Marineford, the impregnable fortress of the World Government.
In the Fleet Admiral's office, Sengoku clutched the receiver of the Den Den Mushi so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand stood out like knotted ropes. The snail, mimicking his enraged expression, looked as though it was about to be crushed into pulp.
"That bastard… Garp, that incorrigible bastard…" he growled through gritted teeth, his chest heaving violently, clearly seething with an uncontrollable rage.
A mysterious entity who could freely traverse different worlds and sell "fragments of time." A never-before-seen powerhouse who could fight a monster like Garp to a bloody standstill. The impact of this information was more world-shattering than if the Five Elders themselves had announced the disbandment of the World Government.
*Thump. Thump.*
A calm knock sounded on the office door.
"Come in," Sengoku said, taking a deep breath and forcibly suppressing the tumultuous storm raging in his heart. He had to regain his composure, his Fleet Admiral's dignity.
The door was pushed open, and a tall man with curly black hair ambled in. He wore a green eye mask pushed up on his forehead and had a perpetually sleepy look on his face. He walked with a lazy, shuffling gait. It was the Marine's highest combat power, Admiral Aokiji, Kuzan.
"Oh my… Fleet Admiral Sengoku, calling me in such a hurry… Has some troublesome great pirate appeared again?" Kuzan yawned, looking so profoundly lazy that he seemed ready to lie down on the floor and fall asleep at any moment.
"A million times more troublesome than a great pirate," Sengoku's grave words made Kuzan stop his yawn halfway. He slowly raised his heavy eyelids and looked at Sengoku with a flicker of interest.
Sengoku didn't waste words. He directly threw a newly compiled, top-secret document across his desk. "See for yourself. The secrecy level of this document is above all others. After you read it, you must keep every word to yourself."
Kuzan lazily caught the document, leaned back on the sofa, and slowly began to flip through the pages. In the grand office, the only sound that remained was the faint, crisp rustle of turning paper.
At first, Kuzan's expression was that of his usual, unchanging laziness. "East Blue… Foosha Village? Is Mr. Garp going back to visit his relatives again?"
But as he read further, his brows furrowed slightly. "Dungeon Shop? One hundred million for a single ticket?" His eyes began to change. "The Strongest Spear… the Third Raikage? Another world?"
When he read the detailed description of Garp, covered in blood, yet laughing wildly as he learned how to walk on water, Kuzan's lazy posture vanished completely. He sat up straight on the sofa, his eyes, which were always half-open and drowsy, were now fully open for the first time. They were filled with an unprecedented solemnity and a profound, bone-deep shock.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku…" he looked up at the man behind the desk, his voice losing its customary drawl. "What's written in this report…"
"Every single word is true," Sengoku's words were as resolute and unyielding as iron.
Kuzan's Adam's apple bobbed up and down. He knew Garp's strength better than anyone. To push that man to such an extent, and even grant him an entirely new power… The weight of this single document was enough to shatter the established order of their entire world.
"So…" Kuzan closed the document, and the aura emanating from him became sharp and focused. "What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to personally go to the East Blue," Sengoku said, interlacing his fingers on the table, his eyes as sharp as knives. "Go and meet this young man named Jack. Do not go as an Admiral. Do not alarm anyone. I want you to figure out who he really is, what he wants, and what his ultimate goal is. Is he a friend… or a foe?"
Sengoku stood up and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window, his hands clasped behind his back as he overlooked the sprawling fortress of Marineford. "Kuzan, you must understand. The importance of this matter has surpassed pirates, surpassed the Revolutionary Army, and has even surpassed the World Government itself. What this individual possesses is enough to change everything in this world."
Kuzan stood up and placed the document carefully back on the table. "I understand." His characteristic laziness returned to his face, but deep in his eyes, there was an unshakeable solemnity. "The East Blue, huh… It truly is a surprising sea. Perfect. I can ride my bicycle and take a little vacation."
…
Back in Foosha Village, the clamor of the port gradually faded away. The villagers who had gathered to watch the excitement also dispersed in twos and threes, returning to their daily lives.
Jack lay back in his rocking chair, enjoying the salty sea breeze of the East Blue, swaying leisurely. This was comfortable. This kind of carefree, untroubled life was what suited him best.
