While Aramaki was being interrogated in Impel Down, Garp was leisurely drinking tea.
He had naturally accepted the mission to investigate Hachinosu.
But the sight of him sitting there so comfortably was simply too irritating.
Sengoku and Tsuru exchanged a look, then dumped the rest of the paperwork onto Garp in one go.
After all, most of these documents had landed on Sengoku's desk because of Garp in the first place.
It was only fair that he dealt with them.
Garp protested fiercely.
Unfortunately for him, Sengoku had already prepared the perfect weapon.
He pulled out ten bags of doughnuts.
Marine Headquarters had only recently relocated, so there were still very few shops operating nearby. With the World Military Draft bringing in huge numbers of people, doughnuts had become surprisingly difficult to find.
Sengoku happened to have some stockpiled.
And so, the scarce sweets became leverage against Garp.
Garp tried to remain stubborn at first, but the moment he saw all ten bags, his stomach betrayed him.
He had barely eaten any doughnuts lately.
Now that they were right in front of him, how could he possibly resist?
Still, his eyes quickly shifted.
It was rare for him to have a chance to squeeze something out of Sengoku.
Ten bags?
Far too little.
So Garp argued and haggled until he somehow raised the price to fifty bags.
Only then did he scratch his head, sit down obediently, and begin reviewing the documents.
With that burden finally off his shoulders, Sengoku immediately returned to being a silly old retiree and started chatting with Tama.
Tama had wanted to ask him something for a while.
At last, she could no longer hold back.
"Grandpa Sengoku, do you know Ace too? How is he now? Can I go see him?!"
That question caught Sengoku off guard.
He had heard about Tama's history with Ace from Garp.
But Sengoku's own relationship with Ace could hardly be described as good.
At best, they were now using each other.
Not long ago, Sengoku had put Ace on an execution platform.
Now Ace had become a Warlord and entered into a cooperative relationship with the Marines.
Even so, Sengoku did not believe the decision he had made back then was wrong.
What had happened had happened, and there was no point pretending otherwise.
Still, he could not bring himself to tell such a young child all of that.
So he quietly left out a few details.
"Of course. The Marines have a very close relationship with Ace."
Technically true.
The Marines and the Seven Warlords of the Sea were closely connected.
"If you want to see him, Garp can take you tomorrow."
Ever since the incident involving the God's Knights, Ace and Luffy had moved their training location.
At the moment, only Garp had the Vivre Card needed to locate Ace.
More precisely, he kept it inside his shoe.
So if the Marines wanted to deliver new orders to Ace, Garp would have to go personally anyway.
Thinking of that, Sengoku continued,
"And once you officially become a Marine, you'll be able to see him whenever you want!"
What he meant was that as a Marine, Tama could easily meet Ace while he remained a Warlord.
And even if Ace eventually abandoned the Seven Warlords, Tama could simply chase him across the seas as a Marine.
In a way, she really could see him every day.
Garp and Tsuru both understood exactly what Sengoku meant.
The same thought crossed their minds.
'As expected of Sengoku. When it comes to spinning words, this guy really is something else.'
…
Time passed quickly.
Tsuru took Tama out to have some fun, while Sengoku remained in the office mocking Garp as he struggled through paperwork.
Of course, Sengoku's hands were not idle either.
He helped sort each document into the proper category so Garp could work through them more efficiently.
By late at night, after Garp's heroic struggle against the mountain of paperwork, he had finally finished…
One-third of it.
And this was only a small fraction of the Marines' total workload.
Sakazuki had far more sitting on his own desk.
Tsuru eventually returned with Tama, who had already fallen asleep.
Garp was ready to call it a night as well, so he quickly asked Sengoku where his room was.
Sengoku shook his head.
"Your room? What room?"
"This place was only recently converted into Headquarters. We don't have enough facilities to give everyone private quarters."
"You've been stationed in Whitebeard's territory all this time, so naturally nobody assigned you a room here."
"If you really need somewhere to sleep, go spend the night on a warship."
"What?!"
Garp stared at him in disbelief and gestured toward himself.
"Sengoku, don't tell me you didn't even try to get me a room! I'm still one of the Marines'—!"
"Oh, I tried."
Sengoku spread his hands.
"Just a few days ago, actually."
"Sakazuki rejected it."
"Because you entered Wano without permission and caused trouble, this is apparently your punishment."
