Rengoku had changed out of the Wano-style clothing—kimono, which was fairly familiar to him—into the plain work clothes of a Marine laborer.
And Vice Admiral Garp wore a pleased expression as he looked at him.
The man who was his biological father in this life finally seemed to relax, as if the last of his worries had lifted.
"Then...please take good care of him!"
"Hahaha! Don’t worry, I’ll make this boy into the strongest Marine in history!"
Garp laughed heartily and thumped his chest.
At that boisterous laugh, Rengoku felt a strange sense of kinship.
**
The Marine warship sailed very quickly.
It cut straight toward Marine Headquarters without encountering any real danger along the way.
'Hmm, is this place relatively more peaceful...?'
After several days at sea without any threats, Rengoku began to think that the world he had been reborn into was safer and more peaceful than the one he had lived in before.
That was, until they met a Sea King.
"Sea King sighted off the port side! Sea King sighted off the port side!"
"Vice Admiral Garp! A Sea King has appeared!"
"Judging by its size, it’s an extra-large Sea King! If it charges, the ship could be overturned!"
"Everyone to the battery deck! Battle stations!"
It seemed a Sea King had appeared off the port side of the ship.
Rengoku had no idea what a Sea King was, so he immediately asked Garp.
"Grandfather, what is a Sea King?"
At Rengoku's question, Garp stroked his beard once, then grinned slyly as if he had thought of a good idea.
"Ahem...yes, I’ll tell you about Sea Kings...First, come into your old man's arms. Since one has shown up, seeing an extra-large Sea King is a fine experience for becoming a strong Marine, wouldn’t you say?"
"Yes! Understood!"
Rengoku immediately climbed into Garp's arms.
'Now that I'm up here, I feel like Grandfather is even taller than Gyomei...or is that just my imagination?'
Because he was so small himself, Rengoku didn’t really feel the full impact of Garp’s height, which reached 287 cm.
The tallest man he knew, his former comrade Gyomei Himejima, had been 220 cm, but at the moment he couldn’t really grasp the difference between the two.
Once Rengoku had settled into Garp's arms, Garp called his adjutant over and gave an order.
"Bogard! Bring 'that thing' from the storage room!"
At Garp's words, his adjutant, Bogard, asked in confusion.
"What is 'that thing'?"
"You know, 'that thing'! That thing!"
"Please be more specific. Aside from the soldiers' supplies, the storage room only has your snacks, Vice Admiral."
At Bogard's blunt reply, Garp fidgeted and asked in a whisper.
"Didn’t I pack the big anchor I use?"
"You said this was a routine patrol, so you were told there was no need for that and didn’t bring it, remember?"
"Grrr..."
Originally, Garp had wanted to show Rengoku one of his signature feats: hurling a huge anchor, tens of times heavier than a normal cannonball, with one hand.
Taking down an extra-large Sea King wasn’t difficult, but shooting it down with a cannon felt too stingy and unimpressive.
"Grandfather, if you don’t have a weapon, running away is never something to be ashamed of."
Rengoku didn’t know what Garp meant by "that thing," but he assumed it was some sort of secret weapon.
Still, he knew very well that even an excellent Demon Slayer Corps member would struggle against an oni without a Nichirin blade.
No matter how skilled Garp was with whatever weapon he used, if he didn’t have it, it would all be for nothing. So Rengoku thought it was better to retreat than force the issue.
On the other hand, Rengoku's thoroughly Earth-centered, perfectly normal way of thinking did not apply in this world.
"Khh...Rengoku, were you worried about this old man...? How touching. You’re young, but you’re already mature! But don’t worry, your grandfather will handle everything! Bogard! Bring the spare anchor from the storage room!"
Garp ordered his adjutant Bogard to bring the spare anchor.
The spare anchor was the largest and heaviest object on the warship that could be used as a weapon.
And because of its triangular shape, it could be used less like a blunt weapon and more like a giant spike.
At the vice admiral's unreasonable demand, Bogard sighed and headed for the storage room.
"Now then, let’s go see just how big this Sea King is."
After giving his orders, Garp headed straight for the edge of the deck.
Rengoku also looked at the Sea King in the distance from Garp's arms.
'I-is this really possible?'
Seeing a Sea King for the first time, Rengoku was stunned.
It completely crushed his assumption that it would be something like a giant whale.
'That thing...no matter how you look at it, isn’t that a rabbit? A rabbit that size?'
"Oh, this one’s a rabbit."
The extra-large Sea King had the head of a white rabbit and a body shaped like a whale.
Its whale-like body was covered in rabbit fur.
And what about its size?
True to the label "extra-large," it looked to be at least ten or twenty times the size of the warship.
They were only about 100 meters apart at the moment, but if it wanted to, it could close the distance to the ship in an instant.
Sensing Rengoku's shock, Garp pointed at the Sea King and said,
"Sea Kings that big are usually hard to come by. You’re lucky. The first Sea King you ever see is one this size."
"Vice Admiral! I’ve brought the spare anchor."
Soon after, Bogard arrived at Garp's side with 50 Marines, straining as they pushed the spare anchor on a cart.
Even with fifty grown men using the cart as leverage, the anchor looked to weigh at least ten tons.
"Ah, good work."
Garp patted Bogard on the shoulder, then immediately lifted the anchor with one hand.
Wait, with one hand?
Rengoku rubbed his eyes and looked again, wondering if he had seen wrong.
It was true. Garp had lifted the ton-weight anchor that fifty grown men had been struggling to push with a cart, using only one hand.
Holding it as lightly as if it were a pebble, Garp said to Rengoku,
"Watch closely. This is your grandfather's strength. And this is the strength of the Marines."
Garp shifted his footing slightly, set his stance, and immediately hurled the anchor.
It was so light it looked like he was throwing a baseball.
The flying anchor shot toward the Sea King's neck at cannonball speed.
"Fist-Anchor Throw!"
The name was somehow terribly uncool and trivial, but its power was extraordinary.
Have you ever seen an animal's neck severed cleanly?
Maybe only when a butcher cuts off a pig's head.
For Rengoku, seeing an animal's neck and body separated while it was still alive was a first.
"Ah!"
Garp suddenly scratched his head as if he had just remembered something.
"Is something wrong?"
At Bogard's question, Garp scratched his head hard and replied,
"That thing doesn’t have a chain attached."
"Huh?"
"The chain. It’s not attached."
"Well, the spare anchor only replaces the anchor itself."
"Then we can’t recover it!"
At Vice Admiral Garp's words, Bogard seemed moved for a moment and said,
"So the Vice Admiral has finally learned to cherish his belongings...!"
"If it’s chained on, we can drag it back and have a sea-beast meat party!"
"That’s what this is about?"
**
After the commotion between the vice admiral and his adjutant passed, Rengoku found himself thinking once more about this world.
'This world is strange.'
'Maybe...I can reach a transcendent level here.'
The Upper Rank demon who had killed him in his previous life had kept trying to persuade him.
"Become a demon! Kyojuro! Humans are weak! Only demons can reach the end of strength! Become a demon! Kyojuro!"
Demons were stronger than humans, so those words had made sense then. But in this world, humans could reach such transcendent heights too.
"Grandfather, I want to learn more about this sea!"
Rengoku's passion as a martial artist had returned to its original blaze and begun burning once more.
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