Bang… bang…

  “The Navy is here!”

  “Gulp! That warship… no way!”

  “Damn it, it’s Iron Fist Garp! Run!”

  “Captain, our ship has been sunk!”

  “Damn, a big shot has arrived?”

  “Take the back roads! Retreat!”

  Meanwhile, in the first half of the Grand Line, on a smoke-filled, chaotid:

  A pirate ship was struck directly by a series of ining onballs, bsted into pieces, engulfed in fmes, and gradually sank into the sea.

  On the isnd, the pirates who had been looting the vilge froze for a moment before realizing what was happening. Seeing the Navy’s dog-headed warship approag, they panicked and fled in disarray.

  “The pirates are running!”

  “Rescue the injured civilians first!”

  “Pursue them! Don’t let these pirates escape!”

  As the Navy ship docked, armed marines rushed ashore. One group atteo the injured vilgers, while others bed the area in search of the fleeing pirates.

  “Thank you, Navy officers…”

  The injured vilge chief, ed in bandages, led the terrified but surviving vilgers to the harbor. They bowed deeply to Iron Fist Garp, who had just stepped off the warship.

  “We’re so grateful! You arrived just in time!”

  “o thank us. This is what the Navy is supposed to do,” Garp replied. Then he asked, “Are you all okay? Those wless pirates were ag far too brazenly!”

  “No, we’re fine, aside from a few injuries sustained while trying to iate with those ruthless pirates,” the vilge chief said hastily, his face bruised and swollen. “Thanks to your timely arrival, the pirates ran away!”

  “Bwahahaha, that’s good to hear!” Garp ughed heartily.

  “Stay still!”

  “Pirates, don’t even think about esg…”

  “Quit dragging your feet! Move faster!”

  Ihan half an hour, several marines returned with some captured pirates—those who had been iionally left behind as decoys or who hadn’t mao escape in time.

  “Vice Admiral Garp…” A Navy major hurried over, saluting Garp.

  “We only captured a few small fry. The leader, Hammer Krieg, with a bounty of 30 million berries, and his officers fled as soon as they saw us.”

  “They escaped? Clever little rats,” Garp muttered, raising an eyebrow. Then he waved it off. “Prepare to pull out!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “What?”

  “Vice Admiral Garp?”

  “The Navy Vice Admiral with a bounty of 2 billion berries?”

  “2 billion berries…”

  Hearing this, the vilge chief and the other vilgers froze, their eyes widening as they turo stare at Iron Fist Garp. Their eyes gleamed with greed, and they swallowed hard. That bounty… how many lifetimes could it sustain them?

  “Bwahahaha! Seems like I’m pretty famous!”

  Notig the odd looks, Garp furrowed his brow slightly but still ughed with his usual carefree attitude.

  Bang!

  Suddenly, a gunsh out. A bullet whistled through the air, aimed straight at Garp. However, he dodged it effortlessly.

  “Damn it…”

  “There’s a gunman!”

  “Is it a pirate?”

  In an instant, the well-trained marines sprang into a, rushing toward the source of the gunfire. Soon, they apprehehe shooter, who had been hiding in the shadows and was attempting to flee. Dragging him forward, they restrained him in front of everyone.

  “Wait, this must be a misuanding!” the vilge chief excimed, panig as he hurried forward to expin. “Vice Admiral Garp, he’s not a pirate… he’s one of our vilge hunters!”

  “But he was defihe one who just attempted to ambush Vice Admiral Garp. We searched the entire area thhly—there’s no one else it could’ve been!” the lead marine officer retorted, frowning.

  “Yes, yes, I drank too much yesterday and passed out in the woods,” stammered the hunter, a scruffy man in his thirties with a face full of stubble. “The sound of on fire woke me up, and because I was still hungover and groggy, I thought pirates were causing trouble. I must’ve mistaken you for them and fired by instinct…”

  “I swear, it’s all just a big misuanding!”

  “What kind of joke is this?”

  “Still groggy? Mistook us for pirates?”

  “You look perfectly alert to me!”

  A dark-faced marine gred at the hunter, his eyes bzing with anger. With ret events—where many naval officers had been assassinated by civilians and opportunists, driven by the massive bounties posted by Totto Land—it was obvious to the marihat greed had driven this man to attempt an assassination on Vice Admiral Garp for the 20 billion berry bounty.

  “Papa!”

  At that moment, a frail, malnourished girl wearing tattered, patched-up clothes stumbled forward. ging to her father’s leg, she began sobbing, “You bad people, let go of my papa!”

  “Get out of the way!” a marine barked, forcefully pulling the pale, sickly girl aside.

  “Let me go! I’m not a pirate!”

  The restrained huwisted and struggled, shouting desperately, “Aren’t you marines supposed to protect us? How you just arrest an i man? I’m a w-abiding citizen!”

  “Did we get the wrong guy?”

  Garp frowned, his expression serious as he stared ily at the huhe man broke out in a cold sweat but forced himself to appear calm and argued stiffly, “Yes, it’s a misuanding!”

  Stealing a g his daughter, who had been roughly shoved to the ground and was now sobbing untrolbly, and then at the poorly dressed vilgers—clearly impoverished—Garp’s stern face suddenly softened.

  “Bwahahaha!” Garp burst into ughter, tears welling in his eyes. “If it’s a misuanding, the him go!”

  “Vice Admiral Garp—”

  The marines were stunned, utterly baffled by Garp’s words. It ainfully obvious that the man had tried to assassinate him.

  “Let him go…” Garp’s ughter faded as he turned and walked toward the warship, his broad shoulders slumping slightly as if weighed down by fatigue. “We’re leaving. Withdraw the troops.”

  “Y-Yes, sir…”

  Despite their reluce, the marines obeyed the order. They released the hunter who had attempted to assassiheir vice admiral and began b the ship, which sooed from the harbor…

  “Koos, you idiot! What were you thinking?”

  Watg the warship disappear into the distahe vilge chief turned on the hunter, his voice filled with both anger and exasperation. Pointing at the man, who was now trembling and slumped on the ground, the chief scolded him harshly:

  “Do you have any idea who that was? You thought you could kill someone like him? 2 billion berries! Sure, everyoempted by su enormous bounty, but if it were that easy to cim, don’t you think one of those powerful pirates would’ve do already? Why would they run?”

  “Chief, I… I didn’t have a choice…”

  The hunter, Koos, hugged his frail daughter tightly, tears streaming down his face as he muttered helplessly, “Lisa’s mother ran off with some scumbag years ago. My daughter has been sickly since birth, and the medical bills every month are killing me…

  “Half of the little money I make from hunting goes straight to paying that damn ‘Heavenly Tribute’ to keep the Celestial Dragons living in luxury. I ’t make ends meet anymore. If it weren’t for Lisa, I would’ve go to sea as a pirate myself!

  “This damned world!”

  His voice choked as he looked at his daughter’s pale, malnourished fad wept bitterly.

  Bleam