"What profound swordsmanship!"
Standing beside Wallace, watching the duel, was Navy Petty Officer Tashigi. Her expression was even more dramatic than Wallace, who looked like he'd just been hit in the face by breaking news.
Her brows were furrowed in deep contemplation, her eyes burned with fervent admiration, and her hand clenched tightly around her sword's hilt, radiating a surging fighting spirit.
At that moment, this female swordsman's full attention was locked on the greatsword-wielding knight.
She couldn't help but mutter to herself,
"I didn't expect that such mysterious and profound swordsmanship could truly exist in this world."
"What makes you say that?"
Wallace quickly snapped out of his shock and, letting his journalistic instincts take over, began interviewing the young swordswoman who seemed to see something he couldn't.
Tashigi habitually adjusted the square-framed glasses on her nose. A serious and wise expression quietly settled on her beautiful face.
Wallace felt something was off—he had just seen that exact same wise expression… but where?
"When he fought Captain Smoker earlier, I paid close attention to his sword techniques."
Tashigi stared at Garen, who stood proudly with his sword on the field, and said in a serious tone,
"Every strike looked clumsy—simple slashes and thrusts, with no sign of refined technique."
"And in terms of raw physical capability, he should be weaker than Captain Smoker."
As she continued, the admiration in Tashigi's eyes grew stronger.
"But!"
"Neither Captain Smoker nor Vice Admiral Garp could avoid being struck by that man's sword!"
"So?"
Wallace played along, acting as her straight man.
"This isn't swordsmanship!"
Tashigi declared in a tone filled with awe and reverence,
"This is the Way of the Sword!"
"Not only does every swing strike true, but—"
"Each of his blows carries the exact same force!"
Of course they do. While Garen could control the intensity of his attacks, his digitized body was restricted to a fixed output cap. So, unlike ordinary people who could burst into sudden full strength, every strike Garen made at full power was always exactly the same.
But this kind of consistent output—nearly impossible for normal humans—completely shocked the swordsmanship-obsessed Tashigi.
"Simplistic yet sublime. Hidden beneath the plain, unadorned swordplay is a power that even master swordsmen might spend a lifetime failing to comprehend."
Suddenly inspired, Tashigi went on:
"This resembles a legendary swordsmanship concept."
"What concept?"
Wallace, a complete layman, was totally lost but could tell it was something amazing.
"To cast away all superficial techniques, to abandon all flashy and powerless styles, and return to the sword's primal instincts."
"To begin with one, end with one—without deviation, a single path that reaches the heavens."
"This is the legendary…"
Tashigi solemnly uttered a swordsmanship realm that only existed as theory:
"One Swordsmanship"
"'One Swordsmanship??"
Wallace repeated the mysterious phrase, confused. But he still jotted down Tashigi's entire evaluation word-for-word in his notebook.
After some brief consideration, Wallace added a new, fearsome nickname for Garen in his article—
'A Master Swordsman.'
And as for Tashigi, having finished her impassioned explanation, she gazed longingly at Garen and whispered:
"Such a profound realm... I wonder when I'll ever reach it."
As she spoke, her eyes faintly shimmered with excited light.
Watching all this, Nami stood stiffly to the side, her face frozen in a stiff smile. Internally, she was already considering who else around here needed their brain moisture levels tested.
The reason Tashigi and Wallace had so much time to discuss Garen's swordsmanship realm was that the two duelists had stopped fighting after just a single exchange and entered a mutual standstill.
Garen, of course, didn't dare make a move.
When Garp got serious, the terrifying physical technique he displayed made Garen feel like he was fighting a god.
The Navy's "Six Powers" technique—specifically "Soru"—was pushed to its extreme in Garp's hands.
It moved like a ghostly illusion, yet struck with the force of lightning.
The sheer presence of it left Garen frozen in awe.
It was like a mere mortal had finally raised their head to behold the vast cosmos. He couldn't help but exclaim in admiration:
"Holy shit, he's fast!"
Meanwhile, Garp was also caught off guard.
