On Black Island, Bullet was standing on a small hill, watching the five approaching Navy Headquarters warships.
Beneath his feet were rows of shattered buildings and countless corpses twisted in agony. Blood had streamed across the ground in vast patches. The air was thick with the stench of scorched earth and gore—so strong that even the sea breeze from the ruined harbor couldn't wash it away.
Yet a sharp sixth sense left him faintly uneasy.
Still, his body was fully recovered. His stamina had returned to its peak.
Right now, even if he faced an admiral of the Navy, he would dare charge straight at them!
Ever since personally witnessing Gold Roger's public execution at Marineford, Bullet had felt as though life had lost its meaning—no goals, no purpose. In his eyes, there was no one left in the world worth challenging for a lifetime. With his terrifying talent, it was only a matter of time before he surpassed every other so-called great figure—except Roger. The rest were all incompetents who'd fall behind within a few years.
This time, he had purposely waited for the Navy to arrive. Since Roger had died at the hands of the Navy, then it was only right that he sink a few warships and slaughter tens of thousands of marines in return!
And if he did meet a Navy admiral? Heh—he didn't think defeating one was out of reach.
...
"Since the order is for me to take him on one-on-one, your job is to surround the island and make sure no one interferes!"
Garp looked at the island less than a kilometer away. Unable to contain his excitement, he gave one last reminder, then slammed his foot heavily onto the deck. Instantly, the entire dog-headed warship trembled atop the sea.
Then, like a human cannonball, he tore through the sound barrier, launching forward with a shockwave trailing behind him. Left behind was Vice Admiral Bogard, unfazed as always, standing steady with his longsword in hand.
...
[Whoosh————]
On the island, Bullet noticed a sharp whistling sound tearing through the sky from afar. In the blink of an eye, there was a deafening boom. A large section of the ruined town below shook as though struck by artillery. Several damaged buildings nearby collapsed completely.
Moments later, a black silhouette stepped out from the billowing smoke.
"Yo, Little Bullet. Long time no see~" Garp grinned brightly, eyes gleaming with mischief as he stared at Bullet atop the hill.
On the other side, Bullet's brow furrowed the instant he saw who it was. His expression hardened, and his entire body tensed—muscles taut, instincts on full alert.
He knew it.
This fight was going to be tough.
Bullet's gaze sharpened. The aura and battle spirit surging from him burned like blue flames.
"Even if you're Garp, you'll have to pay a price to defeat me!" he growled, rolling his thick neck with a cold smirk.
"Bwahaha! Not bad—plenty of fire in you," Garp laughed. "It's just a damn shame you became a pirate. You used to be a kingdom's general, a proper soldier. How the hell did you end up boarding that bastard Roger's ship?"
The look in Garp's eyes was filled with regret as he continued: "And you even ate that useless Devil Fruit! What the hell does that thing even do for you? That bastard Roger didn't even try to stop you!"
Hearing Garp repeatedly call Roger a 'bastard' only fueled Barrett's anger.
Roger had been his captain—his role model, the man he'd always tried to surpass.
How could he just stand there and let someone insult Roger like that?
"I don't regret getting on Roger's ship!" Bullet roared.
"If it weren't for the Clank-Clank Fruit, I'd have died years ago in that war-torn country where the fighting never ends!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a surge of deep-blue energy exploded from Bullet's body, rippling outward in a shockwave that swept in all directions.
Garp stood there calmly as the blast passed over him, his Justice cape flapping wildly behind him—but his body remained completely still, as immovable as a mountain.
"You've already mastered control over your Conqueror's Haki? Not bad. You're a lot stronger than last time," Garp remarked casually.
"But you've made way too much noise this time, kid. I'll definitely be taking you to Impel Down. So you'd better savor this fight—because after this, you'll be spending a very long time in a dark cell."
"You old bastard! Don't you dare look down on me!"
Bullet's eyes blazed with fury and killing intent. He was the first to move, enveloped in a deep-blue aura as he charged forward, the ground crumbling and collapsing beneath his feet with every step.
