Boom, crash!!
On the vast ice plain battlefield, the first cannon shot tore through the air, marking the official start of this epic battle that would later be known as the Impel Down War.
With Aokiji's Ice Age ability having created this vast expansion of ice as a foothold, the Marine elites—who would have had difficulty deploying their formations on the warships—were finally able to stand on solid ground and quickly move into their most effective land-based combat formations.
"All units! Deploy according to the scheduled combat sequence!"
The Marine elites, armed with various weapons, poured in an orderly fashion toward the center of the ice plain. Their target was the two brothers with the world-shaking bloodline whose origins had just been revealed.
Luffy glanced over. "They're pretty enthusiastic. Are they Gramps's men?"
"Gramps..." Ace looked at the approaching figure, his emotions complex.
The Marines came charging over, shouting loudly.
Sengoku's pre-battle declaration had fired them up. Eliminating these two evil bloodlines was the justice they were defending!
Most importantly, Vice Admiral Garp was right there in front of them!
"Kill these two brothers who have inherited the world's most evil bloodline! For justice!"
"Follow Vice Admiral Garp!!!"
"The primary target is up ahead—Straw Hat Luffy!"
"All personnel, prepare for a fight to the death!"
Shouts, roars, the clang of metal, the thunder of footsteps...
The Marines, their momentum like a rainbow, converged into a steel torrent of killing intent, sweeping toward Luffy and the others.
And at the very front of this torrent was Garp—his imposing figure, radiating an aura even more awe-inspiring than an Admiral's, walking forward step by step with heavy strides.
"Vice Admiral Garp is walking at the front!"
A Marine soldier following close behind looked at the broad, mountain-like back before him, his heart filled with an indescribable excitement and reverence.
For countless ordinary Marine soldiers, compared to Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who strategized from the rear, Garp—who had been active on the front lines for years—was the true spiritual pillar and faith in their hearts!
That man had fought his way across the Grand Line with his iron fists, personally ending the legends of an earlier era.
His deeds were known to everyone in the Marines.
He had hunted the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, cornering him multiple times.
He had crushed the arrogant Rocks Pirates at God Valley.
He had personally sent the legendary pirate Golden Lion to Impel Down at Marineford.
The number of pirates he had captured in his lifetime was countless!
Fire Fist Ace, who had just been revealed to be the Pirate King's son—wasn't his father hunted down and ultimately executed by this very hero?
Straw Hat Luffy and Fire Fist Ace were just the next generation with the potential to reach the top!
Even the Pirate King had been executed. Why would they fear them?
A Marine soldier inexplicitly felt moved as he looked at Garp's back.
Garp's target was no doubt Straw Hat and Fire Fist Ace.
"As expected of Vice Admiral Garp. He's facing the most dangerous men again!"
This was an influence that even Sengoku couldn't rival. Garp had unparalleled prestige among the Marines. How many people had become Marines because of the legends of Hero Garp?
But then, something seemed to grow in that Marine soldier's mind. He remembered the words Fleet Admiral Sengoku had announced to the entire force via Den Den Mushi.
And it wasn't just him.
Some overlooked details quietly crept into the minds of a few observant Marines.
"Wait a minute. Straw Hat Luffy and Revolutionary Dragon... why do I feel like I've heard that name before?"
Monkey D. Luffy...
Monkey D. Dragon...
"Garp's name is Monkey D. Garp!"
Boom, crash!
A thunderclap struck in the sky.
"Haaah, haaah..."
The extremely low temperature on the ice plain turned the breath of many Marines into white mist the moment it left their mouths.
Admiral Aokiji's ability was truly overwhelming.
But at this moment, some Marines who had vaguely sensed the truth felt even colder inside than the ice plain beneath their feet.
Garp seemed oblivious to the complex psychological activities of his subordinates—or perhaps he simply didn't care.
His gaze met Luffy's and Ace's.
At the center of the ice plain, a vacuum zone filled with the aura of killing had temporarily formed.
Marine soldiers spontaneously lined up behind Garp.
