Garp Gets Outplayed

"What was that... Kizaru?"

Garp stood at the bow, scratching his head as he looked toward the golden light coming from the island.

He could sense the commotion even from here. It looked like one of Kizaru's attacks, the power of the Glint-Glint Fruit.

His adjutant, Bogard, explained, "Vice Admiral Garp, Admiral Kizaru is in the New World. That definitely wasn't him."

"Hahaha, of course I know that."

Garp laughed without the slightest embarrassment. Truth be told, he hadn't paid any attention to what Kizaru had been doing lately.

"But who could be causing such a commotion? If I remember right, Charlotte Cracker's ability comes from the paramecia-type Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit. What did he suddenly come here for?"

Garp gave it some thought, for once, but came up empty.

Rather than consider what his enemies were planning, he preferred to reason with his fists.

It was one thing for an officer of the Four Emperors to stay in the New World, but coming to the first half of the Grand Line was practically treating the Marines with contempt.

"Bogard, how much longer until we get there?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"Too slow!"

With that, Garp leaped higher than the warship's mast, turned around and punched at the sea behind the stern.

"Bone Fist Impact!"

His Haki blasted into the ocean like a cannonball. A massive wave propelled the warship clear of the water, sending it flying toward the island even faster.

"Vice Admiral! You're being too reckless!"

"Aaah, I'm going to fall! Somebody help me!"

"Stop pulling me! I'm going to fall too!"

On the deck, the Marines cried out in panic.

Garp landed firmly back on the deck and burst out laughing. "That's why you need me to take action! Hahaha, Bogard, how much longer?"

"...One minute."

Bogard was speechless.

Area 14, the shore.

When the golden light faded, devastation lay everywhere.

The once-moist, green earth was now scorched black. Even Yarukiman Mangrove No. 14 beneath Dimon's feet had turned charcoal-black on the side of its trunk that had been hit.

At the center of the explosion, wisps of flame still flickered across the blackened ground.

Cracker lay motionless like a dead dog, his back a bloody mess. He was gravely wounded.

Beside him, the flames suddenly flickered, and Samael returned to his original form.

He flew a circle around the unconscious Cracker and curled his lip.

"He's down already? How boring."

He hadn't had his fill of fun yet, but with his master watching nearby, he didn't dare toy with Cracker any longer.

Up on the trunk, Dimon released the Storyboard Space and was about to climb down when Ain's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

[Master, there's a warship flying toward us through the air!]

"Hm? A warship, flying over here?"

Dimon was taken aback. How did those two words go together? It wasn't Golden Lion.

[Master, look up to the southeast and you'll see it.]

Hearing that, Dimon immediately turned around and narrowed his eyes. Sure enough, he spotted a warship at the far end of the sky.

Its figurehead was unmistakably a dog's head!

It was Garp's ship.

He might not have recognized other warships, but Garp's ship was so distinctive that he couldn't possibly forget it.

"Marine Headquarters actually sent Garp. He's much earlier than expected."

Dimon glanced down at Cracker and thought for a moment before immediately ordering, "Tell him to take Cracker away immediately and leave the Sabaody Archipelago. Have him stand by at sea for now."

With that, he raised his hands toward the warship flying in from afar and made a picture-taking gesture.

A streak of white light shot out with a whoosh.

"Close-Up Storyboard!"

Meanwhile.

High in the sky, the warship drew closer and closer to the Sabaody Archipelago.

Garp stood proudly atop the dog's head, his arms folded across his chest.

Suddenly, a nearly invisible thread of white light flashed past and landed a short distance ahead.

"What was that?"

Garp froze.

The streak of white light quickly traced a cube in the air. A figure flashed, and a mysterious person wearing a black cloak and a plain mask appeared out of thin air.

He stood there in midair, supported by nothing!

"Teleportation?"

Garp looked stunned.

Beside him, Bogard's expression changed slightly, and he quickly said, "That outfit... Vice Admiral Garp, he's Big Eye, the member of the Seven Deadly Sins from the intelligence report! The one who took the Storyboard Fruit!"

Inside the Close-Up Storyboard, Dimon had no intention of talking. The instant he appeared, he formed sevens with both hands and activated his ability on the warship.

