Bang bang bang bang—
A dense burst of gunfire suddenly tore through the air.
Bullets howled out like rain, all of them flying straight toward Da Hong.
Faced with the sudden volley, Da Hong neither dodged nor blocked.
He took every single bullet head-on with his body.
In the blink of an eye, his entire body was covered with embedded rounds.
But none of them pierced through him.
Instead, they all stuck to him as if they had been hammered into solid steel.
Then—
His body gave a violent shake.
The bullets lodged in him shot back out instantly, blasting down the Marines before they could even fire a second round.
Before the rest of the soldiers could react, Da Hong flashed away toward the mountain behind the village.
Inside the Tavern
The sudden gunfire ringing through the night instantly silenced the lively tavern.
"This is bad, this is bad!"
"There's fighting at the dock!"
"It sounds like it's Vice Admiral Garp!"
The moment the villagers outside shouted the news, the tavern exploded into chaos.
"Don't tell me pirates came into the village and ran into Vice Admiral Garp?!"
"Quick, everyone go take a look!"
As one bold villager jumped up and ran for the door, the others followed in a rush.
Before long, only Kairo and Makino were left inside.
Kairo glanced out the window and noticed that a warship had docked outside at some point. A trace of surprise flashed across his face.
The villagers of Foosha Village couldn't possibly mistake Garp's warship.
Which meant that Garp had traveled from the waters near Loguetown to Foosha Village in roughly a single day.
By that calculation, the distance between the two wasn't actually that great if one didn't waste time on the way.
Of course, none of that was important right now.
What mattered was this:
The fight at the dock was most likely between Garp and Da Hong.
It couldn't be Droopy or the green rabbit.
If Droopy had joined the fight, the scene wouldn't look like this at all.
As for the green rabbit, combat clearly wasn't his specialty. He was more suited to post-battle reconstruction—or helping Da Hong whenever some absurd problem showed up.
Thinking that through, Kairo finally broke his silence and looked at Makino behind the counter.
"Makino, let's go outside too."
"There's a good chance this fight is just a misunderstanding."
At the Dock
By the time Kairo and Makino reached the shore, the villagers had already gathered there in full.
Some were staring at Kairo's ship.
Others were looking toward the Marine warship.
On the warship's deck, the Marines were in total disarray.
Some were tending to wounded comrades.
Others stood with guns raised, aiming nervously at Droopy and the green rabbit, who were still sitting there calmly drinking red wine and eating steak on Kairo's ship.
"Mr. Kairo, w-what is going on?!"
The moment Kairo arrived, a middle-aged villager ran over to him anxiously.
"It seems your… your pets got into a conflict with the Marines! The Marines are saying one of your Da Hong chased Vice Admiral Garp into the mountain behind the village!"
Boom boom boom—
Before the man had even finished speaking, a series of thunderous impacts erupted from the back mountain.
Then, from within the forest, two figures—one red, one white—burst out and continued fighting all the way up one of the peaks.
The sudden explosions instantly drew the attention of every villager and every Marine at the dock.
But the distance was too great.
All anyone could see were two blurred figures repeatedly crashing into one another at terrifying speed—then vanishing again.
"Mr. Kairo, please stop them!"
"Yes, Mr. Kairo, there has to be some misunderstanding! Can you call your rabbit back first?"
More and more villagers crowded around Kairo, begging him to stop the fight.
Kairo slowly swept his gaze across them.
"Everyone, that Da Hong is not my pet."
"His name is Da Hong, and he is a very important companion of mine."
"For years, I've traveled the world. Without him protecting me, I might have been killed by pirates long ago."
"In fact, the Marines themselves have mistaken us for pirates more than once and tried to arrest us!"
"Before I arrived in Foosha Village, Vice Admiral Garp also opened fire on us without even giving a warning."
"So now that he has shown up here, my companion Da Hong is most likely just trying to reason with him."
"Don't worry, though. He's only a rabbit. His temper's a bit bad, but he probably won't actually hurt Vice Admiral Garp."
BOOM!
The instant Kairo finished speaking, another explosion rang out from the mountain.
Then a figure shot straight down toward Foosha Village at incredible speed.
Before anyone could react, it crashed into a patch of sand near the shore like a cannonball.
The impact blew a huge crater into the beach.
Cough, cough—
Under the stunned gaze of the villagers and Marines alike, Garp dragged himself out of the crater in utter embarrassment and coughed up two mouthfuls of blood.
"Mr. Kairo, this is what you mean by 'he probably won't hurt Vice Admiral Garp'?!"
"Vice Admiral Garp just got blasted back here!"
"What kind of rabbit even is that?! He's way too strong!"
"Mr. Kairo, make your companion Da Hong stop! At this rate, Vice Admiral Garp is going to…"
"Everyone, please don't worry!"
Kairo spoke again immediately, full of confidence.
"Vice Admiral Garp is most likely just having a friendly spar with my companion Da Hong."
"You're all villagers of Foosha Village—you should know Vice Admiral Garp better than I do."
"He's the famous Hero of the Marines. We should believe in him!"
"He's coughing blood and you're calling this a friendly spar?!"
"AAAAAH! Vice Admiral Garp got punched until he coughed blood by a rabbit!"
Just as the villagers collectively descended into confusion, Garp's furious shout rang out.
"Rabbit, enough already!"
Having just climbed out of the crater, Garp widened his eyes as he watched Da Hong charge toward him at terrifying speed.
"I only stepped on the canvas sneaker once! Do you really have to go this far?! At worst, this old man will buy you a new pair!"
At this point, Garp's mentality was starting to crack.
He never would have dreamed that stepping on a single sneaker would provoke such a savage counterattack.
And the worst part wasn't even the retaliation itself—
It was the rabbit's strength.
The more Garp fought, the more alarmed he became.
Since joining the Marines, this was the first time he had ever encountered a being that could overpower him through pure brute force alone.
With decades of combat experience, Garp could already tell:
This Da Hong's combat power was at the very least above Admiral level.
And for a terrifying powerhouse like that—
The last thing he wanted was to offend him any further.
After all, up to this point, Garp still hadn't heard of a single crime committed by Da Hong or the mysterious boy on the ship.
A being with overwhelming strength and a clean record—
As a Vice Admiral of Marine Headquarters, Garp naturally couldn't help thinking about the future of the Marines.
If he could somehow drag such a monster into Marine Headquarters…
It would be like giving the Marines wings.
Da Hong, however, paid no attention to Garp's thoughts.
He blasted forward at unbelievable speed and instantly arrived in front of him.
Then his fist—massive as a sledgehammer—came crashing down.
"Damn it!"
Faced with the rabbit's relentless assault, Garp finally couldn't help cursing aloud.
This time, he stopped holding back.
In an instant, Armament Haki covered his entire body.
His raised fist turned deep black and gleaming—
And he swung it up to meet the blow head-on.