A while ago.
Morgans was frowning over the lead story for the latest edition of his paper.
The Marines had interfered again, and what exactly had happened in Mock Town was still a complete mystery to him.
He had no idea how to write it.
Just then, Lafitte had somehow slipped into the newspaper office, appearing soundlessly in front of his desk.
"You bastard, how did you get in here?" Morgans asked, raising a wary brow.
"How I got in isn't important." Lafitte curled his lips into a meaningful smile. "What matters is that I have a business proposal. Interested...?"
Ever since Blackbeard had narrowly escaped Cain's pursuit, he had secretly kept watch on Ace's movements.
Although he failed to learn Ace's exact whereabouts in the end, he was certain of one thing: Ace had been taken away by the Marine Hero, Garp!
...
At Marine Headquarters, the silence inside Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office was suffocating.
The heavy curtains were drawn shut, not even a single lamp was lit, and only the silent figures of Garp and Sengoku stood facing one another.
"Sengoku, why'd you call me over this late at night?" Garp swaggered in, shut the door behind him, and spoke with obvious impatience.
Sengoku let out a heavy sigh and hurled a stack of freshly intercepted newspapers in front of Garp.
The front-page headline was especially glaring—
Whitebeard Pirates' "Fire Fist" Ace Captured!
"Hah? What the hell is this?" Garp grabbed one of the papers and glanced at it, instantly shouting.
"WHO THE HELL'S GOT THE ABILITY TO CAPTURE MY GRANDSON?!"
"I've already given you, and Ace, far too many chances, Garp," Sengoku said helplessly. "I've already spoken with Morgans. This story will be published in one month."
"What? Wait, wait, wait! Are you sure you didn't screw something up? This report is total nonsense!"
Garp panicked on the spot, all of his earlier composure vanishing completely.
Smack!
Sengoku slammed the desk with his palm, pulled a thick stack of documents from the safe behind him, and threw them hard at Garp.
"YOU STILL WANT TO PLAY DUMB WITH ME, GARP?!"
"As early as two years ago, I had already uncovered Fire Fist Ace's true identity."
"When he began making a name for himself on the seas as Portgas D. Ace, I took notice. Anyone bold enough to bear the name 'D.' is no ordinary man."
Sengoku slowly sat back down, his eyes sharp.
"I originally intended to thoroughly investigate him after he joined the Seven Warlords. Instead, he turned around and joined the Whitebeard Pirates."
"He was already under the Marine's close watch, and the name 'D.' is not something just anyone can carry, so I secretly launched an investigation."
"Soon enough, I found what I was looking for—Baterilla Island, Portgas D. Rouge." Sengoku's voice dropped suddenly, tinged with accusation.
"You haven't forgotten what happened back then, have you?"
"Ah... Sengoku, I..." Garp lowered his head with difficulty, his fingertips trembling faintly.
"The answer is simple," Sengoku said, enunciating each word. "That woman was Ace's mother. And Ace is Gol D. Roger's son! Garp, I know how important Ace is to you, and precisely because of that..."
He rose to his feet, clasped his hands behind his back, and looked toward the large characters for Justice hanging behind him.
"After he joined the Whitebeard Pirates, with Whitebeard himself protecting him, the Marines had no way to make a move. We also didn't dare reveal his identity to the public—that would have caused worldwide panic."
"So these files were sealed away all this time. I kept it from you, from the entire Marine, from the whole world. I even tried more than once to draw the truth out of you, but every single time, you brushed me off."
Sengoku slowly turned around.
His eyes had reddened as he looked at Garp, his voice so strained it was nearly breaking.
"When I urged you to hurry to Mock Town before, it was because I wanted you to suppress the chaos in the confusion, protect your grandson, and bury this secret forever."
"Sengoku... you actually..." Garp stared at his old friend in shock, his throat tightening.
"This goes against my justice, Garp." Sengoku's voice carried a faint choke of emotion. "But you are my comrade... I didn't want to see you cornered like this. But now, there's no avoiding it anymore."
