"Huh?"
Hearing the voice from below, Red-Haired Shanks instinctively turned his head, his eyes widening in shock, almost falling from mid-air.
Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Kuzan?
Why was this guy on the island too? When did he sneak in?
"Ice Age: Crying Everything!"
In that moment of stunned distraction, Aokiji slightly raised his hand and flicked his finger.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Countless tiny shards of ice, like raindrops, suddenly materialized in the air and surged outward in a vast, suffocating wave, covering nearly every angle within Shanks's field of vision.
And that wasn't even the worst part—the truly terrifying thing was that every single shard radiated a biting chill as it flew, bleeding freezing white mist into the air.
Linked together, the cold they carried was so intense that even from a distance, Shanks could feel the air temperature plummeting—that kind of frost could freeze a man solid.
Danger! I can't let even a single one of these ice shards get close to me!
In an instant, Shanks made his decision. With a powerful step off the treetop beneath him, his body blurred aside, narrowly avoiding the first wave of icy rain.
At the same time, he whipped out his sword and unleashed a sweeping arc of white sword energy at the remaining shards.
Crack!
The sword energy roared forth like a great white serpent, shattering every shard of ice in its path into particles too small to see with the naked eye. The fragments drifted down in the moonlight, spreading into a dense, pale fog of frost.
"Hm?"
Down below, Aokiji arched a brow.
"This swordsmanship… not bad."
"Hey, you bastard!"
Shanks, landing somewhat awkwardly on a treetop, grabbed his nearly blown-away straw hat and put it back on his head, shouting angrily at Aokiji:
"Stop getting in my way! I'm here to challenge the guy on the cliff. I've got no interest in wasting time with you!"
Challenge Nao?
Aokiji blinked, his expression turning strange as he glanced up at the red-haired on the treetop.
Is this kid out of his mind?
He'd assumed Shanks leapt into the air to sneak off with the Poneglyph—but it turned out he was deliberately going after Nao?
You're that eager to go to prison, huh…
Aokiji didn't bother to argue. Curling his lip, he extended his right hand, breathed lightly on it, and in an instant a long, narrow blade of ice nearly three meters in length took shape in his grip.
Since this kid was a rare pure swordsman, he might as well indulge him in a little swordplay…
Swish!
His figure blurred, vanishing in a flash as he kicked off the air with Soru, appearing right above Shanks's head, ice blade swinging down in a vicious arc.
Shanks reacted in time, bending his torso backward at a sharp angle to narrowly avoid the strike, then immediately swung his right arm up, clashing his sword against the descending blade.
"I told you already…"
Through the narrow gap between blade and sword edge, Shanks met Aokiji's gaze, gritting his teeth as he forced out each word:
"My target is that guy. I've got no interest in you!"
"As a pirate, you don't have the right to pick and choose which Marine arrests you."
Aokiji's face stayed expressionless as he gripped the ice blade with both hands, pressing downward inch by inch. The frost radiating from the weapon spread across Shanks's face, coating his brows and lashes in pale ice crystals.
"If you can't even get past me, what makes you think you can fight Nao?"
…Huh?
The moment he said that, Aokiji felt that something wasn't right. Damn it. Didn't I just indirectly admit that I'm not as good as Nao?
Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway...
On his way here, he had cleared out some pirates, but they were all small fry. This red-haired kid was the first real fighter worth note—Nao's "leftovers," the rare bit of fat floating in his soup. He wasn't about to let it go to waste.
Otherwise, it would make his coming here as "support" seem completely unnecessary.
Rumble…
Just as Aokiji was about to increase his strength and force Shanks down into the ground, a sudden clap of thunder rolled in from the horizon, drawing closer and closer.
The rain had stopped in the evening, and the sky was clear and cloudless. This continuous muffled thunder was, of course, very sudden.
Is it going to pour again? Aokiji's eyebrows furrowed. He looked up at the night sky, and his expression suddenly changed slightly.
No! That's not a sign of rain! It's something in the night sky that's quickly approaching...
Boom!
In the next moment, the thunder rolled again. Accompanied by this muffled thunder, a large amount of thick, dark clouds suddenly emerged in the high sky.
