Pa!
Ace kicked off a tree trunk, using the momentum to leap, and in a few swift bounds, landed beside Luffy.
"Ace!" Luffy, hiding behind a tree, was overjoyed. "Why are you here?!"
Ace pointed to his chest with a grin. "What if I said I felt your distress signal from here, would you believe it?"
But just as he was about to laugh, he noticed two figures locked in fierce combat deep in the forest.
"Who the hell is that guy?" Ace was stunned and gasped. "So strong! He's actually going toe-to-toe with that old man?!"
"Can't tell, huh? That's Big Bro Shano!"
"Him?!"
Ace furrowed his brows, squinting for a closer look.
He had indeed grown taller and bulkier, but looking at the side of his face, it was unmistakably the same guy who had knocked him out cold with just a few casual punches and kicks last year.
"So he was really that strong..."
Gulp — Ace swallowed hard. He used to feel embarrassed about getting beaten unconscious, and had trained relentlessly for a whole year just to get his pride back.
Now it seemed that back then, Shano had been holding back significantly. Even if Sabo were still alive and the ASL trio went at him together, they wouldn't last a single punch.
Boom!
With a fierce spinning kick, Shano sent Garp crashing into the cliffside. The impact shook the entire mountain.
"You little monster, you can change direction in mid-air multiple times?!"
Garp laughed heartily, brushing off the smoke. His knuckles cracked audibly. "You've mastered both 'Shave' and 'Moonwalk' this thoroughly? Where the hell did you steal Rokushiki from?!"
"No one taught me! It's all hard work and sweat!"
Shano laughed too. The old man really was something — after a brief exchange, he had silently limited his strength and speed to Shano's level.
That meant...
It was now a pure test of physique and combat reflexes — a brutal clash of muscle against muscle.
They'd been going at it for half an hour, still evenly matched. Every punch landed heavy. It was an exhilarating brawl.
The forest, however, had taken a beating. Trees had fallen everywhere, and the ground was a mess.
"No, no, this won't do. We'll be fighting till sundown at this rate." Garp scratched his head. "Raising my power wouldn't be fair, so how about this instead…"
As he spoke—
His right fist suddenly turned jet-black, as if dipped in ink. He looked up at Shano in the trees with a toothy grin.
"Better be careful, brat!"
Damn it, he's getting serious?!
Shano's eyes narrowed as he watched Garp charge. With a stomp of the ground, his afterimage lingered while his real body appeared behind Garp.
He planned to strike first — a solid, clean punch aimed at Garp's neck.
But just before it landed—
The old man, as if he had eyes on his back, caught Shano's wrist and threw him with an over-the-shoulder toss. At the same time, that ink-black right fist smashed into Shano's chest!
Thud!
Shano was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing into the ground. Cracks spider-webbed outward from the impact, spreading all the way to where Luffy and Ace were standing.
At the epicenter, dust shot up high and hung in the air, with no sign of movement for a long while.
"Big Bro Shano!"
Luffy panicked, rushing over to help him up. "What are you doing, old man?! Why'd you hit him so hard?!"
"Heh…" Garp landed without a word, eyes fixed on the dust cloud.
He didn't believe that brat couldn't take it.
The kid had insane strength and speed, sure, but what surprised Garp most was his incredible body durability.
His bones were like steel — multiple times they were almost broken under Garp's punches, but with a shake of his arms, Shano would be good as new.
And his head — like a steel ball. Before Garp even used Armament Haki, punching that skull hurt his own hand.
Fourteen years old… just fourteen!!!
This kid was only two years older than Ace but already ten times stronger.
Garp now regretted his earlier decision. He shouldn't have insisted on letting him go. Should've just taken him by force and talked sense into him later.
Screw a Rear Admiral — this kid could be a Vice Admiral when he's grown!
As the dust cleared—
Sure enough, Shano stood back up with nothing more than a shake of his head.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his chest had a slight dent, but his presence remained fierce and steady. His eyes still burned with battle lust.
"Cheating, huh," Shano grinned. "Using Armament is one thing, but you even threw in Observation."
He touched his chest. The aura of Garp's Armament Haki was still lingering, clearly detectable around the wound.
Shano closed his eyes to feel it, then suddenly licked the blood off his lips greedily.
"More!"
With a roar, he tore off his tattered shirt. His muscular frame shimmered under the sunlight with a bronze, metallic gleam.
"Whoa!!!" Luffy and Ace's eyes bulged.