Finally, they reached a distance close enough to speak clearly.
Garp stopped. The Marine coat on his back fluttered in the wind.
After all this, he had still ended up on the opposing side. His expression dark, he declared:
"Pirates Luffy, Ace. This is as far as you go."
"Gramps, are you still trying to stop me even now?"
Then, Luffy suddenly smiled and shook his head. But it had to be this way. Gramps had his own stance.
This was exactly the outcome that had been foreseeable.
"G-Gramps?!"
The exchange and address between Luffy and Garp were like a boulder thrown into a calm
lake, instantly stirring up a thousand waves among the Marine ranks behind Garp!
Countless pairs of eyes suddenly widened, their incredulous gazes darting back and forth between Garp and Luffy!
They were... grandfather and grandson?
The Marines behind him exclaimed in shock.
Only a few Marines knew about Luffy's relationship with Garp, and no one had connected Straw Hat Luffy to Garp.
The moment Luffy opened his mouth, the fierce battle that had been underway fell into an eerie silence.
The Marines were stunned.
That vicious pirate Straw Hat—who had slain a Celestial Dragon on the Sabaody Archipelago, gone toe-to-toe with an Admiral, split open Impel Down, and carried the bloodline of the Revolutionary Army leader—was actually the grandson of Marine Hero Garp?
And Fire Fist Ace, the bloodline of Pirate King Roger, had also just called the old man "Gramps."
What kind of crazy family was this?!
"The Hero of the Marines, the son of the Revolutionary, the son of the Pirate King... why does a relationship like this exist?"
A Marine rear admiral murmured to himself.
He felt like his worldview was collapsing.
Gulp.
The prisoners also looked like the sky was about to fall.
"That's too terrifying."
"So the bloodline of Revolutionary Dragon is also inherited?"
"Gehahaha! Isn't this interesting?"
Golden Lion grinned.
One family represented the very peak of three different factions!
Garp ignored the commotion behind him. His gaze first fell on Luffy, complex and unreadable.
Then, it slowly moved to Ace's face.
Ace was looking back at him.
Perhaps because of everything that had happened recently, Ace had suddenly grown up. Now, he could deeply empathize with Garp. The one suffering the most right now was probably the old man in front of them.
This old man had devoted his entire life to the Marines.
From beginning to end, he had lived by his beliefs and his sense of justice.
Garp lowered his eyes.
"Why couldn't you just live the way I told you to, you idiots!"
Garp's thoughts seemed to suddenly be pulled back more than a decade, back to that cell where Gol D. Roger was imprisoned.
The images in his memory, like faded photographs, were still heart-stoppingly clear.
That day, Garp had inexplicitly gone alone to Roger's cell.
In that dimly lit cell, illuminated by a single flickering oil lamp, the man called the Pirate King leaned against the wall, a peaceful smile of near release on his face.
Then, he had heard that man calmly utter the words that would change the fate of so many.
"Garp, did you know? My child is about to be born."
Garp's heart sank.
"It's a shame I won't be in this world by then."
"Why are you telling me this, a Marine, Roger?!"
Seeing the smile on Roger's face, Garp knew this man was about to say something huge. He wished he could plug his ears.
Everyone knew that anyone associated with Roger would be executed. The Marines and the World Government would never allow Roger's evil bloodline to be inherited.
But Roger's smile only deepened, a look of calm that entrusted both his life and death and everything after to another.
"That's why I'm telling you, Garp."
Roger walked up to the bars separating them. "We've crossed paths countless times, haven't we? You're as trustworthy to me as my own crew."
"You'll protect him."
"Don't make decisions for me, you bastard!" Garp was so angry he could have cursed.
"No. You'll help me. My child is in your hands."
Entrusting a child.
That was the greatest trust between men.
What happened next unfolded exactly as Roger had foreseen and as Garp had feared.
The Navy and the World Government launched an unprecedented massive crackdown. Everyone even remotely connected to Roger—including all infants born within ten months of Roger's public execution and their mothers—was ruthlessly dealt with.
