Garp's laughter cut off abruptly.
The expression on his face froze in an instant, and his playful air vanished without a trace.
In its place came a bottomless gloom.
"What did you say?" Garp's voice dropped.
All of Mount Colubo seemed to have been muted at that moment.
An unprecedented, terrifying pressure erupted from Garp, like an ancient beast awakening, instantly enveloping the entire jungle!
"We're done for..." In the distance, Ace felt as if an invisible hand had seized his heart. Even breathing became a luxury.
"Grandpa... is angry..." Luffy's face went deathly pale.
"I..." Garp slowly raised his right fist. There was no extra force surrounding it, yet the space around it began to warp. "Will show you today what a real 'Fist of Love' is!"
Before he finished speaking, he moved.
There were no flashy movements, just a simple step forward and a swing of his fist!
Yet that punch seemed to drain all light and sound from the world!
In Lorne's eyes, the world turned black and white. The only thing that retained its color was that seemingly slow fist, which sealed off every avenue of retreat!
Lorne's Beast Ears trembled wildly. Every cell in his body sounded a warning of mortal danger!
"Bring it on!"
Far from feeling afraid, Lorne felt the frenzied fighting spirit he had suppressed for so long in his chest ignite completely!
The blood in his body reached its boiling point!
Under the pressure of Garp's world-shattering punch, the Golden Grit Gauge in his mind, which had remained on the verge of overflowing, finally broke through its last restraint!
"Now!"
Lorne roared, converting all the pain, all the injuries, and all the impacts he had endured into energy of the utmost purity!
He stopped suppressing it, stopped stockpiling it, and detonated all the Grit he had held back for so long!
Golden flames erupted from his body like a volcano, instantly turning his entire figure pure gold!
That tangible energy even formed a blurry Dragon Head Apparition behind him, its eyes glaring wide!
Facing Garp's incoming punch, Lorne neither dodged nor evaded. He slammed his right foot backward!
Boom!
The earth split!
He twisted all his strength into a single force, poured it into his right fist, and launched his strongest attack straight at Garp's iron fist!
"Haymaker!"
His golden fist collided head-on with Garp's plain, unadorned iron fist in midair!
There was no earth-shaking crash.
For half a second, the world fell eerily silent.
Then-
BOOM!!!
A visible white shock wave burst from the point where their fists met, spreading wildly outward in a ring!
Wherever the shock wave passed, layers of earth were ripped up as though turned by a giant plow! Trees as thick as a bowl's mouth were uprooted and torn to pieces in midair! The violent blast shot into the heavens, punching an enormous hole through the clouds!
"Aaaah!"
In the distance, Ace and Luffy had no time even to scream before the terrifying blast flung them away. They tumbled more than a dozen times through the air before crashing heavily over a hundred meters away!
At the center of the storm.
Lorne's right fist remained locked against Garp's.
Garp's towering body did not budge.
But the ground beneath his feet could not withstand the terrifying recoil. With a crack, a web of fissures appeared!
Then the cracks spread, and the earth shattered!
That tremendous force actually pushed Garp's feet back, plowing two fearsome furrows half a meter deep and over ten meters long through the ground!
"How... is this possible?!"
Garp's pupils contracted sharply!
He felt it.
An overbearing, savage force unlike anything he had ever experienced was passing through his Armament Haki, burning his fist directly!
For the first time, his fist felt a sharp sting!
Nothing like this had ever happened in all his decades roaming the seas!
"BREAK... THROUGH!!!"
His eyes bloodshot, Lorne squeezed out the last trace of strength in his body and poured it all into his right fist!
Crack!
An extremely faint, crisp sound rang out.
A small patch of skin on Garp's knuckles flushed slightly red under the strain of that power.
Though it returned to normal in an instant, Garp felt it clearly!
His defenses had been breached!
A teenage brat had broken through his Armament Haki defenses head-on!
"Hah... hah..."
After that punch, the golden flames around Lorne receded like the tide. Unable to hold himself up any longer, his legs buckled, and he dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
The strength in his body had been completely drained.
