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"Greetings, gentlemen!"
"My name is Rengoku Kyojuro!"
"I was once a demon slayer serving as the Flame Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps on Earth!"
"I was surely defeated in the battle against an Upper Rank demon while protecting the Mugen Train!"
"But it seems my time had not yet come, for I have been reincarnated here!"
"I do not know where this is, but judging by the way space is shaking, I am probably aboard a ship!"
Shudder
"Ugh... So, you’re the blacksmith who fled Wano with the Kurozumi faction?"
The proud Marines of justice!
Among them, the legendary Marine known as a hero!
Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp sat picking his nose as he met with a man in private.
"That’s correct."
At Garp’s words, the man answered cautiously.
"If you’re a blacksmith from Wano, does that make you a samurai? Like Oden?"
At the name "Oden," the man flinched and waved his hands frantically.
"I’m nowhere near worthy of being compared to Lord Oden! I have no talent for swordsmanship!"
"Oh..."
Garp still kept picking his nose, whether he had heard the man or not impossible to tell.
The man continued.
"Besides, not everyone from Wano is a samurai. And even among samurai, those as strong as Lord Oden are extremely rare in Wano itself."
"I see..."
Garp’s gaze drifted away from the man.
"In any case, thank you for helping us in a hurry. If it hadn’t been for you, Vice Admiral, my child and I would probably have lost our lives at sea..."
The man bowed deeply to Garp in gratitude.
"Oooh!!"
As if something had caught in his throat, Garp suddenly shouted in excitement.
Bang!
"What’s going on?"
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
"As expected, a Wano samurai is trying to assassinate him...!"
At Garp’s shout, the adjutant and Marines waiting outside rushed in all at once.
Seeing the Marines burst in in a panic, Garp pulled the finger he’d been digging with out of his nose and held it out to his subordinates.
"Look at this."
"Huh?"
"I got a huge booger!"
"......"
"......"
"......"
"Pull yourself together, Vice Admiral!!!"
After a round of complaints from his subordinates, Garp finally spoke to the man.
"I understand what you’re saying. For now, you do seem to be an ordinary civilian, separate from the samurai in the report... So what do you plan to do from here?"
At Garp’s question, the man hesitated for a moment, then seemed to steel himself and spoke.
"Please... I want you to take my child in, Vice Admiral!"
"What?"
"Exactly as I said! Please take my child into the Marines!"
Garp was baffled by the man’s sudden request, but at the same time it made him think of the kids back in his homeland.
"But why all of a sudden? Tell me the reason."
At Garp’s question, the man immediately took off his top.
His upper body was covered in countless sword wounds.
Most of them had healed over, but it was still clear he had gone through a brutal fight.
"My life is already as good as half gone! When I escaped Wano, I was in such bad shape that I had to be given emergency treatment with amateur-level medicine."
Garp snorted at the man’s old-fashioned excuse.
"I thought it was something serious. These kinds of injuries would be completely healed if I went to Marine Headquarters and had the medical staff take a look."
"No!!"
The man shouted firmly.
Seeing that reaction, Garp seemed to change his mind and asked calmly.
"Is there some reason for that?"
Realizing he had been rude, the man immediately dropped into a dogeza and apologized.
"I-I’m sorry. I was so desperate that I was rude..."
"It’s fine, so go on and tell me."
With Garp’s permission, the man continued.
"Do you know the Kurozumi faction?"
"Mm, I’ve heard the basics. They’re the blacksmith line that made the first generation of Shusui, one of the Twelve Supreme Grade Blades, right?"
"Yes. Shusui... one of the Twelve Supreme Grade Blades, the finest swords in the world. But it is also a cursed blade. Swords touched by the Kurozumi faction usually become cursed blades."
"Cursed blade?"
"Yes. A cursed blade is a monstrous weapon that takes the user’s life."
"Isn’t that all just superstition?"
"No. Right now, the two treasured blades of Lord Oden that you know of, Enma and Ame no Habakiri, Enma is one of the cursed blades. Enma is a cursed sword that forcibly absorbs the user’s Haki and uses it. It steals all kinds of Haki by force."
"Then..."
Seeing Garp’s expression, the man nodded and continued.
"Yes. Even Conqueror’s Haki is no exception."
"What a terrifying thing."
