Garp's words instantly shattered the relaxed atmosphere on the deck.
He paused. Without waiting for Aiden's reply, he added, almost as if talking to himself, "Tsuru should've explained to you by now what Conqueror's Haki is, right?"
The sea breeze seemed to freeze at this moment.
The sound of the waves seemed to vanish as well.
In Aiden's ears, only the steady, drum-like thud of Garp's heartbeat remained.
Lie?
Tell him, "Roger definitely used Conqueror's, I just toughed it out"?
The moment the thought surfaced, he crushed it.
What a joke! Lying in front of a monster like Garp—how was that any different from sticking your neck onto a guillotine? With his battle-hardened Observation Haki, he could probably sense every accelerated heartbeat and every pore contracting with perfect clarity! Once exposed, Aiden would be labeled "suspicious" immediately. His end would be miserable.
No, that's a dead end.
Then... admit it?
Tell him, "Roger didn't use Conqueror's, I fainted for some other reason"?
Aiden felt his scalp go numb.
That was even more like seeking death! It would be the equivalent of publicly overturning the hero image Vice Admiral Tsuru had built for him. It would be telling this Marine Hero that the entire Marine high command had been fooled by a mere Seaman Recruit! In that moment, Garp's first reaction wouldn't be "Oh, I see," but rather, "What kind of secrets are you hiding?" Being sent to Vegapunk's laboratory table would be the best-case scenario at that point!
No, that's also a dead end.
Aiden's heart felt icy cold.
No... perhaps there was a third path. A path where he didn't have to answer "Yes" or "No."
After a long, suffocating silence, Aiden slowly raised his head.
The panic on his face had vanished, replaced by an expression of someone struggling to stay calm while unable to hide a hint of confusion.
"Reporting, Vice Admiral Garp..." Aiden's voice was steady but slightly dry. "I... cannot give you a 'Yes' or 'No' answer."
Garp's eyebrow twitched slightly.
Aiden began his "performance."
"I don't know if that was what you called 'Conqueror's Haki.'"
Aiden seemed to fall into a painful memory. "On the day of the execution, when I stood behind Roger, I didn't feel any malice or killing intent from him. What I felt was something very strange... a will as vast as the ocean."
His eyes became somewhat hollow, as if his memory had truly returned to the execution day.
"And when the order to execute was given... perhaps I was too nervous, or perhaps it was something else, but I felt like my own spirit was... resonating with his will..."
"Then, my head felt like it was going to explode. After that, I... I don't remember anything."
As Aiden's voice trailed off, the deck fell back into a long, suffocating silence.
Garp simply stared at Aiden without a word, those eyes of his seeming capable of seeing through everything.
One second.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Aiden felt his back completely soaked in cold sweat.
Under Garp's mountain-heavy, sea-deep gaze, even his [Peak] level Observation Haki couldn't perceive a single shred of the man's emotion. It was like a bottomless abyss.
Just as Aiden was about to break and start considering "Plan B," Garp finally spoke.
A brilliant, wide grin broke out on his face.
"Bwahahaha... Ah-hahahaha!"
The deafening laughter finally broke the stalemate on the deck.
"Resonance of will? Kid, your version is way more interesting than Tsuru's story about you tanking Haki!"
Garp's words hit Aiden's heart like a heavy hammer!
He understood instantly—Garp never believed Vice Admiral Tsuru's "hero" theory! He had known it was a lie from the very beginning!
This interrogation today was a trap, a setup specifically designed to trick the truth out of him!
Aiden's mind was in turmoil, but he knew he had won the gamble.
He had bet on Garp's curiosity regarding his old rival, Roger.
A full-of-holes story about "tanking Haki" couldn't satisfy that curiosity.
But a story about "resonance of will," which sounded absurd yet was full of possibilities, scratched Garp's itch perfectly.
"Phew... that was close. Looks like I've bluffed my way through." Aiden let out a long breath in his mind, though his back felt chilled.
Garp's serious face shifted instantly, like a performer changing masks, returning to his usual lazy demeanor.
He burst into his signature laughter again and slapped Aiden's shoulder heavily. The force was so great it made Aiden stagger.
"Bwahahaha! Interesting! You're way more interesting than Tsuru said you were!"
Garp didn't ask another thing about Roger or Conqueror's Haki, as if that suffocating "interrogation" just now had been nothing more than a casual joke.
He sat back down cross-legged, grabbed a rice cracker, and began crunching on it loudly as he waved his hand.
"Alright, go find an empty room in the cabin and settle in. Just remember, don't cause trouble on my ship!"
"Yes, Vice Admiral Garp."
Aiden gave a respectful salute. In his mind, he let out a very long, very deep sigh of relief.
"If anyone ever says Garp is brainless again, I'll be the first to argue! This guy is as sharp as a devil..."
He knew that while his answer had "fooled" Garp for now, it had also completely piqued the curiosity of this legendary man.
His future days... likely wouldn't be very "peaceful."
...
The next few days of the voyage were unexpectedly calm.
Garp seemed to truly treat Aiden as just an ordinary recruit he was dropping off. Aside from eating and sleeping, Garp spent every day standing at the bow, laughing as he threw cannonballs for exercise. He didn't look for Aiden even once.
But Aiden didn't dare let down his guard.
He knew he was staying right next to a sleeping lion. The slightest anomaly could attract unnecessary attention.
In the days that followed, Aiden behaved like the most ordinary Marine—silent, reserved, and rarely leaving his room except to eat in the galley.
One day, Aiden was sitting cross-legged in his small cabin, eyes closed in meditation.
Suddenly, sensing something, he slowly opened his eyes.
He walked to the narrow porthole and looked out.
At the end of the horizon, a massive steel gate stood silently, so enormous it looked like it could completely sever the sky from the sea.
Directly above the gate, two massive words were carved, radiating majesty and a chilling air of authority—Justice.
At that moment, the loud tolling of a bell and the excited shouts of Marine soldiers echoed from outside the cabin.
"Marineford—we've arrived!"
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