He had used "Soru" thinking he could easily avoid Garen's bizarre sword strikes.
But just as his body moved like thunder, the approaching sword suddenly accelerated to a terrifying speed, perfectly matching his motion and landing a direct hit before he could escape.
Though the damage itself was negligible, the bizarre accuracy of the strike stunned Garp.
Even more surprising was this—Garp had already realized Garen had some mysterious ability to suppress Devil Fruit powers.
But he never expected—
At the very instant the sword struck him, his Observation Haki vanished.
This ability, honed to instinct over years of training, was suddenly extinguished—like a man with perfect vision going instantly blind.
Garp tried to use Armament Haki next, but that too failed. The once perfectly controlled power was now unreachable.
Fortunately, the strange side effect didn't last long. Garp quickly regained his Haki control.
But the experience left him deep in thought:
He'd seen plenty of things that could suppress Devil Fruits—Seastone, Haki—but something that could suppress even Haki itself?
Even with all his years on the seas, Garp had never heard of such a phenomenon.
After a moment of silence, he moved.
A sudden gale burst across the field. In a flash, Garp appeared directly in front of Garen, who had been on high alert the whole time.
Before Garen could even register his shock, he felt the weight of his sword vanish from his hands.
By the time he recovered, Garp was already several meters away, holding the greatsword and examining it curiously.
"It's not Seastone," Garp muttered as he flipped the ornate sword over and over.
"Top-tier materials and craftsmanship. But nothing obviously special…"
Unable to hold back any longer, Garp looked up and directly asked,
"Even suppressing Haki… how the hell did you do it?"
"Uh?"
Even Garen hadn't realized his Silence effect could suppress Haki too.
"How did I do it…"
After a brief pause, Garen adopted a serious expression and began bullshitting with complete sincerity:
"Actually…"
Everyone leaned in, ears perked.
"I'm a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user. My fruit is…"
"The Knight Knight Fruit."
Garen said it in a deep voice, full of gravitas.
"Huh??"
Everyone was stunned by this wildly mismatched fruit name.
"No way!"
A Navy soldier couldn't help but protest,
"I saw you fall into the ocean through my telescope and you were totally fine!"
"How could you possibly be a Devil Fruit user?!"
"That's because…"
Garen once again activated his noble and righteous persona, putting on the solemn face of a holy paladin:
"Devil Fruit powers come from demons."
"But my Knight Fruit resists the temptation of demons—its power comes from my unwavering justice."
"The sea would never reject my light!"
As he spoke, his shining armor gleamed even brighter under the light of justice.
"Resists demonic temptation? Power drawn from 'justice'?"
Garp carefully mulled over the fancy words and recalled that mysterious sword aura that made people feel inexplicably "righteous."
After a moment's thought, he even supplemented Garen's nonsense with his own logic:
"So… your sword can suppress Devil Fruit powers?"
"But then…"
Garp asked curiously again,
"Why would even Haki be—?"
"Because I'm a Knight who walks the path of Justice!"
With righteous brilliance on his face, Garen pointed to his passionate, burning chest.
"The Sword of Justice can sweep away all evil and wicked!"
"I see…"
Garp nodded seriously, actually buying into the ridiculous explanation.
Not that he had much choice.
For such an unprecedented ability, there really wasn't a better explanation than "some kind of Devil Fruit."
"Suppresses Devil Fruits and Haki… immune to seawater… duplication, invisibility, weird swordsmanship…"
Garp's curiosity deepened.
"Kid, does this 'Knight Fruit' of yours have any other fun abilities?"
"Uh…"
Garen hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Garp—who was still tightly holding onto his greatsword—and gave him a weird look.
"There is one…"
"But you'll want to hold on to my sword really tight."
"Oh?"
Garp was puzzled but instinctively tightened his grip.
He was confident—right now, even if Sengoku showed up with the three Admirals, none of them could pry this sword from his hands.
"This move is called…"
Garen made a gripping motion with his fingers and invented a move on the spot, in line with the 'Knight Fruit' logic:
"A Knight Will Not Die Without his Sword!"
(End of Chapter)