"That is how frightening cursed blades are. But ironically, the Kurozumi faction are blacksmiths who make such blades. During the forging process, they naturally absorb the maker’s Haki. For someone like me, who has no Haki, they even drain away life force."
"So you’re saying you’ve had a lot of your life force drained already."
"Yes. I helped forge the Third Generation Shusui, which is now carrying on the Kurozumi line. How old do I look to you?"
At the man’s question, Garp looked him over once and answered.
"A little younger than me, maybe?"
"I’m thirty this year."
"What?!"
Garp’s eyes went wide in shock.
By appearance alone, the man was unmistakably in his sixties.
The man gave a dry laugh and said,
"I’m an ordinary man with no talent. I just happened to grow up under the Kurozumi faction and stubbornly forced my way into helping forge the Third Generation Shusui. But I must have overdone it, because when it was finished and I looked in the mirror, I had become this."
After hearing the man’s words, Garp fell silent.
"...Anyway, even if medical treatment could heal me, my lifespan is not intact. That is why I am entrusting my child to you, Vice Admiral."
Thud!
The man pushed back his chair and dropped to his knees before Garp.
"Please... take my child in... I beg you."
He bowed his head, showing Garp the utmost respect.
Looking at him, Garp suddenly thought of an old friend.
"......"
"......"
"......"
After a long silence, Garp let out a sigh and spoke.
"I understand. I’ll take the child in. What about you, then?"
"Though my skills are nothing special, I have devoted my whole life to being a blacksmith of the Kurozumi faction. In the time I have left, I want to give everything I have to create the finest work of my life and present it to my child as a gift."
Seeing the resolve in the man’s eyes, Garp nodded.
"I’ll contact one of the factories that supplies Marine Headquarters and have them lend you a workshop to use."
"Thank you!"
Garp and the man entered the room where Rengoku had been waiting and explained everything from start to finish.
Starting with the blades of the Kurozumi faction, then the circumstances within Wano.
The current location and the Marines’ standing in the world.
How Rengoku and the man had ended up aboard this Marine warship.
The promise between the man and Garp, and Rengoku’s future course.
The two of them took turns explaining everything as simply as possible, at the level of a small child.
Because if the child showed even the slightest sign of refusal, that would become a problem in its own right.
Fortunately, Rengoku possessed the soul of an adult, so he immediately understood what they meant and showed no resistance.
After listening to them, Rengoku nodded.
"Understood! Then I’ll go with this old man!"
Contrary to the expectations of the man and Garp, Rengoku obediently said he would follow Garp.
To Rengoku, the man before him was a new father he had never met before, but a father was still a father, so he intended to respect his wishes. And as the former strongest fighter of the Demon Slayer Corps, the Flame Hashira, he felt a powerful pull from Garp’s presence.
Heroes recognize heroes!
"Then... first we need to know your name. Hey, what’s this child’s name?"
Garp pointed at Rengoku and asked the man.
The man paused for a moment, then answered.
"In Wano naming style... it is Rengoku Kyojuro."
"Rengoku Kyojuro... that’s a fine name, but since being from Wano might cause trouble, I think it’d be better to use Rengoku publicly."
"Then let Kyojuro be his hidden name."
A hidden name, meaning a name one keeps back; a real name, but not one that needs to be revealed.
It was the moment when Rengoku Kyojuro became Rengoku.
"All right, Rengoku, first let’s get you changed into different clothes. Wano clothes will stand out too much and look out of place at Marine Headquarters."
"Understood. Then what should I call the elder here?"
At Rengoku’s question, Garp stroked his bushy beard once and said,
"What should you call me... hmm..."
For a moment, Garp thought of his own troublesome grandson and adopted grandson back home, both of whom stubbornly insisted that they would never become Marines no matter what.
Instead of becoming proud members of the Marines, they were shouting that they wanted to be filthy pirates...
That damn red-haired bastard! I’ll curse him for the rest of my life!
Setting aside his grudge against a certain red-haired pirate for the moment, Garp looked back at Rengoku.
Seeing that the boy’s age was roughly the same as his grandsons, Garp spoke.
"Yes! Call me Grandpa!"
"Understood, Grandpa!"
"Gahaha! Good! Let’s go! From now on, you’ll be born as a brave warrior of the sea, a Marine!"
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