"Until your current assignment is complete, you won't have a room at Marine Headquarters."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Garp immediately grabbed Sengoku by the shoulders.
"Come on, Sengoku, figure something out!"
"I've got a child with me! You can't seriously expect an old man with white hair and his granddaughter to—!"
"Have some sympathy and arrange a room for me!"
"You think my hair isn't white too?"
Sengoku pointed furiously at his own head.
"And don't you dare use Tama to threaten me!"
"She can stay in Tsuru's room."
"As for you, figure out where you're sleeping tonight yourself."
"Now get out. I still have to finish these documents and speak with Sakazuki afterward."
"Oh."
Garp accepted that surprisingly quickly.
He turned toward Tsuru, exchanged a glance with her, gave Sengoku a casual smile, and walked out together with her.
Once they had left Sengoku's office, Tsuru immediately asked,
"That smile you gave Sengoku just now was suspicious, Garp."
She held the sleeping Tama in her arms and looked warily at her old friend.
Garp was twirling a ring of keys around one finger.
He had just stolen them from Sengoku.
His grin could not have been more smug.
"Sengoku and Sakazuki might not have given me a room…"
"But Sengoku himself told me to figure something out."
"So tonight, I'm sleeping in his room!"
"Bwahahaha—!"
Garp immediately covered his mouth.
He glanced at Tama sleeping peacefully in Tsuru's arms and only relaxed once he confirmed she had not woken up.
Tsuru then voiced another concern.
"You said you intend to keep Tama with you. Are you really sure you can handle that?"
She was not worried about whether Whitebeard's territory was safe.
Anywhere Garp lived was practically guaranteed to be secure.
From a security standpoint, it might be one of the safest places in the world.
The problem was that once you thought everything was safe…
You realized the greatest danger was Garp himself.
As far as Tsuru could remember, Garp had never seriously raised a child.
At most, he occasionally went home during his leave and showed his face for a while.
Ask Garp to fight pirates, and there were few better men in the world.
Ask him to look after a child?
His standard was probably somewhere around keep them alive and call it a success.
Then there was the way he interacted with Cain.
A fist to the head seemed to be his default method of communication.
Cain had once complained that Garp practiced obvious iron-fist parenting while constantly insisting it was "education through love."
His words and actions could not have been further apart.
Boys like Cain might be tough enough to survive that kind of treatment.
But Tama was a little girl.
She could hardly be raised the same way.
After Tsuru explained the problem, Garp finally understood.
He thought carefully.
She had a point.
If he was going to raise a child, having a woman around would probably help.
But he could hardly drag Dadan all the way from the East Blue.
Garp scratched his head for two seconds before declaring confidently,
"That's easy!"
"Lend me Gion. She can help take care of Tama."
"Or your granddaughter would work too!"
"What are you talking about?"
Tsuru rolled her eyes.
"Gion is so busy she barely has time to breathe."
"And my granddaughter is planning to join SWORD soon. She isn't even at Headquarters right now."
"Oh…"
Garp instantly deflated.
His entire body visibly slumped.
As the two continued walking, Smoker and Tashigi approached from the opposite direction.
"Vice Admiral Garp, wait! Your…!"
Tashigi was carrying Nidai Kitetsu.
Ever since Garp had brutally "tormented" the cursed sword with Conqueror's Haki, he had completely ignored it.
Shinobu had at least carried it onto the Marine ship, but Garp had immediately tossed it into another corner to collect dust.
Fortunately, Tashigi had found it.
She desperately wanted the blade herself, of course.
But after struggling with temptation for some time, she ultimately decided to return it to its rightful owner.
Once she learned the circumstances from Wano's samurai, she specifically came looking for Garp.
Garp naturally recognized her.
She had been serving alongside Smoker on the front lines, and they had met before.
Come to think of it, the battlefield where Smoker's unit was stationed was not particularly far from Whitebeard's territory either.
Garp stared at Tashigi for a couple of seconds.
Then inspiration struck.
Wasn't there a perfectly good babysitter standing right in front of him?
Garp's eyes immediately lit up.
He went from dejected to practically glowing in an instant.
"Your name's Tashigi, right?"
"This old man has a great job for you."
"Interested?"
Holding the sleeping Tama beside him, Tsuru gave Garp a suspicious look.
'There he goes again.'
'Garp's recruiting people into his schemes.'
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