On the ground, Kuro gritted his teeth against the pain and forced himself to speak.
"You... how did you see through my disguise, and how do you know all of that?"
He could not understand it. In his mind, there were no flaws in his plan. No one should have known.
He had always believed he had tied up every loose end. Other than the hypnotist, his first mate Jango, everyone else who knew about the plan had already been killed by his own hand.
And Jango had been hypnotized by Kuro himself, so he no longer remembered the truth. It was, in Kuro's view, a perfectly sealed scheme.
He had even gone personally to watch his stand in die, then watched the Marines cancel his bounty.
Yet this man in front of him had laid the whole thing bare with a single sentence.
That shook him far more than having his arm crushed.
He knew he would not be escaping today. But before he died, he at least wanted to know how he had been exposed. He refused to die confused.
"You really want to know?"
Amon looked into Kuro's searching eyes, amusement in his tone.
"Yes."
Kuro nodded.
"No, you do not."
Amon shook his head.
He covered Kaya's eyes with one hand, then raised his foot and kicked hard.
With a dull thud, Kuro's body flew straight off the edge of the cliff and vanished into the sea below.
Under Amon's strength, he died so thoroughly there was nothing left to say.
Some things could not be spoken, and there was no need to explain anything to a dead man.
...
"Sir... was that uncle really a bad person?"
Kaya blinked her big eyes and stared at the spot where Kuro had disappeared into the waves. She was both frightened and curious.
"Of course he was."
Amon ruffled her hair gently.
"Did you not see, once I exposed him, he immediately tried to kill people to silence them? So, Kaya, when you meet strangers in the future, you must not trust them so easily."
If someone came at her openly, Amon was not worried. What he feared were schemes and tricks. Those were the things that really hurt kind children like Kaya.
"Mm, I understand. I will listen to you."
She nodded hard. The terrifying look on Kuro's face at the end had already been burned into her memory.
"Good. As long as you remember that. Now go play. I am going back to sleep."
Amon clapped his hands, as if he had only taken out the trash, turned around, and headed back toward the villa.
He intended to enjoy a proper second round of sleep.
"Hmph. You really are a big lazy bug."
Watching his back as he walked away, Kaya puffed her cheeks in annoyance. She was very dissatisfied with this lazy merchant.
She stuck her tongue out at his back, then happily ran off with Kirlia to continue playing.
...
While Amon was crawling back into bed in Syrup Village, far away on the Grand Line, Marine Headquarters was in an unusual uproar.
Because one man, after taking half a year of "vacation", had finally decided to return.
Hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp.
This time, his return had everything to do with Amon.
After Amon beat a Celestial Dragon bloody and Sengoku contacted Garp about it, Garp had left East Blue. He was coming back specifically to get Amon's arrest order canceled.
After all, he owed that jar merchant a very big favor.
Yes, in the beginning he had been brutally scammed from hundred million beri all the way up to a one billion.
But after he opened those jars, he had not actually lost out at all.
He had gained several powerful life saving trumps, and more importantly, a fist technique that greatly boosted his combat strength.
The more Garp trained in it, the more he felt his previous flaws. The way it talked about borrowing force and dissolving force was simply exquisite.
The most important part was, he discovered this technique even had a health preserving function.
At his age, the body could not help but decline.
In his youth, when he chased Roger all over the sea, he had earned his reputation and left his body covered in injuries.
Back then, he had never worried about his health. Now, looking back, he wanted to cry thinking about it.
His body was already fully developed. He could barely keep from sliding backwards, but had no way to climb any higher.
That was why Aikido had delighted him. By redirecting force and turning one point of strength into two, even if his raw power no longer increased, his actual fighting ability had risen sharply compared to before.
Originally, that alone had been enough to surprise him.
What really made him overjoyed, though, was something else.
The style's "health benefits".
The dark injuries and hidden ailments he had accumulated all over his body in his earlier years had begun to improve bit by bit.
Most importantly, parts of him that he thought would never stand tall again... started to show signs of improvement.
That, to an old man like him, was simply heavenly grace.
His gratitude toward Amon rose with every passing day.
So when he heard Marine Headquarters wanted to arrest Amon, he headed back at once.
...
Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral's office.
Sengoku sat behind his desk, goat nearby nibbling on documents as he read through a confidential report from the spies.
He was frowning, wondering how to handle all of this, when a loud, rough voice boomed from outside the door.
"Sengoku! I am back!"
The words had barely fallen when Garp walked in wearing his lieutenant general coat and his trademark dog head cap.
He was casually eating a bag of donuts as he strolled in.
"Garp, you old bastard, you still know how to come back?"
Hearing the voice, Sengoku did not even need to look up to know who it was.
He kept his eyes on the report and grumbled,
"We agreed on one month of vacation. You went to East Blue and stayed there for half a year."
Garp took a huge bite of donut and plopped himself down.
"By the way," Sengoku suddenly added, as if he had just remembered something, "when are you going to repay my one billion beri?"
Not knowing why Garp was in such a rush this time, Sengoku decided to take the chance to remind him about the debt.
"This can be talked about later. Do you think I am the kind of person who does not pay back money?"
Garp waved his big hand arrogantly.
"Three years ago you said the same thing."
Before he could keep talking, Sengoku calmly stabbed him with a reminder.
"Uh... that part is not important."
Garp coughed and quickly changed the subject.
"I came back this time to have you do me a favor. Cancel the arrest order on that jar merchant for me."
He was asking Sengoku for something, but his tone was as blunt and forceful as ever. There was not the slightest sense of someone begging.
"Old bastard, is that your attitude when you are the one asking for a favor?"
Sengoku's face darkened at once.
This guy, seriously.
Then he snorted and added,
"Besides, you are late."
"Late?"
Garp froze.
"You said you sent Borsalino this time. That guy does not normally go for the kill. How could it be too late?"
In that instant, Garp misunderstood and thought Amon had already been killed.