For him, all of his surroundings vanished, and he was in a pitch-black world where he could feel a stare on his back.
'Y..you… Bastard!!!' Sakazuki wanted to shout but words wouldn't come out, all he could do was stay on his hands and knees unable to move.
It has been like this since that day, any time his thoughts strayed and were on the verge of killing an innocent person he would suffer from this backlash.
And this was…
'Disgusting!!' Sakazuki shouted in his head, 'You are getting in the way!!!' he couldn't handle the pressure but it was eating away at him because every time this happened.
"You are getting in the way of Justice!!!!!!!" He resisted and looked up, shouting at the darkness or more specifically at the eyes that were fixed on him.
He wanted to stand up but...
"Ack!" His body froze as soon as his eyes met the two golden eyes in the dark sky. He felt like he was being crushed just by looking at those eyes directly, it was nothing aside from a simple look, but the effects of that look weren't normal.
"Urgh!" Sakazuki groaned looking at the eyes, blood poured out of his body, and not just his blood—his muscles, skin, bones, organs even his soul; his entire being was trying to scatter about to get out of the way of those eyes.
At this moment, he once again felt like he was an ant.
He felt like an Ant that was being watched by a curious Human, an ant that could be crushed at any time the human wished but, it was watching it wiggle around for fun, letting it enjoy its measly and fleeting life.
'I'll kill you…' Sakazuki fell with a thud, there was no power in his body left.
It was just like that day, 'I'll fucking….. kill you!!!' and with that, he lost consciousness as his entire body was disintegrated.
But this was all in his mind, to Garp and Belle-mere Sakazuki just fell straight to the ground.
"...We'll take our leave," Garp wasn't even bothered by it, and turned towards Belle-mere who was shocked by what happened but…
"Y-Yes," She didn't want to deal with anything more at the moment, she didn't think that such a high-ranking Marine would act this way.
"Also I have concluded that the 'Destroyer of Ohara' hasn't appeared here, I'll make sure that no one else from the Marines bothers you," Garp said as he walked out letting some marine soldiers carry the one who passed out; He was honestly unhappy with the way Sakazuki acted.
But that was beside the point because…
'I don't know where you are heading with this Sengoku,' Garp didn't like this entire fiasco from the start.
But there was nothing much he could do about it, it was a miracle that he had heard what actually happened in Ohara. Otherwise, he'd also be in the dark and believe that Adam was a ruthless criminal.
And while they were moving back to the deck, someone came running…
"Vice Admiral Garp!" Garp turned back, and saw Belle-mere with Genzo who was carrying a crate with him.
"What happened Kiddo?" Garp asked while he continued to eat the rice crackers, but his eyes were fixed on the crate.
"I harvested a lot of tangerines, and we can't eat that many in the village," Belle-mere smiled looking at the crate, "That is why I was wondering if you'd like to take some with you?" She turned to look at Garp ignoring the looks from the other Marines.
'What are you doing Belle-mere?!' Genzo was panicking inside since the guy in front of them is the Hero of the Marines, 'And you are giving him Tangerines you grew in your backyard?' He couldn't understand her point but…
"Of course, I was craving something sweet," Garp laughed and took the crate from Genzo, "but I have a question." He looked at Belle-mere seriously.
"Yes sir," Belle-mere spoke respectfully, even with Sakazuki's behavior Garp's standing in her eyes didn't fall at all.
He was the Hero of the Marines, someone every soldier in the Marines aspired to be like.
"Would you consider joining the Marines again?" And such a person was asking her such a question.
But Belle-mere's answer wasn't going to be changed even if that was the case.
"I am honored sir, But I can't do that," Belle-mere smiled slightly, "I have two daughters that I need to raise." She could probably do that while working in the Marines as well, but she didn't want to do that.
At this point, Nami and Nojiko were the most important part of her life; that is why she didn't want to leave them.
'D-Did she just reject the offer from someone like Vice Admiral Garp?!' Everyone who had heard that exchange couldn't believe their ears.
They couldn't even fathom rejecting such a proposal, since it was basically a dream for many. But here they saw someone reject it without a second thought.
"I see," Garp laughed, he didn't take any of that to heart since he found her reason to be very promising, "Good luck with that, raising the kids is tough, Bwahahaha!" That was all he said to Belle-mere before he turned back and boarded the ship cackling loudly.
A few hours later, the ship left Cocoyashi village and was on its way to Marineford.
As the Marines were running around the ship getting everything in order, Garp was in his cabin eating the tangerines one by one.
And soon he finished them all, he saw the letter at the bottom of the crate.
He opened the letter and it was written by Belle-mere.
'…He really did appear there,' Garp thought reading the letter, he wasn't mad at Belle-mere was lying first and using this method, because he understood the reason she did that.
"This isn't going to cut it," Garp knew that even now, Belle-mere was in as much danger as she would have been if she had told them the truth at the start.
'She'd be in trouble if this information reaches Sengoku, and to the World Government through him,' Garp now understood why he was given this letter by her.
"So, you'll trust my judgment, is that it?" Garp chuckled, Belle-mere was betting on the fact that he would know more about the situation than her, and make the right decision based on that knowledge.
And she was correct, Garp was privy to information that very few people knew regarding Adam's case.
'The World Government is looking for every bit of information they can get on him,' Garp thought getting out of the cabin, 'If this letter reaches them then…' his thoughts stopped as soon as he was on the deck looking at the sea.
"Well it doesn't matter what'll happen, since it will never reach them," Garp tore the letter to pieces and threw it into the ocean, "Bwahahahaha!! Today is a good day!" Before he started to laugh that gave other soldiers a scare.
Whenever Garp was in a good mood, the daily training on the ship would be two times more brutal than normal.
But no one on the ship could save them from the Fist of Love.
And as soon as their ship went away, a smaller vessel with two people in it came over.
"Are you sure that you saw it correctly?" One of them asked and the other one nodded furiously.
"Yes boss, I saw it, he definitely threw some bits of paper into the ocean," The man who seemed like a subordinate was sure.
"You really saw that from so far away?" The Boss was shocked as the subordinate nodded with a vexed expression.
"It was because of what happened that day that I couldn't let go. So, I have trained myself to catch everything that is happening around me," The subordinate couldn't forget that day since he lost so much, there wasn't much money in the purse, "I will never be disgraced like that again!!"
"That's all okay, but jump in the water before we lose the info that was on that paper," The Boss deadpanned as the Subordinate forgot the main part, but thankfully he quickly jumped into the water.
It was just that because of their little shenanigans and the time it took for them to travel to the spot. They ended up losing quite a lot of the pieces since they got swept away.
"This paper is of high quality and the ink also hasn't been smudged…. Must be important information," The boss muttered thinking that they had indeed chanced upon a great piece of information.
"But most of it is gone…." The subordinate didn't look happy but the boss was rearranging the pieces that they got, "We probably won't understand anything."
The subordinate's thoughts were valid, there was no way they'd be able to get any info out of the 5 random pieces that he got, it was ridiculous.
But by sheer luck or perhaps because of a prank played by Fate itself, the five pieces ended up with a line that read.
'The Destroyer of Ohara was the one who saved us from the Pirates, My daughter Nami saw his face clearly.'