One Piece: Starting with God Valley, intercepting the Dark-Dark Fruit

"Thank you, Uncle Garin."

A smile played on Garin's lips as he waved his hand and said,

"Go back. There's no need for thanks between us. After all, you're my nephew."

After saying that, he took out a newspaper from his pocket and unfolded it. Gigg glanced at it with a puzzled look. It was almost entirely about the Roger Pirates.

After Rocks' death, Roger's influence at sea grew even stronger, and his affairs naturally became a major focus for newspapers, such as which country he appeared in or which pirate crew he defeated.

The newspaper featured a story about Roger causing chaos in a country, and at the top was a picture of the Roger Pirates.

The photo shows soldiers with their eyes rolled back everywhere, while Roger stands on a blood-soaked officer, grinning broadly, with the Roger Pirates members behind him.

Lucia also saw the photo, and her face showed deep disgust. She said hatefully,

"Damn pirates, they're a bunch of scum!"

After calming the agitated Lucia for a while, Giger turned to the silent Garin and asked,

"Uncle Garin, what do you mean by showing me this? Are you warning me to be careful of Roger?"

Garin silently pointed to the edge of the photo, where there was a child wearing a straw hat. Because he occupied such a small portion of the frame, Giger hadn't noticed him earlier.

But upon closer inspection, he immediately recognized the child wearing the straw hat as Shanks, one of the Four Emperors in the future.

At the same time, he recalled the speculations about the red-haired man's background on Earth; he might very well be Garin's son!

Garin's next words further convinced Giger of his guess.

"Now that you've become a Marine, you might run into the Roger Pirates one day. That pirate crew is indeed very strong, so you'd better be careful."

After giving Giger a few instructions, Garin paused, then looked at the photo of Shanks and said...

"Also, if you run into this guy... spare his life."

Giger didn't ask anything; he simply nodded and said,

"I understand, Uncle Garin, don't worry."

Garin raised his head, gave Giger a deep look, and slowly said,

Don't you want to know who he is?

"I don't need to know that. I only know that he must be someone very important to Uncle Garin, hehe, maybe similar to me?"

Garin paused for a moment, then nodded slightly and said,

"Yes, you two are equally important to me, and I don't want you to become enemies."

"Should I find a way to bring him back?"

"No, I once told you to choose your own path, and that applies to him as well."

At this point, Garin's tall frame suddenly slumped. He sighed heavily again, looked up at the gradually full moon in the sky, and whispered,

"But his path has already diverged from ours."

After saying that, Garin left alone, leaving only one sentence behind.

"Tomorrow I will arrange a ship to take you back in the name of the World Government. Get some rest tonight."

Giger didn't speak, but simply watched as Garin's figure gradually disappeared into the night.

......

The next day, Giger and Lucia boarded the ship arranged by Garin.

Giger stood on the deck, looking up at the Red Earth. He could feel a pair of sharp eyes watching him from that top.

Only after the Red Line had completely disappeared from sight did Giger turn back to the cabin and talk to Lucia about the naval academy, so that she could learn about it in advance and adapt to life there more quickly.

On the training grounds of the naval academy, Akainu and Kuma were engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat. Neither of them used any Devil Fruit abilities; they simply exchanged blows with their fists covered in Armament Haki.

Akainu's size appeared somewhat small compared to Kuma, but judging from their confrontation, Kuma was clearly being suppressed by Akainu, retreating step by step under Akainu's ferocious attacks, which were like a volcanic eruption.

Kizaru was eating a banana nearby, watching with great interest. Strawberry, with his extremely high forehead, sat squatting beside him and said...

"Borsalino, aren't you going to go up and spar with Sakazuki? I think the bear is about to give up."

Kizaru casually tossed the banana peel into the air, where it was instantly reduced to ashes by a laser beam. He stood up, stretched, wiggled his rear, and lazily said...

"I'm not going. It's rare for the old man to be away, so I might as well relax. What's the point of fighting?"

Storoberry, used to Kizaru's ways, shrugged and said...

"I wonder what happened to Professor Zephyr today, he hasn't come over yet."

"Who knows? Go for it, Xiong! I believe in you!"

At this moment, in Zephyr's office,

Zefa was looking intently at a resume on the table. The resume photo showed a stunningly beautiful young girl, but her expression seemed somewhat indifferent.

