"Why the hell is Garp here?!"
On Onigashima, Queen the Plague stared at the surveillance screen with his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.
This was nothing like what he had expected!
Why was the Marine Hero Garp aboard a massive ship flying the Whitebeard Pirates' flag?
Had the old bastard finally gotten tired of the Marines and decided to become a pirate?
Queen knew Garp had been stationed in Whitebeard territory for some time, but surely he had not actually joined the Whitebeard Pirates.
Even Kaido, seated upon his throne, was stunned by Garp's appearance. He took two large gulps from his sake jug.
"Kaido-san! What do we do?! Are we going to war with the Marines right now?!"
"No. This isn't the time for an all-out war."
Kaido stared at Garp on the screen.
The old man was not wearing his Marine uniform, so he clearly had not come to Wano in an official Marine capacity.
Besides, the Beasts Pirates were in no position to openly wage war against the Marines and the World Government behind them.
Kaido abruptly stood.
"I'll handle this myself."
The moment Kaido left, Queen rushed straight toward his laboratory.
He had not forgotten that he was holding an extremely important prisoner there.
That man was Garp's disciple.
Could Garp have come here for him?
The thought caused Queen's hurried run to gradually slow into a leisurely stroll.
Then inspiration suddenly struck.
He turned around and headed directly toward the storage vault containing his various viruses and vaccines.
…
"Long time no see, Yamato!"
Under the astonished gazes of Yamato and the gathered samurai, Garp guided the enormous Moby Dick over Wano's towering barrier and directly into the inland sea.
Yamato immediately created a path of ice, leaped aboard the ship, and demanded,
"Huh? Why is it you, old man? Where's Marco?"
A vein bulged on Garp's forehead.
He raised his fist and gave her a painful knock on the head.
"Is this how Ace's friend greets people? Call me Grandpa!"
"Ow! That hurt! What the hell was that for, you rotten old man?!"
Yamato clutched her head and glared viciously at him.
She had only asked a perfectly normal question.
She and Garp barely knew each other, so there was nothing strange about speaking to him that way.
Besides, Ace and Cain called him an old man all the time.
What's wrong with her doing the same?
Before Yamato could finish protesting, Garp struck her with another solid knock.
A second enormous bump rose from the top of her head. Combined with her two natural horns, she now looked as though she had three.
"I traveled all this way to help deliver food, and this is how you treat me?!"
"Hey! You're the one who can't sit still and spends every day chasing pirates around!"
"When you reached Whitebeard's territory, they weren't even burning towns or killing civilians. But because of the agreement between the Marines and Warlord Ace, you couldn't seriously attack them, so you just chased them around and beat them up before letting them go again!"
A voice suddenly came from inside the Moby Dick's cabin.
"And because you never know how to hold back, you seriously injured Marco and everyone else who was supposed to deliver the grain. In the end, you had to come yourself. Whose fault is that?"
The speaker was Yasopp.
All the cannonballs fired at them from below the waterfall had been shot out of the air by him, one bullet apiece.
He had destroyed every shell without even showing his face, clearing the outer defenses and creating the perfect opening for Garp's surprise attack on King.
What happened was almost exactly as Yasopp described.
With the Red Hair Pirates away from the New World and Sengoku no longer around to argue with him, Garp had been so bored that he could barely stand it.
Catching pirates was the only entertainment he could think of.
However, Ace's Warlord agreement prevented him from seriously harming members of the Whitebeard Pirates, so he came up with the excuse of giving them "special training" and started fighting them.
Unfortunately, once Garp got started, he failed to control his strength.
Marco and the others, who had been preparing to transport the grain, were beaten so badly that they all ended up bedridden.
A single punch from Garp had once left Marco the Phoenix wrapped in bandages for days.
How were the others supposed to withstand his fists, especially when he kept fighting them for several days straight?
Naturally, every last one of them collapsed.
But when Garp learned that the food shipment could determine whether the people of Wano lived or died, the sense of justice carved into his bones would not allow him to stand aside.
So he spent his own money to purchase more grain, added it to everything Marco and the others had already prepared, packed the Moby Dick from bow to stern, and dragged Yasopp along to Wano.
…
Garp did not deny Yasopp's merciless explanation.
He merely scratched his head awkwardly and tried to brush the whole matter aside.
Although Yamato remained worried about Marco, she did not forget to wave toward Kyoshiro and the others waiting onshore.
"Everyone, hurry aboard! We need to sail back to the Flower Capital and unload this food as soon as possible!"
Yasopp was not idle either.
He aimed his rifle directly at the low-ranking Beasts Pirates still gathered along the coast.
None of them dared make a move.
Unlike the isolated people of Wano, they knew perfectly well what was happening in the outside world.
One man was the Marine Hero.
The other was a core officer of the Red Hair Pirates.
Neither was someone ordinary foot soldiers could possibly handle.
They would be better off checking on King's condition.
Not far away, Kyoshiro stared at Yamato waving to them and at the Moby Dick floating upon the sea.
His heart trembled.
He recognized that ship and its flag.
The pirate crew that had shared such a deep bond with their lord, Kozuki Oden, had come all the way to Wano specifically because of Yamato.
And unless Kyoshiro had misheard, they had come to deliver food.
It was far beyond anything he had expected.
After observing Yamato's every action for so long, and now witnessing this vital support from the Whitebeard Pirates, Kyoshiro finally began to accept that her desire to save Wano was sincere.
After all, this was the pirate crew Kozuki Oden had once sailed with.
The fact that Yamato could convince them to come all this way was enough to prove that she was worthy of some trust.
Kyoshiro still could not reveal his true identity to her, but he had reached a decision.
As long as it helped improve Wano, he was willing to serve the current acting Shogun with genuine loyalty—for the time being.
That loyalty would last only until Lord Momonosuke returned safely and Lady Hiyori grew capable of standing on her own.
Whether Momonosuke would actually return and whether Hiyori would truly mature enough were separate questions.
*(Note: The people of Wano already possessed an almost blind faith in Kozuki Oden. The moment Kyoshiro saw the Whitebeard Pirates' ship, that trust naturally passed from Oden to the Whitebeard Pirates, and then from them to Yamato.
Given that connection, Kyoshiro deciding to trust Yamato is perfectly reasonable.)*