"Garp!" Tsuru yelled, as the crumbs of the donut Garp was eating flew into the sea. Garp was laughing uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face.
"I couldn't hold back, Tsuru, hahaha!" he said, pounding his thigh. "This... they must be fakes!" Although they couldn't see the faces clearly, the silhouettes and clothes of the five figures at the port were unmistakable. And the fact that they were all women made Garp's laughter even harder to contain.
Sengoku, stealing the last packet of sweet balls from Garp, frowned. He, too, had his suspicions, but the audacity of Rodin's crew to impersonate the Five Elders was shocking.
"Are they trying to scare us?" Momonaga, a Vice Admiral, asked with a scowl. "This is a childish approach. We must arrest them all!" He was still furious about the four Vice Admirals who had been crippled in the battle at Water 7.
As the warship approached the shore, Sengoku's face changed. "Wait! Their faces... they're so similar!" he exclaimed. Garp and the others took a closer look, and were stunned by the uncanny resemblance. It was as if they were looking at the Five Elders themselves, only with a female physique.
"Where did he find these people?" Sengoku wondered.
"No matter how good the imitation, a fake is always a fake!" Momonaga declared, and with a confident leap, he used Moonwalk to fly toward the port, his sword drawn.
"You old women, how dare you blaspheme the supreme leaders of the World Government?!" he yelled.
At the port, the fluffy-haired old woman, leaning on her cane, slammed it into the ground. A powerful wave of air blasted out, hitting Momonaga and causing him to lose his balance. He tried to stabilize himself with a sword slash, but the turbulence was too strong, and he fell into the sea with a loud "Plop!"
"Sengoku, you're really something!" the woman with the cane said, her voice laced with feminine anger. "How dare you send a mere Vice Admiral to humiliate us?"
Sengoku felt a chill run down his spine. The woman's tone and aura were identical to the real Five Elders. This power... it wasn't a fake. It was a genuine threat. Even Garp and Tsuru were holding their breath, stunned by the ease with which she took down a Vice Admiral.
Meanwhile, Rodin, watching from a distance, was also taken aback. This power was far beyond that of an average Vice Admiral. His suspicions were confirmed when the bald woman, with a nod to the others, told him that they needed time to build up their strength for a single decisive blow. Rodin was a bit annoyed but helped them by creating a soundproof bubble around them.
"You're getting more and more lawless, Garp!" the bald old woman said, as Garp appeared above the port, his fist raised.
"We've got to stop them, Garp, but... just look!" Garp, with a chuckle, prepared to unleash a devastating blow.
A collective gasp of disbelief echoed through the Marine warship as Garp's legendary punch—capable of shattering mountains—was effortlessly caught by the bald-headed old woman. With a calm, almost nonchalant expression, she met his fist with her palm. The force of the impact tore up the pier, sending rocks and debris flying, and created a shockwave that rattled the nearby buildings and trees.
"For so many years, it seems you have forgotten the strength of the five of us," she said, her voice filled with a majestic authority. She then gently pushed Garp back, sending him flying into the warship, with Sengoku—who had transformed into his golden Buddha form to catch him—along for the ride. The two of them crashed through the ship's deck, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Marines stared in disbelief at the deep ravine on their warship. Garp, the hero of the Marines, and Sengoku, the fleet admiral, had been so easily repelled.
"Is this really the strength of Rodin's reinforcements?" a Marine officer stammered. "What the hell is Rodin?!"
Meanwhile, the bald old woman, hiding her scorched and trembling hand, calmly sat down on a stone. She dabbed her face with a pink handkerchief, her movements a stark contrast to her earlier display of power. She and the other four old women gave off an aura of extreme poise and authority.
Rodin, watching from a distance, was both impressed and concerned. He realized that each of the five women was capable of a devastating single attack, but that it required time to prepare, leaving them vulnerable afterward.
"We need time to accumulate strength," the bald woman had told him.
Rodin, with a newfound sense of urgency, felt the pressure. He had just received a system notification:
[As the Host has used Time-limited Card for first time, after the mysterious character returns successfully... the next random draw will get 100% four-star characters!]
This meant he had to ensure the five women's survival until the thirty-minute mark.
On the warship, Garp and Sengoku recovered. "She bounced my power back," Garp said, his expression serious. "That feeling can't be wrong."
"But why aren't they attacking?" Tsuru wondered aloud. "What are they waiting for?"
As the long-haired old woman yelled at the Marines for pointing their guns at them, a wave of unease spread through the troops. The authority in her voice was so absolute that many of them lowered their weapons, fearing they had committed a great offense.
"Could they really be the Five Elders?" a Marine whispered.
Sengoku, trying to maintain control, pulled out a phone bug to verify their identity. But just as he was about to make the call, a Marine officer—with a weird smile on his face—jumped into the sea, shouting, "Marshal Sengoku, your choice is everything to us! We must realize Marine's own justice!"
This ignited a fire in the hearts of the other Marines, who began to voice their own frustrations with the World Government. The pent-up anger and resentment against the corrupt system, the Celestial Dragons, and the Shichibukai system all came to the surface at once.
Sengoku, realizing too late, tried to cover the phone bug, but it was no use. In Mariejois, the Five Elders heard the entire tirade of the rebellious Marines.
"Sengoku, are you going to turn against us?" a chilling voice came from the phone bug.