Excuse me, is it too late to drop out?

A gleam flashed in Sengoku's eyes.

"If he's going to graduate, it can't be an ordinary graduation. We need a public assessment that will shut everyone up!"

He held up one finger.

"An assessment that lets him show the full extent of his 'monster'-level strength!"

Zephyr immediately understood what Sengoku meant.

An ordinary recruit's graduation assessment involved, at most, going out to sea and capturing one or two small-time pirates with bounties of a few million Beli.

But an assessment of that level clearly couldn't match Lorne's strength, nor could it convince the veterans of the Elite Camp.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Have him face a Headquarters Vice Admiral in a public duel." Sengoku's voice was firm. "Only a resounding victory, defeating a long-established flag officer head-on, will shut everyone up and give us proper grounds to acknowledge his strength!"

Even Zephyr was startled by this proposal.

Have a recruit who had trained for barely over a month face a battle-hardened Headquarters Vice Admiral?

This was no longer an assessment. It was a gamble.

But when he reconsidered Lorne's freakish strength and even more freakish rate of growth, Zephyr felt that this might be the only viable method.

"I agree." Zephyr nodded. "I'll choose a Headquarters Vice Admiral with particularly strong hand-to-hand skills as his opponent."

"No need for all that trouble!"

A voice suddenly cut in.

The two turned to look. Garp, who had been sitting on the sofa eating rice crackers, had gotten to his feet at some point, a wildly excited grin on his face.

"Wahahahaha! A duel with a Headquarters Vice Admiral? I'm a Headquarters Vice Admiral too!"

Garp slapped his chest with a dull thump.

"Let me be his opponent for this graduation assessment!"

"..."

"..."

Zephyr and Sengoku both fell silent.

It was as though all the air had been sucked out of the office.

The vein at Sengoku's temple, which had only just settled down, bulged again more alarmingly than before.

He pointed at Garp's nose, trembling all over with rage.

"Get the hell out!!!"

Sengoku's roar nearly blew the roof off the office.

"Are you anything like an ordinary vice admiral?! You bastard! Are you trying to beat him to death during his graduation assessment?!"

Against a normal vice admiral, Lorne might stand a fighting chance.

But Garp?

This man's strength made him a monster beyond all standards, capable of chasing Pirate King Roger all over the world!

Making Lorne fight him wouldn't be an assessment. It would be a one-sided execution!

"What's the problem?" Garp completely ignored Sengoku's roaring and laughed away. "Young people need a few setbacks to grow! Besides, I'll go easy on him! Wahahahaha!"

"Do you even know what going easy means?!" Sengoku felt as though his anger was about to give him a brain hemorrhage. "Your idea of 'going easy' is beating Ace and Luffy until their heads are covered in lumps and they're screaming for their parents!"

"That's education through the Fist of Love!" Garp retorted righteously.

"I don't care! This isn't up for discussion! Absolutely not!" Sengoku refused firmly.

"Tch. What a cheapskate."

Garp curled his lip, then flashed his signature shameless grin.

"Then it's settled!"

Without giving Sengoku or Zephyr any time to react, he turned and strode toward the door.

"Hey! Garp! Get back here!" Sengoku roared and chased after him.

But Garp was far too fast.

He pulled the office door open, and his figure blurred, vanishing down the end of the corridor in an instant, leaving only a string of wild laughter that grew more distant.

"Wahahahaha! I'm off to play with my adorable grandson!"

"Garp!!!"

Sengoku's furious roar echoed throughout the main building of Marine Headquarters.

Zephyr stood where he was, looking at the empty doorway, and sighed deeply once again.

He could already foresee an unprecedented upheaval about to unfold at Marine Headquarters.

Meanwhile.

On an open training ground by the sea on the outskirts of Marineford.

Lorne was bare-chested, his bronze skin covered in scars large and small. Sweat slid down the defined contours of his muscles, collecting in a small puddle on the ground beneath his feet.

He was training alone.

Whoosh-!

He swept out a whipping kick, bursting the air with a shrill sonic boom.

"Rankyaku!"

A blue-green vacuum slash flew from his leg, cleaving a long line of spray across the sea dozens of meters away.

Lorne drew his leg back, frowning slightly.

"No. The power is still too dispersed."

"Instructor Zephyr said that truly strong fighters can compress a Rankyaku slash into a single line, making it as powerful as a great swordsman's Flying Slash."

He adjusted his breathing. Under the control of Life Return, the muscles in his legs shifted slightly, changing the path along which his strength traveled.

He was just about to try again.

An enormous shadow enveloped him without warning.

Lorne's beast ears twitched sharply. His body instantly tensed, his muscles bulging as he took a defensive stance.

He slowly turned around.

The Marine hero, Monkey D. Garp, stood behind him like a mountain, wearing the sort of grin that told anyone who saw it that he was up to no good.

"Yo, kid. Working pretty hard, aren't you?"

Lorne looked at Garp, somewhat surprised.

"Old man? What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you!"

Garp walked up to Lorne and looked down at him, his face wreathed in smiles.

"Kid, I've got some good news for you-"

He gave Lorne's shoulder a heavy pat, so hard that one side of Lorne's body sank down.

"I've personally arranged your graduation assessment!"

"And as for your opponent-"

Garp pointed at his own nose and grinned, revealing a row of big white teeth.

"That'll be me!"

Lorne's expression froze.

"...What assessment?"

He looked at Garp's face, as excited as a three-hundred-pound child, and his beast ears twitched in confusion.

"Wait, old man, explain yourself first-what graduation assessment? Who approved it? Why are you my opponent?"

Garp showed no intention of explaining. His large hand landed on Lorne's shoulder again, nearly pounding him into the sand.

"The details don't matter!"

"What matters is-"

His gaze suddenly changed. His grinning, carefree manner vanished in an instant, and an oppressive force powerful enough to crush mountains spread from his massive body.

The sea breeze abruptly stopped. The sand beneath their feet cracked faintly.

"Get yourself ready, kid."

"My iron fists won't go easy on you just because you're my grandson."

Garp withdrew his hand, turned, and strode away, his laughter bursting across the shore.

"Wahahahaha! See you tomorrow-!"

Lorne stood where he was as the sea breeze poured into his beast ears again.

He recalled the terrifying memories of being at the mercy of Garp's iron fists on Mount Colubo and aboard the warship.

The sharp crack of breaking bones, the suffocating sensation of being driven into the ground, the overwhelming pressure that seemed to change heaven and earth when those Armament Haki-coated iron fists came crashing down-

His beast ears slowly drooped.

"...Fuck."

"I want to drop out."