Chapter 22: Garp's Grandson
A gentle sea breeze drifted across the deck.
The sky was a clear, brilliant blue, broken only by a few wandering clouds. Sunlight spilled over the calm ocean, turning the water into endless sheets of glittering silver. It was the kind of weather sailors would call perfect.
And Axel hated every second of it.
A Marine warship cut steadily through the sea, its sails marked with the unmistakable seagull emblem of the Marines. On that same ship, Axel sat with a blank expression, a fresh lump on his head and enough resentment in his heart to sink the vessel by himself.
He stared out at the sea in a state of stunned misery.
Then, at last, he broke.
"Why am I here?!"
His voice echoed across the deck with all the grief of a man who had realized too late that one terrible choice had ruined his entire life.
The answer was simple.
Last night, after offering a moment of silent sympathy for Luffy, Ace, and Sabo, Axel had originally planned to slip away with them. Unfortunately, Garp had woken up halfway through the night and stopped the escape with brutal efficiency.
At first, Axel had thought he was safe.
After all, he had not openly declared that he wanted to become a pirate. Compared to the other three, he had assumed he would avoid the worst of Garp's wrath.
Instead, Garp had simply picked him up and taken him away.
That was the moment Axel's heart truly sank.
Luffy, Ace, and Sabo had wanted to stop it. But what could they do? They were still children, and the person carrying Axel away was Monkey D. Garp. Against that kind of force, resistance was a joke. In the end, all three could only watch as Axel was hauled off over Garp's shoulder like a sack of rice.
It was a humiliating memory.
He had even tried to escape once after being brought aboard the ship.
That attempt had earned him the bump on his head.
Axel only had one conclusion.
This whole situation was a disaster.
A complete disaster.
And the worst part was that it had all been caused by his own silence. If he had just spoken up clearly back then, maybe this nonsense could have been avoided.
When he had finally asked Garp why he was the only one taken, the old man had answered while casually picking his nose.
"Didn't you say you wanted to be a Marine? Then I'm taking you to headquarters."
That answer had nearly killed Axel on the spot.
He had stayed silent back then to avoid getting punched.
Now he genuinely wished he had just taken the punch.
At least that would have hurt less than this.
And even if he explained it now, Garp clearly had no intention of bringing him back. Unlike the comedy of the anime, the real Garp was not some leisurely old grandpa with endless spare time. This was still the Great Pirate Era. The sea was in chaos, and Garp had responsibilities everywhere. Once he set sail, turning back for something like this was simply not going to happen.
Axel sat there and seethed quietly.
Damn Luffy.
Next time they met, Axel absolutely intended to settle this misunderstanding with violence.
Probably.
Maybe.
At the very least, he was going to try.
Around him, the Marines on deck went about their duties with practiced precision. More than once, Axel caught them glancing toward Garp with admiration. That much made sense. To them, Garp was a legend.
At the moment, however, their legendary Vice Admiral was asleep on deck wearing a dog head mask.
A large snot bubble inflated and deflated gently with every snore.
No one seemed surprised.
Apparently this was normal.
A few Marines had also cast curious looks toward Axel. They were clearly wondering why Vice Admiral Garp had suddenly brought a delicate looking child aboard, but none of them dared ask directly. Respect for Garp was one thing. Fear of being dragged into something troublesome was another.
Then the bubble popped.
Garp woke up.
He blinked once, scratched the back of his head, and laughed.
"Ahh... I accidentally fell asleep."
Not a single Marine reacted.
They were all clearly used to this.
Then Garp finally noticed Axel.
"Eh? Kid, what are you doing here?"
Axel stared at him.
For one glorious moment, he nearly screamed, You brought me here, you senile old menace!
Instead, suppressing all his rage beneath sheer survival instinct, he forced out a very controlled answer.
"Because you brought me here, Mr. Garp."
Garp's face immediately twisted in disgust.
"That way of talking is awful." He waved a hand dismissively. "Too stiff. Too pretentious. Disgusting."
