At this critical moment, Garp thought once more of the words Roger had spoken back in that prison cell.
‘The child in her belly is innocent!’ ‘Garp!
Our bond was forged across countless battles to the death!’ ‘You’re as trustworthy to me as any of my own crew!’ ‘My child — I’m leaving him in your hands!’ “Hickman D.
Gavin.
I’ve heard of you.
I can let Roger’s family go — but on one condition: you stay.” Garp planted himself squarely in the middle of the only path down the mountain, his eyes hard.
“I’m a Marine.
The justice of the Marines won’t let me sit and watch pirates walk free.
But if, at a moment like this, one pirate is willing to stay and stand in my way, I’ll find myself powerless to meddle in anything else.
That’s my bottom line.” Shanks’s eyes flew wide.
“Not a chance — he’s my first mate!!” “Shanks.” Gavin stopped him as he was about to charge out again and grinned at him.
“Do you trust me?” Shanks froze, then the veins stood out on the hand gripping his blade.
“…Of course I trust you, Gavin.” “Then go.
Take Rouge and that child and go.” Gavin stopped hiding his spiritual pressure and let it erupt at full force.
“I’ll stall Garp for you.
Trust me — once I break out of here, I’ll get in touch with you.” Shanks’s face cycled through shades of green and white, weights beginning to settle onto the scales in his heart.
On the left, Roger’s family.
On the right, his own first mate.
“I will get out of here, Shanks.” Watching Gavin’s profile turned toward him in that smile, Shanks sheathed Gryphon, turned, and walked into the house behind him.
“Buggy, we’re leaving.
This place is Gavin’s to handle!” Buggy and the others all went white with shock.
“Shanks!!!” “Shut up!” Shanks’s face was dark.
“I trust Gavin — the same way he trusts me.
He will come back!” Before long the door opened, and Shanks walked out carrying the sleeping Rouge on his back, Crocus following behind with the infant in his arms, casting a complicated look at the man blocking their way.
“What are you looking at me for?
Hurry up and scram.
I’m having far too good a time fighting the great pirate Hickman D.
Gavin right now to bother with anything else.” Garp turned his head to the other side, paying not the slightest attention to the Red-Haired crew filing past him.
A short while later…
“Brat.
Everyone’s gone.
You can cut loose now, can’t you?
Let this old man see what you’ve got.” Garp cracked his knuckles.
“A wielder of Conqueror’s Haki — don’t tell me it’s all just for show.” Gavin cast a glance up and down the docks, and only once he’d confirmed the Red Force had pulled clear of the harbor did the last of his misgivings settle.
A large part of why he’d been willing to stay was the selfless mother’s love from Rouge that had struck him to the core.
“Haah…” He exhaled.
“A mother’s love really is something, isn’t it, Vice Admiral Garp?” Garp gave a small nod.
“You mean Portgas D.
Rouge.
She truly is a great mother — even I can’t deny that.” Gavin worked his stiff joints, not a trace of fear on his face.
“The South Blue business — you Marines have played it dirty.
Carrying on like this, how are you any different from those garbage Celestial Dragons?” Garp fell silent.
On the one matter of the South Blue, even a Marine Vice Admiral like him had no rebuttal.
“Garp — do you know where the citizens of the Hickman Kingdom all are right now?” A mocking smile crept across Gavin’s face.
“In some Celestial Dragon’s private stock.
The people of the Hickman Kingdom — bundled up and sold off to the Celestial Dragons by the nobles of the Goa Kingdom.
Every last one.
Do you have any idea how many that is?
Don’t you dare tell me a single Celestial Dragon could swallow that many commoners, Garp.
And yet the whole of the seas is watching what happens in the South Blue, while the East Blue’s Hickman Kingdom got buried.
Was that the Fleet Admiral’s doing — or the Five Elders’?” Garp’s fist clenched abruptly.
“There’s no way it was Fleet Admiral Kong!
As for the East Blue…
this old man knows nothing about it.
Brat, enough chit-chat.
If you think you can use this to make me go easy on you, stop dreaming.
This old man has to bring something back to answer for himself today.” Gavin only shook his head, drawing the gold-and-crimson spiritual pressure to wind around his blade and both legs.
His right foot stepped forward, and he appeared before Garp as though he’d stepped across space itself.
“I wouldn’t stoop to a cheap trick like that, Garp.
I only heard you were born in the East Blue, so I thought I’d share these things with a fellow countryman, that’s all.” WHAM!!
Fist and Minazuki collided, ring upon ring of shockwaves rippling outward.
“Conqueror’s Haki wrapped around the blade, is it?
Still — same as that red-haired brat.
Raw!” Drawing on his overwhelming physical strength, Garp barreled straight in.
His left arm turned pitch-black with a crack, and a heavy fist at blinding speed sent Gavin flying.
“Show me your real strength!
I’m a Vice Admiral of Marine Headquarters!
