unexpected. He raised his eyes, fixed them on Gern, and spoke each word with absolute clarity.
"It's not Whitebeard I'm worried about... it's Garp."
"If... if, during the war at that public execution,
he loses control of his emotions and chooses to attempt a rescue..."
"Gern, then I ask you... please, personally..."
Sengoku never finished the sentence, but Gern understood the meaning of those unspoken words at once.
Subdue him, or even... execute him.
Knowing the plot in advance, Gern understood perfectly well that Garp would not act, but Sengoku had no way to gauge Garp's feelings.
He had no way to gauge what his old friend, his closest friend, his comrade-in-arms truly felt in his heart.
And so, it was a request from the Fleet Admiral concerning another of the