"DIE!!"
In the blink of an eye, he closed the 200-meter gap between them. His dark fists, glowing blue, slammed together above his head like a battering ram, and came crashing down with a sonic boom toward Garp
[THOOM—]
A black iron fist, slightly smaller in size, rocketed upward to meet him. A deafening metallic clang echoed out as the two fists collided.
Semi-transparent shockwaves rippled outward in expanding rings from the point of impact, each wave more intense than the last.
The ground within a 100-meter radius beneath Garp's feet shattered completely. The surrounding buildings were ripped apart and sent flying by the force of the blast.
"Impossible!"
Bullet's eyes were wide with disbelief. He had thrown everything into that strike—and yet, he couldn't even budge that 'tiny' black iron fist.
[BANG!]
The next second, a brutal pain exploded in his gut.
It was Garp's other iron fist—driven straight into Bullet's abdomen.
[BOOM!]
The monstrous force detonated in his stomach, and Bullet was sent flying back even faster than he'd charged forward, crashing into the rocky hillside behind him and kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris.
"You little punk! If you think you can beat my iron fists, you'd better train for another hundred years!" Garp roared with a booming laugh.
At the same time, a thought crossed his mind: those rumors about Bullet fighting Rayleigh to a draw… yeah, not so reliable. Or maybe Rayleigh had gone easy on him.
Because based on that last display of strength, Bullet hadn't yet stepped into the realm of the world's top fighters.
At the same time, the rocks that had buried Bullet began to tremble, and the area of vibration rapidly expanded and bulged upward.
In just a few seconds, a rock giant—estimated to be over 30 meters tall—rose to its full height before Garp.
And that wasn't the end of it.
A layer of blue-black material spread across the surface of the rocky giant like flowing lacquer, quickly coating it from top to bottom.
In an instant, the originally earthen-colored colossus transformed into a metallic blue-black giant, gleaming with a steel-like sheen.
The figure was so massive that even the Marines stationed aboard the warships guarding the island's perimeter could clearly see it, drawing startled gasps from the crew.
But despite Bullet's dramatic transformation, Garp simply looked bored, digging in his nose and curling his lip with disdain.
"Sure, it looks impressive," he said dismissively, "but it's all for show—completely useless."
"Come on, Garp!"
"Let's tear this place apart!"
The blue-black giant roared into the sky. Bullet swung his massive arms, each thick and long like a ship's mast, sending out a flurry of deafening shockwaves as countless afterimages of his fists filled the air, raining down on Garp like a storm.
[BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!]
A relentless downpour of powerful punches pounded Garp's position, burying him in a cloud of chaos. The ground beneath caved in and shattered, while thick plumes of smoke billowed high into the sky, so dense that not even a hand could be seen through them.
Bullet's eyes were filled with madness. At that moment, Roger's image resurfaced in his mind.
Why?
Why did a man as unimaginably powerful as you… just die like that?
I told you, didn't I? Only the weak—only the weak die so easily!
He still vividly remembered the day he challenged Roger to a duel.
But now what? Who was he supposed to surpass now? Who was left to defeat? Who could he conquer to truly become the world's strongest?
"Kid, when you're in a fight, you'd better keep your focus!"
The voice came suddenly, right by his ear. Bullet, still mid-swing, froze.
Garp's figure had somehow appeared behind him!
Just as he turned his head, a black iron fist—tiny compared to his massive frame—slammed into his cheek. The force behind the punch twisted his neck and stretched it unnaturally, sending his entire body crashing to the ground with a thunderous boom.
Pain!
Unbearable, searing pain!
Bullet hadn't expected Garp's punch to hurt so much. His body was wrapped in layers of rock, and further reinforced with his prized Armament Haki.
Yet that seemingly small fist carried some strange force, a kind of piercing power that ignored all surface defense and drilled into him like a nail driven into his core.
"Kid… you're awfully lonely, aren't you?"