"What?!"
After Garp heard the entire account of that "negotiation" from Steel Bone Kong's lips, filled with helplessness and bitterness-a negotiation that qualified as both the World Government's most closely guarded secret and its greatest humiliation-the Navy Hero who had roamed the seas fearing nothing felt, for the first time, what "absurdity" meant.
His mouth hung open. He remained frozen in that shocked expression for a full half minute before squeezing a dreamlike murmur filled with self-doubt through his teeth.
"That little bastard threatened the Five Elders?"
"And he actually succeeded?"
Fleet Admiral Kong nodded wearily. He picked up the cigar on his desk, only to discover that his hands were trembling too badly to light it.
"He did far more than succeed." Fleet Admiral Kong's voice was as hoarse as though it had been scraped with sandpaper. "The authority he now holds goes far beyond what an 'Admiral' should possess. Garp, do you understand? From this day forward, the Navy has an 'emperor' who answers to no one."
"And there is nothing we can do about it."
The anger and resentment on Garp's face rapidly died out like flames deprived of air.
In their place came a deeper helplessness that rose from his very soul.
He remembered the scene at God Valley, where that man had pierced Rocks with one finger and shattered the darkness with another touch.
He remembered that man's cold, utterly emotionless response when confronted with his questions: "Noisy."
Yes.
Before such utterly unreasonable "absolute power," what meaning did so-called "rules," so-called "authority," or so-called "threats" have?
Garp slumped onto the sofa and held his head in both hands, feeling as though his entire worldview had been repeatedly, mercilessly ground to pieces in a single day.
Meanwhile.
That supreme announcement issued by Marine Headquarters, heralding the