However, he hadn't been able to enjoy it for more than a few minutes when two small, dark shadows fell over his face. Jack impatiently opened one eye.
It was Ace and Luffy. The two boys stood straight and tall in front of him, one on each side, completely blocking the sun. They weren't bickering, nor were they speaking. They just stared at him with an unprecedented, terrifyingly intense gaze. Their eyes were like two wolf cubs, starved for three days, who had just spotted the fattest, juiciest piece of meat in the entire world.
"What do you want?" Jack spoke lazily, not even bothering to lift his eyelids fully. "Can't you see I'm busy with photosynthesis? Go play in the mud, kids."
Luffy's simple mind clearly couldn't comprehend what photosynthesis meant, but he understood the latter half of the sentence. Instead of leaving, he took a step forward, his rubbery head getting closer.
"Hey! You, with the white hair!" Luffy's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable firmness. "Teach us!"
Beside him stood Ace, his freckled face also set in an extremely stubborn expression. He clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails almost dug into his own flesh. "Teach us how to become stronger!"
The two boys said it in near-perfect unison. Their shared stubbornness made the very air around them feel heavy.
Jack finally deigned to open his other eye. He sat up, looking amusedly at the two little runts in front of him, neither of whom was even as tall as his legs.
"Teach you?" He picked at his ear. "Are we close?"
"No!" Luffy answered with a self-righteous confidence. "But you're strong!" He extended his finger, gesticulating wildly in the air. "You just waved your hand, and Grandpa disappeared! Then when Grandpa came back, he was bleeding a lot! But he was still laughing his head off!"
Luffy's thought process was bizarre, but his conclusion was remarkably accurate. He pointed directly at Jack's nose and loudly declared, "So! You're the one who made Grandpa get beat up like that! You're even more amazing than Grandpa!"
Ace's eyes were also filled with a silent, profound agreement. The grandfather who, in his heart, was as unconquerable as a mountain, was sent by this lazy youth to "warm up" and came back covered in wounds. This fact had a devastating impact on their young worldviews. But after the destruction of their preconceived notions came a crazily growing, all-consuming desire.
"Teach us!" Ace gritted his teeth and repeated, his voice strained. "As long as we can get stronger, we'll do anything!"
"We want to set sail, too! We want to be pirates, too!" Luffy waved his small fists, his face full of a burning longing for the future. "I want to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King!"
Jack looked at them. He looked at those two sets of clear eyes, burning with untamed ambition. He pouted, then lay back down, putting his hands behind his head.
"No," he refused simply and directly. "Being a teacher is too much trouble. I don't have the time for that."
"Please!" Luffy directly pounced, grabbing onto Jack's leg and starting to act spoiled. "Please teach us! We eat a lot! Ah no, I mean, we can fight a lot!"
"Get off," Jack said, shaking his leg with a look of disgust, but he found that this rubber kid was like a piece of sticky candy, impossible to shake off.
Ace didn't cling to him like Luffy. He just stood there, staring intently at Jack with those deep, intense eyes—eyes inherited from the Pirate King himself—that held a wisdom and a pain far beyond his years.
"We don't want to wait ten more years," Ace's voice was hoarse, yet it was firm and resounding. "We want to set sail now! We want to gain our freedom now!"
Jack's leg-shaking stopped. He looked down at the straw-hatted brat clinging to his leg, snotty and teary-eyed, still shouting about becoming the Pirate King. Then he glanced over at the black-haired boy with the stubborn face, his eyes filled with a powerful unwillingness to be held back and a fiery defiance.
One was the future Fifth Emperor of the Sea. The other was Whitebeard's future Second Division Commander. These two influential figures, who would one day shake the seas to their very core, were now like two little puppies, circling him, wagging their tails, and begging for a single bone of strength. This scene… it was truly quite interesting.
The corner of Jack's mouth slowly curved into a playful, calculating smile. He extended a finger and pointed it at Ace and Luffy. "It's not impossible for me to teach you."
The two boys' eyes instantly lit up with hope.
"But…" Jack slowly sat up, and right in front of them, he shrewdly rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "My lessons are very expensive, you know."