"It's over."
"Ice Time Capsule."
A hand wrapped in absolute, bone-deep cold gently pressed against Ace's back.
A piercing chill flooded through his organs in an instant.
The shock and unwillingness frozen on his face, along with the flames that once roared across his body, were sealed in that final moment.
A crystal-clear ice sculpture stood silently among the ruins.
Kuzan finished his work and waved toward the disguised merchant ship in the distance.
The Marines on board immediately landed.
"Use warm water to melt the surface layer. Then cuff him with seastone and guard him closely."
The soldiers began carrying away the ice sculpture containing the Fire Fist.
Kuzan turned and walked back toward the ice coffin sealing Teach.
"Oh?"
Inside the frozen coffin, even though Teach was encased in ice, a faint, barely visible darkness still clung to his body.
As if alive, that darkness stubbornly resisted the freezing power, shielding its host's life.
"Frozen this long and still not dead…"
"Some kind of weird body, maybe."
Kuzan scratched his head.
"Well, I'll just report everything together."
He took out a Den Den Mushi and dialed the Fleet Admiral's private line.
"I just caught a big one."
The atmosphere in the Fleet Admiral's office was the most relaxed it had been in years.
Sengoku lounged with one leg crossed over the other, happily munching on a bag of rice crackers, each bite sounding crisp and cheerful.
Everything was progressing smoothly.
The gold was being converted into the Navy's strength.
Vegapunk's submarines were now in mass production.
Recruit training was more intense than ever.
Just recently, the Five Elders had called, furious over the G-3 branch killing CP0.
Sengoku cursed them out with the force of a hurricane and, in the end, they even sent five hundred billion berries as "emotional compensation."
Ever since becoming Fleet Admiral, aside from the one time he slammed the table at the Five Elders, this was the most relaxed he'd felt.
Tsuru sat nearby, calmly reviewing documents with a cup of tea, unfazed by Sengoku's behavior.
The office doors burst open.
"Sengoku! I'm back!"
Garp barged in with a hearty laugh.
His eyes immediately spotted the rice crackers in Sengoku's hand.
In the next second, he lunged forward.
His fan-sized hand moved faster than lightning and snatched the entire bag.
"Crunch! Crunch!"
He devoured the crackers shamelessly.
Sengoku shot him a sideways glance.
"So? That brat Luffy handled?"
Garp mumbled with a full mouth, "Left him with Zephyr and Hawk."
"I already told them. As long as it doesn't kill him, beat him within an inch of his life."
Sengoku nodded in satisfaction.
Compared to Garp's rough "iron-fist of love" parenting, Zephyr's systematic training was far more reliable.
Hopefully they could straighten out that boy Luffy…
Otherwise they would have no choice but to throw him into Impel Down and let him reflect on his stupidity.
Speaking of which, he wondered how Hawk's Impel Down trial was going.
"Buru buru."
The Den Den Mushi on the desk rang.
Sengoku picked it up.
Kuzan's voice came through.
"I caught a big one."
"The Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division Commander, Fire Fist Ace. And a stray Logia user I ran into. Both captured."
Bang!
Sengoku slammed the desk and shot to his feet.
He couldn't hide his excitement.
"Excellent work, Kuzan!"
"Abandon your original assignment."
"Bring them to Headquarters immediately!"
A storm of joy surged inside Sengoku.
Whitebeard was famously overprotective.
With Ace as bait, reeling in the Whitebeard Pirates would be inevitable.
This was divine providence.
The horn that would signal the dawn of a new era.
Clatter.
The bag of crackers slipped from Garp's hand, spilling golden pieces across the floor.
He froze in place.
The smile vanished from his face.
Ace… had been captured by Kuzan?
Why were his two grandchildren determined to drive their grandfather insane?
"What's wrong, Garp?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru put down her teacup. She immediately sensed something was off and asked gently.
Sengoku's excitement paused, his focus returning to Garp.
"Uh…"
Garp knew he couldn't hide it.
He scratched his head, avoiding Sengoku's eyes.
"Well… Ace is… actually my adopted grandson."
Sengoku's pupils contracted sharply.
In an instant, countless clues snapped together in his mind.
Two years ago, a rising star named Portgas D. Ace tore across the seas like wildfire.
The Navy noticed the "D" in his name and suspected a surviving bloodline of the Pirate King Roger.
The World Government invited Ace to become a Warlord of the Sea.
If the Pirate King's bloodline joined the government, it would have immense symbolic value.
But Ace refused.
He joined the Whitebeard Pirates instead, gaining the protection of "the strongest man in the world."
After that, the Navy never had another chance to act.
Now Kuzan had captured Ace.
This wasn't just catching a notorious pirate.
This was a chance to publicly execute Roger's bloodline, sending a shockwave across every ambitious soul on the seas.
It was also the perfect lure to draw the Whitebeard Pirates into an all-out battle, clearing the path for the Navy to crush a Yonko.
And Garp…
If Garp now said Ace was his adopted grandson, that meant that years ago, when they were hunting for Roger's heir, this old fool had definitely helped hide him.
A volcano erupted inside Sengoku.
He slammed the desk and pointed at Garp.
"Garp, you… reckless idiot!"
He was about to roll up his sleeves and let this old friend taste the fists of Buddha himself when Tsuru quickly stepped between them.
"Now is not the time to settle this!"
Sengoku took a deep breath, forcing his anger down.
"Garp."
"As a Vice Admiral of Headquarters, you know the Navy's plan. You know this momentum cannot be reversed."
"Even you, the hero of the Marines, cannot stop this."
Tsuru sighed softly.
"Garp, the Straw Hat boy just set sail. It isn't too late to turn him around."
"But Ace…"
"He is already a notorious pirate, a commander of the Whitebeard Pirates."
"It is too late for him."
Garp's fist tightened slowly, the knuckles turning white.
What could he say?
There was nothing he could say.
Sengoku was right.
He understood everything.
He knew the era had changed.
The Marines were no longer the organization that balanced justice with compromise.
He knew how Akainu and Hawk operated. The new generation were true iron-blooded Marines.
Luffy had just begun his voyage. He had not committed unforgivable crimes.
With Garp's reputation, he could still be protected.
But Ace…
How could he possibly save Ace?
If the family of Marine officers could be excused simply because of their blood ties, then what meaning did justice hold?
Garp the Marine Hero…
The title "hero" meant that at the decisive moment, one must make choices ordinary people could never bear.
After a long silence, Garp's tense fist finally loosened.
He lifted his head, the pain and struggle in his eyes fading into a dead, heavy calm.
With a voice weighed down by everything he carried, he said:
"Sengoku… I am a Marine."
"Publicly execute Ace."