Chapter 38: Brothers Reunited!
"Devil..."
Garp held the unconscious Golden Lion by the collar, chewing on those two familiar words.
The sea breeze blew past, making his cheap floral shirt flap loudly.
Like tossing a sack of potatoes, he threw the Golden Lion onto the back of the massive Sea King beneath his feet.
Lying on the Sea King's broad spine, the Golden Lion coughed up a mouthful of bloody saliva. Summoning his last shred of strength, he spoke.
"Garp... are you really... not going to join forces with this old man?"
His voice was hoarse, sounding like broken bellows.
"You know the darkness of this world... without joining forces... you will only repeat the same mistakes..."
"As long as I don't have a clear affiliation, He won't dare to make a move on the Marines..."
Garp didn't look back. He simply responded indifferently.
"Just wait and see."
"Let's go."
He sat back in his beach chair and crossed his legs again, as if he had just dealt with a trivial matter not worth mentioning.
The Sea King let out a low roar. Its massive body broke through the waves, accelerating toward its destination.
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Punk Hazard, The Abandoned Research Institute, Hidden Room.
The air was frozen solid like ice.
The scorched Den Den Mushi emitted a final wisp of green smoke, giving off a pungent smell.
"Big Mom... Dressrosa..."
"CP0... trading with Kaido..."
"And... Mr. Garp..."
Nami's voice was dry.
As she connected the words she had just heard, she felt the world spinning around her.
"It seems we... heard something incredibly dangerous."
Sanji's cigarette had burned down to the filter without him noticing, scalding his fingers.
"What do we do now?" Chopper covered his mouth tightly with his little hooves.
"We have to leave here immediately!"
Franky lowered his voice. "This place is too dangerous!"
The moment his voice fell—
Creeeeak.
The heavy lead door of the room was slowly pushed open from the outside.
A tall figure, backlit against the light, appeared in the doorway.
The person wore a black top hat adorned with goggles, a blue noble's coat, and had a scar extending from his left eye down his cheek.
In his hand, he gripped a long metal pipe.
"Who are you people?"
The blond young man's voice rang out, filled with vigilance and scrutiny.
"Why are you here?"
Nami and the others instantly tensed up, cold sweat sliding down their foreheads.
"We... we are..."
Nami's brain spun rapidly, trying to fabricate a reasonable excuse.
The blond youth ignored her incoherent stammering.
His gaze passed over the four of them and landed on the strangely shaped ship docked on the floating ice not far away.
"That figurehead..."
A barely perceptible tremor appeared in his voice.
"Is that the Thousand Sunny?"
Meanwhile, deep in the ruins of the Research Institute on the ice field.
"Gomu Gomu no... Grizzly Magnum!"
Luffy inflated both arms.
Coated in pitch-black Armament Haki, they looked like two heavy cannons as he blasted them forward viciously.
"Waaaaah! Stop!"
A gaseous man let out a miserable shriek.
His proud body of gas was forcibly dispersed, compressed, and finally detonated by Luffy's unreasonable fists.
Caesar Clown's body was like a rag doll.
He smashed heavily against a distant steel wall and slid down, completely losing consciousness.
Around them, the giant children who had been rescued cheered with the joy of surviving a disaster.
"Alright! He beat the bad guy!"
"We're saved!"
Zoro sheathed his swords, while Robin smiled and comforted the children.
"Great job, Luffy!" Usopp wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Luffy retracted his fists and dusted off his hands.
"That's what you get for bullying kids!"
He walked toward the unconscious Caesar, seemingly preparing to deliver one final blow.
Just then.
"Luffy!"
A voice came from the entrance of the ruins.
That voice carried a tremor, a trace of disbelief, and the wild ecstasy of regaining something lost.
Luffy's movements stopped.
He slowly turned around.
He saw the blond young man wearing the top hat and holding the pipe.
And behind him, the terrified faces of Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Franky.
Luffy looked at that face.
That face was both familiar and incredibly strange.
Fragments buried in the deepest parts of his memory flooded out like a bursting dam.
The burning town, the cold rainy night, the three sake cups raised high, and that oath that rang through the sky.
