Chapter 37 - 37: Instant

"With talent like this, being in the Navy is a waste." Watching Garp's ludicrous antics, even Gol D. Roger couldn't help but let out a sigh. He walked to the stern of the ship, just in time to try and "block" the crashing waves. But what he saw next stopped him in his tracks. In an instant, the surging tidal wave was frozen solid—transformed into a towering slide of ice. A long, glistening frozen chute now stretched out before the stunned eyes of the Roger Pirates. "What the hell is that?!" "Wait, is that the power of that brat who was following Garp earlier?!" And atop the icy wave, Garp's warship was now sliding rapidly down the slick frozen chute, hurtling straight toward the Oro Jackson! "Hey hey hey!!" "It's going to crash into us!!" "Hard to port, move, now!!" Some of the crew aboard the Oro Jackson shouted in alarm, spinning the helm furiously to try and steer away. But before the ship could even begin to turn, an intense chill swept toward them. In the blink of an eye, the sea surrounding the Oro Jackson froze solid. The great ship was trapped in place—frozen stiff. "W-We're frozen in!!" "Captain Roger! The sea's frozen solid!" Buggy leaned over the rail, staring at the ice-locked ocean in horror. His voice trembled with panic as he shouted the obvious. "Yeah, I can see that." "That Garp... always full of surprises." Roger muttered as he calmly gripped his blade and walked to the railing, his eyes fixed on the warship speeding toward them. "Roger!!" "You're surrounded, surrender now!" Garp's booming voice rang across the frozen expanse as his warship approached at breakneck speed. When only fifty meters separated the two ships on the verge of collision, Garp, standing boldly at the bow of his dog-headed warship, hurled a punch. The strike exploded with a terrifying surge of Haki, black lightning crackling and dancing wildly as it hurtled toward the Oro Jackson. "Hoh!" "So there's no dodging this one…" "Yaru Damu~! Everyone be careful! Try not to die, alright?!" Roger's eyes narrowed with a rare seriousness, but his voice rang out in laughter as he called to his crew. He swung his blade in a wide arc—CoC (Conqueror's Haki) surged forth, condensing into a black slash that howled across the ice toward the warship. "BOOOOM!!" Garp's punch and Roger's blade strike collided in midair once again. There was no clear winner. But the shockwave from their clash tore across the battlefield, rippling through the frozen ocean and blasting against Garp's ship. The sails billowed in reverse, and the ship that had been speeding toward the Oro Jackson suddenly began to slow. When the dog-headed warship finally skidded to a halt atop the ice, only a few meters separated it from the Oro Jackson. The pirates on Roger's ship and the marines on Garp's warship now stood so close, they could clearly make out each other's faces. "ROGER!!" Standing at the bow, Garp saw his old rival and grinned wide before roaring with laughter. Then, without hesitation, he leapt high into the air—hurtling toward the Oro Jackson alone. "Damn you, Garp!!" "You're still as fired up as ever!" Roger growled and leapt into the air as well, surging toward Garp midair. The two legends met in the sky. Garp's fist shot toward Roger's face. Roger's long blade slashed straight for Garp. Fist and blade collided in midair. A storm of titanic Haki exploded outward from them, rupturing the ice below and even blasting the clouds from the sky above. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! In the air, the two exchanged dozens of strikes in the blink of an eye. Each clash of fist and blade rang out like thunder, shaking the heavens. Moments later, they both landed on the fractured ice, staring each other down with matching grins. Then Garp asked casually, not lifting his fists again: "I heard you're going to see Linlin. Roger—what the hell are you up to?!" Roger, surprisingly candid in the face of a Navy interrogation, didn't bother lying. "I'm looking for the Road Poneglyph." "Doesn't have anything to do with the Navy, does it?" "There are tons of pirates on the sea, why the hell are you always chasing me?!" Roger's tone brimmed with exasperation. His conversation with Garp didn't sound like enemies meeting on the battlefield, it sounded more like old friends catching up. Casual. Unhurried. Free of hostility. "Don't say dumb things. The Navy chasing pirates—that's just common sense." "Besides... I have a feeling." "You, bastard, you're about to do something big. Real big." "So I think it's best to send you and your crew straight to Impel Down before you start shaking the world." Garp said this with a smile. When it came to the Poneglyphs Roger kept talking about, Garp knew a thing or two. But nowhere near as much as Roger. All he really understood was that those ancient stones marked the path to the final island. An island said to be home to the fabled One Piece—a single, boundless treasure. Nearly every pirate who'd ever set sail dreamed of reaching that legendary place. But the truth behind the Poneglyphs had been buried