But his eyes shone frighteningly bright as he stared fixedly at Garp's fist.
Garp slowly withdrew his fist and opened his hand.
Looking at his uninjured fist, which still carried that burning sting, he fell into a long silence.
The air seemed to freeze.
Lorne's heart rose into his throat.
He had already thrown his strongest punch. If even that could not earn this old monster's approval...
Just as Lorne thought Garp was about to strike again, Garp suddenly raised his head, spread his mouth wide, and burst into earth-shaking laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
His laughter echoed throughout Mount Colubo, shaking the leaves into a rustling chorus.
"Interesting! This is far too interesting!"
Laughing so hard he nearly cried, Garp walked up to Lorne and clapped him heavily on the shoulder.
"As of today, your special training is successfully complete!"
The moment those words fell, Lorne felt some invisible shackle inside his body shatter with a crack.
It was an indescribably liberating feeling!
He could clearly "see" the energy gauge representing his "Grit" in his mind suddenly extend a considerable distance to the right after it shattered!
His upper limit had increased!
"Gahahahaha! Look at that dumb expression!" Garp pulled his hand back and scolded him with a laugh. "Hurry up and check on those two little brothers you picked up, before it turns out I really killed them!"
Only then did Lorne come to his senses and turn to look into the distance.
Two human-shaped craters stood out starkly in the mountainside.
When Lorne dug the dust-covered Ace and Luffy out of the craters, the way they looked at him had changed completely.
Luffy had stars in his eyes as always and was practically ready to hang off Lorne.
"Big brother! You're amazing! You actually traded punches with Grandpa!"
Ace, meanwhile, wore an extremely complicated look.
He had watched with his own eyes as Lorne endured Garp's fury to protect them, then delivered that earth-shaking punch at the end.
Beside the campfire, the three fell into a rare moment of quiet.
Garp had produced another packet of rice crackers from somewhere and sat to one side, crunching away and occasionally casting satisfied glances their way.
After a long silence, Ace finally could not help speaking.
He did not look at Lorne, only stared at the dancing flames, his voice a little dry.
"Why... did you fight so hard?"
Luffy looked over curiously too.
Lorne was working on a piece of roast meat. At the question, he answered calmly without even raising his head.
"To protect the people who matter."
The words were plain, yet they struck Ace's heart like a hammer.
Protect the people who matter...
Luffy's smiling face flashed through Ace's mind, along with... the things Sabo had left behind.
All this time, he had fought to prove the value of his existence, to escape the shadow of "that man." He wanted to become stronger, to make something of himself, to gain the greatest fame.
Yet he had never thought that strength could also be for protecting someone.
Ace was deeply moved.
He raised his head and, for the first time, looked Lorne squarely in the face. Something appeared in his black eyes that even he had not noticed.
Maybe... having a big brother like this wouldn't be so bad.
This special training continued for several more days.
Though called special training, it was really more like Garp entertaining himself at their expense. He no longer struck Lorne heavily, instead beginning to deliberately guide the three in sparring, especially Ace and Lorne.
And through battle after battle, Lorne grew increasingly proficient at controlling his soaring strength.
Until the final day of special training.
Early that morning, Garp summoned the three sleepy-eyed boys to the center of the clearing.
His expression was more serious than ever.
"Brats, this is your final lesson."
Garp drew a deep breath, slowly raised his arms, and assumed a punching stance.
A terrifying aura gathered around his fist.
The surrounding air seemed to be sucked dry, and the light warped. An enormous black fist silhouette, like a small mountain, slowly appeared behind Garp, blotting out the entire sky!
The fist silhouette was so solid that it seemed like a real mountain, descending slowly with a pressure that threatened to destroy everything!
The color drained from Ace's and Luffy's faces in an instant, and their bodies shook like sieves.
Beneath that terrifying fist silhouette, they felt as insignificant as ants!
"Remember how this punch feels."
Garp's voice rolled toward them like distant thunder.
"If you can't take this move, you'll stay here as my punching bags forever!"
Before you continue