Luffy's mouth opened wider and wider.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Two lines of hot liquid slid down his cheeks and smashed onto the cold ground.
"Sa...bo..."
A heart-wrenching scream echoed across the entire ice field.
Like a child, he wailed loudly and charged straight toward that figure.
"Luffy!"
Sabo could no longer suppress his emotions. He spread his arms wide and ran to meet him.
Thud!
The two brothers embraced each other tightly.
"It's so good..."
Luffy's crying was slurred and incoherent.
"You're alive... sob... I thought... I thought you were already..."
"Yeah, Luffy."
Sabo's eyes were red too.
He hugged his regained little brother tightly, his voice choked with emotion.
"I'm back."
This sudden scene left everyone present stunned.
"Who is... that?" The hand gripping Zoro's sword hilt paused slightly.
"Luffy's... brother?" The cigarette in Sanji's mouth fell to the ground.
"How can that be... Isn't Luffy's brother Ace?" Nami covered her mouth, her face filled with shock and tears.
"Another brother? That's great!" Chopper and Usopp were crying even louder than Luffy.
Right in the middle of this deeply touching reunion atmosphere—
The sky suddenly darkened.
An indescribable, massive pressure descended from the heavens.
Immediately following it—
RRRUMBLE!!!
A loud noise, as if the entire island were being shattered, came from not far away.
A massive object, dragging a long trail of smoke like a real meteorite, smashed ruthlessly onto the distant ice field.
The earth trembled violently. Countless massive blocks of ice were shaken into the sky, falling back down like a torrential rain of hail.
Dust obscured everyone's vision.
Everyone froze, shocked by this sudden turn of events.
The dust slowly settled.
A massive, bottomless impact crater had appeared on the ice field.
At the edge of the crater, a figure wearing a floral shirt dusted off his hands and walked out leisurely.
Behind him, lying at the bottom of the crater, was a figure with disheveled blonde hair, life or death unknown.
"Grandpa!"
Luffy and Sabo exclaimed in unison.
"Mr. Garp!" Jinbe's forehead was instantly covered in cold sweat.
"What? Why is that old monster here!"
To the side, the composure on Trafalgar Law's face completely vanished.
"Garp..."
Smoker from the Navy's G-5 Branch bit down on his cigar, his expression solemn to the extreme.
"What did he do this time? And what was that thing that just fell?"
"That person... the one he threw in the pit..."
"It can't be! That hairstyle... that ship's steering wheel..."
"The Golden Lion! It's the legendary pirate, Golden Lion Shiki!"
"He... He knocked a Legend... out of the sky?"
The pirates and marines behind Law and Smoker erupted into terrified roars the moment they saw the figure at the bottom of the pit clearly.
Their worldview was ruthlessly, repeatedly, and completely shattered on this day.
Sabo quickly calmed his excitement.
He let go of Luffy and walked in front of Garp, his expression becoming incredibly serious.
"Grandpa."
He bowed respectfully.
"Supreme Commander Dragon is temporarily tied up by a secret operation regarding the World Government and cannot come."
"He asked me to request your assistance on his behalf."
Sabo turned around and pointed toward the even more turbulent seas of the New World.
His voice was full of determination and sincerity.
"Please lend us a hand!"
"Liberate Dressrosa!"
Sabo's voice suddenly dropped low, the anger contained within it almost bursting forth.
"That country, under Doflamingo's rule, has become a living hell!"
"He turns those who resist into living toys, erasing every trace of their existence from the world, making even their loved ones forget them!"
"He uses the artificial Devil Fruits known as SMILEs to manufacture an endless army of monsters for Kaido, dragging the whole world toward war!"
He clenched his fist, the end of his pipe smashing a small divot into the hard ice.
"We must destroy that SMILE factory!"
Garp glanced at the fighting spirit in Luffy's eyes, then looked at the resolute determination of Sabo.
He grinned, revealing a mouthful of forest-white teeth.
"Doflamingo?"
"Fine."
Garp dug his finger into his ear, looking as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
"This old man was heading to the New World anyway. I'll tag along and play with you brats."
(To be Continued)