"These newspapers have already been printed in bulk. Morgans isn't the kind of man who'll obediently follow our orders. He could release the story at any moment. All we can do is delay him..."
Garp suddenly shook his head, as if making one last stubborn struggle.
"NO! I DON'T KNOW ANY FIRE FIST ACE. NEVER SEEN HIM IN MY LIFE!"
Seeing that Garp was still refusing to yield, Sengoku picked up the intercom on his desk with a weary expression, his tone turning cold.
"Don't blame me, Garp. Bring him in."
Bang!
The office door was suddenly pushed open.
Sakazuki—Admiral Akainu—walked in with both hands wrapped in blazing magma, firmly pressing down on the head of a blond boy.
The boy's face was flushed red, his teeth clenched in pain.
"Helmeppo?" Garp's pupils contracted sharply the moment he saw who Akainu was holding.
"S-SORRY, SIR! I REALLY DIDN'T MEAN TO! IT HURTS, IT HURTS—HOT! SO HOT!" Helmeppo wailed in terror, his scalp nearly smoking from the heat of the magma.
"Garp, your warship may be an old model, but it has Vegapunk's latest automatic navigation recorder installed on it. I never told you that." Sengoku's voice was utterly devoid of warmth. "We've been watching everywhere you went. And your dear disciple has already confessed everything—Fire Fist Ace did indeed board your ship."
"Although he doesn't know where Ace is now, we already have the answer we needed. Finding him is only a matter of time."
"In one month, the news of Fire Fist Ace's capture will be released. When that happens, Whitebeard's fierce retaliation is inevitable. So I have decided that in two months, Ace will be publicly executed! It will also mark the end of Whitebeard's era! This is for the Marine's justice... so forgive me, old friend."
Bang!
"HE'S NOT MY DISCIPLE!"
Garp exploded in fury, grabbed Helmeppo in one hand, and threw him straight out from the heights of Marine Headquarters in front of Sengoku and Akainu.
"Garp, you..." Sengoku looked at Garp, whose face was streaked with tears and twisted with pain.
In the end, he slowly spoke.
"For harming a fellow Marine, you need to spend some time in prison! I hope you'll calm down by then."
In the end, Garp was taken away by the Marines.
What they didn't know was that the Den Den Mushi in Garp's pocket had been flashing the whole time—before finally going silent.
...
Meanwhile, the news coming through the Den Den Mushi made Cain's expression darken terribly.
He was swallowed by deep self-blame and regret.
He had never imagined that even after personally entrusting Ace to Garp, the Marines would still discover him.
Had everything he done still failed to escape that cursed fate?
What now? Should he tell Luffy and the others? No, not yet.
Luffy need to break into Impel Down if everything goes wrong and bring out the prisoners inside.
Even if those people might not be enough to match Cain himself, they were still forces that could help save Ace.
There had to be something else he could do.
There had to be.
Cain's mind raced. Suddenly, he grabbed the Den Den Mushi marked with Doflamingo's emblem.
Unexpectedly, the moment his fingers touched it, the call connected.
"Fufufufu... calling me at this hour? What do you want?" Doflamingo's trademark laugh came from the other end, lazy and arrogant as ever.
"So you're still alive. Good." Cain's voice was cold as ice. "I need your help with something."
"HEY, HEY, HEY—" Doflamingo's tone changed at once, losing its earlier nonchalance.
"Last time you nearly beat me to death, and now you've got the nerve to ask for my help? Did someone slam your head in a door?"
The Marines had only just dragged him back from death's door, and he had barely made it back to Dressrosa.
Now this menace was calling him again—nothing good could come of it...
Cain ignored the complaint and said in a tone that left no room for argument, "Agree to my request, and I'll give you a reward generous enough to satisfy you."
"Oh?" Doflamingo's curiosity was piqued, and a probing note entered his laughter. "Go on."
Cain was silent for a moment, then stated his condition word by word, his tone carrying a suffocating kind of pressure.
"I guarantee that next time we meet, I won't beat you to death."
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