by the World Government. Garp had only learned of them by sheer accident. Still, he had a gut instinct—Roger's goal wasn't just treasure. They'd clashed many times over the years, and Garp considered himself someone who knew Roger well. The man didn't seem the type who would chase riches for their own sake. The Roger Pirates might've been a pirate crew in name, but they were strange ones. From their start in the East Blue all the way to the Grand Line, there hadn't been a single incident of them pillaging innocent civilians. In fact, once, when someone aboard his ship did commit such an act, Roger personally killed the man. Even when the Navy pursued them, Roger and his crew avoided battle when they could. Their run-ins with Marines weren't frequent or particularly bloody. Now, fights with rival pirates? That was another story. But such things were of no concern to the Navy. Still, it wasn't like the Roger Pirates were saints either. They'd once attacked a royal family from a member nation of the World Government. That alone earned them the label of top-level criminals. Then there was Roger's search for the Poneglyphs. The government had caught wind of that too. Combined with their immense strength, it was no wonder the crew's bounties were astronomically high. Garp had always wanted to capture Roger for a simple reason: his strength. A crew that powerful shouldn't be chasing goals that seemed so... beneath them. Roger was aiming for something far grander. Garp didn't know exactly what that was—but whatever it was, there's no way a pirate's ultimate dream could be something like "world peace," right? And that's why Garp had never stopped pursuing him. His instincts told him Roger was about to do something monumental. "Impel Down, huh?" "I don't like that place. Think I'll pass." "Garp, I..." Roger started to say something, but abruptly stopped. His eyes widened. "Oden don't!" he shouted. While the two had been talking, Kozuki Oden had already leapt down from the Oro Jackson. Sensing the overwhelming presence radiating from Garp, Oden couldn't help himself. He wanted to challenge the Marine legend. "Oden Two-Sword Style: Peach Blossom Torrent!!" Kozuki Oden's figure blurred into a streak of black, soaring skyward with a sharp zing. His arm muscles bulged like ropes of steel as he crossed his two swords, Ame no Habakiri and Enma into an "X" and slashed down toward Garp at blinding speed. Both blades surged with Conqueror's Haki, roaring through the air toward their target. Roger's words never even reached him. Oden's mind was filled with just one thing: the thrill of facing a warrior like Garp head-on. Oden had once been the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and even among the "sons" on Whitebeard's ship, he was close enough to call the old man his brother. When Roger snatched him away from Whitebeard, it was no small feat. But until now, Oden had never faced Garp directly. And now, with a warrior's blood boiling inside him, nothing else mattered. "Heheheheh!" "So this is a samurai from Wano, huh?" "He's... really something!" Garp recognized him immediately. He'd never met Oden in person, but he'd seen enough wanted posters to know exactly who he was dealing with. As Oden's twin blades neared, Garp calmly reached out with his right hand— and caught them. Right at the crisscrossed intersection of Ame no Habakiri and Enma. He stopped the full force of Oden's strike with just one hand. The Haki-clad impact exploded outward in a massive shockwave, tearing through the air and shaking the ice beneath their feet. "Samurai—can't you see I'm in the middle of a conversation with Roger?" Garp grinned. With his right hand still gripping the twin blades, he locked eyes with the dumbstruck Oden, then pulled back his left fist. Black lightning crackled and surged along his knuckles, dense as a storm cloud. He drove the fist straight into Oden's face. BOOM!!!!!! The sound rang out like a thunderclap across the frozen sea. The next instant, Oden flew like a cannonball, slamming into the side of the Oro Jackson, punching a gaping hole through the hull, and that wasn't enough to stop him. He shot clean through the ship and crashed into the ice behind it. Even the thick, solid ice cracked open into a massive crater, and Oden's body disappeared into it, plunging into the freezing sea below. "Hmph. These swords aren't bad," Garp said, still casually gripping Oden's weapons in his right hand. "Let's call them your apology gift." "Not like you can bring them into Impel Down anyway." And just like that, with a single punch, Kozuki Oden was sent flying. Even his swords ended up in Garp's hands as spoils of war. ********* Hey everyone! I'll be dropping an extra 1 chapter once we hit 100, 200, 300 power stones! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to spend some power stones. I'd really appreciate the support. Thanks a bunch! For advance chapters, please do visit and consider joining me on Patreon, it really helps me out and I'd love to have you along for the journey! p(a)treon.com/Lnee *remove () to open it