It was a worldwide bloodbath.
It wasn't until the storm had begun to subside that Garp went alone, quietly, to that remote village in the South Blue, where he met the woman named Portgas D. Rouge.
To this day, she was one of the women Garp most admired in his life.
A great mother who, to protect the child of the man she loved, had forced herself to delay childbirth by over a year through sheer willpower.
Garp pulled himself out of the brief memories and subconsciously rubbed his temples. "Ah, this is giving me a headache."
"Gramps, try to stop us." Luffy's voice brought him back to the present.
Garp paused and looked up.
Luffy was smiling brightly.
"We chose our own path."
Luffy said, "When a man chooses his path, he has to walk it without waving—just like you, right?"
Beside him, Ace also smiled and said, "I've never admitted that man as my father, but you are my grandfather, and that will never change."
Garp was silent.
The cold wind blew through his graying hair and the coat on his shoulders.
A few seconds later, he suddenly burst into a loud laugh:
"Well said, you little brats!"
The gloom seemed to be swept away in his laughter.
Garp raised his legendary iron fists. Armam
ent Haki, like flowing ink, quickly covered them!
"Then let yourselves be arrested by this old man!"
"Gehahaha! Garp!"
From the other side, Golden Lion Shiki, hovering in midair, saw this and laughed loudly as well. "I told you! You stubborn bastard, you should just live freely like me!"
Garp turned his head, grinned at Golden Lion, and showed his white teeth. "Golden Lion, you old bachelor who's never even had a proper woman in your life, shut your mouth! What the hell do you know?!"
"You bastard!"
This well-aimed personal attack choked Golden Lion so badly he nearly stopped breathing. His face turned green with anger. The gravel around him trembled slightly with his emotional ripples.
The prisoners around them were trembling.
No, they couldn't laugh!
They'd be killed!
Over here, Garp had already moved!
He didn't use techniques like Geppo. He relied solely on his powerful physique.
He pushed off with his legs.
Bam!
A shallow crater burst open in the ice beneath him. Garp's imposing body, like a cannonball exiting its barrel, instantly tore through the air, reappearing in front of Luffy.
"I'm not going to go easy on you, Luffy!"
The punch looked plain and unadorned, but the hair on Luffy's body instantly stood on end.
He knew it too well!
This was the starting stance of the Fist of Love.
He had been hit by this fist more times than he could count as a child.
If he now had that cockroach-like tenacious vitality, the Fist of Love definitely deserved some of the credit.
"So fast!"
Luffy's pupils narrowed slightly. His body's reflexes were even faster than his thoughts.
He didn't dodge. Instead, he stepped forward, pulling his right fist back to his waist. Armament Haki and Ryuo wrapped around it simultaneously. His skin turned slightly red.
Gear Second Plus!
"Gomu Gomu no..."
The collision was imminent.
Suddenly, a shrill, piercing alarm rang out across the entire ice plain battlefield, drowning out even the roar of cannon fire and battle cries!
The lookout on the watchtower had been observing the battle. When he saw the giant gate begin to show a gap, his hands began to shake.
"The Gate of Justice has been opened!"
"What?!"
This announcement hit like a thunderbolt, causing Fleet Admiral Sengoku's expression to instantly change dramatically.
What was happening?!
Sengoku snapped his head around toward the Gate of Justice. "Impossible!"
The moment he had received word that Straw Hat had infiltrated Impel Down, he had ordered Magellan to return and guard the Gate of Justice's control system.
The Gate of Justice was the absolute key to the Marines' encirclement of this sea area, forming a pocket formation!
If it was opened, the outer sea would be directly connected to this battlefield, creating a fatal gap in the Marines' encirclement.
What was happening?!
Not long ago.
Deep within the ruins of Impel Down, in a control room that had not yet completely collapsed.
Outside was ice. Inside was intact.
Splash!
The sound of seawater being pushed aside sounded faintly.
A large blue figure appeared in the icy water. Jinbe crawled in through a gap in the ice that he had forcefully shook with Gyojin Karate.