Rankyaku!” A pale-blue blade of light more than ten meters wide came flying out.
Gavin dropped into a crouch, letting the attack sail over his head, and at the same time swept his blade upward to block Garp’s descending fist.
WHAM!!
The fist smashed clean through the Zanpakutō’s guard, driving the flat of the blade along with it into Gavin’s chest.
“That strength really is no joke…” Slipping some distance away with a Shunpo, Gavin wiped the corner of his mouth and fixed his gaze on Garp as the man slowly turned.
A perfect master of all three colors of Haki, a perfect master of the Marines’ Rokushiki, and on top of that a body forged to its very peak.
Gavin had the illusion that a gaze like a natural predator’s had locked onto him — the eyes of a hunter, setting his heart racing, the blood in his veins surging faster and faster.
“Brat, if this is all you’ve got…” Whsh—!
Garp appeared directly in front of Gavin, black-and-red lightning crackling around his clenched right fist.
“…then this old man will personally send you down to Impel Down.” BOOM!!!
The fist came down, and the ground burst apart amid roar after thunderous roar.
From the spraying dust and smoke a fervent gleam of eyes flashed several times — then Gavin was suddenly at Garp’s side, a blade sweeping down.
“Tekkai.” An ear-splitting shriek of metal rang out.
Red light flickered in Garp’s eyes; his left hand smashed out to his left even as his right clenched into a fist.
WHAM!
The instant he clashed with Garp’s left hand, Gavin vanished once more.
“This shift is exactly what I was waiting for.” Garp suddenly spun, baring his teeth in a grin as he swung his right fist.
“Taste this old man’s Fist of Love, pirate Hickman D.
Gavin!” Watching the fist about to slam into his face, a warped, unsteady aura suddenly burst from deep within Gavin’s body and coiled around his left cheek.
Armament Haki!
Under the immense pressure of this battle, the Armament Haki buried deep in his body had finally awakened.
But for the fight at hand, freshly awakened, first-stage Armament Haki was next to useless.
At the very least, it couldn’t turn the tide of the current situation.
Minazuki’s instincts drove Gavin to bend backward, forcing himself into a desperate backbend to slip beneath what should have been an unavoidable fist.
Then he planted both legs against Garp’s stomach and shoved off hard, and even as he flung himself clear of the man, he didn’t forget to carve out a slash.
Squelch— Garp glanced at the wound across his chest, then dissolved into an afterimage and vanished.
“This dull fight ends here.
Since you won’t bring out the strength you’ve been hiding, then come along quietly with this old man.” He’d seen through Gavin’s intent to use him as a whetstone for honing his own skills — but he was a Marine.
Since when did Marines play along with pirates?
As he advanced, the Conqueror’s Haki he’d kept hidden all this while suddenly erupted.
A Conqueror’s Haki only a shade beneath the Pirate King Roger’s own bore down indiscriminately in every direction.
Under the sudden suppression, Gavin’s evasive movements went stiff, his pupils dilating, his breathing thrown into disarray.
A black shadow loomed over him!
Advancing on Soru, Garp came up behind Gavin and looked down at him from on high.
“Brat, this old man is a senior of the seas who fought his way through the Rocks era.
Your Conqueror’s Haki, and that red-haired brat’s — to me they’re no different from children playing house.
Since you’re so fond of learning, this old man will show you what real Conqueror’s Haki infusion looks like.” A perfectly pure smile spread across Garp’s face, black-and-red lightning beginning to wreathe his right fist.
“This punch — I’ll put five parts of my strength into it.
If you can still keep your wits after it lands, I’ll turn around and walk away.
Fist Bone: Impact!” This punch — he couldn’t take it head-on!!
His heart began to hammer wildly; instinct told him that if he really ate this fist head-on, he’d best start preparing for a second transmigration.
But Garp’s fully unleashed Conqueror’s Haki had locked down his every movement.
At that life-or-death crossroads, Gavin felt his body begin to move on its own.
His right hand brought the blade slicing toward the enemy’s throat while his body twisted rapidly backward like a boneless eel.
BOOM—!!
The fist swung through empty air, but the massive explosion he’d braced for never came.
Instead, the corner of Garp’s mouth curved into a victor’s smile.
“I knew there was something odd about that body of yours — looks like I guessed right.
Boy, Observation Haki isn’t something you learn so easily.” An excess of Armament Haki blanketed the nape of his neck, letting Garp bodily absorb Gavin’s decapitating strike.
His left palm shot up in that instant, seizing Gavin’s sword hand in an iron grip to keep him from slipping away again with that uncanny speed.
His right fist, swung once more, was wreathed in Conqueror’s Haki.
“Fist Bone: Impact!” WHAM!!
Garp’s fist buried itself squarely in Gavin’s abdomen, the tremendous force driving through skin and bone to strike straight at the organs beneath.
[Death draws near.
Instinct seal lifted.
“Great Villain” unlocked.
Minazuki · Bankai unlocked.]