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When Garp was 19, he experienced a moment in which he truly thought he would die, and so for the first time experienced the unique phenomena of quiet before one's death. Time stills. Your mind stills. There is a sudden sense of clarity. All the excess of life is pared away in the face of death, leaving only the core, the root.
When Akainu pushes his fist through Ace, Garp again experiences a sudden stillness. His mind clears from his frustration and sorrow and anger. The harsh orchestra of war, of death, calms to a single, humming note. He can see so, so clearly. He watches as Akainu moves to pull his fist out of Garp's grandson, blood sizzling away to nothing as it rolls down his arm.
Garp takes off his coat. Sengoku turns, sees Garp's face, blanches, and runs to hold him down. Garp is gone.
There is no fanfare in Garp's punch. This is no big bang impact, this is not the punch of Garp The Hero. There is no anger, either. As Garp's haki refines his fist to steel, to diamond, to a supernova contained, he is not filled with anger and hatred for Akainu, but love. In that moment, his mind and his fist are filled with nothing but love for Ace.
Akainu is still withdrawing his fist. He does not anticipate Garp, does not know he is there. His back is unguarded, trusted to be protected by his brothers-in-arms. Garp punches straight through it, a gaping hole in his middle, an eye for an eye, one unnecessary death for another. Akainu dies not knowing who killed him or why.
Akainu falls. Garp's mind picks back up, but there is still a hush over the battlefield, as they all try to understand the implications of what happened. Garp does not care and does not care to know. He makes eye contact with Luffy. He nods. They look at Akainu on the ground, how Ace is smiling but he is not.
The hole torn through his middle.
"It was a fist of love."