Under the relentless crash of waves, thick smoke and swirling dust continued to billow from the wounded section of the Red Line.
Garp did not look back.
He used the tremendous impact created by leaping from hundreds of meters above, falling like a colossal cannonball into the icy, rushing depths of the sea.
For a brief instant, his impossible momentum forced the seawater aside before it collapsed back in on him.
Frigid seawater enveloped his broad, muscular torso. He inhaled sharply, then kicked off the seafloor with explosive force. Like an ancient whale bursting to the surface, he broke through the waves and rose above them, landing firmly atop the rolling swells.
He strode forward, moving swiftly in the direction opposite the Holy Land of Mariejois.
Wind and surf howled around him, but his Observation Haki spread across the vast surrounding sea with perfect clarity, like the world's most precise radar.
He knew it well. The moment he made his declaration, the path ahead could hold nothing but relentless pursuit and merciless annihilation.
His strike on Enies Lobby and the Red Line, combined with a resignation heard across the world, had completely severed his ties with the World Government and Marine Headquarters.
Three days later.
At the outer edge of the New World, a relatively calm stretch of ocean glimmered under the sun. A few New World bulls circled lazily in the sky above.
Below them, the sea was no longer calm.
Seven massive Marine battleships, each bearing the white gull flag, formed a tight blockade. They sealed off every possible route forward, resembling a moving city of steel.
On the main vessel's deck, a tall, lean man in a yellow striped suit sat with a languid posture. He wore tinted sunglasses and used his pinky finger to casually dig at his ear.
Sunlight gleamed off him as if reflecting from solid gold.
He was Borsalino, Admiral of the Marines, known to the world as Kizaru.
On another battleship's bow reclined a far taller man. He wore a white tank top and shorts beneath a long navy coat. An eyepatch obscured half his face, and he lounged on an ice chair with a cold drink resting beside him.
He was Kuzan, also known as Aokiji, wielder of the Ice-Ice Fruit.
Together, they formed the Marine Corps' strongest pursuit unit. Their mission was simple. Capture or eliminate the defector known as the Hero.
Kizaru stopped digging at his ear and looked toward the sea several hundred meters away. He saw the figure walking across the waves, approaching with unstoppable momentum.
The man's bare chest glistened beneath the sun, his presence like that of a prehistoric beast. Every step he took sent towering waves surging like tamed stallions beneath his feet.
"Oh my…"
Kizaru's slow, drawling voice drifted effortlessly across the water, carried by his overwhelming aura straight into Garp's ears.
"Garp-senpai… you caused quite a commotion, you know. Forcing us to come all the way out here to clean up your mess. It really is a lot of trouble for us juniors…"
Even as he spoke of inconvenience, a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes. A faint light gathered at his fingertip, soft as a firefly but sharp as a blade, aimed not at Garp himself but at the water along his path.
Before he finished his sentence, the light at his fingertip erupted.
"Yasakani no Magatama. Scatter."
Shoom! Shoom! Shoom!
It was not a single bullet. It was tens of thousands of blazing shards of light, a golden storm.
They were not aimed directly at Garp. They completely sealed off the space ahead of him and on both sides.
This was Kizaru's specialty. Using his light-speed fruit to unleash overwhelming saturation fire, forcing his opponent to either take the attack head on or waste precious movement avoiding it.
Garp did not slow.
He did not even change direction.
Annoyance and disdain flickered briefly in his eyes.
At the moment the golden rain was about to swallow him whole, his figure blurred like a passing specter.
An instant later, he appeared above the main deck, directly before Kizaru.
The speed surpassed even the limits of sight.
"This is your speed? You still think you deserve a full pension?"
Garp's icy voice sounded like metal scraping against stone.
The mocking expression froze on Kizaru's face.
He never saw how Garp broke through the light barrage. He never saw how Garp crossed the distance. He only felt darkness close in as a massive force gripped his throat.
That overwhelming Haki even suppressed Kizaru's instinctive elemental transformation for a brief, terrifying moment.
"This old man is going to make you tired. Very tired."
Garp's roar thundered across the battlefield. His massive arms, thick as ancient tree trunks, flexed with explosive power as he swung the Admiral renowned for light-speed movement like a helpless chicken.
Shoooom!
The air detonated from the sheer velocity.
Kizaru's body glowed brilliantly, but before he could fully transform, Garp hurled him across the sky. The Admiral streaked through the air like a golden arc, trailing a blazing afterimage.
Then, as if wielding the world's most perfect war hammer, Garp brought him down.
Boom!
Before countless horrified Marines and several global news cameras, Garp slammed the human meteor straight into a nearby battleship that had begun encircling him for bombardment.
The sound was deafening. The force far exceeded any naval cannon.
Kizaru's body hit the warship's starboard side like a falling star.