He wasn't drawn to the photo; what caught his eye was the information on the resume.

"Darkseid Lucia, Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan type, Fallen Angel form."

Chapter 61 Return to the Navy

Darkseid? Gigg's cousin?

Zefa couldn't help but recall what Sengoku had told him about Gige's background. He hadn't really taken it to heart at first, but now things were different, and he couldn't help but care.

Goodness gracious! My cousin is a Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit user, and now I have a Mythical Zoan-type cousin too. What a coincidence!

Are top-tier Devil Fruits specifically targeted at people with the surname Darkseid?

A low-probability event happening once could be considered a coincidence, but it happening twice in a row is quite unusual. Zephyr was almost certain that Giggs and Lucia's Devil Fruits were bestowed upon them by the forces behind them.

Thinking of this, Zefa was secretly alarmed, wondering what kind of force this was that could have such a grand scheme?

As Zefa was deep in thought, a sudden burst of chaotic noise outside the window interrupted his thoughts.

"These brats! I was only gone for a short while and they've already gone completely out of control! It must be Borsalino who started it!"

Zefa walked to the window with a dark expression and looked towards the training ground. He immediately understood what was going on.

It turned out that Gigg had returned, and standing beside him was a graceful black-haired girl. Although they were some distance apart, Zephyr knew that she must be Lucia, the one mentioned in the resume.

On the training field, Ginny practically clung to Giger, rubbing her pretty face against him. Lucia frowned slightly at the sight, but didn't say anything.

On the ship, Giger had already introduced her to several of his close associates, with Ginny naturally being the focus of his description. Lucia knew how important Ginny was to Giger.

Gion, who was in the crowd, also wanted to go up and say a few words to Giger, but she knew that given her relationship with Giger, going up at this time would only cause embarrassment.

She glanced at Lucia, who had been standing quietly beside Giger, her eyes filled with amusement.

Just now, Giger introduced Lucia to everyone, saying she was his cousin, but she, being observant, saw through the trickery.

The way Lucia looked at Giggs could not possibly be that of cousins; her affection for him was almost overflowing.

Noticing someone staring at her, Lucia frowned slightly, turned to meet Gion's gaze, and slowly placed her right hand on the hilt of the sword, Tsukimei.

Gion's expression changed. She sensed a strange sense of crisis from Lucia, which meant that Lucia's strength was likely above her own.

Fortunately, Giger noticed Lucia's unusual behavior. He simply called Lucia's name softly, and Lucia immediately quieted down and stopped looking at Gion.

Akainu spoke only after Ginny and Giggs had finished talking.

"Gig, you've gotten even stronger."

Giger smiled slightly and said, half-jokingly,

"Sakazuki, how did you figure that out? From the hair?"

Akainu responded with a serious expression.

"No, it has nothing to do with your hair. You have a certain aura about you that I can feel."

Kizaru rested his chin on his hand and nodded in agreement; he felt the same way.

The others didn't react much to this. In their view, with Giger's monstrous talent, his strength was increasing almost every day, let alone in the past month.

"What are you all doing? You're slacking off while I'm gone, aren't you?"

Zefa's voice rang out, startling everyone, who immediately fell silent. This reminded Giger of a time when his homeroom teacher suddenly appeared at the door while he was studying on Earth.

The trainees began to line up on their own. By the time Zefa walked over, all the trainees had formed two neat squares, except for Lucia, who was standing to the right of Giger.

Standing alone among the male trainees, she looked particularly out of place. Zefa noticed her immediately and asked,

"You must be Lucia, who just arrived. Please come up and introduce yourself to everyone."

Lucia remained motionless, seemingly oblivious. Zephyr frowned slightly, about to speak, when Gigg spoke up.

“Professor Zephyr, my cousin has never left home and is very shy, so let’s not have her introduce her yet. I’ve already introduced her to everyone. Lucia, please apologize to Professor Zephyr.”

Lucia immediately nodded obediently and whispered to Zephyr,

"sorry."

His tone was rather stiff, but Zephyr didn't say anything more, only nodded, thinking to himself,

"Lucia's personality is a bit withdrawn. Could she be a female version of Sakazuki?"

Sakazuki suddenly felt a tickle in his nose, raised his hand to rub it, and Zeff continued speaking to Lucia.