The air in Grove 31 had changed.
What had begun as chaos had now sharpened into something far more dangerous.
The Marines flooding the ruined carnival district were no longer just frightened soldiers and shouting officers trying to contain a disaster beyond their pay grade. Their movements had slowed. Their voices had dropped. Their confidence had returned, not because the danger had lessened, but because something greater had arrived.
Standing in the middle of the street, was Admiral Aokiji.
The man's posture was loose.
His expression was sleepy.
But the pressure he gave off was suffocating.
The ground around him had already begun frosting over in thin white cracks, ice crawling outward along the broken pavement and up the sides of collapsed stalls. The humid air of Sabaody felt wrong in his presence, like summer itself had been forced to take a step back.
Shanks stood in front of Giovanni, his saber intercepting Kuzan's outstretched hand before the freezing touch could reach him.
The blade hummed from Haki.
Shanks' eyes were calm now, all traces of easy laughter stripped away.
"Don't touch my best friend," he said.
Kuzan looked at the sword against his palm, then at Shanks.
"Huh," he said softly. "So that's how it is."
Behind them, Marines were beginning to flood into adjacent streets and take positions along the mangrove roots, but none dared to step too close while an Admiral was in direct confrontation.
Limejuice gripped his iron staff tightly and muttered, "This day really got out of hand."
Giovanni, meanwhile, stared at Kuzan with his teeth clenched.
He had seen Aokiji once as a child.
Back then, the man had felt impossibly strong.
Now, standing here years later with sword in hand and pirate blood pumping through his veins…
He felt even worse.
Not because Giovanni had grown weaker.
But because now he understood what real monsters looked like.
Kuzan slowly pushed against Shanks' sword with his palm, thin layers of frost forming along the flat of the blade before black Haki crackled and shattered them apart.
"You kids really know how to create problems," Kuzan said.
Shanks smiled faintly.
"That's what pirates do."
Then the street exploded.
Shanks moved first.
He twisted his blade free and stepped in with a fast horizontal slash aimed at Kuzan's torso. Kuzan's body broke into ice and reformed a half-step away, but Shanks was already there, his saber arcing upward in a slash
CLANG!
Kuzan formed an ice blade from his arm in time to catch the strike, but the force behind it still sent a shockwave across the street, shattering the frozen ground and blowing splinters from nearby stalls.
Giovanni didn't waste the opening.
He came in from Shanks' flank, blade low, then slashed upward with all the force in his body. Kuzan tilted back just enough for the strike to graze across his chest, ice spraying from the wound before his torso sealed again.
"Tch—!"
Giovanni clicked his tongue. "I hate Logias."
Limejuice came in next.
He spun his staff once, hardening both ends in black Armament Haki, then brought it down in a brutal overhead strike.
This time, Kuzan's shoulder didn't phase.
WHAM!
The staff connected.
Kuzan was knocked sideways through a half-frozen game booth, wood exploding around him as stuffed prizes flew into the air like confetti.
Limejuice landed lightly, blinking once.
"…Oh."
Then he looked at his staff.
"That actually worked."
Giovanni whipped his head toward him. "Of course it worked! You have Armament Haki!"
Limejuice pointed the staff at Kuzan's wreckage. "I'm just saying, emotionally, it's still very satisfying."
Shanks laughed.
"Now that's the spirit."
The remains of the booth shifted.
Kuzan walked out of it, brushing splinters from his coat.
A thin line of blood ran down the side of his face where the Haki-coated strike had landed.
He touched it once, stared at the red on his fingers, then sighed.
"Now that's troublesome."
The temperature dropped sharply.
Ice burst outward in every direction.
Shanks, Giovanni, and Limejuice jumped back as jagged frozen spires erupted from the pavement, skewering through the street where they had just stood. The carnival stalls froze solid in an instant. Marine soldiers farther back stumbled away from the wave of cold, their rifles frosting over.
Kuzan raised one hand.
"Ice Ball."
A mass of freezing air and compressed frost shot toward the trio.
Shanks blurred forward and cut through it, his saber coated in Haki. The sphere split in half—
Then exploded into a blizzard of sharp frozen fragments.
Giovanni raised an arm to shield his face while Limejuice spun his staff fast enough to deflect the worst of the ice shards, sparks and frost flying with each impact.
Kuzan was already moving again.
He slid forward over a sheet of ice he had formed beneath his feet, one hand reaching toward Limejuice.
Limejuice brought up his staff, both ends blackened again, and blocked the strike.
For half a second, he held.
Then ice began racing up the weapon toward his hands.
"Ah, no—!"
Limejuice released the staff instantly and kicked off backward just as the entire iron rod froze solid.
Kuzan caught it, glanced at the weapon, then casually flung it aside like trash.
Limejuice stared in disbelief.
"Oi come on now. That's my favored staff."
Shanks burst forward again before Kuzan could capitalize.
Their weapons met in a violent cross—
Sword against ice blade.
Black Haki crackled along Shanks' saber like burning lightning while white frost spilled from Kuzan's arm in a deadly stream. The clash sent a ring of force outward, flattening nearby stalls and knocking Marines off their feet.
Giovanni didn't jump in this time.
He watched.
Shanks' footwork was different from Mihawk's.
Mihawk had precision, structure and cold certainty.
Shanks had fluidity and pressure.
He moved like a man laughing in the middle of a storm, every swing wild-looking until you realized each one was exactly where it needed to be. His Haki wasn't just reinforcing his blade. It was dominating the space around him.
Giovanni's eyes widened.
"He's even stronger than before…"
Limejuice, now unarmed, snorted. "That's your takeaway?"
Before Giovanni could answer, Kuzan suddenly broke the clash and swept his hand outward.
A wall of ice surged across the street.
Shanks jumped over it.