Behind Jinbe, in the sea, there was also a Sea King.
Inside the control room, complex instrument panels and levers glowed faintly.
Jinbe activated the lever, nodded to the Sea King, and took out a Den Den Mushi it had brought. "Pops, the plan has changed. Ace has been rescued, but the battlefield has shifted to the ice plain. The Marines' main force has completed their encirclement."
"Gurarara, good work, Jinbe."
After doing this, Jinbe sensed something. He didn't hesitate. He turned and punched his Haki-coated fist into the nearby ice wall, which looked solid.
Boom!
The ice wall shattered, revealing precision gears and transmission structures behind it—part of the mechanisms controlling the Gate of Justice.
"Gyojin Karate Ogi: Buraikan!"
Jinbe's fist condenses highly compressed shockwaves and seals powerfully onto those gears.
Crack!
Grind!
The sound of twisting, breaking metal rang out!
Almost at the same moment, the only entrance to the control room was burst open by a wave of venomous gas with a sweet, fishy smell.
Magellan, his body steaming with venom, rushed in. Seeing Jinbe destroying the mechanisms, his eyes nearly split.
"Jinbe, you bastard! What have you done?!"
He had been too late after all!
"This old man simply did what needed to be done." Jinbe looked at Magellan and assumed a fighting stance.
"You've let the monster in!" At this point, Magellan didn't dare to be careless.
After all, Jinbe in the sea was a presence that even the Yonko had to be wary of.
At the same time.
On the ice plain battlefield, Garp, charging aggressively toward Luffy, paused briefly.
"So you came after all?"
Garp's heightened Observation Haki keenly captured the disturbance coming from the direction of the Gate of Justice in the distance.
Whitebeard coming and Whitebeard not coming were two completely different things.
It was less than 0.1 seconds of hesitation.
"Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol!"
Luffy's fist didn't hesitate for a moment. It seized on that fleeting opening and shot out like an electromagnetic cannon.
Bam!
The fist, coated in advanced Armament Haki and Ryuo, landed squarely on Garp's chest. The immense force erupted. Garp let out a dull grunt, and his entire body—as if struck by a giant hammer—was sent flying backward. He skidded across the ice, carving a dozens-of-meters-long deep trench, and crashed into a warship.
Silence fell over the ice field.
The Marine soldiers stared blankly as the hero they believed invincible was sent flying back.
Luffy slowly withdrew his fist, looked in the direction Garp had flown, and his brow furrowed. "You held back, didn't you?"
He could feel it. At the last moment of contact, the Haki on his grandfather's arm seemed to have loosened almost imperceptibly.
Otherwise, with Garp's strength, even if he had been caught off guard, he would never have been sent flying so far so easily.
Was this "grandfather and grandson smile"?
"Moshi moshi. As expected, even Garp couldn't stop you~"
In that moment of relaxation, a slow, drawing voice with a peculiar cadence suddenly sounded by Luffy's ear.
Luffy frowned. Without thinking, he twisted his body like rubber to the side.
But he was still a little too slow.
"Try getting kicked by light again."
Bam!
A foot, flashing with blinding golden light, slammed hard into Luffy's side!
Terrifying burst of power. Luffy felt an irresistible force overtake him. His entire body, like a kite with its string cut, flew diagonally.
"Kizaru!"
Ace roared. "You bastard!"
The flames had just begun to rise when several ice spears blocked his path.
"Arara. Pay attention to me too."
Aokiji had made his move.
Fire and ice collided nearby.
"Arara. This is bad~"
Kizaru, who had kicked Luffy away, dispersed into photons midair and regrouped, scratching his head as he looked in the direction Luffy had flown. "Can I stop him?"
Boom, crash!
The direction Luffy had flown toward a large warship anchored at the edge of the ice plain!
***
Dive deeper into the story with 30+ advance chapters, available now on Patreon!
patreon.com/CNBLUE
If you're enjoying the novel, please consider leaving a review. Your support is crucial and helps the story grow immensely. Thank you!