Ice Time!
CRACK!
CRACK!!
CRACK!!!
Unprecedented,horror cold erupted.
With Aokiji at its center—the Pillar No. 1 beneath him, the surrounding sea, the moisture in the air—everything froze in an instant!
He unleashed his strongest ice, trying to freeze Luffy along with his all-out strike.
BOOM!
The massive rubber fist, wrapped with black-red lightning, collided violently with the absolute-zero ice released by Aokiji.
Dazzling white light swallowed everything. The deafening roar shook heaven and earth. Even space seemed to tremble.
The huge shockwave spread outward. Several nearby battleships were tossed about, their crews sent sprawling.
As the light faded, the upper half of Pillar No. 1—where Aokiji had stood—was completely gone. Aokiji had been sent flying.
Did it work?
Luffy didn't know. But now he couldn't move at all. Exiting Gear Fifth, he drifted down from the sky.
He gasped for breath, watching as a figure quickly appeared on the ruined pillar. He gritted his teeth.
Still not enough?
He really hadn't trained hard enough!
This was dangerous. If Aokiji jumped down, he could freeze this entire sea. Even the Going Merry, no matter how extraordinary, would be like a lamb to the slaughter if frozen—and that wasn't even considering the surrounding battleships.
Aokiji was clearly thinking the same.
He knelt on the broken edge, blood at the corner of his mouth. His Admiral's coat was badly damaged. He looked rather worse for wear.
Luffy's life-risking strike had cost him.
Ignoring his injuries, he stood at the pillar's edge, watching Luffy fall and Robin and the others trying to catch him. His gaze was cold.
There may have been some complicated feelings inside him, but at this moment, his duty as a Marine Admiral overrode everything.
He didn't want to experience the power of that punch again. Now all he needed was to follow Luffy down and freeze the sea. It would be over.
He wanted to go easy.
But with Marines all around, he couldn't.
"Let's end this."
Aokiji thought to himself, preparing to leap down, freeze the sea, and end this chaos.
But at that critical moment—
"Straw Hat!"
A rough and heroic voice, somewhat familiar, thundered like a thunderclap from the direction of the storm-tossed sea below the waterfall.
A massive Marine battleship—its bow unmistakably shaped like a dog's head—had appeared beneath the waterfall, cutting through the waves with brutal force.
At the bow, a sturdy old man in a Marine Vice Admiral's coat held a huge cannonball in one hand, laughing deafeningly toward Enies Lobby:
"Puhahahaha! This old man's come to catch you!"
Aokiji, who had been about to give chase, froze at the sight of the dog-head battleship and the familiar figure at its bow. His face twisted into the most extreme expression of "what a pain" he had ever worn. Finally, he simply sat down on the pillar's edge and rubbed his forehead.
"This old man got here fast."
Now he had the perfect excuse not to act.
The Marine Hero Garp was personally taking action. What was wrong with an Admiral resting after a big battle?
Even if Fleet Admiral Sengoku raged at the meeting, Garp would be the first one yelled at.
In fact, Aokiji wondered if Garp had timed his arrival deliberately.
It was too convenient.
Let hero capture hero. Champion capture champion. Grandfather capture grandson.
He was done. He couldn't intervene anyway.
Hadn't the cannon fire from the battleships already noticeably diminished?
The Marines understood these unspoken rules all too well.
Garp's unmistakable voice boomed like thunder, cutting through the explosions and howling wind, hitting Luffy's eardrums with pinpoint accuracy.
"Grandpa?"
Luffy jolted. Cold sweat instantly beaded up, soaking the bandages Chopper had just wrapped. He turned to Robin and asked, "Is it a dog-head ship?"
Robin looked and nodded. "It seems so. The Marine Hero, Garp."
Grandpa had really come!
Luffy was completely exhausted, unable to move, held tightly in Robin's arms.
Though the soft warmth at his back was incredibly comforting, he had no attention to spare for it. Only one thought filled his mind:
Run!
Beside him, Zoro and Sanji looked ready to fight.
He shouted urgently: "Don't! Don't fight! We need to go! We absolutely can't fight him!"
Nami had never seen such clear fear on Luffy's face. Even facing Admiral Aokiji, he had charged forward fearlessly.
"Is your grandfather really that terrifying?"
"Of course he is!"
Luffy nearly yelled, a slight tremor in his voice.
"That old man is a monster among monsters!"
The psychological shadow of Garp's "Fists of Love" from childhood had instilled in Luffy a natural terror of his grandfather.
A fitting description:
If you don't train, you'll look at me like a frog in a well gazing at the moon in the sky. If you do train, you'll look at me like a mayfly seeing the vast sky.
Luffy was now undoubtedly one of the top-tier fighters on the seas. Precisely because of that, he understood how deep Garp's power truly was.
Luffy was painfully awake.
He had just fought Aokiji to the limit. His nakama were exhausted from their battles. The whole crew was in no condition to fight. Against his grandfather, they stood no chance!
From the day he became a pirate, he knew that one day his grandfather would come to capture him. He just hadn't expected it to be so soon—and in such a sorry state.
Luffy had fought an Admiral. Why fear a Vice Admiral?
Fear was one thing. Backing down was impossible!
The best way to break fear was to face it.
Luffy had Robin bring him to the most visible spot on the deck and shouted without a shred of respect:
"Old man! Aren't you almost retired?! Why aren't you at Marineford drinking tea and reading the paper? What are you doing wandering around here!"
"Puhahaha! You've got some nerve, boy! Won't even call me grandpa anymore, huh, Luffy?"
Garp stood at the bow of his dog-head ship, hands on his hips, laughing loud enough to shake the four seas. "The greatest wish of this old man before retirement is to throw all you rotten pirate brats—who stir up trouble on the seas and do nothing useful—into Impel Down!"
You're really something, Grandpa!
"You old man should just go drink tea and eat your crackers!"
"Puhahaha! Why should I listen to some rotten pirate?"
Before the words faded, Garp casually picked up a cannonball bigger than a man at his feet. His arm muscles bulged as he tossed it with seemingly casual ease.
Subarashii: Meteor!
The cannonball shot off at blinding speed, slicing through the air with a piercing whistle, heading straight for the Going Merry's mast.
***
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