Lorne closed the crudely made logbook as his small boat caught the sea breeze, sailing toward the Sambas Region marked within.
"Before heading to the Grand Line, it seems like a fine choice to enjoy some top-tier cuisine first."
He stretched lazily, his joints letting out a series of crisp pops, his entire being radiating an air of leisure.
He casually grabbed a gold coin from Krieg's treasure chest and flipped it with his fingertips; the coin traced a glittering arc in the sunlight.
To him, these things were merely convenient tools for travel, far less attractive than a delicious meal.
Furthermore, several consecutive days of sailing had been dull and tedious; as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but shifting clouds and endless azure.
Lorne leaned against the small boat's mast, boredly chewing on his last piece of rock-hard dry rations, the coarse texture driving his craving for fine food to its peak.
Just as Lorne's small boat was leisurely sailing toward the land of gourmet food, a violent storm was brewing in the heart of the Navy, Marineford.
Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral's Office.
CRASH!
A ceramic cup was slammed onto the floor, shattering into pieces. Scalding coffee splashed onto a snowy-white goatee, but the owner of the office seemed completely oblivious.
"Bastard!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku the Buddha's usually majestic face was covered in veins. He tightly gripped a battle report that had just arrived via top-level emergency communication, the blood vessels on the back of his hand bulging like knotted ropes.
The content of the report was outrageously simple.
The Overlord of the East Blue, the Krieg Pirates, along with their thirty warships and three thousand pirates, were completely annihilated on the outskirts of the Sambas Region.
No, using the word 'annihilated' was no longer accurate enough.
They were frozen solid.
Thirty ships were frozen atop a vast ice field. The three thousand pirates on board, without exception, had all been turned into ice sculptures, pierced through from the inside by hideous ice spikes.
And the culprit behind it all was the very 'frost fairy' Lorne, for whom they had issued an eighty-million bounty just a few days ago.
"Eighty million?"
Sengoku felt his temples throbbing violently, a dizzying sensation of soaring blood pressure rushing to his head.
"The Intelligence Department calls this eighty million? Are they joking with me!"
Another report lay on the desk before him, concerning the Arlong Pirates.
Placed together, the two reports clearly outlined the silhouette of a terrifying existence they knew absolutely nothing about.
"One person... froze an entire fleet?"
A Vice Admiral present repeated the conclusion with a dry voice; he himself found it absurd.
This was no longer a matter of strength; this was a natural disaster.
"This level of control over Fruit abilities is probably not inferior to Kuzan's!"
Sengoku roared. He recalled the description of the ice spikes growing from within the bodies in the report; that represented an extremely subtle and precise level of control over the ability.
Was this really something the Logia-type Yuki Yuki no Mi could achieve? Or was there some even higher-tier Ice-type Fruit?
The office door was suddenly pushed open, and Garp walked in grandly, munching on a rice cracker.
"What's all the shouting about, Sengoku? I could hear your yelling from next door."
Seeing Garp's nonchalant attitude, Sengoku's anger reached its peak. He grabbed the report from the desk and slammed it into Garp's face.
"See for yourself! This is the 'interesting, troublesome brat' you mentioned! He turned the entire Krieg fleet into an ice sculpture exhibition! Three thousand people! Garp! What kind of monster did you actually encounter in the East Blue!"
Garp caught the report with ease, casually scanning it while crunching on his rice cracker.
When he saw the descriptions of the 'frozen fleet' and 'ice spikes piercing bodies,' his chewing motion slowly came to a halt.
"Bwahahahaha!"
Suddenly, Garp erupted into earth-shattering laughter, laughing so hard that tears nearly came out.
He slapped Sengoku's expensive desk with his palm, sending documents flying everywhere.
"Interesting! Too interesting! As expected of the man I took a liking to! Well done!"
"Garp!!"
The veins on Sengoku's forehead were nearly bursting.
"Is this the time for that! This man's danger level has far exceeded our estimates! An eighty-million bounty will only attract more idiots like Krieg to their deaths, while simultaneously causing the world to severely underestimate his threat!"
"So what?"
Garp picked his nose and asked back indifferently:
"It's just pirate trash dying anyway; it's a good way to clean up the sea. As for the bounty, can't you just increase it?"
"You..."
Sengoku was so infuriated by Garp's bastard logic that he nearly choked.
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