The mountain bandit Dadan appears!

Luffy's target wasn't Ace, who lay on the ground, but Lorne, who had stood in the same spot from start to finish without moving.

"Big bro, you're amazing!"

With a shout, Luffy lunged over and clung tightly to Lorne's leg, rubbing his little face back and forth against his trouser leg.

Just like that, the atmosphere, which had only just eased, turned strange again.

Ace sat on the ground with his mouth wide open, his jaw practically hitting the dirt. He even forgot the pain on top of his head.

Garp stopped munching his rice crackers, too. As he looked at his utterly shameless grandson, the muscles in his face twitched.

Lorne looked down at the "straw hat accessory" hanging from his leg, feeling a little helpless.

He reached out, pinched the back of Luffy's collar, and lifted him effortlessly, as though picking up a kitten.

Luffy's limbs flailed in midair as he kept shouting excitedly, "Big bro! Your punches are amazing! Even better than Grandpa's!"

"Shut up, Luffy!" Ace sprang three feet off the ground and roared in frustration.

"Oh." Luffy instinctively shut his mouth, but his eyes still sparkled as he watched Lorne.

Lorne curiously examined the rubber brat in his hand. He reached out with his other hand and pinched Luffy's cheek.

It was soft and springy, stretching a long way before snapping back with a "boing" when he let go.

"Rubber?" Lorne's beast ears twitched.

"Yeah, yeah!" Luffy nodded hard and said indistinctly, "I'm a Rubber Man!"

"So that's it." Lorne gave his wonderfully pliable rubber cheeks another casual squeeze.

"Gahahahaha!"

Garp couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into earthshaking laughter. He slapped a nearby rock, and cracks instantly spread across its hard surface.

"Well done, Lorne!" Garp laughed until tears came out, pointing at Luffy and Ace. "See that, you brats? That's what strength looks like! Lorne's punches are the example you should follow from now on!"

As Ace listened to Garp's laughter, his face alternated between green and white. He lowered his head and clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh.

He couldn't accept it.

He had grown up on Mount Colubo, fighting the fiercest beasts and the thugs in town, and he had never lost. He was the undisputed leader of the children on this mountain.

But today, some guy who had appeared out of nowhere, a boy only a few years older than him, had shattered all his pride without the slightest effort.

He hadn't even touched the hem of his opponent's clothes.

That absolute gulf pressed down on him until he could barely breathe.

He lowered his head and fell silent.

He simply stared fixedly at that boy out of the corner of his eye.

That guy who kept squeezing Luffy like a toy.

He wouldn't forget this!

"All right, stop playing." Garp stood up and brushed the rice cracker crumbs off himself. "It's getting dark. Let's go to Dadan's for dinner."

"Dadan?" Lorne released Luffy, who swayed twice before sticking close to him again.

"A mountain bandit who lives up here," Garp said casually. "I've left you boys in her care."

A mountain bandit?

Lorne raised an eyebrow. Leaving a marine's grandson and the Pirate King's son with mountain bandits-this old man really didn't think like a normal person.

Having just dealt with the two little ones, Lorne was about to speak.

Suddenly, his beast ears shot upright and turned toward the depths of the forest.

"Wait." Lorne's voice grew low.

"Hmm?" Garp turned back in puzzlement.

"Someone's coming." Lorne's gaze sharpened. "A group. They're coming fast, straight toward us, and they mean business."

Barely had he finished speaking when sounds came from deep in the forest.

Thud, thud, thud...

Heavy footsteps mixed with coarse curses drew closer from the distance.

"Damn it! Which bastard's making all this racket on my turf?!"

"Even the Bear King got killed? You've gotta be kidding!"

"Hurry up and look! If outsiders take our turf, we'll have nowhere left to make a living!"

The voices drew closer and closer.

Soon, a patch of bushes was roughly smashed aside, and a group of bizarre-looking people appeared before them.

At their head was an exceptionally fat woman with a brutish face. A cigarette hung from her mouth, and she wore an orange tank top printed with a "D." Her wild afro was as messy as a bird's nest, and she carried an enormous spiked club over her shoulder.

Behind her, a dozen or so ugly men all carried weapons and cursed loudly.

They were the mountain bandits of Mount Colubo, the Dadan Family.

Dadan charged into the clearing with her men in an aggressive rush.

She wanted to see just who was stupid enough to run wild on her turf!

But when she saw the people in the clearing clearly, the vicious expression on her face instantly froze.

Her gaze locked onto the tall figure in a floral shirt who was leisurely picking his nose.

"G-G-G..."

Dadan's lips trembled. She didn't even notice her cigarette dropping to the ground and burning her foot. The color drained rapidly from her face, leaving it deathly pale.

"Mr. Garp?!"

Dadan's legs went weak with fright, and she dropped to her knees with a thud, her fat body kicking up a cloud of dust.

The bandits behind her saw their boss like this, then looked at that demonlike figure. Every last one of them was scared out of their wits, their weapons falling to the ground in a clattering heap.

"Y-you... what are you doing heeeeere?!" Dadan clutched her head and let out a squeal like a pig being slaughtered.

"Oh, it's Dadan." Garp dug out a large booger and casually flicked it away. "I came back to check on my grandson and mooch a meal off you while I'm here."

"G-grandson?"

Dadan raised her head in terror. Only then did she notice the other people in the clearing.

She immediately spotted Ace sitting on the ground, covered in mud, with blood still at the corner of his mouth.

"Ace!"

Dadan's expression changed instantly.

Though she complained about them, she had long since come to regard Ace and Luffy as her own children.

Seeing Ace hurt, she instinctively moved to protect him.

Her gaze passed over Ace and landed on Lorne.

The boy was tall, with a steady air about him and a pair of strange beast ears on his head. He was spotless, without a speck of dust on him.

Yet her Ace had been beaten so badly.

"It was you!" Dadan's mind immediately conjured up an entire scene of an outsider bullying her child.

Her instinct to protect her own overwhelmed her fear.

Dadan sprang up from the ground with an agility completely at odds with her fat figure. She snatched up her spiked club and pointed furiously at Lorne.

"You bastard! What did you do to Ace?!" Dadan struck her fiercest pose at Lorne, spittle flying everywhere. "You dare lay a hand on one of mine? Have you got a death wish?!"