"Storyboard Lockdown."

Click!

Like a photograph being taken, the warship's forward motion stopped. The space it occupied froze instantly, forming a square cube-shaped cage around it.

Only then did Garp and the others realize that this man had come to stop them from landing on the island.

Beneath the mask, Dimon deliberately lowered his voice.

"You came early. Stay up in the sky for a while. Goodbye, Garp."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Storyboard Space he stood in collapsed, shattering like a glass mirror and vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Chapter 40: Garp Gets Outplayed

Dimon had left as quickly as he had come.

He was gone, but the space locking down the warship remained.

Bogard immediately drew his sword and slashed. An invisible sword strike slammed into the spatial boundary, but failed to budge it in the slightest and bounced off.

"How is that possible?"

"Didn't he only eat the Devil Fruit last night? In a single night, he's managed to use its power to such an absurd degree?"

It made no sense at all!

Even if someone was naturally highly compatible with a particular Devil Fruit, they shouldn't have been able to develop its powers so proficiently after only one night.

Before coming here, Bogard had requested past records on the "paramecia-type Storyboard Fruit" from the archives.

The previous users of this paramecia fruit had all been relatively mediocre. The strongest among them had only been a pirate with a bounty of 222 million.

The main reason was that the fruit was extremely difficult to develop.

"It is a little strange, freezing an entire warship in midair."

Garp nodded solemnly. In truth, he knew nothing about the Storyboard Fruit's abilities.

Bogard secretly rolled his eyes at him, then asked respectfully:

"Vice Admiral Garp, what do we do now?"

"Hahaha, remember this, Bogard. As long as you train your fists to be strong enough, you can overcome any fruit ability!"

Garp grinned and breathed on his fist.

The next moment, he leaped up and landed a solid punch on the storyboard boundary.

"Bone Fist Impact!"

Boom!!

A thunderous roar shook the heavens as black lightning flashed.

A typhoon seemed to erupt inside the Storyboard Space, and the Marines on deck were sent flying by the gale.

"Vice Admiral Garp! Please spare a thought for us!" someone cried, on the verge of tears as he clung to the warship's mast.

Yet even a punch that powerful only shook the spatial boundary, leaving slight cracks in it.

In the blink of an eye, the cracks repaired themselves, as though nothing had happened.

"What?" Bogard was utterly stunned. "Even you can't break it, Vice Admiral?"

How was that reasonable?!

Spatial fruit abilities were indeed powerful, but this user had only just eaten the fruit!

"So hard!"

Garp was surprised too. That punch could have blown a mountain apart without trouble, yet it couldn't break through this spatial lockdown.

The ability had been developed to an absurd degree. Was that man naturally suited to the fruit?

Without dwelling on it, Garp threw another punch. This time, however, instead of using Armament Haki, he coated his fist in Conqueror's Haki.

It was a special Haki that only one person in several million possessed, one that only those with the qualities of a king could awaken.

And among such kings, only a tiny few could learn the special technique known as "Conqueror's Coating"!

A deafening thunderclap rang out.

Garp's Conqueror's Coating strike slammed into the storyboard boundary, and in an instant, cracks spread across every inch of the locked-down space.

Crack, crack, crack!

The boundary shattered like a mirror and disappeared with a crash.

At that moment, the leaking power of his Conqueror's Haki swept in every direction. Caught in the overwhelming will of a conqueror, the Marines aboard the ship collapsed one after another, their eyes rolling back and foam spilling from their mouths.

Even Bogard staggered and fell to one knee with a thud.

"Vice Admiral Garp!"

"Sorry, sorry. I forgot you were so close."

Garp turned around and laughed heartily in embarrassment.

Then Bogard, looking exhausted, quickly said, "Vice Admiral, the warship is about to fall!"

With the spatial lockdown gone, the warship plummeted from high in the air and crashed into the sea, raising enormous waves.

Fortunately, Garp's Dog-Head Warship was sturdy enough. Otherwise, it would have been reduced to wreckage.

The Marines aboard weren't so lucky. Many of the unconscious men were thrown into the sea by the powerful impact and were about to sink.

"Ah, that bastard's capable. He got the better of me!"

Helpless, Garp had to rescue them first.

Area 70.