The moment impact transferred, one third of the ship's reinforced iron armor buckled like wet parchment. It crumpled inward, tearing apart with sickening ease.
Metal fragments, shattered shells, and entire chunks of the deck and keel erupted outward like a volcanic blast.
The thousand-ton vessel was ripped open by the force and tilted violently.
Seawater surged in through the gaping wound like a broken dam.
Crack… groan… boom.
In only a few seconds, the massive warship capsized and sank completely.
The violent whirlpool dragged wreckage and screaming Marines beneath the waves.
Kizaru, flung deep into the water, flickered weakly. Even his light bullets dimmed. The blow had dealt severe physical and elemental damage.
"Admiral Borsalino!"
"The battleship… it's gone!"
Chaos overtook the surrounding fleet. Panic spread instantly.
"Ice Age. Chicken Beak."
At that moment, a calm and steady voice cut through the turmoil.
Whoosh!
Centered around Kuzan's ship, a wave of soul-freezing cold erupted.
Crack crack crack.
The sea began to freeze with a harsh, creeping sound.
Endless frost spread outward at impossible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the raging sea beneath Garp's feet, including the whirlpools formed by the sinking ship, froze into a vast, seamless plain of solid ice.
The ice was several meters thick.
Lifted by the rising and freezing waters, Garp landed firmly atop the frozen battlefield.
Kuzan descended from his battleship, each step spreading new layers of crystalline frost beneath his feet. When he reached a spot several dozen meters from Garp, the ice rose, shaping itself into a simple throne.
He sat, adjusted his eyepatch, and revealed eyes that usually looked drowsy and relaxed. Now they were clear and solemn.
"Garp-senpai…"
Kuzan's voice remained deep and unhurried, though heavy with emotion.
"Has it really come to this? Is there truly no turning back? Must we settle this here?"
Ice swirled around him, lowering the air to a biting cold. Behind him, the frost stretched outward in the faint silhouette of a massive ice phoenix.
Garp stood unmoving on the frozen sea, as if rooted in the ice itself.
He looked at this Marine he had watched grow from a recruit into an Admiral. A faint, almost imperceptible ripple crossed his expression before fading into cold resolve.
"Kuzan, my boy."
Garp's voice carried no hostility, but it held the weight of immovable certainty.
"The Marines are no longer the sea in this old man's heart. The heading has changed. That ship… I can no longer stay aboard."
He paused and glanced at the Marines watching him with unease and fear. He glanced at the den-den mushi cameras hovering in the air. Finally his gaze returned to Kuzan.
"Tell that old goat Sengoku something for me."
Garp's voice suddenly grew rough, colored with rebellious humor as his signature grin spread across his face.
"When they deduct my pension, they better add in the repair cost for that ugly dog-head statue on Enies Lobby. Consider it my parting gift, hahahaha."
Before his laughter faded, he stomped his left foot forward.
Crack!
The massive, several-meter-thick ice sheet shattered beneath him like fragile glass.
Fractures surged outward like wild spiderwebs.
His right foot was not aimed at Kuzan. It was aimed at the giant frozen Marine flag behind him, the white gull emblem of the Marines' highest honor. It had drifted there earlier and become frozen solid in the ice.
Boom!
The stomp sent tremors throughout the entire frozen battlefield.
The enormous frozen flag shattered into thousands of powdery shards along with the ice beneath it.
The white fragments scattered like broken convictions across the air.
"Trash belongs in the trash. No need to thank me."
Garp's wild laughter echoed across the ice field.
Still laughing, without hesitation, he crouched slightly. The ice fractured beneath him once more.
Then he launched upward like a fired cannon shell.
He soared over churning water and sinking wreckage. He soared above the Marines and their steel fortresses.
He soared toward the distant horizon.
Splash.
A towering pillar of water erupted skyward.
Garp vanished into the vast deep of the ocean.
All that remained on the ice were ruins, a sunken ship, a dimly flickering Admiral Kizaru struggling to reform his body, and Kuzan seated upon his icy throne with a gaze filled with turmoil.
White flag shards drifted through the air like falling snow.
The news cameras continued filming without pause.
Across the world, every viewer watching the live broadcast saw the shattered Marine emblem and the massive figure slicing through the sea before disappearing completely.
A newsfeed screen flickered once, then displayed a new headline in bold letters across its entire width:
Hero Fallen? No. Justice Reborn.
Monkey D. Garp Shatters the Marine Emblem and Embarks on His New Journey
Marineford. Fleet Headquarters.
On the enormous projection screen before Admiral Sengoku, the frozen battlefield and the final leap into the sea played on loop.
Crack.
The black chess piece in his hand shattered into powder.
Vice Admiral Tsuru closed her eyes and exhaled softly, her voice steady but heavy with grief.