And within those clouds—a massive dragon emerged. Its entire body was covered in glistening scales that shimmered faintly with light. Throwing back its head, the enormous azure dragon let out a thunderous roar as its figure burst into view!
Its body stretched nearly a hundred meters long, twin horns curling from its head, long whiskers streaming in the wind. Its bearing was so majestic and terrifying that, looking up from below, it seemed less a beast than a divine being descending from the heavens.
"That's—"
Aokiji's pupils contracted sharply, his expression twisting in shock. Beneath him, even Shanks, straining against the weight of the ice blade, froze for a moment. Words slipped out in disbelief:
"Kaido of the Beasts?"
———
And it wasn't just them.
The colossal disturbance in the sky had shaken the entire island. The instant the azure dragon revealed itself, countless eyes turned upward toward the massive body, faces blanching, pupils trembling.
Throughout this struggle over the Poneglyph, the Beasts Pirates had been sending men everywhere to hunt for Karina's crew—but no major figures had shown themselves on Hall Island. Many of the onlookers had even felt a twinge of disappointment.
They had assumed it was simply because the Beasts Pirates hadn't received the news in time, or that the distance was too great for them to arrive quickly.
But now—
There was no sign of Queen the Plague.
No sign of Sonic the Plague either.
Instead, the Emperor himself, Kaido of the Beasts, had come in person—at the very moment everyone thought the matter already settled.
"This is bad…"
At the forest's edge, Vice Admiral Onigumo, who had been directing the Marine's sweeping search, clenched his sword hilt and swallowed hard as he stared at the sky.
"Why is that guy here…?"
Wasn't Onigashima—the Beasts Pirates' headquarters—supposed to be far away from here?
Could it be—
That from the very moment word of the Poneglyph spread, this Emperor never counted on Sonic the Plague to retrieve it? That Kaido himself had already set out in secret, heading straight for these waters?
And then, before he even arrived, he received word of Sonic's death—so enraged that he transformed into his divine dragon form and crossed the sea at full speed?
Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Momonga snapped out of his shock, immediately pulling out his Den Den Mushi and dialing Marine Headquarters.
No matter what—
Kaido's appearance meant the situation on Hall Island had just taken a sharp turn for the worse. The crisis was immediate. The Fleet Admiral had to be informed at once!
The Marine's ranks were thrown into disarray, but in the depths of the primeval forest, some people reacted quite differently.
For example—
A certain snaggle-toothed pirate, hiding in a cramped cave.
"Zehahahahaha!"
The young Teach stuck his head out, staring up at the azure dragon coiled among the clouds. He couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Now this is really getting lively! Oi oi oi, don't let me down, Kaido!"
As a member of the Whitebeard Pirates' second division, he too had joined the expedition to Hall Island's cliff.
But—
Unlike the crewmates who fought in desperation, resolved to die against Nao, Teach had seen how bad things were several hours ago, when Cracker fell.
That Marine Vice Admiral named Nao—his strength was absurd, monstrous beyond reason.
In Teach's eyes, forget three-on-one. Even if you added Katakuri, who had already lost in a duel, the four of them together—Marco, Vista, Cracker, and Katakuri—still weren't that man's match!
So—
While no one was looking, he quietly slipped toward the edge, and when the chance came, snuck down the cliff, hiding in the forest below, biding his time to escape.
—Let those fools go die. There's no way this Teach is going to stay here and die with them!
But then Aokiji arrived with his fleet and blockaded the coastline.
With no choice, Teach holed up in this cave, planning to wait it out and later sneak back to the Whitebeard Pirates, pretending he'd been knocked unconscious and fallen off the cliff after a desperate fight—barely surviving by luck.
Of course, even pulling that story off in front of Pops would take some real acting chops.
Compared to that, it would be much better if Kaido wiped out the Marines, giving Teach the chance to drag Marco and the others back alive.
"Zehehehe…"
Teach grinned maliciously, eyes bloodshot yet glittering with anticipation as he gazed toward the cliff.
———
"Nao, you brat!!!!"