In their awe-filled gazes, Shano stomped off the ground, soared high above the forest using Moonwalk, and sent a punch crashing down toward Garp's head.
The force behind it ripped the air apart. Garp's dog-head hat flapped wildly in the gust — yet his wrinkled face curled into a smile of pure excitement.
"Good! Come on!"
He stepped back, then launched an uppercut with his jet-black fist, leaving a dark afterimage like a swinging warhammer.
The dark fist reflected in Shano's pupils — but he didn't dodge.
He met it head-on with his own punch!
Crack!
Unlike earlier, now Garp's fist was much stronger. Shano could hear his bones creaking under the pressure.
Yet the tingling numbness spreading from his knuckles felt searing hot — like ants crawling through his veins, biting deep into his marrow. Painful and addictive.
"Huff... huff…"
Panting hard, he refused to yield. On the contrary, his eyes gleamed with hunger as he grinned wide.
"C'mon, old man! Use your left hand too!"
Even before finishing the sentence, Shano's left fist had already swung toward Garp's shoulder — and Garp, laughing, swung his left fist to meet it.
BOOM!!!
The moment their fists clashed, a shockwave exploded outward in all directions!
"Oh crap, we're too close!!"
Ace hugged the tree tightly to avoid being blown away.
Luffy quickly twisted his arms like a spiral and latched onto Ace's leg. But his hat was blown away, spinning through the air and landing on a treetop — revealing his wide, stunned eyes.
"My hat…"
Thump! Shano happened to be knocked back onto that same branch. Glancing at the hat, he picked it up and tossed it toward Luffy — only for it to vanish mid-air.
"Check my bag!"
He laughed and lunged at Garp again.
"Huh?"
Luffy blinked, then rushed toward the giant rock where Shano had left his backpack. Sure enough, the familiar hat was sitting neatly inside.
"Whoa, his magic's leveled up! That's even cooler!!"
Listening to the shouting below, Shano smirked. But his movements didn't stop. He clashed fists with Garp once again.
Punch after punch, they exchanged blows like a raging storm — over a hundred rounds in no time.
By now, Garp could faintly sense a familiar, domineering aura radiating from Shano's strikes.
"Incredible comprehension," Garp murmured, gripping Shano's fist tightly. "Didn't expect you to start syncing with Haki so clearly this soon. You're even beginning to fuse it into your attacks. The next step — wrapping!"
"—Wrap it around your body, even your weapons! Make it visible like smoke, and it'll boost your attacks. That's the entry point!"
"But to do that, you'll need time to practice. And I don't have time to babysit, so we're skipping ahead. Listen up!"
"The second stage! Once you can wrap it, you'll learn to harden it! Concentrate the smoke-like Haki into a glue-like coating — attach it at will to enhance specific parts!"
Both of Garp's arms turned pitch black.
"Like this!"
BAM!
His hardened elbow suddenly struck upward, smashing into Shano's face. Shano, hands tied with Garp's fists, couldn't dodge — he took the hit head-on.
He cried out and flew off the cliff, crashing deep into the rocky layers below.
After a long, painful coughing fit, he finally spat out a large mouthful of blood. Just as he started to catch his breath, something felt wrong in his mouth — he reached in and pulled out two teeth.
"I'm already past the teething stage! These aren't growing back!"
Climbing out of the crater, Shano fumed. "Old man! Can't you aim better?! At least go for the wisdom teeth!"
"Idiot! Fourteen-year-olds don't have wisdom teeth!" Garp scoffed. "Look closely — when you can harden specific body parts at will like I just did, that's step two. That's all I can teach you!"
"As for anything beyond this…"
Pa! Garp landed from the air. "Master this step first. The path forward depends on your own goals — or your own talents — and it can branch out in many directions."
"For example…"
He glanced at Luffy. "Some people focus on extreme concentration — condensing all their Armament into a tiny spot, like the tip of a bullet, for terrifying burst damage."
Why are you looking at me?! Luffy looked totally confused.
But Shano immediately understood — Garp was referring to Red-Haired's first mate, Benn Beckman. When that gun was raised, even certain uncles had to show respect.
"Others," Garp continued, glaring hard at Luffy before turning away, "aim for full-body defense — covering their whole body in Haki to eliminate weak spots and become impenetrable."
This time, he didn't name names.
Shano, deep in thought, instantly recalled Doflamingo's elite — the guy who went undercover for years and ended up a G-Branch commander: Vergo.