"What did you say? You don't have a single treasure? What's the point of being a Marine then? No wonder Carlo defected!"
On a violently pitching warship, John had a blood-covered Marine Rear Admiral by the collar.
When the man said there wasn't any treasure on board.
John was bitterly disappointed.
Across the deck, Marines lay strewn about like fallen leaves.
Even more sailors had been hurled into the sea by John's magnetic repulsion.
It wasn't sympathy for the Marines because of Carlo.
He simply found it the easiest way.
Hearing there was no treasure, John let go and tossed the Rear Admiral aside.
"If there's nothing to squeeze out of you, what use are you? Just die!"
He spread his hands; blue arcs crackled again.
From the muzzle of the huge metal cannon hovering overhead came the familiar buzz.
A blinding light gathered inside, a glaring moon rising above the darkening sea.
Marines paled and frantically ordered their ships to pull back.
They still remembered how John had obliterated two warships and seven or eight patrol boats with one shot.
The memory was carved into their bones.
At first, the reinforcements had assumed that, among the Sky Pirates,
only their Captain—Heavenly King Sorus Karlo—would be troublesome.
After all, Heavenly King Carlo's bounty was right there.
He had also been the Fourth Division Captain of the Rocks Pirates.
Famous and monstrously strong.
A Great Pirate to rival Golden Lion and Whitebeard.
As for the rest of the Sky Pirates:
first division captain, former treasure-hunter John,
notorious for his obsession with riches—he'd do anything for treasure.
second division captain Kaido, once obscure, merely a Senior Combatant of the Rocks Pirates.
They say he's already quit the Sky Pirates and is rampaging across the New World; Headquarters even sent Admiral Sengoku after him.
Third Division Captain Babel, a Fishman and likewise a Senior Combatant of the Rocks Pirates, equally low-profile.
The three Captains had some fame,
but all were overshadowed by their leader; no outsider knew their real strength.
Today, however, the Marines finally witnessed the power of the Sky Pirates' first division captain—the former Captain John.
He could crush most Headquarters Vice Admirals with ease!
Right now,
seeing John rouse that lethal metal cannon again, ready to fire the terrifying Electromagnetic Cannon,
the last two remaining warships desperately turned to flee.
But would they make it in time?
Lifted into the air by his metal belt, John grinned as he swiveled the muzzle toward a warship struggling to turn three hundred meters away.
"Stay right there, Marines!"
"Super—"
"Electromagnetic Cannon!!"
With his roar,
the death-dealing beam burst from the quivering cannon, ripping across the gloomy sky toward the ship.
It moved so fast it was a literal flash of lightning; the crew had no time to dodge.
The hull was about to be hit,
and everyone expected the ship to blossom into a fireball the next instant.
At that very moment,
a thunderous boom tore through the sky behind the warship.
Something was approaching at extreme speed.
In the next instant!
To John's stunned eyes,
a phantom figure shot through the air, kicking off exploding air-bubbles, and stopped above the ship's stern.
From dozens of meters away he punched.
The air above the whole vessel parted before the blow.
A spherical shockwave, like ball-lightning, met John's Electromagnetic Cannon head-on.
In that instant,
the brilliant pillar of light exploded mid-air.
The violent blast of wind tossed the warship below.
Marines tumbled across the deck.
The orb of force struck the tip of the light column and, without losing momentum, kept plowing forward, crushing the beam all the way back toward the horrified John.
In the blink of an eye,
the solid-looking sphere reached him, pulverizing the light as it came.
He frantically shoved the hovering cannon in front of himself.
"Magnetic Blast!!"
The cannon detonated, showering the sky with shrapnel and finally setting off the incoming orb above him.
But before John could breathe,
the very next moment,
a furious, burly figure shot over the warship and across the sea straight at him.
That square-jawed, scarred face made John's hair stand on end.
"Garp!!"
He spun to flee on reflex.
But Garp's fist was already flying.
Black-and-red lightning burst from it, turning into a world-splitting shock like a galaxy falling or a meteor striking.
In an instant,
the air before John caved in with a cracking roar.
Then,
the mountain-shattering, sea-cutting shockwave slammed over him, swallowing both his body and a hundred meters of ocean beneath.
"Fist Bone: Galaxy Impact!!"
"G—Garp!!"
Boom!
John's howl was cut short as the black-red blast smashed him into the sea like a meteor.
Where he fell,
a crater dozens of meters deep was punched into the ocean for a hundred meters around.
Blood mist sprayed from every pore.
The snap of breaking bones sounded like firecrackers.
With one blow,
John was crippled and knocked out cold!
"U… Uncle John!"
"Dad?!"
From a distant pirate ship came cries of shock.
Garp, still in the air using Moonwalk, jolted at the sound and looked over.
He spotted Dragon at once.
He froze.
"Dragon? What are you doing here?"
Then, seeing the Sky Pirates' flag behind him, his face darkened as realization hit.
"Dragon! You… you're not thinking of becoming a pirate, are you? I won't allow it!"
Even when he'd handed over the key and let Dragon escape from Marineford,
Garp had never been this agitated.
He had never imagined
he'd see his son on a pirate ship—
and Carlo's crew at that.
"Dragon, you brat! If you dare become a pirate, I'll skin you alive!"