From the night sky, the azure dragon roared, its thick whiskers whipping in the wind. Eyes as huge as bronze bells scanned the island until they fixed on the red Poneglyph atop the cliff.
Found it…
"Get up here, you bastard!"
With a flash of killing intent, the azure dragon opened its jaws wide. Torrents of scorching dragon's breath surged forth, as if to burn everything around it into dust, pouring straight down toward the cliff.
On the cliff—
Nao had just finished wiping out the last remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates' stubborn fighters. He was about to check on the unconscious CP-0 agent when he sensed the azure dragon's arrival across the sea.
Kaido of the Beasts—he actually came in person?
"Well, this is…"
There was no shock, no fear. After a moment of a daze, Nao instead grinned, showing a mouth full of clean, white teeth. His eyes, as he looked at the azure dragon above, were filled with a fierce fighting spirit—
"…Fantastic!"
The earlier battle with Katakuri and the others had left Nao thoroughly disappointed—those fights hadn't even forced out his trump cards. At best, they were just warm-ups.
The real battle was only just beginning now!
More than a year ago, during that war, it was Admiral Sengoku who had stood against Kaido. Back then, Nao could only watch from afar with envy. He simply wasn't qualified—didn't have the strength to duel one-on-one with someone who stood at the very peak of the world.
But now—
A year later, his swordsmanship and physical power had both leapt to a higher level. In nearly half a year of training, he had also completed the first stage of mastering theRumble-Rumble Fruit.
It was about time to test just how much of a gap remained between himself and the so-called Emperors of the Sea!
Swoosh!
He stomped down hard, cracks spiderwebbing beneath his feet as he launched into the night sky. In the same motion, he drew his sword and slashed horizontally—
Wind Barrier!
A roaring gale surged upward, forming a towering wall of wind, fifty to sixty meters wide, hanging in the air.
Shhh—!
The dragon's breath, fierce enough to incinerate everything, struck the wind wall and was instantly smothered, dissolving without a trace beneath the pale moonlight.
That technique again…
The azure dragon's massive eyes narrowed, and he let out a cold snort. He wasn't surprised.
He'd already witnessed this strange swordsmanship in the battle at G-1. So, he hadn't expected the dragon's breath to cause any substantial damage to Nao. All he wanted was to force him to show himself.
"Nao, brat…"
Fixing his gaze coldly on the figure in midair, Kaido's draconic voice reverberated across the island, reaching every ear.
"That guy Sonic… you killed him, didn't you? I spent a lot of effort to find a replacement for one of my Calamities. You had the guts to lay your hands on him… you've got some nerve…"
"Oh?"
Nao showed no sign of being cowed by the dragon's presence. One brow arched as he chuckled:
"Weren't most of his predecessors also killed by me? I figured you'd be used to it by now. Why such a big tantrum?"
Below them—
hanks and Aokiji, who were in a confrontation, couldn't hold it in and both let out a small laugh at the same time. Then, they both reacted and glared at each other coldly.
"You little brat…"
High above, Kaido's draconic face darkened completely, Nao's words having struck a nerve. His growl rumbled like thunder:
"You've grown more irritating than ever. Let's see—compared to a year ago…"
"…how much stronger you've really become!"
BOOM!
The moment the words fell, a dreadful, crushing aura erupted from the azure dragon, sweeping outward in all directions in an instant.
Conqueror's Haki!
In an instant, the originally calm night sky was suddenly filled with lightning and thunder. A terrifying shockwave instantly spread across the entire island!
Even from far away, many Marines and weaker pirates saw their vision go black, collapsing unconscious in seconds.
Vice Admirals like Momonga and Onigumo had to grit their teeth and steel their will just to remain standing.
"If that's all you've got…"
Facing Kaido's Conqueror's Haki head-on, Nao's white justice cloak flapped furiously in the gale. But his face remained calm—only a mocking smile touched his lips.
"…then it's not enough, Kaido!"
"It's nowhere near enough!"
Wummmm—!
In the next instant, an equally dreadful aura burst from Nao's body, vast and overwhelming enough to make souls quake, surging straight toward the azure dragon.
—So what if it's Conqueror's Haki?
What a joke.
It's not like he doesn't have it too!