Bardock was still happily stuffing his face with Makino's delicious cooking when the tardy Enel finally arrived, materializing in the doorway in a bright flash of lightning.
"What took you so long? Get lost on the way?" Bardock teased, wiping his mouth.
"Yeah, Enel, it's such a short distance. How did you arrive later than us when we literally had to hike over a massive mountain?"
"Don't tell me you actually caught that green-haired idiot's curse?"
The rest of the crew immediately chimed in, laughing and throwing jokes at the Lightning God.
However, Enel didn't snap back with his usual arrogance. His expression was completely grim. "I ran into the Navy," he said, his voice dropping into a serious tone. "Specifically, Monkey D. Garp."
"What?!"
The lively, relaxed atmosphere inside the tavern instantly died. The title 'Hero of the Marines' carried a terrifying amount of weight. Bardock had frequently educated them about the true apex monsters of the sea, so encountering Garp meant massive, potentially lethal trouble.
Bardock paused mid-chew for a second, his golden eyes narrowing, before he calmly resumed eating.
In those brief few seconds, his mind rapidly calculated the variables. If a full-scale battle broke out on land, Bardock was absolutely confident he had the strength to retreat in one piece against Garp. The problem was that he couldn't guarantee the safety of his entire crew against such a monstrous opponent. However, realizing they were currently sitting in Foosha Village—Garp's beloved hometown—Bardock felt a massive wave of relief. Garp would never go all-out and risk destroying the village.
With his mind at ease, Bardock wasn't in a rush. "Where is Garp now? Did you guys exchange blows?"
Enel shook his head, then nodded. "I don't know exactly where they are right now. I steered the ship to lure them away from the island, cranked the engines to maximum to break their line of sight, and then immediately activated the White Dragon's flight capabilities."
Enel pointed upward. "Right now, the White Dragon is floating securely inside the thick cloud cover directly above us. I have no idea where Garp's warship sailed off to chase me."
Enel sighed, leaning against the wall. "Since I was alone on the ship, it wasn't exactly convenient to engage them in a full-blown naval battle. I just casually threw down a few El Thor blasts to slow them down. But the weird part is... not a single Marine on that ship was injured. It seems their warship was specifically retrofitted with heavy-duty lightning rods. Oh, and Garp literally threw cannonballs at the ship with his bare hands."
"As expected of Navy Headquarters," Bardock praised, genuinely impressed. "They're already modifying their warships to specifically counter us. Installing anti-lightning defenses this quickly means they came fully prepared."
Bardock hesitated for a moment, debating whether he should order an immediate, tactical retreat. Garp was an impossibly tough bone to chew, and there was absolutely no strategic benefit to fighting him right now.
But retreating before even laying eyes on the man? His pride fiercely refused. He wasn't some no-name rookie pirate anymore. Even against the legendary Hero of the Marines, he absolutely refused to tuck his tail and flee at the mere mention of his name.
Suddenly, Enel frowned, tapping his elongated earlobe. "They just showed up on my Mantra. They'll reach the village port in a few minutes. Weird... how did they track us back here so perfectly?"
Little did Enel know, on the deck of the iconic, dog-headed warship currently pulling into the bay, Garp was cursing up an absolute storm.
He had sailed all the way from the Grand Line, chasing this phantom crew across the East Blue, yet hadn't even caught a glimpse of their shadows until today.
Originally, Garp wasn't even remotely enthusiastic about this assignment. He just wanted a convenient, government-funded excuse to visit his grandsons. But because Bardock had maliciously leaked the Captain Nezumi scandal directly to Morgans, Fleet Admiral Sengoku had been calling Garp's Den Den Mushi every few days to scream at him, completely ruining Garp's mood to break his personal donut-eating record.
When he had finally spotted the golden galleon on the sea today, he was stunned by how impossibly fast it was.
'Is the Navy Science Division just eating rice all day?!' Garp had grumbled internally as the pirate ship rapidly outpaced them. Their standard warships couldn't even compare. Since he had lost visual contact, he figured he'd just stop chasing them. He had a perfect excuse ready—'they were too fast'—so Sengoku couldn't complain too much.
Since his warship was already in the waters of the Goa Kingdom, Garp decided they might as well dock and rest. It was the perfect time to drop in on Luffy and Ace and forcefully 'persuade' them with his Fists of Love to become Marines when they grew up.
'Damn that Red-Haired brat...' Garp thought fiercely, his knuckles cracking. 'If I ever see him again, I won't let him off easy for poisoning my grandson's mind.'
"Hm?"
As the warship neared the familiar docks of Foosha Village, Garp's incredibly refined Observation Haki instantly locked onto several terrifyingly strong, condensed auras radiating from the absolute center of his hometown. One of them was the exact same lightning-user he had just been chasing!
"Bogard!" Garp barked, his demeanor instantly shifting from a grumpy old man to a lethal Marine Hero. "I'm heading on ahead! Take command of the ship and follow me in!"
Bogard, Garp's fiercely loyal, silent right-hand man, understood the urgency perfectly. "Yes, Vice Admiral Garp!"
Garp leapt from the bow of the ship, violently kicking off the empty air using Geppo (Moonwalk) to rapidly launch himself toward the village. His expression was incredibly grim. He didn't know what these powerful pirates wanted in the East Blue, but if they dared to lay a single finger on the innocent citizens of Foosha Village, he would absolutely make them taste the full, devastating power of his Iron Fist.
Back in Foosha Village, Bardock and his crew had already exited Makino's bar and were standing firmly in the middle of the dirt road.
Hearing the explosive sonic booms echoing from the sky, everyone looked up. Seeing a massive, heavily muscled silhouette rapidly stepping through the empty air toward them, everyone's hearts skipped a beat. They all knew exactly who was approaching.
Garp moved with terrifying speed. Within seconds, he crashed down from the sky, landing heavily on the dirt road directly in front of Bardock's crew, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Slowly, the towering Vice Admiral stood up straight, shrugging off his iconic Marine coat, his eyes locked dead onto Bardock.
Like a needle pressing against an awl, the two forces stood locked in a tense, suffocating standoff. The atmosphere was completely explosive, ready to detonate at any second.