Giovanni vaulted sideways.
Limejuice dove under a broken food cart.
The ice wall smashed through three mangrove-root shopfronts behind them before finally stopping, leaving the entire district covered in glittering frost.
As Shanks landed, Marines rushed in from both flanks, encouraged by the brief separation.
Bad decision.
Shanks cut through the first group with one broad Haki-infused slash, dropping rifles and men together.
Giovanni used the opening to snatch a fallen Marine saber off the ground and toss it to Limejuice.
"Catch!"
Limejuice caught it one-handed and grimaced. "I prefer my staff."
"Then imagine it's your very ugly staff!"
Kuzan exhaled.
"Honestly…"
He raised his hand again—
But this time, before he could attack, two new presences crashed into the battlefield from opposite sides.
One landed on a frozen stall roof in a flutter of Marine justice.
The other dropped into the middle of the street with sword drawn.
Vice Admiral Gion.
Vice Admiral Momonga.
Gion's gold saber flashed as she surveyed the scene in one quick glance. "Admiral Aokiji!"
Momonga stepped into stance immediately. "We'll contain the others!"
Kuzan didn't look at them.
"Do what you want," he said. "Just don't get in my way."
Shanks clicked his tongue once.
Then his eyes sharpened.
"Everyone split."
Giovanni turned to him. "Huh?"
"Now."
The single word snapped through the chaos with authority.
Shanks took one step back, positioning himself to re-engage Kuzan.
"Gio, go."
Giovanni hesitated for just a fraction of a second.
Then Gion moved.
She dropped from the roof like a golden streak, blade already cutting through the space Giovanni had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
Giovanni jumped back, barely clearing the slash.
Gion landed gracefully and smiled.
"Found you."
Giovanni smiled.
"Now what would a women as beautiful as yourself be looking for me for?"
On the other side, Momonga came at Limejuice with controlled ferocity, sword drawn in a clean Marine stance that made it obvious he wasn't some random officer. Limejuice barely blocked the first strike with the borrowed saber and nearly lost his balance from the force.
"…I hate this island," he muttered.
Shanks didn't look back.
"Move!"
That was all the permission they needed.
Giovanni turned and bolted down one of the branching mangrove streets.
Gion immediately pursued.
Limejuice kicked off the icy ground in the opposite direction, picking up his staff on the way, Momonga chasing him without pause.
And then—
It was just Shanks and Kuzan.
For a brief moment, the battlefield seemed to widen around them.
The Marines instinctively pulled back.
Even the cold itself felt like it was waiting.
Kuzan adjusted his coat collar.
"Sending your friends away was the right call."
Shanks rolled his shoulder once and raised his saber.
"I'll be the one to take care of you."
Kuzan nodded.
"What confidence."
Shanks smiled.
"Then I'll keep you busy."
Kuzan's expression didn't change, but the air around him did.
A dense fog of freezing vapor rolled outward from his body, coating the ground, walls, and broken carnival rides in a fresh layer of white. Behind him, a toppled Ferris wheel creaked as its frame froze solid.
Shanks stepped forward through the cold like it didn't matter.
Then the two of them vanished.
The first clash came from the middle of the street.
The second from the air.
The third shattered a frozen game stall into dust.
Shanks' blade flashed red-black as Haki roared along it. Kuzan countered with ice-forged weapons, spears, blades, and sudden eruptions of cold that transformed the battlefield with every exchange.
Shanks ducked under a freezing arm thrust and answered with a slash aimed at Kuzan's neck. Kuzan dissolved into ice vapor, reappeared at Shanks' back, and tried to freeze his shoulder—
Only for Shanks to reverse his grip and stab backward without even looking.
Kuzan twisted aside.
The blade carved through his coat and into his side, Haki forcing real damage before the ice could fully reform.
Kuzan leapt back, one hand pressed briefly to the wound.
Shanks grinned.
"Not sleepy anymore?"
Kuzan sighed.
"Conqueror's Haki, how troublesome."
Then he slammed both hands against the ground.
Ice exploded outward.
A tidal wave of white rushed down the street, swallowing stalls, signs, ladders, and Marine barriers alike.
Shanks jumped high, using a half-frozen awning as a step, then launched himself forward through the storm with saber raised overhead.
A Haki-coated downward slash crashed into Kuzan's ice wave and split it cleanly down the center.
For a moment, the street looked like a frozen sea parted by a burning line.
Shanks burst through that line—
And Kuzan met him head-on with an ice saber formed from his arm.
BOOM.
The collision sent black sparks and white frost in all directions.
Both men held.
Both pushed.
It was clear.
Red-Haired Shanks was holding his own against Admiral Aokiji.
Elsewhere on the archipelago, three Marines were moving fast through the connecting groves.
Rear Admiral Strawberry.
Vice Admiral Tokikake.
Rear Admiral T-Bone.
Strawberry was the first to spot the others.
"You two too?"
Tokikake looked irritated. "Don't talk to me. I'm still trying to emotionally recover from the fact that they entered through my grove while I was asleep."
T-Bone, sword at his side, looked both horrified and inspired. "A grave injustice!"
Tokikake pointed at him. "Please don't moralize at me right now."
Before any of them could say more, movement appeared ahead on the path.
Three figures.
One calm and armed with a pistol.
One tall and carrying twin swords.
And one old man with glasses and the easy posture of someone taking a stroll.
Beckman.
Building Snake.
And Rayleigh.
The three Marines stopped.
The three pirates stopped.
A bubble drifted lazily between them and popped.
Tokikake stared.
Strawberry's eyes narrowed.
T-Bone's jaw dropped.
And Rayleigh smiled pleasantly.
"Well now," he said, "this is awkward."
---
Find early chapters and daily updates on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]
Follow me on Instagram [www.instagram.com/tenten100_?]