Then he looked Axel up and down.
"Well, you're a girl, so I guess it fits."
That did it.
Axel finally snapped.
"I'm a man!"
The shout turned several heads on deck.
The Marines looked back and forth between Axel and Garp with obvious confusion.
"Vice Admiral Garp, are you serious?"
"If that's your grandson, how do you get his gender wrong?"
One of the Marines finally asked the question everyone was thinking.
Garp, meanwhile, had already started picking his nose again.
"What's so strange about that?"
Somehow, that answer actually satisfied the Marines.
After a brief pause, more than one of them nodded with thoughtful seriousness.
"Given Vice Admiral Garp's personality, that's actually believable."
"Yeah. That sounds about right."
Axel nearly choked.
What kind of reputation did this old man have among his own people?
Garp then casually threw out another bombshell.
"This brat is my grandson. Make sure everyone knows that."
Axel blinked.
"Grandson?"
Garp answered with complete confidence.
"You and Luffy became sworn brothers, right? Then from my point of view, you're obviously my grandson too."
His eyes flashed with reckless enthusiasm.
"Don't worry. Starting today, I'll personally train you into the strongest Marine!"
Axel went silent.
This was wrong.
Wrong from the very beginning.
The issue was not whether he wanted to become the strongest Marine.
The issue was that he did not want to become a Marine at all.
But at this point, arguing with Garp felt like volunteering to be used as a cannonball. So Axel chose the wiser path and quietly nodded along while screaming internally.
There was an old saying about enduring what had to be endured.
Maybe if he kept his head down, things would calm down.
That thought lasted less than five seconds.
Bang!
Garp's fist came down on his head.
Pain shot through Axel's skull instantly.
"What was that for?!" Axel shouted, clutching his head in outrage.
Garp grinned.
"Training starts now. First, let me show you the Iron Fist of Love." Then his smile widened further. "And from now on, call me grandpa."
Axel's expression turned blank.
There were moments when a person's faith in reason simply died.
This was one of them.
He had been tricked.
There was no negotiating with Garp.
There was only suffering.
And worse, the punch had hurt far more than it should have.
Axel had instinctively tried to reflect or redirect it with vector manipulation the moment it came down, but the result was essentially nothing. The blow crashed through his defenses and landed cleanly anyway.
Haki.
That had to be it.
Unlike raw force, the strange pressure coating Garp's fist was something Axel still could not properly analyze, much less control.
He clenched his jaw.
So Haki really is outside my reach right now.
Still, he did not feel completely discouraged.
Because he knew something important.
Vector manipulation was called vector manipulation, but Accelerator's power had never truly been limited to only the simplest understanding of "vectors." In the original world, Accelerator had initially struggled even with ordinary magic. But once his brain developed ways to analyze and interpret it, he eventually became capable of interfering with and reflecting certain magical phenomena too.
That meant the principle remained the same.
If Axel could not control Haki now, that only meant he still lacked the calculation model for it.
If he learned more.
If he grew stronger.
If he studied it deeply enough.
Then one day, maybe even Haki could enter the domain of his control.
As for Conqueror's Haki...
Axel did not let himself dream too much there.
That was not something people simply learned through effort. It was the power of those born with the qualities of a king. No matter how common it looked in the New World among monsters, it was still rare in absolute terms.
And Axel knew himself too well.
In his past life, he had been ordinary.
Not special.
Not chosen.
Not some natural ruler born to stand above others.
To say he possessed a king's disposition felt almost laughable.
But even without Conqueror's Haki, he was not weak.
Not at all.
Vector manipulation itself was already outrageous enough.
If he could truly reach Accelerator's level one day, then outside of the very top monsters in this world, almost no one would be able to stop him.
Which meant the answer to everything in front of him remained the same as always.
He had to become stronger.
Far stronger.
Because in this world, strength was not just the key to standing out.
It was the minimum requirement for survival.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]