He then took Tashigi and the pirates and left without looking back.
Watching his departing figure, Goku blinked and said, "He's a good guy. Oh, that's right, I still don't know his name."
Their meeting was brief, and they had been busy discussing matters, so he had forgotten to ask for the other party's name.
Seeing this, Nami approached a street vendor and asked, "Hey, do you know the name of the Marine who was just talking to us?"
The vendor looked at her curiously, wondering why these two would have the powerful Captain Smoker come to meet them personally.
"Of course I know. He's the highest-ranking officer of the Marine base here, Captain Smoker!"
"Captain Smoker, huh? Thanks for letting me know."
Nami pondered for a moment, then left and went back to Goku, telling him the name.
"Smoker? So that's his name. I'll remember it."
Goku nodded, silently etching the name into his memory.
After all, the man was Garp's 'friend,' a good person, and had even delivered the things they needed. He was worth remembering.
After this encounter, the two lost interest in wandering the streets further and prepared to head back to store their money and the items they had bought.
Then they would check if Sanji had returned; if so, it would be time for lunch.
On the way back, Nami was now carrying her own large bag of clothes because Goku needed to carry the much heavier money chest.
"Hey, Goku, that Vice Admiral Garp you mentioned before... he wouldn't happen to be that Marine Hero, would he?"
Nami suddenly thought of the name she had heard earlier. When she first heard it, she was stunned and wanted to ask more, but her attention had been immediately diverted by Smoker saying he would arrest them.
"That guy? Yeah, I think I've heard people call him that before," Goku answered nonchalantly.
!!!
Nami came to a dead stop, her eyes wide as saucers.
"It really is the legendary Marine Hero?! Goku, you know him?!"
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Goku tilted his head in confusion.
"What is your relationship with him?! Are you close?!"
"Relationship? Hmm... I'm not really sure how to put it. Grandpa Garp and I are indeed quite close. For a while, I lived and ate with him, and he helped me out a lot. I'm really grateful to him."
"Oh, right, he kept trying to get me to join the Marines, but I wanted to find Master Roshi and Krillin first, so I didn't agree."
Nami stood there, completely dumbfounded.
She recalled Smoker's words and stared at the letter of authorization for a long time.
Then she sighed. "No wonder. I was wondering why the Marines would take the initiative to give us this authorization and why Colonel Nezumi would confess."
"All of this must definitely be linked to your Grandpa Garp."
Under normal circumstances, unless they applied for it themselves, there was no way the Marines would come running to hand them an authorization. Did they think the Marines were subordinates of bounty hunters? Or did they think the Marines had nothing better to do?
And as for Colonel Nezumi's confession, she had never even considered it a possibility.
After all, Colonel Nezumi was the highest-ranking officer of that branch base. He had the full power to suppress the truth, and there was no way he would suddenly turn over a new leaf and take the initiative to confess his crimes, right?
That would be about as likely as the sun rising in the west.
So looking at it now, the reason they were fine and the reason Nezumi confessed was entirely because a heavyweight Marine like Garp had intervened.
Otherwise, Smoker's earlier comment about arresting them most likely wouldn't have been a joke.
"Honestly! Goku, why didn't you say you had this kind of connection earlier!"
Nami wrinkled her nose and spoke with a hint of dissatisfaction.
If she had known Goku was so close to Garp, she could have thrown his weight around when facing Colonel Nezumi.
And she wouldn't have had to worry so much lately about being wanted or arrested by the Marines.
"You didn't ask me," Goku said, looking innocent.
"Hmph! Fine, seeing as we've made quite a bit of money this time, I'll forgive you!"
Nami let out a fake huff and started walking again.
"Let's go! Let's go back and see if Sanji is back yet."
...
Inside the Marine branch base, Smoker was speaking through a Transponder Snail.
"Vice Admiral Garp, the authorization has been handed over to them, and I've given them the bounty money as well."
"How tall is he now? Well... about a meter tall, I suppose. I didn't look too closely."
"Is he thinner than in the photo? Er... probably not. In fact, he seems a bit stronger than in the photo."
"By the way, he has a tail that wasn't in the photo. I wonder if you know about this, Vice Admiral Garp."
"What?!! A tail?!!"
The Transponder Snail vividly mimicked a shocked expression.
Feeling the vibration in his eardrums, Smoker silently moved the Transponder Snail a bit further away before speaking. "Yes, there's a brown tail behind him. It seems you were unaware as well."
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the line before Garp's voice came through: "He didn't have a tail before. This is the first I've heard of this."
"Alright, I'm aware of it now. Let's leave it at that. Thanks for making the trip."
"It's nothing. Even if you hadn't asked, I would have gone to see the kid anyway."
Click.
The call ended.
Smoker leaned against the desk with a cigar in his mouth, resting his chin in his hand as he fell into thought.
Since when did Vice Admiral Garp become a nagging old man who cared about trivial things like height and weight?
Could it be because of his age?
What he didn't know was that the person wanting to ask these questions wasn't Garp, but someone else.
Otherwise, a carefree person like Garp would never care about such things.
At most, he would only say: 'Is he dead? Oh, not dead? Good then.'
...
On the other side, in the base where Colonel Nezumi used to be, after telling Gion over the Transponder Snail that Goku had grown taller and stronger, Garp hung up and also rested his chin in his hand, falling into thought.
A brown tail?
Could it be that Goku is from the Mink Tribe?
But he doesn't have any obvious fur on him.
It couldn't be a cross between a human and a Mink, could it?
...
On the Dream Chaser, when Goku and Nami returned to the ship, Sanji had just finished buying plenty of ingredients and returned as well.
So, under Goku's expectant gaze, Sanji quickly used the fresh ingredients to prepare a feast, allowing Goku to enjoy his meal to his heart's content, exclaiming how comfortable it felt to eat.
Following that, Sanji went out again to continue purchasing more ingredients.
He only ended his shopping trip once the food storage and refrigerator were packed to the brim.
At the same time, Nami timed it right to go to the clothing store and pick up Goku's two new sets of clothes.
Once they confirmed everything was ready, they steered the Dream Chaser away from Loguetown, heading toward the final location before entering the Grand Line.
As they officially set off, on the pier of Foosha Village, Luffy held his straw hat and jumped into a small boat, shouting with his arm raised:
"Ace! Wait for me! I'll definitely catch up to you!"
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]